Wahhhh—!"
"Hey, what the hell? You sleep like a pig till noon and the first thing you yell is 'Wah'?"
"W–Where am I?"
I asked while glancing around the tiny room that looked like a cheap countryside inn.
I… I remember falling asleep at my desk, halfway through writing my online novel.
"Are you delirious or something, Ron? We just escaped from the orphanage!"
I turned to my side. A skinny boy with messy black hair covered in dust was staring at me.
Orphanage…? What orphanage? And who the hell is Ron?!
I tried to calm down, forcing myself to think.
Where am I? Kidnapped? Dreaming? Yeah, maybe it's just a dream…
I stood up, but my legs gave out.My head hit the floor, and my limbs felt like jelly—no strength at all.
Then, darkness.
In the dream, I saw myself as a little boy.
I tried to move, to scream, but couldn't. Someone placed me at the doorstep of a house that looked like it came straight from the Victorian era.
Everything after that happened like a movie on fast-forward.Too fast for me to think.
And yet, somehow… it was slow.So slow that every moment was painfully vivid, every frame frozen in time.
From infancy to adolescence—I watched it all unfold, surreal and silent.
"...on…"
"R…O… Wake up…"
SMACK!
"WAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Oh for heaven's sake! You never screamed that loud when I hit you before!"
Damn… that hurts—Well, maybe not that much.
I rubbed my cheek, which had turned slightly red, and muttered:
"Hey, Lunas."
"What?"
"I… have a plan."