Abner told everyone, "Now that we have introduced ourselves, someone carry Glorielle to a room and find one of your own; we will be staying here."
Brave asked, "But what about that safe place with free food Arthur mentioned?"
Abner looked at him as if he were looking at a stranger and answered, "Staying near a fallen devil? Are you crazy?"
Brave's mouth was wide open; he couldn't think of anything to say as he thought, 'Oh, so now you decide to have survival instincts!?'
Alec went to pick up Glorrielle, snorting, slightly amused by the scene. Kaelen also went to help him.
As they each chose rooms close to one another, they went to sleep while Kaelen and Arthur stayed to watch over the hallway in case a nightmare creature showed up.
A nightmare creature did show up it was another Hidden Rebel Wraith Arthur, who had his spear summoned asked worriedly, "Should we wake up the others? An awakened monster is too much for us alone.."
Kaelen shook his head and told Arthur, "No need to; it's just an awakened monster, and I've encountered a few before while we took over the castle, so I know they're weak spots."
After Kaelen said that, he used his aspect, glowing briefly before he rushed at the lone awakened monster.
He cut both of his arms off. The monster tried to defend itself, but the difference in speed was too much, and Kaelen then reversed the grip on his swords to hit it with the pommel in the chest, faster, knocking it over.
Now Kaelen couldn't move, so he told Arthur, "Kill it while it's still down; stab it in the chest quickly!" Arthur was surprised by how easily Kaelen had incapacitated an awakened monster and his speed.
But he quickly did as Kaelen told him while thinking, 'As expected of the First Bright Lords Cohort, all of them are monsters in their own right!'
He soon heard the voice of the spell whisper in his ear.
[You have Slain an Awakened Monster: Hidden Rebel's Wraith]
Kaelen asked, "Did it drop anything? Be honest, I won't steal it." Arthur answered honestly, "No, it didn't drop anything."
Then Arthur remembered, 'I don't even know any of their names!' he asked Kaelen "By the way, what's your name? I forgot to ask."
Kaelen looked at Arthur stunned and asked back, "Wait, you don't know me? I'm one of Nightwalker's sons, and I became a popular actor since I was 12! Do you live under a rock by any chance?"
Arthur was shocked; he was talking to the heir of a great clan so casually! And he even revealed his divine aspect to him already!
'I sure hope he won't try to recruit me too much in the future,' Arthur mused as he answered Kaelen half truthfully.
"Well, I was just reading novels all the time before my first nightmare, and I didn't even realize that I was infected since I often stayed up late reading them.
I also didn't attend the academy since I thought I would have died in the dream realm without a combat aspect to defend myself."
Kaelen was stunned by what he heard; he scolded Arthur, "You didn't even realize you were infected!? Had you failed your trial, you would have sentenced the nearby people to death!
And how could you not even try to attend the academy?! Giving up before you even try, how did someone like you get a divine rank aspect!?"
Kaelen was starting to doubt his claim of being a divine aspect holder.
"Well, I didn't even have to fight once in my nightmare; in fact, no battle took place in it at all." Arthur told Kaelen truthfully.
"No battle? But don't nightmares center around a conflict? Usually with a strong nightmare creature.Kaelen asked, "How did you even manage to stop it?" Arthur answered,
"Well, I turned all the people there, including the enemy, into my cult members—I mean, the followers of my completely legitimate sect!"
Kaelen was stunned after hearing what Arthur said 'He became a cult leader in a few days and managed to turn everyone into his followers?!'
He looked at Arthur again, trying to imagine him as a competent cult leader... but he couldn't; this guy just looked so pathetic, like a complete joke, then he remembered, 'Isn't that his flaw?'
Then he understood why he had gotten such a flaw: 'He must be a great conman, promising them something great like salvation from some kind of danger by posing as a powerful person, and they believed him somehow.
Both sides must have been humans for this to be possible.'
Kaelen then had a strange thought: 'If it wasn't for his flaw, would he have used his aspect to convince us into joining his cult?... scary...'
