Project: Socialize (Chapters 1-197)

100. The Promise

That night, we didn't do anything that was entertaining because of the pain that was dealt to my head. We mainly stayed in our hotel rooms, with the others chatting it up while I watched television. Because we're all in high school, it is to be expected that bedtime will be late, which it was at 1:30 A.M. Our sleeping arrangement remained as it was prior to Zaksus's visit. However, with Zaksus needing to stay the night, he decided to sleep on the floor.

We had to wake up quite early in the morning in order to make it to the lobby where Mura and Emilia took attendance. But because we went to sleep quite late and that we have four people needing to use a single bathroom, we had to wake up earlier than usual, which sucked away at our vitality. Therefore, in the lobby, we were pretty gaunt. However, we weren't the only ones. Many of our classmates and students from other classes appeared to suffer from a lack of sleep. They were probably out wilding last night.

That day for the mandatory trip, we visited the site of the first uprising led by Leshius I as he drove out the then occupying powers of Vilhelm. That battle was the official start of the revolution that ultimately ended with Leshius I overthrowing the then dynasty and establishing the Vilheim Empire.

The battlefield was situated outside the main city. It was a pretty barren plain with nothing much to see. However, what we visited was the museum set up nearby that harbored the ancient weaponry used by the soldiers. In addition, there were also stories as to how the battle went down. All in all, it was pretty interesting, but nothing too over the top since that battle has been made into movies so many of us knew the gist of the story already.

When I walked around the museum with my little group, I spotted Luna staring at a plaque that recorded the number of people that had died in the revolution. On her face was a look of indifference, one that appeared extremely calm, but maybe that was her face for seeing something so heavy in meaning. I approached her from behind, and it would appear that she saw me in the glass.

"What do you think?" she asked me.

"About the revolution? It's pretty impressive considering how they're just simply farmers," I answered, looking in the direction she was looking in.

"..." She remained silent as she continued to stare at the plaque. "Do you think these people that have died... do you think their lives are justified?"

"Probably," I commented. "Their efforts gave birth to our nation. It's just sad that they never got to see the fruit of their labor."

"Right..." Luna whispered. "Even though they gave it their all, they still couldn't live until the end."

She had a disturbed countenance on her face, one that attracted my attention for it was something that appeared to be bugging her. Being the only person that knows of her condition, I paid even more attention to her, so seeing her like this made me quite uneasy.

"Everybody's leaving now," she then said as she turned towards me and smiled. "Let's go before we're left behind."

Then, with light steps, she jogged off to keep up with the crowd, leaving me there by the plaque alone. I looked at her figure in the distance, then back at the plaque, seeing the number of people that had died on that battle alone, and then back at her. Then, I followed her as I left the exhibition room of the museum.

The day basically ended when we were finished with the museum as we boarded the buses and returned to the hotel. It was still quite early, being 4:30 P.M., but it would appear that the rest of the day will be ours to use. Therefore, with Noah's suggestion we left our hotel to have some fun in the city.

He first brought us to a karaoke spot, and when we entered, I noticed a small sign in the corner of the neighboring building that was about a brothel. I didn't know if this was intentional or not, but I believe it was probably when Noah was scrolling through the map to see where the brothels were that he saw this karaoke place. I didn't give it much further thought, knowing that it was pointless to be thinking about that much at the time. Therefore, I followed the others into the karaoke and into our room.