A Unwanted Face

I threw my right fist back behind me without turning. The entity behind me caught my hand and threw my entire body into the hallway. I got up and saw that the shrine room no longer existed. Instead, the hallway just continued to stretch on with seemingly no end.

"Gabriel!" I shouted out, but something felt wrong.

Even though the hallway looked as if it stretched for eternity, there was no echo audible from my voice. I looked around me and saw the same statues from before, nothing in the hallway changed. I tried to see if Gabriel was around, but there was no sight of him.

I looked into the part of the hallway that my eyes barely allowed me to see. I saw a black figure appear out of nothing. It didn't take me long to realize the figure was Vortigern!

He wielded a spear in his hand and proceeded to walk down the hallway. Though he was far away, I figured his intentions were not good. With no weapon in hand or Gabriel in sight, I ran for it.

"Argh!" I screamed out as I started coughing blood.

I looked down and saw that my chest was impaled with the spear Vortigern was holding.

Clunk...clunk...clunk

My impending doom only proceeded to get closer. The sounds of footsteps only seemed to get closer and closer. What seemed like minutes passed and the noises stopped.

A hand that felt rough touched my head. I wanted to scream out but I couldn't. My voice didn't have the strength. It was a similar feeling to the man that visited my room. The only difference was that malice could be felt

My hands started to get warmer. I looked down and saw markings forming on my palms. Markings that were similar to Vortigern's, a black cross. The only difference was that the black marking gained two markings around it.

The two markings were in the shape of crowns. The crowns went on to the arms of the black cross. The cross finished integrating itself on my skin. The warm feeling the mark gave vanished only seconds after.

Vortigern pulled the spear out of my chest, and then I woke up. I was still in my bed, but the pain from the spear was still present.

"Gasp..."

I clenched my chest, praying for the pain to stop. I don't know what that place was but I sure as hell couldn't let anyone know. If they knew that the box co-.

The box!

The box had slipped my mind for a moment. What if someone found it while I was gone? I had to check.

I looked around on my bed while clenching my chest, tolerating the pain. The box wasn't on my bed. I looked on top of my dresser but saw nothing either. As I reached out to the drawers, I saw on my palm that the black cross was still there.

I looked at it and was shocked. Wasn't that just a vision? How did the mark end up staying on my hand?

"Grim! Breakfast is ready!" an unfamiliar voice shouted, "Tell Eren to get up too please!"

What? Eren? Why is he here? I then realized that I wasn't in my room. I looked around and saw the room I was in was much more luxurious than the room at Ms. Shiva's orphanage. There was a bookshelf with tons of books about Essence theory.

The room I was in made me sure of the fact that I wasn't at the orphanage anymore. As I got off the bed, I noticed that the bed was completely different as well. It had more pillows along with extra blankets and a fancy bed frame.

The door to the room opened and a blue-haired girl came in. I immediately recognized her as Eren's sister. Why is she here though?

"Mother is calling you and Eren, hurry up," she told me with a scowl.

Many things didn't add up, but I knew I couldn't just stand around. After a few seconds, I decided to go with the flow and act as if I know what was going on. The same thing I did with Alice and the rest of the people at the orphanage. It won't be any different

I left the room and found myself in a luxurious hallway. As I went past the doors, one door opened. Eren emerged from the room in his pajamas.

He yawned and rubbed his eyes before noticing me looking at his pajamas. His face flushed and as he opened his mouth to say something, his mother shouted, "Eren! Grim! Hurry up!"

I shrugged my shoulders and proceeded to follow the voice. Eren did the same, and we finally made our way to the dining table. I sagged a bit behind to follow Eren since I didn't know the layout of the Pyoor house.

The dining room looked magnificent. It truly meets the noble standards. It made me wonder about what the empire's royal family's palace would look like. Was everything there made out of gold?

"Eren, Grim, sit down while the chef brings out the dishes," the mother then asked me, "How did you sleep Grim?"

"Fine," I answered as I took a seat on one of the chairs. The table had two chairs at the end of it with multiple chairs on the sides of it. Eren's mother was seated on one of the chairs at the end of the table.

Through small conversations, I managed to pick up pieces of what happened. The fight between me and Eren did happen, and I won. After I won, Eren was punished by his mother while his father went to discuss urgent matters with Ms. Shiva.

Apparently, Eren's dad wanted to adopt me instead of Devin as previously planned. This soured my relationship with Devin as I took the position he was meant to have. Although the Pyoor house is a name known, it isn't a name known throughout the kingdom like the five great families.

It made sense considering they went to adopt at an orphanage in the empire's outskirts. Everything made sense, but something felt off. It wasn't the story of what happened while I was gone but the atmosphere around the table.

I noticed that everyone seemed to be in a happy mood. A too-happy mood. A scene that would only be seen in a fairy tale. It was masked by the family eating the breakfast prepared by the chef. Then again, everyone's eating while I haven't even been served yet, so it could very well be real.

As if the mother read my thoughts, she told me, "Don't worry Grim, our chef will have your food ready soon."

"Ok," I asked her, "Where is Lord Pyoor?"

The mother looked up at me with a mouthful of bread. She swallowed and then answered my question, "He's attending busy matters with the director of the Academy you guys are going to."

None of what was being told to me made sense. Isn't the academy they were planning to send their adopted child to a royal one? How can a house that's only known within a few towns have such authority?

There are too many variables here. It most definitely must be another illusion from the box. Damn it, Gabriel, you better be worth the trouble I'm going through.

My belief was supported by the fact that the black cross is still on my palm. It has been visible to everyone and no one has even said anything about it. It's not like the mark is small either.

"Cut to the chase, why are you showing me this?" I asked out.

The mother looked at me with a smile. Everything around me started to fade until everything was black.

"Well...well...well. How did you see through the illusion?" A voice asked me, "Did you see the threads of this reality?"

I looked around and finally saw him, Vortigern. He walked on the empty space around us as if something solid was beneath us. Yet I could only float in the space.

I told him, "You slipped up."

"How so?" He asked me back.

"If you wanted to make this illusion real then you did a mediocre job. The mark on my palm was visible and no one said anything. Along with a not widely known house having authority over the school board of a Royal academy? C'mon now."

Vortigern remained still for a few seconds before taking off his helmet. Once I saw his face, the name Vortigern finally clicked. I remembered why it felt familiar to me. The man that I saw was the cause of all my issues. My fall-out with Morgan, and the reason for my departure from Lavin.

"King Vortigern..."

With a smile, he said, "It's nice to see you again."