One Month

"Argh! That hurts! My pretty legs! I wish I had insurance on them!" Endorsi yelled, holding her legs close to her abdomen with her face twisted in pain.

Beside her, Anaak also laid on the ground, writhing in pain and holding her legs through her skirt.

"Insurance on those legs!? You might as well set your money on fire!" She managed to squeeze out through the pain.

"What? I can't even see yours!" Endorsi shot back.

"Hey! I'm still young! Unlike you!"

"Young?! Don't kid yourself! I know you're older then me!"

"So what? It's not like your a kid still! Your as old as a grandma! Grandma!"

"How can you say that! I'm still single!"

With that, they quieted down for a moment, holding their legs in pain.

"Hey." Endorsi called out.

"What?"

"Anaak Jahad... she died a long time ago..." Endorsi continued. "She was killed by the royal enforcement division for... stepping out of the kings display cabinet." She said melancholically.

Anaak clicked her tongue.

"What are you talking about?" She barely managed to say.

Endorsi sighed.

"She... she fell in love with a man right? And then ran away... you're not Anaak Jahad, no... you're her daughter." Endorsi turned towards her now facing her back. "My only niece in the entire Tower..." She said.

Anaak stayed quiet.

Endorsi didn't say anything, choosing to stay in silence.

After some time, Anaak spoke.

"My mother..." She said, making Endorsi's ears perk up. "She liked eating chicken pies. There was this cook in her hometown, the only cook in the region that would make the tastiest chicken pies ever."

Anaak sighed, reminiscing about forgotten memories that were resurfacing.

"She... she loved eating all of his food. The man would make her everything she ever wanted to eat, always trying his best to fulfill her wishes." Anaak's fist tightened around an ethereal hand, possibly a figment of her imagination.

"You're the greatest piece of jewelery I own, my dear princess..."

Something seemed to be stuck in her throat, for she could barely formulate any more words, much less get them out.

"That cook... was murdered by the sisters of my mother..." She said.

With that, they again descended into silence.

Endorsi quietly looked at her back in quiet contemplation.

"Hey." She called out again.

"..." Anaak stayed quiet.

"Hey." She called out again.

"...what?"

"Did she... ever regret it?"

Anaak turned over, looking at the sky quietly.

In her eyes, pictures overlapped, vistas of the past that she wished had never transpired, events she wished had never come to pass and memories she wished she could forget or on some way delude herself into falsification.

She saw a burning house and her mother standing before it. Then, she passed her a small green pendant; the last gift she would ever give her mother.

"....maybe..." She said finally.

"... what type of answer is that?" Endorsi said, her tone devoid of the otherwise flamboyant and mischievous persona. Now, it sounded more like a child's whisper.

"I want a clearer answer..."

They descended into silence for some time again.

"That insufferable man hits like a tank..." Endorsi muttered in pain as she massaged her face and abdomen.

