A playful ringtone echoed in the bus. It belonged to the driver, sitting in front of Shauwn's unconscious body. He pulled it out of his pocket to check who was calling. It was the supervisor, though here he was usually called the director. He picked up immediately.
"Yes, Mr. Director, indeed, he's already here. Should I bring him to you? Understood."
The director had always been a mysterious and… vast being. Otherwise, how could he have known that he had already arrived? Perhaps because of what his passenger had done earlier. The driver smiled, intrigued. His employer had a knack for discovering extremely rare creatures. This time, he wondered what else he had brought into Mystic Isle.
"I really wonder what you are," the driver continued, visibly interested.
He lifted Shauwn and slung him over his back. He had to take him straight to the director.
"Honestly, this isn't part of my job," insisted the man, slightly annoyed.
A cold voice, devoid of emotion, almost metallic, resounded in his mind, pulling him out of his brief loss of consciousness.
Though he had been awake for some time, Shauwn had chosen not to make any sudden or aggressive moves. His gaze was fixed on the air, as if he were looking at something only he could see.
[You managed to withstand the Executioner King!]
[You gain 2500 Cancellation Points!]
[You successfully eliminated a corrupted version of the Calamity of the North!]
[You have gained 1500 Cancellation Points!]
[You managed to withstand She Who Whispers Death!]
[You gain 2500 Cancellation Points!]
The voice kept repeating what he was already seeing through the interface before him.
"Mr. Director, he's waking up," a female voice pronounced in the distance.
The director felt it too, but he let him recover at his own pace. Since he had fainted earlier, he preferred not to pressure him—he could take his time.
However, when he heard the voice from afar, he turned toward them. Sweeping the room with his gaze, he quickly realized he was no longer outside. This time, it was an enclosed space—a study—and he was lying on a recliner.
He clearly remembered fainting, but as for what had happened afterward and how he had ended up here, that was a complete blank. To him, it was surely the work of the bus driver.
The strange messages he had seen were, of course, intriguing, but for now, he had to focus on what was happening. And, as if in answer to his desire, they disappeared.
The secretary was the first he noticed. A young woman standing by the director's desk, on which lay various administrative papers and work tools. She wore a rather formal outfit, rectangular glasses, her hair tied in a bun, and the most striking detail: her neck was marked with stitches.
The director was there too. Seated in his chair, he had his back to me before his secretary's words made him turn toward me.
"Hello Sirius, how are you? How do you feel? And the trip? Please, take a seat."
The office was divided into two areas: one arranged to welcome more than three guests, with comfortable furniture; the director and his secretary were in the second area, which was clearly meant for one-on-one discussions. That's where Shauwn moved. He pulled out a chair, set it at a suitable distance, and sat down.
"To be honest, I don't really know. I've felt uneasy since I got here… By the way, how did I end up here?"
"Hmm, maybe because you're in an environment you're not familiar with? Ah, as for that, the bus driver brought you here," the man replied confidently.
"I thought so… So, Mr. Director?" Shauwn retorted.
The director understood what he was implying. A slight smile appeared on his face, but he didn't insist on that detail. This was no longer the time for lightness; the real subject needed to be addressed. He took on a serious expression before beginning the true conversation.
"Sirius, I'm sure you'd like to know where you are, wouldn't you?"
"Obviously."
"Well, you are on Mystic Isle—an archipelago."
Shauwn was surprised, though he didn't show it outright. At the mere mention of Mystic Isle, he had already realized he was on an island, but one question had struck him. He had held back from asking it earlier, but the fact that it was an archipelago only reinforced it.
"How's that, an archipelago?" Shauwn asked, bewildered.
"Yes, a group of islands—"
"I know what an archipelago is. My question is rather: how did I get here? Didn't I take the bus?" the young man asked, curious to hear the response.
"Nothing to be shocked about. I told you already, didn't I? You're in a rather special institute," the director continued.
"Oh, really? I hadn't even noticed."
"So you already know? This archipelago, this institute, is reserved especially for supernatural beings."
"It's not like they made much effort to hide in human form," Shauwn added, with a hint of irony in his voice.
The question of how he had arrived still hadn't been answered. Shauwn understood this was intentional—that the director simply didn't want to reveal it. So he didn't push. He would find out sooner or later.
"You seem to be taking it pretty well," commented the director, amused and relieved.
Shauwn sighed in exasperation. The tension in his body, everything that had happened the day before, along with certain revelations, all mixed together and slowly released.
"Whose fault is that? Since your arrival at Silver Creek, my day—no, my daily life—has taken a turn for the increasingly strange and bizarre, in fact…"
Why do I feel like I've forgotten something?
"In fact?" pressed the director, urging him to continue.
While speaking, he snapped his fingers—a sign his secretary understood. She nodded slightly before they both turned back toward me.
