Seven days.
Seven days since I met her again on that road.
Seven days since her voice—that voice that shouldn't exist in this peaceful world—had spoken my name like we were old friends meeting by chance.
That voice. The way she talks. Soft sometimes. Playful others. Never cruel. Never threatening. It makes me think... makes me want to think... that she's not a bad person.
That smile. When she smiled on that road—not the mischievous one, but the other one, the soft one, the one that came and went so fast I almost missed it—it felt like she wasn't some otherworldly creature at all. Just a girl. Just a normal girl smiling at something that amused her.
But she's not normal.
Nothing about her is normal.
And yet, sometimes I can't stop thinking about her.
Could someone tell me why?
This past week, I ran too much.
Every morning, before the sun got high enough to burn, I ran. Through the village paths. Past the rice paddies. Along the river where the water runs clear and cold. I ran until my legs burned and my lungs screamed and I couldn't think anymore.
Then I came home and trained with my blades.
The same exercises I used to do in Aventic. The same forms. The same cuts. Over and over until muscle memory took over and my mind could go blank.
I didn't knew at first but probably father arranged a training room under of this house.
Every day, my maids watched while training.
Well that's a new thing even though we are more than a decade.
Probably it's because in Aventic my training room wasn't near where we live.
But now it's underground of the home.
But when I do exercise in outside, Angy would lean against the doorframe, arms crossed, that teasing smile on her face. Sometimes she'd make comments—"Looking good, Young Master!" or "You know, most people exercise inside where it's private"—but mostly she just watched. Like she was memorizing something.
Shenhe watched too. From farther away. From windows, from doorways, from the garden. Her blue eyes following my movements with that unreadable expression she always wears. Never commenting. Never interfering. Just... present.
It's scary, honestly. Not always but sometimes.
No one ever watched me train before except my father and Scarlett.
And that's not even regularly.
At the beginning father was always came to see me. But as the day passes that also started erasing like he's some conventional energy that will stop existing in few years.
But Scarlett was different. She always come wearing a big smile on her face. But she got busy. I don't think that she don't want to come it's just she didn't got any time.
Later in Aventic, I trained alone. In empty rooms. In abandoned buildings. In whatever space I could find where no one would ask questions about the teenager moving faster than eyes could follow.
Here, they watch.
And I don't know what to do with that.
Something's changing in my body.
I noticed it five days ago. When I was running, in my usual route, my usual pace—and an hour passed. Then another. And I wasn't panting. Wasn't tired. Wasn't anything except... moving.
I ran faster after that. Pushed harder. And my body responded like it had been waiting for permission.
Same with my blades.
I can swing them faster now. Much faster. Faster than I ever could in Aventic. The air actually whistles when I cut—a high, sharp sound that wasn't there before.
I don't know the reason.
Does anyone have idea?
Probably her..
Should I ask her?
No. No no no.
I don't know if I can even trust her. I don't know anything about her except her name—Arcueid—and the fact that she can erase things from existence by accident.
And I don't even know where she even lives.
First I saw her in the jungle. Then on the road near my school. That's it. Two meetings. Two conversations. And now she's living in my head rent-free, appearing in my thoughts at the strangest moments.
Where does she go when she's not talking to me?
What does she do all day?
Stupid questions. I know they're stupid. But I can't stop asking them.
School is... strange.
Every day I go. Every day I sit in class. Every day I watch students my age fight for grades instead of survival. They worry about tests and homework and what their friends think of them. They laugh at jokes that aren't about death. They make plans for weekends and holidays and futures that stretch out forever.
Vjaret is not a bad person here. He is good. Slightly shy like me.
In Aventic, we didn't plan futures. We planned missions. We planned how to survive the next Duman attack. We planned which of us would carry whose body home if things went wrong.
Here, they plan birthday parties.
It's beautiful. And sad. And I don't know which feeling is stronger.
Sometimes I think: wouldn't it be great if Aventic's people could come here? If all the Dumans just... disappeared? If everyone could live like this—peaceful and normal and alive?
But that's not possible.
According to Dad, Ilsa and Aventic are separate realities. Existing in the same planet, maybe. Or the same space. But separate. Divided by something I don't understand.
I don't know if I believe it.
But then I remember geography class. The maps. The atlases. The endless lessons about every country, every city, every village in the world.
Not one mention of Aventic.
Not one.
Why is that?
[17:00, 21st June, Home, Ilsa ]
Just a normal day.
Nams wasn't home yet. Still walking back from school, taking his time, enjoying the way the evening light painted everything gold.
Inside the house, though—
Shenhe entered his room.
And found Angy.
Sleeping.
In Nams's bed.
"Angy." Shenhe's voice was flat. Expressionless as usual. "What are you doing?"
Angy didn't open her eyes. Didn't move. Just spoke, calm and polite, like sleeping in someone else's bed was the most natural thing in the world.
"Can't you see? I'm just taking a nap."
A pause.
Shenhe's eyebrow twitched. The most expression she'd shown all day.
"But... why are you sleeping in Young Master's bed?"
Another pause.
"And why are you... sniffing?"
"No reason."
A knock on the main door.
Angy's eyes snapped open.
"Oh! Young Master is here!"
She scrambled off the bed. Fixed her hair. Straightened her clothes. Took a deep breath.
Then she walked out of the room, Shenhe following, both of them heading for the front door.
They opened the door.
"Welcome home, Young Master!"
I saw two curious heads peeking around the doorframe. Why were they peeking? The door was already open.
