'Where could she have possibly gone!?'
Haruo scrambled through her room, testing whether she was just hiding and waiting for him to leave, just to escape when he least expected it. But he couldn't be any more wrong. She was nowhere to be found whatsoever.
Just earlier, before he had gone searching for her, he went out to make tea for her request. He had made sure that if she tried to escape her room, he would be able to know where she had gone.
But his plan had backfired on himself and left him in a daze. He searched blindly for clues, trying to pinpoint where she had gone, but alas, he still found nothing.
He felt insanity's door next to him, buckets of cold sweat pouring down his face, before he slapped the back of his own head. He took a quiet breather and raced through the halls to find her.
Checking every possible route she could escape from—The kitchens, storage, pantry, or guestrooms. Even in unlikely places—productive areas—she was nowhere to be found.
During his search, he saw his master rounding from a corner. He slowed his momentum and wore a calm demeanour. He fixed his posture, and as he got close to him, he greeted him.
"Morning, my lord."
Leon spotted Haruo and darted his eyes around to find Ena, but only Haruo was present.
"Shouldn't you be next to Ena? Where is she?"
He maintained his poker face and responded as naturally as he could.
"The mistress had ordered me to make her tea."
"Ah, I see. Just make sure she doesn't use this chance to escape. She's quite a nuisance at times."
Haruo nodded in agreement before he gave him his farewell; he took it slowly and walked at a regular pace. Once his master disappeared to a corner, he started to regain his momentum and traverse through the place.
After confirming she wasn't in the manor, he had jumped through the window—Again—and dashed forward. Ahead of him lay a massive fence that guarded the whole manor from the outside.
He used his momentum and jumped over it with ease.
'For someone who's supposed to be three years older than me, you're surprisingly immature!'
He easily climbed to the roof of a building and observed his surroundings in search of her. But due to his limited view, he couldn't find her.
'I need to go higher.'
He kept going from one building to another and jumped to the highest one. He readied himself and charged his legs for a jump.
In a single movement, he had released all the potential energy accumulated by his legs and shot upward to the sky. In just an instant, he had gone up more than five hundred meters. He redirected his vision to the sky and observed from above.
Despite being far from the surface, he was able to see clearly from a distance. He fell as he analysed parts of the city until he spotted Ena buying near a marketplace, which was also near his old apartment.
He shifted his entire weight to his lower body, allowing him to reach the ground quickly.
He shot through the city like a bullet until he finally found Ena. He let himself rest quietly behind Ena whilst she bought whatever brought her there.
The atmosphere of the market was lively, with multiple noises overlapping with each other. The animals, especially, could be heard. Despite it all, he could hear Ena's muttering. Only when he focuses on her mutters, though.
"This one looks tasty… I should just buy all of them."
'Rich privileges…" Haruo thought, clicking his tongue.
Haruo cleared his throat before saying:
"I suggest buying only one; these types of food are quite unhealthy."
Her whole body turned and shot a glare at Haruo with wide eyes; confusion struck her like a bolt of lightning. She had planned out her escape perfectly, and yet he had found her easily.
Her confusion didn't last long and was replaced by annoyance.
"How did you find me so quickly!?"
"There are a lot of things you could do with jumping."
"... What?"
***
Days had passed since then, and Haruo had maximised his security by 50%. Ever since that incident, he refused to let her plan her next move. He had sacrificed almost two hours of sleep.
Eye bags even started to form, and when he thought he couldn't be paler, he did. He did everything he could to stay just a step ahead of her. He even placed traps all over the routes he took and constantly monitored her.
In the windows, in her closet with the secret tunnel on the second floor… Secret tunnel on the second floor? To him, it didn't seem surprising anymore; he just felt the repetition of her constant behaviour.
One of her most desperate stunts in escaping Haruo's grasp was crawling through the air vents. And she once again had figured out why it only worked on movies and not with reality.
Currently, Haruo was in Ena's classroom disguised as a 19-year-old boy. How he got there in the first place was easier than he had anticipated; all he had to do was ask for his master's approval, and he got him transferred almost instantly.
He was playing the role of an introverted nobody, reading books alone and steering clear of any conversation that tried to drag him in.
And when it was school breaks, he would slowly back up and blend in with the crowd, and sometimes let himself get exposed in her line of vision to make it less suspicious. But this would be all useless if he hadn't had a good disguise.
So he created a skin mask that no one would be able to differentiate from a real face. But just having a different face would still be risky; luckily, he was a master actor in situations like this.
He had changed the way he walked, the way he talked, and how he stood. Any normal person would never suspect him, even if they knew him very well; no one would be able to recognise him. Even used temporary hair dye to cover his white hair.
***
'Look at her work so diligently, and I thought you were just a troublemaker.' Haruo thought.
It was currently history class. Ena was careful when taking notes about the lesson; she made sure she learnt the topic perfectly. And when she didn't, she would ask the teacher to repeat the part she got stuck on.
"Ena, kindly turn to page 235 and read the 'Current status of the world'"
After the teacher called her out, she stood up from her chair and flipped through her textbook.
***
The great 10 periods… 2025—Or 100,000 years ago—was when the cataclysmic event changed not only humanity but our understanding of reality altogether.
