People are weak

Wandering down a familiar hallway, the boy felt a sense of relief, understanding he was back on track towards his room. Being left by the violent, mysterious man with a confusing purpose had left the boy lost in the kingdom's second-largest building. It was disorienting, to say the least.

With the assistance of some handmaids, he had cowardly reached out to, he had found his way back. His stomach growled ravenously and served as his sole motivation and remedy for the fear that still intoxicated him.

He'd spent most of his journey back distracting himself with what it would be like to eat his first meal. He was especially eager, thanks to Machia's explanation of food. Despite never eating nor watching the process, he had a decent understanding because it was innate.

Machia had explained that blessed had, innate learning. These were things that could be understood instantly just by listening about them. But the blessed also had access to what Machia had named cultural learning, this allowed them too learn less simplistic things with greater ease but took more time.

Reaching the doorway he reached out to the protruding door knob reminding him of the sanctuary, that's what Machia had called the strange building he awoke from.

The door opened easily with just a click, and the light of morning filled his room exactly as he had left it.

Or at least he had thought so, what the light shone on was not his vapidly empty room and floor, instead, a small figure sat on the floor's centre with its back to Perses. It had all too familiar horns protruding from it's head.

Compelled by curiosity, he approached the strange creature, it noisily slurped and crunched on something not yet visible to Perses. Despite his previous traumatic encounter, the entity in front of him exuded a strange, weak and pathetic aura that encouraged him. Eventually, noticing the sound of his footsteps, it slowly turned around with a nonchalant expression. The light decorated its figure as its flamboyant yet dense ruby pupils stared into Perse's eyes. This encouraged a sense of awe in him despite the crumbs that clumsily littered her face.

Perses now recognised whoever it was as she. He continued to maintain her enchanting gaze as if trapped. That was at least until her jaw dropped in fear, revealing a dreadfully dumbfounded and guilty expression.

"Aghhh"

An ugly growl that doubled as a cry blasted Perses.

With terror in her eyes, she clumsily jumped on all fours and launched herself backwards away from him. Flying back across the ground, she smashed her head against the hard wooden leg of his bed, causing it to snap. Now sprawled out on the floor her eyes rolled into her sockets as she convulsed.

Perses stood in shock. His enhanced learning that Machia spoke of failed him as he froze in a panic, unsure of what was happening.

A few handmaids looked inside, disturbed by the racket. After only a brief look and gasp, they slowly retreated from the room before hastily escaping down the hallway.

Dazed Perses looked at the girl who was passed out under the bed. With a slow and methodical "creak", the bed finally gave out and fell on the girl, squashing her.

Frozen with shock, he looked at the girl crushed by the bed only to get one last glance at a pair of horns before she disappeared entirely. With nothing to hold it up, the bed fell flat on the ground with nothing to hold it causing one last "Thud".

Death was part of a long list of concepts and basic life knowledge that Machia had never mentioned to Perses as it simply wasn't necessary. Usually, it took only the shortest mentions of concepts for his brain to grasp most things. Knowing this, Machia's quick and efficient teaching session had focused on 'culture', allowing him to somewhat catch up and surpass even other children of his age, not that he had met any nor had he learnt his age either.

However, despite this extraordinary power his shallow experience still caused him problems. The disappearance of the girl as if swallowed by the bed matched none of this lent common sense nor anything innate and caused him a serious misunderstanding.

"The hell, is it dead"

Violent tremors of anxiety coursed through Perses like any other child.

Left alone with his fear, Perses backed up and scampered to a corner, breathing heavily. His breaths failed to quell the panic rising inside him; being introduced to not only death but concepts like dungeons, executions and, lastly, murder sent him into a spiral of fear at what could happen to him. He had almost no experience with death, and the unknown ate at him from the inside.

"What happened here?"

A recognisable voice rang out from the doorway, it was Machia, the one Perses wanted to hear most but also least.

"What happened to the bed?"

Here, a strange twist of fate occurred.

For whatever reason, Perses lied.

"Nothing happened"

"Machia's air-tight confidence was for the first time dispelled by the oblivious mistruth presented to him; as he stared at Perses, taken aback with incredulous shock, he had a similar expression to that of the horned girl.

"Huh, no, no, I rushed over here after seeing a pair of petrified handmaids come from this direction, and you're telling me you don't know?... your ability. You activated it, right?."

Perses reflected back to the conversation from the woods and the shadow-like animals that came from the ground.

"No, I just broke the bed by accident, I don't have any abilities."

Machia's confidence returned, instead of his typical smile a severe yet calm expression adorned his face as he inspected Perses.

"Don't lie to me, be honest. We'd be, glad, if you awaken them sooner rather than later. But lying is going to put you somewhere you really don't wanna be, trust me."

