"I'm back!"
His voice echoed through the corridors, carrying an excitement and emotion Giovanni had rarely felt before.
That day was no different from any other, with people going on with their lives as if nothing had happened.
All the suffering and pain the people of that house had endured were just another story among many that would never be acknowledged in a cold world.
Still, the sun felt warmer than ever, and the familiar air relaxed him.
No luxury in either world could compare to the feeling of simply having returned whole.
He was no liar. Giovanni had kept his promise, and this was only the beginning. There was still much the boy needed to do.
Margaret was waiting for him on the other side of the door, seeming to struggle to recognize him there.
Perhaps she thought it was a trick of her mind, but she had to rest her hands on his cheeks to be sure.
"My God… Giovanni."
The woman's eyes held feelings and thoughts that the young man struggled to decipher.
He only knew she must be just as happy.
Neither of them spoke for a few seconds, lost in deep reflection.
"You made me cook for two people for three days straight… don't you have any shame?"
Giovanni's expression fell, surprised by the comment.
Before he had time to come up with excuses, the loud, steady footsteps of some little creature echoed through the corridors.
"Ruffian?!"
The bird took a short flight and launched a cruel attack on Giovanni, pecking at his head to vent all the days it had gone without its owner.
Giovanni let out a startled yelp and, with difficulty, managed to free himself from the bad-tempered rooster itching for a fight.
Small tears formed at the corners of his eyes as he still felt the pain in his head, however slight.
When he looked at Ruffian, he was met with a cold shoulder.
"Why am I getting the cold shoulder?! You're the one who beat me up, you chicken!"
"It's a rooster, boy!"
Giovanni stared at Margaret in disbelief. She was defending his attacker!
"I haven't even managed to make today's lunch yet. Come on, I'll need a hand in the kitchen."
Being pulled inside the orphanage, he lowered his head, defeated. It was finally a new day.
***
Giovanni had already eaten more than enough at the station, but he helped prepare the soup without sparing any effort.
Apparently, he and his longtime rival had made peace, since Rufião was now resting on his head.
After everything that had happened, it was curious that he and Margaret preferred to act as if it were just another ordinary day, but perhaps that was for the best.
The chain of tragedies had been broken, and now… it was up to Giovanni to make sure things stayed that way. Still, neither of them could pretend things were the same.
With lunch served in bowls and a few pieces of meat placed on a small plate for Rufião, Margaret took the initiative to speak.
"Have you talked to Omar about the preparations to leave here?"
Her words were direct, but precise. If Giovanni wanted to survive his journey to the realm of dreams at the winter solstice, he needed to become more prepared for… everything, honestly.
If he wasn't stronger, faster, tougher, more skilled, and more prepared than ever, the miracle that allowed him to return would be wasted.
And there was only one place in that city that could offer the necessary resources: the awakened academy.
A true impregnable fortress that gathered the best teachers and cutting-edge equipment.
"Actually, no… he just wanted me to see you first. But I don't need to stay there! Mornings and afternoons will be for training and studying, and at night I'll come back here."
Margaret shook her head in refusal. It wasn't that she disliked the idea, but it was unfeasible. The distance between the orphanage and the facility wasn't something that could be crossed in a few minutes.
Omar was their friend, not their driver. Many times, he would be busy with his own work.
"I don't want the time you spend here with me to be the reason you fail in the other world, dear."
Margaret looked toward the window, thinking about the things Omar liked to tell about the other side.
"If you want to survive, your only focus from now until the solstice must be your routine there, understood?"
After all the effort he had made to return, would he have to leave again so soon? Apparently, that was the life of someone chosen by the spell.
"I understand… but it doesn't have to be today! I said we were going to a restaurant together and put it on Mr. Omar's tab. That idea is still standing."
They would still need to contact him to see if he'd be free that evening, but just imagining the delicacies waiting for him on those fancy menus made him drool a little.
That wasn't the only thing he still needed to take care of. A certain kid was waiting for him to come back.
"And do you think that kind of idea is nice? Anyway, I'll contact him to discuss the schedule."
Lunch went on without any trouble. Giovanni tidied his room, cleaned the bathroom, and helped clean the rest of the rooms Margaret hadn't managed to handle alone.
Around five in the afternoon, he received a visitor. Michel had apparently come to do his morning check, wanting to know if Giovanni had already arrived.
The sound of incessant knocking on the door was very welcome after everything he'd been through.
This time, he was personally greeted by the older boy.
Giovanni leaned against the doorframe, wearing a smile that held back a laugh.
"Don't you ever get tired of coming here to bother the poor old lady?"
Michel became ecstatic at his friend's return. His excessive energy seemed to have built up with no one to listen to his endless monologues.
"GIOVANNI! What were you doing?! I came here to call you to help me build the cyborg-samurai-warrior, but you weren't here! Auntie said you were traveling, but I didn't believe it! Like, who just leaves out of nowhere? So I thought there was actually some ultra-secret project going on. Unfortunately, when I tried to break in, the door was locked…"
Giovanni had many questions. Like, how did he try to break into the orphanage? And bizarrely, the part about something secret going on was accurate.
"We can talk about that cyborg-samurai-warrior later… and it wasn't anything special, really. I just had my first nightmare."
Michel went pale. Whatever secret he'd been expecting, that seemed to be the last one he wanted to hear.
"Let's talk about this inside. Shut your trap for now."
He followed the redhead to the recreation room, where it seemed more appropriate to pass the time. He grabbed one of those big Pilates balls from a corner and lay on top of it out of sheer laziness.
