While walking through the news reporters, I heard them talking about "lil bunny". How he appeared in the gate but didn't come out.
It seemed like Sylvester didn't want to give too much attention to it. Every time they asked him if he saw lil bunny he dodged the question. It looked like he just wanted to leave quickly.
I was like that as well. I hated when reporters would run over just to critique me. While looking in his direction he glanced over at me, not breaking eye contact. Even when I turned to look away, I could tell he was still looking at my direction.
I kept looking for Harrie but I couldn't find him anywhere. I asked around but nothing.
"Where's Harrie?" I couldn't even track him. Ever since I woke up I haven't been able to use any of my abilities well, it was as if it wasn't my own body it kept rejecting it. But, when I was in the gate I was able to use it properly after- I shook my head no i shouldn't think about useless things right now. I sat down on the floor.
Someone tapped my shoulder.
"Hey ⬜️⬜️⬜️, don't worry too much about him. He hurt his arm badly so I sent him to Neo's clinic. It's a private hospital for awakened patients."
"What? Neo's clinic?" I looked up at him. That name Neo sounded familiar.
My head felt like it was spinning again. It was happening again. The first time I came here it was cold. I've never felt cold since awakening. I never got sick. I never felt like this. And now what did he call me? That's not my name, who's name is that?
" Weren't you worried about him? You looked as if you were about to go faint or something."
"I did?" Still looking at him it seemed like I couldn't control how I was feeling. I covered my eyes with my hand. It didn't help that he kept talking. I need to go home. Home? Oh yeah, there's something I need to check.
"Are you ok" he got down to check on me, "did that shock you? You're sweating a lot."
"I'm fine" I looked at him "can you help me Sylvester?"
"I need to go home, can you help me? There's something I need."
"Home? Yeah sure I'll take you. Do you want to check on Harrison before we go?"
"Harrie. . , yeah let's do that."
"Do you need help standing? I can carry you."
He extended his arms, I looked at him offended.
"I'm just saying you looked like you would be blown away by the wind. If it started blowing, just like a leaf." He gestured at me. I've never felt so offended I wanted to punch him. Whatever, I extended my hand.
"Let's just go, it'll be faster that way then me struggling to walk on my own."
Sylvester giggled "you're so strange you know. I thought something strange about you since the first time I saw you, you look so out of place. It's like you're not supposed to be here."
He picked me up, holding me just like I held Harrie. It felt so embarrassing, I felt like an actual sack of potatoes.
"Hey!!! why are you carrying me like this!!!!"
" What do you mean? You don't want me to carry you like if we just got married or something do you."
my face felt warm. "OF COURSE NOT!!!, it just. . ."
" It's just what? I still want to get married, you know. I don't want it to seem like I'm off the market yet. People just talk about what they see, they don't care about explanations.What if my future bride sees me carrying someone else's, that would be a problem."
What the fuck is this guy goin on about??? Who cares about that. A rift just closed and the thing he thinks about is his nun existing partner.
"Can we just go??" He pulled me down from his shoulder holding me in a bridle carry.
"Cover your face, it's best to not call for attention."
"Yeah, yeah" I put my arms around his neck and pushed my head against his chest, to which he flinched.
"Like this?"
"What do you think?"
I looked at him. He didn't say anything. He just started walking.
"That's fine. Let's just start moving, we'll be there in 15 minutes."
I nodded my head, "sure, sure".
I closed my eyes. It's true what he said about carrying someone, some people would make up anything to get attention. I still felt embarrassed, if they knew that " I ", one of the top hunters, needed help walking around because I felt dizzy. As he walked over to the private hospital I could hear them whispering. I couldn't hear them as well as before. It seemed like my senses were really dulling up.
"We're here. They told me this was the room." Sylvester put me down. "I'll be here waiting let me know when your done so we get going to your house."
"Got it, thanks . It won't take long." I was holding my head for a bit. I opened the door to see Harrie just laying there. It looked like they took care of his arm well. He had bandages on his leg as well. Could it have been Sylvester that did this?? As I was thinking, Harrie woke up.
"Astor?"
" What are you doing here?"
"I was wondering the same thing, what happened to your leg." I must have come out a bit too aggressively, because he looked away and refused to answer.
"…"
"Well. . ., you see. . I-" he still didn't look at me.
" Yeah, I'm waiting, tell me. "
I opened my inventory, pulled out a bowl, knife and strawberries. Harrie looked at me confused, I started cutting them into small square pieces.
"wh- why do you have strawberries and a knife and a bowl in your inventory?? Are they even clean??"
"Well I get hungry and of course they are. Why would I carry dirty fruits?"
Harrie just stared at me
"Fruits? What else do you have in there??"
I extended my hand out with the bowl of cut strawberries.
"Here, I know you like them."
"Thanks" he took them and started eating them.
"Do you always cut them like this?"
"I do, do you want more?"
"No, it's fine. I have never seen someone cut them into small square pieces like these."
"My father used to cut them like this for me, he used to say that you could choke on them if they're too big."
" you must have had a really good relation ship with your father, why don't you tell me more about your father and you ⬜️⬜️⬜️?"
