Lavoisi's book

Marc awoke with a start. He was still sweating.

"Lately, I've been having nothing but strange dreams. I could even call them nightmares. It's getting serious. "

"Are you all right, master? We're late."

"Hi Jin. Coming."

Marc stood up. The sun shone lightly through the window. He drew his curtains before looking out. Then he opened the window to feel the wind blowing on his face. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and then exhaled all the air he'd stored.

"It's off to a new day."

Marc wanted to forget everything. All the things that were preventing him from having a normal day. He preferred not to think about them in the morning so he could live normally. Was that really possible?

"Master. The bus is coming."

"What?"

Probably.

Marc found himself running again to be on time. This time, he arrived on time and his teacher congratulated him. He was a little embarrassed. For this class, he wasn't with Elie or Nathanaël, which made him sit next to Gibbs.

"You're right on time again. How hard is it to stay with Elie?"

"Stop it. I already told you we're not a couple."

"You know I find that hard to believe. You know Chris is looking for you. He even told his buddies to give you the spot. Besides, he seems very upset that you didn't sit next to him."

Marc turned to watch Chris, who was indeed glowering at him.

"Does this guy like me or not?"

"I don't know. But I think he hates you."

"Oh. I saw the last chapter of the novel. It's good."

"See? The man in black is so stylish. There's a lot of people wondering who knows."

"Who knows?"

Marc realized something. He'd never seen the face of the man in black, and he didn't care. All he wanted was for him to stop bothering them. Discovering his identity had never twisted his mind.

"Probably someone hateful."

"Roh, stop it. He just happens to be a nice guy."

"I doubt it."

Marc knew this guy couldn't be a good guy. And he didn't want to be, because he was going to kill him anyway. The class ended quickly and Marc went to his next room.

"See ya, big guy."

"See ya."

The day passed quickly. Elie spent her day looking out the window when Marc or Nathanaël weren't there. She often tried to talk to Jin about Marc's behavior at home or his eating habits, but he remained impassive and only responded with very short answers.

"The master eats well. You don't need to worry."

Elie sighed often. Nathanaël and Marc often laughed in class, which earned them several warnings. However, when it was Elie and Marc talking together, the teacher only punished Marc, who couldn't believe he was the only one to get it.

"I'm sure you're the one distracting Elie."

Elie burst out laughing every time a teacher said that.

Jin often received declarations of love. Despite the fact that he wasn't very courteous to everyone.

"I don't have time to devote to love. Unless the master asks me to."

All eyes glared at Marc as if he were the cause of these answers.

"You should concentrate on my master. He's better than I am."

Even if this remained a nice option for some of the girls, they couldn't compete with Elie, who in turn glared at them when they approached him.

"Let's try Nathanaël or Chris."

Chris would always say no curtly, and Nathanaël would try every excuse in the book before declining weeks later.

"I'm not who you think I am. I'm not right for you. I'm not ready for this. My mother will say no. I have to concentrate on my studies. Oh, look, a green and blue bird..."

He often ended up running away that way. When it was time to go home, they got together to discuss their findings, and Marc recounted his strange dream.

"You're having these dreams. Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine.

"Don't worry, Master. If this character represents you, then it's normal that you lost."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Chris isn't here."

"He probably hasn't found anything interesting. He doesn't take us too seriously."

"I know. There's nothing we can do about it. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow.

"All the best. Nathanaël."

"Bye."

Marc, Elie and Jin left to catch their bus. On the way home, Marc sat down on his bed and flashed a smile of relief.

"It's not that bad this daily."

Marc lay on his bed for a long time. He closed his eyes and thought about his day. Then, after about twenty minutes, he looked at the books he'd taken from the library, still on his bed. Lavoisi's name was written very small on them. It was almost illegible. Marc grabbed one of these books and began reading the one he'd started in the library.

"I landed in a flower garden. Identical to the one in my garden. I panicked in shock and didn't dare imagine what I was feeling. I, coming from my garden, had just lost the morning dew, to a world without a roof or anything to keep me company. There were no trees, no greenery, no houses, no life or death around the blue flowers. All was black and miserable. Not a single ray of sunlight to illuminate any wonder. My eyes took fright, stricken with terror. I found myself alone, with only the hour as my friend."

