Soon, Melvin joined the principal of Axiom Academy and Vale on the corridor outside his apartment. Strangely, the corridor felt narrower than it had any right to be.
Performing a brief breathing exercise with shut eyes, Melvin looked up to Edrin and nodded his head.
Understanding the nod as a forward-go signal, the trio found their way descending the stair.
The air seemed tense, as though it were aware that something important was happening and didn't quite know how to behave.
Melvin walked a step behind the Principal with his senses stretched thin, as if recording every echo of their footsteps against the concrete stairs. And behind them, the silent shadow of Vale loomed.
In Melvin's mind, there were too many questions swirling, striving to adapt and make sense of the situation. At some point, he halted in his step, drawing the attention of his fellow walkers.
"Did you forget anything?" Vale, who was behind him and had seen him stop first, asked.
Melvin shook his head and continued. He didn't know why, but every step he took away from his room, from his apartment, felt like another step away from the little certainty he had left.
Clapping his forehead three times, he opened his mouth to ask one of the unsettling questions in his mind. However, Edrin, who seemed to be quite observant, spoke just in time.
"You want to ask," the principal said calmly, eyes forward as they descended the last flight of stairs. "I can feel it clawing at you."
Melvin shut his mouth and, with a nod, replied, "Yes, sir."
There was no reason for him to hide his worry now. Really. Especially when it had to do with what lay before him in his future.
Edrin gave a faint chuckle that carried neither humor nor warmth. And just then, they all stepped out into the open air.
It was now clear to Melvin that his window view didn't provide him with an illusion. The street was exactly as Melvin remembered it—vendors calling out prices, engines humming, and distant laughter from somewhere too far to pinpoint. Everything was painfully normal.
Apparently, no change seemed to have happened. Yet, here he was, about to be presented with an unbelievable fact.
'I wonder.'
"That," Edrin said, gesturing loosely at the street, "is the lie we live in."
Melvin turned sharply at the sound of Edrin's voice, his brow furrowed. He waited patiently for the principal to add something else to his speech, but his patience didn't pay off.
'Weirdo,' he sighed.
Hesitating for a while, they let the rush of fresh air collide against their skin before they continued their steps down the street aisle.
"A few months... almost a year ago," Edrin continued as they walked, "people began waking up."
"Yeah. I mean, everyday people wake up… from sleep. Every day. Not a few months ago," Melvin argued before he could stop himself.
The principal let out his strange chuckle again and asked Melvin to listen to what he has to say first.
"People all around the world began waking up from a deep sleep. A slumber of some-kind. No dreams. No response to pain. It just seemed as though their minds simply… left. Even the doctors couldn't explain it," Edrin said again, quieter this time.
"However, a few…" Edrin paused, choosing his next words carefully. "A few never woke up at all, or never had the chance to wake up."
Melvin felt a chill creep up his spine as he struggled to keep mute.
"You know, the truth is, there weren't even doctors existing. Just a group of smart madmen, who decided to research and understand what had happened to us," Edrin went on.
"Us?" Melvin asked, increasing his steps forward with enthusiasm. "You mean, it also happened to you, too?"
"Yes."
As the reply left the principal's mouth, he smiled thinly and continued walking several steps in silence.
Melvin, on his part, couldn't help but imagine the creeping image of bodies lying still, then suddenly gasping awake. They pressed uncomfortably against his thoughts.
The principal halted and turned to Melvin, who now stood side by side with him, meeting the lad's eyes fully for the first time since they'd left the apartment.
"Another effect of the sleep was discovered, tell me, what is your full name?" he asked.
"Melvin…" Melvin stopped when he couldn't remember having a surname. "You know what, I grew up as an orphan, so I didn't really know who my parents were. I grew up accustomed to this singular name of mine."
Edrin nodded, frowning at his argument. "The truth is, everybody who woke up did so with only a name etched in the back of their minds."
Melvin swallowed. So that was the reason the principal had only introduced himself as "Edrin" and his personal assistant with "Vale". He didn't think about it then, but now that his eyes were somehow clearer…
'There was really a change.'
"At first, nothing seemed different from the research of these smart madmen," Edrin said as they continued their steps. "Until the reports began."
"People gained strength beyond natural limits. Reflexes faster than those of trained soldiers. Children bending heat without fire. Others hearing whispers in empty rooms."
Melvin's heart skipped. His fists clenched unconsciously. Everything the principal had said until now was screaming memories… but in a different way.
As if expecting a question from Melvin but only receiving silence, Edrin pouted. "Did you even understand what that meant? These people woke up with magical affinities!"
Melvin froze for a bit, taken aback by the sudden change of tone in the Principal's voice.
"Awakeners?" Melvin asked, regretting the next second why he did so. Luckily, the principal seemed not to have taken notice.
"Exactly. That was the word used for this group of people. Awakeners," Edrin said, reaching his hand behind to collect a handkerchief from Vale, who seemed to have waited for this moment, and wiped sweat off his face.
"Every awakener who displayed these anomalies fell within a very specific age range."
"Sixteen to eighteen." Melvin said. He already knew… perhaps guessed the answer even before Edrin could speak.
"Yes, that's correct," Edrin gave him a thumbs up without yet noticing anything. "That discovery is what changed everything. The researchers redirected their focus, and the cause, or rather, the source, was found."
They rounded a corner, and the street widened. Parked just ahead was a sleek black limousine, its surface so polished it reflected the sky like a dark mirror.
Edrin slowed as well as his companions.
"Five years ago," he said, "something had appeared in this world, causing a phenomenon that touched every human being alive at the time."
"Apparently, all human beings currently living," Edrin added.
Melvin immediately understood why he had to add that part. It only meant that human beings had fallen into a slumber for a solid five years. He had been asleep for that long a period of time?
He shook his head in disbelief. Inside his mind, he argued that he had simply regressed.
'Simply regressed!'
"Soon enough, you will see this 'something' that had appeared in this world. But the phenomenon it caused, we call it 'flux'," the principal explained.
"A spread of latent energy within the veins. Invisible, untouchable, harmless until activation. Those who possess it, inevitably and automatically awaken a magic affinity upon waking from the slumber."
Melvin's mind raced back to the system words he had heard before logging out of life and finding himself in this strange scenario. He quickly understood that he was yet to awaken his own affinities, just like the others similar to him.
That was the reason the principal was here for him. It was either they realized he had awakened one, or...? There was no "or" to think about. If he had awakened an affinity, they should have let him know, or did they have any inert agenda?
Then, he remembered that in his former life timeline, the government had established a guild to nurture those awakeners simply because their age ranges differed from those of the awakeners of this world. Considering they are teenagers, they had to establish a special academy.
Yes, that was it. Axiom Academy only came to exist for the sole purpose of this set of magic affinity users. That was where they were taking him, right?
It had to be. But then, is it really? Assuming they took the fact that he hadn't awakened into consideration.
"Publicly, Axiom Academy exists to educate, regulate, and protect young Awakeners. To keep panic from consuming the world," the words of Edrin jolted Melvin from his thoughtful slumber.
"And privately?" Melvin asked.
Edrin's footsteps slowed again.
"Privately," he said, "it hadn't been made clear to us why we are doing any of it."
'Really?'
Just then, Vale moved ahead, opening the front passenger door with a smooth, practiced motion.
They had reached the limousine now.