Kaelen finally replied after an uncomfortable moment of silence, "That's impressive. I've never heard of someone stopping the conflict from happening in a first nightmare or otherwise. No wonder you got a divine aspect!"
Arthur smiled smugly and answered, "hmmph! It was nothing too difficult for me. I know I'm awesome, so you can keep praising me. It must be hard to hold back the thought of how awesome I am, all to yourself!"
Kaelen's lips twitched; eventually, not being able to hold back, he laughed, "kkhhh hahahaha! You're actually quite funny. Arthur, with you staying here, won't be as boring."
Arthur's lips twitched in annoyance. 'I wasn't joking, I was bragging!' but he didn't say anything out loud and just nodded humbly.
Soon their turn to keep watch was over, and they went to wake up Abner and Alec since it was their turn after them.
Abner was sleeping when they went to wake him up. After shaking him a little, he opened his eyes and nodded, telling them, "I will go wake up, Alec."
Abner entered Alec's room only to find him already awake, looking like he didn't sleep at all.
Alec asked, "Is it our turn? I kept getting this strange feeling like I was about to die. I couldn't sleep at all."
Abner's eyes narrowed as he asked, "Do you think there's some kind of danger here?"
Alec shook his head, glancing in the direction of Naamah's room. "Other than her, I don't think so."
Abner sighed, looking at him. "She was just joking; don't take her words so seriously."
Alec sighed and nodded, saying, "If you say so," but in his mind he was thinking something entirely different: 'That psycho bitch is definitely staying up all night thinking about killing me!
And he was right in her room; she was failing to fall asleep, her hands twitching occasionally as she imagined stabbing that "Lucky Meat Shield" in his sleep.
"You lucky greedy meat shield bastard, sharing is caring, you know? If you gave me that echo, I could have stopped myself; it didn't have to turn out like this!" she muttered under her breath as she finally seemed to fall asleep.
Alec shuddered for some reason. Glancing at Naamah's room, he muttered, "Should I just give up my echo? I don't want to die while I'm still so young..." but his greed eventually won over his survival instinct, and he decided to keep it.
Morning eventually came.
Arthur woke up early, along with the others, as they went to have some cooked meat in the cafeteria since it had a furnace that could be used for cooking.
Glorielle who had woken up by now, noticed him and asked, "Wait, who's he?"
Brave answered, "He's Arthur, a divine aspect holder."
Glorielle's eyes widened, and her mouth opened and closed; eventually she managed to say, "This guy!? You're surely joking, right?"
Arthur then realized once again that he still didn't know any of their names! Nightwalker's son didn't mention his name at all!
"No, he isn't, but... um, what are your names? I only know Glorrielle's name since it was mentioned while she was passed out."
The cohort, realizing he was right, introduced themselves. And they had their meal with some occasional small talk.
Eventually, Kaelen asked Arthur, "Do you even know how to properly fight since you didn't attend the academy?"
Arthur shook his head and replied, "No, I have no clue how to fight at all."
The others were shocked he didn't even attend the academy nor know how to fight, but still survived the dark city.
Kaelen nodded and asked Alec, "Can you teach him? You both use spears, after all."
Alec was about to nod in agreement, but Arthur said before he could, "I don't actually want to use a spear; I want to use a sword; they are way cooler!"
Glorielle smiled and said, "Then I will teach you! Heh, swords are indeed better than those pointy sticks."
Alec looked offended. He quickly defended the spear: "Spears are great! They are longer and much easier to learn than the sword!"
But as he was the only one using a spear, no one shared his sentiment.
He tsk'ed as he grumbled, "idiots, spears are definitely better than swords!"
After they finished eating, Glorielle took Arthur to an open space where they could practice; she gave him a sword memory and taught him some stances.
While she corrected his stances, a few others were also training either by sparing with each other, those being Kaelen sparing with Naamah while the others,
namely, Alec, Brave, and Zane, were using Alec, more specifically his shield, as target practice for Brave and Zane.
Only Abner didn't train and just watched them, as his flaw made him unable to train. In times like these, he felt lonely.