Past Lives: Memories

Chapter 1: The Present

“I decided to not be involved in that matter” I looked the Damsen in the eyes, “I already did my part and I also decided to remain neutral.

“Even though your daughters are involved? You will remain neutral?” He looks at me seriously, “I’ve been with you for a long time, act like you don’t care all you want and it doesn’t change the fact that deep down you don’t want them to be in the war.”

“Then I think you already know my answer once again and besides, I raised them myself. They are already old enough to make their personal decisions in their life.”

“What if they point swords at each other’s throat?”

“…That won’t happen”

“I sincerely hope so, Arya”

I was interrupted by my thoughts when the professor clapped his hand.

“Okay class, there will be more transferees coming to our class in the next few days. I hope that you will warmly welcome them as you welcome Mrs.Dreyl. That’s all, you can all have your lunch” The professor leaves the room.

I took a glance from Sonya, who is currently sleeping again.

I still haven’t asked her about the crest, I mean how should I approach her?

I let out a sigh in frustration.

“Something wrong?” Eve approaches me, “What’s with the long face?”

“I’m just wondering how beautiful and kind you are” I shift my gaze away from her.

“Dummy, what’s that supposed to mean?” She hits my shoulder

“It means that you won’t hang out with me anymore if you got yourself a boyfriend” I turned my look on her and gives her a smirk.

“I won’t do such a thing, even if I got myself a boyfriend” She smiles.

“Ahhh, poor me. What would I do if Eve won’t hang out with me anymore” I put my hand on my chest, pretending to be heartbroken, “Looks like I will be all alone”

She laughs out loud.

“That was hilarious! Being dramatic doesn’t fit you at all!” She holds her stomach while laughing, “Well, I’m glad you don’t make that face anymore”

“I suppose I owe you a lunch?” I stood up.

“Yes please!” She looks at her phone, “Ahh! I forgot to hand the list to the clinic. Wait for me, don’t go anywhere!”

She runs away before I could say anything.

Seeing her being cheerful really puts a smile on my face. It’s refreshing to see such a person.

“So, when will you plan to confess to her?” Eve’s friend, Jess asks me.

“H-huh?” That caught me off guard, “W-what are you talking about”

I avoided her gaze and I can see her in the corner of my eyes smiling playfully.

“Playing dumb, aren’t we? Besides almost everyone in the room knows that you both like each other” She then laughs, “It seems like that the both of you are the only ones who didn’t know”

“Wait, she… likes me?” I suddenly felt nervous.

“Duh, you two really are dense. You better get her before someone else does” She points at Eve, who is running back into the room.

“Heeey, I’m back. Let’s go?” She looks at Jess, “You too Jess!”

“And be the third wheel between you two? No thanks” She crosses her fingers in front of us and shakes her head.

I can feel my face heating up all of a sudden.

“J-Jess? What are you talking about?” Eve is turning red.

“Oh~ You know what I’m talking about Eve” She then pats her head, “Just kidding, I just wanted to tease you! Well, you two better go now. I have things to do~”

“W-well, let’s go”

“Y-yeah..”

We walked awkwardly towards the cafeteria and neither of us tried to speak.

Come to think of it, I really enjoyed my time with her but is it enough to tell her that I like her? I don’t want to think that just because I’m happy when I’m with her means that I like her romantically.

I stole a glance at her while we are walking. My eyes widen when I saw her blushing.

I turned around and attempted to hide my face with one hand.

I haven’t seen that side of her, she looks so damn cute. I love cute things and this one beside me is overwhelmingly cute.

We reached the cafeteria, bought some food, and headed outside. We sat on a bench and the awkward mood between us continued as we eat our lunch. I wanted to break that mood.

“The sun sure is warm” She suddenly laughs.

I just then realized I spoke something random

“That’s too random!” She continues to laugh.

“Well, I can’t think of something” I scratched my head.

After she laughs, she then looks at me.

“Thank you, I calmed down a Lil bit”

“Can’t blame you, I also got nervous when Jess said that…” I looked at the food in my lap, “I mean, to say those things with a person such as me. Maybe hanging out with me is a bad idea, people may get the wrong idea.”

Another silence envelops between us.

“Is that a bad thing?” She suddenly talks, “I don’t care what people will think of me, but being with you makes me happy”

“But---“ She cuts me off before I could speak more.

“And that also applies to you, I don’t care what you think but I will continue to hang out with you”

I looked at her and she is chewing her food with such a serious look. I can’t help but laugh at her face.

She gulps down the food she was chewing

“Hey! Why are you laughing?” 

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it. You look like a hamster when you’re chewing food with a serious look on your face!” I wiped off my tears from laughing.

“You!” She pinches my cheek.

Seeing her smile is satisfying.

How could I forget why I wanted to hang out with her? I wanted to make her smile all the time because when we first met, she always wore this sad face. I figured that she will be much beautiful when she smiles and I was right. She became more cheerful and livelier, it’s something that I wanted to treasure.

