Lucius stared at the young boy—no, the man—before him, stunned. His mind raced, trying to make sense of the situation. The name rang out with a note of infamy that sent chills down his spine.
And for some reason, it struck a sense of familiarity. Like he had heard of it somewhere before. Then it struck him.
"Kaiser... Norgon?" he echoed, disbelief evident in his voice. The name was whispered in fearful legends, a conqueror of unparalleled ferocity.
"It looks like you've heard of me," Kaiser asked, picking up Lucius's nervousness.
Lucius however kept his mouth shut as he tried to dodge his inquiring gazes. It wasn't a name originally belonging to his previous world. But, it wasn't even a name that belonged to the present of his present world.
'If he's really the Kaiser Norgon that I read then he shouldn't be alive. It's been told that he had already died in a battle more than 500 years ago.'
Not that he doubted his credibility but he couldn't bring himself to accept his identity either. Even the Norgon empire which he ruled had already ceased to exist. So, how could he accept his identity so easily?
But did it even matter if he was the Norgon he knew or not, right now? The most important thing right now was to find his whereabouts and to escape this unfamiliar place in a single piece.
Even so, having no other person besides him to rely on, he needed to depend on him if he wanted to find out more about his situation. So, even though he wasn't willing to interact with this crazy child, he tried to interact with him.
"No, I've just heard of someone whose name is similar to yours," Lucius responded, looking straight into his eyes while trying to appear as convincing as he could so that Kaiser wouldn't doubt him.
"Even so, I'm glad to finally meet someone after so long," Kaiser didn't seem to doubt his word's credibility as he easily bought what he said.
This was all better for Lucius as he could continue his act, and try to squeeze out the information from him. For some reason, from the beginning, he hadn't felt any hostile intention from him which had made him feel that Kaiser was harmless.
Also, his appearance greatly contrasted with the way he talked. Which further led him to believe his assumptions of him. But still, he couldn't afford to be careless. Who knows he could also be a sheep in wolf's clothing.
It's better to doubt than be sorry.
So, he carefully approached him as he tried to squeeze information out of him, "You keep on telling me that you've been trapped here for so long... So, how long exactly are we talking about? Can you give me a rough estimation?"
Kaiser thought for a while and then answered, "Hmm..., I did try to keep track of the time. But since the sun never rises or sets in this place. I couldn't be sure of it. But it felt quite long"
Now that he mentioned it, he couldn't see anything besides an isolated space. Those fire torches were the only things that illuminated this space. And, it appeared he was in some kind of hallway that led to somewhere.
"And if it's not so much of a burden, can you tell me where exactly are we?" Lucius probed.
Having a person to chat with, Kaiser was more than willing to share the information he had with him right now. But even he wasn't sure of the place. So, he answered haphazardly, "Well the last thing I remember is stumbling upon a towering structure in a desert-like location. So, it could be an entirely different world."
Did he say tower? If it's the same tower that they were desperately trying to avoid, then it must mean that he was right now trapped inside the tower.
From his conversation with Kaiser, though he didn't manage to pinpoint his exact location, at least he got a few leads to deduce.
Then did he too experience that hallucination when he first arrived here? To figure out his situation, he needed to get his hands on every information he could get. So, it made him a little curious if Kaiser too had experienced the same phenomenon as he did.
That experience, he could tell with certainty that it wasn't just a dream. It was just too real to be a dream. The sensation of touch, smell, and vision, felt so vivid to be a dream.
Until now, even though it wasn't the answer he wanted to hear, Kaiser had answered almost every question of his. But would he continue to do so if he were to ask such details?
A seed of doubt sprouted inside his heart as he thought of asking him about the experience he had experienced before. Even so, he had to ask him somehow.
While attempting to ask him about his experience, his mouth opened and closed repeatedly for a while as he tried to voice his words.
"Then did you also experience something when you first entered this place?" finally he managed to ask him.
Despite his best attempt to appear calm, Lucius seemed quite anxious at the moment. But it didn't appear to bother Kaiser at all as he solemnly looked at him and said, "Experience huh?"
"Did you mean this?"
All of a sudden as he finished speaking, a black snake appeared in front of him. Wrapped around Kaiser's neck as if it were a muffler keeping his neck warm, it had coiled its slimy body around Kaiser's neck.
Its ruby-like crimson eyes were looking straight at him. While sticking out its tongue, it was making a hissing sound.
The appearance of the snake out of nowhere, startled him, "Ahh!! Where... did it come... from?"
He was sure that he hadn't seen it a moment ago. But now he could vividly see it. It's as if it materialized out of thin air.
Hearing him scream, Kaiser felt a little irritated, "Why are you shouting as if you've seen a ghost? Didn't you ask to see what caused you to hallucinate?"