A New Start ( 2)

'This is getting annoying.'

For a second time, she opened her eyes at the strangest-looking statue right in front of her eyes - it was a massive half-naked woman next to the bed - but it was strangely comforting knowing that she was completely awake and yet shrouded inside a freaking plaster bag, it was a peaceful morning for her.

That was until her brain registered what happened last night.

"Shit! I can't think straight."

She hadn't even moved and yet the entire muffle noise escaped from foreign voices around her. And she felt like a freaking museum.

Turning her face to the side to look across the bedroom and at the movement she felt fell deeper in the bed, she saw lots of pairs of eyes hesitantly making eye contact with her.

Most of them were buff old middlemen, tough-looking and stuff. She didn't give a shit to care.

'My clothes...'

Shadow slowly unfurled her fingers and she felt something soft that wasn't her skin that she'd expected but rather a warm material on her stomach. It was clothing. She managed to snag some of it between her fingers and that was when she figured out that it was a loose shirt of some sort.

'Of course, it couldn't be my shirt because that had been destroyed last night, soaked through with blood and torn from the bullets and cuts.'

And by last night, she was referring to before she transmigrated into the freaking novel world thanks to stupid Wan.

She let go of the shirt and forced herself to rise from the bed.

"It was not us who changed your clothes." Some voiced out the least of her concerns in a hurry. Probably scared of her rage or whatever.

She twisted her body and slid down her legs to the ground. "So, do you want to keep on looking at me like a freaking animal in the zoo or what?" Her dry words left her mouth, unconditionally sending the threat without her realizing it herself.

Facing her while their back sticking to the wall like gum, three pairs of eyes quivered relatively fast as they caught the breath under their throat.

The non-moving body somehow threatened their whole existence, so much they didn't know what to do.

"Apo- apologies for showing our ungraceful manner to you," at least one of them had the decency to feel ashamed and quickly turned away.

It was the slimmest guy in the room and had the same tattoo as last night. A massive tattoo like a snake trailed along both of them with a few alphabets written around it.

She was too lazy to bother about the unimportant details and didn't even skim through them.

Who'll know what happened once she cares which she didn't? The amount of information she could gather was enormous. She wished not to waste her time over a useless thing.

Shadow waved her hand and reclined to the pillar of bed, sighed in relief.

"Are you finally awake?" A woman's voice crushed her peace.

A tall woman emerged in between the door frame with a cute smile on her face. It was probably the loveliest she had ever seen for the entire time she was here.

'Well, at least this lady looked clean and nice instead of a rough-looking old man with a massive belly sticking out.'

"How is your day?" The woman asked relentlessly as she approached her.

'I'm not even starting any yet.'

"Fine, I guess?" She answered the kind gesture with her dry yet affectionate voice or she hoped her intention crossed the woman's thought.

Fortunately, the woman just smiled at her. She touched her to scrutinize her body, probably and by her confident hand movement, she seemed to understand her role quite well because the follow-up question was not something she could carelessly spit.

"Your body has recovered at a fast speed. Give your body one more day and you will be good as a soccer player. How can you manage to heal up your wound overnight, though?"

Shadow flickered her eyes as innocently as she could. She didn't know how much she could say without prior knowledge of this world.

Was an experimental subject a normal being inside here? Should she come clean or some sort? If she cared enough to care about the people surrounding her.

In this case, she did not. She stared dumbly at the woman simply because she could not be bothered with a long story arse explanation.

"Where am I?" Her throat felt dry as she let a soft cough, more than necessary.

The woman skillfully grabbed a bottle of water from one of the three useless breathing men in the room and unscrewed the cap. She slipped her hand under her head up and then pressed the mouth of the bottle against her lips.

Shadow drank the water carefully while being guided by the woman like a freaking disabled child.

When the water spilled into her mouth Shadow almost moaned happily. The cold sensation traveled around her mouth and her tongue seemed to absorb it like a sponge leaving just a trickle to go down her throat.

