Soft

 

A figure hugged the person next to him and covered his body with the quilt, murmuring, "Umm, this is so soft."

 

A girl squeaked and shoved him aside, her small frame being squashed by the bear hug. "Aaah! Papa, what are you doing?" she yelled.

 

He awoke, rubbing his eyes, his vision still foggy, and said, "Huh."

 

The smaller girl huffed and turned to face the other person on the bed before saying, "Bad papa."

 

The figure said groggily, still not adjusted to his surroundings, "What?"

 

He eventually forced himself to open his eyes and take a proper look around; the words "luxurious" and "opulent" couldn't possibly capture what his eyes were feasting on.  

There was a sizable room filled with all the necessities and the silliest things imaginable, including a ton of children's toys, the place looked as if it was made by the hands of Gods themselves. Several words came to mind, including vast, roomy, beautifully colored, and decorated.

 

Then a cool breeze caressed his face, prompting him to look up at the open window where the sun was peeping in and casting a distinct glint on the marble floor.

The marble beneath him didn't feel cold as he got out of bed, stepped on the ground, and moved toward the balcony. His feet felt the surface smoothly as they led him to the balcony, which was a relaxing experience.

 

He moved back a few steps, covering his eyes with his right hand as the glaring sunlight forced him to do so. He then bumped into the flower vase, which then fell to the ground and created quite a commotion. 

 

“Huhh…” a woman’s disheveled voice rang from behind.

 

"Sweetie, why are you clinging to me? "Did you get into a fight with your papa?" Her voice was as if the angels were singing in the harmony, alluring everyone nearby.

 

"Hmm, papa hugged me too tightly," the little girl lamented as she moved closer to her mother.

 

The woman patted the little one's head and laughed, "Haha, is that so?"

 

"Are you finally going to join team mommy?"

 

“Eh? mother's team? Bu-but he promised to bake cookies.” The girl was clearly conflicted about her options; on the one hand, her father, who had promised to bake her favorite chocolate cookies, was there, and on the other, her mother, who was, well, her mother.

 

“Hehe, sorry mommy it’s still team papa.” She said while sticking her tongue out.

 

It was clear from her voice that it wasn't a regular occurrence: "Sigh, and here I thought that finally you would be joining me."

 

"Dear, are you paying attention to your little devil's antics?" the woman inquired, turning to face the man who was staring aimlessly from the balcony.

 

"Dear?" she asked again, but the man remained motionless.

 

This time the woman was perplexed; in their years of marriage, this was the first time he had ignored her seriously rather than in a playful or flirtatious manner. She awoke, rose from her bed, and walked towards him.

 

"Dear?" she asked again, wrapping her arms around his bare back and blowing hot air into his ear.

 

It was the first time in his life that something like this was happening and then it wasn't; he trembled at the touch and felt like melting at the sound of that seductive voice. She was watching her with a loving gaze when he turned around, but her expression changed when she saw his pale, sweaty face.

 

She asked, her tone more solemn this time, "What's wrong?"

 

"I-I, nothing's wrong, I was just a little worn out from the last battle," he said. Although his mind was a complete mess and his face displayed a wide range of emotions, he managed to retain his rationality.

 

She embraced him even tighter, and he unconsciously did the same, and they held each other in that position for a moment. "Oh so that's it," she said.

 

"Papa, you meany," the little girl exclaimed as she jumped in between them.

 

"Sweatie, your papa is not feeling well. Why don't you meet with your other siblings downstairs?" 

 

"But-but.. I wanted him to.." She wanted to argue, but the woman's glare made her spit out her words, and she bolted from the room. She was most likely a spoiled girl in this entire world, but her mother couldn't care less.

 

He continued to embrace the women while muttering, "Other siblings?"

 

"Dear, are you certain that everything is okay? We could go to Sophia's room, despite how much I dislike it.” As she spoke, a mana check was performed on his body.

 

"Evelyn, I'm just tired, don't worry. Nothing more.” Eventually, Akira released her from his embrace and turned to face her beautiful face, which was more seductive than he could ever recall.

 

She had matured to the point where she was no less than a succubus, with her red flowing hair, sparkling blue eyes, small face, and lethal curves.

 

She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek, making him blush. "Umm, if you say so," she said.

 

"Hehe, it's funny how you still blush after all these years but that is adorable.” She chuckled as she spoke. 

 

He nodded and gave an excuse to use the restroom, saying, "Uh-yeah."

 

He was not there when Evelyn changed into new clothes and started contemplating the day's activities.

