Hundred-Eyes

"I'm very proud of you, son…" Charlotte smiled and gazed sentimentally at her son, locking eyes with him. She stood still for a moment before walking towards Lucian with her arms wide open, ready to embrace him.

"Yeah-yeah, I couldn't have done it without you, Mother!" Lucian replied briefly, closing the door behind him as he quickly left. Taking a few steps outside, he glanced at his watch and sighed.

'I might... make it on time.' Lucian rubbed his temples and looked around the street filled with newly produced automobiles. Then, he turned his gaze toward the tram.

With an expression of depression, he made his way towards the tram, sinking into an even more hopeless dilemma.

"Fuck." Lucian subconsciously cursed upon seeing the sign posted in front of him.

[OUT OF ORDER]

'Hehehehehe, this must be the cheat that came with my transmigration! Shit luck!'

This morning, Lucian had woken up three hours later than planned, and now he'd have to travel for another thirty minutes at least. His destination was Griean University, where he had recently been hired as a Professor despite having almost no background in education. With his knowledge of English literature, succeeding in life was easy for him, but education was a different matter.

"Eh, it's not that big of a deal." Lucian lifted his wrist and checked his watch. 'I have two hours until my first class starts, but I probably won't make it to the orientation in forty minutes…'

Lucian turned his head towards the sky, wearing a deadpan expression. 'They won't fire me for that, will they? Ugh… This sucks!' He inwardly sighed, and almost immediately after, he felt a raindrop on his forehead.

"Rain huh? That's nice…" He muttered, feeling the cool rain.

"Eh! No, it's not!"

Lucian immediately woke up from his calming delusions and turned his head towards the road filled with cars passing by and stopping. He began walking towards it. The cars looked similar to carriages in some ways, the typical look for most of the cars in Lucian's current era.

The specific car he approached had a unique aesthetic, with strips of checkered white and black signifying that it was a cab. Lucian quickly made his way to the window of the cab, which was completely open.

"How much will a ride to Central, around Griean University, cost?"

Lucian and his family currently reside in Crestburg City, one of the most innovative and massive cities in the world. It was divided into four areas: Central, Southville, Greywater, and Greatroad. Central was where most of the development took place, with fancy restaurants, schools, and all essential aspects of life. Greatroad was home to most of the richest families, essentially the nobles and the Royal Family. Southville and Greywater were the more poverty-ridden areas, with Southville holding most of the middle-class families.

Despite being technologically advanced, most areas in this world still had systems of nobility and monarchs ruling them. However, the country of Arindor had a government made up of democratically elected individuals, aside from the royal family, which held the second-highest power. Despite the imbalance of power, there were hardly ever any disagreements over the power held by the Royal Family, especially in recent days.

The man inside the cab locked eyes with Lucian. The man had a rather tired look but soon opened his mouth. "Fifteen silver."

Lucian nodded and reached for his wallet.

Lucian felt the cold raindrops hitting him as he stared up into the sky, coming to his senses as he realized the terrible situation he was in. 'Well, that kills my plan of just walking… I'll see if there's a cab.' Lucian turned his head over to the road, which was completely empty except for the broken tram and a few pedestrians running toward buildings to escape the rain.

Lucian froze, his eyes quickly widening as he covered his mouth. 'W-what the hell? What happened to all the cars? And wasn't I doing something just now?' He tried to recall his previous actions but couldn't remember anything; the fact that there were no cars just seemed normal, despite being completely irregular.

"Good grief…" Lucian muttered, looking into the distance.

'I'll just run there!'

Lucian walked towards a bench, picked up a stray newspaper, and placed it above his head to act as a shield from the rain, which was slowly getting heavier. With the newly acquired "umbrella," Lucian began his futile sprint towards Griean University. He lived towards the edge of Southville, so it wasn't a problem. Despite being only a few steps away from his house, he didn't want to turn back now to avoid the boundless shame.

After a few steps, Lucian felt a fleeting feeling of something breaking, a vision of a thin string. But instantly, the small string spread out in a near-infinite amount of directions and split. The feeling occurred within an instant, but with all the rain and his terrible situation, Lucian hardly noticed it, continuing on toward his destination.

***

In a dimly lit office room, an elderly man sat with a calm expression, finishing up paperwork.

"This should be fine for now…" The elder leaned back into his chair after setting his pen down. Soon, the sound of footsteps played outside his door.

'Who is it at this hour?'

Immediately as the door opened, the elder saw a young man with jet-black hair that was neatly middle-parted with bangs cascading down the side of his face. The young man was rather pale with an average face and height. The recognizable trait of his otherworldly purple eyes sent the elder into a rage.

"Boy… you dare appear here!" The elder gritted his teeth, rage coursing through his veins. "Leave my office now!"

"D-director! I'm very sorry, but due to unique circumstances, I wasn't able to make it on time… But I promise to do better in the coming days!" Lucian pleaded, staring at the elderly man with fearful eyes.

The Director of Griean University, Gary, laughed at the young man as if he were a clown.

"In the coming days, you say? Get out of my f*cking office, you sewer rat! You're fired!"

Lucian swallowed after hearing the man's insult. "To make up for my mistakes, I'll work without pay for a fair amount of time, and I'll put in extra hours… Please, sir."

Gary looked at Lucian with a calm look. "It's a bit late for that, son. The damage is done, and our school's reputation has been dealt a heavy blow! Do you know how expensive it was to hi-"

Gary suddenly stopped speaking, and a slightly mischievous grin crept onto his face.