After that, we talked a lot more while eating and went back to the classroom. But something unexpected happened.

“Please go out with me! I liked you ever since I laid my eyes on you” A student from another section is now confessing to Eve.

I suddenly felt cold when I heard his confession.

“U-ummm” Eve seems like she was looking for an answer.

Everyone watching us is excitedly waiting for Eve’s answer.

I felt colder when I think that she would accept her confession.

“I---“ I pulled her towards me before she could speak more.

“SHE’S MINE” The words escaped my mouth before I realized it.

The hall suddenly became silent for a second.

Eve looks at me with a shocked face. Actually, everyone watching was shocked and even me.

Negative thoughts began to appear on my mind. I wanted to run away and never come back, but I steeled myself since I already made it this far.

I pulled her much closer to me and I can feel the warmth of her body.

Eve suddenly pulls away from me and faces the one who confessed to her.

Every second that passes, I can feel my vision getting darker and darker.

“Sorry…”

She then turns around and looks at me, then she looks at the guy again.

“You heard him, I’m already claimed”

Everyone watching us began shouting and cheering.

It felt like that a big weight suddenly lifted away from my chest. I can’t help but feel relieved.

“I-I see, thank you for being honest” The student walks away.

“Now, you better take responsibility for claiming me” Eve blushes and looks away

I can’t help but smile, I can’t believe that she accepted it easily. I wanted to hug her so badly, but I’m restraining myself from doing that since many people are watching.

“Yes, I will take responsibility”

She gives me a blushed smile.

I can feel my face getting hot.

I grabbed her hand and returned to our class.

“Look who’s here! You really pulled it off Arc!” Jess is obviously waiting for us.

“Yeah and I’m glad I did it”

The bell suddenly rings and the class is about to start.

“See you later Arc” She waves goodbye and goes to her seat.

It all felt like a dream, I can’t believe that Eve’s my girlfriend now.

Sonya pats me lightly

“Hey, congratulations!” Sonya smiles.

“Thank you”

I can’t help but smile like an i***t the whole class. Even the professor knew about my confession and the whole class is teasing us, but I can feel how supportive they are.

The class continued in the afternoon when the sky turned gray and rain began to pour down. Then an explosion suddenly interrupted our class followed by a gunshot, a flash of light appeared from one of the halls not far from our classroom.

Our professor immediately closed the book he was holding and put it down. He brings out his cellphone and calls someone while approaching the door.

Everyone was silent and didn’t dare to ask what was happening. But, it felt something similar to that from a shooting.

After the call, our professor gestured us to be silent and locked the door. All of us went under our desks.

But, the door was bust open, and the armed man began to rush in. They pointed guns at our professor and on the whole class.

“Leave all the boys here and take all the girls outside. Gather them in one room”

“Yes boss” They then did what the one man said, “What do we do with them?”

“Kill them, these boys will only bring trouble” They pointed their guns at us, ready to shoot.

“Using Fal-Hel is common, but the people who have a natural talent for them are only about 30% of the kingdom's population, and using Fal-Hel will grant you the title of ‘Savia’. In order to use it, you have to make sure that you have the capabilities to do so, you need a sufficient offering and lastly, knowing your limits.” I snapped my finger and a small fire appeared, “With enough training, you won’t even need to chant to use it”

“Teacher, some people said that Fal-Hel is evil, is it true?” A young girl looks at me curiously.

“Things can’t be evil, only the people using them. This applies to everything, there is no such thing as evil except for those who do so” I closed the book and gave it to the young girl, “To kill is to protect, to protect is to kill. Such is the nature of living beings and it’s not evil, it is the way of life”

 “How do I use it?” She accepts the book, “Are there some things I need to remember?”

“There are, but it is simple as thinking. Fal is the road and Hal is the destination, combining these two will produce a result but you need to know how to get to the road and what will the destination will look like. The more complex the Fal is, the more toll Hal will take from you.

“Fal is the road and Hal is the destination…” I whispered to myself.

I hope that those dreams are real or else we will all be get killed right here and now.

I imagined a space around us that is beginning to heat up.

“Shoot them!” The armed men fired

But, just in time, a barrier of light appeared around us and the shots are stopped.

“What the hell?!”

A familiar feeling suddenly takes over me. With a snap of my fingers, everyone else in the class fell unconscious except for the armed men. I stood up, the feeling of fear from death disappeared.

“You! Shoot that boy down!” All of them kept firing, but the barrier didn’t even have a scratch.

I didn’t try to talk with them, after all, to take someone’s life one must be ready to die.

With a snap of my finger, all of them drop dead at the same time.

The sight of killing people seemed to be second nature to me, I remembered in my dreams how I single-handedly burned a kingdom to the ground. It all makes sense now, those dreams are real, and now I’m using magic that came from that world.

I immediately went out of the room to find Eve.

I hope I’m not too late.