“Pillow fort?”
“No, too few pillows and blankets.”
“Ghost story?”
“No, can’t think of one at the moment. Also, you might scream.”
“Ah, then how about wrestling!?”
“No. Just no.”
Cermin grumbled as he laid on the bed with a plop!
“You asked me what we’ll do in this sleepover but you just say no to everything I suggest!”
Ronin wanted to kick him out of the bed but restrained himself, instead jotting down more things on his desk.
“How about you just help me study then? You said you wanted to and yet you end up falling asleep in the middle of a review session, even when you barely got past the easy questions.”
“Because studying is so boring! And the questions are so long that it’s like reading a story itself, how the hell do you even survive answering these things in an hour!?”
“Actually, I can answer a whole 60 item exam with 10 sentences minimum per item in 15 minutes.” Ronin said.
“Ok, now that’s a little creepy. Are you even human!???” Cermin sat up in amazement. “
Ronin just shrugged. “Its not that hard if you pay attention only to the words that matters. Then piece it together with common sense.”.
Cermin walked over to his side to slump on the desk. “I guess I have no common sense then. All I have is a cool sword that glows.”
Ronin muttered under his breath sarcastically. “At least you’re self-aware.”
“What?” Cermin asked. “Oh, wait, speaking of…..”
“You still haven’t shown me your Mage Focus, Ronin!” Cermin elbowed him. “That’s not fair! You should show me just a little bit, I’ve been dying to see it!”
“No. It’s lightning so its too dangerous to summon inside.” Ronin reasoned nonchalantly.
“C’mon, even just a little spark would do! There’s nothing left to do but to talk and get to know more things about each other since you said no to everything else!”
Ronin sighed, and picked up something from his pocket that he kept at all times.
He showed the stone which he used to capture some of Maellan’s lightning for safe keeping, and activated it.
“There you go.”
Cermin nodded in excitement. “Yes, yes, the color is pretty dope. But how powerful can you be?”
Ronin grinned ironically to himself. “In what terms?”
“Just in general. I mean, you’re a Commoner after all and it’s very rare that you had such a high Flame. If we fought…..”
“Who do you think would win?”
Ronin actually do not know the answer either because while he does have more powers now and can easily outsmart Cermin….
He has a plot armor as a protagonist, and the only reason why he lost in that Training room back then was because he was holding back on hurting his friend, while Ronin wasn’t.
“Probably you, Your Highness.” Ronin just said.
“Hmm, you’re right.” Cermin nodded.
(I’m the protagonist after all. I sometimes forget that and treat Ronin just like a real person. Well, real in my world, at least.)
(Sometimes he reminds me of—)
Before Cermin could finish the thought, he noticed the name ‘Aurion’ in the journal Ronin was writing on.
“Hey, that’s my patron god!” Cermin said as he peered over.
Ronin just closed his journal casually and turned to him. “Yes, I’m studying about him for tomorrow.”
“I don’t see anything special with that guy, though.” Cermin said. “People can’t tell if he’s ‘dead’ or not, or just hiding and why he was hiding. He never appeared in person for a long time now.”
“And do you know which one is the truth?” Ronin raised an eyebrow on interest.
“Actually, I don’t.” Cermin shrugged. “Most Hero Mages I talked to said they can communicate with their gods, but Aurion never spoke to me.”
“I do have these….. Strange dreams.”
“Strange dreams?” Ronin tilted his head.
“Yes…. Like someone calling out from this massive cave, but his voice was muffled. There was golden light inside the cave. For some reason….. I thought the voice must be Aurion’s.”
“So he’s still alive?”
“No…. He’s lamenting about death over and over again.” Cermin frowned. “That a part of him died ever since he vanquished the darkness, or something like that.”
He shrugged. “I just ignore it because it end up making my head hurt the more I focus on those dreams. I forget them a few minutes after waking up in the morning.”
Cermin yawned, and leaned on one hand at the desk. “Actually, I think he’s sleeping…..”
“Sleeping? Hibernating?” Ronin asked.
“Yes…. Because he can’t handle the despair… And….”
He dozed off completely.
But just before he slept, during the times where he was just dozing off….
Ronin saw images of a dark-skinned man this time.
He was feeding meat to a pack of hungry, rabid dog-like animals, though it was hard to tell of they were even animals with how monstrous and pitch-black their faces were.
There’s also glimpses of him just observing a whole landscape of a treacherous forest full of plants that burst out lava from within, or has teeth larger and sharper than a shark’s.
And finally, there was an image of him smiling wide and gesturing to Magecia, and saying proudly:
“Look at this. It could be so much more. We could shape it into something more, transform it into something beyond what It intended for us!”
But the moment he had fallen into complete sleep, Ronin could not see into his thoughts anymore. That’s the limitations of his mind-reading.
He wrote all of this down, then sighed as he shook Cermin by the shoulder.
“Your Highness, if you’re going to sleep, sleep on the bed.”
Cermin opened one eye and made a funny expression while slurring his words. “Huh? Wha sreep on th bleb?”
Ronin gestured as if teaching a dog. “That bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”
He rubbed his eyes. “No…. Wouldn’t the floor be too hard?”
“I’ll lay out a blanket. I don’t want to take Don’s bed and I especially would not want you to take it, so you can have mine for tonight and I’ll just lay here.”
Ronin layed out several duvets and blankets to make a makeshift futon, and Cermin watched him sleepily before asking:
“Can’t you just sleep with me?”
Ronin answered quickly. “No.”
“Why?”
(Because I know from my years as your system that you roll around when you sleep and would eventually end up kicking me. Not to mention that you snore like a fucking pig, so I’m definitely better off here.)
But he did not say that and just responded with a dry. “Good night, Your Highness.”
Cermin frowned, but plopped back on the soft bed, looking at Ronin down below.
“Well…. Thank you for having me sleep over. Sorry that I dozed off there, I suddenly got tired after talking so much. But I had fun.”
Ronin scoffed. ‘Can’t say I felt the same’.
Eventually, this nuisance of a prince fell back to slumber again, and Ronin can’t help but think about what he heard and saw just now.
‘Aurion is sleeping, dreaming of something long past, most likely. And to say that he’s “lamenting” over death…..’
‘Lamenting over Fausforus? The god he killed with his own hands?’
He fell asleep delving deep into his theories. Meanwhile….
Cermin fell asleep dreaming of someone.
It was not a dark-skinned god feeding monsters and speaking monologues…..
But rather a simple teenager about his age at this moment.
He was standing under a sky full of tiny little diamonds, and singing about them.
“How I wonder what you are…”
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