《Lorica's Crusade》 1. An End and a Start I grasped the large ballista bolt impaled on my chest, my gauntleted hand could barely close around its circumference. The bolt, covered with glowing ember runes, passed right through my body, embedding deep into the ground beneath me, nailing me in place. I stared at my obviously fatal injury for several seconds, slowly processing the scene. Wait¡­why do I have this thing sticking out of my chest? Wasn¡¯t I supposed to be in class? The more I tried to pull the enchanted bolt out, the more blood flowed through the hole on my chest plate. My bright red blood laced with minute green sparks, the last traces of my magic, heavily contrasted with the metallic blue sheen of my armor. Not so blue anymore with all the dirt and muck splashed on it. Curiously, I didn¡¯t feel any pain at all. Just a bit of numbness and discomfort. Magic? I thought hazily. Why was I thinking that I had magic? ¡°Too tired, too sleepy,¡± I said, barely managing to form the words as blood rose up my throat. Or at least my mouth moved to speak. I did not actually intend to speak. A dream? I tried to say to no avail. I couldn¡¯t move my mouth this time. I was wearing armor while skewered through like barbecue and I couldn¡¯t feel any pain. A dream was the only explanation. But I am aware that I am in a dream, which shouldn''t normally be the case. Maybe I was beginning to learn how to lucid dream since I normally wouldn¡¯t even realize that I was in a dream until I had woken up. If so, then show me a handsome guy, maybe like Jeffrey from Econ 101. Or chocolate cheesecake with strawberries on top. I was fine either way. I looked up to see if I could least dream what I wanted since I was already straying from the path to success by sleeping in class. Nope. No handsome guys or cheescakes. Too bad. Instead, the severed head of a gigantic demon lay several meters away from me. It looked like a werewolf mid-transformation, its human features somewhat discernable, with the coiling horns of a ram on both sides of its head. Assuming this head used to be attached to a body with humanoid proportions, then it probably stood at about fifteen meters tall. Its lifeless eyes stared at me. Violet blood soaked the ground beneath it. This was certainly unlike any dream I had before. Dreams about getting late to class, or missing an exam, or getting stuck in an elevator were my staple. A nightmare? But I wasn¡¯t even feeling scared or disgusted. Weird. I tried to turn my head to survey my surroundings, but couldn¡¯t. I didn¡¯t quite get the hang of lucid dreaming yet, I suppose. ¡°Is this it? I guess this is it,¡± I said again without planning to. ¡°Lady Lorica!¡± someone shouted. I tried to search for the voice, this time, my body following me as I looked around. I gasped internally. Death surrounded me. I was in the middle of a great battlefield. More accurately, I was in the middle of where a great battle had just ended. The bodies of dozens and dozens of monsters scattered around. Most of them were at least a couple of times larger than a full-grown man, bloated, decaying and revolting. Punctuating the inhuman stuff, that I didn¡¯t even know I was capable of imagining, were humans. Knights in the same blue armor as I was. Pitifully few, and all dead. What the hell, brain? Where did you get this dream?You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Lady Lorica, stay awake! Focus yourself!¡± someone shouted. A pile of dead monsters to my right moved. One of the corpses flipped over, revealing a blue knight apparently not dead as I had earlier written them all off. He struggled to get out from underneath the pile using only his right hand. His left hand looked like it was ripped from his shoulder socket. Bits of bone and flesh poked out from beneath his left pauldron. He managed to pull himself out and staggered towards me. ¡°We won, Lady Lorica, all thanks to you,¡± the knight said. Slowly but surely he navigated his way through the dead bodies. ¡°Gavin¡­that¡¯s good to hear,¡± I said. I named this guy Gavin? Cheesy. ¡°Lady Lorica, the others are coming. Don¡¯t close your eyes.