(AUTHOR'S NOTE: I may (or maybe not) potentially revise or refine this chapter as I feel it's not quite 'flowy' or seamless in flow.)
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After Sein finished eating a deliciously satisfactory meal. He called on to the waitress and paid his bill. Then, he got out of the bar fully satisfied.
'If I get another chance again, I'll come by again next time.' Sein thought to himself.
Sein glanced up onto the sky and saw that it was almost midnight.
Unbeknownst to him, it seemed like quite some time had already passed.
He quickly headed to find an inn.
After that, he booked a room and entered.
Then, at last, he laid down on the bed.
Poof.
"Phew~, that was good." Sein said in satisfaction as he lounged in the bed.
After he said that, his eyes slowly closed on their own naturally.
***
Chirp chirp~
Tweet~
He slowly opened his eyes.
"It's morning, huh…"
Sein slowly got up and stretched his arms.
"Ahh~ for the first time in a while, I had a good dream. It was truly worthwhile." I said while my mouth drooled remembering the food I ate, 'Alazel'."
Anyways, Sein wiped his drool with his hand, and got up.
He started preparing for the day.
'Ah, right, today is a weekday. There is no work.'
That's right.
Most companies work on weekends. But, the company that he worked at is quite special.
It did not require them to work on weekends. So, it's pretty much our rest days.
"Well, it doesn't matter. I'm up now anyways. Might as well make breakfast~"
Sein whistled as he made his way to the kitchen.
After a few moments of cooking in the kitchen…
He finally finished cooking and placed the dishes on the table.
The dishes he made for breakfast consisted of corned beef, fried eggs, and lastly, rice.
No dish is complete without rice, after all, of course.
"Thank you for the food." I prayed and gave thanks for the food.
In a few minutes, the food was gone.
It was a hearty breakfast.
Sein got up, grabbed the plates, placed them in the sink, and cleaned the table.
He washed the dishes afterwards.
After Sein finished all the chores he had to do, he headed straight to the couch in the living room.
Pat~
"..."
Sein stared blankly at the air for a while.
"Yup, nothing beats doing nothing." Sein murmured..
Just as Sein was about to grab the tv remote, he suddenly remembered something.
"Wait… The cube!" Sein slapped his forehead.
"I almost forgot about it…"
He looked at the clock hanging on the wall of the living room.
It was still quite early. The office usually opens at nine o'clock. So, he decided to chill for a while.
And so, Sein did nothing until it was near time to go.
***
Saturday, June 09, 2025
Carp Literature Headquarters office, Davao City.
Tak-tak-tak-tak-tak…
Footsteps echoed all around the lobby as people came and went.
And in some of those footsteps, one belonged to Sein.
Sein walked straight to the reception.
"Hello." Sein greeted the receptionist.
"Hello, Sein." The receptionist returned the greeting.
"Is there something you need today?"
"I would like to have access to the office on the third floor. I forgot to take something in there."
"Sure thing. Here is the temporary access card for the office. And also, please sign the attendance here." The receptionist handed him a log book and a pen to write..
"Yes. Thank you. Much appreciated." He accepted it without a fuss.
"You're welcome."
After taking attendance and getting temporary access to enter the office, Sein proceeded to go to the elevator.
He clicked on the up button, as he was going up, to call for an elevator.
Ding!
The elevator door arrived and opened.
The elevator was empty. Usually, it would have been quite packed full of people, but, because it was a non-working day, the elevator was quite empty now.
Sein stepped inside and pressed on the button that corresponded to the third floor.
Ding!
The elevator door closed.
Kugugugu!
The sounds of the elevator rising could be heard.
Sein waited inside the elevator for a moment.
Ding!
[Third floor]
The elevator announced that he had arrived at the third floor.
The elevator opened.
Sein walked out of the elevator.
He continued to walk the hallway until he arrived at his office.
After that, he grabbed his temporary passkey and tapped it onto the lock for the door to open.
Ding!
The light shone green, which meant that the door was now open.
Sein proceeded to push open the door.
Creak…
The office was empty and dark. It looked quite eerie and was deadly quiet.
