Prologue

Lucas clearly woke up, but he could not easily open his eyes.

My whole body feels hot like it's on fire. My head feels dizzy and my stomach hurts.

I feel like I want to keep sleeping like this, but I can't. This is because I have to take the subway and take the hellish commute to work that lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Since I didn't hear the alarm, it may not be time yet. However, because of the cold, I may not have heard the alarm and continued to sleep.

Once I wake up and check the time, I will be able to decide whether to go back to sleep or run out like crazy.

"Uhm…"

I opened my eyes with difficulty and for a moment felt a sense of disparity in the scenery reflected in his blurred vision.

Even if my vision was blurry because I was in pain, that needlessly fancy, unfamiliar ceiling was enough to shock me.

"W-what… ."

I fumbles for his cell phone. But there was no cell phone there. Instead, there is someone's hand.

'This is crazy!'

I was able to realize that if a person is too startled, they cannot even scream. Although I didn't really want to know.

Human hands in a studio apartment where I lives alone!

"hmm…. Mr. Carl… ?"

Even more surprisingly, the person sleeping next to me was a woman.

No, if a man was lying down, I'm sure I would run away screaming like a teenage girl, so in some ways, it might not be that surprising.

I tried hard to figure out whether I had been drinking the day before, whether I had met a woman while drinking, and how far I had gone with that woman, with mine head not working well due to the fever.

However, all I remember is falling asleep as soon as I got home after working overtime and going through hell.

Meanwhile, the woman was standing up, rubbing her eyes and looking at me.

She has slightly dull brown hair and cloudy-looking green eyes.

'She is a foreigner!'

"Master Carl. Are you okay?"

"… Who, who…."

I felt like I was going to lose his breath at any moment. Luckily, the woman seems to be able to speak English.

I see a sad smile on the woman's face at those words.

"It's me. This is Master Carl maid, Lily."

"… … ."

Maid? What is this woman saying?

Thinking like that, I finally realized that she was calling me 'Carl' and not 'Lucas'.

And that both she and I were talking in a language other than English.

"Master Carl, it's still time for you to get some sleep. Did you have a nightmare?"

I was once again surprised to see my body being laid down weakly by this woman's hands.

Even though I'm not that big, I'm by no means big enough to be handled this easily.

However, as I tried to get up again after being laid down in Lily's hands, I realized something strange.

"W-what… … ."

Perhaps because I was suffering from a very high fever, the hand I lifted into view was too small.

It was incredibly frightening to see fingers so small, thin, and pale moving against my will.

Now that I think about it, my voice is strangely thin.

It's not my voice.

"Master Carl?"

As I breathing becomes rough, Lilly reacts sensitively. Her hand covers the small hand of her window, conveying her warmth.

Surprisingly, I realized that all this fear and panic was fading away in the hands of the woman I had seen for the first time today.

"Shhh… it's okay. You must be tired because you suddenly woke up. Take some more potion and go to sleep."

Lilly spoke softly with trembling lips and brought a small glass bottle to my mouth.

However, I did not open my mouth, and Lilly face gradually distorted with nervousness, anxiety, and pain.

"Who are you… ?"

And when I opened my mouth in embarrassment, Lilly haggard face was distorted helplessly, and she ended up crying.

I realized that the situation was very wrong. And I hoped it was all a dream.

However, even with Lilly hot tears soaking the back of my hand, I could not wake up from the dream and had no choice but to accept that this situation had now become reality for me.