lvin did not imdiately open the door.
He stood there with his palm open, hovering inches from the handle. After advancing closer to the door, the knock had not co again.
It was as though whoever it was, or whatever it was that was outside, noticed him approaching. Shaking his head not to make too much thought out of it, he picked up a mob stick lying by the side of the door and returned to the door.
’Okay, you’ve got this. Take just a second to see who it is. If it’s a monster, you strike. If it’s human, you... scare them a bit.’
With this thought of encouragent, lvin swallowed and hoped it wasn’t going to be another hallucination or horror of a sort as he exhaled and turned the handle.
Almost at the sa ti, the door opened to reveal two n. They practically just walked into the one-room apartnt of the poor boy without permission, not minding the raised mob stick hovering above their heads.
Gently closing the door behind him, lvin turned to face his august visitors.
Both wore long, dark coats lined with faint tallic threads that caught the light when they moved. To his dismay... perhaps comfort-like, they were not ard—at least not visibly—but sothing about the way they were relaxed yet alert told lvin weapons were the least of their worries.
They dressed like all those officials from top firms, or even from the governnt.
’What do they want from ?’
Dropping the mob stick from where he had picked it up, lvin approached the two n.
One of them, who stood on the left, was tall and lean, with an unreadable expression in his eyes as he scanned the room in a single, practiced sweep. The other was broader, looked older, with steel-gray hair pulled neatly back, and eyes that scread authority.
The older man spoke first.
"lvin?" he called, as if to be sure they had co to the right place.
lvin stiffened, shocked for a while as to how these people knew his na. But he didn’t let his shock take over his composure.
"Yes."
"You can sit on... that if you call it a bed," the man said, pointing at lvin’s make-do mattress.
The poor boy gritted his teeth and secretly wished he could do a thing to this arrogant man, even if he could pull on his gray hair.
Alas, powerless against this man, lvin just shot him a look at his hair and further went to sit on the bed.
However, he couldn’t back down from the feeling of insult within him as he muttered to the man, "Well, I don’t mind if you retire to it, since you’ve clearly been around longer than the furniture."
At this point, he didn’t care what might transpire as an aftermath of not keeping his mouth shut. He simply sat on the bed and waited for the n before him to act in their kind.
But they did nothing. The broader man instead occupied the seat positioned before lvin’s desk and glanced at the lookman among them, giving him a signal that only two of them understood.
With a subordinate nod, the younger man dropped to his knees alongside a heavy, black-lustered box. Then, from within it, he pulled out a rectangle-shaped device in one hand and a wristband in the other. And with professional steps, approached lvin.
"Your hand," the young man said with a calm voice, extending his right hand.
lvin was hesitant at first to play by whatever trick or ga these n were trying to display before him. They knew his na, possibly who he is, and he hadn’t gotten the chance to find out who they are.
But even in this conflicting mont, an inner self in him comforted him and encouraged him to obey the young man before him. This inner self told him that they ant no harm and were just doing what’s supposed to be done.
’Supposed to be done? Scratch that.’
Reluctantly, lvin brought his right hand forward for the young man to take it into his, then wrapped the wristband around it. After which, he brought the rectangular device closer to the wristband and pressed the power button on both devices.
Imdiately, sothing stirred within lvin as a cold chill ran through him. Then it stopped almost at the sa ti as it started, and runes only the young man could understand ford on the device.
lvin was cut short of words as he hadn’t expected the wristband to be digital in nature, as it looked like none. Nonetheless, it still doesn’t matter. He only shut his eyes close for a brief mont and opened them thereafter.
That briefest mont, he didn’t realize, was enough for the two n to get what they wanted.
’Did they just test my pulse?’ lvin mused as he watched the young man unwrap the wristband from his hand. ’Or...’ An idea clicked in.
It wasn’t often officials like this visited outskirt kids like him for one reason or another. If lvin were allowed to make a guess, he’d say they never did.
However, these two n had just graced his humble abode out of the blue on the sa day he was facing an anomaly he was yet to get a grasp on. If there was sothing he should be advantageous about after regressing, it should be common sense.
His common sense told him that although the premonition that took place during his previous tiline hadn’t happened, the world must have experienced a change. A change that he couldn’t notice even after glancing out of the window.
A change capable of affecting the existing characters within, and the way of the world.
Maybe not cataclysmic, perhaps an apocalypse?
But what was this change? What does it have to do with testing people with wristbands? What does it have to do, directly, with him?
lvin hadn’t realized how lost in thought he turned out to be. He only jolted back to reality after two cold hands rested on both sides of his shoulder. Staring into his purple eyes were the dark eyes of the broad man.
"I understand you are worried," the man said with a friendly tone. "That device just now is called a Flux Detector."
"Who are you?" lvin asked, not paying attention to any other details.
The man rose and, while looking down at lvin, introduced himself.
"Forgive for not introducing myself and my colleague earlier," he said. "My na is Edrin, the current Principal of the Axiom Academy, and he’s my personal assistant, Vale."
Axiom Academy?
lvin had never heard of such an academy existing in their continent, leny. As ignorant as he was concerning their worldly matters, he didn’t fail in taking note of the few academies existing in leny. This was because leny was a small continental world, more like a microstate.
And, considering that he had done more research than he could count about academies he could get himself enrolled into when he got enough funding, he didn’t want to believe these n.
’Don’t tell it’s what I’m thinking.’
"Get dressed, lvin," Edrin said, not minding the look of confusion on his face and heading to the door as Vale followed behind him. "You are coming with us."
"But..." lvin gestured his hand, which halted in the air as the man interrupted him without turning back.
"Only when you co with us can you kill your curiosity. We will give you space to change to better clothes."
Feeling defeated, lvin dropped his hand and lowered his shoulder.
Vale shot him a "better comply" look and left with his master.
Then with an exhale, the poor boy turned and headed to his wardrobe to get changed.
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