Tick… Tick… Tick… (a huge clock ticking, reaching 12)BANG! (Gunshots)Dong… (bell ringing)
Haaaaa… what… where am I?
I looked around, confused, wondering where I was. A breeze and warm, wet sunlight came through the window, filling the dusty room.
Impossible… how… how am I back in this world?
I stood up from the bed and walked toward the mirror next to the desk.
Black medium-short hair, bright skin, moderately sharp jaw, and a charming face. I'm… really back??
I'm back as my past self I'd forgotten.
I'm back as Thran Klurette.
But… how am I supposed to be…?I hastily tried to look for a certain clock in my cabinet.
Crieeeeekk… Something cut my hand and fell to the floor.
Ahhh… shit. Was that a knife? Why the fuck did I put a knife there?
I tried to brush it off and went to check the knife.
I don't remember having a knife this fancy… and why is there a paper stabbed with it?
Knock Knock… BRAAAK!
"THRAN! WHY ARE YOU BEING SO DAMN LOUD?! I CAN HEAR YOU FROM DOWNSTAIRS! Why do you keep making problems? Do you know how worried I was when you came back looking half dead and slept for two whole days? I thought you were gonna die or something!"
El… Ris…
Why are you just staring? Did you lose your memories or something… wait, did you actu—
"No, Ris. It's fine. I didn't lose the memories."
I stood up and approached Elris… my cousin who was like my own sister. I hugged her tightly.
"I'm sorry, Ris, for making you worry."
"You're acting off today… did you gamble our savings and lose or something? If you did, I won't—"
"Don't worry, Ris. I missed you. That's all."
"But… we've always been together, right? Did you miss me because you thought you'd die?"
Honestly… I thought I did die.
"You know, I'm worried you might keep putting yourself in danger because of those mysteries behind the scenes that you're obsessed with. You also got injured on your hand—seriously, you just woke up and the first thing you did was get INJURED? What am I supposed to do with you… sigh… Hold on, Thran, I'll treat your hand first."
"Hahaha… sorry, Ris… wait, the mysteries."
"Ris, what's the date right now?"(I haven't had a life-threatening moment in the past, so how…?)
"The date? It's the 15th day of the full-blossoming trees season, but a new system was implemented, so it's now called Priel."
A sudden shock hit me. Ten days had passed since I discovered the buried village. But I died three days after that. Isn't that why I ended up in another world—a modern world? Perhaps it was the future, and I simply went forward in time. But there's no trace of the current civilization. Maybe I'm stressing too much. I need to relax.
Wait… did you say April? Could you tell me more about the new system?
"It's Priel. The new system has been planned for a couple of seasons. Wouldn't you be supposed to know? They count by months instead of seasons now—twelve months, each with its own name. Pretty simple compared to describing the season."
January, February, March, April…
"Though you're close, it's actually Yanuari, Felbruari, Maret, Priel, May, Juni, Juli, and so on. You probably know the rest. Also, stay in your room. Don't move too much; you're still injured. Here, I'll make you some food. We got some good ingredients, and I just got a generous paycheck. What do you want?"
"Ha… very well then. I'd love to eat your homemade honey cheesecake. Mum used to make those, and you're skilled at making it too."
"We don't have the ingredients yet, but the merchants just arrived a couple hours ago. Sit tight, Thran. A honey cheesecake is on the way."
"Thanks, Ris. Don't go wandering around and losing all your money."
Ris left the house.
The house was as empty and broken as ever. Just wait, Ris… someday I'll buy a large house.
I tried to remember the past. When I found that buried village, things felt off—the incidents, the crows swarming in one direction, and the criminals. But they seemed too wealthy or too well-dressed to be real criminals. Those murals or scriptures… I didn't recognize them, but it was one of the languages from the world I lived in. Thanks to my father, I had learned to read and speak the ancient traditional language.
Let's start from the beginning in short: I discovered a buried village. Then weird things happened. Then those three "criminals" came—they didn't look like criminals. Somehow, I died facing them. They didn't use a weapon or poison; I felt like I was punched with a metal arm. The sun turned black, the water became blood. That's how I died, knowing nothing, and was reborn in another world.
The world seemed realistic. Aristocracy didn't exist—only in some nations. It was 1982 when I arrived in South Korea. My mum was Korean, my father from Indonesia. Ah… Javanese ancient scriptures. That was the language of the text in the village.
I continued my life, studied hard, went to the world's best universities, got a generic high-paying job, then continued with a life of adventure. I learned martial arts, med school, and some things I thought would be fun or useful.
Then 2025 came. I was on a plane going home but got hit by a white delivery truck—or a kei truck. Absolute bullshit. I died from getting hit while flying in the sky.
I should clean my room… it's a mess. My life… is a mess.
I coughed from the amount of dust I breathed in the room. The air was filled with a damp smell, as if it had been flooded.
I don't remember why my room was like this, so I'll ask Ris later.
I organized the room first, cleaned the desk, wiped the windows, and mopped the floor.
It was tiring; my muscles became sore, so I went to lay on the bed.
While thinking how all of this was possible, I started to feel goosebumps out of nowhere. I heard ticking sounds from everywhere, getting faster and faster, and after every twelve ticks… I couldn't stop hearing it, even if I covered my ears.
I wondered why the hell I was hearing this ticking. Then I thought of something.
I ran to the desk and took out the paper that was with the Knife
AAGGGhhh… it's getting louder.
I checked the note—it was written with blood, in the codes I made in the past.
"The last cycle will happen. Death will reappear. We will perish."
What… UGGHHHH…
The ticking stopped. A second of silence felt like a minute. And soon, I fainted in that one second.