Traces of the Distant Future I

POV Silvia Indrath

It took me a few seconds to reorient myself, after being dragged so abruptly with Julian.

When I managed to get up and look around, I found myself in front of what looked like an orphanage.

Julian in the child's body seemed to have not woken up yet, so I focused on organizing my thoughts.

I tried to find the identity of what brought Julian to this world, but the feeling of dread and goosebumps that I had when thinking about that thing still persists in my mind.

Where did something like that come from? What brought Julian here was probably something comparable to Lord Aldir or even surpass him.

How did you end up involved with something like that Julian, I thought as I let out a sigh.

Besides, I remember you told me that when you arrived you appeared in the forests of Elshire, so why are we in an orphanage that looks like Sappin.

I looked more closely at the surroundings, to locate exactly where we were, but at that moment the time sped up again and I started to see everything as a third person.

It was very similar to watching a movie, this was a concept that I had learned from Julian's previous world that could explain this situation correctly.

That's why I watched carefully everything that happened, I saw him wake up, surprised and grumbling in his baby body.

Yet, against all odds he adapted quickly, at some point I saw him worried after he found out he was in this world.

He turned pale and his expression was terrified, it was something different from what I had seen so far, especially he never mentioned anything about this, his first encounter with the people of this world should have been with his grandmother Rinia.

But it was not like that, there was something very strange in all this situation, I did not understand why I was still here or if I should wait until he woke me up.

I observed each of the things that Julian did, to find answers to the many questions I had, but I found nothing, on the contrary, only more questions were formed.

He ended up awakening his mana core a year later than I knew and not only that he never met Rinia or even approached the forests of Elshire.

What exactly am I seeing? It does not match at all with what I know about Julian and even less with the events I know.

I clenched my fists, as I continued to watch Julian's story and noticed how many things that Julian never mentioned happened.

First, after his awakening as a mage, there were many people interested in adopting him, especially some nobles had very clear thoughts about raising him as their loyal servant or weapon.

However, Julian did not accept any of the proposals, that offended many people and endangered the orphanage where he came from.

Another thing I noticed about the Julian I was seeing, was his detachment from people; although he appreciated the caregivers and the children he grew up with.

He always sought his safety as a priority, he never saw himself willing to sacrifice too much for others, he was like a scared mouse in the cage with a cat.

He was very cautious with everything he did and always alert, his behavior was very different from the determined one I saw during the time we were together.

It was like watching a completely different person, I kept watching as the movie continued in front of my eyes, but I still could not understand anything.

Julian ignored all the adoption proposals that were presented to him and instead refined his core and tried to learn swordsmanship on his own; however, his skills were completely amateur.

Because of that, his progress in sword combat was poor in terms of mana use, although he was good, he was not comparable to the boy I trained.

I found more and more differences between this Julian and the one I know, maybe I can't see everything with my skills.

But I trust my abilities to determine the character of people and there was definitely no point of comparison between these two versions of him.

Surprised, I continued to watch the life of this completely unknown Julian and saw how he met a swordsman.

She had been watching him for several weeks, according to my memories, she even offered to teach him the art of the sword in exchange for the boy attending her academy in the future.

But Julian refused, he said he wanted to learn the art of the sword from her, but that his goal was to enter the Xyrus academy.

Because of this, he offered her another kind of deal, in exchange for teaching him her art of the sword, he promised her to fulfill any of her requests in the future.

The swordsman named Astera, was indecisive and somewhat hurt by being rejected so abruptly; because of that she declined his proposal.

So Julian grew up until he was six years old and during that time things calmed down, but it was not because they had stopped watching him, but because someone had exerted pressure to declare him as his own.

It was the royal family of Sappin who had been watching him for two years, trying to find a way to recruit a rough diamond like him.

Because Julian had reached a bottleneck in his learning, of what he could do alone he decided to accept the sponsorship of the royal family.

His teacher was a person named Varay, a young mage very close to reaching the high silver stage and who was completely loyal to the royal family.

They shared for five whole years various teachings, in which Varay became a white core mage, Julian became very close to her and entrusted her with his secret as a quadra elemental mage.

To everyone's eyes he was only a mage in clear yellow stage with affinities of ice and wind, but she secretly helped him to progress with his other elements.

Not only that, she also instilled values such as loyalty and leadership, although she was terrible at it, she always tried to help Julian grow, because of that his personality took a positive turn.

The royal family of Sappin was delighted, they saw in Julian a promising servant or soldier in the future, but they kept everything secret even from the newly formed council.

After turning eleven Cynthia asked for a meeting with him to meet him, she wanted to take him to her academy and both the royal family that sponsored him and Julian agreed.

During that time he also had a friendly relationship with the two children of the kings of Sappin, especially his relationship with the girl named Kathyln was very close.

But Julian never considered anything beyond pure friendship, he was totally focused on acquiring more power, which did not seem to be the case of the princess.

After entering the Academy he met Arthur, their interactions were awkward and in his first practical combat he lost miserably with Arthur.

It was not a matter of power, but experience, although the now Lance Varay had taught him, the difference in practical skills was too great.

Even so Julian asked Arthur to help him improve, at the same time he created plans to reduce the losses of the attack on Xyrus.

But due to his scarce knowledge in the area of artificers, his measures were at best regular and sometimes desperate.

