Chương 53: Shatter

The library almost always had a few visitors now. The most studious of us were already planning for our next skill merges instead of riding high on the first one or two. I found my usual book about gravity manipulation and continued studying it, and Sage took a stack of her own books. We didn't talk, but at least one of my squadmates was here as well. By now, I'd read the gravity manipulation from front to back, but I wanted to commit as much of it to memory as I could.

It would help me improve my Focus, and at the same time, I needed a well of general knowledge. Yeah, sure, I couldn't just base all my understanding of my Art off of a single book, but at the same time, I had to start somewhere. There were a few scraps of parchment on one of the desks, and I used them to take notes, which would help me memorize the book, but I didn't really need it anymore—not with my Focus as high as it was. And I'd already gained one more point of it, bringing it up to six.

More Presence made it easier to read and store the book in my mind, and I could call up the information with less effort?

"Are you just writing gibberish, or is your handwriting so horribly messy that even I can't read it?" Sage asked, using Morph as a regular chair. His legs, however, extended so she could see over my shoulder. I tilted my head, then studied my notes more closely. I couldn't read them either. Or…the lingering memory from Lemming's old mind, which had helped me read and speak this world's languages, was completely incapable of parsing the letters on the page.

"Huh," I said.

"I must've been writing in English." After a few seconds more of staring, I picked out the words on the page, my mind duelling with the innate understanding of this world's written languages.

"What's that?" Sage asked.

"A language from my old world."

"It's ugly." I rolled my eyes.

"You're just bitter because I have a secret code that the highly educated Lady Sage can't read."

"You're awfully uppity for a Dupe," she said, then elbowed me gently. Or maybe it wasn't supposed to be gentle, but I'm not sure if I would've known the difference.

"Well, you're uppity for someone who's not your squad's sergeant." I cast a grin back at her.

"We are at an impasse, then, but I'll—" There was a crash on the other side of the library. Someone yelped, and glass shattered. I whirled around to see a lantern fallen on the ground, its candle tipped sideways. Before the fire could spread to the surrounding books and set them ablaze, I rushed over and stomped the flame out. As I put out the fire, I glanced around, focusing on multiple different tracks at once.

I recognized the Dupe from the blacksmith post, the apprentice with the burn scars on the side of his face. Across from him was a sapper trainee, standing with his arms crossed. I didn't recognize the trainee, but then again, there were plenty of people who I didn't recognize, and it was difficult to tell Dupes apart—especially when, like with this guy, there were no defining features or personal modifications.

"Stay out of it, soulstealer," the trainee said. I resigned myself to the fact that everyone already knew I was an Atoning and instead said, "I don't even know what's going on here. But I'm not letting these books burn." There was only a faint scar of charred wood where the lantern had tipped over.

"Well, then stay out of it," he repeated.

"I would've cleaned up this bumbling fool's mess on my own." He motioned to the blacksmith's apprentice.

"Come on, Levi," Sage said. Morph walked smoothly across the floor, carrying her.

"Yeah, come on," said the trainee.

"Go with the cripple-druid, and keep your nose out of places they don't belong. I'll deal with this slacker blacksmith apprentice right now. I'll have to teach him a lesson for his clumsiness."

"That's not true, Pallor," the apprentice exclaimed.

"You threw the lantern down!" Judging by the raw fear in his eyes and voice, I leaned toward trusting him. Pallor just gave me an ick. But I didn't say that aloud. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"You don't belong here, apprentice" said the sapper trainee—who I was pretty sure was called Pallor.

"I got a permission slip from lieutenant—""No, you didn't." Pallor reached for the apprentice's pocket and pulled out a dangling sheet of parchment, then ripped it up. By now, I knew in broad strokes what was happening here. I stepped forward and pushed Pallor away.

"Enough," I said.

"Leave him be. He was probably just trying to get some books."

"Levi…" Sage warned.

"You know, I don't know who's worse, here," Pallor said.

"The coward who wormed his way out of the army to serve as a blacksmith, or the soulstealer who killed one of my brothers. You couldn't just let your soul drift off, could you?"

"I'll take the title of worst," I said. Pallor only had an Iron-tier pendant, but the blacksmith's apprentice was a Copper.

"Now leave him alone. We don't need any trouble."

"You're…what, rank fifty? Sixty?" Pallor asked.

"Something like that," I lied.

