Forge of Pact V

Marcus

“Acknowledge, huh…?” Was the first thing I croaked after waking up from my lucid dream. I was in pieces assuming that it’s all a dream—because my body feel okay despite being poisoned by a lethal poison—and a reality—because the King’s bite really did hurt like hell.

I rubbed my neck after sitting up from the bed, glancing around the room randomly while looking at the objects including the VR headset that is charging on top of it’s charging spot. My eyes wandered off to the area near me, looking for the existance of an object that I aam pretty sure I received.

“Ah, there it is.” I twisted my waist a bit to reach a new puzzle piece placed beside the bed. I don’t remember Rox giving me the piece, but I guess it’s like a game mechanism where you automatically get the item upon the completion of a mission.

Sounds fun but last night was not fun at all.

I glanced at the clock. In spite of me getting hungover or me sleeping late due to playing games and assignments, I would always wake up sharply at 6.45 a.m. It’s like my biological clock just went, ‘You know what, let’s just set this straight.’ And since then, I will always wake up at that time.

I stretched a bit and sauntered lazily towards the balcony. Opening the sliding door, the cold morning air greets my unwashed face followed by a dry smell of dead leaves. It seems like fall is going to be cold this year.

“Good morning, world.” I wanted to use a tone like that one anime guy used as he talked to himself. Even though he talks like a mad man, the females will always like him, most probably because he’s godly handsome that he can strike down your heart in a mere second. That CEO guy on the TV too, he can probably do the same with that handsome look of his.

I grunted before shaking off my head. I can’t. I need to stay loyal to the Monarch of Shadows. He is the only one I will put my heart to, despite being a fictional character.

I separate myself from the balcony and entered the bathroom  to wash my face. After that, I sat on the side of the bathtub, now thinking shether I should take a bath or not before going to school. What kind of Karma that the weather this morning is murderously cold despite it being melting hot last night? Did the divinity flicked a wrong switch last night?

Upon careful and deep thinking, I decided to agree with my bodily needs and took a warm bath. I used to think that taking a warm bath is useless because well, you’ll get out of the bath and feel the cold wind too anyway so what’s the point, but today I need it so badly. The reason is because of the apparent sluggishness that I know comes not only from me grinding for levels last night. I think I might need a therapeutic bath too to counter this piercing pain on my neck.

***

“Hm.” Alphonso commented. “Strange seeing you wearing a soft aesthetic fashion today.”

I was standing in front of him after somehow crashing to him on the way to uni, but I didn’t expect to be scrutinized like this.

“Shut up you. I just feel like wearing cotton tailored outfits today, that’s all.” I plodded away from his view with my black lumberjack that I paired with a high waisted, wide cut jeans that hung at the level of my shin, a white stripy long sleeved low neck made from cotton and a round necked caramel cardigan also made from cotton. The persisting pain on my neck forced me to wear something soft against my skin, so against all odds that I am not into that aesthetic, I unearthed my dresser and picked the most comfortable clothes I could wear without looking like a clown.

“But I must say…” Alphonso followed from behind me. “Compared from your normal looks, you look more presentable now. You know, like a shota character in animes?”

His last few sentences caused me to halt and angled my head to him just to throw him a grimace. Under normal circumstances that phrase would make me happy—given I never had someone praise me before except my semi narcissistic self and my family—but to be compared to an androgynous persona irks me somehow like, I am a full fledged man, damn it!

“I’ll take the first half of your sentence as a compliment.” I resumed to walk again.

“Huh?” Alphonso tried to cater to my pace. “Not the whole phase?”

“I am a guy. Besides, an anime character should just stay as an anime character, not in a real life.” I reasoned.

“What?!” Alphonso looked like he just received a revelation, with how dramatic he looked right now.

“How dare you… Animes are admired because they should be brought into life!” Aw crap, here he goes with his talk. He should know that there are different types and levels of otakus. There are otakus that deeply wished that their favorite character came into life, while there are otakus like me, who knows the border between an anime world and a real world.

Talking about worlds, I wonder where my lucid dream world is classified? Should I say it’s virtual reality? Or should I say it’s reality?

“Hey, are you listening to me?” Alphonso pouted when the ywo of us had arrived at the entrance of uni’s main building.

I paused and fluttered my eyes at him for a bit. “…Yeah, I did.” While in fact I don’t.

Alphonso pouted, starting to sulk. A good thing about befriending Alphonso is that when he starts sulking…

“Nevermind. I’ll do with you accompanying me for breakfast.”

…He recoiled fast.

I was about to agree with him when I remembered, “Wait, don’t we have class this morning?”

“What? You didn’t read the group chat? Sir said that morning class is cancelled, so we have time until 9.” Alphonso paced ahead of me to the cafeteria’s direction while at the same time, showing his phone that displayed our class’ group chat.

“What? Since when?”

“Just awhile ago.”

Heck, I was too busy unearthing my dresser I didn’t have time to look at my phone. If I know, I would have spent more time in the bathtub.

“Okay, alright.” I heaved a tired sigh and followed Alphonso to the café.

Alphonso is the most excited when we stepped foot into the café. He quickly went to the stores to buy food while leaving me alone at the entrance. So much for wanting me to accompany him.

While waiting for Alphonso, I sauntered to the nearest empty table.

Because of the amount of student that are almost nonexistent in the café in the morning, the sound coming from the TVs installed are booming. I have to squint my eyes a bit, trying to withstand the loud volume while shooting my gaze to the news that are playing on the screen.

“Shocking news. This morning…” The news reporter began.

I gazed at the screen emptily for a few moments, my eyes almost slid it’s focus off because I am not one to watch news in the morning, when it gradually widened a bit when an image of a warehouse was shown.

“T-That warehouse…” My muttering was buried beneath the female reporter’s thundering voice. Despite that disturbing volume, I am more disturbed by the image I just saw.

That warehouse, is the same warehouse I dreamt of last night.