"Ricky..."
John sighed as he stared at the wooden ceiling of the inn. He couldn't fall asleep as usual. The memories of the past still continued to haunt him.
Had it not been for visiting the garden, Ricky would've never disappeared. Had it not been for him stopping to take a break at the village, they would've been still travelling together.
With tears in his eyes, John's hand slowly moved towards the locket in his neck. He gently flipped open the item he had treasured for a long time.
There were two tiny, hand-drawn portraits in it. The right side held him and Ricky together, while the left was his wife and him. Seeing the two pieces side by side, John's heart broke apart, and he burst into tears.
'In the end, I wasn't a good father.'
As he tugged his face onto the pillow, John could feel tears seeping out of his eyes. That's when a nostalgic voice fell on his ears.
"What are you crying about? I'm still here."
Maybe John was hallucinating because of a lack of sleep. The tears stopped flowing from the shock of seeing a person he had longed to see for a long time.
The person moved close to the bed as he saw John crying. He slowly sat beside him on the edge of the bed. The tears continued flooding down John's eyes as the person slowly patted his head.
Thinking of it as a dream, John pulled the person close, giving him a hug. Before he realised it, the blanket was already covering John, who soon fell asleep.
Claire and Jaden watched it happen from a distance. Only two people were not with them: Aliana and Rudia.
"They fell asleep."
Claire said this, looking at the two people sleeping as they hugged each other. Jaden felt relieved to see them like that. Luckily, everything went smoothly after returning to the inn.
Thanks to Aliana's teleportation magic, the distance they had to travel decreased drastically. Claire was still engrossed in observing John sleeping with Ricky quietly.
"Hng... We should go to sleep too."
Jaden yawned, stretching his arms up in the air. He had run around more than enough throughout the day. More like, the work he did at night was more tiring than the one he did during the day.
Claire looked at him with an irritated expression. She thought that Jaden was exaggerating what he had gone through. But she was aware of it very well, which made her not say anything bad to Jaden.
-[I'm borrowing the body.]
It was out of nowhere that the voice in her mind took over control of Claire's body. A smile formed on her lips as she moved closer to Jaden.
"Say... just who are you? What is your real identity?"
Jaden flinched, getting asked unexpected questions. He thought that he was acting normal all this time. To his surprise, Claire had noticed it.
He gulped down saliva, trying to avoid meeting eyes with Claire. Smiling awkwardly, he tried to speak.
"Haha... Whatever you might be talking about."
As if someone would've believed such an action as the truth. Claire's eyebrows frowned with anger, but she still maintained her smile.
Jaden put his palms facing her, taking a slow step back. Claire continued keeping herself close to him.
Finally, after walking backwards for a while, Jaden could feel a wall behind him. He had nowhere to escape now.
"Just tell me already. It's not like I'll do you any harm."
It was obvious that Claire had asked him about it out of curiosity. But Jaden still didn't believe her fully because of her past actions.
As his eyes met hers, the innocent curiosity brimming within them made Jaden hesitate for a while. He gulped his saliva while trying to hold himself back from talking.
He couldn't figure out what other hidden intentions Claire had to approach him like that. The female protagonist that he remembered wasn't the type to act as Claire was at that moment.
'What's wrong with her? Can't she tell that I'm uncomfortable?'
Even though he thought that to himself, Jaden couldn't just bring himself to push her aside and rush to his room a bit further from there. It was the one last time that Jaden's eyes met hers.
His right eyebrow twitched, and his pale face had an awkward smile. He sighed lightly before speaking.
"You won't believe me even if I do tell you."
If someone suddenly told you that they weren't originally from your world, obviously you wouldn't believe it. Hiding as much information as he could was Jaden's main focus.
Something absurd like travelling across the worlds wasn't something that had happened in their world since the beginning. As for Lenon's case, he had kept it a secret, fearing that he might've been ostracised had anyone discovered the truth.
He closed his eyes as he tried to think of what he should say next. He had no words to make his escape, and so he was about to tell the truth. That's when a third person spoke.
"What are you both doing?"
She glared at Claire, who had pushed Jaden against a wall. The chills running down their spines made them smile at each other awkwardly.
Aliana was standing in front of her and Jaden's room. Claire had been expecting her to be asleep by then, but she was still awake.
"N-no-nothing!"
Her cold voice and the look in her eyes were more than enough to scare away Claire. She rushed to her room without looking back.
Jaden let out a sigh of relief, but his expression stiffened the next moment he saw Aliana's smile. For some reason, he remembered something too late.
- I will find Ricky within 2 hours. If I do, you will listen to any of my requests.
