Merlin sat in class, staring at Mr. Isaac, who stood at the front of the room.
It turned out that all the time he had spent in the simulation had only been two hours in the real world.
So, after waking up, he had to sit through class.
Merlin had immediately asked Mr. Isaac if this was actually a school.
"In a sense, yes," Mr. Isaac had replied. "But unlike ordinary schools, we actually teach you and give you work."
In other words, it was more like a military academy.
They learned while they worked.
Merlin didn't really have a problem with the idea.
He just hadn't been expecting it.
He looked over at Sera.
She sat in front of him with her arms folded and her eyes closed.
After waking up, Merlin had asked her what she had seen in her simulation.
According to her, it wasn't much different from her actual life.
And it hadn't lasted very long.
She hadn't gone into much detail.
He had also overheard some of the others talking about their experiences.
According to what Merlin heard, one of them had worked a frustrating office job.
Another had been part of some kind of marine corps.
The third had simply been a normal high school student.
Theirs was a bit too simple, Merlin thought.
There was something else he noticed.
Unlike Merlin, they had already had identities in their simulations.
That bothered him.
Why was he the only one who had simply appeared in the middle of nowhere with no idea who he was or what he was supposed to be doing?
Why didn't he have an identity?
Merlin scratched the side of his neck.
His body had been itching ever since he returned.
It wasn't a normal itch.
It felt like there were thorns beneath his skin.
Back when he had first met the crew, Brody had assumed he was something called a fettered man.
After that, everyone else had quickly accepted that Merlin simply didn't remember who he was.
Maybe that was normal there.
The world was far from normal, after all.
And if it was...
Then maybe Merlin did have an identity but just didn't remember it.
He lowered his gaze.
If that was true, then everyone, including him had been playing a role.
Merlin's fingers scratched against the desk.
Wait.
That couldn't be right.
His teeth clenched.
The sensation beneath his skin was getting worse.
Then it could either be that they were playing out someone else's life or simply playing a made-up role.
The second possibility sounded more logical to him.
They couldn't simply play someone else's life without changing some of the things they did.
Then again...
There was another possibility.
Maybe only the beginning had been someone else's life.
Merlin's thoughts became tangled.
There was also the fact that, on average, people finished their simulations within ten minutes.
Some took thirty.
Sera had finished hers in two.
His had lasted sixty times longer.
Mr. Isaac had told him it had nothing to do with time.
It was the simulation's screening process.
Whatever that meant.
Merlin dug his fingers into his hair.
He scratched harder.
And harder.
The sensation beneath his skin wouldn't stop.
He could hear his fingernails scraping against his scalp.
For a moment, the entire class went quiet.
Merlin lifted his head.
Everyone was staring at him.
He looked down.
His fingers were covered in blood.
Merlin froze.
He slowly pulled his other hand away from his neck.
Blood covered his fingertips.
He hadn't even noticed himself scratching it.
The entire class stared at him with dazed expressions.
Even Mr. Isaac had gone silent.
He stared at Merlin for a few seconds.
Then he looked toward the class.
"Can Someone show him to the bathroom?"
Nobody moved.
Mr. Isaac waited.
"Well?"
Silence.
Merlin looked around the room.
Nobody seemed particularly concerned.
They were just staring at him.
Mr. Isaac sighed.
Still nothing.
Then a chair scraped against the floor.
Merlin looked toward the sound.
A boy stood near the back of the classroom.
He had grey hair that fell loosely around his face. He had a small neat figure.
"I'll do it."
Mr. Isaac looked at him.
"That's great."
The boy nodded.
He walked over to Merlin and stopped beside his desk.
"Come on."
Merlin looked at his blood-covered fingers.
Then at the boy.
He stood.
As Merlin followed him toward the door, he glanced back at the class.
Nobody had moved.
Not even Sera.
Merlin frowned.
"Why were they all staring at me like that?"
Merlin wondered as he followed the boy through the hallway.
The boy walked several steps ahead of him.
He didn't make the slightest sound.
He seemed like the quiet type.
In fact, Merlin hadn't even noticed him before today.
The boy eventually stopped in front of a door.
He opened it and gestured inside.
Merlin hesitated.
"U-uh... thank you."
The boy looked up at him.
For the first time, Merlin got a proper look at his face.
His eyes were pale blue.
They looked tired.
"No problem."
The boy turned and walked back down the hallway.
Merlin watched him for a moment.
"What's his name?" Merlin asked himself.
He looked back down at his fingers then stepped into the bathroom.
He went to the sink and turned on the tap.
Cold water ran over his fingers.
The blood slowly disappeared.
When he was finished, Merlin looked down at his hands.
There were no wounds.
He stared.
He looked closer.
The skin was intact.
Only faint marks remained, barely visible beneath the surface.
Merlin frowned.
"What?"
He turned his hands over.
Nothing.
He quickly ran his fingers through his hair and washed the blood from his scalp.
Then he looked into the mirror.
Nothing.
No wound.
Not even a scratch.
Merlin touched the side of his neck.
Nothing there either.
His eyes widened.
He stared at his reflection.
The same dark brown hair.
The same peach-colored eyes.
The same face.
Everything looked exactly as it should.
And yet...
Something was different.
Merlin leaned closer to the mirror.
He studied his reflection carefully.
His face looked the same.
His body looked the same.
Yet he felt like the person staring back wasn't him but someone who had taken his place. Someone who was more like him than he himself. The thought felt wrong.
Merlin stared at the mirror for some minutes before backing away.
He walked back to class. He opened the door and walked over to his seat, ignoring all the eyes on him.
Merlin sat down.
He could still feel the faint itch beneath his skin.
He ignored it.
Mr. Isaac looked at him for a moment before turning back toward the class.
"Like I said before, you're all going to give a full report of your experience in the simulation."
He picked up a small stack of papers from his desk.
"Everything you remember."
He placed the papers down.
"What you saw. What you did. Who you interacted with."
He paused.
"And anything unusual."
Merlin looked at him.
Unusual?
He lowered his gaze.
There was quite a lot he could write about.
The dungeon.
The crew.
The creature.
The deaths.
The pendant Leon had thrown to him.
His eyes drifted toward his hand.
The pendant wasn't there.
Of course it wasn't.
It had only existed inside the simulation.
Still...
Merlin could remember the weight of it in his hand.
Mr. Isaac began handing out the papers.
When he reached Merlin, he placed one on his desk.
Merlin stared at it.
His entire experience had been strange.
But the strangest part was that he didn't even know where it had begun.
He hadn't been given a name.
A home.
A family.
Nothing.
He had simply appeared.
And now he was expected to write a report about it.