"And you think you can compete with number three?" I sighed.

"Sure."

"Cocky." With a shrug, I deflected and said, "You know, I didn't really try to steal a body. It just happened. And from what I understand, that soul was already dead."

"Excuses. If it were up to me, you'd be swinging in the gallows."

"I feel like I've heard that before." I shook my head.

"Just go. I've heard it all before, and it's late." Pallor glanced at me, then at the blacksmith, then kicked the broken glass from the lantern and stormed out of the library.

"I didn't care much for books, anyway."

"I could tell," I muttered. As soon as Pallor left the library, I turned to the blacksmith's apprentice and said, "You alright?"

"I'm fine," he replied.

"Good," I said.

"What…what happened?"

"Pallor followed me. Well, earlier, he came to make a request from the blacksmith shop, but Drywsone was out, and I was the one who dealt with him. Apparently, I didn't address him with the appropriate respect for someone ranked third in the entire program. Well, I apologized, and I thought that would be it. But then, it's true, I did get a permission slip to come to the library, even if I'm not a sapper like you guys. I wanted to research some stuff about…well, uh, souls. And then you already know the rest."

"Yeah," I said.

"But I am curious: what's a Dupe doing as a blacksmith's apprentice? Much less apprenticing at Castle Urcia." The apprentice gulped.

"Sorry. Back at Homecamp, there was an accident with one of the beasts they brought in—a bog drake. It's a long story, but I ended up destroying half of my face and damaging some of my resonance nodes. They ruled that I was unfit for combat, but I trained as much as I could, finding whichever blacksmiths would take me, until eventually, I jumped between enough of them and ended up here."

"You must have proved yourself quite valuable," Sage replied.

"I—I guess."

"You did end up with the sappers, after all," I said.

"What's your name?" Sage asked, and I winced, having not asked that myself. The lady who didn't care about Dupes was asking four one of our names first? Either I had fallen off massively, or she was starting to acknowledge us.

"I'm called Shatter," the apprentice said.

"As in…like, breaking stuff." I narrowed my eyes.

"As opposed to?"

"Pallor tried to tell me that it was because I…well, I was apparently someone who constantly 'shat myself.' It's not true. The shatting part. I mean, we were in the same training group together at homecamp, that's true, but…"

"How mature," I muttered.

"So this has been going on for a while?"

"Yeah." Shatter crossed his arms.

"I was looking for some solution to my damaged resonance nodes. Something that will help me get past Copper. That's why I was here. But I think I was just getting ready to head out."

"Yeah," I said.

"Sorry about the nodes. But we should probably clean this up before anyone gets in real trouble."

"So neither of you think we should report this to the Drillmaster?" Sage asked.

"He wouldn't do anything about it…" Shatter grumbled.

"Not to help someone like me. Besides, he doesn't care if we fight amongst each other. He cares if we forge ourselves into the sharpest swords. We don't have to form brotherly bonds outside of our squads, because what does it matter? We're going to be scattered all across the front, anyway." I winced.

"True, but I don't think this is the last time he's going to try to make your life miserable. All of our lives, for that matter."

"I am the Ealdorman's daughter," Sage said.

"If I have no sway, then I'm afraid to ask how far things have fallen." I chuckled.

"I don't think that matters as much as you want it to, not out here. We're dealing with the Drillmaster, not some arrogant mercenaries. Do you really think your word is going to matter out here?" She glared at me and crossed her arms, then wrenched herself around so she faced away from me. But after a few seconds, she said, "... No. My word won't matter."

"Well, then let's get this cleaned up," I said.

"Then we can come up with a plan." ~ ~ ~ The next day was an average training day, and it gave me plenty of time to plan my next course of action. Pallor wasn't just going to leave me alone, I knew that much for certain. He'd probably deemed me just as much of a viable target as he had with Shatter. It was at dinner time when he finally confronted me again. The mess hall buzzed with general conversation, not to mention the clink of plates and knives.

Yeah, the Drillmaster was watching, but he wasn't watching us in particular, and he wouldn't hear us. Pallor and the rest of his squad marched up to the end of the table where I was sitting with the rest of my squad. Turning to face him, I chuckled and said, "Finally. Took you long enough to try again."

"Brother, what are you doing?" Brawl asked.

"There's only one way to make guys like this learn," I replied.

"You'll see."