Chapters
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Chapter 10: Why I Follow Him Armored Dragon Calendar Year 413 – Charles, Age 19 --- I was twelve when the slavers took me. They came at night, moving through our village with the practiced efficiency of men who had done this many times before. Torches flickered between the houses, throwing shadows that made everything seem unreal. The screams started moments after the first door was kicked in, and they didn't stop for what felt like hours. My father died trying to fight them. He had been a carpenter, a…-
111.1 K • Ongoing
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Chapter 2: Why Did He Stop? Armored Dragon Calendar Year 410 – One Week After the Awakening --- 'Every morning was the same prayer. Please let them not find me today.' It never worked. I lay in bed watching pale light creep through our small window, listening to my parents' quiet movements in the next room. Mother was humming something soft while preparing breakfast. Father's heavier footsteps moved toward the door, probably heading out to check the livestock. These sounds should have been comforting.…
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111.1 K • Ongoing
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Chapter 15: What I Cannot Say Armored Dragon Calendar Year 416 – Claude, Age 11 --- The wooden swords clattered together in the morning light, accompanied by the shouts and laughter of a dozen children. "No, no—keep your elbows in!" I corrected, adjusting young Tomas's stance. The seven-year-old son of the village baker had the enthusiasm of three boys but the coordination of half of one. "Like this, see?" "I'm trying!" he protested, but his grin undermined any frustration. The training yard behind…
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111.1 K • Ongoing
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Chapter 3: What Happened to Me? Armored Dragon Calendar Year 410 – Six Months After the Awakening --- Six months since the water struck my forehead. Six months since the world cracked open and poured its secrets into my skull. I still didn't understand what had happened to me. But I was learning to use it. Rain drummed against the roof of Paul's house as I stepped inside, water dripping from my soaked clothes onto the wooden floor. The familiar scent of wet earth followed me in, mixing with the warmth…
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111.1 K • Ongoing
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Chapter 8: To Err is Humane Armored Dragon Calendar Year 413 – Claude, Age 8 --- Rudeus had left for Roa three days ago. I stood at the edge of the training ground where we had sparred so many times, the space feeling emptier now without him. His movements had improved remarkably over the past year under Paul's instruction, the clumsy child becoming something closer to a competent fighter. Not a swordsman in the true sense. He would never match Ghislaine or Paul in pure blade work. But he had learned…
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111.1 K • Ongoing
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Chapter 1: The Miko's Awakening Armored Dragon Calendar Year 410 – Claude, Age 5 --- The morning air carried the familiar sounds of Buena Village waking. Roosters called from wooden coops while the distant rhythm of hammer on anvil echoed from my father's smithy. Wood smoke drifted from chimneys, mixing with the scent of dew-soaked earth. I kicked at loose pebbles on the dirt path, watching them scatter into tall grass. The sun had barely crested the eastern hills, painting weathered thatch roofs in soft…
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111.1 K • Ongoing
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Chapter 14: The Limit We Call Barrier Armored Dragon Calendar Year 416 – Claude, Age 11 --- The breakthrough came when I stopped trying to force it. I was training alone in the forest clearing, running through sword forms that had become as natural as breathing. Dawn light filtered through the canopy, casting dappled shadows across the worn ground where countless sessions had beaten down the grass and hardened the earth. The combat presence was present but quiet, observing rather than directing. For…
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111.1 K • Ongoing
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Chapter 9: Side Job Armored Dragon Calendar Year 414 – Claude, Age 9 --- A year had passed since Rudeus left for Roa. The forge fire crackled before me, throwing shadows across the workshop walls. I pulled the blade from the flames, examining the color of the metal with eyes that had learned to read steel like a language. Not quite ready. A few more minutes. The color was wrong—too bright at the edge, too dark near the spine. The blade needed even heating throughout its length, or the differential…
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111.1 K • Ongoing
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Chapter 6: Right on Track Armored Dragon Calendar Year 413 – Claude, Age 8 --- The beastwoman arrived at the village on a morning that smelled of autumn. I was practicing forms in the field behind Paul's house when I first saw her. She moved with the predatory grace of a born fighter, her tanned skin and beast ears marking her as something far more dangerous than the ordinary travelers who passed through Buena. Everything about her spoke of violence honed to perfection. The way she walked, each step…
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111.1 K • Ongoing
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Chapter 19: Regret Armored Dragon Calendar Year 417 – Claude, Age 12 – The Night Before --- That night, the nightmares came for me. I had been expecting them. The presence that carried hundreds of deaths had been stirring for days, pressing against the boundaries of my consciousness with increasing urgency. Each night brought more fragments, more echoes of pain that didn't belong to me. The pressure had been building like a storm, and now, in the darkness of my small room, it finally broke through. I…
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111.1 K • Ongoing
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