Luna found herself sitting on a chair in front of an elegant round table that was located in the center of a huge room. The lavishly decorated room were shining towards her eyes and had guessed that the furniture, ornaments, and shining chandelier above were all expensive.
When she turned her gaze on the other side, an unused fireplace rested on the left part of the wall. Every corner had expensive things that she couldn't help but think of a rich person who was standing at the pinnacle of the human world.
"But why am I even here?" Luna whispered to herself. Amidst that, Luna suddenly remembered that a mysterious man had taken her away without consent. The stunning elegance of the room almost made her forgot about the incident.
'Seriously, why am I being brought to different places without my will?!' she thought in a desperate tone.
The place she was brought in didn't have the shred of gloom used to entice fear upon the victims however the place she was in must have a different view of things. Then her mind went into the man who brought her in the room who was blinding her eyes with elegance.
Remembering his past actions, Luna thought that the man was specifically looking for her but she did not know his reasons. Then she stood up as she felt uncomfortable staying in that chair and round table. It was because her body had gone numb from sleeping with her head on that furniture. She stretched her arms after standing up and looked toward the glass panels of a huge window.
Her thoughts explored once more while staring on the garden outside until she heard the creaking sound of a giant door being opened.
She turned her head towards the door and saw a man who was the person who took her away from the park.
'Goodbye, candy park,' Luna thought to herself.
That man entered together with a woman who gently placed a small case on the table.
Afterward, they turned both their gaze at her. Although Luna suddenly felt scared. Who knew what can they do to her secretly in this huge place without any sign of a human being outside the window.
"You may leave." The man said.
"Yes, master." The woman replied and bowed a little.
Then the woman immediately left as soon as she's done speaking as if she couldn't afford to make a single mistake. Luna thought that he was not an ordinary man based on this place's lavish appearance and the woman's short speech that have the word master in it.
'Uhm.. a little weird name-calling for a boss,' she thought.
Then Luna gazed at him with her curious mind. His face showed only as little emotions as possible, his clothes looked like attending a funeral and he stood tall and intimidating with his all-black attire. By assessing his looks, Luna guessed that he may be a few years older than her.
Moreover, his appearance was not that of a person who would take an interest to kidnap her but a person's looks could sometimes be deceiving. Somehow, she couldn't feel an ounce of danger but shrugged it off. It was quite impossible to think that a man who forcefully took someone would mean no harm.
On the other hand, Luna stopped checking him out before he could notice her gaping look and came back from her previous seat.
That man elegantly walked towards the table and sat on a chair facing hers. They stared at each other and none of them attempted to talk until he let out a sigh. He didn't want to waste his precious time.
"Luna Irvene M. Cordovan" he started.
Luna didn't saw that coming. Her eyebrows furrowed, and her mind went into turmoil.
"How do you know my name?" she asked as she did not even know him and it was their first meeting. Nonetheless, he did not bother to answer her question.
"Let me explain first," he replied.
Luna nodded as she needed an explanation about the strange place she was in. There was a fear in her heart after thinking where she would end up the next time some people or unusual events would bring her to but her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by him.
"I know that you're already aware that this place is different than yours. Unfortunately, an incident happened when I traveled from your world and you're here because of that,
"This world is named Vermillion. It's entirely different though it has some similarities from your world name Earth. The reason I knew your name is I've searched for your identity. How? It's a secret," he said.
Luna mentally rolled her eyes and had stopped caring how he got her identity. After all, the place was strange and her common sense wouldn't be able to find out the truth without knowing their common knowledge.
'Of course, I should have the identity of the person who accidentally obtained some of my powers. Who knows if he/she is bad enough to use my powers erroneously. Fortunately, this person in front of me don't harbor such intentions,' the man thought. He concluded with his thorough investigations that the girl in front could be harmless and it was proven more when he saw her today.
"Then can you bring me back where I came from?" Luna asked. She desperately wanted to go home and did not want to be stuck in this strange world forever. 'Never,' she thought and uttered, 'I still have assignments to do!'
"Of course," he answered.
However, Luna felt her heart tightened for some reason after she heard his short and direct answer. "Then, can you bring me back? I don't have plans of staying here anymore," she said.
That man, unfortunately, shook his head. "You can't go back for now," he said
Luna asked why couldn't she go back home and then he showed her a small rectangular case. It was the one whom his assistant carried a while ago. He opened it and showed her the golden pocket watch inside which he took out and held its tiny chains.
"This watch contained my powers to travel through time. Unexpectedly, its powers was turned into two when I came back to Vermillion. For now, I can only use half of its power and the other half is--," he said and pointed his index finger at her.
"within you," he continued.
Luna's eyes widened and raised her brow after. The turn of events became fast enough to continuously surprise her. She pinched her left cheek hardly to make her wake up and think of this crazy thing as a dream and nothing else. However, she only felt her cheek hurt a lot.
'What have I done to suffer this pandemonium?' Luna thought. She held her head with two hands and put her elbow on the table.
Meanwhile, the man maintained his patience and understood that she's having a mild shock from these events. Nonetheless, he thought that her world was crazier than Vermillion but he couldn't take this way too long so he pointed his hands once more towards her body.
