Delta awoke in the night again, hand on his forehead and eyes sunken into his skull. He looked pained and was sweating fervently.

The nightmares had only gotten worse since he had arrived. Repeats of all the times he had taken someone's life, their souls haunting his sleep in a tirade of pains and sufferings that had only increased as he killed, even more, caused more harm and took more loved ones.

He had tried to get away from killing the innocent, disguising his hit list by lying to himself that he only killed the corrupt, that they deserved to die and atone for the sins they had performed, but inside, he knew that it was all an excuse. If they deserved to die, then he deserved death many times over.

"This must be divine punishment," he muttered to himself.

Delta got up from his bed and pulled on some clothes, clinging tightly to the black jacket he had arrived at the school with. It was the same one he had when he died, and he was secretly grateful to whoever had allowed him to keep it on his arrival at the academy.

He tip-toed towards the exit, moving quietly towards the door and opening it gently.

"Who's there?"

Delta turned slowly, to find Lil Fatty standing there, one hand covering his eyes and the other reaching around for something to hold onto.

Delta sighed, then slowly walked around the room and delivered a chop to his temple, a move he had practically mastered later on in his life as a mercenary.      (ED: This was after he decided to stop killing innocents, he just knocked them out instead and learned this move for that purpose.)

Lil Fatty wobbled for a moment before falling into the arms of the waiting Delta. He let him down gently onto the sofa, then took a slice of a pizza from the previous night, took a bite and left it in the hands of Lil Fatty.

"That should stop any questions," Delta thought to himself.

Now that he had some peace and quiet, he exited the room and moved down towards the exit to the parking area.

He reached the door to the outside but found himself blocked by an electronic door that didn't budge when he tried to open it.

Delta reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pin he had removed from one of the razors on the razor he had found back in the dorm room's bathroom, and a paperclip he found in one of the drawers.

He straightened the paperclip before folding about a quarter of it in half, then he bent the edge of the pin, turning it into a suitable pick. Placing the paperclip and applying very little pressure, he put the makeshift pick into the lock hole and fiddled around a bit, getting a feel for the lock that was being used.

Once he was sure about its general shape and how he was going to crack it, he began to push the small point into the various pins while applying pressure with the paperclip, moving the pick with careful precision until he felt the pressure release and unlocked the door...

He pushed the door wide open, stepping outside and taking a deep breath.

After taking a second to enjoy the fresh air, Delta walked down the path in the park, enjoying the calm and tranquillity of the park now that everyone had gone to sleep.

He continued to walk until he reached the middle of the park, and looked around to find himself completely isolated from any sights that resembled civilisation, outside of the benches and lamps mounted into the ground every ten or so metres.

Delta spent a second testing the strength of some of the trees, and after finding one that was of a suitable strength to hold his weight.

He quickly scaled the tree trunk, reaching a large trunk in moments before settling with a wide branch concealed from the light from the lamps.

Delta let out a sigh of relief before settling into a comfortable position and shutting his eyes. He had always felt more at peace when alone in nature. He had spent his entire childhood running from authorities, angry shopkeepers and men sent by casinos taking attempts at his life.

The forest had been his getaway, and he often returned to certain trees where he felt at home. It was the only place he had ever called home, and he still felt conflicted about leaving that place behind.

Sighing to himself, he began to sing a melody that the old veteran caretaker at the orphanage used to sing to him.

"Here the winds blow over the wasteland with chilly showers,

Already my tunic is filthy with lice, my nose is running.

Daily the savage tempest soaks me with hailstones, Why?

Because it's my job to protect the borders of Ishfania."

The old man had served in the war between Delta's home and Ishfania, serving as an officer in the Ishfanian army.

The song was a marching song that had been sung to the beat of drums and horns to keep the army motivated, and it had rubbed off on Delta through his interactions with the old man.

Whilst he had never known why the old man had always taken care of him. He had been crippled and had lost an arm in the battle, but he had been the only person who had ever accepted Delta as a person… at least one who hadn't betrayed him at the first sight of some cash.

He finished humming the song, then began to doze off, shutting his eyes and falling into rhythmed breathing, getting close to falling asleep before hearing a voice.

It was singing in a higher pitch than Delta could reach and seemed sweet and emotional.

"The young maiden,

with eyes the colour of the green-blue sea,

porcelain skin,

and the face of an angel.

Delta nearly fell out of the tree he was in. The song they were singing was the same one as in the play that the Old Man from Delta's childhood would take him to see once a month.

It had been a tale of a mercenary who had strayed off his path as a person, becoming a monster who took the lives of others for amusement rather than for pay. After killing many hundreds of people, he had finally met a woman who had changed his ways, being the light at the end of the tunnel and guiding him back to the light.

The song had ended with the two getting married in a field full of hyacinth, the couple slow dancing until the curtains fell and the play ended.

Delta had been fond of the song as a child, but the longer he remained a mercenary, the more he had begun to relate to the tragedy until eventually he nearly started to believe that maybe there really would be a light at the tunnel, but that had all ended the day he had died.

In a sense, his sudden arrival at the Academy was the greatest thing to ever happen to him. A fresh start, no prejudice for being an orphan and no growing criminal record-keeping him from a life of peace.

He had no idea who the person singing was, but he decided that he'd have to find out where this person had heard the song. There was a small chance that the old man was here, and that there was a way back to his old world where he could atone for his sins.

"She had a hyacinth in her flaxen hair.

She is the hyacinth girl,

with beauty words can't describe,

and the grace of a princess."

His voice was deep, far deeper than a boy his age should have. It had a low reverb and gave off a mysterious feeling, making his every word sound like a story to be told around a fire. The person singing audibly gasped, before continuing the song at a slightly higher pitch to complement Delta's deeper voice.

"Today somebody called me the hyacinth girl,

words nobody has ever said to me.

Glancing at the image in the mirror,

I didn't believe her words."

Delta vaulted down from the branch down to the ground, controlling his speed by grabbing onto branches as he went down.

He landed with a light thud before treading lightly towards where the voice was. He began to sing faster as the melody began to pick up in speed.

"Grotesque,

Revolting,

And disappointing.

Are all compliments that I have received generously."

Their singing reached a chorus, blending perfectly into a sweet melody of emotion. Whoever it was, was on the other side of the tree Delta had been in, walking around the tree as they sang.

"Hyacinths - however, I have never received.

Words with malicious intent were never actually intended maliciously", they said.

They led me to believe,

That I could never be the hyacinth girl,

That I see deep inside of me."

As they finished the last line, soft tears began to fall from Delta's eyes. He stepped around the tree trunk to where the singer was standing.

She had silver hair that reflected moonlight onto the small pond in the water, shining over an array of hyacinth that surrounded the pond.

She wore a dress made of black silk-like material and wore a fur-lined coat over it. As her coat swayed in the light, Delta realised who it was.

It was the girl he had nicknamed 'Edgy', standing before him in all her beauty.

 

 

*Author Note* - The song was translated from Latin. It is a story about the Hyacinth Flower, named after Hyacinthus from Greek Mythology. In the story, Hyacinthus was a beautiful Spartan youth, beloved by the god Apollo. Hyacinthus loved athletics, and one day the two decided to practice throwing the discus.  Apollo went first, sending the disc flying up into the sky. Hyacinthus ran laughing after it, intending to catch the disc, but instead, it hit him in the head, killing him.

If the song sounds weird in English, blame the Romans. I'm innocent!