"What's lying?" Tilting his head, Perses genuinely questioned Machia, cluelessly misdirecting the conversation

Possibly a little irate at his question being answered by another, Machia paused and smiled.

"Well... I suppose you must be telling the truth; after all, I never told you what lying is; even I had to learn from the best, so I suppose it isn't an innate thing after all. So, the bed, you just broke it right? What were you doing jumping on it? Oh well, it doesn't matter. Just know that lying is something you should never do, especially to me. After all, we're friends, right?

"Yes"

"Promise?"

Remembering what Machia had told him about promises made him nod contently.

The atmosphere softened as if moved by the promise, "Good then, if we are only going to tell the truth from now on, then this your chance to tell me anything you should have already, ok?"

Refusing to let it go Machia looked at him with a focused kindness as he waited, only during this prolonged eye contact did Perses finally notice something.

Despite the charisma and kindness that overflowed from Machia upon closer inspection, his eyes were seemingly dragged down by shadows and his lips were completely dry. Compared to yesterday, he looked like he had aged many years, losing something he'd had just yesterday.

Hoping to protect himself from any possible negative feelings Perses deceived both Machia and himself, it seemed lying was something innate in humans after all.

"There isn't anything, I promise".

Machia smiled warmly and nodded, "Alright then lets go, you want to see some more of the kingdom, right?."

Without even waiting for a reply, Perses nodded and cheerfully followed Machia out of the room. Those of the cathedral urgently moved and bowed to the pair as they passed; Perses comfortably followed Machia from in his shadow, the strange girl and his shock already entirely forgotten.

###################

A courtyard was the first place Machia led him to, it was filled with mostly knights that kicked up massive quantities of dust as they rushed and swung at each other with swords and various other weapons. The ground was littered with them and drops of blood that piqued Perse's curiosity.

Unlike every other area of the inner capital, the two were spared not even a glance as Machia guided him through the courtyard. That changed, however, when near the back, in a secluded area, a man stared at him, noticing his presence and immediately watching the two as they approached.

The man was surrounded by groups of children who were completely ignorant of their presence. Holding wooden swords, they sporadically swung at each other, yet the man paid them no mind and continued to watch Perses.

Disturbed by this, Perses tried shifting closer behind Machia, and yet the man persisted, refusing to let go.

After closing the distance, Perses noticed the man had an uncountable amount of scars that littered his face, the most prominent of which cut down and past his closed eye, which he presumed was missing.

Finally breaking his gaze from the boy, the man looked upwards at the now-close Machia with what looked like a hint of rage. Despite the loud raging of combat behind the two, the silence spoke volumes.

Smirking, Machia said, "Sorry, Perses, but I'm feeling a little under the weather, I promise we'll see each other later, but for now, I want you to try to practice a little bit of sword work, alright? I promise it's real fun. I'm sure Lugh here is jumping to help you out."

Despite a strong sense of disappointment, Perses nodded his head reluctantly, keen to impress Machia. Machia walked back towards the entrance, sending one last glance towards Perses before he vanished. Switching his view back towards the experienced swordsmen, he was surprised to see the man looking at the floor with an overwhelmed expression and sweat dripping down his forehead. He looked weak.

Ignoring Perses for what felt like an eternity he steadily raised his head a little strength returning to his face.

"Alright gather around you lot. This here is Perses. He's new here, but no sparring with him is permitted without my say-so."

Slowly, the crowd of children that Perses had been too distracted to pay attention to had crowded all around him, intrigued by him. Perses, whilst a little startled by the attention, couldn't help but smile shyly, seeing a group of children he could only assume was a similar age to himself.

"Mars why don't you spar with him."

A quiet but tall boy stepped forward from the group, as the children's voices quelled in confusion.

"But didn't you just say he was new, why me?".

"Ha forget new he's probably never held a sword, just do as I say."

Mars sent the man an awkward stare before reluctantly walking towards Perses, offering him his own wooden sword with a weak smile, "'I'll go easy on you".

He returned to the group of children receiving his own and, with a worried look, approached Perses.

Perses, confused, stood aimlessly; Mars then approached with a guilty expression and slowly swung his sword as if he were fighting a toddler. Perses stood there, not reacting at all; Mars, realising he would end up striking him, slowed down his swing even further.

The crowd now watched in complete silence as Mars slowly tapped Perses' shoulder with the sword. The silence ensued as Mars awkwardly looked back at his teacher, unsure of what to do.

The man was also confused, maybe even a little humiliated by this, and yelled at Perses.

"Oi, why aren't you moving, what's wrong with you. Just swing it around or something".

Perses was stared at by the daunting audience. Quietly, he responded.

"Why are we supposed to hurt each other?, I don't really get it."