Marc paused for a moment.

"I wasn't expecting this. The book seemed to be a happy book. Now it looks like he's going to suffer for a long time. Was he sad, Lavoisi?"

"Suddenly, in an immense light, appeared an angel made of dust. He looked at me from his radiance even though I couldn't see her. But when she put her hand on me, I saw her eyes full of fear. Opening her mouth so late, saying to me with a sad look, "Wake up, O child of the day, you must warn the one for whom we should bring our greatest succor."

"Then he's not really the hero. Or rather, it's not really the person for whom the story should be written. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he's a hero savior? An angel made of dust? Like the lady of the ruins? Is that why he wrote it? Is it the same person?"

Marc read for a very long time. The warmth of the book began to soak into him. He read about twenty chapters that day. It was one of his qualities. He read fast. Lavoisi was talking about this hero paving the way for another hero who only vaguely appeared in the story. Knowing that the character in this story was not the hero was very strange for Marc. He often wanted to identify himself as the main character, but that wasn't possible here. And he couldn't identify with this character. It was as if it wasn't him. Yet he wasn't all indifference. They even had something in common. But something prevented him from recognizing himself in him.

"Maybe I don't match him? But I really can't recognize myself in him. Like some strange feeling that doesn't want me to see myself in him. Too bad, I liked him."

The character named Zire had been through a lot. It made you wonder if he wasn't a little too dedicated to his task. What's more, he was doing it for a man he didn't know at all. The angel often came to help him with certain tasks. He wasn't always alone. He was sometimes accompanied by people he lost along the way because of the immortality he had received as a reward for accepting the quest. He had, however, received a promise.

"Your immortality will be taken away as soon as the hero finishes his story."

The sad thing was that Zire didn't see the hero at the end of the novel. So we didn't know what became of him.

"I'm still waiting for him. He who has done me so much harm. I'd love to meet him and tell him to start his quest. Perhaps on a rainy day, or after a feast day, I could finally, for such is my destiny, fight in harmony with him?"

These were the last sentences of the novel. The sentences Zire had dropped before falling asleep for more than a century or more than a millennium, bored by his immortality. The name he'd been given at the end of the novel was...

"...the witness of history. Cool."

Marc probably wanted a name like that without having the life of the person concerned. He closed the book 3 days later. Although he was a fast reader, the book was long and it was impossible to read it all at once. Despite this, Marc had devoured it all as if it were his precious treasure. He even reread certain passages several times.

"I'm going to miss reading it without knowing the ending. I hope I can read the rest."

Marc began rummaging through the books he'd brought back from the library. He searched all these books for the one that followed the last one he had read, but without success. None of the books he'd brought back revealed what happened next. Zire was condemned to wait for the hero who never seemed to arrive. Suddenly, Marc had a fright.

"What if the hero never came? What if it's all a charade? Is he going to stay immortal for the rest of his life? Poor thing."

Marc searched his belongings once more, then did some research to find out if Lavoisi had a sequel, but despite its small popularity, nothing appeared to be a sequel to the novel. Marc was confused. But out of the corner of his eye, he managed to see the last book he hadn't taken. The book he'd taken from the library, which showed him his near future. The one whose pages were gradually being written.

"The Prince of Death, right? It's true that I didn't dwell on this book. But it could help us solve all this if the pages would just write themselves."

Marc picked up the book, hoping to find something, but to his surprise, the sentences didn't appear until he opened the book. The letters appeared slowly and Marc waited until all the sentences were written before reading them. There were three of them. Small but substantial. Big enough to disturb Marc.

"His time was running out. He was looking for the rest of the story, but this was not the end. There was no end to this story, only a day and a nothing."

"A day...and a nothing. What does that mean? Is it because he's immortal? And who's writing this book? How come he knows what I'm doing? And then..."

Marc stopped talking for the simple reason that he knew he wasn't going to get an answer. Ever since he'd started this adventure, he'd been asking himself questions that couldn't be answered. Nothing made sense anymore, and he knew it.

"Maybe I should tell them that I..."

Marc cut himself off again. An extra sentence had appeared.

"He looked for the scholar's book."

"The scholar's book?"