*click*
That was the sound of the door being locked, after Kai turned the key around a bit and once he checked that his door was completely locked, he could finally sigh a breath of relief, as he could finally be all by himself, allowing him to sort out his thoughts and have some time for himself, not that it matter much for him anymore.
"What a stifling and confusing day." Kai exclaimed, as he turned towards the window that was emitting moonlight into the room. After stopping in front of it, he had a full of the landscape in front of him. A massive city, full of tall and short buildings, bright and dark, with the majority of them being dark right now. As he looked around, he also saw a couple of huge walls around both the castle and the city itself and beyond the walls of the city, he could see dark green plains, that were probably dark, only due to the the lack of sunlight currently.
After looking down, he slowly turned his head up and saw two white, bright moons, both of being around the same size, similar to Earth's moon. Not only could he see the moons, but he could also see the stars shining brightly, while also burning this sight in his memory, for as long as he could live, since he never got the chance to observe such a landscape back in Earth, due to the light pollution caused by the street lamps and the bright signs of the shops.
After staring for, what it seemed to him, an eternity, he decided to sit down on the side of the bed and look at the ceiling with a thoughtful expression.
"How did I get into this mess in the first place?" He couldn't help but comment dejectedly, before sighing.
Let's go over I have learned over so far. Kai thought to himself, as he closed his eyes thoughtfully.
Let's start with everything that has happened, ever since waking up in the throne room. I don't need to go over any events, from before waking up. Well... there is something, but I'll get there when I'll get there.
First and foremost, waking up in the throne room. For now, I'll get obvious elephant in the room out of the way, that being the slave seal thing. Whatever that was, it didn't sound good in any way I tried to piece it, so I'm glad I managed stop it, before it actually did something to me. But a question remains, who did this and why?
After that, we have the King himself, King Regis... something or another. Basically, the king of the place, that being the Narvonis Empire. That guy looks like some old man who doesn't have much left for him, but the way he talked... I just don't buy it. Calling us heroes, giving us preferential treatment, by having the prince and princess be our escorts and I don't know if the others noticed, but the servants who were escorting us to our rooms, they definitely had that weird look. Thank god, I know how to act indifferent, otherwise I would have shown some nervousness on my face. Whatever the King has to say tomorrow though, I have a feeling I won't like it and with the way he called us "Esteemed Heroes", I think I'll definitely won't like it.
Anyways, enough about the King. Next, I have Archibald and Marianna, the prince and princess of the Narvonis Empire. Those two... I don't have much to say about them. They probably know why were brought here, but I doubt they would have told us anything before the King's explanations. Aside from that though... Archibald's statement from before is slightly worriesome, to say the least.
Leaving the royal members aside, there are still the 3 other people who were summoned with me as well. For starters, Mei would probably the most worrysome of the three, especially since she is quite younger than me and this entire situation might be pushing her towards her breaking point and her stuttering doesn't help with having any conversations with her.
Next is Jason and I can't say much about him, mostly because I can't seem to read him. He seems like a normal businessman who doesn't want to get into trouble, but that sudden conversation with Vale tells me that there is obviously more in him, than it meets the eye.
Speaking of Vale now, he is probably the one I have the most mixed opinion with. On the one hand, he seems pretty calm and collected, but on the other hand, he seems a bit... weird, to say the least. His theory on us being from alternate universes, him admitting that he is an otaku, of all things and his conversation with Jason didn't make things any better. I feel like he might be slightly delusional, because using different presidents as a basis for us being from different universes, is a pretty flimsy argument. As for me dying saying that I died...
As that sentence ringed in his mind, he couldn't help but sigh and slowly get himself up, walk towards the moonlit window and stare at the two moons in the night sky.
"Was that flashing image from before real or not?" Kai muttered with a depressed expression, as he sighed and remembered the memory that caused his body to churn violently. Even as he remembered it, he could feel his stomach, slowly gurgling and a nauseous feeling was slowly starting rise from within him.
As he was feeling nauseous, he still kept the image of the memory in mind. The image of a truck, mere meters away from him, with the elevation of the memory, being equal to the level of the wheels, as they looked like they were going to go over head. After that, he quickly stopped this thought process, since he didn't even dare to picture the result of that.
"Crap... There's no way that is real, right? Please... Just... Please, someone tell me that was nothing more than a nightmare." At that moment, a couple of tears started to roll down his cheeks, as he quickly sat to the bed and kept telling himself:
"It can't be real. It can't be real. It can't be real. It can't be real. It can't be real. It can't be real. It can't be real. It can't be real. It can't be real."
After a bit, his body started to churn up once again and this time, Kai quickly got up from his bed and frantically started searching for a room to throw up. Thankfully, even though it was dark, his eyes had adjusted enough to see parts of the room, despite having only light from the moonlight only. He saw two doors and quickly opened the first one, only for him to close it quickly and move on to the second door, since that first door was a closet for clothing.
The moment he opened the second door, he saw that it was a small room, with a few containers, towels, soaps and a couple of taps as well, confirming that this was a restroom. After that quick thought, he quickly entered and immediately threw up in a nearby container and as he was throwing up, a sour and milky smell was starting cover the room.
