For Umbra, mornings were always a silent negotiation between sleep and reality. That morning, reality ended up imposing itself gently. Thin rays of sunlight managed to break through the curtains, caressing her closed eyelids and slowly dissipating the fog of sleep that still enveloped her body.
She stretched lazily on the bed, letting the soft sheets slide beneath her as she fought a brief battle against the desire to keep sleeping.
Like every morning, reality eventually won. Her onyx eyes opened slowly, meeting the tranquility of her room. The breeze coming through the window made the curtains sway, allowing the rays of light to slide across her delicate face before retreating, only to return an instant later.
Umbra let out a yawn and sat up slowly, stretching her arms above her head. She remained silent for a few seconds, her gaze lost among the small gaps in the curtains, observing the outside world as she finished waking up.
She was not a morning person at all—in fact, she would have loved to let herself be wrapped by the sheets again and keep sleeping. But that day was different.
She was happy.
After the conversation with Sunny yesterday, she felt as if a weight had been lifted from her back, making her feel lighter and happier.
'I have a brother now…'
That was something different.
Umbra had only had sisters until now, and they weren't blood-related sisters. However, Sunny was. Not only that—he was her brother, her twin.
For that reason, everything related to him was going to be new to her. Even so, she had committed to treating him the same way she would treat her other sisters. Taking care of him when the time came and helping him if necessary, as any sibling would.
With that in mind, she finally deigned to get out of bed before the temptation to fall back asleep defeated her.
Still looking at the curtains moving in the window, she let out a slight sigh while holding back another yawn and lowered her gaze to her pair of Nightingale slippers. They had the band's icon and were black.
Wearing them, she headed to the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth before taking a two-minute cold shower to fully wake up and be ready for the day.
She didn't actually need the cold shower to get its benefits—she could use her Innate Ability to achieve certain effects—but habit had her following the routine anyway.
Finally, after cursing the heavens for the cold water and getting ready to the level a princess of the Song Clan should always maintain, she deigned to head to the cafeteria.
In reality, all she did was fix her hair and put on the Academy uniform, though hers bore a clan insignia on her chest compared to the rest of the Sleepers, who didn't have one.
Walking through the monotonous hallways of the Academy, she ran into other Legacies until she finally reached the cafeteria. The first thing her eyes did was search for her brother's figure, and after a few seconds, she found him sitting in his usual spot.
In front of him was an enormous plate of food, in which Umbra could see: eggs, bacon, rice, steak, and a nearly nonexistent amount of vegetables—plus a coffee.
'…I'm going to have to teach him how to eat healthy too,' Umbra couldn't help but sigh mentally.
At the same table as her brother was the Sleeper whose Flaw was blindness, along with a social worker who was constantly helping her.
Seeing her, she remembered several of her sisters' Flaws and how many of them over the years hadn't returned from the Winter Solstice…
Shaking those thoughts away before they ruined her good mood, she got in line for breakfast. When her turn came, she served herself a bowl of oatmeal, scrambled eggs accompanied by tomato slices, two toasts, and a couple of strips of bacon. To complete her breakfast, she took a cup of black coffee, no sugar.
Arriving at her usual table, she sat down calmly, and around her, it filled with Legacies affiliated with the clan who had a lot of energy in the mornings…
It didn't take her long to finish her breakfast in that environment. Luckily, the rest had already realized that she wasn't much for talking in the mornings, so while they sat around her, almost no one directly asked her anything. They simply started gossiping about the Academy.
Something she noticed during breakfast was that there were more Sleepers than the previous day—which could be perfectly normal, if not for the fact that most of them were Legacies from clans affiliated with Valor…
'…I don't like this in the slightest,' she thought as she observed the newcomers.
After finishing breakfast, she said goodbye to the table and began heading toward the introductory combat class.
Before leaving the cafeteria, she threw a fleeting glance toward Sunny's table, and he was looking at her at that exact moment, so she gave him a slight smile and headed to the dojo.
It didn't take her long to get there, and like the previous day, she was one of the first to arrive. She wasn't exactly the first, because inside the dojo, someone was already walking toward the sword rack to start warming up.
Looking at her from behind, Umbra quickly realized who it was—none other than Nephis.
She didn't know if Nephis had already detected her presence behind her, and to avoid misunderstandings, she preferred to wait a few more seconds at the door before entering the dojo.
By that point, Umbra had already figured out several things—one of them being the reason she was told to stay away from her, and why Nephis would think she had been sent to kill her.
'I suppose we're equal now, aren't we?' she said to herself mentally with a slight laugh.
When a few seconds passed and she began to hear the sound of movement, she finally deigned to enter the dojo, and upon doing so, she immediately crossed glances with her.
Her onyx eyes met Nephis's gray ones, and Umbra broke the exchange immediately. She had no intention of giving her more importance—she had already waited too long at the door.
Walking toward a mat, she first did some movements to warm up her body, and after finishing them, she headed to the sword rack to find her familiar Ninjato. Finally, she decided to choose a Katana…
With the wooden sword in her hands, she began practicing movements to get used to its balance and weight.
A diagonal cut, followed by a grip change to perform a horizontal motion, and finally a combination of practice movements.
The practice took about five minutes as she focused solely on the movements of the blade and her body. When it finished, she put the sword back on the rack and stood waiting for the class to fill up.
She could have continued practicing, but she decided against it upon noticing Sleepers already entering the dojo.
