Chapter 25
The bus from the city to the small suburb where he was staying at stopped right outside the suburb, so Juin still had to walk a little. While walking home, Juin struggled under the weight of the books. Unfortunately for him, Lucifer could not help; not that the man would help. And for some reason, Lucifer had been quiet ever since they left the library.
In fact, ever since he read the History of Alercane out to Lucifer, the guy had been solemnly thinking about something.
"Hey, you alright?" Juin asked in a low voice.
Lucifer glanced at him but did not answer. He lay down in the air in a supine position but with his arms behind his head as he thought about the possibility of going back to the wrong time.
"That Claude guy returned to his own world, at a time that was after the time he departed. Is that the norm? Does that mean I would always return to a time after the attack? But how far more?" Lucifer thought with a sigh. He had been thinking about this issue ever since Juin read about it in the book.
Juin stopped in his tracks and looked up at Lucifer. After a few seconds, he continued to walk as he said, "Hey, Your Majesty…"
Lucifer glanced at him, about to tell him to shut up, when Juin continued, "If you're worried that you won't be able to see your family because you might return to far in the future, then… don't worry about that. Worrying wouldn't help. You're here for a reason, right? Just focus on completing whatever it is you are here to complete and leave. Being bogged down by things that you can't change won't help."
"And how do you know all this?" Lucifer sneered.
"Ashton," Juin said with a smile. "He was always more mature than me even though we were the same age. If he were here, he would be a much better vessel than me."
"That girlfriend of yours would be a much better vessel than you," Lucifer taunted. But he agreed with Juin. Thinking too much about things that he could not change would not help him in any way. He had to find more information on those who had traveled across the dimensions before.
Given how many books there were about supernatural beings, there had to be more than one person who had crossed the dimensions before.
"I've set a schedule for you, by the way," Lucifer suddenly said.
"Huh?"
"This weekend, you will be getting a bit of teaser. You will wake up at 6 am and run 5 miles a day. After that, a bit of strength training. Fight lessons. Education on supernatural beings. A nap in the afternoon. Then
Juin's response was…
BAM!
CLANG!
The books he was holding fell down on the sidewalk as he stared at Lucifer.
"What?" Lucifer raised a brow as he looked at Juin's gobsmacked expression. "Too easy?"
Juin gulped, and he slowly picked up the books as he said, "I'm a human, Your Majesty. No human can possibly survive all those."
"You're no longer just a simple human. It's fight or die now."
"I think death would probably come sooner with what you have planned for me," Juin mumbled as he stood up with all the books in his hands.
"You can't skip school with that brain of yours, so I've set something different for weekdays. You'll know it…" Lucifer gave him an evil smile as he said, "if you survive the next two days."
Juin was a little worried when he saw Lucifer's smile, but he knew that he could never say no when it came to this guy, so he merely quietly sighed. He then thought about Lucifer's words earlier, and how he gave him a nap in the afternoon AND a few hours of rest after that. "If he goes back on his words, I'll go on a strike!" Juin thought as he slowly walked back to Mrs. Martin's house.
…
At nighttime, three of the other orphans were sent to their rooms right after dinner for fighting, leaving Juin, Wesley, and Mrs. Martin at the table.
"Those three… They are almost adults now. I hope that they can straighten up before leaving here," Mrs. Martin said as she carried the empty plates to the dishwasher.
Juin and Wesley glanced at each other. Those three other orphans were older than them, and they came later as well, so they weren't really close to them. Hence, they did not have anything to add here.
"Come on now, you two. Help this poor woman out a little." Mrs. Martin frowned as she looked at the two who were still sitting at the table quietly.
When they heard her, they immediately picked up the remaining dishes and brought them to the dishwasher. They then helped her with the laundry before sitting down in front of the TV and watching some local news.
The news anchor was talking about the damage at St. Dexter High School as well as the cost that would take to repair them, before asking for the public to help out either in the forms of donations or volunteer to help with the cleaning up.
"I think I'll volunteer there next week, when you kids are at your schools," Mrs. Martin said as she kept her eyes on the news.
"Is it safe?" Wesley asked as he looked at her. Ever since he was taken away from his negligent parents, he had been living here for a long time, so Mrs. Martin was more like a mother to him rather than just a guardian.
"Should be," Mrs. Martin said. "I'll just go see what I can help out there."
When they saw Juin standing up, Wesley raised his eyebrows and asked, "You're going to bed so early?"
Juin nodded. "I'm thinking of going for a run at 6 am tomorrow, so I've better head to bed now."
The moment he said the word "run", Mrs. Martin and Wesley looked at him with their mouths agape. This was the first time either of them had heard the word "run" out of his mouth other than the times he was running from bullies or dogs.
"Are you well?" Mrs. Martin asked in a worry. She stood up and went to measure Juin's temperature by putting the back of her hand against his forehead.
Juin gently pushed her hand away as he said, "I'm fine. Really. I just thought of exercising a little…���
"You?" Wesley looked at him in disbelief. "Exercise? For real?"
Juin shrugged and turned around before walking up the stairs and going back to his own room. As he was changing into his pajamas, he kept glaring at Lucifer who was still laughing at the corner of the room.
"Stop it! It's not that funny!"
"Hey," Lucifer tried to stop laughing and said, "it's funny to me. Did you see their faces? It's almost like you just told them that you were going to h.e.l.l! Why Have you ever actually exercised before?"
"Of course I did!" Juin said in indignant. However, he did not add the next part of the sentence and merely thought about it in his heart, "When I was running away from scary people and things…"