Chapter 46: The Monster of Oakhaven
[Arthur’s POV]
My eyes snapped open and I gasped, air rushing into my lungs like I’d been drowning, like soone had held
under and only now let
surface. My hand went to my chest automatically, feeling my heart hamring away too fast, too loud in the quiet darkness of my room.
The sa dream again.
I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to breathe. In through my nose, hold it, out through my mouth. The rhythm I’d taught myself years ago when the nightmares first started, when I’d wake up screaming and find myself alone in a strange room with no family to comfort .
It didn’t work.
It never really worked. But going through the motions helped
pretend I had so control over any of this.
My mother’s smile as she fell kept playing behind my eyelids. That final expression, frozen in ti, ant to comfort
even as her life drained away. My father’s back as he turned to face the monster, that piece of broken wood raised against sothing he couldn’t possibly defeat.
Lilia’s hand in mine, warm one second and then cold the next—so cold I could still feel it sotis when I woke up, that phantom sensation of her fingers going limp in my grip.
Nine years. It had been nine years since that night, and their faces were still the first thing I saw whenever I closed my eyes.
I sat up slowly and swung my legs over the side of the bed, pressing my palms against my eyes until I saw stars dancing behind my eyelids. The pressure helped, gave
sothing else to focus on besides the images burned into my mory.
"Nine years," I whispered to the empty room, my voice rough from sleep. "When does it stop hurting?"
The room didn’t answer .
I pushed myself up and walked to the small table by the window, reaching for the water pitcher with practiced ease.
The darkness didn’t bother
anymore—I’d learned to navigate this room years ago, knew exactly how many steps from bed to table, knew where the chair was without looking, knew the exact weight of the cup in my hand.
I poured water and drank, letting the cold liquid ground , bring
back to reality. The phantom warmth of Lilia’s fingers faded a little, replaced by the very real sensation of the cup against my palm.
I told myself it was just another day. Just another training session. Just another spar. If I said it enough tis, maybe I’d start believing it.
It was a lie I’d told myself a thousand tis over the years. So days I even believed it.
I set the cup down and was about to head back to my bed when the voice ca.
[...You’re awake.]
I froze mid-step.
It ca from everywhere and nowhere at once, soft and feminine, resonating directly inside my skull.
I’d long since stopped flinching when it spoke, stopped looking around to see if anyone else could hear it. But so things you never got used to, no matter how many tis they happened.
"You don’t usually speak this early," I muttered, keeping my voice low.
[No. But today is different.] She paused for a mont, and when she spoke again her voice was softer, gentler. [You were dreaming again.]
I didn’t respond.
[It must be hard for you, reliving that night over and over. I’m sorry, Arthur.]
I walked to the window instead of answering, pressing my palm against the cold glass and looking out at the dark estate spread out below .
The Nightshade grounds were quiet and peaceful, most of its inhabitants still asleep. In a few hours the training yard would be full of soldiers running their drills, their voices carrying across the open space as they pushed themselves harder and harder. But right now it was just
and the voice and the mories I couldn’t escape.
...Nine years ago today.
[I know.]
I still don’t rember what happened after I grabbed that piece of wood. After Lilia fell. After she stopped moving.
[You know what I’ve told you.]
I did.
She’d told
years ago when I was old enough to understand, when I’d finally asked directly instead of dancing around the question like I had for years.
She said she helped
survive, said I would have died otherwise, said she did what was necessary. But knowing sothing and actually rembering it were two completely different things.
I rembered grabbing the wood, the jagged edge cutting into my palm—that sharp pain grounding
in the middle of all that chaos. I rembered the monster lunging toward , its mouth open wide, ready to finish what it had started.
And then nothing.
When I woke up, the monster was dead. Torn apart, ripped to pieces, its body scattered across the floor in ways I still couldn’t explain even now. Lilia was beside , her hand still warm in mine, but she wasn’t breathing anymore. She wasn’t anything anymore.
I was covered in blood. Her blood, its blood, maybe even my own blood—I didn’t know then and I still couldn’t tell the difference now. It had all mixed together into a single dark stain that soaked through my clothes and painted my skin red.
Days later, after the Duke took
to his estate and gave
a room and clothes and food I couldn’t bring myself to eat.
A voice spoke in my mind for the very first ti, soft and clear despite everything I’d just been through.
You are chosen by the Goddess.
I thought I’d lost my mind back then. Thought the trauma had finally broken sothing inside
that could never be fixed. I’d spent hours staring at walls, waiting for the hallucinations to stop, waiting for my brain to heal itself and start working normally again.