¡± He knelt down beside me and took off his helme Holy hell, he¡¯s handsome. He looked a bit young for his strong, deep voice. But old scars that ran across his right eye show that he has matured in battle. He also had a fresh gash across his forehead that was bleeding, covering half his face in blood. Meeting handsome injured knights in the battlefield was my new thing? This is a whole new level of the damsel in distress fantasy. Repress those thoughts! ¡°I want to sleep,¡± I said. I gave up trying to control what I was saying and just laid back to watch the show. ¡°My lady, focus on my voice. I¡¯m just here by your side.¡± ¡°Tired¡­it''s too much. It was stupid to think that someone like me can do it.¡± "You are the hero of mankind, Lady Lorica."He took my hand in his. " If there is someone who can do it, whatever that it might be, it is you." "That''s...that''s not what I meant." My voice was becoming weak. ¡°Hush. Conserve your strength,¡± Gavin said. He gazed at the setting sun. ¡°The others will come soon. Soon, my lady.¡± Heat passed through my hand as he tried to transfer his energy to me. I snorted and said, ¡°That¡¯s not going to work.¡± I slowly closed my eyes. ¡°My lady, don¡¯t give up,¡± Gavin said, his firm voice cracking slightly, which was kind of cute. He shook my hand. ¡°Don¡¯t sleep, you always told us not to let you sle¡ª¡± Darkness enveloped me.
I awakened with a start, jerking straight up, hitting the edge of the table with my stomach. Some of my classmates, whom I barely knew, stared at me and then went back to fixing their things. I slept through the entire session. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Alex, my red-headed seatmate said. She stared at me, grinning, as she folded her laptop and tucked it under her arm. ¡°I guess,¡± I said, rubbing my stomach. ¡°Although, ouch.¡± ¡°Did you stay up late last night binge watching again?¡± ¡°No, I actually went to bed early. I''m a model student, you know?¡± Alex rolled her eyes, not buying it. ¡°Lucky you that you slept in Professor Fitch¡¯s class. Like he always says, he doesn¡¯t care if students sleep in his class ¨C¡± ¡°Because I¡¯m the one wasting my tuition,¡± I finished. I whipped out my cellphone and opened the front camera. Fortunately, my hair was not messed up when I slept on my table. I brushed away a few strands from my forehead. ¡°I had this weird dream.¡± ¡°While you were sleeping awhile ago?¡± ¡°Yes. I dreamt I was dying or something.¡± ¡°Morbid much? Why were you dying?¡± I stared at Alex, my brows furrowed. ¡°I couldn¡¯t remember it,¡± I said truthfully. ¡°I just remembered dying.¡± ¡°We¡¯re just freshmen. Don¡¯t let college get to you this early." Alex headed to the door. "Let''s have lunch. You''re just hungry.¡± "I guess so", I said as I followed her. 2. Inheriting the Mantle The library, ugh. Janine, my model-student, prim and proper, dormitory roommate, forced me to come with her to the library to study. We were the only people at the fourth floor of the library. This was supposed to be the study area, so I expected it to be full of people¡­studying. But the long tables in the middle of the floor were unoccupied. And, I wasn¡¯t sure, but I think the cubicles lining the walls, except the ones we were using, were also devoid of life. It was half past six on a Saturday morning, so that was probably the reason no one else was here. The insane plan of Janine was to finish all of our homework for the week by lunchtime so that we, or rather she, could have Saturday afternoons and the entire Sunday free for her co-curricular activities. She was going to do this for the entire semester as her path-to-success schedule. I was forced along because she said she wanted to help me as well. Not that I was doing bad in class. Although, the real reason was probably that she couldn¡¯t handle the thought of being roommates with someone who had, at the least, above average grades. Brain check, brain check. Why the fuck did I go along with Janine? Janine scooted her chair over to my cubicle to check on what I doing, which was not studying. She frowned and said, ¡°People don¡¯t realize this, but every hour you spend not working towards your goal is a missed step on the stairs of success.¡± If someone else told me that, I would have been annoyed, but this was Janine. I looked up from my phone and said, ¡°Don¡¯t throw quotable quotes at me. Who said that, anyway?¡± ¡°Me. I just came up with it. I better write it down for my valedictory speech.¡± ¡°Can you write in your future presidential memoir that I helped you come up with that quote?