"Elil…"
A faint voice drifted through the fog of his sleep.
"Elil!!"
*Bang*
"Ouchhhh!"
Elil's eyes flew open, his head throbbing as he reached up to touch the spot where the pain had blossomed. His fingers brushed through his hair and found a fine, chalky powder coating his scalp. Blinking away the last of his drowsiness, he caught sight of the chalkboard duster lying innocently on the desk beside him. Right. He knew exactly what had happened.
This was, after all, routine: Elil dozing off in class and the lecturer waking him up with a well-aimed throw.
"Elil, answer me now!" The lecturer's voice sliced through the murmurs around him.
"Answer, uh?" Elil muttered in confusion, his voice still groggy.
The entire class erupted in laughter, some of his classmates barely containing their snickers. But the lecturer wasn't amused.
"Yes, the answer to the question I asked!" The lecturer, bespectacled and looking unimpressed in a crisp white shirt and navy-blue trousers, fixed Elil with a stare that practically dared him to fall asleep again.
Elil sat up straighter, blinking to bring himself back to reality as he tried to piece together the situation. He glanced around the classroom, his gaze settling on the board cluttered with scrawls of organic chemistry. The symbols and equations were a blur, but he squinted, piecing them together until, finally, a smirk tugged at his lips.
"The answer is, you'll die if you do that, dear lecturer," he declared in a calm, almost casual tone.
A hush fell over the room. The scattered laughter from a moment ago had vanished, leaving behind stunned silence. Even the lecturer's raised eyebrows betrayed his shock.
Elil leaned back, crossing his arms with an air of confidence. "It's true," he continued, lifting both hands in a gesture of mock certainty. "I'm just saying, it's obvious."
The lecturer scowled, his initial shock giving way to irritation. "What nonsense are you babbling about, you half-asleep moron?"
Elil only shrugged, his expression unruffled. "Pardon me, sir, but it's you who might end up looking like a 'moron' if you tried to carry out that reaction. The catalyst proportion you've written is ridiculous, and you've totally ignored the photocatalysis requirement. So, yes… you'd be dead if you mixed the chemicals that way."
His tone was so calm, so absolute, that the class sat in stunned silence, a few jaws hanging open.
The lecturer stared at the equation on the board, his brow furrowing as he rechecked it. The realization hit him like a ton of bricks: Elil had been right. The catalyst proportions were off, and he had indeed overlooked the role of photocatalysis in the reaction. The lecturer, now visibly flustered, gave Elil a sharp look.
"Sit down, Elil. You've made your point," he said, his tone a mix of annoyance and begrudging respect.
Elil, without a hint of smugness, simply nodded and returned to his seat. The class was dismissed soon after, and the students, relieved to be free, began to gather their things, eager to either head home or rush off to their next class.
As the lecture hall emptied, Elil gathered his notes and headed out, walking at his usual steady pace, his mind already on the advanced topics he planned to research later. He was a second-year student at one of the most prestigious universities in the country, a place where only the brightest minds were admitted. It was a challenge to get in, and it was an even bigger challenge to stay at the top, but for Elil, it felt like second nature. His intellectual capacity far surpassed the average student, and his understanding of complex concepts was far more advanced than what most students his age could grasp.
However, Elil wasn't much for socializing. He found most people tedious and predictable. His only real companions were his professors, with whom he would often engage in long, in-depth discussions about cutting-edge theories and research. He preferred their company to that of his peers, who, in his opinion, were more interested in trivialities than the complexities of the world.
When the day finally came to a close, Elil made his way home. He unlocked the door to his house, slipping off his shoes before stepping inside. His house was quiet, as it always was, and he was used to the silence. He had lived alone for the past ten years, ever since his mother passed away. She had been a high-ranking officer in the military, and Elil's life had been financially comfortable because of her position.
"Welcome home, Elil. You're later than usual," a warm voice called from the hallway.
Elil looked up to see Kayal, the housemaid, standing with a friendly smile. She was a kind woman who had worked in the household even before his mother's passing. She had become a surrogate mother figure of sorts for Elil, always caring for him and providing a semblance of normalcy in a life that had long since lost its warmth.
"Long day," Elil replied curtly, though his tone was softened by the familiarity of her presence.
Kayal nodded sympathetically. "Would you like something to eat? I've prepared your favorite."
Elil gave a small smile, nodding in appreciation. "I'll take a light meal, thanks."
As he walked deeper into the house, the weight of the day lifted slightly.
Elil trudged back to his room, feeling the weight of the day bearing down on him. He didn't bother with the lights as he flopped onto his bed, his body sinking into the soft mattress, grateful for the brief respite. As he settled in, the shelves above his bed trembled from the force of his landing, and with a soft thud, a hardcover book slipped off the edge, falling directly onto his head.
"Ouchhh!" Elil grunted, rubbing the sore spot where the book had made contact. "How's that for relaxation?"
He cursed under his breath, but as his hands reached out to grab the offending book, something familiar about it made him pause. He picked it up and glanced at the title: *Mythical Monsters and Their Historic Origin*.
A flood of memories rushed over him. This was the book his mother had given him years ago, a token of their shared passion for fantasy. Both of them had always been fascinated by monsters, not the kind that lurked in shadows, but the fantastical creatures of legend and myth. Bedtime stories were often filled with tales of dragons, griffins, and other mythical beings, and they would spend hours discussing the lore behind these creatures. His mother had always encouraged him to question the origins of these legends, to think beyond the surface. It was their thing, one of the few things that had grounded Elil in a world that often felt too cold and distant.
He flipped the book open, his fingers grazing the familiar, well-worn pages. The words were just as enchanting as they had been years ago, but now, as a second-year student at a prestigious university, Elil found his interest in fantasy had expanded beyond bedtime stories. He was drawn to fantasy worlds in a different way now. *Open-world online games*, for instance. The complex systems, the vast landscapes, the imaginative creatures—these things weren't so far removed from the theories he studied in chemistry or physics. In fact, he often found parallels between the structured systems in these games and the scientific principles he had mastered in the real world.
"How cool it would be if I get sucked into this book right now!"
He cast a mere thought.
"Come on now, I'm waiting."
.
.
"Ahh, not happening huh."
He sighed, a faint smile tugging at his lips. His life was a constant mix of reality and the fantastical. And while his focus was on his studies, part of him always felt drawn to the imaginative worlds that allowed him to escape the rigid confines of academia, even if only for a short while.