Confined to a squalid cell, I found myself surrounded by damp misery. A mildewed bed and a reeking chamber pot were my only companions. Shackles, secured with a dark cloth, gnawed at my wrists, rendering any attempt at escape futile. I slumped against the cold stone wall, forced to endure the suffocating stench for what felt like an eternity. Five agonising hours crawled by, the filth a constant assault on my senses. Death, swift and clean, seemed preferable to this slow descent into oblivion. The most unbearable torment, however, was the chilling realisation – I was trapped in a time far removed from my own.
"Damned," I mumbled, then hemmed. "Is this what being a bloody haft feels like?"
A bitter twist of fate indeed. A sardonic chuckle escaped my lips, my eyes girding around the place of filth. In my past life, I had condemned countless runaways to these desolate prisons. Now, fate had served me a cruel dish – to endure the very torment I once inflicted. This was not just imprisonment, it was a slow descent into oblivion. The putrid air itself seemed to conspire against me, a harbinger of the eternal suffering that awaited damned souls. A macabre amusement flickered within me – perhaps not just a fate worse than death, but a living prelude to it.
Then, once I heard a low humming ring and a clang of steel door, fervour surged within me as that stern beauty of raven hair finally approached me and said, "Emilia, you'll be questioned in an interrogation room."
A figure, her face perpetually veiled by a brazen white helm, unlocked my cell door and ushered me out. I could not shake the feeling of unease in her watchful gaze. The whispers about my arrival, whispers of a being from a bygone era, clearly cast doubts in her mind. Doubts that mirrored my own. The silence stretched on, thick and oppressive. My gaze, drawn by a nervous impulse, landed on her well-defined form, clad in the same dark, clinging attire as the other shadow knights. The way it hugged her curves, the slight sway of her hips as she moved – it was undeniably provocative. A grimace tugged at my lips. In my time, such open sensuality would have been unthinkable. Yet, here, it seemed perfectly acceptable. By the heavens, I thought, a tremor of disgust running through me, has this society truly devolved into such…vulgarity?When we arrived at a large, imposing door, a shadow knight swung it open, revealing not a torture chamber as I had feared, but a sparsely furnished room. Two chairs and a single table stood stark against the bare walls. A welcome change, at least. The knight exited, leaving us alone. The stern woman gestured towards one of the chairs, her hand hovering in the air for a moment. She remained standing, her tall, slender frame seemingly casting a shadow over the entire room."So," the stern woman heaved a sigh of exasperation, then her eyes squinted and lips crimped. "How do I begin this? Uhmmm…. Where do you come from?"
"Solheim hoff, residing in the heart of Himel City," I anqueathed. "Haveth I mentioned it before?"
"Oh yeah, never mind about that," she clicked her tongue, rubbed her face, and tapped her fingers on the table, myriad riddles filling inside her mind. "When—How was the last time you remember aside from being here in this world… the today's world?"
"Such an enthralling ask," I said. "In sooth, I was riding on horseback, heading my way to the northern outskirts of Himel City, for the portal there—devoid of any unearthly creatures—was manifesting before our very eyes. At first, I fancied my doubts over what may happen, but once I got closer to it, a… burst of light suddenly overtook right in front of me, thus leading me here."
"Uh-huh… So ummm… more like some sort of isekai moments, eh? What in the world?," she sighed and paused, rubbing the back of her neck and tilting her head, then shook her head and continued. "I think… it might've been some sort of effect that correlates with the destruction of the Overseer satellite awhile ago, but really… what lies there?"The portal... gone. And the Overseer satellite with it. We believed the fount, the source of everything, resided within that colossal structure reaching beyond the heavens. With its destruction, how can we possibly unravel the mystery of my unfathomable arrival? Wiss it was the Overseer held the key?
So I asked, "What year art we in?"
"Two two three five," she took a glance at her blue-bright timepiece on her wrist. "Or on the exact date, it's the twenty-eighth day of November."
"Two… two… three… five," I repeated, then rubbed my chin, figuring out the difference between my year and this year.
Twelve fifteen… From twenty years till now… Twenty years of abiding Norsian's unyielding evest…Grateful to the voices of my amind flooding across my mind, I finally answered, "Twelve thirty-five was the last year of my begotten being there.""Hmmm, twelve thirty-five. One two three five," repeating those numbers, she then snapped a finger. "So, a thousand years gap."
"Indeed, seems beyond coincidental."
"Therefore, there must be something within the pinnacle of the Overseer that had sent you here," she protruded her lips and shrugged. "There, case solved, so now… what are we gonna do?"
"Thou canst bring me there, and I wilt be returned to my era once again."
"I'm afraid that's unlikely," she shook her head. "I had told you that the Overseer satellite had already been destroyed. Get it? Destroyed! That means, it's no longer… useful. The portal there is also gonna be gone, judging by the vanishment of that… yellowish cloud that looks like a candy pop… if you know what I mean, eh?""I see, so no hope for me to return."Is there another way back? The whispers hinted at a fount beyond the heavens, but with the Overseer destroyed, there's no single clue. A throbbing pain flared in my head, a counterpoint to the rising tide of bewilderment. A faint memory flickered – a startling vision, like a forgotten dream. It surfaced after watching my son being fostered... Something about...
"Purple glimmering stone," I said, attracting her intrigue. "Purple glimmering stone, haveth thou known of it?"
"No," she replied, a firm shake of her head dismissing your memory. "Nothing like that rings a bell. But if this forgotten memory of yours connects to the Overseer tower in some way, then it could be significant."
She fell silent, a furrow etching itself between her brows as she mulled over the new information. Then, a glint of curiosity flickered in her single visible eye. With a tilt of her head, a hint of a sly smile played on her lips."Well, wouldn't that be interesting," she remarked. "You, from a bygone era, might just prove to be more useful than I initially thought.""Uhmm, thanks."
"Well, maybe we can ask a keeper of the Himel Museum for any findings of this so-called 'purple stone'."
"Aye," I nodded. "As thou ponder."
At once, she opened the door, but before passing the doorway, she turned her head behind and looked back, "Right, sorry for the late introductions, but my name's Ayako Kinbara, an agent of the IL-LE… No, SSIA. You know, International League-Special Secret Intelligence Agency."
"Gladdened to meet thee."
"Come along, then."