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± she said, grinning. ¡°What are you doing anyway?¡± ¡°Not working towards my goal, whatever that is.¡± ¡°Seriously.¡± ¡°Still researching dreams,¡± I said. ¡°Is this about that dream you had last Monday? The one where you died?¡± ¡°I can find ¡®death¡¯ but not dying in a battlefield,¡± I said, scrolling through my phone. ¡°Is a death dream different from a war dream?¡± ¡°Just give it a rest already,¡± Janine said exasperatedly. ¡°You¡¯re not superstitious, aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Well, no. But the dream was vivid, and yet hazy. I know that makes no sense, by the way, so don¡¯t point it out. It just feels like there¡¯s a message for me.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just a dream. Most people forget their dreams in like a day.¡± ¡°Most people give up their dreams while in college, yet here we are.¡± Janine and I looked at each other with deadpanned expressions, snickered, then high-fived each other. ¡°That is going in my valedictory speech,¡± Janine said. ¡°What was your dream again?¡± ¡°I was in the middle of a battlefield. There were dead monsters and dead knights everywhere. I was one of the knights.¡± ¡°Monsters and knights? A fantasy world?¡± ¡°I suppose. With magic and all. I can remember I had magic too, but I was already losing power because I was dying. A fucking huge arrow covered with magical symbols struck me.¡± ¡°You were one of the knights? Interesting,¡± Janine said. ¡°Did you win or lose the battle?¡± ¡°I remember one of my fellow knights was still alive and he said that we did it. All the monsters were dead so that means we won.¡± I did not mention that the knight was handsome, because Janine will just judge me. Gavin was his name, I think. It was weird that the memory of the dream was becoming clearer as time passed, opposite of what usually happened. ¡°And you died because you were shot by a magic arrow?¡± ¡°Actually, I just assumed I died. I mean it felt like I died. Then I woke up.¡± I went back to browsing the internet with my phone. ¡°Dying in a dream supposedly means a major change in life. Dreaming of wars can indicate inner conflicts. Dreaming of being a warrior or a soldier might mean you want power.¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°So, what does a dream of dying as a warrior in the battlefield mean?¡± Janine said. ¡°I can¡¯t find anything as specific as that. Maybe I have to string together the meanings I found. The major change is obviously starting college. Do I want power in college? And inner conflicts? I don¡¯t know about that.¡± ¡°I seriously doubt you have inner conflicts,¡± Janine said. ¡°You seem to be sure of yourself even if you don¡¯t know what you¡¯re doing.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a compliment,¡± I said. ¡°But I¡¯m sure that you¡¯re having an inner conflict right now if it was a good idea dragging me as your study buddy.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m not,¡± she said innocently. I raised my hands in resignation. ¡°I¡¯ll be a good student and make my dad proud. I¡¯ll study now. Is that alright, miss future valedictorian?¡± Janine held her thumbs up. ¡°Keep that up and I¡¯ll get you a job at the White House someday when I¡¯m President.¡± I don¡¯t know how I did it, but I actually finished my assignments and studying for next week. Having Janine by my side sort of shamed me into being diligent, but I wasn¡¯t going to tell her that. Miraculously, I was able to keep my concentration the entire morning despite waking up a couple of hours earlier than usual. After packing my bags and waving Janine goodbye as she ran off to save the world, I returned to the dormitory. This was a Saturday. It was customary among my people, people who were not Janine-types, to sleep in on a Saturday. I felt like I had betrayed majority of mankind by not sleeping in today. Remunerations have to be made. What was broken has to be fixed. The mistake should be undone. I was going back to sleep. Even though it was already lunchtime. Yup. I wasn¡¯t even thinking of having lunch. I flung my bag to my chair and jumped to bed.
