Crossover
Chapter 5: Inexplicable Events (Part 2)
Kuro wasted no time and took 1000 verse1Verneson's currency and gave it to the driver without looking at it. The driver was baffled and tried to return it, but Kuro had already exited and closed the door. The driver looked stupendously at the 1000 verse he held. He glanced and saw Kuro being helped by the guards and backed at the 1000 verse bill in his hands.
“If we are to meet again, I will surely let you ride without any charge!” he swore inside his heart and remembered the accidental kindness he got today deep inside his mind. He engraved Kuro’s appearance in his mind and drove away. A 1000 verse bill was typically the maximum wage of taxi drivers per day, of course, gasoline aside. He was not a cheater nor profiteer; he was just a humble driver.
Meanwhile, the guards who assisted Kuro were panicking; their young master was having a disastrous headache, and they could see how their young master writhed! They wanted to call the main house to fetch Kuro, but Kuro rejected the offer.
“Don’t worry; it's almost gone. See?” Kuro wiped off his sweat and smiled at them, the beautiful smile he gave somehow reassured the guards, but they were still worried, so they suggested calling the main house again.
“Please, I don’t want my parents to be worried,” Kuro begged the guards, which made the guards' hearts waver, and they decided not to call the main house. They asked if Kuro needed any assistance in walking, but the boy kindly rejected the offer.
He walked steadily, showing the guards that all the pain was really gone. This somehow assured the guards since if they were too negligent, they might lose their jobs, never mind the job, having such a kind and generous employer was something really hard to find nowadays.
After walking for some minutes, Kuro glanced back, then he collapsed.
“AHHHH!!”
He slumped on the ground and held his head really tightly.
‘It hurts… It hurts!!!’
He neither minded if his uniform got dirty nor his body; he just continued to hold his head and grit his teeth so hard that a little bit more of force might shatter it instead. The pain continued to intensify further; he did his best to force back his voice to avoid getting heard by the guards.
‘It is best to let the pain subside into a manageable level before I go home…’ he painstakingly gathered his thoughts.
Kuro rose up and looked forward.
“Still far… it should be enough to—argh! I am… I am starting to lose consciousness! I have to get inside my room first!” He really needed to find a way to deal with the pain as soon as possible. He always persistently thought that he need not make his mother worry too much.
The reason for this was the ailment that his mother currently had. She had a heart disease, more exactly, she is more prone to heart attacks. This kind of pain Kuro was experiencing would be enough to make Cecilia faint on the spot.
Anyway, for some reason, he really felt that soon, the pain would subside—but not that quickly. So he started to walk toward the house as normally as possible; he occasionally stumbled and leaned on some trees by the roadside to rest his body and wipe his incessant sweat. His uniform was very wet from his sweat; he removed the suit and hung it on his shoulders to alleviate the heat he was feeling.
He also removed one button of the long sleeves, revealing a smooth collarbone. His long sleeves were very wet that his chest were sticking out from the thin clothes. He resumed walking and tried his best to familiarize himself with the pain. The wetness of his clothes was easy to reason with, but his stumbling was not. Once the guards by the main gate noticed it, they would never waste a second to inform the security inside the main house.
With great difficulty, he also made his mind stay conscious. At times, his eyes were subconsciously closing—ready to sleep, but he always slapped his face or acutely pinched a part of his body to stay awake while trying to walk stabilized.
Unknown to him, someone was watching from behind the shadows, a pair of golden eyes were secretly observing him.
As fast as he could, he finally reached the main gate. He saw one guard at the post where there should be two of them. The guard quickly opened the golden metal gates and greeted Kuro, who was walking calmly.
“Sir, your clothes, would you like me to call the house to provide you robe or clothes to change?” the guard politely asked.
“No need to… I… I can handle it myself,” he waved away the guard and walked to the mansion. He immediately arrived at the living room and found that his cat, Crescent, wasn’t there on its favorite armchair. Moreover, he was just acting as if he was all fine, although, maybe due to persevering, the pain subsided; it still ached slightly.
He was about to proceed to the stairs when he noticed that no one was around the house. This was really strange. Normally, a butler or maid should always be at the door, waiting for him to come home. but no one was around, not even a voice was heard the moment he entered.
“Where might they be?”
It was impossible for all the servants to possibly work their chores for this long, and it was even more impossible for them to have the same work at the same time.
“M-mom?... Dad?...Richard?” he held his head once again; it started to ache tremendously! He was almost falling, luckily, there was a sofa to balance from. He gripped the sofa really tight as his head was pounding severely once more.
“W-w-what the heck? I-I thought it was all… g…gone…” he couldn’t resist the pain anymore; it was intensified more than before when he collapsed by the road. He tried to stand up again and fight the pain like he first did. But, after a step, his sight was suddenly shrouded with darkness. He blinked and widened his eyes; he tried to scrub it thinking that something might have stuck before his eyes. However, there was none, and the darkness was dimming his vision.
When he tried to take a step, his body began to fall. Kuro tried to gather his remaining strength to stand up again, yet his body didn’t coordinate.
‘Move! Don’t fall! Kuro… Persist more!!’ he encouraged himself but to no avail.
Soon, his eyes started to close, the last thing he saw was the wall clock by the chimney. Its hands were still—completely not moving.
‘Did the clock exhausted its battery?’ this was his last thought and completely closed his eyes.
As soon as he was about to fall on the ground, a black hole appeared on the floor he was about to fall. Instead of falling on the cold tiles, he fell through inside the black hole and, of course, didn’t notice it.
No one saw from the house what had happened. There was no trace of Kuro anywhere, not even a single strand of his hair was left. He was completely engulfed by the black hole that led out of god knows where.
Suddenly, a man dressed in black butler clothes, with short silky black hair, a pair of golden eyes with a crescent moon on the forehead, had a slim yet strong composure, and his temperament appeared to be sharp and powerful, appeared out of nowhere. He had a calm and professional demeanor but had a cold and serious gaze.
“Now then, I might lose master if I do not hurry to follow him.” The man walked elegantly, with the poise of a real butler; he didn’t show any hesitance as he jumped into the black hole where Kuro fell. After the man jumped down, the black hole slowly shrank until it was all gone. The surroundings were still and very quiet. And the hands of the clock were still not moving; maybe it really ran out of batteries.
-End of Chapter 5-