 

"Wow, he sure is acting strange today,"she thought.

 

"Don't tell me it was Ichi and her strange antics."

 

“That girl is beyond my comprehension, but as her onee-san, I still need to calm her down or else she might continue to bother him.”

 

While she was contemplating all of this, Akira was on the verge of losing his mind in the restroom because he could not understand a single thing she was saying. He would repeatedly touch the area of his body where Ichi had stabbed him and would be amazed that there was no evidence of that. 

 

“Was I transmigrated again? No, I haven’t changed, I am still Akira, just a few years older.”

 

"Shit, shit, shit don't tell me that I died and somehow reincarnated as my older self; wait if I died then how could things be this way? And What made Evelyn behave as though she were my wife?”

 

He screamed, "Aargh.. What's happening!" and broke the mirror in the washbasin.

 

It was fortunate that the restroom was soundproof and that all of its components could self-repair, causing the shattered pieces of glass to revert to their original shapes.

 

He said in a mocking tone, "Haah, even the things inside here are laughing at me. " If it weren't for his strong belief in himself, he might have lost his mind. 

 

"Akira, calm down. Let's refrain from doing anything else as stupid as what I've already done..” He said while hitting his cheeks.

 

“Dear are you ready? Breakfast has been served.” Despite the location being soundproof, Evelyn's voice could be heard outside, she was probably using mana to do that.

 

“Coming-coming.” 

 

Now If the room he was currently in was straight out of a private penthouse apartment belonging to an extremely wealthy man, then getting downstairs to the breakfast table must have been a magical journey that he had only dreamed about. 

 

“Good morning, sir.”

 

“Good morning, master.”

 

 Another maid from the group of women who had gathered to greet him on the way down said. Given the vast size of the house he was currently in, he could have accepted all of these if it had only been these two maids, but there were no less than twenty of them dressed in the French maid outfit and bowing their heads.

 

"Good morning to you as well." He said while maintaining a straight face. 

 

A cute and vivacious maid in an apron approached him and said, "Master today I have made yours and mam's favorite red velvet cake."

 

All of this made no sense, but he chose to go along for the ride to see what would happen. "Uhh-thank you for that," he said.

 

"Thank you, master." She bowed her head and returned to the line, where other maids were looking at her with a hint of envy, but they had been taught to be a perfect maid and this was nothing in comparison to that.

 

“You're sweating a lot, dear, are you really okay?" Evelyn took his hand in hers and checked his body, but found nothing wrong.

 

"Everything is fine, Evelyn; it's just that, I'm a little tired." He quickly explained and escorted her to the dining room table, where there were already a large number of people seated. 

 

Before he could react, however, two women rushed up to him, embraced him, and thrust their ample breasts into his chest, sending him to heaven.

 

“Husband.”

 

“Darling.”

 

As if it were a contest between them, they said at the same time and intensified their respective hugs, but after a while they noticed something wasn't right; he wasn't even slightly reciprocating.

 

The stunning woman with raven hair asked, staring into his eyes, "Darling?"

 

The other women joined the queue and asked, "Husband?"

 

"Sigh, he's not feeling well; will you leave him?" Evelyn's tone indicated that she was not pleased.

 

“What? What’s wrong darling? What happened to you?” Ichinose questioned as she combed his body with her hands in an effort to find anything. 

 

"There doesn't appear to be anything wrong with your body?" Amelia stated as she finished her own check.

 

"It's fine, just a little tired," he muttered as he sat in one of the chairs.

 

There were other people sitting beside him, but their faces were blurred and he couldn't tell who they were no matter how hard he tried.

 

Amelia was a pleasant surprise, though it didn't bother him all that much. On the other hand, seeing Ichinose brought back the painful memories of her brutal stabbings, leaving him with a dry mouth and his legs visibly trembling. The PTSD was kicking in.

 

Although no one else in the room noticed and continued to eat the feast prepared by the army of maids, Akira  too calmed down and decided to eat something. His attention was drawn to the red apples that were artfully arranged in the small basket. He picked up one and bit into it, forcing the fruit's juices into his mouth.

 

At that precise moment, everything abruptly changed. The fresh appa in his hand turned into a rotten one, and the cheery, bright room in which he was sitting changed into a cemetery with the moon lighting the graves there.

 

The sudden changes were too much for him to process all at once, and the appa in his hand fell to the ground and rolled to one of the graves. His mind was racing, but the terrifying voices of Evelyn, Ichi, Amelia, and the maids wouldn't let him.

