It was a lean and respectably tall man with long, smooth blue hair and calming eyes of the same color; he wore a black kimono beneath a dark blue haori, his feet covered in black socks and resting in a pair of brown zōri, and had a seven-point star seemingly burrowed in the upper left of his thorax.
A sheathed nodachi was attached to his right hip, its hilt a beautiful tonality of sapphire, and guard resembling a water drop.
"Sorry for interrupting you like this, my name is Sae." He spoke in a kind and calm voice.
"Oh, you mean... EH?!" Yuna yelled in disbelief.
(Right, Yuna said that one of the other captains was named Sae... but why such a reaction?) Satyo quietly thought while looking at the unfolding scene.
"Uhm, I didn't mean to scare you..." Sae said, unsure of what exact words to use.
"No, no. It's just... you're the third Captain, right? I had only ever heard about you... why did you come here?"
"It's related to the assassin problem, but it's really about you, Satyo." He cast a glance at Satyo.
(Why am I already so famous?) he thought, sighing in his mind.
"Well, I'm ready to hear it... I hope it's not worse news..."
"You have the potential to become a powerful fighter." - Sae suddenly said, bewildering both Satyo and Yuna. - "I would like you to become my apprentice and train in the art of water under my guidance."
A moment of silence passed, intense emotions popping and growing inside them, although their external reactions were noticeably different.
(W-What? For real? This is... weird...) Satyo was extremely confused at hearing those words.
Yuna blinked, her face showing a neutral expression for a second; that was merely the result of her processing this information, however, as her emotions erupted a moment later.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHH????!!!!!"
- She yelled in extreme disbelief, her eyes alternating between Satyo and Sae, and her mind engulfed in shock. -
"THE THIRD CAPTAIN JUST CAME HERE AND ASKED YOU TO BE HIS APPRENTICE???"
"Yup, apparently that's what happened." Satyo kept a fake calm expression, hiding his excitement.
"You know he n-e-v-e-r comes here 'cause he's always busy, and now he just randomly starts training you??? I'd be a little more surprised, you know." Yuna said, almost frustrated at his poker face.
"I can definitely tell you'd be..." - He replied, giggling, before turning to Sae. - "Why do you think that I'd be a good fighter? I've got basically no combat skill." He shrugged.
"It's difficult to explain, just trust me. So, what do you say about this opportunity?" Sae replied, casually denying him this information and asking for his decision.
"Of course I want to, it's just that I don't know if I'll be up to the task."
"If that's the only concern, then don't worry: you're more capable than you think; it surely won't be easy, but I'll try to help you as much as I can." He smiled.
(Damn though... now I really feel like the chosen one...) thought Satyo, delighted at the thought of learning how to fight.
"Then alright: if you really think I can make it, I'm in."
"Great." - Sae smiled calmly. - "I'm guessing you have plenty of questions now. I'll pay you a visit in your room later in the evening, then we'll talk more about this, okay?"
"Sure, see you then."
Sae waved at both of them, then swiftly exited the room, closing the door behind him.
Satyo was immersed in his thoughts as he realized there was something, or someone, whom he had left on standby: as he turned he saw the still incredulous expression of Yuna, who looked like she had a lot to say.
"Did this seriously just happen?" She asked.
"Yes. And I'm as confused as you are, you know: from my perspective, I just arrived in this world and now I'm being told to become a fighter in the art of water... it's exciting, but also a bit scary at the same time." Satyo cleared part of her doubts.
"I still can't believe that SAE himself came and told you that. I mean, he's the legendary 'Strongest Captain', some call him 'The Blue Death'... it's not just anybody."
"Two things: first, he seems like an incredibly nice person to be nicknamed 'The Blue Death'; second, didn't you say that you knew nothing about the other two Captains except for their names?"
"Okay, okay, I do know quite a lot about them, although I had never met them in person. As you've probably understood, the menacing woman at the entrance was Freya, the second Captain."
- She began explaining what she really knew about the other Captains, and it came out to be a lot of information. -
"Gurendam has always had three Captains, hence the famous 'Three Great Captains of Gurendam'."
Satyo nodded as he listened closely to what she had to say.
"They all have a star in their chest, going from three to seven points based on their power; Sae is by far the most powerful one, or at least that's what my mom says: everything I know I heard from her."
"'By far'... so how wide is the gap between each Captain's strength?"
"From what I know, it should be a wide one, but I'm not sure: I've never seen any of them fight."
"And now I'm also very curious: where is your mother in this power scale? She seems scarily powerful."
"As I said, I've never seen the Captains fight: I wouldn't know exactly, but she's very, very strong. And that 'scarily powerful' you talk about is literally nothing compared to what she can do." Yuna giggled as she said those words.
(Heh, this is... cool? I mean, the power levels in this world seem to be quite high already, but I don't think that's really a good thing.) Satyo gulped, the lengths of this world's power still unfolding before him and surprising him more and more with each discovery.
"Anyways, about the Captains: Freya and Sae have been here for quite a long time, while Harrock's new; they all have personal soldiers: Harrock has his small army of everything, Freya's got a large elite unit of the fox masks guys, and Sae... I think he's got nobody?"
"Shouldn't he have the best soldiers?"
"Exactly... but I've never heard of anyone..." - Yuna looked at the table, deep in thought. - "I'm guessing he just doesn't need any soldiers." She shrugged.
"Now that I think about it: is it just Munir's thing to know everyone's name? He always calls each soldier by their name, even when it's almost impossible to tell one apart from the other. Didn't expect an old man to have such an impressive memory."
Satyo asked her one thing that had just come to his mind, as he thought of Uscher, one of Freya's deceased soldiers.
