Way of the Knights

Chapter 874-876: A Dream?

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‘…eh?’ 

This was all Stephen could think of once he realized that nothing’s happening. He furrowed his brows and stared at the ball on top of the table. He was confused but he touched it again and just like before, nothing really happened. 

‘…god, I feel so dumb.’ He thought to himself, sighing at the bizarre situation. ‘What was so afraid of then? This is so stupid.’ 

He thinks of this but deep down, he knows. 

What he felt earlier was real. He was actually freaking out and this ball was causing it. That ball was calling to him, he could swear that it was. 

But then again, what was that all about? Nothing happened! 

He’s expecting something at least. Some kind of…reaction perhaps, he wasn’t expecting nothing to happen at all. And honestly, it was quite disappointing. He felt so stupid for being so afraid of this ball now. 

“Whatever.” He murmured, “At least this place is empty. I can probably stay here. At least until I could think of something to help with my current situation.” 

Stephen shook his head and stepped out of the abandoned shack. He made his way to the nearby stream and washed his hands before cupping them to drink from it. 

This water was clean…he guessed. Well, it was clear so it should be clean and drinkable. He shouldn’t get an upset stomach from this. 

The water was slightly cold. It refreshed him and made him more awake. At least, some of his fatigue was alleviated. 

He then sat at the edge of the stream of water and looked at it. He squinted his eyes and saw small fishes. His eyes lit up at this sight. He looked around him and said:

“Well, at least I’m alone here. Nobody’s preventing me from catching them and I guess, nobody would fight me over these fishes.” 

He stood up and walked at stream. His shivered when his legs were submerged at the water, it was cold but manageable. He stood there and stabilized himself before looking sternly at below him. 

Well, he could make a fishing pole and probably dig up some worms as bait but it would take him forever to do that so he thought he should just try catching fishes like this and with his bare hands. 

He didn’t fool himself into believing that this will be easy. Oh, he knows that this is going to take him a while but it’s better than nothing. He has time and he just can’t expect food to come to him anyways so he shouldn’t think too much about it. 

Stephen saw a fish approaching his legs. He unknowingly held his breath and waited for the right opportunity to catch it. Once the fish came close enough, he snapped into action and plunged his hands to the water. 

…he failed. It wasn’t even close to be honest. 

Stephen sighed and shrugged it off. He thought to himself:

‘It’s okay. It’s fine. I’ll try to catch the next one instead.’

A couple of minutes later, another fish came close again. And once again, Stephen prepared himself. After it entered a specific spot, he went for it but just like before, he missed it again. 

‘It’s fine. It’s okay. Third time’s the charm. Come on, Stephen, don’t give up, you can do this.’

‘Crap. No! This is fine. I…I’m learning. I guess. I will catch one by the end of the day I promise. I need to anyways since I’m really hungry.’

‘Missed one again.’

‘And again…’

‘And again…’

Stephen continued his attempts on catching fish by hand only to be met with consecutive failures. The first few ones shrugged off since he didn’t want to let it affect him. He thought back to his humble beginnings when he just started how to outsmart the adults of the orphanage to steal some food. It started just like this but eventually, he managed to do it. 

Still, this and that are completely different. Eventually, he came close to the point of giving up. His expectations were already brought to a nil. But just as he was about to give up. Something ridiculous happen. 

A fish threw itself at his face, slapping him with its tail much to his shock but his reflexes were fast enough to catch it before it managed to fall to the water again. 

Stephen’s eyes gleamed as he firmly grasped the fish and walked out of the stream. The fish struggled for a bit before it eventually remained still, probably dead. 

“What the hell?” 

That’s all Stephen could say after recovering from what just happened. 

It had to be knows that he must’ve spent hours standing at the stream, balancing himself and trying his best to catch a fish with his bare hands only to fail again and again. Then all of a sudden, as if the world was mocking him or consoling him, a fist literally leapt to his arms. 

What kind of bullshit is this? 

“…know what? Whatever! I’m not going to complain. I have food. Finally! Yay. I’m supposed to be happy. It’s alright.” 

“…ah who am I kidding.” Stephen sighed in exasperation. “No, I’m not happy. How can I? I don’t know how to cook this thing! I don’t even know how to start a fire!” 

Stephen wanted to cry but had no tears. 

He’s tired. He doesn’t know what to do. Nobody really taught him how to survive by himself. He’s alone. He’s always been alone. Nobody was willing to help him, everybody just want to take advantage of him because he’s stupid. 

Still, he doesn’t have the energy to lament over his situation. He had ran out of it a long time ago. All he could do was to continue, and that’s what he plans on doing. 

Whilst walking back towards the abandoned shack, he was murmuring…

“I should remove its innards. But I don’t have a knife. Maybe there’s something sharp in the shack? I hope there is. If it’s dirty I could just clean it in the water. Uh, I also wish there’s sparking stones in there somewhere, maybe I could start a fire with those.”

“I gotta try at least. I wanna eat. I’m hungry. I don’t want to die from hunger. Whew, I’m sweaty…” 

Stephen isn’t sweaty. That’s a lie. He’s wiping the tears from his eyes. For some reason he calls his tears, sweat instead. 

“Um…what?” 

But just as Stephen thought the world was done mocking him. Another ridiculous thing happened. 

Stephen could swear to every god know to man that he memorized the way back to the abandoned shack. He followed the same path. He made sure of it. He was supposed to return to the old and abandoned shack but what the hell is this now? 

Why is there a concrete building which has three floors in front of him? It’s in the same place as the abandoned shack before! What the hell is going on? 

“I’m dreaming. Yep. I totally am aren’t I? Haha, very funny. I can’t believe I spent hours catching fish with my bare hands inside a freaking dream. Haha, that’s so hilarious.” Stephen mocked his laughter while trying to pinch his arm. 

He squinted when he felt the pain but still played along. 

“I wonder if my sleeping body’s still in the orphanage? I swear when I wake up, I observe closely how to make fire and how to fish. Just in case they actually kick me out, you know.” 

Stephen pinched his arm again and again but he still felt the sting which caused his frown to deepen. 

“They say that within dreams, I can’t feel pain. Why does it sting then?” He murmured and looked at the fish. “This shouldn’t be real. I’m dreaming. This fish isn’t real. But it does smell really bad.” 

All of a sudden, Stephen heard a creaking nearby. He then saw the door opening which caused him to be alarmed. 

Then, a man who has a long blue hair tied into a ponytail stepped out. Stephen could’ve sworn that he never saw someone this handsome before. 

The man looked rich, he’s more of a noble than those people he saw at the orphanage before who came there to adopt. 

“Oh, there you are.” 

“Huh?” Stephen was flabbergasted as the man looked at his direction.  action

He looked towards his left and right, then back at the man. He pointed to himself with a questioning look and he saw the man nodding to him. 

“Yes, you silly. I’m talking to you.” The man chuckled. “Come on in.” 

“‘I’m sorry what?” Stephen was still confused. 

“I said, come on in.” The man gestured inside the large house.

“Um…uh…” Stephen doesn’t know what to do. He felt incredibly awkward and also wary at this point. He doesn’t trust this man at all even though he looks like he could do nothing wrong. He doesn’t trust adults right now. 

“You’re hungry right?” The man asked, to which Stephen reluctantly nodded, “You caught a fish, that’s great. But I assume you don’t know how to cook it. I’ll even say that you don’t even know how to properly set a fire.”

Stephen nodded again, hesitantly. 

“Well, come inside then. I’ll help you cook that that. Don’t worry it’s yours. I’m not going to steal it from you.”