I kept cutting, ignoring it.
"⬜️⬜️⬜️? "
I don't understand why I don't hear my own name but someone else's. I finished cutting the last strawberry and gave it to Harrie. I looked at him smiling.
"I told you I don't want more."
"I'll tell you about it later,once you get out of here. I have to go home to find something, I'll see you later Harrie."
And with that I left Harrie alone, I didn't want to see his facial expression. Knowing him he would just be upset for not staying there longer.
"Done already?"
Sylvester looked at me with his arms crossed. I nodded.
" Can we go now?"
" Of course. Come here I'll carry you."
I shook my hand no, but in the end he ended up carrying me all the way home. At least this time he took another direction. As he made it to the gate I told him to put me down. He refused. The gates didn't open. Even when he tried to open them forcefully.
"Hey, why won't it open?"
"It wont let us in if I'm not standing outside it. So put me down already."
"How would that change anything? "
"Look"
I patted his back once I had one of my feet on the ground it started opening. He looked at me confused. Well this answers one of my questions It seems like "I" really wasn't back here. I looked over to Sylvester.
"Wanna come in? It feels rude to leave you out here after helping me get here."
He looked at me with a straight face but you could tell how excited he was for some reason.
"Why are you happy to come in?"
"Happy? I'm not happy"
I tilted my head looking hard at him, he kept looking away.
"I'm curious ok."
"Curious? About what? It's just a house." I looked over the house.
"Of course you wouldn't understand, you live in it. No one was able to go in there, only you. And now I get to go in, as a guest."
"Aahh . . I see. . " I really didn't see… to be honest. I just scratch my head
"You'll be disappointed once you 're in there, it 's just a regular home. Nothing special."
"We'll see."
It seems like he was right. The front empty gardens really took his attention; he took many pictures of them.
"I can't imagine how it looks during spring time."
"It looks nice, now stop taking pictures."
As I opened the door Sylvester nudged me.
"So is it just you here?"
"For now, I've been trying to find my uncle but it seems like he's not here."
I signed still thinking where he could be. But he isn't really my uncle but he was close to my father. I grew up with him and called him my uncle. I wondered if he would have ever really thought about me.
"Uncle? What's his name?"
I didn't answer as we entered the house.
He just kept blabbering on and on he was also really looking around. But there wasn't much to see even if the hallways were big and wide, there wasn't anything, well not in the front entrance of the house, I took him to the living room where there was a fireplace, and some covered painting on the wall, there were a lot of unique crafted items that father made for mother to use when she went into the gates. They were not always used so i dont think he would be able to notice them, they looked like they were part of the house so they blended well with the house interior.
"This house is way bigger than I thought, and is this just the front of the house?"
"Yeah, we only used it for our guests. It's a safety thing."
"I see, does Harrison know about your house? He would lose it, you know."
"Why would I tell him?"
"Why not? Isn't he your friend?"
"My friend?" I never really thought of Harrie as my friend. I liked him but other than that I really didn't have anything to do with him.
"ooofff . That would hurt his feelings if he heard that." he acted as if i hit him on the heart or something.
I looked at him" having "friends shows people that you're weak though. it's better not to show stuff like that out to the public, it's really "ugly"."
Sylvester looked at me surprised.
"Oh I've never thought about it in that way."
"I noticed earlier that all the pictures are covered. How come?"
" They're just old family portraits. They need cleaning so I've covered them, I don't want to see them dirty. And don't want others seeing them like that as well."
I got up and stretched.
"I'll make us some coffee. How do you like it?"
"No milk and 8 sugar."
He answered faster than I expected.
"Alright I'll be right back, make yourself comfortable. I'll be back in a bit."
"Ok."
As I walked out the room , I knew . I just knew that Sylvester wasn't just going to sit still. And when I came back, I was right he was really making himself at home. I looked up to the paintings. It wouldn't be noticeable to anyone but I noticed he saw the paintings. I gave the cup of coffee to Sylvester.
"Thank you"
"So, what do you think?"
"Uh? The coffee is good."
"Not that. I'm talking about the paintings, you looked at them didn't you."
He acted like if he didn't hear me, I just kept glaring at him.
"Well, they're nice but you're not in a single one of them. So how are they family portraits if you're not in them?"
I didn't say anything, instead I just sipped my coffee. I uncovered one of them. It was a painting of the forest before the city cut down the trees and me and my mother in the background, though you couldn't really tell because of how small we were. But you could tell that there were two people in the background. A lot of the paintings here were like this. Deeper in the house there are a lot more personal portraits.
" this one's before the house was built, you can really see how it was before the house." I pulled another one "this one when the gardens were being built". you could see a person with a child in the background. And so I kept pulling and explaining each one until there was an empty one.
"Why's this one empty?"
"This one. . . I'm guessing he was working on something new before leaving."
"So the paintings are the house's history and dated as well."
"Yeah,"
Sylvester kept looking at the empty canvas.
"What do you think he was making? Do you have any ideas?" he whispered right behind me
I flinched "stop doing that!!" I pushed him back.
"Uh?"
"What"
"Why can't I push you?"
