"Hnnng…." Talon groaned quietly as his eyes started opening slowly. His mind was hazy and sluggish as if he had been sleeping for two days straight.
Rubbing his eyes, he slowly rose from the soft mattress as he looked around him confusedly. He couldn't really recall what happened after beating the monster.
'Acrypha told that everything was over… and then… I lost consciousness… I think.' He mused as he tried to stand up, only to realize a crucial detail.
"Huh?" Looking around him again, he was shocked by what he saw. He wasn't in the gymnasium as he thought he was. Instead, he found himself in a bedroom, a very fancy and expensive-looking bedroom.
It was by far the most beautiful room Talon had ever seen in his life. The floor beneath him was carved out of marble, the furniture was a beautiful brownish mahogany wood and the walls were made out of gold.
A huge chandelier dangled from the ceiling that shone brightly, illuminating the entire room. Resting his hand on the soft mattress beneath him, he blinked in shock.
"Ok, where the hell am I?" He murmured to himself as he slid toward the edge of the bed and landed on his feet.
"Hm? Where are my injuries?" Looking down at his body, he noticed that he looked completely fine. All the brutal wounds he sustained from the fight had suddenly vanished. Not only that, his clothes weren't the bloodied ss that he recalled. Instead, he wore what seed to be a very comfortable pyjamas made out of silk.
"Now I'm really confused. What the fuck is this place? Did I go to heaven? Or maybe hell?"
Many questions filled Talon's head with no apparent answer. So, he decided to do the most logical thing he could think of at the mont, to explore the room and see what answers he could find.
"Hmm, sounds like a good plan to ." Shrugging, he turned around and started walking around the place, inspecting everything he found to be interesting.
The first detail he noticed during this exploration was that the room was oddly similar to those rooms found in luxury palaces.
In fact, Talon was almost sure that there was no such place in South Korea, and even if it existed, the fact that it still looked intact and in good shape even though the integration happened was another mystery in itself.
The second detail was the lack of windows inside the room. It was completely closed with no view of the outside world.
Finally, the most important detail out of them all was…
"I can't open my status window…" Talon murmured as he tried to summon it. No matter how many tis he thought of the word 'status', the holographic image refused to appear. This further proved to Talon that he was indeed not in the real world but instead sowhere else.
But, even with all those thoughts, he still looked around till he reached the gigantic closet that was easily double the size of his room back in the dormitory.
There, clothes of all kinds were organized in rows on the shelves with tens of pairs of shoes on the ground.
"This is ridiculous…"
Talon was sure that these clothes were extrely expensive without the need to even be knowledgeable about clothes.
"Who needs 10 different pairs of shoes? How are you going to even use them all?" Talon shuddered at that re thought.
Being a poor student living in the city, he had one pair of shoes that he used for everything. They weren't good in any way, but he liked them. They helped him through thick and thin and he was grateful for that.
Walking around the place, Talon's eyes finally fell on the huge mirror on the wall so he imdiately walked toward it and took a look at himself.
"..." His eyes blinked, then, he rubbed them quickly before he took a second glance. But, nothing changed in what he was seeing, the reflection in the mirror wasn't his.
"Who the fuck is this irritatingly handso man?!" He blurted out in shock as he imdiately grabbed the mirror and started looking at every detail on his face.
The face he was seeing in the mirror was far from his normal appearance. It was instead that of a prince-looking man with a jaw-dropping beauty that would put any model or actor to sha. If anything, this was by far the most handso man he had ever seen in his life.
Every detail about him was perfect to the utmost degree. His short black hair, his piercing blue eyes, and even his snow-white skin. He was akin to a prince from another world.
"This isn't !! What happened to my face?!" Talon imdiately started panicking. "Oh no…"
Rubbing his face, Talon rested his back on the wall behind him. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm down.
"Ok, let's calm down and recount what happened. I fell unconscious after the fight then I woke up here in an unknown location. There are no windows and no way for to know where I am. My face also changed. I can't open the status window either. Hmm… Is this so kind of dream?"
The fact that everything didn't make sense at all made Talon assu that all of this was simply a dream of so sort. A very realistic dream.