"Uh... I'm back?"
They just stood there. Peeking.
Finally—after an awkward pause—they opened the door properly and let me in.
I entered the house. Everything was clean. Spotless. Like always.
These two are too good at housekeeping. It's almost unsettling. Every surface gleams. Every corner is dust-free. Every room smells faintly of something fresh and floral.
I dropped my bag and collapsed onto the couch.
"So." I looked at them. "What were you up to? I heard commotion from outside."
They exchanged a glance.
"Well... yeah..." Angy mumbled. "Nothing, Young Master."
They weren't meeting my eyes.
Definitely something.
"How can he hear those from downstairs?" Angy muttered under her breath.
"Well, idiots." I sighed. "I know you've done something inappropriate. I just don't know what."
"Master, Angy was—", Angy blocked Shenhe's mouth as fast as she can.
"So you did"
"No, no, no, Master!" Angy waved her hands frantically. "We've done nothing! Really!"
"Look at my eyes when you say that."
She tried.
Failed.
Why does Shenhe is not looking into my eyes . Angy don't tell me you corrupted her. You idiot women.
They definitely did something.
Both of them.
I'm damn sure.
I don't know if I should get annoyed.
I don't know if I should encourage them.
When I was in Aventic, I didn't have many people to talk to. And the ones I did have—they never talked about anything else. They only talked about missions. About tactics. About how the fight went, how we felt, how many Dumans we'd killed. Everything was filtered through the lens of survival.
They didn't know how to be normal.
They didn't want to be normal.
Come to think of it...what does being normal mean .
Staying carefree like that idiot or stay like a statue like that emotionless mother.
There was no other being except them who could understand me.
I guess here too.
Here, they do nonsense things. They talk about those which doesn't even make any sense. They argue about underwear and sleeping in beds and who stole what from whom.
And I don't feel any weirdness about it.
That's the strangest part.
I like it.
Hey me.... don't ask me why I like this. Why I'm like this.
"Ha, ha." Angy poked Shenhe's shoulder. "You look flat as always, Status of a Chibi."
"Angy." Shenhe looked at her. Then at her chest. Then back at her. "You're only slightly bigger than me. Don't feel so proud."
Angy's face fell.
Shenhe's lips twitched.
I sighed. And then—without meaning to—I chuckled.
Just a small one. A quiet one. But it happened.
They both stared at me.
"Eh , what , what , what , Did you just smiled"
Angy's face brightened.
"Obviously I'm not, You idiot"
"Master, Lying is a bad thing, your lips twitched 0.43mm in both side for 1.23 second"
Her dead stare never leaves mine.
"Eh?"
Scary, Scary,Scary!
This women...I don't even know those details. And who tf knows about nano seconds.
"What?"
Shenhe looked confused.
Me and angy Chuckled no laughed.
"You! idiot women"
"You both are idiot"
"This is 27th times,he smiled",Shenhe muttered to herself.
"Tear?,Shenhe, tear in your eyes"
She wiped the tiny tear particles from her eyes.
"It's nothing master, I'm ok", Shenhe did something impossible things.
Smiled.
It's so small that you can't even catch it if you don't watch it preciously.
"What happened to you my cutie chibi", Angy hugs her.
I smiled.
"You two."
They looked at me.
"Thank you. For everything."
I smiled. My eyes closed by themselves. I didn't tell them to do that. My body just... did it. Like it knew my feelings better than I did.
"Sure, Master."
They looked confused.
Happy, but confused.
They should be confused because I don't even know what I feel myself.
"Well." I stood. "It's getting late. I'm going to take a shower."
"Should I—"
"Absolutely no."
I cut Angy off mid-sentence. Because somehow—somehow—I knew exactly what she was going to ask.
She looked disappointed.
She always looks disappointed when I refuse.
And honestly? Rejecting her is easy. She's forward. Obvious. Easy to deflect.
But there's this tiny part of me—this small, quiet part that I don't listen to—that wants to say yes.
I ignore it.
Like always.
I afraid what she will do.
Because she is a idiot.
I enter to the shower.
The shower was hot.
Steam filled the small space, fogging the mirror, making everything soft and blurred.
Water ran down my face, my shoulders, my back. Warm. Constant and Soothing.
And then—
The water started talking.
Not in words. In patterns. In rhythms. In something that felt like language but wasn't.
I stood there, frozen, listening to water that shouldn't be able to speak, telling me things I couldn't understand.
What is this?
Why can I understand water's morse code?
What's happening to me?
I turned off the shower.
Stood in the sudden silence, dripping, breathing hard.
Then I looked at the mirror.
Steam had cleared enough to show my reflection. Damp hair. Sharp eyes. The face of someone who'd killed more things than most people would ever see.
Who's that handsome boy?
I leaned closer.
Oh.
Fuck.
It's me.
"Hehe." I grinned at myself. "I know I'm handsome."
I wrapped the towel around my waist.
And then—
Exhaustion.
Hit me like a wave. Like something physical. Like all the energy in my body just... drained out.
What?
Why?
I haven't done anything to get exhausted.
Breaths getting heavy. Faster. Too fast.
Haa! haa! haa!
Can't breathe properly.
It's the same feeling. The same wrong feeling from the jungle. When she appeared. When everything started going wrong.
But why now?
Why here?
I need to get to bed.
I tried to walk.
Couldn't.
"No. No, no, no."
Heart beating faster. Each pulse a hammer in my chest. Each breath a struggle.
And then—
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