This event consisted of three parts: awakening, catastrophe, and then rebirth. During this time, mana and innate abilities have awakened inside people. This sudden awakening triggered the chaos of humanity.
Many people went rogue, which led to the destruction of the democracy. Many political figures had died, and people had died. The destruction has caused a chain reaction among humanity and created a worldwide war.
This war had lasted for more than 25 years, which turned most of the world into a battlefield. But one man stood at the pinnacle of the world, the same person who led the war to an end and brought peace to the world once more.
Some survived, while most of humanity had been killed or starved. Survivors each had suffered at least one injury during the war. The casualties in total were… 91% of humanity dead.
Many fallen buildings lie on the surface; the devastation caused by the war was catastrophic. That's when the Great Clean-up began. Survivors had made it their mission to restore the world to its former glory and began rebuilding steadily.
The Great Clean-up had taken exactly 827 years—Only to restore order to humanity. Leaders from all nations had suggested that humanity downgrade housing and buildings to medieval structures—except hospitals or factories—or any type that didn't risk using massive amounts of resources.
This solved the problem of resource consumption and allowed easy construction when destroyed. Continuing forward, humanity decided to call this era "The awakening period."
During the awakening period, multiple continents had risen and introduced new land to Earth. But land wasn't the only thing that came along, but life as well. Different races and monsters appeared.
Next in line was the Runic period; philologist and archaeologist Cain R. Lopez discovered the wonders of Runic magic. This discovery led to the creation of all artifacts that harmonised with the flow of mana.
With the invention of artifacts, the artifact period began. Known as the golden age of human advancement, artifacts became a daily necessity that prospered the lands.
But with great heights comes a great fall. The devastation period, where nearly half of humanity died at the hands of Kilrum. A beast that tore civilization in half and destroyed the knowledge of artifact creation.
But with great heights comes a great fall. The devastation period, where nearly half of humanity died at the hands of Kilrum. A beast that tore civilization in half and destroyed the knowledge of artifact creation.
Being returned to the bottom, humanity vowed to rise once more. During the habitation period, the population began to explode exponentially. In pursuit of recovering from this problem, intergalactic travel was created to find new habitable planets.
During the migration period, new technology surfaced, allowing interplanetary travel in just seconds.
Then came the enchantment period, after countless experiments of reverting humanity to its golden age, humanity had recovered one of its aspects: Enchanting. Researchers who led these experiments were scholars Agatha Aldi the 5th, and Park Beom Seok.
And as humanity grew, monsters did as well. During the evolution period, civilizations had a reason to fight once more. Monsters became increasingly difficult to kill due to their rapid adaptation and intellect.
In the advanced period, both magic and science had coexisted once more and created humanity's greatest invention since the past 6 period, nano machines.
Then, finally, the current period, the power period. The future still awaits, and with many stories still being created.
***
The teacher nodded along as she told a story, and he asked only one question.
"What year is it?"
"I-4023"
"Okay, good. During these past 100,000 years, knowledge has accumulated. And with each period came a breakthrough. Do you know why "I" is in the year?"
"Because each letter represents a period, or 10,000 years." He added. "For example, B-3021, the devastation period translates to 23,021 in numerical terms."
Haruo hadn't paid a single attention to the class.
Not because he was bored—Kinda—But because he already learnt this knowledge back when he was just twelve. For him, relearning the same topic twice was a waste of his time.
The class continued till the bell rang. It was their last lesson for the day, and it was time for Ena and him to return to the manor.
As Haruo packed his things, one of his classmates walked to the front and announced that everyone to join him in karaoke. At first, no one responded, but suddenly one joined, which caused a chain reaction, and almost the entire classroom had agreed... except for two people.
None other than Ena and Haruo himself.
'Not my problem, as long as she doesn't join...'
***
They had just arrived at a nearby tavern that allowed all of them to sing on the stage. They had rented the entire tavern, so only the class was there.
As they entered, they saw a bar area on the side, along with a bartender cleaning glassware. The bartender smiled at the youthful group and bowed politely.
Moody lights danced around the tavern like disco. Each person had either grouped themselves and gotten a table for themselves or just sat alone without anyone's company.
He was the second option; he didn't like interacting or making meaningless relationships with people, so he decided to sit alone.
The scent of alcohol was everywhere, which he found a nuisance. He never liked alcohol to begin with—not that he ever tried one himself—But because it was the only thing in the world that he could smell so distinctly.
But he couldn't help it; he had to keep an eye on Ena.
'Just what compelled her to join mediocre events like these?'
A person then sat beside him, he took a glance at who it was, and to his shock, none other than the devil herself, Ena.
"I never thought you'd follow me to school as well."
"What gave it away?"
"Well, I wasn't sure at first, since you acted way differently than you usually did. But there was an opportunity to test whether it was you, not."
"And that was?"
"Karaoke; back in class, I saw that you didn't act shy, but distant. The type who'd hate interacting with others, so when you decided to join, I immediately realized it was you."
"But one question? Where did you get that suspicion?"
Before she could reply to his question, a large explosion had destroyed the far end of the tavern. Multiple silhouettes appeared through the dust.
"Raise your hands if you don't want to get shot!"