As he was like that, he suddenly heard a sound coming from the outside. Looking up, Talon imdiately crouched as he moved toward the door of the closet and peeked secretly.
'The door is knocking.' He thought to himself as he waited.
The knocks continued for a while before he finally heard a voice. "Young master, please wake up."
Hearing that soft voice, Talon frowned as he looked at the bed again. Without waiting a second, he rushed toward it and jumped on the bed as he covered himself and pretended like he was asleep.
A second later, the door was opened as soone walked inside the room. Since Talon covered his face, he couldn't really see who it was. Still, he kept quiet and pretended like he wasn't aware of their presence.
"Young master…" The voice, clearly that of a woman, called for him again. It sounded really soothing and angelic as if it didn't belong to a human and rather an angel.
"..."
"It's already morning, Young Master."
"..."
"Please, young master, you can't jail yourself in your room for days. Your health will deteriorate."
"..." Talon didn't answer at all.
"Sigh, it really has been hard on him, wasn't it?" The woman murmured to herself with a sad tone. "Love is a double-edged sword indeed…"
'Huh?' Talon frowned even harder as he listened to the woman speaking. Her words made him even more confused. 'Love?'
But, before he could hear anything else, the woman turned around and walked out of the room before closing the door.
When Talon was sure that she left, he uncovered himself as he looked around.
"Ok, that was a little close. But, what was that about being a Young Master? And what did she an by love is a double-edged sword? Am I lovesick or sothing?"
The more Talon tried to think about it, the more his head hurt. So, he sighed and lay on his back as he looked at the ceiling. "What is seriously going on here?"
He silently looked up, trying to organize his thoughts. Seconds passed silently as Talon's eyelids started feeling heavy again without him realizing, and before long, he fell asleep again.
***
When his eyes opened again, Talon's scenery had changed again completely. The mont he regained his senses, sharp pain assaulted him and made him squint. It was an all-too-familiar pain.
"Ugh…" Groaning hoarsely, tried to look around him only to realize that he couldn't move his body at all. So, he could only sluggishly move his neck around. It didn't take him long to realize that he was back in the gymnasium.
He felt as if he was hit by a train as each move he tried to do would result in a painful groan. In the end, Talon gave up and simply laid there.
"Acrypha… Are you there?" He murmured weakly.
However, no answer ca back from his companion so he assud that she left as usual to go roam around. So, all Talon could do was simply lay there and take in the scenery.
"So, it was indeed… a dream…" He exhaled a small breath and a small smile ford on the young man's face. "Glad I didn't die…"
Talon really thought for a second that he was dead and that feeling was really complicated. As soone who lived a very hard life, Talon did consider death as a way for him to escape the brutal life he had to live.
He wasn't suicidal by any ans, but he always thought that perhaps if one died, they would go to a better place. However, if he was given the choice to actually go to a better place and leave his loved ones behind, he would imdiately refuse.
Talon cherished his family more than anything else, they were everything he wanted in life. As long as they were fine, he didn't need anything else. Today's events were simply a reminder for him that death was never really a solution, actually facing the problem and solving it was the true solution to everything.
As he was like that, Talon suddenly heard the door click as it opened. His eyes slowly moved toward it as he watched soone enter inside.
Hyun-Jae closed the door behind her with a sigh as she rested her forehead on the door. Her face looked extrely exhausted from all the work she had to do the past week. With Talon completely out of it, all the responsibilities laid on her back.
However, by far, the most stressful thing she was going through at that ti was Talon not waking up yet. Even when she believed it was simply a matter of ti before he opened his eyes, the small chance that it wouldn't happen still ssed with her mind.
'Keep yourself together, Hyun-Jae. Nothing bad will happen…' She clenched her fists and finally turned around to stare at Talon. At that mont, her eyes made contact with his before she froze in her place.
The two stared at each other silently for a while before Talon finally opened his mouth.
"Hey, Hy-"
Before he could even finish the sentence, Hyun-Jae had suddenly moved swiftly and before he knew it, her arms were wrapped around his neck in a very tight hug.
(A//N: Thanks to everyone who supports the book with power stones and golden tickets, you guys are the best:) )
Reviews
All reviews (0)