“… Where am I?”
After closing my eyes as I fell from the waterfall, the scene I opened them to was an oddly familiar one.
“This… is ho?”
It didn’t take long for to recognize the familiar scenery of the flat I had lived in by myself about a year ago, before I had been transmigrated.
It wasn’t well-maintained, with dust piled up everywhere, suggesting that quite a lot of ti had passed in the real world as well.
“… Hmm.”
Still unable to fully grasp that I was back, I picked up the smartphone lying on the desk. Unsurprisingly, the battery was dead.
Retracing my hazy mory, I found the charger and plugged it in. Letting out a sigh, I perched myself on the edge of the bed.
“… Miss System.”
With a glimr of hope, I called out to the system in a low voice.
“Am I really… back?”
“……..”
“… Irene?”
Even after blushing and resorting to using the system’s nickna, it remained silent.
“I’m really back, huh…”
Still unable to believe it, I lifted my hand and attempted to channel mana, however,
- BZZZZZZZZ!
“….. Ahh!?”
The sudden, deafening sound of my smartphone’s notifications startled so much that I let out a shriek.
Missed Calls: 999
Unread ssages: 999
KaTao Talk: 999 unread ssages…
“What, what the hell…”
It turned out that these were all calls and ssages that had piled up while I was gone.
But sothing felt off. I didn’t have any friends or anyone who would contact . So how the hell did so many call and ssages pile up?
Senior? Where did you go? I miss you, senior, senior, senior…
Is it because I snuck into your house last ti? If that’s the reason, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again, I promise…
Rihan? Don’t joke with , okay? I’ll kill myself. I’m serious, I’ll really do it.
Rihan. You’ve been gone for so long, so I tried reaching out. Where are you? Did you go on a trip? I checked just in case, but the National Intelligence Service shows no record of you leaving the country…
(Omitted)
As I went through the ssages, the contents only got morbizarre.
They were all such friendly colleagues and co-workers in the past… Just why had they changed so drastically?
“This is really strange…”
Scratching my head and trying to deduce the reason behind the drastic changes in their personality, I eventually frowned and began replying to the ssages one by one.
“… Huh?”
In the midst of that, I happened to glance at the date on the smartphone and finally realised sothing.
“The date…”
The date on the phone showed that an entire year had already passed.
“… So a year has gone by in the real world too.”
Usually, in fictional scenarios like this, ti didn’t change when transitioning between worlds. I must have been clinging to that assumption.
But shattering my assumption, a real year had passed in the real world too, at least that seed to be the case from the date.
With that piece of information, the reactions of my old acquaintances started making sense.
Is this really you, Senior Rihan? Really? Truly? If not, I’ll kill you, whoever you are.
“……..”
No, honestly, I still didn’t understand their reactions. It was really starting to creep out.
… By the way, it’s been a while since I’ve heard this na.
Scratching my head at the strangely familiar tone of the ssage, I couldn’t help but smirk faintly at the repeated ntion of my na within it.
It’s weirdly nostalgic…
Though it had been a long ti since I’d been called that, it stirred up a faint sense of sentintality. The na Rihan, after all, wasn’t my real na, but a pseudonym I’d used back when I worked as a child actor.
My real na, on the other hand, was so embarrassingly old-fashioned that I’d always preferred using Rihan instead.
“… When Hols deduced my surna, I felt so horrified.”
Anyway, as I stood up from my bed, a chill ran down my spine at the sudden mory of that incident from months ago.
“……..”
With a slightly more serious expression, I began to ponder a fundantal question.
Did I really go to that world?
Sure, a year had passed since the ti I rembered in the real world, but beyond that, there was no tangible evidence that I had actually been to the world inside the ga.
Could it all have been a delusion? Had I rely been shut away in my room for an entire year?
Given my already precarious ntal state in the past, it wasn’t an entirely impossible scenario.
Honestly, I kind of wish itwasall just my imagination…
I tried to console myself with the thought that if it had all been a delusion, then that heart-wrenching separation wouldn’t have truly happened.
“….. Huh?”
But then, catching sight of the mirror in front of , I froze on the spot.
“……..”
Because the blue eyes I had inherited from my mother were now dyed in the colours I had grown accustod to over the past year.
“Ah…”
Yes, the grey of the professor’s and the black of the detective’s.
“… It was real.”
Seeing that, I couldn’t make any excuses or rationalisations. I simply collapsed back onto the bed.
- BZZZZZZZ… BZZZZZZZ…!
“Haha… ha…”
While the smartphone beside buzzed incessantly again, my eyes, weary from everything I had been through, began to close.
“………”
And so, for the first ti in what felt like an eternity, I had a peaceful, restful sleep in my own ho.
- Adler… where are you…?
- I’m sorry… I won’t push you this hard again… Please co back…!
- I-I know you’re hiding! The cold will harm your body, so please co out quickly…!
“… Urgh!”
But only a few hours later, I was jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat. It was a nightmare— a vivid one.
In it, everyone who had gathered at the Reichenbach Falls was desperately searching through the darkened waters, screaming and crying out in anguish.
“Hah… hah…..”
And that was the beginning— of almost two long years of unrelenting nightmares and a life that could be best described as hell on earth.