Luna felt that her body was being enveloped by a warm light. She saw a watch formed onto her hand and then a similar golden pocket watch but with a small silver crown attached above it. She lifted its chains and saw some engraved unknown letters at the back.
Seeing it, he went slightly startled by the appearance of her pocket watch which led him to think that his investigation towards her was still lacking.
"Is this the other half you're talking about?" Luna asked as she looked at him.
"Yes," he shortly answered.
Luna stretched her right hand, gesturing him to take it from her. However, he only looked at her in confusion.
"Why are you giving it to me?" He asked while raising an eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes and explained, "You said it's your powers so I'm giving it back to you and I can finally go back home."
He playfully laughed a little and shook his head then stared at him with amused eyes for a second. Then he saw her deeply furrowed her brows for laughing at her. "It's not that simple Miss Luna," he said.
Luna didn't say anything and waited for his explanation, ignoring his stifled laugh.
"My powers would only return within me when the temporary holder of my power is near me. You should remain here until all my powers came back and don't worry, your safety is guaranteed when you stay here in my mansion," he said.
"Oh, and I forgot to introduce myself. I have a long name so just call me Akiro," he continued. His face showed emotion when he laughed a little.
'I almost thought he doesn't even know how to laugh,' Luna said while mentally rolling her eyes.
Nonetheless, he laughed at her like he forgot she knew nothing about these things. She would let it pass only for today.
"So Akiro, I have to stay here for a long time?" she asked without bothering to say his name with honorifics. She did hear the lady said master but that would be awkward and she was not his servant to begin with.
He nodded his head while thinking hat it was good that she understood this situation even for a little bit. However, Luna would be mad if she could only hear his thoughts.
"B-but what about my family? They would be worried when I disappeared out of nowhere. My parents would think I ran away from home." Luna said and showed a worried face.
'How will I explain it to my parents?' she thought as everything would be too hard to explain. She once again felt terrified. Countless troubles would surely welcome her the moment she came back home after a long time. Her current problems were more than enough to blow up her mind and adding one more would be the end of her life.
'What to do? Just kill me already,' she thought lifelessly but was interrupted when Akiro explained another thing to her.
"You don't need to worry. Since half of the power of time is within you, an incident that shouldn't have happened, took a rippling effect. First, it brought you here since its powers were originally in Vermillion and second, time stopped in your world. It'll continue once you came back," he explained.
Akiro feared that this woman would get crazy if he did not immediately explain on what had happened. The latter felt a huge boulder on her shoulders disappeared. She sighed in relief and mentally wiped off her sweat. She didn't know how to explain these things to them for she would be soon sent to a doctor after telling them the truth.
Since Luna's worries disappeared, a wild thought entered her mind. "Can I travel around Vermillion while I'm here? You know, this is once in a lifetime experience. Only I would have the chance to explore another world on the Earth," she said with a shine on her eyes.
Akiro almost had a fright by her sudden change of emotions. He understood that she's in relief right now but she could not believe how she started to treat this problem as a trip and forgot that some unknown event could end her life anytime if she came out of his mansion.
"Sadly, you still can't because having this kind of power means great responsibility. I'm not just a lonely time traveler, Luna. Traveling through time is just a portion of my ability," he said and looked intently at her.
"I have this kind of powerful ability that can make every person's wishes came true. It's a bit complicated to explain so I'll do it later,
"Moreover, my ability to travel time weakens when half of my pocket watch's powers have been unexpectedly transferred to you," he said and pointed at her.
Luna didn't utter a single word and continued to listen. It would be better if she only listened. She's sure by now that Akiro would always have a way to refute her words.
"So Luna, I have to share some of my responsibilities with you until I got all of it back. In that way, it would be easy to do my work like I always did," Akiro said.
Luna didn't protest. 'As if I can do anything to object' she said to herself. Akiro seemed to be a mysterious, powerful person and she wouldn't want herself to get into trouble.
Luna asked him, "How can I help you with your work? "
"Since you're a fledgling on using magic, I'll first teach you the basics of using your pocket watch's powers. That's all you need to learn for today because my current mission involves time traveling and it means we'll change someone's future. You'll soon learn it's other uses on your own," Akiro answered.
Hearing his words made Luna felt that she entered some random fantasy novel. Akiro said that he finished all he needed to explain. Not long after, they heard a knock, and a woman entered the room. Luna quickly recognized that it was the woman she saw earlier with Akiro.
"Luna, this is Miss Zione Myrtle. She's my assistant and Miss Zione, she's Luna Cordovan," he said.
Miss Zione nodded at her and turned her gaze towards Akiro.
"Master, this is the papers you asked for," she said.
Luna observed Zione's appearance. Her face was like her master that had an expressionless face most of the time. She had a long scarlet wavy hair and she even thought if Zione's hair was dyed but it looked unbelievably natural. Luna thought that she should always smile to show her beauty nonetheless, she also knew that it was none of her business if that's her personality.
Then Akiro stood up from his seat after he picked up the tons of paperwork from his assistant and said, "I will have to work for something. Miss Zione, accompany Luna to her room, and Luna, we'll talk again later."
Afterward, they also left the room just a minute later than him. Luna followed Zione which Akiro instructed earlier.
That day was the beginning that her life would change and tread a different path while the young lady did not know that she could not turn back anymore.
--To be continued...