"Y-You can't just say something like that! Tell me, tell me everything!"
Michel started pushing and shaking Giovanni, nearly knocking him off the ball.
"Calm down! Let me remember properly, geez… alright, it all started in a really hot desert, like my kitchen stove at home. I had no water, no food! But I had one thing! Can you guess what it was?"
Michel touched his chin, thoughtful.
"Hunger?"
Giovanni snorted in irritation. The answer was correct, but not the one he wanted!
"That too! But mainly, I had my body. Seriously, I was ripped, no joke."
Michel looked skeptical, sensing lies dripping from those words.
"I don't think even the spell could pull that off…"
"Shut up! Anyway, I needed to get out of the sun, so I ran really fast to a nearby cave. During the night, I drank water from the snow and hunted some terrible beasts with my bare hands, with sharp teeth that used flames to lure prey. They just didn't count on my cunning."
And the difference in size, too, but that detail wasn't important. Michel seemed genuinely impressed by the feat, imagining the worms as massive man-eaters.
"And how did you get out of there? Aren't deserts like, super hot during the day and super cold at night?"
Giovanni flashed a grin from ear to ear, proud of the trick he'd just invented on the spot.
"I simply covered the sun and kept going. I couldn't stand its light."
Michel jumped up from where he was sitting, eager to contest that blatant lie.
"It's impossible to cover the sun! Have you seen how big it is?! It's at least three times bigger than… something really big."
Giovanni shrugged, feigning indifference.
"What can I say? My power is incredible. Anyway, I crossed the desert and reached a region where everything was red; it hurt your eyes just to look at it. Along the way, a terrible storm happened, so I had to hide in a little corner. But then…"
Giovanni jumped off the ball, shouting at Michel, who fell backward in fright.
"A nightmare creature appeared! It was a half-human scorpion, the ugliest thing you've ever seen, doesn't even compare! And the worst part, it was awakened."
Michel swallowed hard. Awakened creatures were stronger than most military equipment, true killing machines.
"And you ran from it?! How?!"
Giovanni wagged his finger, looking completely confident.
"I just gave it a simple kick. It flew so far that it just died. It should've picked another target."
The storm sent it flying, but his kick exposed the creature to the winds, so it was basically the same thing!
"Whoa… you're amazing! Practically a superhero! Show me your power! I want to see!"
Giovanni swallowed. Even he didn't know how much stronger his control over terrain had become. He could only pray it had turned into something more impressive.
"Later! Finally, I entered an abandoned city in the region, like, totally falling apart. After walking around a bit, I reached the center and found a massive tower. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the nightmare. Apparently, I had to defeat a giant centipede… it was like forty meters long!"
Or at least, he thought so. At the time, Giovanni hadn't had time to calculate anyone's size.
Michel tried to imagine an insect that large, but the proportions simply failed in his mind.
"If you tell me you kicked this one too, I'm throwing this board at your face!"
It took a few moments to properly describe the battle with the creature.
"No, you're right, it was too big for just a kick. Luckily, there was a really big rock nearby. I didn't even have to lift a finger, seriously. I stared at a wall so hard it cracked, and plop, the rock fell and killed the thing. I even got a memory to prove it!"
The redhead fell back, kicking his feet against the soft floor, extremely excited.
Now that he mentioned it… the memory! He'd been so focused on everything that happened that he'd completely forgotten to check his reward.
By that point, Michel thought Giovanni was the reincarnation of the "Broken Sword" himself. His eyes sparkled with admiration, filling Giovanni's heart with guilt, but also amusement… kids believe things so easily.
When he noticed Michel staring at him expectantly, waiting for him to summon the legendary equipment, he gestured for the boy to turn his back.
"Go stare at the wall! I need to change."
Michel nodded frantically, doing as told. After removing the basic clothes he'd borrowed from Omar, Giovanni summoned the Grafter's Tunic.
The runes described:
Memory: [Grafter's Tunic].
Memory Rank: Transcendent.
Memory Type: Armor.
Memory description: [When the greedy king tried to steal from the sun what was most precious to it, the punishment came in the cruelest form: eternity. Banished from the throne, his body crawled through mud. Even when the rivers dried and life rotted like fallen leaves, he endured, ever growing, ever changing. From limb to limb, he would reach the heavens.]
The outfit was familiar to Giovanni's eyes. It was the same thing that the creature had been wearing.
'So that guy really was a king… or rather, it once was. And in the end, it died crushed by its own tower. What an irony.'
It was by far the most luxurious thing he had ever worn. Perfectly molded to his size, the armor was divided into two parts.
The inner layer acted like a second skin, clinging to his form and covering him from feet to neck without flaw. Made of a flexible and comfortable material, it allowed for mobility and lightness.
The second part was a long mantle, meant to convey a sense of grandeur and class.
The fabric seemed impenetrable to mortal hands, protecting the body without the need for metal plates while remaining as light as a feather.
Its stitching displayed varied patterns, exalting the sun and the seas, the gold of royalty, and the serene blue of rivers.
"It's beautiful!"
Michel was in love with the garment, seeing for the first time a work of art that made even his father's craftsmanship look like child's play.
The redhead ran over and hid inside the mantle, using the long fabric as a hiding place. After a few seconds, he poked his head out and looked up at Giovanni's face.
"You look like a prince, Giovanni! How did you get this from an insect?"
He considered describing the nightmare to Michel in greater depth, but for now, he thought it was better to let his childish explanation stand as the truth.
"Who knows...maybe the centipede had a sense of fashion."