Light? Someone was trying to open my eyes! I immediately opened my eyes and came face to face with an old man holding a golden monocle attached to a chain. ¡°Who are you? Why are you in my room?¡± I balled up my fists ready to punch him. Was he attacking me? This old man was going down. Everyone, grab your shovels and dig a grave for this guy. But then he started to cry. He took out a handkerchief from the left pocket of his velvet coat, and with a flare dabbed his eyes. ¡°Alastam nga gubwat ak an, Lorica,¡± he said. ¡°Alastam, alastam.¡± ¡°What? What did you say?¡± I still had my fists held up. Was this a prank? If there was a hidden camera recording me right now, I swear someone was going to get injured. And how did this guy get in my room. I looked around and slowly put down my arms. ¡°This is not my room.¡± I was in a tent of sorts. Not the one used for camping, but like the tent used by the army in war movies. It was quite spacious and had lots of headroom. Various furniture were also inside, including a round table with four wooden chairs, a full length mirror, and a two-door cabinet. I was even sitting on a queen-sized post bed. ¡°Uhapyaw yana. Alaw id nial nga atamob iasom,¡± the old man said. He raised his eyebrow as he nestled the monocle above his cheekbone. I didn¡¯t know what language the old man spoke, but I understood him. He said that I should rest and that I was safe here. Did I hit my head? I was sure that what he just spoke wasn¡¯t English. With no idea what to do, I relaxed, waiting for the host of this prank show to reveal himself. I had a creeping suspicion that Janine was probably in on this prank, which was why she had to drag me out of bed so early in the morning. The flap of the tent opened. Here comes the big reveal. I don¡¯t think they caught any embarrassing reactions from me so I held my head up with confidence. This was such a failed prank. A freckled girl with brown ponytails, maybe about ten years old, entered. She struggled to carry a large silver pitcher on a tray. She dropped the tray and the pitcher upon seeing me and said, ¡°Lady Lorica, you¡¯re awake.¡± She spoke in the same unknown language as the old man but I clearly understood her. No cameras yet? I rolled my eyes. They probably wanted to continue with this prank. I already knew that it was a prank, so what was the point? ¡°Beatrice,¡± someone outside exclaimed. ¡°Did you drop the pitcher again?¡± The girl, who I assumed was Beatrice, ran outside and started shouting, ¡°She¡¯s awake. She¡¯s awake. Lady Lorica is awake.¡± Lorica? That sounded familiar. The old man also mentioned Lorica. I was sure that I heard that name somewhere recently. People were gathering outside the tent, their silhouettes showing through the tent flaps as the sun was behind them. ¡°Doctor Ochre, is it alright if we come inside?¡± an authoritative female voice said. ¡°Can they come in, my lady?¡± the old man asked me. ¡°Uuuh. Sure, why not?¡± I replied. ¡°Let¡¯s get this over with.¡± ¡°Lady Lorica says she¡¯ll entertain visitors,¡± Doctor Ochre called out to the crowd outside. A tall, heavily-tattoed woman, with a stern expression on her face entered first. Her hair was woven into an intricate braid accented by golden ornaments. Judging by her finely toned muscles, she was not someone you want to mess with. She immediately rushed to the side of my bed and knelt down on one knee. ¡°Lady Lorica, I assume full responsibility for failing to reach you on time.¡± ¡°What?¡± I said blankly. ¡°All their deaths are on my head. I am ready to accept my punishment,¡± she continued. ¡°Our dear Lady is still recovering,¡± said the hulk of a man who entered next. ¡°Don¡¯t pester her with your failure.¡± The woman who was kneeling shot daggers with her eyes at the man who spoke. ¡°Now, now. Let¡¯s not forget that this is Lady Lorica¡¯s place of rest,¡± Doctor Ochre said. ¡°Perhaps someone can take the table and chairs out so that everyone can enter.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take a chair,¡± Beatrice said, running back inside the tent. She tripped on the pitcher she earlier dropped and fell face first to the ground. ¡°And someone should clean that up as well.¡± 3. Lorica the Third ¡°Cookie, cookie, cookie,¡± I said, holding out my bandaged right hand. No cookie. So much for controlling my dream. Wasn¡¯t I supposed to be lucid dreaming? ¡°Cheesecake, cheesecake, anything?¡± ¡°Lady Lorica,¡± Doctor Ochre said. ¡°Please drink this phanella infused tea, it will help you relax.