System, please just shut up

There's a fine art to being productive without actually doing anything.

Kael was getting dangerously good at it.

He didn't have formal lectures this week.

No patrols.

No urgent Archive task updates.

Just a stretch of days where nothing was exactly required of him—but that didn't mean he wasn't busy.

In his own... questionable way.

**First Day**

He woke up late.

Not because he was exhausted, but because the pillow was warm, the sun was gentle, and his sword could wait for his attention.

Breakfast was two rolls of something spicy and unidentifiable from the cafeteria.

He had a one-sided eating competition with Theo and won, of course.

He spent the rest of the morning under one of the lesser-used sparring platforms, working on his sword footwork and form.

More accurately, trying to work on it.

The form looked simple, almost elegant.

But the footwork? It had rhythm, a complex dance, and Kael had all the rhythm of a one-legged duck attempting to tap dance on hot coals.

By mid-afternoon, his knees hurt, his back ached, and he was lying flat on the training mat staring at the clouds like they owed him money.

**Second Day**

He tried practicing with a spear, and to cut the story short let's just say... It didn't go as planned.

He and Theo got late lunch—egg rice wrapped in seaweed, plus two mana-boosting drinks they definitely didn't need.

Theo looked at him for a long moment, a slight smirk playing on his lips, before saying:

"Did the spear introduce itself to you before you face-planted, or was it more of a surprise?"

Kael chewed slowly, a faint grimace on his face from a still-sore jaw. "I don't think it was interested in making my acquaintance."

He trained again at sunset, focusing on swordsmanship, only to get thoroughly scolded by Rheya the next morning for "venting on draining dummies" after he destroyed more than twenty of the magically reinforced targets.

**Third Day**

The Archive updated his Sword Mastery to 4.7%.

He stared at the number for five minutes, a strange mix of emotions swirling within him.

That was 0.4% up in three days.

It was not great, not a massive leap, but not nothing either.

It was a strange feeling, being simultaneously proud of the incremental gain and utterly disappointed by how agonizingly slow it felt.

He spent most of the afternoon under the academy's northern skywalk, a towering arch of enchanted stone, watching other students run drills.

A pair of first-years were arguing loudly about who was going to get to walk beside the High Priestess during the Moonwake procession.

Kael tried to care, to get more invested in the more the teenage and fun part of life.

He really did.

But didn't succeed.

He went back to slicing the air with a wooden sword until his arms gave out, muscles burning.

**Fourth Day**

He spent the whole day held up in the massive, labyrinthine library, the scent of ancient parchment thick in the air.

He was trying to find anything—any crumb of information—relating to his dumb daunting World Task, particularly anything about the Archive's true origins and the couple who created it.

But there was nothing.

No records on how the Archive came about, or how people lived before it suddenly came into existence.

It seemed to have just popped up one day, fully formed, and changed the entire system of the world overnight, erasing its own genesis.

That night, feeling restless and unable to sleep, he headed back to the deserted gym for more practice.

**Fifth Day**

He woke up feeling like he was being watched, a prickling sensation on his skin, but when he looked out the window, there was nothing but the quiet academy grounds.

He dismissed it as lingering paranoia from the previous night's intense training.

He didn't train much that day.

Instead, he and Theo sat under the sprawling bronze willow tree near the east courtyard, its leaves shimmering in the breeze, idly throwing berries at a particularly grumpy squirrel until it got mad and actually chased them.

Well, Kael was the one throwing the berries, but they definitely got chased together.

"You know, one of these days you're going to get us into serious trouble," Theo said, slightly winded, when they finally managed to lose the furious rodent.

Kael looked up at the vast, indifferent sky and muttered, "Yeah, you're probably right. But....."

"But what?" Theo prompted, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing. Just that I'm definitely going to get us killed."

"..."

Kael chuckled, the absurdity of the statement giving a strange kind of comfort.

**The Eve of Moonwake**

Everything felt somehow quieter.

Even though the city below was buzzing with preparations, the vibrant hum of the upcoming festival a palpable energy. Even though Aria had doubled the drills for anyone on patrol rotation, and even though Kael could feel the tension threading its way through the very walls of the academy like a cold, unseen current—

He still had no clear idea what was truly coming.

But he felt it.

A deep, instinctual certainty.

Like something big and bad, something beyond the usual celebratory chaos, was about to happen.

He stood on the terrace at nightfall, looking out over the glowing lights of Ardent Spire as countless festival lanterns, like tiny, glowing stars, floated gently into the darkening sky, rising slowly toward the moon.

The air smelled of warm spices from distant food stalls, melting wax from the lanterns, and the faint, metallic tang of cold metal from the city's defenses.

He didn't know if something truly terrible was coming, and he certainly didn't know if he was ready to face it.

Then he smiled faintly to himself, a grim, self-aware curve of his lips. "But I've never really been ready for anything I've done."

Sigh

He was really trying.

To fit in.

To play the role.

To act normal, or enjoy the simple things and moments of the second life he was given.

But every time he looked at his Status Window or felt that flicker of static behind his ribs, like the Archive or someone was watching, he remembered.

In six months he could be dead again.

He slowly reached into his pocket and pulled out a coin Thorne had given after his third week here.

It wasn't magical or anything, just a regular coin.

"If things get too heavy, flip it. Heads means rest and Tails means fight."

That was exactly the words he had said.

Kael flipped it once.

Heads.

Kael smirked "Figures."

He leaned against the railing and let his eyes close.

Not to sleep, just letting himself breathe.

A breeze swept across the terrace, catching the edge of his coat.

Somewhere nearby, a bell chimed softly.

He sighed again, deep and slow this time.

Then he turned around and quietly walked back inside.

He had a lot of work to do tomorrow.