The audience was silenced further as the children began to quietly whisper to each other with giggles whilst others looked agitated, Mars was shocked into silence.

However, the one shocked the most by this was Lugh; he went from bewildered to bursting with hefty laughter.

"HAHAA, now that, that I did not expect. You're really not much like the other two, are you? Not at all. How fortunate!."

A cocky grin curled on his face. Beaming, he shoved past Mars, yanking the wooden sword off him in a rough yet skilled motion. With bitter resentment, he stabbed at Perses, instantly jabbing his shoulder. As Perses fell backwards to the ground, Lugh swiftly thrust downwards into his stomach. The collision pinned Perses to the ground, and he gasped with shock as his back slammed against the training grounds. This attack was incredibly painful compared to the former and left him choking with tears and clutching his stomach as he rolled away.

"There you go, mystery solved. Get it now?"

His teacher watched him begin to crawl with devilish glee as if his greatest wish had finally been granted. He watched the boy's desperate figure a little longer before shaking his head and instructing Mars to train with him as he led the other students away from Perses.

Now isolated from the group Perses was left breathing intently in an open space in the training ground alone. Winded and ignored by all.

'Again, why? What did I do? is it because I'm blessed.'

"Are you ok? That looked really painful. Sorry, I really had no idea he would do that. None of us would have. Honestly, he's usually so calm I wonder what happened."

Perses sat up listening to the boy's testimony yet remained winded and still reeling from the cruelty.

'Is it because they're human and I'm not?'

"I'm Mars by the way"

Ignorant to Perses's troubled thoughts, Mars reached out a hand towards him as the light shone off him. Unlike the time in the sanctuary with the guard, he accepted the boy's hand indifferently and was pulled to his feet. Despite attacks from two different people for seemingly no reason already he had also learnt how to trust others because of people like Machia.

"Alright. You came here to learn the sword; that's what that guy said, right? Then I'll show you how it should be done; just copy me".

Without exchanging more words than necessary Mars began to repeatedly strike the air with a wooden sword and a concentrated gaze.

Perses watched him with great confusion, unsure of how such a mundane motion could possibly teach him anything. However, fully recuperated, he copied Mars, curious to understand what he was doing.

After around 30 swings, his weaker body felt heavy and was struggling to keep up. Feeling fatigued and marginally bored, he looked over at Mars, who was completely entranced by his sword, his skill noticeable. On closer inspection, he noticed the boy was only slightly taller than him, his shoulders and face slightly more defined, and a quick glance towards the crowd of children gathered around the cursed teacher gave him for the first time a good idea of what age he was.

"Probably around 14."

Mars halted immediately and tilted his head curiously, "14, 14 what?"

"14 um, I think I might be about 14."

Mars looked at him with a puzzled grin. "Haha, what do you mean you think you're about 14?"

Mars chuckled gently but noticing Perses' serious but equally confused gaze stopped him.

"Wait, so you really don't know your age, yeah... sure, you're about 14. Do you not know when your birthday is?."

Perses looked up at him with a black expression as the gears turned slowly in his head. Machia hadn't taught him this and it wasn't a natural human thing, in short, he had no idea what it was.

Resisting the urge to laugh at Perses' empty expression, he pondered for a moment.

"So you don't remember when your birthday is either, strange just ask your parents later when you get home."

"Parents... well alright."

#################

Machia looked at him questionably, "You want to know when your birthday is?"

Perses nodded.

"Well... we. The short answer is, we don't have one."

Perses nodded contently as if the subject had already concluded as he dropped the topic entirely.

They were sitting on a makeshift bench of rocks in a new part of the kingdom. It was just outside the inner walls, on the opposite side of the forest from the first day. Machia had returned to pick him up after a short rest, and they had continued their tour whilst the daylight persisted.

"Ha, well, we don't have a birthday, I guess, but we did come up with something else. A 'wake up' day."

Perses listened intently to this reveal, "You mean like a day each year you celebrate the day you woke up for the first time".

Machia looked down at him from his higher rock, impressed, "Yep, that's right".

Machia's smile was more expressive than usual. The dark shadows around his eyes had retreated since his rest, even if only a little.

"You know, it wasn't my idea... the wake-up day I mean." Machia looked contently at the evening sun, reminiscing, albeit a bit cryptically.

"If it wasn't you then... who was it."

Although his face didn't show anything, it was as if Perses could sense a small frown working its way onto Machia's face as he carefully considered his response.

"Someone you'll meet one day I imagine."

A silence ensued between the two as Machia, with a sorrowful look, casually jumped down from his large rock without making a sound.

"Well, I've still got a lot to show you, so let's go."

They wandered around in the light of the kingdom's sun for many more hours. Perses couldn't help but notice Machia was a little quiet.