"Waaah!"
With a terrified shriek, Eternal Meteor flung the blanket aside and shot upright in bed.
Her hands patted frantically over her own body. Fear lingered plainly on her small face, her chest heaving as she sucked in huge gulps of air.
"I—beep-beep-beep—beep—!"
She panted while spitting out a string of words that could only be censored.
"Goddamn it… what kind of messed-up dream was that?"
"And why the hell would I dream something like that?"
Once the emotions left behind by the dream finally drained away, Eternal Meteor grabbed the bottled water by her bedside and chugged it in one go. Then, with a casual high toss, she threw the crushed bottle neatly into the trash can.
She lowered her head and stared suspiciously at her pale, slender wrist, turning it over and over. No matter how she looked, there wasn't even the faintest trace of injury.
And yet the scene from the dream rose again like an afterimage, overlapping with her arm—the cold, solid chains seemed to still be biting into her skin.
She shuddered. Her body trembled twice, then she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head wildly, trying to fling those images out of her mind.
Even recalling the now-blurry dream—despite not remembering the details—made a chill crawl up her spine.
In the dream, Tokai Teio didn't even use any drugs. She just relied on brute force, hauled Eternal Meteor away like a package, and chained her up in some room she didn't recognize.
But Teio hadn't searched her carefully before locking her up, so Eternal Meteor managed to send a distress text to Rudolf…
…except—Rudolf was damn well in on it with Teio!
Seriously.
Ever since that amusement park incident, she kept having these kinds of dreams. And the "lead" wasn't even consistent—sometimes it was Teio, sometimes it was Rudolf.
The most ridiculous one?
She'd even dreamed it was Twin Turbo.
What kind of joke was that? Would Twin Turbo even think about this stuff?
It had to be that lingering sense of helplessness from before—remembering that feeling of being unable to resist—warping her subconscious.
No. This was bad.
From now on, she needed to train more strength. The fact that she couldn't pry off Teio's one hand even with both her hands—when Teio was half spaced out—was absurd.
She couldn't take it anymore.
She needed hot milk to calm down.
She rolled out of bed, feet landing straight into the slippers she'd placed earlier, and marched to the kitchen.
Five minutes later—
Eternal Meteor cradled a warm double-walled glass of milk in both hands. The temperature was perfect: warm enough to heat her fingers, not hot enough to burn.
The alarm she'd set in advance started ringing too, reminding her it was time to make breakfast.
She was just about to set the cup down when the cold air cleared her head.
Right.
Rudolf wasn't home these past two days.
The day before yesterday she'd said she needed to handle something out of town, and wouldn't be back until tomorrow. When she left, she'd kept trying to drag Eternal Meteor along with her.
If Eternal Meteor's leg hadn't already healed enough that Rudolf could worry less—and if Eternal Meteor hadn't resisted so hard—she would've ended up on a train yesterday.
In the rising steam, she sipped the milk in small mouthfuls, letting out the occasional satisfied exhale. On a freezing day like this, hot milk was genuinely heaven.
And don't misunderstand—Rudolf wasn't stingy about heating or anything.
It was just that Rudolf herself didn't like turning it on. Once the heat was running, she always felt like a cherry tomato slowly drying out inside an oven.
And honestly, on cold days, sleeping wrapped in a thick blanket felt amazing.
But when Rudolf was home, Eternal Meteor couldn't exactly let her freeze with her, so she only turned the heating off after Rudolf left.
Because this wasn't her house. Even if Rudolf said it was fine, Eternal Meteor still couldn't get past it in her own head.
After finishing the milk, she squeezed a bit of dish soap into the cup, rinsed it quickly, and set it back on the rack.
She wiped her hands with a tissue and looked at the time on her phone: 5:10 a.m.
She stood there, thinking hard about what to do next.
Scroll videos? Play a game?
Wait.
No. Hold on.
If she didn't need to make breakfast… why did she even wake up this early?
Sleep. Sleep, sleep.
She hurried back to the bedroom and practically launched herself onto the enormous bed—big enough for her to roll three full turns side to side. She kicked her slippers off onto the floor and slid back under the thick blanket in one smooth motion.
Still not satisfied, she flipped the whole blanket over. Feeling the cool fabric against her skin, her five white-jade toes curled up in bliss, and the little head peeking above the covers practically screamed happiness.
She didn't know how much time passed before—
Half-asleep again, Eternal Meteor thought she heard knocking.
Must be a hallucination.
With that thought, she rolled over, bundled half the thick blanket up like a pillow, hugged it to her chest, and used the other half to cover herself—still plenty.
Knock knock knock!!!
The sound came again. Annoyed, she pulled the blanket over her ears.
This time, she finally woke for real.
Her ears snapped straight up. Her eyes widened, staring toward the door through the wall like she could see it.
…Who is it?
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 126)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter140)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter89)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter1165)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 145
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 135
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 84
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 150
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 125
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 105
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player 53
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 80
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 66
Uma Musume: From Beginner 80
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 52
Uma Musume: I Want All 55
I Can Copy Unique Skills 53
Summoning an Evil God, but the 27
Supernatural Multiverse 27
My Harem Is Indescribable 26
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