¡± ¡°Sure,¡± I said, taking the cup. It smelled like chamomile tea and had a faint taste of apples. Besides the good doctor, four other people were in front of me. The woman with tattoos, the gigantic man with braided beard she seemed to be at odds with, a thin lanky man wearing oversized green robes and large round spectacles, and a short grandma weirdly wearing the same blue armor the knights in my earlier dream but squished to her size. More people were waiting outside. They could still fit inside my spacious tent, but hulk man shooed them away. ¡°Who else was present when this first happened?¡± hulk man said. ¡°Maltho, Briar, and Pierce? They¡¯re not here, right?¡± ¡°Maltho will take about two days to arrive here,¡± glasses guy said. ¡°Briar is back at the castle. And Pierce is off recruiting mercenaries.¡± ¡°Five others aren¡¯t with us anymore,¡± grandma said. ¡°The last two years of war were unforgiving.¡± The others nodded gravely. ¡°So, who are you people?¡± I said. They looked at each other with knowing faces. The tattooed woman balled her fists tightly, closed her eyes and bowed her head down. ¡°I sincerely apologize,¡± she said. ¡°If only I was able to arrive there sooner.¡± ¡°What¡¯s done is done, and this is the situation we¡¯re facing now,¡± hulk man said. He stepped forward, clasped his hands in front of him in some form of salute, and bowed, showing his bald head that was covered with redish gold geometric patterns. ¡°Lady Lorica, I am Ravlar Remus, grandson of the great Dragon Slayer Rakius Remus who fought with your grandmother, the first Lorica. The house of Remus has pledged loyalty to the one who wears the mantle of the divine hero Lorica since the Great War. My soldiers are at your disposal.¡± The bespectacled man stepped forward next and slightly bowed at the hips. ¡°The scholar Rekku at your service. Although it is quite presumptuous of me to call myself a scholar, implying that I am quite knowledgeable in my field. How about a man who dabbles in magic who still has much to learn? I have served your ladyship as I believe that you will lead us to stand above all creatures.¡± ¡°I am Lydia Des Grammar, of the Grammar family of knights,¡± the amazon-like woman said. She knelt on one knee and stood back up. ¡°Our banner flies with yours, as it had since the Great War. It greatly pains me that I have to introduce myself to you for the third time, even more so since this is my fault. If only I came to your aid sooner I ¨C¡± ¡°Hush Lydia deary,¡± grandma said, cutting in. ¡°No one could have known that Baramedes separated their summoners from their main army to ambush the young Lady.¡± ¡°They must have been surprised when Lady Lorica wiped them all out,¡± Rekku mused. ¡°I wish I could have seen their faces.¡± Lydia said, ¡°Nonetheless, I could have ¨C¡± ¡°But you didn¡¯t,¡± Ravlar said. ¡°None of that,¡± grandma said as she waved at Ravlar. ¡°Let us not fight in the young Lady¡¯s presence.¡± Grandma walked to my bedside and held my right hand. ¡°I am Derla, and I have been your nanny since you were a baby. Now that you have become a fine young lady off to war, I will fight by your side.¡± ¡°Oh, I guess I¡¯m supposed to be this Lorica,¡± I said. Since I couldn¡¯t control my dream, I figured that I should just play along and see where this goes. ¡°What should I do then?¡± ¡°Young lady,¡± grandma Derla said, ¡°you don¡¯t remember any of us?¡± ¡°No. How should I know any of you? This is a dream, right?¡± ¡°You have lost your memories, deary,¡± Derla said gently. "And this is not a dream." ¡°What? Uh, okay then,¡± I said. ¡°Not that I had any memories as Lorica in the first place.¡± ¡°It is similar to what has happened before,¡± Lydia said. ¡°Any explanations for us, doctor?¡± ¡°Well, I am not certain as to what happened, but I would say that this case is similar to the Undying King Lraniel,¡± Doctor Ochre said. ¡°The one sealed by the First?¡± ¡°Exaclty. Impressive regenerative abilities and could seemingly come back from the dead, as he actually did after the First destroyed him in the battle of Sangryn. He was undying, as his title suggests, because he drew lis from the earth itself, and not any specific Forebearer. An actual child of the earth, so to speak. As long as he stood on earth, he will not die. ¡°His head was blown off by the First, yet he was able to regenerate his head. Curiously, he lost all of his memories. I surmise that he lost his memories as although he has regenerated his brain, he could not regenerate his memories.