Chronicle of the Eternal: Volume 1 (15 page)

“Will you *hic* look at
zat… *hic* my ‘Cartography’ has *hic* lethel 8,” Regal slurs his words while
trying to read his personal stats.

His mind becomes even more
blurry as he enters the city with the other students, and everything from that
point on is lost from his memory.

Regal wakes up on his bed
the morning after the practical ‘Cartography’ lesson with a dreadful pain in
his head. It is the first time he has ever felt something so uncomfortable. His
mind feels woozy, and moving his head causes the room to spin. It should be
known that he was given twice as much alcohol as the others in his group, as he
appeared to be the most dehydrated.

Awkwardly sitting up, he
finds a strange phenomenon affecting his stats.

All of his stats have been
reduced by two points, making his body feel weaker than usual. Even his health
has been reduced for an unknown reason. No matter how much he thinks over the
problem, he can’t discern the cause of this effect.

Despite his stomach
becoming horribly unsettled as he stands up, he persists at getting ready the
leave for Bluemist Academy. Breakfast seems to make him slightly better,
stimulating his health into recovering, and allowing him to move around more
proficiently.

Checking the time on a
wall clock, Regal is alarmed to see that he is already half an hour. He rushes
out of the house, running down the cobblestone road as fast as his reduced
stats will permit.

Twenty minutes later, he
arrives at the academy. The students from class 1, who are practicing alchemy
in the academy’s field, see him enter in a rush. Mr. Razor scolds the students
who turn around to look, so they don’t end up paying Regal much attention.

Mr. River stares at Regal
when he reaches the classroom door, exasperated. He maintains his silence while
a few of the students laugh as he awkwardly wanders to his desk. Regal feels a
piercing glare, and turns his head to see an infuriated Piora. She snaps her
head around and ignores him the moment their eyes meet.

Not wanting to have to put
in extra effort, Mr. River doesn’t question Regal being late and continues with
the lesson after motioning that Regal just have a seat.

“So now that I have
covered some of the main points you need to pay attention to when making maps,
I will show you what a professional map looks like.”

Mr. River takes out a map
parchment from his inventory that is twice the size as the ones the students
were given. The parchment is slightly glossy, signifying that it is of a much
greater quality as well.

He unrolls it and attaches
it to the chalk board. The map that is unveiled enraptures all the students,
especially Regal. It is of the area extending fifty miles from Grand Theore in
every direction. Every line, symbol, and terrain depicted is impeccable. Small
characters are written next to each major landmark, which can be used to
identify them. The most surprising of all however, is that the entire map is in
color.

Mr. River lazes around at
his desk while the students are admiring the map, eventually taking it down and
telling the students to use it as a goal to aim towards.

“Remember, ‘Cartography’
is a crafting skill, meaning it is much harder to train than martial and
alchemy skills. It takes a long time to master this skill, and can only be done
by creating maps of many different areas and dungeons. Copying other maps also
works, but the progress is only a tenth as fast, even if you have a strong
comprehension of the skill.”

Regal wants to point out
that his ‘Cartography’ skill level is increasing fast, monstrously so, but the
pain in his head stops him from raising his hand or speaking out.

The morning class today is
theory again, studying different types of mutant beasts. Regal’s mind works at
a much slower pace than even when he is out of mana and he is grateful for the
break that comes during the middle of the day.

Piora drags Veronica off
like lightning at the start of lunch, joyful chatting with her while ignoring
the shocked stares from the rest of the class. Regal is joined by Astore and
Kilde as they head into the academy’s field not long after the two girls.

They find Piora and
Veronica sitting in a quiet spot in the field, next to one of the buildings.
Regal notices that there are many more students nearby than there usually are
and figures it is due to Piora’s presence.

As they walk up to the two
girls, Piora turns her head toward Regal and snaps, “What do you want!?”

“W-what?” Regal stammers,
completely surprised by her ferocity.

He is friends with
Veronica, and the little brother according to her hierarchy, so he can’t figure
out why Piora is angry. Kilde whispers beside him and clears up his confusion.

“Last night when we were
all heading home, you proclaimed your love for Veronica and shortly afterwards
called Piora an arrogant girl with no friends. She was quite angry at that and
hit you several times before leaving. Have you forgotten?”

Regal stands as stiff as a
board. He has no recollection of that happening last night, apparently some of
his memories of last night are missing.

“I’m so sorry! I’m sure I
didn’t mean it,” Regal doesn’t doubt Kilde’s words and immediately speaks with
remorse and embarrassment, ignoring the pain in his mind as he bows his head.

