A little more than a week has passed since Vigil became a registered citizen of Mercy, and as of now he was a student attending at the most prestigious school in the city.
Or so he had been told by Elata, the dwarf that's a part of Witch's warband.
After Vigil had gotten registered at that god awful place, he had been asked a simple, yet meaningful, question; What do you want to do?
When Witch had first asked him this, he became slightly confused.
What did she mean by that?
When she'd noticed his confused face, she decided to elaborate, telling him that, as a Child of War, he had many privileges that others his age didn't.
For example, although kids his age were required to go to school, he didn't have to and instead could find a job and work if he so desired.
Apparently, people all over the world, not just Mercy, believe that, as a Child of War, if you can survive out in the barren wastelands of War Field, then you are more than qualified to share in the same privileges that adults have.
Drinking? A-OK.
Gambling? Go for it!
Getting arrested? Oh, most certainly...
Wait, what?
Although the whole drinking thing was, at first, frowned upon. After years of study had gone into Truth, it had been found out that one of the many side effects that it has on the body, is the mild increase in tolerance of poisons.
So as long as the drink wasn't too high in alcohol percentage, then it was fair game to all Children of War.
After all, there is no way that someone would be able to survive in War Field for extensive periods of time, much less a child, without the support of their Truth.
Anyway, Vigil had taken a little less than a week to come up with an answer for the question that Witch had previously asked him. The answer that he gave her was that he wanted to try going to school.
But by the time that he had given her an answer, she had to leave Mercy in order to escort the Cardinal back to Lumarta.
Thankfully, Vigil hadn't been left alone inside Mercy. This was due to Leonide allowing one of the members of Witch's group to stay behind and look after him.
The one who had taken up the mantle of being his glorified babysitter?
Elata, the dwarf.
For the past few days, in between the time in which everyone left and Vigil became a student, Elata and him had gotten a bit closer to one another.
Now normally, Vigil wouldn't have willingly done so due to his severe trust issues. But while he had been contemplating on what answer to give Witch about what he wanted to do, he had used his communicator that he'd just learned how to access multiple times in order to see if the things that she'd told him that night were true.
And who would've thought, she really didn't tell him a single lie about anything.
With that being said, Vigil decided to try and trust others, at least a little, starting with Witch and now Elata.
Well, it's also not like he had much of a choice, especially since the two were living together at the moment because one, Vigil didn't have a place to stay, and two, would rather not live in an orphanage or foster home.
When the two of them had started living together and Vigil was starting to settle in, Elata took up the liberty of enrolling Vigil at Mercy's most prestigious school, Helio Academy.
At first, he thought that it would be difficult to get a no-name like him in a renowned school like that one.
But, contradictory to his thoughts, he was accepted without even needing to disclose his identity. According to Elata, Helio academy believes that everyone has some form of potential, and because of that, everyone is accepted for at least one full year of schooling.
With that being said, Vigil was now currently sitting in one of the academy's classrooms, waiting for the class to start.
Looking around, he saw dozens of children his age all spread throughout the classroom wearing the same thing that he was, the school uniform.
Said uniform consisted of a white dress shirt, a neat black suit jacket with matching pants for the boys and a knee length skirt for the girls, and finally a nice plack tie. On each of the jacket's shoulders, there was a silver embroiled symbol of two hands holding an overflowing chalice; The symbol of Helio Academy.
As Vigil was looking around, he noticed something about his peers.
Some were just chatting to each other while others were keeping to themselves.
However, the majority of the kids were all staring at him. Seemingly contemplating if they should go over and talk to him.
Just from how they were acting he could tell that there was a good chance that, when one approached him the rest would too, and in no way was that a good thing for the anti-social Vigil.
Thankfully, before anything happened, a loud voice cut through the air, catching the children's attention.
"Everyone, please take your seats."
A man dressed in a light blue button-up with black slacks and black dress shoes said to a room full of small children.
As the kids were sitting down, the man spoke up once more.
"Alright class, now although we might have an unfamiliar face joining us as of today, that doesn't mean that you get to slack off. So only when class ends may you be allowed to introduce yourselves to him, understood?"
He said as he nudged his head in the direction of a young boy with two distinct scars on his face.
After he had finished talking, the entire class responded in acclimation.
"Yes, teacher!"