When the attack on Xyrus happened Julian was already a mage of initial silver rank, he took care of the successful escape of the disciplinary council by surprising the boy named Kai, he had not noticed before, but the boy was an Alacryan spy

He also faced Lucas Wykes before being able to intercept the elf princess, the battle was tight at first because Julian was saving as much mana as possible.

Unfortunately, he did not know the mana rotation technique and his impulsive acts wore him out, after recovering the elf princess and leaving her in a relatively safe place, he began to help with the evacuation and rescue tasks.

The training with Varay and Arthur proved to be very useful, until the appearance of the Alacryan who orchestrated the whole attack.

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POV Julian Kingscrown???

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, shit, this is exhausting" I spat at nothing as I took gulps of air.

"Julian", I heard Kathyln's worried scream.

"How is everyone?", I asked as I saw the horrible landscape around me.

People being attacked and killed on the spot, mana beasts running wildly looking for prey to devour, mages in black robes running rampant while casting spells.

Shit, if I had known it was going to be like this, I could have looked for another way to approach this, I thought as I clenched my fists and teeth, the taste of iron in my mouth became stronger.

"They are fine and still helping the wounded, but you, the wounds you have have only accumulated, you have to go to the safe place to be treated", Kathyln said in a distressed, almost pleading tone as she cried and brought her hands to her mouth.

That information, I already knew, I knew better than anyone the state of my body, a dozen cuts and claw wounds rose on my back, legs, arms, abdomen and face.

Still I could not stop, I felt guilty, I could have avoided this if I had spoken, if I had set aside my worries, maybe this could have been different.

Although I tried to have Arthur and my teacher Varay here before the attack, it was not possible, I felt as if some kind of higher force forced the events to happen without them here, I could only clench my teeth and blame myself for the situation that was happening in front of my children for my naivety and clumsiness.

"Don't worry, I'll be there soon" I told Kathyln as I ran back to kill more beasts.

Along the way I tried to find Draneeve, but he had not shown up, I only saw beasts and traitor mages so I cut, dodged, clenched my teeth in pain, wiped the sweat and blood that ran down my face until I satisfied my regret.

Then I decided to go back to the safe place they had formed and recover for the moment that was approaching, the least I could do for the people who had died was to kill the culprit.

When I arrived I saw Theodore and Kathyln approach me, the princess began to check my body and offer some basic treatments, since there were not many emitters and there were people in a much more serious state than me.

"There are too many beasts, but thanks to you they were reduced, to a large extent, good job", Clare said to me as she approached with visible fatigue on her face and some wounds on her body.

"Did you find the culprit?", I asked.

"No, we still don't know who caused all this", Clare said shaking her head.

"How is the situation on the teachers' side?", I asked again.

"They organized themselves to continue saving students, they were grateful to you for running through the whole academy reducing the number of beasts and saving the students". Clare replied

"I see", I said in a dry tone

"How is he?", Theodore asked Kathyln who was giving me a rudimentary treatment.

"He has lost a lot of blood, how can you still stand as if nothing was happening to you?", she asked me with a distressed voice.

I did not answer, after all due to the adrenaline, many of my sensations were not what I thought and I also felt that this was a form of punishment for the lives I could not save.

Although I had promised three years ago to change my way of thinking and doing things, I still do the same way.

I'm sorry, teacher, your disciple is still an idiot and doesn't listen to your advice, I thought as I felt my eyes moisten.

Just then I heard a voice, it was someone with an extremely arrogant and annoying tone, and he gave the impression of superiority to everyone who heard him.

I clenched my fist and got up in the middle of Kathyln's treatment, she, scared, asked me, "Julián, what are you going to...?", I didn't answer her and, on the contrary, I unsheathed my sword and started walking in the direction of where that annoying voice was coming from.

At the same time I glanced at where Tessia was, I had given her a cloak to cover herself and not have anyone come after her, I was glad it had worked and she was fine.

The princess apparently noticed my gaze and looked at me with concern, I deliberately ignored her eyes and kept walking.

When I got to the barrier, I confirmed that I couldn't break it, so I deliberately spoke to attract the attention of the dog that was barking inside it.

I tapped several times with my index finger on the magic wall that separated us and said, "Hey, idiot, stop barking, hurry up and open this barrier, I need to kill you before someone takes away the pleasure of doing it", I spoke in a cold tone and loaded with murderous intentions.

I was tired, furious, I felt guilty for this situation, but above all I had a cold and piercing desire to kill the person in front of me urgently.

The people around me looked at me in surprise and then Draneeve spoke with a tone of sufficiency, "I see you were the fool who eliminated the inept Kai and Lucas, what makes you think you can talk like that in front of me".

"Haaaah, I can't understand how the high sovereign sends retards like you to do such important tasks", I replied in a tired tone.

Draneeve opened his eyes wide after hearing that, he approached the barrier and said, "how do you know that".

(You're going to have to beat the information out of me, you idiot), I answered with wind magic.

He opened a gap in the barrier and tried to grab my shirt and take me inside, but I didn't let him, instead, I sent an ice spike from the ground.

That forced him to dodge by jumping back, meanwhile I entered slowly through the gap in the barrier, ignoring the screams behind me.

I felt a wave of deep hatred when I saw the person in front of me.

At first I thought of buying some time by preventing this bastard from escaping and we could extract more information from him, that's why I saved my mana.

But I changed my mind, this bitch has to die here and now, I activated the most powerful magic I learned from Master Varay and walked towards Draneeve.

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Guys, I've been like a fucking madman structuring the cap for five days, I knew how I wanted to do it but fuck, how hard it was to put it into words.