For a moment, the very air seemed to still.
An eerie silence blanketed the glade. Even the sounds in the background, like those of the murmuring brook or the rustling leaves, felt as though they had been dampened somehow.
Arin held his breath, not daring to look away from the man who was still smiling like he'd just shared a particularly funny joke. He felt the snake around his ankle stir, almost as though it was planning on leaving the shelter of his trouser cuff to make its presence known.
All of a sudden, Arin let out the breath he had been holding in.
'Then I'll have to thank you in advance for keeping my secret.'
The white-haired man raised an eyebrow.
'And how can you be sure that I will be doing so?'
Arin leaned back, feigning confidence he didn't actually have, and smiled, 'Because you care about the real owner of this body enough to not let it be destroyed.'
The man looked like he'd heard something hilarious. Shaking his head, he said, 'You really are being too naïve. I've merely admitted that Rin was my student. Which simply means that I accepted him into my tower, and occasionally offered guidance when he sought it.
'Besides, I'm sure you've noticed the state of this place when you arrived. Living beyond the edges of civilization, we are not a particularly ambitious bunch. It's not as though the loss of one single student is putting a wrench in some grand plan of mine,' the man paused to look Arin straight in the eye, then continued, 'So, I assure you, I do not care in the way you seem to think I do.'
Arin stood up, sighing. 'The people in this world seem to seriously have it out for this guy. If you truly don't care, I'm assuming you aren't going to bother with reporting me,' he said coolly.
'Sit down,' the man said quietly.
'No, thanks. 'Rin' clearly has enough enemies to worry about without his so-called master throwing in his lot. I'll be leaving now.'
Arin turned to walk away, only to stop dead in his tracks. All he saw was the grassy glade and the trees in the distance. The door he had entered through had, at some point, disappeared completely.
He heard the dangerously calm voice from behind him repeat, 'Sit down. Please.'
Frustrated, he turned around to face the man again, but refused to sit down this time.
'What do you want now!?'
The man was frowning, his white brows furrowed delicately. Still quiet, and surprisingly serious now, he asked, 'What do you mean when you say Rin has enemies? What have you encountered since coming to… our world?'
Seeing that he was trapped in the man's room – or glade, or dimension, or whatever it was, without any exit in sight, Arin wisely tamped down on his annoyance. No matter how unwilling he was, there was no point in making a fuss when he didn't have the strength to stand up for himself.
And so, he told the man what had happened. How he'd appeared midway through what had appeared to be a fight in the middle of nowhere, and how the pale-haired youth had threatened him before leaving to return with reinforcements.
What he didn't mention was the horse. He didn't know why the creature insisted on hiding itself, but since it was the only thing that had been helping him since his arrival to this world, he wanted to respect its wishes. As he struggled to explain how he'd gotten away in time, however, the horse – now snake – slowly loosened itself from around his ankle and peeked out from under the cuff of his trousers to meet the man's eyes. Their gazes met for just a moment, before the snake slid back to settle into its hiding place again.
'I see.'
The man sighed, massaging his brows.
When he looked back up at Arin, there was a beautiful smile on his face once again.
…
Bipolar freak.
'What is your name?'
Arin blinked at the sudden change of topic.
'I'm Arin.'
'No, you are Rin. Remember that.'
Holding up a hand to stop Arin from interrupting, he continued, 'For now, at least. I wasn't lying when I said that there is no easy way to accomplish what you want to do. If you truly wish to return to that world of yours, it's going to take a lot of work.'
'But if you want my help in all of this, you are going to have to prove that you are worth the effort.'
'What do you mean?' Arin asked hesitantly.
The man tilted his head as he stared at Arin, his red irises locked onto his face. 'I'm going to be honest, the easiest thing for me right now would be to keep you locked up and out of sight while I figure out how to get Rin back. It would be troublesome if someone as… ignorant, as you, were to get yourself killed before I've had the chance.'
'But if you prove that you can handle yourself...,' the man cut himself off, his smile widening in that awful, playful manner again.
'Rin, won't you go run an errand for me?'