100 The Promise

That night, we didn't do anything that was entertaining because of the pain that was dealt to my head. We mainly stayed in our hotel rooms, with the others chatting it up while I watched television. Because we're all in high school, it is to be expected that bedtime will be late, which it was at 1:30 A.M. Our sleeping arrangement remained as it was prior to Zaksus's visit. However, with Zaksus needing to stay the night, he decided to sleep on the floor.

We had to wake up quite early in the morning in order to make it to the lobby where Mura and Emilia took attendance. But because we went to sleep quite late and that we have four people needing to use a single bathroom, we had to wake up earlier than usual, which sucked away at our vitality. Therefore, in the lobby, we were pretty gaunt. However, we weren't the only ones. Many of our classmates and students from other classes appeared to suffer from a lack of sleep. They were probably out wilding last night.

That day for the mandatory trip, we visited the site of the first uprising led by Leshius I as he drove out the then occupying powers of Vilhelm. That battle was the official start of the revolution that ultimately ended with Leshius I overthrowing the then dynasty and establishing the Vilheim Empire.

The battlefield was situated outside the main city. It was a pretty barren plain with nothing much to see. However, what we visited was the museum set up nearby that harbored the ancient weaponry used by the soldiers. In addition, there were also stories as to how the battle went down. All in all, it was pretty interesting, but nothing too over the top since that battle has been made into movies so many of us knew the gist of the story already.

When I walked around the museum with my little group, I spotted Luna staring at a plaque that recorded the number of people that had died in the revolution. On her face was a look of indifference, one that appeared extremely calm, but maybe that was her face for seeing something so heavy in meaning. I approached her from behind, and it would appear that she saw me in the glass.

"What do you think?" she asked me.

"About the revolution? It's pretty impressive considering how they're just simply farmers," I answered, looking in the direction she was looking in.

"..." She remained silent as she continued to stare at the plaque. "Do you think these people that have died... do you think their lives are justified?"

"Probably," I commented. "Their efforts gave birth to our nation. It's just sad that they never got to see the fruit of their labor."

"Right..." Luna whispered. "Even though they gave it their all, they still couldn't live until the end."

She had a disturbed countenance on her face, one that attracted my attention for it was something that appeared to be bugging her. Being the only person that knows of her condition, I paid even more attention to her, so seeing her like this made me quite uneasy.

"Everybody's leaving now," she then said as she turned towards me and smiled. "Let's go before we're left behind."

Then, with light steps, she jogged off to keep up with the crowd, leaving me there by the plaque alone. I looked at her figure in the distance, then back at the plaque, seeing the number of people that had died on that battle alone, and then back at her. Then, I followed her as I left the exhibition room of the museum.

The day basically ended when we were finished with the museum as we boarded the buses and returned to the hotel. It was still quite early, being 4:30 P.M., but it would appear that the rest of the day will be ours to use. Therefore, with Noah's suggestion we left our hotel to have some fun in the city.

He first brought us to a karaoke spot, and when we entered, I noticed a small sign in the corner of the neighboring building that was about a brothel. I didn't know if this was intentional or not, but I believe it was probably when Noah was scrolling through the map to see where the brothels were that he saw this karaoke place. I didn't give it much further thought, knowing that it was pointless to be thinking about that much at the time. Therefore, I followed the others into the karaoke and into our room.

During the entirety of the time, the others were all having a good time while I simply sat there in the corner with a drink in my hands. Sitting beside me was the other person who's unused to situations like this one: Muria. She was also silent as she stared at the drink in her lap. In the dim room, I could see the reflection of the television screen in her watery. blue eyes.

"Muria," Irina came by to our corner and grabbed her hand. "Let's sing a song together."

"Um I..."

Muria tried to object, but it was ultimately unsuccessful as she was dragged to the center of the room and handed a mic by Luna. Her face was pretty red from embarrassment, but it must be difficult to tell with how dim the lighting was in the room. Then, the music came on. It was a song that I had heard before when I was also in a karaoke. Who was it? Right, it's when I was with Mura. I paid attention to the artist of the song and was then surprised that it was by Irina herself.

As the two sang, I realized that Muria was actually pretty good at singing, although not as good as Irina. However, it was still at a level that was way above average. Because of this, their duet drew the attention of the others in the room, allowing myself to relax in the comfort of the corner.

I realized that someone had sat down next to me on the leather couch, and looking over, I discovered that it was Luna. On her face was a pleasant smile as the light from the television shined on her face and silvery-white hair.

"You seem happy," I commented.

"Yeah," she responded. "I've always wanted to do something like this with actual friends."

"You've never came to a karaoke with friends?"

"No," she shook her head. "Didn't I tell you before when we played Two Truth, One Lie that I don't have many people that I would consider friends?"

"Yeah," I responded, recalling the night where I was broken the sad news of her fate.

"I only had one true friend before knowing you all," she said. "Her name's Erith."

"Does Erith know?"

Luna shook her head once again. "You're the only one."

"Why me?" I decided to ask the one question that had always bothered me.

"I don't know," she chuckled. "But... I just felt like I could tell you of all people."

"You probably hate me," I sighed.

"Why's that?" She looked at me with a perplexed expression on her face.

"Because why let me be the only one to suffer from this knowledge?"

"Haha," she laughed quietly. "I never thought of it that way before." Then, she brought her right hand to my left, just simply allowing her hand to rest atop of mine on the couch. "Trust me," she said as she looked dreamingly at the joyful scene that played out before her. "You're special and someone that I can never bring myself to hate."

"How am I special?"

"Hmm..." She started thinking. "Probably because you're the only one that can still treat me normally after knowing about my disease."

"Me?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "Other people like Erith... if she would've known about what will happen, she'll cry. Like a lot."

"What makes you think I wouldn't cry?"

"I've never thought that," she responded as she looked over at me. "But I guess even someone as strong like you would cry."

"Wrong," I responded. "I haven't cried in many years."

"Then that's good," she smiled. Then, she raised her right hand and showed me her pinky. "Promise me you won't cry after I die," she whispered.

I stared at her pinky and then up at that smile on her face, and at that moment, I felt an extremely bitter feeling arise from my heart. This... it felt as if I was indeed about to weep, but like before, no tears formed in my dry eyes that perceived the look of awareness that shined in her amber irises.

"I promise you," I chuckled in order to mask my wavering emotions and brought my pinky to her's.

"Now that you've pinky-sweared it," she said, smiling as our pinkies hooked onto the others. "You better not break that promise. If you do, I'll haunt you."

"Your soul and mine probably will attract," I joking said while feeling a great sense of despair inside. "That should help you find me."

"Right," she whispered as her facial expression softened and that smile seemed as if it was one of reminiscing.

"And you better not forget me," she whispered in the end. That voice of her's seemed to have a hint of loneliness mixed within it.