Hearing this, the man nodded his head then turned around and began to write something on the giant board behind him.
"Today, we'll be talking about Truth."
Not even a second into the lesson and Vigil had already lost interest.
He already learned about this topic years ago, so he thought that there was no need to pay attention to what was going on in the class.
That was until one of the students had been randomly called on to ask a question that the professor had proposed.
Realizing that there was a chance that he could be called on too, Vigil decided that just barely listening enough to acknowledge when his name was called would be a good idea.
As time passed and the class had finished up just in time for lunch, Vigil was not called on once. Whether that be because the teacher didn't know his name or not, he didn't know, but he also didn't care.
During the lesson, only one thing that the professor had said had caught his attention.
"Truth doesn't just have effects on oneself, but also the item that they possess and use."
That single sentence had raised so many questions but also answered plenty of ones that he's had before.
For example, while watching over battles fields, he'd notice that some weapons seemed to be more powerful in the hands of some and less powerful in the hands of others, even if they were the exact same people.
This was especially true for mechanical weapons like guns and tanks.
From what Vigil could gather, Truth, being the power to bend reality to one's own desires, had more than just an effect on oneself.
So, he couldn't help but ask himself:
'What other secrets does the power of Truth hold?'
While thinking that, multiple kids had come up to his seat, looking at him with gazes that screamed curiosity.
When Vigil had noticed them, one of the small girls decided to speak up.
"Umm, so what's your name?"
And like dominoes, the rest of the questions kept coming, giving the boy no time to think, contemplate, or answer.
That along with the never ceasing noise of the children's excited voices made Vigil unable to handle the situation.
So he did what he knew how to do best, retreat.
Getting up from his seat Vigil hastily began to walk away.
Thankfully no one had followed.
However, even though he was able to escape from the crowd of inquisitive children, something was still bothering him.
Actually, it had been bothering him for the past few days now.
For some reason undenounced to him, Vigil had been craving a fight. No, not a fight. To be more exact, he just wanted to leave the walls that surrounded Mercy and get back to War Field.
Due to this, Vigil was, in all honesty, confused to a point of being concerned.
For years all that the young boy wanted was nothing more than to make it to Mercy and escape that hell hole. But now that he finally did, he wanted back, and that just made no sense. Not to him at least.
He wanted to know why, he wanted a logical explanation.
This feeling that clawed at his chest and itched the back of his brain, just what was it?
He didn't know.
He wanted to but couldn't.
"Damnit!"
He whispered under his breath in frustration.
Thus, Vigil left the school grounds, even though it was midday, in search of getting answers from one of the few people that he could trust, even if just slightly, Elata.
Walking down the street and towards a giant building, Vigil entered and went to the closest elevator, something that Vigil didn't know existed until just a few days prior.
When he entered the elevator, he pressed on the singular green button that was located around the middle of the rest.
After going up for a few moments, he exited the small moving room and looked to his left, spotting a large bridged that expanded outwards and towards another building.
Walking out onto the bridge Vigil noticed the giant island that was attached to it, recognizing it as the land that his temporary home was situated on. Walking down the street, Vigil turned towards his current living quarters, a lavish two story house, and started walking towards it.
This whole process had taken him about half an hour to and during that time, his thoughts never left War Field.
When he opened the front door to the house, Vigil was able to hear the sound of Elata's small steps reverberating from when her feet smacked against the hard wood floor.
When Vigil had taken off his shoes and looked up from doing so, what had met his eyes was the questioning gaze of the tanned dwarf, standing but a few feet away.
"Why are you home? Shouldn't you be at school right now, Dread?"
Hearing her words, Vigil paused for a moment then responded in a tone that left no room for argument.
Although at first he just wanted to ask her some discerning questions about the way he was currently feeling, after giving it some thought on the way here, he decided otherwise, and instead said something that he knew would change his life forever.
Whether that be a good thing or now, only time would tell.
"I'm dropping out of school."
Those words seemed to hit her like a truck.
Stupefied, she responded:
"What do you mean you want to drop out? You just started! But just to humor you, let's say that you did drop out, what would-"
"I want to be a mercenary."
Elata looked at him for the first time with her eyelids no longer shut, revealing two brilliant emerald globes.
"That look... I see, so it's the same with you as well... Alright, let's go get yourself registered as a merc."
She said with a slight smile on her face.