"Actually, I'm fine with a suspension of your pay."

"Really?" Lucian asked, surprised.

"Yes, but you'll need to sign a paper. Give me a minute." After a few seconds of silence, Gary opened a drawer, taking out a slip of paper. After looking at it for a few seconds, he placed it on the table for Lucian to sign. "Go ahead and sign right here."

Gary pointed to a spot on the paper and handed Lucian a pen.

"Yes…" To not show any disrespect, Lucian signed the paper without even glancing at the contents, then handed it back to Gary.

After looking at the signature and hiding away the paper, Gary's mischievous smile returned.

"Your 16 Notes are due by tomorrow," Gary added, still smiling at Lucian.

'16 Notes?' Lucian slightly tilted his head and stared at the man.

16 Notes were roughly equivalent to 1600 USD. The money system in Arindor was rather simple.

Tokens 0.1$

Silver = 1$

Bills 1, 2, and 5 =10$, 20$, 50$

Notes 1, 5, 10, 20.= 100$, 500$, 1000$, 2000$

Gary leaned into his arm while looking at Lucian. A sinister smile bloomed as he looked at Lucian's strange expression.

"That contract was issued by the replacement Professor we used for you today, of course, we hired the best of the best on such a notice… That's his pay for a month of work here, after all, it's going to take a while for us to find a qualified gentleman.

Lucian's eye twitched slightly, "Oh? So that was your intention… I'll just tell law enforcement what truly occurred here."

"Your still a naive boy! Do you really think they'll believe a mundane peon like you instead of me? Without any proof, my word holds far more power than yours." Gary paused for a moment and chuckled before pointing at Lucian and saying:

"16 Notes isn't something your family is able to pay in such a short time… I'm sure your mother could handle it. Heheheh, or perhaps that sister of yours… A pity she should have been headed off to college soon."

Lucian sighed and took a seat, on the opposite side, ceasing to stand, and with a somewhat detached expression, he asked:

"Is that so? Well, there are other people in the building, right? I'm sure with your nasty behavior, they'll support me."

Gary chuckled hearing the young man's statement. 'This boy isn't very bright!'

"Well, at this time naturally there would be a few straggling Professors and janitors… But nobody's going to help you, nobody is here to hear this conversation, and none of them will give you the time of day. You should probably "Leave, I'll shred the contract as long as you don't return here anymore."

'Like hell, I will.' Inwardly, Gary had a devilish smile.

Lucian smiled.

"So nobody can help me? That's right. And you'll shred the contract?"

"I'll shred it, you can leave now." Gary squinted, staring at the shockingly calm young man. 'When is he going to leave!'

After a few minutes of sitting there, Lucian stood up and took a few steps away from the chair towards the wall. Lucian then placed his shoes on the floor, and following that, he rolled up his sleeves in a calm manner.

"What are you doing?"

"Shred the paper. Now." Lucian stared at the man.

"Are you threatening me, boy!" Gary angrily looked at him.

"No, no, this is not a threat. If you don't shred the paper, I'll just kill you right here and now. Actually, now that I think about it, that might be a threat... But my previous statement wasn't so-"

Before Lucian could finish speaking, Gary reached his hands toward his telephone and began rotating the dial on it, but before he could finish, Lucian grabbed the plump old man's collar with one hand, and with a quick motion of the other hand, he grabbed his head slamming it into the desk.

"Did you think I was bluffing? Huh? You old bastard!" Lucian spat out while holding the man's head onto the desk. 

Gary had an expression of rage on his face, before knocking his desk over sending Lucian across the room. "Who do you think you are boy?" Gary rolled up his sleeves. "You're gonna kill who?"

Lucian got into a makeshift fighting stance facing Gary. "I did, and this isn't gonna end well for either of us!"

Moving as quickly as he could, the elder opened the desk, took out the contract, and simply held it towards Lucian. "Do whatever with it! I won't bother you again."

Suddenly, a mysterious pressure washed over Lucian, an urge that made him want to kill himself then and there or perhaps cower away in the corner and scratch out his eyes. He then immediately shot his head towards the far corner of the room.

Lucian shivered slightly and nearly lost his footing. "I-I thought you said there was nobody here?"

Hearing no reply, Lucian looked over at the old man who was now a corpse. At this moment, Lucian wanted to scream either "What the hell!" or "Help!" But his mouth trembled, unable to open, as he fell onto his feet.

Before him, the elder had gouged out his own heart, a feat that should be impossible for the average human, especially one like him.

Fixing his eyes on the ground, not daring to look at the fiend who was standing in the corner, Lucian began seeing eyeballs in the shadows around people staring at him. Not even capable of thinking in this situation, Lucian glanced at his hand and noticed eyeballs beginning to grow on it as well.

"F-fuck!"

'I refuse to perish here!' Fighting against the intense urge of self-harm, Lucian stood up with all his willpower, but just as it came... His willpower vanished. The silhouette in the corner was now standing before him, not even an arm's length away.

The 'entity' before him had a face covered in nothing but eyes and was about seven feet tall, with long hair that was the color of fresh blood.

"You will fall here... Servant of Hollow."

Despite not having a mouth, Lucian heard the words of the man. The word 'Hollow' began repeating in Lucian's mind, somewhat calming him. A dark spear began to impale him. Time felt slow, Lucian took a step back, and the spear was still moving slowly, now further away from him.

Adjusting his gaze, he looked at the man with a hundred eyes on his face and made a fist. 'Fuck it'

With a determined look, he shot his fist toward the eyes on the man's face.

'I hope this hurts!'