Chapter 2

Standing now only five feet from this woman, it was only right for me to halt my advancement because up until now, this woman in front of me had yet to actually respond to my calls.Something was clearly wrong, but this was a risk I had to take until I finally passed out and time was ticking away.

As this woman lifted her hand, I could finally see that the woman was extremely old as her skin was full of wrinkles. Maybe this was an expert from one of the local families who ruled this area seemingly not very far from the academy?

I was now extremely confused but chose to watch as the woman finally stood up from the rock and strode towards me, as if she wanted to limp, but was forcing herself forward. After closing the distance between her and I, the woman finally brushed back the hair which was covering her face as she waited for my response.

"W-W-What are you?!" I yelled out before trying to step backwards away from this woman. I couldn't help but to feel disgust from the horrible disfiguration on the woman's face. She was missing an eye while she was clearly blind in the other.

Her mouth was completely sewed together and her nose was completely missing as scars and wrinkles covered the remainder of her face and cheeks. It seemed that my gamble on this so-called woman kept me on the losing end but I was almost too tired to take another step even backwards.

Hearing my yelling since that was all I could think of doing now, the woman began to twitch her body as if she was adjusting all of her bones to charge towards me. Hunching forward on the ground with her body like a crab, the woman's head began to turn until it was a full one hundred and eighty degrees before she started to dash towards me.

Seeing this, I did not hesitate to turn away and to try to run as I heard the woman trying to scream something towards me. Since the woman's lips were sewn together, these words just sounded like groans. However, due to sheer exhaustion, all I could do was fall down facing away from this creature who was shaped like an old woman.

I felt a sharp pain in my chest from the impact of hitting the ground with my body without even being able to hold my hands out in front of me to cushion the fall. I looked towards the direction using the last of my strength where the creature was, and realized that the woman was nowhere in eye view.

"Do not be afraid, my child." A sinister demonic voice as low as a whisper told me. I turned my head around, but was unable to make out anyone near me and so I began to sweat. I still was unable to understand the situation that I was in.

"You can't see me now, but one day, we will meet again. By then, you will know my name and the purpose of what is happening right now." Hearing this cold and indifferent voice continuing to interact with me, I could only continue laying on the ground helpless.

"Who are you, and why will you not show yourself?" I shouted towards the sky with almost all of the remaining strength I had, barely hanging onto consciousness. I was still unable to make out the academy in the distance, so there was no telling if anyone could save me, and the voice was not comforting by any stretch.

However, when I realized that whoever said these things to me was no longer present, I could feel my skin crawling with fear. Now, entirely broken inside as if I mentally snapped and lost all other emotions other than fear, I began screaming out until I finally blacked out.

---

"Cole! Hey, Cole wake up you are having a bad dream!" In the Holy Knight Academy, two students would share rooms during their time studying in the academy up until either they graduated or failed out.

Right now, Cole was laying down in his bed screaming at the top of his lungs as his roommate and new best friend Leo tried to wake him up. It was now morning, but Leo was still only half awake since he had been woken up by Cole and not by the morning sunlight.

Without hesitating since Cole had yet to wake up and feeling fearful that he would wake up some of their classmates, Leo had no choice but to use his wooden practice sword to knock Cole off of his bed which caused him to wake up immediately after hitting the floor face first.

"Am I in the infirmary?" he asked Leo who stood over him with a slightly concerned facial expression. However, Cole answered his own question after looking around the room and realizing that it really was just a nightmare he had which made sense since he had no memory of how he was transported to the forest in the first place.

"I can let this go since it is our first day after being accepted into the academy, but seriously man, you need to chill out before you cause us both some trouble. Remember what the Vice Dean told us during orientation, you and I being roommates means that we have to stick together and I plan on following that."

"So stand up and get dressed into your uniform so that we can head out to the cafeteria. The last thing I need after being woken up by you, is to miss my first meal of the day. I do not know where you came from, but I grew up only being able to eat mystery stew from my village and from what I have heard, the academy's dining arrangements give you a much better selection."