She had a great memory for recognizing faces—not so much for names, but faces, yes!—so she immediately recognized the first ones entering.
Most were from clans affiliated with Valor who hadn't been at the Academy previously, meaning they had arrived only last night or this morning.
The only thing that had changed by then was the news that she was at the Academy… meaning those Sleepers were there to spy on her.
It could be that she was wrong and being arrogant, but what other reason would all the newcomers be affiliated with the other clan? Some non-Legacy could have done it too… and yet, there were none.
Still, it could still be a coincidence, but she wasn't stupid enough to think that. Besides, it was better to be safe than sorry.
They couldn't do anything to her while she was at the Academy, but still, she didn't want to give Valor any information about her.
Especially now with the possibility that they might discover Sunny was her brother and end up using him against her, or hurting him.
For that reason, she let out a sigh and headed in the opposite direction from everyone else.
Leaving the dojo while pretending not to notice the glances others discreetly threw at her, she made her way to the Wilderness Survival class.
Obviously, before that, she went to her room, grabbed her communicator, and informed the clan of the situation. She also changed her clothes into something more comfortable.
Then she took a few more turns around the Academy just in case and finally deigned to enter Professor Julius's class.
Upon doing so, she saw her brother turn around to see who had entered the room, and upon noticing her, he froze. Meanwhile, Professor Julius let out a smile as he observed her.
"Oh! We're going to have another student?" the latter said.
Umbra smiled as she approached them both and cordially greeted him.
"Awakened Julius, it's an honor to see you again." Then, she added, looking at Sunny, "Actually, I came due to an urgent matter to speak with Sunless."
"An urgent matter, you say?" asked the charismatic professor immediately, though he didn't give her time to respond. "Of course! Take all the time you need."
She gave a small bow and stepped aside, with Sunny following her with a confused face.
Upon reaching a suitable spot, Sunny voiced his curiosity.
"What happened?"
She looked around before responding and said in a low voice, "I thought of a better idea than being at the Academy."
Sunny frowned.
"…What?"
"I thought," she began to explain, "that instead of being at the Academy, we could go to one of the clan's compounds, and your training there would have much better results."
Sunny was silent for a few moments before saying with a raised eyebrow, "Learning to fight will help me, sure, but right now, what I need most is to learn how to survive in the wilderness, not how to wield a sword."
Umbra nodded.
"I know, but one doesn't exclude the other." She smiled slightly. "Professor Julius himself can keep teaching you even if you're at the compound."
"What? How?" Sunny asked, not believing her.
Umbra's smile widened slightly.
"There are several ways, one of the ones that would make the most sense would be for you to travel from the compound to the Academy every day for classes and then come back." Before he could interrupt, she continued, "Of course, the transportation would be in a clan PTV with a driver I personally know, so it wouldn't cost you anything but time."
Sunny tilted his head thoughtfully and asked again.
"And the others? Because I don't have that much time—only a month."
She nodded again.
"Another option is for the professor to move to the compound. It wouldn't be the first time he's done it, and it won't be the last." She threw a fleeting glance at Julius and continued, "Academy professors also have clan students to teach, and Professor Julius is one of those who has given private lessons to several of my sisters, for example."
Before Sunny could say anything, she added:
"You don't have to choose right now. Think about it for a day and answer me tomorrow."
Her brother nodded but then frowned.
"Why tomorrow? I thought we were going to train tonight for the first time?"
"That was the plan," she replied immediately, then added, "But I just remembered that I also have to get you the Memories you need, and that's not a quick process, so the sooner, the better."
"So you're going to have to tell me what kind of Memories you're missing and which ones you have, so I can get you some that might combine well."
Sunny looked up slightly with a thoughtful expression and, after a few seconds, replied.
"I'd be missing a sword, a storage Memory, and maybe a bow?" He made a thoughtful sound. "Oh! And arrows too, right?"
Umbra noted it down on her communicator and asked while writing.
"Any preference on enchantments?"
"No, anything works." Then, with a slightly timid voice, he asked, "How much is that going to cost you?"
She frowned upon finishing writing everything down.
'…Cost? Oh, right… he doesn't know how these things work.'
She put her phone back in her pocket and replied with a smile.
"It's not going to cost me anything, Sunny. Don't worry. Later, when we have more time, I'll explain how things work internally for clans regarding Memories."
Sunny, after a few seconds, ended up nodding and added.
"You're also going to have to explain this urge to go to a compound instead of staying here. Don't think I believed that was the only reason!"
Umbra couldn't help but give him a small apologetic smile.
"Hehe, you caught me. Well, I'll explain that too, but we'll do it tomorrow, okay? I have to go now."
Sunny chuckled and then nodded.
Before parting ways, he gave her his contact number, and she headed back to her room.
The walk took a few minutes, and while she walked, she contacted Mart—her driver—to come pick her up at the Academy.
They finally agreed that he would pick her up in two hours, as he was currently occupied. Without much worry, she accepted and let herself fall onto her soft bed.
She had already spoken with another clan member to start obtaining the Memories for Sunny, so she had no problem with that. Additionally, in the same conversation, she notified the closest compound to the Academy that she would visit the place throughout the day.
With that settled, she opened her trusted page for novels and began reading her current one.
It was called "Lord of the Mysteries," and Umbra was just about to finish the second volume—she had been enjoying it quite a bit!
'I hope I can finish the novel before the Winter Solstice…'
…With that goal in mind, she spent the next two hours reading.