But the voice kept speaking day after day, kept teaching
things I didn’t understand, kept guiding
through a world I no longer recognized.
She taught
how to sense mana, how to strengthen my core, how to use the abilities she’d granted . She answered my questions when she could and stayed silent when she couldn’t.
You are my Apostle, she told
eventually. The one I selected before you were even born.
I didn’t understand what that ant back then. Honestly, I still didn’t fully understand it now. But I’d learned to live with it, learned to accept that this was my life, that this voice would always be here, that I’d never really be alone even when I desperately wanted to be.
One day, years ago, I finally worked up the courage to ask her directly about what happened that night.
After I blacked out. Was that you?
[I helped you survive.]
...So you took over my body.
[I did what was necessary.]
I rembered letting out a long breath after that, not sure how to feel about the answer. But I’d thanked her anyway, because whatever she’d done, she’d kept
alive.
Now I had my answer, straight from the source.
Thank you, I thought, and ant it. For keeping
alive.
[You’re welco, Arthur.]
I stood at the window for a while longer, watching the sky slowly lighten from black to gray to the faintest hint of blue creeping over the horizon. But the estate was still quiet around —no movent in the rooms, no soldiers heading for drills, no servants beginning their routines.
I had hours yet before anyone else would wake.
Then, almost automatically, I spoke the words I’d spoken hundreds of tis before.
"Status screen."
The air in front of
shimred and shifted, gold and white panels folding into existence one after another, snapping together like glass plates locking into place. The familiar screen appeared before my eyes, its information displayed in neat glowing lines.
_
---『 STATUS SCREEN 』---
NA → Arthur Vale
RACE → Human
AGE → 17
BLOODLINE → Not Awakened
CURRENT RANK → Elite (Mid)
CORE → SSS-Rank
PATH → Pending
『 TITLES 』
∟ The Chosen One
∟ The Survivor
∟ Goddess’s Apostle
∟ The Monster of Oakhaven
『 AFFINITIES 』
∟ Light
∟ Sword
『 ATTRIBUTES 』
∟ STR (Strength) → D
∟ AGI (Agility) → D
∟ VIT (Vitality) → D
∟ END (Endurance) → D
∟ INT (Intelligence) → A
∟ WIL (Willpower) → S
『 SUB-ATTRIBUTES 』
∟ LUCK → B
∟ CHARM → S-
『 ENERGY RESERVE 』
∟ Mana Capacity → D
『 MANA BREATHING 』
?? Solaris Breathing Art (Rare)
『 WEAPON ARTS & MASTERY 』
?? [None Registered]
『 REGISTERED SKILLS 』
?? Divine Sense (Goddess-Granted)
『 ACTIVE QUESTS 』
?? [!!!!!]
_
I stared at the quest log for a mont, then reached out and tapped it. The panel expanded, revealing a single entry.
『 MAIN QUEST 』
?? Path Awakening
∟ Description → Enter the Path Awakening Trial and awaken your Path.
∟ Ti Remaining → Approaching
∟ Reward → ??? (Goddess’s Blessing)
∟ Penalty → Unknown
I stared at the screen for a long mont, at the numbers and ranks and titles that would make any other fighter my age weep with envy. SSS-rank core, the highest possible potential.
Elite rank already, and I wasn’t even done growing. Stats that would keep climbing higher as I got stronger and trained harder.
The Monster of Oakhaven.
I’d never liked that title, never liked being called a monster even if it was technically accurate. It made people look at
differently, made them whisper behind my back when they thought I couldn’t hear.
But I understood why it was there, understood what I’d done in that room even if I couldn’t rember doing it. A normal eight-year-old couldn’t have survived what I survived. A normal eight-year-old couldn’t have done what I did.
Maybe I really was a monster.
[You’ve co far, Arthur.]
"Not far enough."
[The trial is coming soon. Days now, not weeks. When you enter... I’ll be there waiting for you.]
I closed the status screen and watched it dissolve into nothing, the golden light fading until only my reflection remained in the dark window.
The sa face I’d seen every morning. The sa eyes that had watched my family die and sohow kept on living anyway. The sa hands that had held Lilia’s as she slipped away.
I turned away from the window, grabbed my training clothes from the chair where I’d left them the night before, and headed for the door.
The yard was waiting, and I needed to clear my head before anyone else arrived. A few hours alone with just my sword and the silence—that was the only way to calm myself down after nights like this.
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