"Nothing."
Shauwn understood from their gestures that something was about to happen. But what? He didn't know. Yet it wasn't nearly what they had in mind.
The woman in the room took a deep breath, grabbed her head, and pulled it off. The stitches burst under the strain.
Shauwn flinched at the action. His fingers dug into the chair he was sitting on. What he saw seemed unreal, even though he had already witnessed much worse.
Eriksha, the secretary, noticed his reaction and hurried to reassure him.
"Don't worry, Mr. Arkynas, I'm fine."
She was right. Despite having torn her head from her body, Eriksha hadn't collapsed. Thick, dark smoke billowed from her neck, filling almost the entire room. No blood spilled. The head, which had seemed battered, quickly regained a vivid complexion.
"One question."
"Go ahead," Eriksha affirmed, holding her head in her hands.
"What are you?"
"I am what's called a Dullahan."
[Comprehension Rate increases by 1%!]
[You have unlocked the Dullahan entry in the Comprehension Rate!]
What?! What's that supposed to mean? As if a headless woman wasn't enough? I had almost forgotten about that interface.
"I see," replied Shauwn, a mix of astonishment and surprise on his face.
It would have been surprising, even for him, not to react that way.
At least he isn't afraid for now, thought the director.
"And you, then—what are you? Are you like her?"
Surprised, the director replied, "No, not really. I don't think knowing would do you any good, so don't dwell on it."
at least, not for now
A monster running an institute for monsters… doesn't that make him the king of monsters? Shauwn instantly deduced.
He didn't linger on it too much. He needed information—anything he could get—since the one who held it had the upper hand.
"So why am I here? Don't tell me I'm some kind of mon— no, supernatural creature without knowing it? Or maybe I'm the descendant of some legendary being? Or a half-human, half-something hybrid? At this point, if you told me I was part cyborg, I'd believe you."
Shauwn had almost used the word monster but stopped himself. Using it in his own thoughts was fine, but he didn't know how those concerned might react. He wanted to avoid any misunderstandings or unfortunate situations.
"You have quite the fertile imagination, I must say. But no, Shauwn—you are as human as can be."
"Then what am I doing here?"
"You are the cornerstone of a program I set up to encourage intercultural exchanges and coexistence between humans and supernatural beings. I dream that one day, humans and supernaturals can live together—and on a smaller scale, here, study together."
"Just say you want to use me to collect behavioral data and studies since I'll be the only human surrounded by supernaturals."
The director smiled, both annoyed and impressed. The boy he had once known hadn't changed: logic, analysis, and hypothesis all in the span of a few seconds.
"Is that what you think?"
"Not really."
Eriksha watched them both carefully out of the corner of her eye. Shauwn and the director were sizing each other up. The director had mentioned the program to test his analytical thinking, while Shauwn chose to give him the answer he wanted—while leaving enough ambiguity to force him to deny it, which would reveal the true reason.
"You know very well that if that were my goal, I wouldn't have chosen you. You're not exactly normal—I mean, not really the kind of subject I could build a study like this around."
He was rather irritated by the mention that he wasn't normal, even though that was precisely what he wanted to confirm. And thanks to that, he understood.
"A cover… For what?"
"We'll come back to that, shall we?" the director added evasively, avoiding the subject.
Shauwn didn't like the way things were going, but he conceded for now.
"How many people are in this program?"
"Since it's meant only for humans, just you."
"One single human in a city populated entirely by supernaturals? You can't be serious."
"We can be very serious."
He stood up from his chair and headed toward the office door. As insane as it sounded, he couldn't. Him—the only human living among hundreds of supernatural beings? He didn't think he could survive that.
"Shauwn, wait—listen to me…"
"Already this isn't what you promised me. You promised me a new life, far from everything, far from my past. A place where I could rebuild myself and go to university. A place where I could at least be somewhat normal. And now you throw this at me."
"You've lived most of your life since birth in the human world. What has that given you? Tell me. You said it yourself: sadness, suffering, pain. And the only time you truly began to feel a glimpse of happiness, what happened? It was taken from you."
"…"
"So if living in the human world only gave you that, what does it cost you to try living in ours? You have a place among us, Shauwn—I can assure you of that. The program is nothing more than an administrative excuse to justify your admission here, though it also reflects my dream. So, what will you choose? Return to a world that only ever gave you sorrow? Or try living a new life here?"
The director was right, forcing Shauwn to weigh the pros and cons in his mind. But in the end, he made a decision.
"You asked me what it would cost to live in your world? My life—literally. I risk losing it, you know…"
"That's why you'll have to keep your human nature secret and use all the skills you've developed over the years, and you'll be fine. In any case, I'll provide you with a cover."
It was at that moment that Shauwn exploded.