"5.04? 5.04?! That's impossible...."

Evelyn stood with a blank face, gazing into the distance, uncertain of how to interpret the unfolding situation. Silence gripped the training grounds as every gaze fixated on the figure seated in the distance.

His demeanor remained unwavering, just as impeccably poised as ever.

Despite the creased clothes and disheveled hair, his expression retained the usual indifference it always carried.

The blood trickling down his eyes seemed inconsequential to him as if it was never there to begin with.

And so were the stares.

".....It's possible apparently."

It was Leon who brought Evelyn out of her thoughts. With a slight furrow of his brow, he tapped lightly against the sword at his hip.

His expression was hard to read, but to Evelyn, who had known him for as long as she had, it was evident that he, too, had been taken aback by the unfolding events.

'He doesn't like to show it, but he's shaken as well...'

Why else would be tapping on the tip of his sword so much...?

"He's got a firm mind."

Leon concluded after a while, and the tapping stopped.

".....A very firm mind."

He repeated.

In a manner that seemed to be more for him, than for her.

Very firm mind...?

Evelyn blinked, recalling the scene from before.

It was nothing at first. Nobody had been curious about his result at first. Everyone was doing their thing. Focused on their upcoming examination.

That was...

Until a change began to take place in the training ground.

The noise that once filled the surroundings died down and what replaced it was a strange silence.

One that started to consume the surroundings bit by it, swallowing it whole by the next minute.

At first, Evelyn was confused.

But when she turned her head she understood.

'4.4'

Even now...

Recalling the professor's gruff voice as the count went down, she felt herself lose her breath.

4.4...

Had she heard wrong? How was this possible...?

But...

'4.5'

The rough voice continued.

It thundered in her ears, and the ears of all present.

Most gripping was Julien's steadfast figure as he sat in the middle of the chair. His back was firm, solidly placed on the chair as if nothing was happening.

His eyes were closed and so were his lips.

....His composed expression seemed unfitting to the occasion.

It was to the point where one questioned whether he was truly undergoing the tough experience they had all gone through.

'Is the test faulty? Is something wrong with it...?'

Seeing him like that, Evelyn couldn't help but start doubting the situation. Even now she could still recall the spine tingling and terrifying sensation she felt during the test. Just thinking about it sent shivers down her spine.

And yet...

Julien was taking double such pain without so much as flinching?

No way...!

Impossible.

It was Impossi-

Drip... Drip...

Such thoughts stopped the moment she noticed two red streaks falling down his closed eyes.

Even as his body remained unmoved, and his expression unwavering, his body was not. It was starting to betray him.

She understood then...

She hadn't heard wrong...

He truly...

"Just what the hell happened in the last five years?"

Evelyn's gaze fell on Leon. Her eyes deeply stared into his as he turned his head to look away from her.

"...."

He didn't say much, but his silence told her many things.

In the end...

Something did happen in the five years they hadn't seen each other. Something terrifying enough to turn him like that.

But what...?

What happened?

***

"We've only just recently parted ways, and you're already back here..."

The familiar doctor grumbled while he shone a light on my eyes. It was quite bright, and I reflexively tried to close my eyes.

"Help me out here."

After the examination, I was brought to the infirmary by Professor Kelson to get my eyes checked. I didn't resist. I too was a little worried about my eyes. It wasn't normal for someone to bleed from their eyes.

"....Do you feel any pain?"

"I don't."

It was strange. A weird sensation had taken hold of my body. I felt light all over. My entire body was numb, and be it pain, or the sense of touch... I had lost it all.

Smack!

A loud smack caught my attention. When I looked down, I noticed a red mark on my thigh and looked up.

"Did you feel anything?"

"....No."

Did he just....

"I see."

The Doctor sighed and turned back to look at the Professor.

"He's fine, but he's temporarily lost his sense of pain and touch. It shouldn't last longer than a week, but things will be rather troublesome for him in the next week. I suggest he doesn't do anything big in the next week for his own sake."

He then proceeded to look at me in the eyes.

".....I'll say this now because I don't want to see you again over here. Don't. do. anything. strenuous. in. the. next. week. got. it?"

"I can't train?"

"No."

"Then..."

"What don't you get about my orders? Don't do anything that involves moderate to light exercise. It may seem like nothing, but you've lost your sense of pain. You won't know when you're overexerting your body when you train. This can very well get you killed if you're not being careful."

"...."

At that, I had nothing to argue about.

Thinking about how I usually trained, I knew that his words were the correct ones. There was a high chance that by the time I was done training, I'd also be done with this life.

Still....

Even though I knew all of this...

I clenched my teeth.

It was frustrating.

While a week didn't sound like much, it was a lot of time for me. When every single day meant so much to me, wasting seven meant losing a lot... I really couldn't afford to miss out on so many days of training.

But...

"Huuu."

I took a deep breath to calm myself down.

'Right, the situation is like this. I have no choice but to accept it and find a new way to grow.'

Even without training my body physically.

Yeah, because...

I had no choice. Rather than crying over my situation, I had to adapt to my current one.

That's the type of mentality that I needed to have.

'Adapt. I need to adapt.'

One leg. No legs. No eyes. No senses. No arms.

Regardless of my situation, I had to adapt.

No excuses.

There were none for me.

Because...

An excuse was nothing more than a self-imposed roadblock.

I couldn't allow that.

Not me.

"Did you understand my words?"

Hearing the doctor's words, I raised my head to meet his eyes. After a short while, I nodded my head.

"Understood."

***

[Julien Dacre Evenus] (Black Star)

Family - Evenus Barony [First Born]

Progression Analysis :

Mana Examination 1.716

Physical Examination 1.189

Mental Examination 5.04

Delilah glanced at the results that were spread on her table. The once dirty room was now clean. At least... partially.

Num...

Chewing on a chocolate bar, she tossed the wrapper on the ground. Just as she did, her hand froze and her eyes fell on the wrapper on the floor. Her expression cracked and her face crunched up.

"....I'll do it later."

Her gaze fell on the paper in front of her.

Yeah, this was more important...

The numbers weren't anything impressive at first glance. At least, not until the final value was shown.

"5.04."

Delilah double-checked several times to make sure hadn't received the wrong numbers.

Eventually, once she was sure that they were indeed the right ones, she sat back on her chair without saying a word.

'....What happened?'

To display such numbers at such age and Tier... It was unheard of. Not here, nor in the other Empires.

And yet...

Here she was, staring at such unbelievable results.

"Anger. Sadness. Fear."

These were the emotions he had displayed so far. Each of them to an unbelievable degree.

No, not quite.

"Sadness."

There was one that stood out from the rest.

She hadn't seen it herself, but she had heard of what he'd done with it.

Unlike the other two, he was capable of harnessing such power with mere words. That alone suggested he had already reached the next stage for such emotion.

"Eighteen, but shows such an unbelievable display of emotions."

It became clear the more Delilah thought about it.

There was more to Julien's past. The one she hadn't managed to unseal from her background checks.

Something happened that she wasn't aware of.

.....Something that broke him to the point where pain seemed meaningless, and traumatic enough to allow him to such emotion to such degree.

But what exactly...?

The image of a certain tattoo kept replaying in her mind over and over again.

"I'm missing something..."

Something extremely important.

But what exactly?

Her gaze continued to linger over the profile on the table until eventually, she closed her eyes, and opened them again, replacing the cold gaze with a softer one.

"...Right, he's my assistant now."

The truth of the matter...

She was bound to find out sooner or later. Especially since he was now close to her.

All she had to do was be patient.

"One day..."

Yeah, one day.