Piora settles down after
his apology, but she still hasn’t forgiven him. It isn’t until the three boys
sit down that the rest of her anger abates and she becomes slightly depressed.

“And… it’s not like it’s
not like it’s my fault I have no friends… I didn’t know what to say to anybody
during the first few days… and then they started staying away from me soon
after.”

Regal, with no tact,
casually says, “Well, I have heard of people admiring you from afar like a
queen. That’s probably why.”

“No! I don’t like it!”
Tears form in the corner of her eyes and Veronica gives Regal a look that says,
‘This is your fault.’

Veronica smiles at Piora
and says, “We are your friends, aren’t we? I think of you as a friend.”

“Me too.”

“And me.”

Kilde and Astore claim
their friendship with Piora as well, making her smile joyfully at them while
nodding her head.

“I am also your friend,”
Regal says, only to have Piora snap back, “Who would want a friend like you!?”

Despite everything that
happened, Piora eventually forgives Regal. It is during the latter half of
lunch that Piora touches a subject Regal would rather have left unspoken.”

“So Regal, why do you love
Veronica?”

Covering his face with his
hands in embarrassment, he refuses to answer her. Veronica has very little
reaction, but does turn her face to look elsewhere momentarily. Seeing Regal’s
reaction, Piora becomes confused and asks him a different question.

“You are a Soulless,
aren’t you?”

“I… I am,” He reveals his
face which is cherry red.

“You really don’t seem
like it. You are different from everything I’ve heard about the Soulless,”
Piora pushes her face closer to Regal to inspect him.

Kilde also joins the
conversation, “You have indeed been different during the past few days.”

This piques Piora’s
curiosity even more, causing her to continuously question Regal. He eventually
talks about the soul forming incident that happened after he was revived in the
Temple of Life. Everyone seems confused by it, but at least they still accept
it.

Piora inspects Regal even
closer than before, but is abruptly interrupted by Veronica to talk about
‘Cartography’. Regal suspects, and secretly hopes, that Veronica was jealous at
how close Piora was. If she was jealous, she didn’t show it on the outside.

They eventually figure out
that last night they were drunk from alcohol thanks to Piora relaying her
mother’s words. Apparently if too much is drunk, it will have several effects
that last into the next day, such as reduced stats and feeling unwell. They
have no clue as to how or when they drank the alcohol, but it solves Regal’s
questions about his current condition.

When the bell signifying
the end of lunch rings, Regal notices that the number of students sitting
nearby has significantly increased. He hears whispers such as, “Why is Piora
sitting with the Soulless?” and the more disturbing, “I heard that Regal loves
Veronica.”

***************************************************

Regal is seated within a
private room in the training hall later that evening with not just Veronica,
but Piora as well.

“Here, one silver coin,”
Piora says regretfully, passing a single coin to Regal right after Veronica
does.

Piora was going to head
home by herself today, just as she has done for the past two months, and use
the money to buy some snacks at a street stall in the nearby Market Street. Once
the academy closed for the day however, Veronica trapped her and brought her
along for ‘Cartography’ practice. She even obstinately pressed Piora to pay a
fee of one silver coin to Regal for teaching her.

Regal witnessed the entire
thing, receiving a cute smile from Veronica that seemed to say, ‘Mission
accomplished’.

He couldn’t help but think
to himself at the time, ‘Big sis is scary in her own way.’

Taking out their
notebooks, Regal began to go over the basic symbols used in maps. For Veronica
especially – the most basic of the basic.

Feeling depressed that he
even has to teach them how to draw a straight line, he persistently makes them
draw the same thing over and over again until it is recognizable. He takes a
look at their handwriting during the process of teaching and is relieved that
while it is still messy, it is at least legible.

Veronica and Piora
continue their tutelage for several hours before leaving. The improvements they
make are very small in this time, but are still happy when Regal describes it
as twice as good as before. Regal is not lying or overly praising them while
saying this, as it is like the difference between one and two.

After they leave, Regal
diligently practices his various alchemy skills. He has the most success with
‘Flame Forge Alchemy’, increasing it to level 8. He finds that if he focuses on
controlling the temperature and size of the ‘Radiant Flame’ while studying the
formulae, his understanding of it increases faster than before.

He doesn’t arrive home
until late at night due to his excitement at increasing the training speed for
‘Flame Forge Alchemy’. When he falls asleep, he does so extremely satisfied.

Just as Regal and his
friends discussed earlier at the academy, his reduced stats return to normal
the next day.