Under the midday sun, Aarin woke slowly on a soft bed he had never felt before. The light streaming through the window cast an icy sheen on his white hair, giving him the appearance of a sleeping prince. He opened his eyes slowly, a strange feeling of heaviness inside him... or rather, of lightness.
He got out of bed with a hesitant step, only to be surprised that his body moved more easily than usual. He raised his hands in front of him, turning them over thoughtfully, then whispered to himself:
"Fast… light… What is happening?"
A strange sensation swept through his body, as if the restraints that had accompanied him all his life had been lifted. This is what a normal body feels like—he suddenly recalled Min-soo's memories and realized that what he was feeling now was what others considered ordinary. He smiled bitterly:
"This is how they always live… What a good feeling."
He held out his hand to examine it, which had become clearer, white and shimmering with the traces of purification that accompany awakening as a magician. He smiled faintly:
"I bet I've become more handsome now."
He rose slowly, pushing his thoughts aside, and muttered:
"I must be at Mike's house… It's late, I have to start training immediately. Otherwise, I'll be in big trouble on the test day. Facing those monsters without preparation… pure suicide."
Aarin shook off that bloody memory, though his body still remembered the horror of the massacre described in the novel.
He sat for a moment on the edge of the bed, his thoughts turning to someone else.
"Laith… He must be at the Empire's border by now. Did he get that inheritance, or not yet?"
Then he laughed bitterly:
"It's truly strange… We're the same age. Maybe that's why Min-soo came into my body with the System… so I would join the protagonist and steal his heroines."
"Damn… After reviewing most of the novels Min-soo read, I found that most of them revolve around harems! If I didn't know better, I'd think there was a crisis of women there. What an obsessed world, as if it's drowned in its own suppressed desires!"
Aarin pressed his lips together in anger, then kicked the nearby chair hard.
"Damn it… Has that fool infected me? I've been talking to myself too much since I got his memories."
His monologue was cut short by a familiar voice from behind the door:
"What fool are you talking about… and what's this story about memories?"
The door suddenly opened, revealing Harvey with a small smile.
Aarin furrowed his brow:
"Don't you get tired of this annoying habit? You enter before being invited… and deliver a line as if you're the hero of a play."
Harvey laughed lightly:
"This is my polite way of informing whoever is inside that I've arrived. And don't worry… I won't ask you about your embarrassing childhood memories."
Aarin sighed, then said coldly:
"Enough nonsense. I'm awake, and we must start training immediately. There's no time left before the test."
Harvey replied more seriously:
"Right. But first things first… go down and get something to eat. You spent a full day unconscious; you must be hungry."
Aarin didn't argue much, merely nodding his head. Before Harvey closed the door, he turned and said with a bright smile:
"Congratulations on waking up, little magician."
He let him leave, then walked to the closet. It was full of clothes far too large for him. He frowned, muttering:
"So… this is Mike's room. But where does he sleep? And why did he leave it for me?"
He searched for something to wear but found nothing that fit him. In the end, he stayed in the same clothes — the ones someone had dressed him in while he was unconscious in the bathroom. He tried not to think about that.
He left the room and descended the stairs slowly. As soon as he reached the living room, he found the answer: papers were scattered everywhere, and in the middle sat Mike, engrossed in an old book, his eyes fixed on the pages as if the world around him had vanished.
Aarin approached and asked:
"Hello… What are you doing? And where's Harvey? I didn't see him."
Mike replied calmly, without lifting his head:
"Don't bother me. Harvey has work and will be back in the afternoon. The food is in the kitchen on your right."
Aarin pursed his lips:
"He tricked me, then…"
But Mike didn't respond; he seemed engrossed in his reading. Aarin doubted he even heard him.
He went to the kitchen and found some bread and a boiled egg. As soon as his stomach caught sight of the food, it rumbled shamelessly, so he sat and ate until he was full. After fifteen minutes, he returned to the living room and found Mike still engrossed in his work, scribbling notes and transcribing symbols.
Aarin approached out of curiosity, picked up a paper from the floor, and saw strange symbols he didn't recognize. It wasn't a language he had ever seen, yet it seemed vaguely familiar. On the paper were some interpretations and possibilities of what they might mean.
He thought to himself:
"It seems he's trying to translate a book in an ancient... perhaps lost... language."
Aarin didn't want to disturb him, so he just watched. But when his eyes fell on a specific symbol, he felt something strange sweep over him—a longing… a vague memory. Before he realized it, he whispered unconsciously:
"Laria… Fate."
Mike lifted his head for a moment, looking at him in surprise, before returning to his work. Then suddenly, his eyes widened in even greater shock, and the veins from lack of sleep and the dark circles couldn't hide his astonishment. He whispered eagerly:
"Yes… Yes! It must be Fate… That's the meaning!"
He suddenly closed the book, set it aside, and then looked at Aarin with sharp focus:
"Where do you know a language like this from? Are you from a noble family of historians?"
Aarin froze for a moment, but he answered honestly:
"I don't know this language… but when I saw the symbol, the word 'Fate' came to my mind. Just a coincidence. And as for being a noble… I'm not. You can ask Harvey yourself."
Mike kept staring at him skeptically, but he temporarily set his doubts aside and showed him another symbol:
"And this one?"
Aarin shook his head:
"I don't know… I told you, it was a coincidence."
Mike continued to show him several symbols, but Aarin couldn't recognize any of them. Sweat began to bead on his forehead from the tension, until the front door suddenly opened.
Harvey entered quietly, as if his presence restored balance to the place.
Aarin breathed a sigh of relief, almost smiling.
"Saved just in time…"