¡± ¡°Are you saying that we have lost Lady Lorica?¡± Lydia said, her voice cracking a bit with desperation. ¡°Isn¡¯t that what essentially happened?¡± ¡°Lydia, Lady Lorica is right here with us,¡± Derla said. ¡°All we need to do is to get her back to the castle.¡± ¡°Yes, the Lady is in one piece, and that is what¡¯s important,¡± Rekku said. ¡°Incidentally, doctor, how is the Hand of the Pacifist?¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. All of them turned to Doctor Ochre. He took my hand from Derla and slowly unwrapped my bandages. I stopped breathing, anxious as to what I might find. This dream could suddenly turn into a nightmare, and I couldn¡¯t do anything about it. It turned out, it was just my normal right hand. I thought at the least I would have scars or wounds on my right arm because my left hand was unbandaged. However, everyone in the room looked disappointed. Lydia in particular appeared to be especially sad. ¡°What¡¯s the big deal?¡± I said. Doctor Ochre took out a blue vial from the inside of his rob. A small puff of glittering smoke came out of the vial as he pulled out the golden stopper. ¡°This is an extract of azurebane mixed with powdered lasstone. One drop would elevate the lis levels of an ordinary human for a few seconds to the point where he could probably use magic. Please drink the entire bottle, my lady.¡± ¡°Okay, nothing like drinking suspicious liquids,¡± I said sarcastically. I downed it in one go and immediately felt power surging through me. My entire body was tingling with energy that I felt that I could probably knock down the huge Ravlar in one punch. ¡°Kindly concentrate your lis to you right hand,¡± Ochre said. ¡°My what to my hand?¡± ¡°You lis, your magical energy, part of the life force of the creator of humanity,¡± Rekku said. He adjusted his glasses as he examined me intently. ¡°Imagine the energy flowing through you right now is water. Gushing water. Redirect all that flow to your right hand.¡± I furrowed my brows, staring with focus at my right hand, pushing away the thoughts saying ¡®this is stupid.¡¯ My hand started to glow and it felt warm. Slowly, my fingertips turned white and shiny like carved marble. ¡°I¡¯m turning into a statue,¡± I exclaimed, breaking my concentration. The glow faded and the plaster-like covering of my fingers flaked away. ¡°We have much work to do,¡± Ravlar said. ¡°Since the last incident two year ago,¡± Rekku said, ¡°she was able to maintain the Hand of the Pacifist up to her wrist.¡± "And we need it now more than ever." ¡°I will help her train,¡± Lydia said. ¡°This is my responsibility.¡± ¡°Uh, guys,¡± I said. ¡°I still don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on. I mean I know this is a dream and all, but what¡¯s the point?¡± Grandma Derla said, ¡°Master Rekku, if you please.¡± ¡°I have powers, right?¡± I said. ¡°I¡¯m sure you are feeling confused right now, my lady,¡± Rekku said. ¡°But don¡¯t fret, the scholar Rekku is here. There I go calling myself scholar again.¡± ¡°This might take some time,¡± Ravlar said. ¡°I¡¯ll tell the others outside that the lady is not yet ready to have many visitors.¡± He walked out of the tent. Rekku held out his hands, making circular motions in the air. The air shimmered like there was concrete giving off heat on a scorching hot day. Butterflies made out of light flew out from Rekku¡¯s palms, bunching up together forming something. The light slowly faded, leaving behind a thick book with metal covers and bound closed by a chain. Rekku caught it as it fell from the air. ¡°Teach me that,¡± I said. ¡°I could do that right?¡± Cookie, cookie, cookie, tadaa! Still nothing. My hands were still empty. ¡°This is my personal Memory Tome, as any respected scholar should have, or rather a respected dabbler of the arcane,¡± Rekku said. ¡°Here I record all sorts of information I come across so that I may preserve it for future generations.