If it weren't for the light shining through the windows, it would have been a sight reminiscent of an office horror movie.
"So this is what the office looks like when there are no people." Sein remarked.
He looked at the view for a few seconds, savoring it in his mind.
After that, he looked for his desk.
"Ah, there it is."
He picked up an object from his desk.
And as he picked it up, he noticed something peculiar about it had changed.
"Mhm? Did something change?" He murmured to himself.
The object he picked up was the gray cube. The same gray cube that Reynold gave him.
Originally, the gray cube had faint distinct lines in a pattern like a rubik's cube at closer inspection. But, this time, there was no trace of it whatsoever.
Even its almost indiscernible faint light disappeared, no matter what angle he viewed it upon.
As if it was always just a gray ordinary cube.
"…Interesting." Sein whispered to himself.
He inspected it closely for a while before deciding to put it into his pocket.
After that, he walked out of the office and headed down to the lobby.
When he got out of the elevator, he headed straight to the receptionist to give back the temporary passkey.
"Thank you again for the passkey."
"You're welcome," the receptionist said with a warm smile.
"Ah, before you walk out, please sign in again in this log book for log out purposes."
"Oh, ok."
He signed in on the log book once again, but this time to log out. After that, he gave it back to the receptionist and walked out of the building.
'Now then, I'm finished with what I had to do in here. What's next?' Sein thought.
He took a look at his watch.
It was now past twelve o'clock in the afternoon.
"Oh, it's already lunch time. Let's eat first before going home then."
Before going out, he didn't have lunch. So it was just the right time.
He set off to find a good restaurant to eat at.
***
Clack.
The door opened.
"That was some good lunch. I'll go there again next time." Sein said as he smiled.
He was now at home.
He changed his clothes into a more comfortable one, suitable just for home. Then, lounge onto the sofa.
There was still a lot more time before evening. So, he decided to just kill some time watching the television.
After a few minutes of slouching and watching the T.V., he felt sleepy, so he decided to close his eyes for a moment of rest.
…
....
.....
Blink.
"...Huh?"
And as he opened his eyes, he found out he was now suddenly in an unfamiliar room, lying down in a bed.
"...I fell asleep?"
Sein muttered dumbfoundedly.
He was now back in a dream.
Furthermore, the ceiling looked oddly familiar…
"...Wait!" He then suddenly got up to take a look at his surroundings.
He was inside a room, typical of that in a medieval fantasy inn. And, what's more, he could see through the windows in his room that people of all kinds of life were walking down the streets.
It was a sight that he had still not forgotten.
It was the city of Balkaar.
"...I'm back in the same dream?" Sein felt incredulous.
He had never been back in the same dream before.
After all, every single dream he had after the night, he would never dream of it again.
There was never a case of a dream happening twice or a continuation.
That's why he felt incredulous about it.
He got out of his bed, and took a look in the mirror that was in the room.
"Hmm… no issues whatsoever." Sein murmured.
"Anyways, no matter what I think about it, I won't know anyways. What will come, will eventually come. So, I'll not think about it much."
Sein decided not to think of it anymore. Besides, it was also not a bad thing for him anyways.
He took a few minutes to prepare himself, then got out of his room.
"Oh, are you leaving?" The innkeeper asked.
"Oh, no, I want to extend for one more day."
"Okay. That will be another 13 coppers."
He took out thirteen coppers from his pouch and paid.
"Thank you." The innkeeper accepted with a smile.
As Sein was about to go out, he suddenly stopped.
"Hm? What's wrong?" The innkeeper worriedly asked.
Sein turned around to face the innkeeper and said, "There is something I am curious about. Can you fill me in, sir?"
"Hm? What is it? As long as it's something that I have knowledge of, sure."
Seeing that the innkeeper agreed to his request, Sein grinned and asked, "Is there a guild in this city or something similar perhaps?"
"Huh? Yes, there is. But, why do you ask?"
Sein's eyes sparkled, "Really? Please tell me more about it!"
"Um… okay." The innkeeper was confused about his reaction, but decided to tell him anyway.
And so, Sein and the innkeeper talked for a while.