Chapter 32: Group Project
Monday, 4th December 2023.
6:50 a.m.
Gray calmly woke up from his forgotten lullaby, stretching his body as he groaned.
Even though he was fully awake, he kept his eyes closed for two minutes, wanting to rest as much as he could.
He removed the heavy blanket from his body once he was satisfied, immediately feeling the chilling air of the morning.
He took his phone from the drawer, removed it from the charger, and headed towards the bathroom.
As he knocked on the door, he heard his sister's voice from its insides.
"It's occupied!" Kathy lazily yelled.
Gray pleaded for her to be quick, as his body—or rather, his bladder—couldn't resist for much longer.
He made his way towards his room again, deciding to prepare his school bag.
Remembering that it was a Monday, he couldn't help but feel down already.
He grabbed his notebook, noting the timetable in his mind.
1st hour: Greek
2nd hour: Italian
3rd hour: Italian
4th hour: Latin
5th hour: Latin
6th hour: Physics
'…I wonder if the greek teacher is going to be missing again. He must've been pretty sick…I should also pray for him to not be there. I really don't feel like doing his subject today.'
While it was true that he had done the homework assigned while the professor was sick, Gray had cheated in every step of it.
Gray started to take the books from his library and lazily put them inside his school bag.
He grabbed one of its shoulder straps with his right hand and curled it a couple of times, noticing that the weight wasn't too bad to deal with.
Dropping it, he exclaimed,
"My exercise has been paying off!"
Gray proudly flexed his biceps. But after seeing the minimum amount of muscles, he scratched his nose in embarrassment.
"Alright, not that much…"
He went towards his bed and bent down, the presence of his many weights reflecting in his eyes.
There also was dust, a lot of dust.
"I need to fix that."
Gray took a couple of dumbbells and started to curl them, wanting to pass the time by doing something actually useful.
…
Once the burn on his muscles felt too strong, he stopped his quick workout and ran inside the bathroom, his bladder almost giving out.
He could barely relieve himself before making an 'accident.'
He then washed his hands and started to brush his teeth. Looking at himself in the mirror, he noticed that his eye bags were becoming lighter and lighter.
While Gray had always been genetically predisposed towards them, his previous issues with Genesis, the Nephilim World and The Monolith did nothing but worsen his situation.
At least, Gray was now finding more hope.
While it was true that his workout routine wasn't doing magical wonders on his body, it still provided him for a way out.
A way out that in due time, would help him create the fundamentals to survive in the world he was thrown into.
Thanks to Casanova, he also had Intra.
The mysterious ability helped him sort his thoughts out with great help—especially in the days when he was unsure of what to do.
When he was feeling down, he immersed himself into his past memories, staring observantly at the sparse days he had spent with his mother and Kathy—even though the happier memories weren't many.
He had also kept on trying to open the amalgamation of darkness within his memories by trying different approaches.
But nothing worked.
He was always unable to observe what was hidden behind them.
He thought that, had he been able to observe his dream of the Boundless Void with a lucid mind the first time he had seen it, he would've been able to see the fragments of memories hidden inside it.
Regardless, there was nothing he could do for the time being.
His main worries were on building a strong physical foundation, becoming lucid inside his dreams, and gain the ability to bring Genesis into the real world.
Training his body was the easiest part of the three, since it was something more concrete, consistent with the world he was more familiar with.
Becoming lucid inside his dreams was the secondly easier part.
Since he had to be inside a dream to fulfill his goal, it made it more abstract and more absurd.
Therefore, it was more difficult.
Bringing Genesis into the real world was the hardest part—it was something completely alien to him, leading him to not have any clue on how to bring it inside reality.
The only times he was able to do it was because of The Monolith, where he had a horrid experience, and with Nekare.
The experience with the girl wasn't bad at all— considering all the things he had put up with—but was difficult for him take in his mind.
Before he had the revelation, he thought of Nekare as someone inhuman, almost monstrous in nature.
Thus, seeing Nekare so human, so vulnerable, shook his heart deeply.
He thought of Casanova to be one of the only good Nephilim, but after knowing more about Nekare and Franz, Gray wasn't sure of what to think anymore.
He headed inside the living room, feening for a quick breakfast.
While he passed by the hallway, he saw that the door of his Mother's library was ajar.
'Did Kathy want to read something? That's quite unlike her.' Gray observed silently.
"I should also read more books from Mother's library. It's the only thing she left behind."
In the past month he hadn't been able to even graze past one of her books, making him yearn to read more.
For the first time, Gray thought that the amalgamations of shadows could be slightly useful.
Since his memory had been completely wiped out for most books, he could re-read the ones he had already spent much time on, allowing him to come to know about his mother for the second time.
Once he reached the living room, he saw Kathy, her mouth full of cereal.
"Morning." he said as he went inside the kitchen.
"Mhorgnig." she replied, her mouth too full of food to make her words understandable.
Gray picked the utensils and food for a quick breakfast.
Once he was done, he went into the living room to eat with his sister like they always did.
"Were you reading something in Mother's library?" he lazily asked.
"Yep." she said.
"Hm…" Gray looked at her suspiciously. "What were you reading?"
"Lady's secret!" she grinned.
"Eh?"
Gray stared at her, dumbfounded.
'I won't press on the subject, i guess…'
The two ate their breakfast at a moderate pace, engaging in small, idle chatter.
They then headed to their respective places.
