In The Academy As Sukuna

Ch 32 - A Moment of Peace

"Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it."

(POV: Ryomen Sukuna)

It was a beautiful evening, the sky was painted a light orange by the setting sun.

The air was fresh, carrying the scent of blooming flowers and freshly cut grass. A gentle breeze passed by, rustling the leaves of trees.

Birds flew in the sky, chirping in a sweet melody.

Among all this, I was running around the palace garden, sweat dripping from all my pores as I took in quick and sharp breaths.

Inside the garden were the prince and princess, who were told to observe me so that they could learn something from the 'Hero.'

There were also many other people spying on me at all times, but they were from the empire. They were probably just keeping an eye on me, since they hadn't interfered at all, so I let them be.

It has been around five days since we arrived here.

Students have slowly started to arrive at the palace. The king has given them luxurious places to stay as well as to train.

Silvas has taken the role of the leader of everyone, guiding them in their training.

However, I refused to do so. There are a few reasons for this.

I don't want to show my training to him as I might accidentally show him some of my hidden cards.

Moreover, I wanted to personally train Eva and Nect, as I wanted to keep track of their progress and train them in certain aspects.

Silvas was the first to arrive to the palace, at our third day in this world. Eva arrived the next day, while Nect arrived a few hours ago.

I stopped running, still panting, I walked into the garden towards the table where the prince and princess were sitting.

I sat on a chair, opening the bottle kept on the table and gulping it down.

The prince's eyes were widened in awe, while the princess's face lit up with admiration.

They had introduced themselves to me, but I didn't bother remembering their names, it wouldn't be important in the future.

"I didn't think anyone could run for so long without stopping, and you don't even look tired. Your stamina is incredible, I've never seen anyone move with such grace and speed. You make it look like such an easy task, as if running around the whole kingdom would be as natural as breathing for you. Not to mention, you looked so elegant and cool as you took every stride, each step meticulously practiced and calculated. You truly are an–"

I sighed and looked towards the sky while the princess was yapping on and on.

I closed my eyes, trying to relax for a few seconds.

But suddenly, an image flashed through my mind...

.

The sky was red, as if the heavens themselves were bleeding. There was a foul smell of blood was wafting in the air in the deserted place, which looked like a battlefield.

An eerie silence engulfed the place, a lone flower in the middle of the battlefield was the only color other than crimson.

The silence was heavy, broken only by the occasional gusts of wind. The ground was wet with blood as thousands of corpses lay around the battlefield.

A single man came forward, his body shaped like a beast. He looked unhuman as he walked out slowly from the middle of the corpses.

Blood dripped from his head and his left arm was torn off. His right arm held the head of a heavily injured woman.