"You're a craftsman, you're not as strong and a hunter, why else? Did you think we were on the same level or something?"
Sylvester looked at me with a mischievous smile
"But I pushed you aside earlier. Didn't I?"
" don't know, I don't remember."
I looked at him confused
"this- this isn't right."
"What are you talking about? You've been acting weird since earlier."
"What are you talking about?"
"You seem out of it, you've been just spacing out and when someone calls you your name you don't answer."
"What are you talking about? I do answer."
"⬜️⬜️⬜️"
"That's not my name."
"How is ⬜️⬜️⬜️ not your name? You introduced yourself as that."
"But that's not it, that's not my name. My name is-"
I kept thinking but nothing came to mind. I just couldn't remember what my actual name was I just remembered Astor Ruthburn. Sylvester just looked at me.
"Can you write down the name you called me by?" I looked at him.
"Why, you don't know how to spell your own name or something?" He grabbed a pen he had in his inventory and grabbed my arm and started writing.
"This is your name "Theodore Ashford"."
I stared at it "have I been censoring it since I noticed something was wrong?" Is that why I couldn't hear it? Then how was I hearing my own name before?
"Are you sure you're ok Theodore?
Sylvester looked concerned for me.
"Hah. . "
"You must've really gotten hurt in the gate, to be laughing like that."
"Yeah, I must have. It's getting late won't your family get concerned if you don't go back?"
"Naaa they don't really care, I'm a top hunter they wouldn't worry for me."
"But you are still a person who could get hurt. Why wouldn't they care."
It must've been something he hadn't been told before because he just looked at me . Did I feel this way because of what happened to my mother?
"I think In the end of the day we're all people that needs someone that cares and worries about us."
Sylvester looked at me flushed "w-well yeah, i-ii do believe that as well. But no one ever really thinks about the safety of the top 5 hunters until something happens to them."
He looked away "it's happened and they still don't take care of us still. That shows how little they really care. He looked up to the clock "I'll take my leave your right my family will be concerned if I don't get home soon."
"Good night Theodore. I'll see you around."
"Yes, have a good night."
Once he left I took off the watch and the ring. I found it strange how the watch didn't activate, I should've known that the "me" that I thought was me, wasn't the real me.
The body I took must have been of someone who tried to-.
"Plunko"
I still didn't get an answer, I got Nothing
"Plunko . . . "
Then should I just do what the owner of this body wanted?
"Open status window" I must have just taken the body of a low craftsman, and a young one as well.
—
-opening status window-
—
Welcome -Theodore-
What do you wish to see?
—
"Open everything "
—
-Opening all statuses -
—
—-
Name: Theodore Ashford
Craftsman level: D
Craftsman name: Askdore
Family Home: 0
Items created: 12
Health: 20% / 100%
Last status update: 6 years ago.
—
Other information has been restricted due to low health. Please recover to see status updates.
—
I see they must have just given up. After their 12th item.
"Open ⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ window."
—
-Opening ⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ window-
—
—
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ window was canceled
Please try again later.
—
They must've not known about this window.. well there's one more I can try. I walked out the house
Leaving everything that belongs to the real me behind.
"Open home"
-opening home-
Welcome home: Theodore Ashford
"So he did have a safe room."
A room appeared with wedding preparations, it had everything someone would want for a wedding, the only thing that was missing was the people. I walked into the room, It had a lot of pictures of a young woman as well.
"How pretty. This must have been one of his precious memories. One he didn't want to forget."
A new window opened
—
-Health level is declining please leave the room-
Health: 15% / 100%
—
"Oh, he must have used a lot of his own energy to create this. How sad I guess it must have been exhausting to make a room like this." Well if this is what they loved the most why not just stay here.
—
-Health level is declining please leave the room-
Health: 10% / 100%
—
10% already that was fast. It seems like I don't really have time to do much. I'll give it maybe about one more day. I walked out of the room. At that moment I felt a huge amount
of pressure on my body. I felt so heavy that I fell to my knees. The pain was unbelievable. It was as if I was hit by something hard.
I ended up throwing up a large amount of blood, my body couldn't handle the amount of pain and pressure that I ended up passing out. When I opened my eyes all I could see was blurry; it seemed like there was someone else there as well, though I couldn't tell who it was yet.
"Master, you have 24 hours remaining."
"status update will be updated once awakened. I'll be waiting for your next orders until then."
"Health update is at 95%."
"Please calm down and keep sleeping until the 24 hours are done."
The only thing that ever called me master was. . .
"Plunko?"
"Time to go back to sleep master. I'll see you after the 24 hours are done. Keep resting until then."
"Wait, Planko, it hurts, it hurts so much."
"Please bear with it, it's almost complete. Hold up until the 24 hours are over then you'll return back to normal."
"What do you mean? Normal?"
" Planko?"
As I closed my eyes again, around 7 hours had already passed when I regained consciousness. I was at the hospital. All I saw was wires connected to me and Sylvester talking to the doctor outside the room. He seemed stressed about something, but that's none of my business.
As I got up someone grabbed my arm. I looked toward them.
"Theodore. . you're finally awake."