The stench of garbage disposal greeted me immediately this morning. Luckily I had breakfast early. Really, why should I take the case for a place like this.

"Inspector Dave? You came early today." Someone called out to me when I had just closed the patrol car door.

"Of course, I don't want the chief to take my case back," I said as I patted his shoulder.

The police line surrounding the small house was a magnet for me. I entered it, there was nothing unusual here. The stuff is so neat. Good, this is a bit of a clue, maybe he's an OCD sufferer who can't stand garbage dumps.

I entered deeper. My treasure finally arrived. A shirtless man lay lifeless on a small table. Next to him was a three-hundred-page book and a syringe. The only normal thing here was his blackened left arm.

"You picked the wrong place to overdose," I muttered.

I still wasn't satisfied with just that evidence. But the rest of the room was completely normal. There were very few items, no cooking utensils, no television, not even a bed to sleep on. Now I know why she chose to overdose on this rickety table.

Filled with boredom, I finally reached the last piece of evidence. I honestly didn't expect it to be evidence.

I put on my white gloves, picking up the book lying on the table. When I saw the cover, all I could think was that this guy was a fan of rock music. Page after page, all I saw was handwriting.

"Princess Arcelia? King Vladimir? Huh, so he's a novelist."

"Why would he choose a cover with a human skeleton for a fantasy novel?" I asked alone in the room.

Just when I thought everything was completely normal, something strange happened. The novel book I was holding turned its own pages and closed quickly. "Booom Booom" The loud sound outside instantly penetrated my eardrums, erasing my curiosity about the strange novel.

My body couldn't stay on the room. When I opened the door, there was nothing I could say other than "What the hell is this?".

The garbage dump I saw a few minutes ago is now a steep rock cliff below which strange creatures are exploring. I'm also pretty sure it was sunny this morning, there's no way that in five minutes, the thunder and lightning and dark clouds just came out of nowhere.

Not enough for me to be surprised, a giant bat came crashing down on me. With the reflexes I practiced when I was a cadet, I dodged it quickly. The novel I was holding at the time, I somehow put it in my jacket pocket. I felt that something bad would happen if the novel was lost.

When I said it was a giant bat, in reality it was more like a skinny wolf with hollow bat wings.

It stared intently at me. His face was grimacing and the nails on her fingers were pointed. I reached into the long jacket I was wearing.

"Damn it, where's the revolver?" I asked in a half panic. My legs were shaking, my heartbeat irregular. Just like during the first police entrance test.

I slowly walked backwards while keeping an eye on his movements. In that precarious situation, my palm touched the hilt of an iron sword.Who put it down?

I no longer see the corpse I met a moment ago. I don't know, I don't care. As he was about to lunge, I parried him with the sword that was already in my right hand. His head was severed, but somehow he was still able to walk out of this room.

For a moment I felt relieved. But it seemed like this place really didn't allow me to stay calm. The room, which was only as wide as a public toilet, was slowly shrinking. There was no other choice for me but to get out.

I saw how a huge tree devoured the minimalist house I had just left. Not quite devouring it, it shrank into a pine tree that was only four times my height.

"Seriously?" I sat down listlessly, no longer able to explain everything.

***

I walked on this slippery path, slightly surprised that I no longer saw those strange creatures. The further I traversed these stone hills, the more I heard nothing, saw nothing.

After a grueling stone hill, I came across a cave with two small torches burning at its mouth. Above the mouth of the cave stood a statue of a sleeping horse. I stared at it, thinking that it would come alive like in a fantasy movie. I was a little hesitant to go in there, but there was no other choice.

It felt like I had just run a marathon. I don't know how many hours I walked, carrying a thirty-kilogram sword. My firefly eyes slowly began to clear.

I picked up one of the torches to illuminate the mysterious room. I was lucky, nothing surprised me in the cave. Only the former fireplace that no longer emitted smoke.

I picked up the object I kept in my jacket pocket. It was still neatly wrapped. I opened it and took one of the contents. Sticking the end into the flame of the torch. Of course you can guess what it was.

"I'm glad this still works," I said, taking a drag on the cigarette I'd just lit.

"If I have to die today, at least let me finish this little piece of heaven."

I took back the novel. Opening the page marked with a bookmark.

"Princess Arcelia is very happy to see her knight return. Now she won't be afraid to train anymore." I read the page slowly. Unsatisfied, I read the next page again.

"Twenty years have passed, now Princess Arcelia no longer feels the slightest fear."

"This is ridiculous." I closed the book.

"Perhaps by reading I will no longer be lonely." I opened the novel again, moving the bookmark to the page I had just opened.

One more thing I know about this novelist. He was a wasteful person. He always wrote on only one side of the page.

My gaze is still glued to the former fireplace. I always believed that it would be fine to be here. But damn, this was really annoying.

"Aargghh, alright alright, I'll go." I left the cave.

When I just came out, I found something strange. How could the horse statue that I saw intact a few minutes ago, now only have its head left.

"So now you've given me another new mystery huh? The cursed world."

It wasn't just the horse statue that looked strange. My surroundings were still the same, shiny rocky hills under cloudless clouds. But I'm willing to bet, what I saw a few minutes ago wasn't a thick mossy rock hill.

"This green color, I didn't see it earlier," I muttered.

"Oh yeah, a fireplace." I hurried back into the cave.

I had expected it, the piles of wood and charcoal that had accumulated here were no longer there.

"What have I done?"

While still in the cave, my ears caught another strange sound. I peeked from inside. Hundreds of people were walking neatly on one of the hillsides, some of them armed with shiny armor, while others were dressed simply. As I continued to observe, a man in armor came towards me on horseback.

"What should I do now?"

All I had was a sword and a torch in each palm of my hand.

"Wait, I know this isn't supposed to happen. What have I done? Think Dave think!"

I thought back. I lit a cigarette while reading the novel I had been reading.

When I realized something, I hurriedly reopened the novel.

"If this is true, then..."

"No, it must be true."

I moved the bookmark to the previous page. I slowly looked back at the entire cave room. The former fireplace had returned. I ran outside, the horse statue back in one piece. The group of people walking on the hillside vanished without a trace. And of course, the rocks were no longer covered in moss.

I sighed softly.

"Twenty years?"

"You really helped me, Princess Arcelia."

I reached into my jacket pocket. A memo that I always carried even when I didn't have my bag with me. I wrote it down on the memo.

"First conclusion, it's not my world that's changed, it's me that's changed places."

"Second conclusion, the timeline of this world is determined by that novel. I don't know if the contents of this world are the same."

To be Continued...