By the time Callum returned to his newly made bed, even with his minor recovery, his muscles felt incredibly sore. Lying on the bed and staring blankly upwards, he thought about the past two days.
The lifestyle was familiar so it caused him no trouble but the activities of the day, while familiar pushed him beyond every limit he thought he had. Everything was unexpected, be it the training or the lessons that came along with it. Sometimes he found himself zoning out, focusing on the training without listening to the words of the Seventh Captain. . until she asked a question.
Zoning out was not an option. Why she did this, he could understand little. She wanted them to be able to multitask, to keep their minds as active as their bodies, so she kept changing things up to help them adapt. While this was good, it was exhausting and kept his mind in a very tense state.
It didn't help that he had many questions he needed answers to. But today was the day he would find them. So willing it, he activated the second gain from his Gift Packet. "Sage's Guidance"
Almost immediately, a deep sleep took over his consciousness and his breathing became even as his whole body relaxed on the hard bed.
Callum felt a unique peace like he never had as he found himself in a completely white space. The only color here was himself and even sound was confusing.
He felt like he could hear something but at the same time like the world was silent. Whatever sound he imagined, he would hear but if there was no sound in his mind then the white world was silent.
While this should have been disturbing to his psyche, he instead felt a great peace and relief, as if all his worries were suddenly inconsequential. Even his guilt was gone. Of course, Callum could not tell what it was he could not feel but he knew what he felt.
Suddenly, something caught his eye. Two stools facing in the same direction and a young girl sitting on one of them. He was sure he hadn't seen her earlier but at the same time, he felt she had always been there.
She sat facing forward, her ocean blue gown waving slightly at the hinges although there was no wind. He felt she was incredibly beautiful but at the same time, he could not tell what she looked like.
"Come sit" her ethereal voice sounded almost like the echo of a whisper in an empty hall with great acoustics.
Walking forward slowly, he approached her and sat on the second chair, his gaze fixed ahead at the beautiful blue lake with schools of fish swimming peacefully within.
"You are unsettled" she spoke again.
"I have many doubts" Callum spoke directly to his confusion.
"I can answer most of what you want to know"
"What are you?" He asked. Although he didn't know why he felt this way, he indeed felt that she was not a person.
"You already know the answer to that" she replied keeping her gaze ahead.
"The Battle System? Are you human?" He asked again, this time turning to her as his eyes scrutinized her appearance.
"No" she replied. Her head turned and soon they were looking right at each other.
"Why don't you ask what really troubles you?"
"Why me?" Callum asked immediately, maintaining her gaze.
He was just a kid who was forced to mature by circumstances. Even so, he was no one special.
The girl turned her head back to the desert in front of them. It was as if they sat just outside of it, the sand starting just a few feet away from them. Occasionally, the wind would carry dry and hot desert breeze towards them making Callum frown.
"If someone else, anyone else had gotten this tool, they would ask the same question. We think ourselves important and not at the same time. Does it really matter why?"
Callum considered for a moment then shook his head. There had to be a reason and he had to know.
"It matters to me" he replied.
"Look" she suddenly pointed, her hand lifting slowly but by the time Callum turned away from her, she was already pointing at an eagle swooping down on some flightless birds.
The birds saw the horrifying shadow getting bigger and suddenly scattered running chaotically in different directions. The eagle reached out its long talons and grabbed one of them before flapping its wings and returning to the sky.
"Why that bird?" The girl asked, her ethereal voice reaching Callum's ears almost like a song.
He opened his lips to answer but she pointed again.
On a busy street, the left wheel of a carriage carrying a box of gold coins hit a stone causing the box to jump and a few coins fell out of it and into the bowl of a beggar by the side of the road.
"Would you say he was blessed by God? If he prayed just before this moment, does that make the stone a God? What about the beggar beside him, who hasn't eaten for longer and has been praying devoutly for longer. Why did God refuse him and choose the one before him?"
"That gold was tax being sent to the Internal Revenue Office to save the Merchant company of a suffering family. Why would God take away some of their gold? When the gold is counted and found short, what would happen to that family?"
"Is there truly a reason why the beggar was chosen? Or was this just an unavoidable coincidence?"
"If the gold were conscious like I am, do you think it meant to jump and fall into the beggar's hands? If it didn't fall, do you think it meant to stay in the box until the Revenue Office?"
"Things happen Callum, things happen Callum Ser. There are people like you who try to understand and control how and why, and existences like me who go along with the stream and follow its path"
"I look forward to talking with you again"
"Your time is up"
Callum watched in silence as everything faded from view, slowly disappearing as naturally as sunset.
Waking up, Callum stared blankly at the top of the tent. He disagreed with the system. She. . . Or It, seemed to believe that there was no order to the events of things, that things happened at random without any patterns. Callum disagreed with this thought, while he held no belief in fate or destiny, he did believe there was an imperceptible pattern to things.
And there was a reason he believed so. At different points in his life, he found himself terrified of a perceived inevitable future. But when that moment came and his worst fear was realized, it was either worse or better than he had pictured it but regardless of the case, there was always a next day. In his experience, there was nothing that could stop motion.
Thinking about his sister and how he believed her passing would be the end of his life, he shook his head and struggled to go back to sleep. The world was unintelligently cold and heartless. Even if a fact died, there would always be a day and a night afterwards.
***
Time passed and soon it had been four weeks since their training started. The nine of them had seen incredible growth since the start of their training. Their discipline was impeccable but even more than that was their awareness and adaptability.
Every time they thought they might be getting the hang of something, the Seventh Captain would come up with an ingenious way to make things harder and worse, more complicated.
Soon, they came to anticipate and accept change, listening intently and changing accordingly. Their combat skills and coordination had seen great improvement as well as their swordsmanship, but they would probably be worse than all other camps. Only in unpredictability and lessons learned were they superior.
"Today marks the start of the Battle Phase. From this moment onwards, the Free-market " the Seventh Captain paused with a knowing smile on her lips as she adapted their lingo.
". . . Will be open only at noon, you will be provided with skins and nonperishable food wraps which you can keep to sustain you until the next day. All Mentors and support staff, including the Palace Maidens will retreat to the Main Camp. This camp is now yours to reign over."
"The nine of you will work together without hierarchy. Remember, you learned under the devotion of the Seventh Captain, if you fail, do not ever mention my name to anyone for I have trained no failure"
Her speech concluded and she immediately turned and headed out. Behind her, the other Armored Guard marched along with some Maidens carrying her belongings with them as they left.
Soon the camp was empty and all nine Retainers stared blankly at each other and the sudden emptiness around them.
"We should choose a leader" one among them suggested. She was one of the two females among them. Number 90
While some got their numbers as soon as they were selected by the Mentors, others like Callum were later assigned numbers by the Main Camp.
Callum was Seventy Seven, the sole female Soldier was Fifty Eight, the second female in the group, Ninety, and the other six were twelve to seventeen. It was odd but no one questioned it.
At the suggestion of 90, everyone immediately turned to Callum.