"Be careful," The woman lowered the bottle from her lips. "You've been out for a few hours." Then, she allowed her some more water.

"I have?"

"Yes, after your brawl and sending their arses to Mars, those stupid thugs declared their loyalty to you and bring you to my house for the care. You gotta see my effort, My Lord."

‘Really?’

The question resided at the tip of her tongue, loitering around before she swallowed it. No matter how many times she wanted to clarify the sentence, she had no recollection of yesterday.

Her messy mind jumbled in a lot of places at one time, and most of the contribution was Wan and Malikul. Her brain received a huge trauma, it was hard for her to deal with the result, the brain inevitably wiped off what happened last night.

It wasn't fair for them but did she care?

'Absolutely not.'

However, no matter how urgent her situation was, she had another pressing matter to focus on. For example, what was the world she was in or how to survive or better yet, how to kill those labels all at once?

"Who are you?" She finished the water till the last drop.

The woman put on a gentle smile, different from before. In all honesty, though, Shadow found it hard to distinguish all of her smiles. At a glance, it looked the same, but it's actually different.

The woman put aside the empty bottle standing up. She extended her hand to her and said, "my name is Keira. The guardian of this place. Not in a sketchy way, I am a licensed doctor. My job is to keep those bodies intact and function normally." Her finger gestured at the three still bodies behind her.

Shadow glanced mindlessly at the hand. Her clear mind studied it before she decided to be courteous as well. She shook that hand once and let it go. The exchanged heat between them was so brief.

"Shadow. My name is." She said curtly.

Another smile plastered on Keira's smile. She clapped happily alone. "He is Amel, and two of his wings are Jade and Paul. Amel is the leader of this place or at least used to be."

Although the sentence was complete, Shadow felt incomplete for some reason but as she said, she found it hard to care right now.

Growwwl.

The sound of a hungry stomach disturbed their little talk which Keira reclined, outrageously offended. She put one hand at her chest and another to lips, her tips fingers pressed against the lips.

"Oh my, our highly esteemed guest is starving. How could I, the owner of the house, dare to commit such a thing to the lord? Forgive this ungrateful servant, oh benevolent lord."

Shadow blinked in discomfort. This was not part of her plan.

Okay to be fair, everything was not part of the plan. It's all planned by that stupid octopus Wan.

'I am the victim and I don't appreciate the over-exaggeration setup. But now, benevolent lord? The lord? THE LORD? What the heck?!!'

She had a risk of having high pressure and was probably the first person to have one in a single chapter.

However, in the blink of an eye, she had already sat in front of the table with a lot of food. In front of her was her full plate and utensil on each side of the plate. Her genius brain failed to process everything and was having a hard time accepting all of this.

"I and Amel used to eat our breakfast together, but now as our new lord, you will be included into our tiny agenda. If you wish, you can dine with us every day starting today. So, don't feel troubled and enjoy your food. After this, Amel will show you your house."

'Excuse me? How simple is this life to suddenly acquire an unwanted house without lifting a flipping finger?'

"Every new leader will be given a house befitting their strength and status. Don't be too troubled." Keira laughed at her own joke, probably... It was a joke, right?

She was overwhelmed. Obviously, the novelty of the situation was delaying the inevitable.

She sat upright, her back was so straight as a ruler.

'Because how… why… for what reason…'

There's a lot of unanswerable questions lingering in her mind.

"Is that legal? To give a free house to me?"

Keira cut off her own talking, the chirped voice seemed to shake subtly before another form smile stretched out. "Don't know." She stabbed the broccoli with her fork. "Does it matter? Probably legal, probably not, let's hope for the former because that's less dangerous." She snorted and it was clear that she wasn't still annoyed by Amel.

"It is legal..." Amel found his courage at last, after a series of pondering from the room until the dining hall. The question that was thrown by Shadow was his time to shine beautifully like a butterfly. "... probably." Although he stammered yet again. But the attempt had been made.

"Even if it didn't, no laws can go against us." Keira snorted yet again.

Oh, a piece of information acquired!