…
"Gray, look at that…" Rowan whispered, catching his attention.
As Gray turned around, he saw his friend pointing at a random guy in the back of the classroom.
He had dark eye bags underneath his eyes, a brownish french-crop, and had a roman nose. He wore a black hoodie and trousers of the same color—they both weren't ironed and had many wrinkles.
"That's Veronica's ex boyfriend. He finally came back to school!" he said in hushed voice.
"He looks mad as hell." Gray noticed.
"Yep!" Rowan laughed, happy to see one of his rivals in love having it worse than him.
'Have some empathy…'
Gray pinched his nose with disbelief.
"…Can you believe it? A serial killer is roaming inside Corveno…" a girl behind Rowan and Gray suddenly said to her friend.
'Hm?'
As Rowan turned around, Gray followed.
"What do you mean?" Rowan asked curiously,
"Haven't you heard the news?" she asked.
"Uhhh, no." he replied.
She began to explain.
"In Corveno, three dead girls have been found yesterday night, their bodies dumped in the middle of the road! T-They say that one had her uterus eaten off, one had their vocal cords removed, while the other had many parts of her brain missing…!"
"Do you know what's the weirdest thing though? Every single one of them had no blood, their bodies were completely drained of it!"
'Vampire?' Gray asked himself, wondering if they truly existed. 'Could it be the work of a Nephilim instead?'
Gray thought about it.
'Well, it may be just a madman, who knows. But even then, would a madman go towards those lengths?'
"What a freak." Rowan clenched his fist.
"…Yeah." Gray echoed.
As they were wondering if the greek professor would come, the door opened.
Costantino Perbellin, the greek professor, silently entered the class, his blue eyes seeming brighter than usual.
"Good morning, class." he sighed. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
Some of the guys and girls groaned in annoyance at his presence. It was clear; they had been eager to spend the whole hour fooling around.
Veronica was one of them.
"Come on now." Costantino said after seeing their reactions. "You've had your fun, now it's time to work. We are behind with our project."
"Did my colleague teach you guys about Socrates?" he asked.
"Yeah." the class replied.
"Perfect." he said. "Since we're behind the program, I'll assign each one of you to a group made of four people. After I'm done with that, I'll give you a greek philosopher like I've explained the last times."
"Come on, let's go to the I.T class." he hastily left the classroom, the students following quick after.
…
Once they reached the class full of laptops, Costantino Perbellin thought for a few seconds before starting to write the groups on the board, occasionally turning around to look at the students.
"Rowan, Moreno, Carmine and Sara, you'll do Xhenophanes."
"Filippo, Antonio, Leonardo and Aurora, you'll do Heraclitus…"
"—you'll do Pythagoras…"
Every student who got called began to move their desks and chairs around the classroom so they could sit closer to the members of their groups.
They also were allowed to use their phones and their assigned laptops to research more information about the philosophers.
While he was writing the many names on the board, his sleeve slowly slid down his arm, exposing a bandaged wound.
A student casually asked what had happened.
The professor coughed dryly and said self-deprecatingly,
"Burnt myself with tea while sick. Was a mess those days."
He then kept on sorting the names out, adding a greek philosopher to every group.
After a couple of minutes, Gray heard his name being called out.
"Gray, Veronica, Franco and…"
'Don't tell me…' Gray silently prayed.
The professor thought for a few seconds before finally saying the last name.
"…Nekare."
'Are you serious?'
"That'll do. This group of troublemakers really needs someone to order them around. You'll do Anaxagoras."
Gray, of course, felt a small sense of worry.
But trusting the words of Casanova and the help of Dusk Catcher, he buried those feelings deep inside his mind.
Looking at the bright side, he hoped that the group project would help him to appear as a better person in her eyes.
He scanned the room with his gaze, trying to find his group members.
Gray then saw Rowan's reaction to Veronica being inside his group. To say that he was seething with anger was an understatement.
His cheeks were beet-red, and he was biting down his lips with great force, resembling a weird kind of animal, possibly a macaque.
'Sorry…' Gray shrugged.
(I won't try anything with her, I promise.)
(You better not.)
Following his telepathic speech with his friend, he finally found Nekare.
Gray grabbed his chair and sat next to her, feeling a slight tinge of embarrassment.
He wanted to greet her, but felt that it would've made their situation more awkward.
Then, thinking that not greeting her properly would make him sound even more like an asshole, he mustered every ounce of his power to speak.
"H-Hi." he said, his voice cracking.
'WHY DID MY VOICE HAVE TO CRACK JUST RIGHT NOW?!?!?'
"Hi." Nekare simply said, looking unbothered.
As she silently turned the computer on, Gray looked at the screen from up her shoulder.
A few seconds later, Franco and Veronica finally came to their desk, the tension between the two palpable.
Franco mumbled something inaudible, his expression marked with anger. He then took a desk, situating it next to Gray and Nekare.
"Uh so, what should we do?" Gray asked.
Veronica—who was now sitting next to her ex-boyfriend and was clearly unhappy from that fact—suddenly spoke.
"You better figure that out on your own. I'm not doing anything." she looked at her pinkish nails.
'Are you serious?' Gray coughed dryly.
"Me neither, I got people to talk to." Franco added, wanting to seem as if he had already moved on from his relationship.
"Well," Gray turned to Nekare. "Seems like we have to do all the work…"
"Yeah." she slowly nodded.