 

“Why did you do that dear?”

 

“Why did you force me to kill you darling?”

 

“WHY??”

 

“WHY Master? Were you not satisfied by us?”

 

They continued to say the same thing in a robotic voice until he mustered the courage to look up at them, but the sight caused his soul to flee the body. 

 

"NOOO.... Get away, get away from me!!" he yelled, dropping from the table, attempting to stand up and run but stumbling along the way.

 

The skin on the girls' and maids' faces had lost all of its fat, and they had all developed the features of malnourished beings. Blood was dripping from their eye sockets, but their faces still had a menacing grin.

 

He shouted again, "Stop please, just stop," and managed to flee this time.

 

He was panting but continued to run because the images of those people's horrifying faces were still haunting him.

 

He tripped and fell to the ground, missing the small pebble that had been placed there as a result of the shaking of the ground. He moaned in agony and glanced subconsciously in the direction of what awaited him, but what he saw there made his eyes wide open and his blood run dry. 

 

'Here lies Evelyn and Leonard, along with their son Akira.'

 

He began to doubt his vision as he saw the three graves in front of him. First the girls, and now his parents, everyone he knew had died, and he had been dragged into a nightmare in which he was being pursued by everyone and everything, making him regret his choice to confront Ichi back in the church.

 

That was when the rollercoaster ride began; his stupidity had allowed things to escalate to this point, where he and his parents lay dead in the grave in front of him.

 

While he was still trying to make sense of everything, a hand appeared from the ground and grabbed his leg, paralyzing it. A moment later, a man who appeared to be in a similar state to the girls before him emerged and attempted to choke him.

 

“Dad?” he asked.

 

“Why did you do it?” a hoarse voice asked him back.  

 

Finally, the reins on his reason gave way, and he made the decision to let it go.

 

"Sigh, I understand now," he said as he pushed his father's hand away from his throat. The blue flames were now raging in his hands, begging to be set free. When he did, they pounced on the prey in front of them like a hungry tiger and quickly consumed him, leaving nothing but ashes behind.

 

“You didn’t have to go this far, did you?” He asked no one in particular.

 

The entire cemetery trembled in fright as hundreds of the undead emerged from their graves and swarmed the area like a horde. Although their physical condition was worse, their eyes shone red from the blood that was leaking out, terrifying the living as well as the dead.

 

They all moved quickly to attack the only living person who was standing with his face bowed; tears were trickling from his eyes, somehow igniting the blue flames, which were now even more powerful than before.

 

One, two, three steps, one of the undead approached him to attack, but the blue flames erased his existence on their own. It seemed as though the flames had a mind of their own and were debating with the gloomy mood of their master, who wanted nothing more than to burn this place to the cinders.

 

And so it was; the flames assumed the form of a graceful bow and presented themselves to Akira, who accepted them with no hesitation and immediately began wreaking havoc on the approaching horde of undeads. The scene was fleeting, but the impact was profound.

 

Their wailing and cries had stopped, and silence had been restored to the area that had been disturbed when he asked, "Isn't this enough?"

 

Finally, a majestic response that pierced the clouds above rang out, "Certainly it is."

 

He collapsed to the ground and passed out. All of this had taught him many lessons, including things he had previously taken for granted and the idea that the world was still a game in which the characters would behave exactly as they had back there.

 

It wouldn't have turned out so badly if he had realized these things sooner. Perhaps, just perhaps, there was a silver lining to this cloud.

 

Back at the border town, Kiara had met with Aurora and everyone else, explaining everything that had happened and everyone was listening intently; after she finished, Drake was the first to question.

 

“Wait, the overseer was a double agent who wanted to kidnap you so they could coerce the empire into agreeing to their terms?”

 

“Pretty much yes dumbass.” Richard answered, gaining a tick on Drake’s forehead.

 

"But that's absurd; the overseers were chosen following a careful investigation and years of preparation, and planning something like this takes years," Shin laid out his thoughts.

 

Evelyn clapped and said, "Well, the good thing is that we can finally get back to the academy.

 

“well, whatever happens in sector X is the empire's problem, not ours, and to be honest, I was missing the academy, Drake retorted.

 

Ichinose jumped in between and said, "But aren't we going to look for the man who escaped from the church?"

 

"Ichi, not right now. You've already created enough issues for me to deal with." Evelyn glared at her.

 

“But onee-san.”

A knock came from outside, and they were all startled by the voice "excuse me."

 

Richard asked, "Yes?"

 

“There is an urgent message for Kiara.”