¡± The chains binding the book loosened and disappeared. Rekku opened the book, turning it to me and holding it like a parent telling a child a story with a picture book. But the pages of the book were empty. Or they were until Rekku started using magic again. Black ink bled through the pages and formed into the drawing of a beautiful and fierce woman with wavy hair flowing as if blown by the wind, raising a large sword above her. ¡°The Lorica the First,¡± Rekku said. ¡°Your grandmother. The embodiment of the majority of the lis of the Forebearer of mankind. Or the god of mankind, for the more religious minded. It¡¯s admittedly hard to be religious if one is serving the child of the god in the flesh, so to speak. ¡°Perhaps I should also discuss lis for a bit. Lis is the power of the Forebearers, or the ancient gods. They divided their powers among their creations. The more powerful the god, the more powerful their creations became. Take the dragons for example.¡± ¡°There are dragons in this world?¡± I said. The pictures on the book of Rekku transformed to illustrate his words, and now it turned into a dragon. I hardly read any fantasy books, but I knew what dragons were. Still, I never would have thought that my dream world would have dragons. ¡°Pitifully few left, after their war with the Old Giants,¡± Lydia said. ¡°Few, but powerful,¡± Rekku said. ¡°And that was because the dragon god was the most powerful of all the Forebearers. The god that made humans was not powerful, to say the least. However, he had a plan. He did not distribute his lis to his creations. Only a few sprinkle here and there, which was why there are a few humans who could use magic. What happened to most of humanity¡¯s lis, you may ask?¡± ¡°It became me, Lorica,¡± I said. ¡°Correct. Or, to be more accurate, it became your grandmother. Lorica, the heroine of mankind. The one who will lead us puny humans against all the other races. The one who will unite us all. Just imagine how much progress humanity can make. We can match the magecraft civilization of the Old Giants.¡± ¡°Fine, so my grandmother was the First Lorica? Who¡¯s the second?¡± ¡°Your mother. It appears that the mantle of Lorica is passed down mother to daughter, I suppose. When your grandmother passed away, your mother became the Lorica. And when your mother passed away thirteen years ago, you became the Lorica, even though you were only a child.¡± ¡°Thirteen years ago?¡± I whispered to myself. My mother died thirteen years ago. I was actually having a dream about her? I barely knew her and she chose to leave me and my father, overdosing on those fucking sleeping pills. Such a stupid thing to dream about. ¡°Is everything alright, deary?¡± Derla said. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± I said a bit curtly. ¡°Rekku, thanks for the explanation. But as you can see, I lost my memories as Lorica, so what¡¯s next in my quest as the champion of humanity?¡± ¡°Well, we have to get the book first,¡± Rekku said. ¡°What book?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the book kept safely at Castle Glaivefall. A book containing spells and incantations pertaining to your memory. You have two important instructions to us, your retainers. One, never let you sleep when you are dying because you will lose all your memories. Two, if you indeed lost your memories, we should give the book to you.¡± Don¡¯t sleep if I¡¯m dying? Gavin said that to me during my previous dream. This was really a continuing dream. Was this even possible? Apparently, I died back then. Surviving being skewered by a gigantic magical barbecue stick would be stupid. Internal dream logic then. Rekku closed his magical picture book. ¡°I myself am curious as to the contents of the book your ladyship wrote. What spells are inside it? Perhaps I could take a peek after you have used it?¡± ¡°That is most likely the most important book to humanity, right now,¡± Lydia said. ¡°Don¡¯t experiment with it.¡± Rekku held his hands up to show that he was giving up asking for the book, but he has a mischievous expression that I wasn¡¯t so sure I could trust him. Pause, why was I thinking of whether I could trust someone in a dream or not? My thoughts were interrupted as Ravlar went back inside the tent. ¡°My lady, everyone wants to see you,¡± he said. ¡°For their morale, I also advise that you go out and meet them. Though, they should never know that you lost your memories.¡± Rekku piped up, ¡°May I suggest that Doctor Ochre can bandage her head. Then we can say that her head injury is making her mind fuzzy. We will have to stay by her side to parry prying questions.¡± ¡°That would work,¡± Ravlar said. "We should fix the young lady''s appearance first," Derla said. "It is unbecoming for her to meet the troops with her bed hair. "