Verdant Love

Kai was not eighteen, he knew that for a fact. This whole mess had started on his birthday, roughly seven months ago.

The tutorial had lasted just over six months, and he had only been in this Subdimension for a little over a month, the timeline wasn't adding up, what the hell was-

Kai stared blankly at his status, wondering if he was seeing things correctly. His eyes had been lying to him for the last month, so it didn't seem that improbable that they were doing it again.

Only it wasn't a lie, this time he was seeing things correctly. When he didn't want to see reality, he ended up seeing it.

A new line of text had appeared on his Status Screen.

Mind Hex - Verdant Love - broken

A mind hex, a damn mind hex, Kai had been under a stupid mind hex for who knows how long. Was it from the start?

More importantly, who had put the mind hex on him?

Well, that answer was obvious, the name of the mind hex gave it away.

Verdant Love.

Kai laughed sadly as he gazed up at the snowy sky. He had been played all along, Anastasia had him wrapped around her finger from the very beginning. He never stood a chance against someone like her, someone who had much more experience, levels, insight and abilities than Kai. She also had a vast amount of resources and was one of the two people that ran this city, what was he supposed to do against that?

But there was another thing that had Kai stumped. Sure he was under a mind hex, but that didn't explain all the time lost, so what-

Just as Kai was about to begin theorising, more lines of text appeared on his Status Screen.

Mind Hex - Verdant Love

Obscures the victim's perception of time and what they view as reality. Strength of the hex is based on the user's Will stat compared to the level of the victim. This is the Innate Ability of Queen Anastasia Venescence.

So that was Anastasia's Innate Ability. It was a good one, and a damn insidious one at that, being able to enslave people and basically ruin them was something that Kai was sure not a lot of people wanted to be subjected to.

And sadly, he had been subjected to it.

However, that wasn't the end of it, as another message appeared on Kai's Status Screen, this one just as bad as the last.

XP Drain - Your master has linked themselves to you, draining you of your XP gained. 99% of XP gained will be sent to your master.

Well, that explained why hr hadn't gained a single level even though he had killed a bunch of beasts in his time training, Anastasia had been stealing all his XP like a greedy succubus.

Kai swallowed as he felt a cold sweat start to form on his forehead. Somehow, even though it was already freezing and he felt as if he was about to start shivering, it stil felt as if the temperature had dropped another few degrees.

But there was still the question of why Anastasia had done this, what could have possibly driven her to enchant Kai and make sure he stays under her spell. It obviously wasn't because she liked him, Kai knew that much.

But after a moment of thought, the answer became increasingly obvious.

The Tournament of Time.

Any time Kai felt the burning pain and whenever he got close to freeing himself from the hex, he would always think to himself that he was happy and that he would participate with this Subdimension in the Tournament of Time.

And to do that, all Anastasia had to do was keep Kai wrapped around her finger for a year and he would effectively be stuck here until the next Tournament. Kai also didn't know when that would be, meaning he could be stuck here for dozens of years before getting the oppurtunity to leave.

But there was another problem that Kai was facing, a problem that could potentially spell the end for him already.

He knew that a minimum of five and a half months had passed, considering he was eighteen, but he had no idea how long had actually passed.

It could've been over a year already and he was stuck here, no way out. While that may not seem like that bad of a thing, Kai now knew the truth about this world. Reality was no longer being obscured by the hex, he was seeing things for what they really were.

Even just this alleyway he was crouching in, it was infested with rubbish and rats, the smell was repugnant enough to make Kai be on the brink of gagging at any given moment, the buildings around him looked like they were about to fall apart. To be honest, the only thing that could be said to be clean in this entire city would be the snow, but even that got dirty as it mixed with the dirt and rubbish all around him.

This was not somewhere Kai wanted to spend potentially his whole life.

Meaning that he had to find out how much time had passed, and if it was under a year, find a way to escape.

But as soon as Kai started forming a plan in his mind, he froze, his eyes widening as he realised he had overlooked something important.

He was going to assume the first three days he spent here he was free of Anastasia's hex because she obviously had to take some time to set it up, that's why she forbade Kai from venturing outside and blocked off all doors and windows.

She had to make sure that Kai didn't catch a glimpse of the real city, not the happy and cheerful version that she stuck into his mind. If he had caught sight of the truth, the mind hex probably would have been broken a couple of weeks or even months ago.

But the problem wasn't that, no, the problem was that the last time he had seen Petunia was day three, and that was minimum five months ago, so that left one horrible question in Kai's mind.

Where the hell was Petunia?

He knew that Castillian had some idea of what to do with John's daughter, but he didn't actually know what he had in mind. He was beginning to believe that maybe the King wasn't so bad and maybe he really did just want a daughter, but that notion was thrown out the door as soon as Kai broke free from the hex. If one of them placed him under the hex, then the other was definitely an accomplice.

But that left another issue.

And that issue came in the form of a blue haired swordsman.

Ezekial.

Kai had spent the most time with Ezekial over the last mont- well, unknown amount of time. So did that mean that he was aware of the hex Kai was under or was he an innocent bystander also caught up in this.

After all, why bother training Kai if he was under a hex and wouldn't be making full use of the information?

Sadly, the answer to that question was as blatantly obvious as the answers to the previous questions.

To keep Kai in the illusion that everything was normal and progressing, that he was slowly getting stronger. That growth in strength would mentally be linked to Ezekial, Ezekial would be linked to Castillian and Anastasia, they would be linked to this Subdimension, hence Kai would subconsciously want to stay in thie Subdimension because it had helped him.

After thinking back over everything, Kai realised that he never stood a chance from the start.

Screw contracts that were designed to screw you over, what use were they when you could simply be enslaved and still think you had free will and a beautiful woman was paying attention to you.

Kai should've known that it was too good to be true. He wasn't ugly by any means, but he couldn't hold a candle to someone like Ezekial, Failure or the swordsman who for fifth place in the tutorial.

But that also left the problem of Yelena. Was she also some sort of spy sent by Anastasia or was she really just a maid that happened to be clumsy yet still manage to entertain Kai whenever the need arose and keep him wanting to hang out with her.

Kai had no way to be sure.

But there was one thing that Kai was sure of, and it was something he didn't want to admit that he was thinking about. The idea was simply so preposterous that he had a thought that maybe he was still losing it and inside that mind hex.

But no, this was reality, and Kai was going to have to accept the hard truth.

To find out the answers to everything, to find out how long had passed and where Petunia was...

Kai would have to go back inside the castle.