"F*ck. This just can't be real, can it?" Kai couldn't help but comment with a tired and pale expression, as he lifted the container and took it to a nearby tap to wash it away. After cleaning it for a bit and assuming that he has cleaned it enough, he left the restroom and sigh, the moment he let his body collapse on the bed.
As he was staring at the ceiling, he couldn't help but take out his mother's necklace and stare at it for a few moments and as he was doing that, a thought suddenly crossed his mind and quickly got up once again and checked inside the content of his pockets.
"Empty. Wait, how are they empty? I swear that I had my phone and keys for my home. Damn, now I don't have my phone and keys, not that they would have any use for me right now." Kai exclaimed with a tired expression, before sitting on the bed once again.
"Wait. If I don't have my stuff that was in my pocket, nor the bag that I took with me when I went for school, then..." As he exclaimed that, he looked at his mother's necklace, while inwardly asking:
"Why do I have my mom's necklace on me?"
After looking at it for a few seconds, while thinking hard, he decided to give up on that train of thought and out the necklace under his shirt once again and commented quietly:
"Can't answer that if I don't know the answer. Better get some rest, since I'll probably need it for the upcoming problems that are going to appear tomorrow."
After that, he laid down on the bed and his mind slowly drifted to his own land of dreams. As he was sleeping, a couple of shadows appeared outside the window and with a cloudy rope-like thing, one of the shadows opened the window from the inside and the two of them entered the room. The other shadow, quietly walked and stopped in front of Kai and his hand glowed with a dark purplish light, while the first one just looked around.
As the purple light was on, Kai on the other hand woke up in a rather slightly familiar place, in a half-awake half-asleep state, the white space where his senses didn't work properly. After a few seconds, he felt his mind becoming awake and before long, his thoughts started to form once again.
Wait, this place is... Kai thought to himself, but before he got to finish his thought, a purple symbol had appeared in front of him and the moment it appeared, Kai's could only curse, as he realized that the same thing is going to happen.
The symbol this time was a circle with four smaller crosses, instead of just one cross and just he was about to comment about it, a familiar panel made its appearance once again:
[WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
A WEAK SLAVE SEAL IS BEING FORCEFULLY APPLIED. SINCE THE LEVEL OF THE SEAL IS LOW, THE USER CAN STOP THE SEAL FROM BEING APPLIED ON THE USER.
DUE TO THE USER'S RESISTANCE, THE DIFFICULTY HAS BEEN DECREASED, TURNING THE LEVEL OF THE SEAL FROM "WEAK" TO "WEAKEST"
TIME LEFT: 000:00:11:00]
The moment he finished reading it, he couldn't help but think if he should feel relieved or anxious about the current situation. In the end though, he decided to take care of this first, before making any other thoughts about anything else and since he had some experience with this, it didn't take him more than three minutes to make the image and draw the image of the seal, despite making sure to take his time on the four crosses.
After that, he waited for a few seconds before the panel appeared in front of him once again:
[COUNTER SEAL DRAWING RATING: 98%
THE SLAVE SEAL SPELL HAS FAILED TO AFFECT THE USER. DUE TO THE HIGH RATING, THE CASTER WILL NOT BE AWARE OF THE SPELL FAILING.
DUE TO THE EXTREME HIGH RATING, THE USER WILL GAIN {+1 Dark Affinity} AND {+0.1 INT (Intelligence) } THIS BONUS CAN NOT BE REWARDED AGAIN.
THE USER WILL WAKE UP SHORTLY UNAFFECTED AS IF NOTHING HAPPENED.]
After that, the panel disappeared and Kai couldn't help but feel relieved that he managed to prevent it, but his celebration was cut short by an unexpected event. A black rabbit had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, right in front of him.
A bunny...? What is this little guy doing here? Kai thought to himself, as looked at the rabbit. As he was looking at it, he noticed that this bunny wasn't pure black, but had a small tuft of silver hair and the tip of its ears were also covered with silver hair and not only that, but it also had differently colored eyes, those being purple and blue.
As he was looking it, he decided to pick it and examine it a bit closer, but something completely unexpected happened. The rabbit suddenly jumped and its jaw opened widely, before it landed behind Kai with a bloody mouth and tiny pieces of flesh on the corner of its mouth.
As for Kai, the moment he saw that rabbit jump behind him, he quickly turned around, only to feel something trickling down from the location of his nose. The moment he felt that trickling, he slowly put his finger on the place and felt that something was trickling. At that moment, his five senses had returned and from the location the trickling was happening, a mild numbness started to set in, before it quickly turned into a burning sensation and then, into pure pain.
It didn't take long to realize that something happened to his face, or rather his nose, in particular and the moment his hand went into the location of his nose, he realized that it was missing completely and there were only two holes, with a thin membrane of sorts in-between. After that, all thoughts ceased and were instantly replaced with an instinctual scream.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...
As he was screaming though, a panel had appeared, but he never got to read it, because his within seconds, his mind and body awakened, but the panel read itself read as such:
[A PORTION OF YOUR HUMANITY HAS BEEN CONSUMED.]