我Inside an old-looking manor.
Creak!
*Rustle!*
Thud!
"What was that?" A stout man in his 20's asked in surprise.
The next second, they heard a shriek. "Aww!" It was from someone inside a room with poor lighting.
"It was coming from the treasury room," said an elderly with long white whiskers and eyebrows.
"Wait, that's Zeff's voice!" After saying it, the beautiful woman in her 20's rushed towards the treasury. Her black ponytailed hair was dancing left and right on her back as she was moving a little faster than walking. "Zeff?! Zeff! Are you okay?!" She called out in a worried voice while increasing her speed. Behind her, the man and the elderly were following closely.
When they entered the treasury room, "He's not here?" Said the woman in wonder.
Although it was a treasury, it was empty.
"Eh? Where did that child go?" Asked the man as he rolled his eyes across the room.
"To the store room!" Exclaimed the elderly.
The three then rushed to the storeroom that was located at the far end corner of the treasury room.
There, they saw another door. After opening it, the lights coming from the treasury room illuminated the inside of the storeroom, but not fully as they were blocking the entrance. However, it was enough to confirm that a child wearing a white shirt with yellow on the hem topped with a jumper suit was sitting with his butt on the dirty dusty floor while raising his bloodied hand in front of his face. He was looking at them with both shocked and confused expressions.
They also noticed some old tools scattered around him.
But the most noticeable was the blood dripping from his head down to his face, and onto the floor.
Seeing it, the three were startled and their faces turned pale.
"Zeff!" The woman shouted worriedly as she jumped in haste beside him and checked his condition. "Zeff, are you okay, child?" Asked the woman, slightly paranoid after seeing the blood on him.
"Honey, calm down," said the stout man as he rested his hand on the woman's shoulder. He checked the child's head right away and noticed that it was only a tiny wound.
"Just a tiny scrape," the woman sighed in relief upon hearing him, but still she double-checked, especially that blood was gushing. "Zeff, what are you doing here son?" The man asked the child in a gentle, yet manly voice.
"Don't feel so down about the Appraisal Ceremony. Me and your father will find a way to help you."
"Fufu. Grandchild, are you looking for rare equipment?" The elderly chuckled and asked as he took something from within the sleeve of his yellow robe. "Here, rub his wound with this," he handed a small bottle to the woman. The woman took it in haste.
In front of them, the child remained voiceless and stationary even as the woman was gently rubbing the scrape on his head. But in his eyes, there was a strange nostalgia.
Not long after,
"Mother?"
"Father?"
"Gramps?"
He called them one by one in a feeble voice, sounding confused and skeptical.
"Ha?" The child seemed to be surprised for some reason.
In truth, he was surprised by his voice. In his mind, why did he sound like a child? Wait, his arms and legs looked so small and soft. Where did his long and tough limbs go?
He slowly lifted his hands and touched his face. 'Soft and plum?' His thoughts upon touching it.
What was happening? Why was he facing his mother and father and gramps too?
They are supposed to be dead.
He clearly remembered he was facing one of the Heavenly Executors, the Paddler. Because of exhaustion and the unfathomable gap in their strength, he was defeated without a fight.
He tried activating the forbidden technique by unsealing the seals as the last-ditch. It was a technique that would surely kill him. But, it could also kill the surrounding enemy along with him. He had no recollection of what happened after that as his consciousness faded before he unsealed the Time Sovereign technique.
Yet, those gentle eyes of the woman in front of him were looking at him full of love and care. Like looking at the most precious jewel in the world. He had a recollection of it. It was the look that his mother often gave him when he was a child.
Perhaps it was what they mentioned that once you died, the closest people in your life who departed first would come to fetch you.
In his case, it was his mother, father, and gramps too.
Regardless, it could also be considered a reunion right? Though, it was an afterlife reunion.
He reached out on her face.
"Yes son, it's me, mother."
He felt something warm that wetted the corner of his eyes when his mother's gentle voice resounded in his ears. It was so soothing.
Her embrace was very warm and the touch of his father's hand on his head was so comforting like he was shielding him. He missed it. He missed all of it.
The two of them died when he was still a child. They died so early that they weren't able to see him growing as a man.
It was also one of the reasons that he decided to trudge the dark and lonely road.
Since this reunion would likely only last for a moment, he decided to spoil himself a bit and be a child again for only this moment.
But, why did he feel a weird sense of deja vu regarding the current situation?
Right after Zeff thought it, they heard a sudden exclamation.
"This!"
It was from the elderly who he called gramps.
They saw him picking a piece of stone with widened eyes.
"Father, what was that?" Asked the woman to the elderly.
"It is an ancient tablet, a Rune Tablet. It was the holder of the forbidden ancient technique. But, it was empty now…?" said the elderly with a frown.
After hearing it, Zeff blinked his eyes. This scene also happened in the past. Those same words from gramps, he felt a strong deja vu from it. He thought from the deep of his mind.
"Wait, if this tablet was empty… then, where did the runes go?"
Right after the grandfather said it, Zeff realized something was not right. But he remained calm and silent and observant to his family's conversations and actions; all of them were giving deja vu to him.
Also, this place, it's so identical to that place where he found that weird tattoo on his back.
Later he learned that it was a family's forbidden ancient technique. Honestly, after his grandfather took the empty tablet, Zeff had a strong feeling that this scene wasn't just a simple after-life reunion.
Since none of them knew the answer to their question, they decided to leave the storeroom.
His mother and father brought him into his room. "Zeff, you remained here, okay…? I will call someone to heal your wound later."
Zeff nodded his head. "Okay."
His father rubbed his hair before the two of them left the room.
Zeff was now inside a room that he could never forget. It was his room when he was a kid! Those shabby-looking windows! Those kiddie written characters on the walls, the ceiling, the bed, the mirror, the single wooden chair… etcetera. All of them, he remembered all of them.
Co…..could it be… he wasn't dead?
But instead….. he traveled back in time!?