The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 151

Chapter 151

Chapter 151: Morning After

I lifted my makeshift practice sword, a crudely carved piece of wood wrapped in towels for weight. As I counted in my head with each downward swing, a soft voice shook me out of my trance. “Grey. It’s time for breakfast.”

Looking over my shoulder, I spotted Cecilia by the door with a fresh towel folded neatly in her arms. “Oh, thanks!”

As I walked over, Cecilia handed me the towel. “I still have to help get the table set up,” she announced before she briskly walked away.

I watched Cecilia walk back through the dimly lit hallway, remembering the incident almost a year back when I’d almost died trying to save her from the outburst of her ki.

Despite her aloof manner of speech, her attitude toward everyone in the orphanage had definitely improved.

After I wiped myself down, I went back inside as well, making sure to close the mesh screen door for the summer bugs buzzing outside.

“Someone is apparently going through puberty judging by the stink coming from his body,” The figure of Nico’s thin frame approached me from an intersecting hallway.

“Your sweat starts stinking when you go through puberty?” I asked, sniffing my sleeveless shirt.

“Supposedly, according to an article I read on hormones,” he shrugged.

Getting a close whiff of the rancid smell for the first time, I winced. “Cecilia probably smelled this too then.”

“Did she react in any sort of way?”

“No, she just gave me a towel and left,” I said as I wiped my body more with the towel, hoping it’d get more of the stench off of me.

“Her devotion to remaining true to her indifferent character is strong,” Nico nodded.

I chortled. “I don’t think she’s trying to be some character.”

“I beg to differ, my friend. Last week, after I had just finished tampering with the shock glove—working name, by the way—into a pendant she could carry around her neck, she refused!”

Raising a brow, I smirked at my friend. “Oh? You gave Cecilia a necklace?”

“How do you always manage to pick and choose what you want to hear? What are you going to do when you go to a real school?” he sighed. “And besides, I think she likes you more—with her giving you a towel and all.”

“Well I did save her life, you know,” I teased, putting an arm around my thin friend that I’d outgrown these past few months.

“Her knight in sweating armor,” he said, pinching his nose.

It’d become more and more apparent these days that Nico had started to develop feelings for Cecilia, our orphanage’s ice queen. It wasn’t any secret that Cecilia was popular amongst the boys here, but everyone who’d gathered the courage to make a move had been rejected. Nico, with his patent blend of pride and low self-esteem, found other ways to make Cecilia notice him without revealing his interest in her.

Letting out a sigh, I leaned more heavily on my skinny friend, making him struggle to keep us from falling down. “I’m not so sure about going to school anymore.”

“What?” Nico finally managed to free himself of my arm. “Why? You know I only joke about your intelligence.”

“It’s not that,” I chuckled. “It’s expensive and Headmaster Wilbeck already has a hard time sending even a few kids to school.”

“Then what do you plan on doing?” my friend asked, his brows knitted seriously.

“I don’t know yet, but maybe just help out as staff at the orphanage once I’m old enough. These days, I was even thinking about going to an institution to get better at ki. I know that they offer free tuition and stuff if you’re qualified,” I shrugged.

“You’re joking, right?” he fumed, stopping in the middle of the hallway. “I know we owe a lot to Headmaster Wilbeck and I get that you want to repay her but staying here to do that is short-minded; with your talent, you can do so much more once you’ve gotten a proper education!”

“Which brings me to why I was thinking of the institu—”

“That’s not education,” Nico interrupted. “Those institutions are designed to churn out mindless soldiers and find potential candidates for kings. I’ve read some journals about those places—how students there are worked to the point of near-death; how candidates get booted out if they don’t cut it.”

“You sound like Headmaster,” I grumbled as I started walking again.

“Because you don’t have any motivation to do something. Sure, you like training, but you have no goal past it,” he sighed. “School is a place where you can find out what you want to do while learning about this world without restriction or bias like the institution.”

“Well, money is still an issue,” I pointed out. “If we want to go to school, it’d have to be by next year.”

Nico’s expression softened by my compliance. “Well lucky for you, you happen to have a friend that actually thinks and plans for the future. I’ve almost managed to save enough money with our little ‘missions’ for us to go school—of course, banking on the assumption that I’d get at least a partial scholarship.”

“Wait, weren’t you supposed to give the money to the orphanage?”

“I did,”—Nico put on an innocent expression—“just not all of it.”

Letting out a groan, I shook my head. “I should’ve known.”

“After we get a proper education, we can properly help headmaster and the kids here. I guarantee it’ll be better for the orphanage that way.” My friend patted me on the back. “Come on. Let’s go to the dining area before our food gets cold.”

“Why not save enough money to take Cecilia to school with us as well?” I teased one last time as I followed Nico down the hall.

“Zip it! I’m telling you I have no interest in her!” he retorted, refusing to look me in the eye.

ARTHUR LEYWIN’S POV:

I opened my eyes to be greeted by the glow of the morning sun. Even its soft rays, hidden behind a layer of clouds, somehow seemed to bore holes into my retinas. The aching in my skull pulsed rhythmically—a constant reminder of the glasses, if not bottles, of alcohol I had consumed during the remainder of the night.

Squinting, I attempted to get up but immediately retreated back underneath my woolen cloak I’d used as a blanket, letting out a sickly moan through my dry mouth, sticky with thick saliva.

Suddenly my cloak—the only thing protecting me from the outside world—was ripped away from me.

“It’s nice to meet you, Captain,” I greeted with a smile, raising my arm. _{ƒrēewebnovel.com}