As her words landed, Anaak also felt a slight sting in the places that had been hit by Winston, possibly even more so than her legs.

~~~

The news about the injuries the two princesses suffered spread quickly, and so did the word of Winston's absurd strength at being able to solo two princesses of Jahad.

Needless to say, Winston ignored all the attention he got. Amon came to him, looking to confirm if the rumors about him beating the two princesses were indeed true, of which he saw no reason to lie.

Winston felt that doing so might put him under suspicion as his origins were less than comfortable; but as he had come to find out during the time he had been in Evankhell's mothership, the tower was an expansive place, to such an extent that there were some regions that did not even know that they lived in a tower.

For Winston, such news was pretty baffling to say the least.

The test ground they were on was only a tiny part of the entire floor, which itself was further also a tiny part of the entire structure, considering how the floor of tests only included the inner tower and not the middle and the outer expanses.

It all came together to make a structure that was incomparable in size to anything Winston could imagine the tower would be. Completely transcending his expectations.

Another thing that he had to mention was the fact that Khun, the mastermind devised a plan for the Scouts to pass their first assignment and for the two princesses to pass along.

How?

They bribed them with eel soup and told them to sign their papers.

It was hardly honorable but it was simple practical.

Khun's intellect is always commendable. Winston smiled, thinking over Amon who had his last friend in the list because of him.

As he was thinking about the different regulars, his mind drifted over to Zarhan, the ever energetic spear bearer.

After the 3rd day of spear bearer training, Zarhan was not seen by anyone. Same for Rao Wraithraiser the crocodile. For a moment, Winston even considered some sort of rivalry between the two that led to them piercing each other with their spears somewhere deep within the mountains.

However, it was extremely unlikely. Possible, but not likely to happen.

Shaking his head, Winston decided to stop thinking about it.

Instead, he opted to think about the current task at hand. At the moment, he sat inside of his room, sitting cross legged on the bed and his hands pressed on his knees.

The room was quiet, shielded by his spirituality wall that isolated it from the outside. Winston gazed at the two orbs of bright light that floated around him at moderate speeds.

There were two baangs of shinsu!

The amount of baangs one can make decides who gets the upper hand in battles. Because of my improved talent in all things spiritual related thanks to fool and door pathways, I can make two baangs plenty easily.

Winston closed his eyes and focused his spirituality through cogitation. Then, the surrounding shinsu began to bend to his will, transforming, bubbling and writhing into various shapes and forms; eventually twisting into a uniform shape of a sphere.

As Winston kept concentrating, another ball of light slowly appeared around him and began to float around with the other balls of lights.

Three baang! And by a person cuttenly on the test floor no less!

Winston laughed wryly. If news of this were to get out, surely he would be suspected of being an irregular.

Normal people can manipulate shinsu in their bodies through flow control in about 2 weeks. As for making a baang, that can only be done after extensive practice and study and even then it takes about 3 years... Irregulars are really unfair to the tower. Truly capable of breaking the rules of the tower. Winston nodded in contemplation amid his cogitation. Inside, he also felt that his ability to make 3 baangs was a result of his improved talent, if not, he might as well struggle with 2.

Winston opened his eyes, slowly getting himself out of his cogitative state.

However, as he did so, slowly, one of the baangs began to ebb out.

Winston immediately began to focus on it, which led to one of the others losing it's uniformity and degrade into the air.

Winston shook his head.

Sure enough, using three baangs in combat would be hard. Practice is needed for further baangs... Winston turned towards the table beside the bed, where a stack of papers were kept.

It was his research about shinsu!

As of now, Winston knew that all of the information, measuring systems and terminology of shinsu was worked out by a single person, Po Bidau Gustang, the head of the Po Bidau family and one of the 11 irregulars that entered the tower! Besides that, there was also Ashul Edwardu, the creator of the 13 month series who wrote 'Of the Tower's Weapons' which compiled his studies on shinsu and how it compares to the outside 'air' and how it behaves completely different in different situations.

However, Winston opted to do his own research. He knew very well that there were things that were not taught to the general populace for security reasons and a lot of information that the higher ups held were mainly confidential information.

Although on Earth, information could largely be shared without too much problem, there were still pieces of information that could cause more harm than good if it were leaked to the outside.

And considering how potent of an energy source, nay, not just an energy source; the 'thing' that shinsu was, there was bound to be some facts that were not generally taught, most likely reserved for the people in power or the so called 'ten great families'.

Of course, there was always a chance that Winston was wrong, slim but there still was.

But even so, Winston was a discoverer at heart. Experimentation had become part of his nature at this point. And faced with something as limitless as Shinsu, he could hardly contain himself from studying it extensively.

He cast aside the two baangs he had created and walked over to the research papers.

Tales from the Lake, the upper cover read.

He had chosen such a title purely for aesthetic purposes. Simply naming his research paper 'Shinsu Studies' or 'On the Divine Water', although seemed somewhat logical didn't sit right in Winston's own mind.

As such, he named the research paper, "Tales from the Lake", to depict the water like nature of the Shinsu.

Although such a title is inherently flawed, since shinsu didn't behave solely like water in the first place. In fact, it would have been better to refer to the papers as 'Tales of Everything'... actually, when I think about it that doesn't sound as cool. Oh well, its not like I'm going to publish it or anything. Winston shrugged his shoulders and decided to not worry about the name anymore.

Opening the research papers, he decided to revise all the points he had researched up until now. He had his pocket appear beside him and began to search on the Box for more information on the subject.

That day, Winston spent the entire night researching again.

The next day, Zarhan and Rak returned from... somewhere. Both of then appeared exceptionally happy, even banding together to troll the other regulars and eat several chocolate bars and bananas.

Just like that, almost the entirety of the regular group of the test floor became friends.

And slowly but surely, an entire month had passed in the blink of an eye.

~~~

A/N: Leave a Review?

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