"Yeah, he somehow knows every name, and never forgets one. He just really cares about the people, and that's why he's a great ruler."
"What about him? Do you know his story? He seems like the typical wise old man who's been through hell and back."
"You're overestimating my knowledge... I'm still young and not involved in any important stuff, so It's not like I know everything."
- Yuna pointed out that she was not a living library. -
"If you want to understand more, I guess you can try asking him directly, or maybe Sae... I really wanna know how the training goes though, okay? I almost envy you..." She sighed.
"Don't worry, I'll let you know: I do want someone to talk to after all, really glad I met you."
Satyo calmly said, hiding his embarrassment as he let those words spill out of his mouth, trying to keep a straight face so as to not regret saying that.
"Ah, I'm happy to have met you too; it seems like we go along well together." Yuna smiled, taking advantage of the moment to subtly strengthen their bond.
One problem was that they were both too skilled at hiding their emotions, speaking casually to reduce the weight of embarrassing words and faking a natural attitude to avoid showing what they wished not to show.
Behind their calm facades were active emotions, which were left in their pot and sealed with a lid, at least for the moment.
Satyo, tired after all of this information and socialization, decided to go rest in his room, waiting for the meeting with his new master.
"Anyways, I'm quite tired now, I'll go back to my room. See you... tomorrow at lunch?" He asked as he stood up from his chair.
"Yeah, see you then. Bye!"
Yuna smiled and waved at him as he reciprocated and went out the door.
Now standing in the massive Tzwernej, he felt a sense of uneasiness, surrounded by so many colours and doors: it was like a weird dream, except for the fact that his mind was somehow only getting closer to reality.
He did not know why, but as the giant room trapped him, he began to feel a strange sense of non-belonging. His mind was extremely focused, yet also relaxed at the same time. His eyes widened as he felt more and more detached from his body, while still feeling anchored on the ground and vividly living those moments.
He looked around and scanned the area with his eyes: everything he saw didn't feel real, and an odd question came to his mind:
(What... who am I? Am I living these... I'm not me, but by thinking that... this voice, this body. I don't exist, I am not me. Satyo is just... mmh.) Those thoughts were his, but not of Satyo.
Each thought he had only made this worse, as he fell into a loop of detaching his mind from his current consciousness, only to realize that he still was thinking and trying in vain to find a zone of comfort.
Everything that composed his being only made him feel weirder and weirder... as he thought, hearing his voice was like having a stranger inside his head; as he looked down, seeing his hands was like being inside of a stranger's body; as he existed, living felt fake, he felt fake, everything had always been fake.
Even his past life: everything had always been fake. Nothing had ever been real.
But, in reality... what?
What was this?
He came back to his senses as if he had just awoken from a deep slumber, a confused frown on his face, as he dismissed everything that had just happened and walked out of the room, following the stairs along a very tiring climb.
Returning to his usual self, he began thinking about Yuna:
(I've probably said this way too many times, but... I'm really glad I met Yuna. For real though, I feel so lucky to have her. As a 'little' bonus, she's both very friendly and probably the prettiest girl I've ever seen.)
Of course, he let his emotions spill a little bit inside of his mind, as nobody would have ever been able to read his thoughts: it wasn't a book or anything, after all, he was able to think and do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to.
After minutes of countless stairs, the long climb finally came to an end.
Tired and only willing to get on his bed, Satyo began walking back to his room; the halls weren't as quiet this time, however, as many people went back and forth to and from the Tzwernej.
He timidly scanned their faces, unnerved by the amount of unfamiliar people near him, his eyes frequently raising and lowering.
With that mild disturbance, he continued walking until he arrived at his room, which he managed to recognize as it was near a wide hallway that created a t-junction.
He grabbed the key from his pocket, slid it into the lock, and slowly turned it to unlock the door.
It opened without emitting any annoying screaking noise, as it was made of high-quality and very resistant wood.
As soon as he entered the room, a feeling of nostalgia and relaxation washed over him, instantly calming his mind and body. He smiled as his eyes reminded him of his residence's beauty: a large and luxurious room with an unrivaled coziness, given to him completely free of charge and without having to do any favours.
(Ah... it's really nice here. Now let's wait for Sae I guess... I'd try the book's moves a couple times, but I'm quite tired.) He thought as he walked towards the bed, feeling its warm embrace before even reaching it.
He slowly lay down, stretching his arms and legs as he placed his head on the soft pillow, looking at the ceiling as he yet again thought about his extremely bizarre experience.
The softness of the mattress enveloped him, keeping him fixed to the bed like an invisible force field, his vision occasionally blurring as he looked directly at the bright lantern which lit the room.
It would have been a nice moment to grab his phone and mindlessly surf the internet or look at a couple of social media posts, but he didn't have signal and couldn't waste his precious battery for something so trivial, so he just thought.
And thought.
And thought.
But thinking only made him more exhausted, as there were still so many unresolved mysteries constantly bothering him, preventing him from finding peace of mind.
The more mental energy he used thinking about all that happened, the more tired he grew, until his eyes slowly began to close.
He didn't even notice it at first, keeping his eyelids shut for numerous seconds before even realizing they were. The thoughts in his mind began to mix and fade rapidly, distracting him from his fall into a slumber.
After a while, he didn't open his eyes anymore, unconsciously accepting his well-deserved sleep.
Proper sleep was not granted to him for a while, however, as he remained half awake, his mind throwing scattered bits of thoughts at him, barely reminding him that he was not yet asleep.
But finally, his exhaustingly energetic brain gave up and let him rest, granting him some time of peace.
The light was still on and he wasn't in a good sleeping position, but his body was too tired and relaxed to care.
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