.
.
.
.
.
“Hello… Yes, sis.”
The very first thing I did after returning to the real world, naturally, was to investigate the ga company I used to work for.
“… Pardon? It’s a ghost company that never even existed in the first place?”
But what in the world was this? During the investigation, it turned out that the company I had worked at for years was a ghost company with no signs of it ever existing.
“But I… I definitely worked there…”
- Zzzzt…
“… Alright, I understand. Uh, yeah. Let’s talk about drinks later. I’m kind of swamped these days.”
I couldn’t believe it, so I even called in favours from contacts at my forr workplace— the National Intelligence Service. Yet, in the end, no trace of the company could be found.
“Hah…”
And so, my investigation ended before it could even properly begin. Months passed, but the ga that had been set for release never saw the light of day.
… Please, just for today, I don’t want to dream.
It was around that ti, right? When the nightmares began spiralling into sothing far worse, the contents growing significantly dire and horrifying.
- Adler… couldn’t possibly be dead. Not him… not my assistant.
Professor…
- He must be hiding sowhere in the world. Iknowhe is.
The once arrogant and self-assured professor, now utterly shattered, road the globe in denial, desperately seeking for the slightest trace of my presence.
- Adler… you’ve co back? Hehe… Iknewyou’d co to on your own…
Miss Hols…
- A-Adler? Where are you going? I-I’m sorry, don’t leave ! No! Adler!!!
Charlotte, devastated by her failure to conceive, drowning herself in drugs, babbling incoherently all day long.
- Inspector Lestrade. Hasn’t your leave gone on for far too long? If you delay any further, there could be issues with HR. Perhaps… even dismissal…
- I don’t care.
- What?
- There’s soone I must find, even if it costs my life.
Every single one of them, broken in their own ways, haunted my dreams. And despite my efforts to dismiss them as nothing more than nightmares, the vividness of it all refused to let believe otherwise.
Inspector Lestrade, who once held her duty as a police officer in the highest regard, now abandoned it entirely. Like Professor Moriarty, she tore through every corner of the world, searching relentlessly for .
- That… bastard…
Miss Watson…
- To the very end… to thevery fuckingend, you…
Watson, having quit her dical practice, spent her days drowning in alcohol, spiralling into a pit of despair.
- Don’t talk nonsense! There’s no way that bastard could be dead!
- I killed him, I killed him, I killed him…
- Master…
The princess commanded every vampire across the nation with bloodshot fury to search for my traces, day in and day out.
Moran, locked away in a corner of her room, had shattered her beloved air rifle to pieces. Now, like a shell of her forr self, she repeated the sa words over and over.
And Silver Blaze, so incredibly like her, buried her face in my clothes, shedding endless tears that never seed to stop.
- The organisation… It’s disbanded as of today.
- Your Highness, are you unwell these days?
Lupin, leaving only those words over the radio to everyone scattered across the land, shut herself away in the Cagliostro Castle. Even Jill the Reaper ceased her murders and retreated into the palace, only a shadow of her forr self.
“Uh… ah…”
All of them, save for that last individual, appeared in my nightmares, their broken, ruined states gnawing at my sanity. Day by day, I began to deteriorate rapidly.
- Using Adler’s essence, which I had preserved, I finally succeeded recently.
Then it ca, the nightmare that drove the final nail into the coffin of my ntal state…
- I’m two weeks pregnant.
In the dream, the professor, wearing a sombre expression, declared so to Charlotte and Watson, who had sought her out.
“… Ahhh!”
From that day onwards, I could no longer fall asleep without sleeping pills or alcohol.
.
.
.
.
.
“… This isn’t right.”
Around a year and a half after I had returned to the real world—
“It wasn’t… supposed to be like this…”
I had just awoken from yet another nightmare, one where Charlotte had finally uncovered information about Lovecraft. Cradling my head in my hands, I muttered darkly, my gaze hollow.
“Even without the eldritch horrors… she’s too dangerous… that bastard…”
Not too long ago, I had convinced myself that dreams were just dreams— nothing more. But now, fear had started to creep in.
What if everything I was seeing wasn’t rely a fignt of my imagination? What if it was actually happening in that world?
That fear began consuming months ago. Because of it, I hadn’t been able to find a new job or even maintain a semblance of a normal life. Instead, I’d beco a recluse, confined to my ho.
I’m… so sorry, everyone…
If only – just maybe – I had stayed behind.
If there had been even the slightest option for to remain there…
Could there have been an outco, even slightly better than this one, which I’d chosen in the na of their safety and happiness?
I miss you all so… so much…
Lost in a haze of unattainable, futile dreams, it seed as though yet another day was slipping away.
- BZZZZZZZZ…!
“…….!?”
Until a sudden notification buzzed from my phone— a phone I had deliberately blocked all persistent contacts on.
“Who…?”
Perplexed, I glanced at the notification, my expression a mixture of confusion and surprise.
Hey.
What have you been up to lately?
“… What?”
My eyes widened in disbelief as I stared at the screen.
Want to grab a drink?
“… Kim Hanbyeol?”
Out of nowhere, a ssage had arrived— from my closest friend who had gone missing years ago.
***
sko-fi/genesisforsaken
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