Arista rose from the crouch, staring intently at Yumi for a moment longer before turning and leaving with the others.
As they walked away, their voices and laughter echoed gently through the walls.
"Our nights have been ruined, hasn't it?" Omaya asked.
"Indeed. Who would've thought we'd come find this when we were only coming here to rest after returning?" Seira sighed.
"They must've thought no one would catch them because they think no one frequents here, hahah."
"Then they're no doubts, fools. I mean, no one frequents it but it isn't abandoned! I asked the maids to clean this place from time to time. If no one was frequenting as they believed, would it be clean? There'd be cobwebs hanging everywhere, hmph!"
"Let's find a place to heal him and return him back to his chambers," Arista cut in their conversation.
They nodded, following swiftly behind her.
*****
Slowly, Koul groaned awake in his bed. His eyes fluttered open and close as he adjusted to the warm ambience of his chambers.
The soft mattress behind his back offered rich comfort, soft against his aching muscles.
As consciousness seeped into him completely, Koul's gaze snapped all over the room. His experience at Armin's hand flooded his head, causing him to momentarily panic.
But seeing the familiar setting of his room, his nerves relaxed, drawing a deep sigh of relief from him.
Koul examined his body by running his hand over the places he knew he was wounded. He checked his aching jaw, his deep cuts, broken ribs and all. But nothing.
He found not a single injury. His body was perfectly fine. Only the aches in his muscles could testify what had happened was reality and not a dream.
How? I was dying. I'm sure I was—
His mind replayed the scene, remembering the female voices he heard just before he lost consciousness.
Yeah, there were three girls. They came to… help me? Did they heal me?
His eyes swept the room once again, noting the medicines on the table, the food, the herbal remedies and teas.
Probably the maids, he thought, concluding it were the maids nursing him.
Could've also been Yui or Hera, he thought.
Because they care for me….. ?
More than the whole situation of how he was kidnapped. Whether or not there was a traitor in their midsts. He was more concerned with who the girls were.
He couldn't see them. He lost consciousness even before he could properly hear them.
The system, yeah the system, he thought in his head, knowing he could just ask the system.
As Koul attempted to sit up, a constricting pain trapped his heart, slamming him back on the bed with a bounce.
It was like a thread was wrapped around his heart and was being pulled tighter by the second.
The pain immediately shot through his nerves, causing Koul to jerk up. His chest lurched upward like he was being defibrillated.
His body stiffened, his toes curled up, muscles seizing and twitching like he was having a seizure.
Koul's eyes rolled back in their sockets from the pain, his eyes turning white before everywhere went dark.
_ _ _ _ _ _
Huu-Fuu~~ Huu-Fuu~~
The sound of his breathing was the only thing hitting his ears in the silence. His eyes were squeezed shut, and once again, he was being pressed to his knees.
But unlike when Armin's guards physically held him down, an unseen force seemed to be behind this one.
Was I born to kneel my whole life?
Kneeling, Koul forced his eyes open, reeling at the thought of where he'd ended up again.
But opening his eyes, he was met with nothing, or rather no one. Beneath him was shallow water. A vast ocean that wasn't deep.
It seemed abnormally vast but shallow no matter how far one decided to explore it.
All around him was empty air. Like the surrounding of an ocean, there was nothing but air….. at first.
However, peering deeper, Koul saw an iron barred cage. A large one, like ones that could be used to trap big animals…. Or humans?
At first, the cage appeared to be nestled in the distance but as his eyes adjusted, he noticed it nearing by the second, closing in on him.
He panicked, trying to fight whatever invisible force was holding him down. But as his shoulders flipped about, he noticed something.
That his very self was a shadow. He couldn't see himself, not even in the water. It was like he was coated in a black furry skin. He was simply…. a shadow.
But what baffled him the most wasn't this. It was the fact that a chain was around his chest. Precisely around his heart—the sole organ in his shadowy figure. A chain with a lock, seemingly trapping his heart.
More than all these oddities, the pain streaming through his body tugged at his senses more. His heart felt trapped in a close encasement, being squeezed and pricked.
His body felt hot, like it wasn't blood flowing through him but molten lava. He huffed, the pain causing his vision to blur.
Although filled with confusion, Koul knew it wasn't the time to wallow in it. He snapped his head back to look at the cage but he met not the barred gate but a figure.
More like a shadow like himself. The shadow in front of him jerked Koul's face up with a tight grip around his jaw.
Then, in the most aggressive voice he's ever heard, it spoke.
"What are you dawdling around for?" The shadow questioned, his tone dripping with evident edge. "Bouncing about with no care in the world. Living the life like you earned it, why?"
"There are things for you to do, but you've done none of them. What right do you have to gallivant about with a life that doesn't belong to you? A life you haven't earned credit for?"
Hearing the shadow speak, Koul couldn't help the familiarity that bubbled in his heart. And the way it spoke, like…. it was his life Koul was living.
No, it can't be. It just can't.
Koul's chained heart started pounding, beating at an irregular pace as he thought of the possibility.
The situation, the familiar feelings in his heart, the way the shadow spoke so arrogantly was all clearly pointing to one thing.
But Koul found it hard to believe. That the person whose life he's currently living was the one right in front of him.
How? Why?
"Do not let your thoughts stray too much," the shadow said, drawing back Koul's attention… or should I say Ash's attention?
After all, in front of the real Koul, could he still be called Koul?
"Look here. Find the people responsible for my death and cause them what they've caused me," he commanded with authority.
"Though I doubt you can with such a brain," he added. "Should I just do it? Take back my body," he asked, contemplating.