Slumber

Black Lantern inn, Raven Cross:

Two men in poorly made leather armor were talking while drinking beer in wooden glass.

"Hey Jack, don't you think we should also go and tell captain that his lord has awakened from his sleep?" The man looked at his friend who was Infront of him, while chugging down another glass." I don't think it was a good idea sending Mirella to the forest at night. She's a woman after all."

"Brian, it's only 7 days since your arrival right"?Jack stared intensely at Brian expecting to have a confirmational nod. His bald head was shinning brightly from the light above their head." No wonder you don't know anything about Mirella-'the Iron foot' ."

"W-well, I-I"

'Clank!'

Brian was about to reply when suddenly the door opened and a man dressed in light armor came inside.

The armor was stained in blood here and there . "Hello Captain. Lord Theodore is awake." The two man stood up in unison to salute the armored man .

"At ease hunters, Lady Mirella has informed me".The armored man quickly nodded and rushed to the stairs to go to the residential area in the 2nd floor.

"Phew! I still can't believe captain hunts in the night too. While we are so tired after half day hunting." Brian said while sitting to eat again."I know he is strong. But still, I get amazed by his willpower."

"Well, you know that captain is overworking to manage the treatment fees for lord Theodore. We wanted to give him our hunting shares but he refused everytime saying we have our families to feed." The Bald man took another sip while his eyes were still admiring the captains footsteps.

"That's why I follow that man Brian. You can't find that level of chivalry anywhere in this god-forsaken place."

"Yeah that's true. Even old man Edmund was busy all the time with the new material dealers from the East " Brian nodded in appreciation."I don't know how he does all the stuff while staying at Lord Theodore's room all the time."

"Yeah right? I can't figure it out too. These two men are out of the world." Jack nodded. " Makes me wonder how good the man they serve is then."

"yeah me too.".....

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30 minutes ago:

Theo slowly opened his eyes and saw a rugged wooden ceiling above him. He found himself lying in a hard wooden bed with a little bedding that separated the cold hard bed from his half naked body. His full body was drenched in sweat as if he had just done heavy exercise.

A table was placed beside the bed and the window was right above the table. there was a candle stand with 3 candles burning on the table. Theo saw a water glass that he wanted to grab but his hand didn't reach that far while he was still lying down.

While he tried to lift himself up he saw Edmund was nodding off sitting on a chair right beside his leg.

"Edmund, can you hear me?"

"M-my Lord you're awake!!" Edmund quickly got up and came closer to Theo.

Theo could see tear wiggling in Edmund's eyes."Can you pass me the water ? But first help me to sit." He got up to a sitting position with the help of Edmund and drank water.

"Drink slowly my lord. Your body is still weak from the long sleep."

Theo could feel his weak body that was getting accustomed with the current situation. "Edmund, how long was I asleep for?"

Edmund took a pause and said," 1 month my lord!" Surprisingly Theo was calm after hearing Edmund's statement,"One month huh!" Theo smiled Awkwardly while taking another sip of water.

"We were afraid my lord." Edmund started talking differently than his usual elegant manner."You suddenly became unconscious after the teleportation. W-we thought we had lost you." Theo could sense Edmund was barely keeping his tear out.

He wanted to lift the mood up and give Edmund some time alone." Edmund, I will hear your briefing later. But I would appreciate if you bring me something to eat right now. I am so hungry."

Edmund immediately understood Theo's intentions. "My apologies. Please rest for now while I am bringing your food." Edmund rushed to the wooden door to go outside. "I am happy that you are well, my lord".

" Its alright. Don't forget to notify Victor." Theo smiled while seeing his old butler going through the door.

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"Now let's see what happened to me." Theo said to himself while looking at his right palm. 30 days ago while they were passing through that teleportation spell, he saw the crimson gem from his mothers necklace penetrating his right palm and going inside.

This was the last thing he remembered before discovering himself beside a waterfall. He was facing a mountain, with greenary all around him. And he was standing beside the waterfall which was almost dry.

He could somehow feel that he was inside his dreams but and the same could not figure out what happened all of a sudden.

It was still him, but he couldn't control himself inside the dream realm. The body was moving on its own doing various movements.

Theo saw that these were things he did in his past. Exercises , meditation, and even sprinting.

The body summoned all the useful writings he ever remembered and started to read them non stop. From formal letters to imperial documents, from sword manuals to mana manuals, the body summoned everything from thin air and started reading them over and over again.

Theo couldn't say how much time he was spending inside the dream realm, but he noticed that he re-read the writings for more than thousand times.

The surprising thing was that he didn't feel bored within this dream realm. And even if he tried to stop, he couldn't do anything else at all. The body stopped automatically when it was sure that all the information got absorbed.

And Theo could feel in his mind that, he was remembering everything and understanding as much as he could.

After that, The body summoned a sword, and started replicating the Imperial army sword style, the parts he remembered.

He even saw himself replicating parts of the Emperor's Sword style that his late father showed him.

He then saw himself doing various sword styles that Victor, Leo,some random soldiers showed him in their spars. Theo replicated and practiced the bits of memories that he remembered about the styles for countless times.

He could feel that he was getting very good at particular movements like slashing, swinging, thrusting that enhanced his muscles, flexibility and other sword styles also.

After practicing a satisfied amount of the sword styles , Theo's body moved to practice other things like dance , eloquence, courtship and many other things.

He saw the dream realm allowed him to re-learn everything it felt important for Theo, from his memory.

He somehow knew that this ability came from the gemstone from his mothers necklace. And he would get the chance to automatically get good at everything he learns while he was in his sleep.

It was such a blessing for him. He could still feel that his mana core was broken. but practicing everything that was in his memory was really giving him a chance to fight back.

After mastering everything to the highest theo finally woke up, which was today. It took 30 days in real time to master everything useful from his 22 years of life. But for Theo, it felt like eternity inside the dream realm.

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Now Theo turned his attention to his body. This was the first time Theo was examining his body after waking up. He saw his arms, legs, abs were well defined and had a noticable amount of transformation after swinging swords for thousands of Times in his dreams.

He then tried to remember the things he studied in the past and found that, his knowledge on diplomacy, management, authority became more well refined.

It was compulsory for every noble to receive education in the Imperial university. Theo also attended and studied various things for 1 year before dropping out due to his confinement.

During his time in the 2nd palace he read many books from the Library as he had nothing else to do.

Those books were mostly over-exaggerated stories involving various conquests that formed the Great Bavieran Empire.

Theo was happy that, insights from those book are now stored in his memory. These would definitely help him with what he was about to do in the future.

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He took another sip on the glass when there was a knock on the door - 'knock knock'

"Come in"