The silence of the room broke with a faint rustle.
Behind Sol, the same priest who had once healed Ivan appeared, half covered in blood.
His robes were torn, stains dripping down, but he didn't flinch.
Calmly, he pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and began wiping the blood away, as if it was nothing more than dust.
Ivan froze.
The priest's eyes, calm yet sharp, landed on him. For the first time, there was a flicker of surprise on his face.
"You actually woke up through my spell…" he muttered, almost to himself. His lips curved into something between a smirk and respect. "Then again—you're an Odinson."
Ivan's chest tightened. He had no idea what that even meant, but the priest spoke it like it explained everything.
All he knew was that their surname was indeed Odinson and his father used to say that their family once had a great history tied to them but that's all in the past.
Turning back to Sol, the priest's entire aura shifted. His tone softened, his smile turning kind, almost fatherly.
"Sol…I'll be taking you with me. I'll help you grow stronger. And, in time, I'll help you find your father."
The words slammed into Ivan like a hammer.
Take her? Guide her to…their father?
What was he even saying?
For a boy who had lived his whole life in a world where science and facts were the only truths, everything happening before him felt like a cruel joke, a twisted play that ignored all reason.
"No!" Ivan's voice cracked, desperate. He stumbled forward, pleading. "Sol, don't go with him! You don't even know who he is! Think about Mom, what about her? You can't just—"
But before he could finish, the priest's calm gaze shut him down.
"I've already taken care of that," he said flatly. "By tomorrow, no one will remember that your little sister even existed.
She will vanish from their minds as if she were never born." The priest said, hinting at his own worn down state. "That is the price of this spell."
Ivan's blood ran cold. His stomach twisted as he felt like puking.
"Y-you're insane…" the boy whispered, his eyes trembling.
Then, Sol finally spoke. Her voice was soft but steady. She turned her gaze toward Ivan, and in her eyes was something he had never seen before, a quiet resolve.
"It's time for you to sleep as well, brother."
Ivan's breath caught.
"Sol—"
Her words lingered in the air, a pause so long it almost hurt.
And then, with a small, almost broken smile, she added:
"…I hope you don't disappoint me the next time we meet—"
***
7 hours later,
A slight shake to the boy's shoulder woke him up, it was a lady wearing a white robe as she continued casting that same, eerie, green light on him.
Scared shitless, the boy jumped out of the bed, falling on the floor as his mother shrieked, "Ivan!!"
Even the lady seemed to be startled as she stopped casting that green energy and tried checking the boy's condition up.
"What is wrong with you boy?" Luna berated the boy, helping him to stand up.
She explained to him how he had been found by one of the students half dead on the silent alley behind the school and brought him to this hospital, this saving his life.
This only seemed to tilt Ivan more to the edge as she shook his mother's shoulders, asking, "mom, do you remember Sol?!!"
The 40 year old lady looked at her son worriedly, "Is that someone from your school? Boy?"
Ivan's eyes almost turned hollow as the woman in white robes approached Luna, telling her about how he may have had a serious impact on his head, this leading to forgetting certain events.
This led to his mother and the lady asking him quite a few things, but the questions only seemed to be getting more bizarre by the second.
"What is your physical index?"
"Can you name me a few dungeons situated around our city?"
"Do you even know what an ability is?"
***