Aliana had already won the bet. Jaden could feel his forehead sweating as he walked towards their room before Aliana said a word. His face was pale with nervousness.
'Ah. I'm doomed.'
--------------
"Is this what you really want from me?"
Jaden tried to keep himself in one place without moving because of the awkward position he was in. He could feel Aliana's body's heat brushing against his back.
The hands wrapped around him made it even more uncomfortable for him. Aliana was hugging him tightly from the back.
This was the ridiculous request she made as the winner of the bet. Jaden was quite dumbfounded when she asked him to sleep beside her.
There were still about four hours before the sun rose. Thankfully, it seemed like they were able to get some sleep. But Jaden? He couldn't bring himself to fall asleep.
'What should I even do in such a situation?'
He tried to figure it out while not moving around too much. This was the same person who had maintained distance with people of the opposite gender for as long as he could remember.
"Hm?"
A while had passed, and Aliana had not said a word. Thinking that she had fallen asleep, Jaden squirmed and turned around. Not to mention, he wasn't being held down as tightly as a while ago.
But his assumption was wrong. Aliana was still wide awake, staring at Jaden's face. Jaden wanted to smile back at her, but he couldn't do it.
"Say..."
It had not been so long since they had met for the first time, yet she seemed to know almost everything and anything about him. Jaden had a lot of questions he had bottled up for a lot of reasons.
"Did we meet before in my original world?"
Aliana flinched for a moment and then smiled lightly. Jaden braced himself for what she was about to say. He wasn't really ready for her answer.
"We did meet before, but not in your so-called original world."
Jaden hadn't expected such an answer. If not there, then where would they've met before? The only thing he could think of was the being that communicated with him using water.
But that wasn't correct either. Aliana herself had said so a few days ago. If it was something she had done, then there was no point in hiding it either way.
Taking what Aliana had said as the truth, the possibility of her being a reader who had transmigrated into the novel could be ruled out. Jaden had already expected this, but now he was out of options to conclude about it.
His gaze slowly moved downward. Aliana was putting her face close against his chest. He could feel the blood gushing through the veins of his face. Aliana continued to speak while hiding her face.
"I told you before, right? You just need to follow me. One day..."
Her voice became a bit softer. Did she speak lightly on purpose or...? Jaden could feel dizziness, making his eyes shut for every passing second.
Aliana's voice wasn't ringing within his ears, and he couldn't see anything. He had fallen asleep before he realised it.
"...one... back!"
The voice echoed in his ears while sunrays fell upon his eyes. He tried moving his hands around, but something heavy made it impossible for him to do that. Jaden slowly tried to open his eyes when the brightness engulfed his vision.
He could hear the sounds of some people talking aloud, and his face went pale. It wasn't because of the sounds, but because of the person next to him, that his expression stiffened with nervousness.
Thud
As he tried to move himself away from Aliana, who was sleeping defenceless beside him, Jaden fell down from the bed. His left eyebrow twitched non-stop as the ceiling came into his field of view.
"What a morning..."
He mumbled to himself as he tried to put on a smile. The noise of him crashing on the floor woke Aliana up too.
Rubbing her eyes, she looked beside her. Jaden's feet were visible instead of his face. She slowly moved close to the edge of the bed.
"Did you sleep well?"
She asked with a poker face. Jaden's face became red for a moment upon seeing her face, but it became pale soon after. He smiled awkwardly as he replied to her.
"O-of course!"
Saying that, he got up from the floor and turned towards the door. Aliana smiled lightly, looking at his back, and got out of bed too.
Jaden's outfit changed again while he walked out of the room. And Aliana? Her magic was just too convenient. With a snap of her fingers, she had her clothes changed too.
They were both wearing the same outfit as the one they wore a day ago. The only difference was that Aliana had used her magic to get their outfits cleaned up.
She looked around for a bit and then followed Jaden's footsteps. They were heading downstairs, which was a lot more noisy than the day before when they had arrived.
"It's a good thing that your son has been found!"
The man exclaimed as the crowd flocked around John and his son, Ricky. The people who stayed nearby had come to ask about their well-being as soon as they heard that they had found Ricky.
Jaden smiled with relief. It looked like everything was going well with John. But the crowd was still too much for them.
"It's a relief that they are fine, right?"
Jaden flinched at the sudden appearance of the person who spoke. Claire was standing behind him, so he didn't notice her before.
Jaden smiled awkwardly upon seeing her face. He couldn't thank Aliana enough for pulling him out of the mess the night before.
He looked around at the chaotic scene. A lot of villagers gathered at a spot, with Claire on one side and, on the other side, Aliana.
'I-i hope I survive today somehow...'