The Sword and The Shadow

Unexpected Attack

She looked quite similar to Innilis, but her face was covered in vomit-inducing rotting warts.

Innilis had never seen such an ugly person. However, she could tell based on the rough features alone that the person was her.

"Who are you…?" she asked with a shuddering voice.

"I am you…" She was wearing Stokian armor, which fit her small figure rather badly, but Innilis wasn't in the mood to chuckle at the sight of the horrid face.

"You… are me… I am you from the future. You will become me."

No… I won't! Impossible! She wanted to speak, only to find that she didn't have a voice.

"You killed them… you killed many… and they all turned into this… so that's why you will turn into this too. This is karma… this is fate…"

The person suddenly began to yell. "This is you from the future! You can't escape this!" She swung the heavy sword her body seemed to be unable to wield towards Innilis's neck.

"Aaaaaaah!" she cried out as she opened her eyes, only to find herself in her soft bed. But her sweat made the sheets so sticky that it felt more gross than comfortable.

"Sis Innie…" Sasha rubbed her eyes and switched the magic lamp near the top of her bed on and approached her. "Did you have a nightmare again?"

"Sasha… this dream… was terrifying--" She hugged her tightly, still distraught. "--She said… I would become… a rotten corpse in the future…"

"Don't worry… It's just a bad dream," she consoled. It wasn't the first time Innilis had a nightmare. Ever since she returned from the battlefield, she would often wake up from night panics. Sasha had gotten used to dealing with it.

She consoled her first before she dictated a weak hypnotism spell on her secretly. After making sure she was asleep, she used another calming spell on her.

Seeing her breathing at a normal pace, she sighed. "What is with Sis Innie? I better tell Sis Erinn about it."

……

The next day, Sasha told Eirinn about Innilis's nightmares. She wasn't too surprised to hear it, as apart from Innilis, most of the students that returned from the battlefield had shown similar symptoms. Many male students also visited the infirmary more frequently, though they were there as much to see Eirinn as they were there to try to heal.

It was only after Sasha's constant pestering for Eirinn to see Innilis did she notice that she was suffering slightly differently.

Unlike the other students, who were reeling from the horrors they witnessed on the battlefield, Innilis's dreams were different. Her dreams were rather consistent. They were either the ruins of Fort Kesta or a desolate Melindor.

In all those dreams, there was a huge similarity: there was a corpse with thousands of holes in it that struggled and cried as it tried to kill her or warn her of something.

The more disturbing part was that those corpses were either herself, Leguna or Annelotte, something that truly made Eirinn worry.

Eirinn didn't know what to do for seemingly prophetic dreams like those, so she had no choice but to relay it to Annelotte. However, both Eirinn's divine miracles or Annelotte's magic weren't able to identify anything wrong with her.

Seeing Innilis tortured and losing weight from her nightmares, Annelotte decided to use a less-than-ideal solution to put an end to this for good: letting Leguna accompany her in her sleep.

"Huh?" When Leguna heard that suggestion, he had wanted to clap his hands in glee. But as a gentleman who knew shame, he forced himself to say, "That wouldn't be appropriate, would it?"

"You're only going to sleep with her. What disgusting thing are you thinking about?" She felt like puking at the sight of Leguna holding back his glee.

"After all, Innie…"

"Innie's your fiancee, isn't she?" She couldn't be bothered to humor his feigned hesitation. "I'm only telling you to do it. I didn't ask for your opinion, and nobody can know what you think about this. So stop putting up a front and do the right thing to calm her. If she's still like that in a couple days, I'll hold you accountable!"

With her permission, Leguna was rather frank. When it got a little late into the night, he left the rest of his work to Xeno and went to the infirmary to stay by Innilie's side.

Apart from Innilis, nobody knew what Leguna was up to. However, her dreams became less intense. Annelotte and Eirinn had nothing to say about it.

A few days later, Annelotte surprisingly visited Leguna in his office.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She usually wouldn't visit him if something wasn't wrong or he hadn't done something to piss her off.

"Go to the rock near the wood west of Melindor at midnight. I have something to tell you," she said.

"Can't you say it here?"

He looked around. They were in the bureau head's office. There probably wasn't a place more heavily guarded to share a secret.

"You have to see something. Go there," she said expressionlessly.

He considered her for a moment.

"…Alright."

She left almost immediately.

Xeno then came in from a secret doorway and asked, "Sir, do you need me to send a few of our brothers to tail you?"

"No need."

……

Leguna reached the rock just before midnight. Annelotte was already there.

"Have you been waiting?"

"If you have anything to say, out with it!"

"Out with… it? Weren't you the one who called me here?"

"What?" Her eyes widened. "You were the one who called me here."

"This…"

Something was off, but before he could think things through, she came at his throat with her dagger.

While she was a magus, she had never skimped on physical training. Given that she was the daughter of the galestorm swordsaint, her physical abilities were already a notch above most people. The only reason she hadn't used any fighter skills was they were too weak in comparison to her magic, but even without magic, she could take on a 4th or 5th-stratum warrior.

She lashed out against the undefended Leguna and was that close to wounding him.

He took a step back and touched his throat. Some skin had been taken off by the slash.

"What kind of joke is this, Annie?" Even though he was almost killed, he didn't feel any anger. He could tell whether this was Annelotte or someone else in disguise almost instantly, given how long they had known each other. Her actions, behavior, mana waves and looks were unquestionably identical.

That was the reason his first reaction wasn't to fight back, but to ask her why she acted.

"I…"

She looked at the dagger in her hand, shocked. Her mind had dulled for a moment, and she was standing like this when she recovered.

"Careful!"

Leguna leapt forwards with great speed and pinned her to the ground. Blood spurted out of his left elbow, bone glinting in the moonlight.