Sarah

It was Friday today, and the sun lingered high above Draco's head, shining its healthful rays upon the Northern city. A few birds flew across the buildings, flapping their wings simultaneously.

Draco paid for the ticket to the Eastern city, gave it to the person standing beside the train, and then hopped inside. He promptly found his seat as a sigh of relief escaped from his mouth when he plopped against the soft mattress.

This entire week was extremely tiring for Draco, thus he was relieved to be finally free from that crazy woman. Of course, Draco still couldn't rest as he intended to finally get that thing, the one which he craved the most since coming back to the past. A five-star manual.

'I already have the key. There should be no problems.' Draco thought, closing his eyes. It would take him about six hours to reach Eastern city, so he couldn't do anything other than rest. Draco could have chosen to go with a portal connecting all the major cities, but it was pretty expensive. To be frank, he was short on money. He had to do something about that as well.

Draco heard a person take a seat opposite his seat, and he involuntarily opened his eyes. Immediately, his heart beat more rapidly and his eyes shook for a moment, hundreds of thoughts passing through his head.

A red-haired woman sat opposite him, staring back at him with furrowed eyebrows. As the blossom scent flooded his nose, Draco calmed down a bit. What was Sarah doing here?

"It's a pleasant surprise." Draco was the first one to break the awkward silence as he glanced at the paper in Sarah's hand. What was the possibility of her being on the same train and having the seat right next to him? A coincidence or not?

Seeing that Sarah had the same suspicions, Draco shrugged his shoulders. "Don't worry, I am not stalking you or anything."

Hearing the response, Sarah nodded, crossing her legs as she visibly relaxed. "Alright... but what are you doing on the train? I thought no one enjoyed traveling on this old machine."

"It's not like I have any luxury of choosing. It's cheaper this way." Draco answered. "What about you? You are definitely not short on money."

"Oh...mhm, I just dislike traveling through portals. It makes me all dizzy," Sarah said, glancing through the window as the train set off. "Besides, I like the feeling of peace when traveling by train."

"I see." Draco nodded, partly agreeing with Sarah. He then once again closed his eyes once again, deciding to stop their conversation. In the future, he would have to do an atrocious thing to Sarah, hence, he didn't want to get too close to her. Unnesecarry emotions were only a hindrance.

There were a few minutes of silence between them as Draco pretended like Sarah, one of the strongest heroes of the future, wasn't sitting across from him. He was about to fall asleep when he suddenly heard a quiet laugh reaching his ears.

'Sarah is laughing?' Draco opened his eyes, only to see Sarah smiling subtly. Now that he thought about it, Draco had never seen her smile, as she always kept her stoic, professional face during the classes.

"You are truly strange," Sarah mumbled, scrubbing the corner of her eye with her hand. "Usually, when I am alone with a man, they would try to court me or at least keep the conversation going, but you just seem to be not interested."

"Well...it's because I am not." Draco blatantly stated the truth, though he hoped he wouldn't offend Sarah by saying so. He still wasn't too sure what kind of person she was. Perhaps this all was just a facade. Maybe this trip on the train wasn't a coincidence in the first place.

"You know, everyone calls you the class freak. You are always sleeping during classes, yet when the teacher asks you a question, you always answer as if it was a mundane thing to you." Sarah regained her composure after a few more laughs. "That's excluding your battle prowess. I was really surprised when you managed to resist Miss Angelica's killing intent, and then even got into the top five. And that's with no support."

"Thank you, I guess?" Draco answered, not really expecting Sarah to be so talkative. "Sorry, but I feel a bit tired right now, so I will take a nap."

Sarah nodded, looking out of the window by the side. As sunlight shone on her face, Draco took one last glance at her before closing his eyes. Truth to be told, Draco was quite impressed. She was polite and not as cold as her face portrayed her to be.

Thankfully, she didn't even ask Draco why was he heading to the Eastern city, thus he returned the favor by doing the same. Slowly, Draco fell asleep, still feeling the smell of flowers lingering in the air.

Draco woke up because of the intense pain in his hand as he opened his eyes. Sarah was still sitting opposite of him, pinching him on the hand to wake him up. It was already dark, and the people around were already gathering their stuff to leave.

"Thank you for waking me up, but you need to learn how to control your strength," Draco commented, massaging the place where he was pinched.

"It's just that you weren't waking up when I pinched you lightly." Sarah retorted, and Draco just sighed, giving up on arguing any further.

They soon left the train as Draco immediately bid farewell to Sarah, not wanting to waste any more time. She also seemed to be in a rush as they parted ways, with Draco going the opposite way.

He walked out of the station and out of the city altogether, passing through the forest, jumping over the river, until eventually reaching a grass field. A smile spread out across his face as Draco glanced into the sky, or rather, at the tip of an enormous mountain.

[Thunder's Wrath]

The strongest martial technique which was known to humanity in his past life, and the treasure Draco desired the most.

It was just a matter of time before it was in the palm of his hand.