"AHHHH!"
I sprang up with a start, my body jerking forward violently.
"Haah, haah, haah."
Hot. It's so damn hot. Where am I? I looked around frantically, trying to make sense of my surroundings. It was still dark, just like before, but the difference now was that I could actually FEEL my body. \
Wait... my body?
"My arm... it's back," I gasped, running my hand all the way down to my fingers. It was actually back. Every part of it. Solid. Real. Am I dreaming or something?
PAH!
"Argh, definitely not a dream," I muttered after slapping myself hard across the face, the sting sharp and immediate.
But if this isn't a dream, then what the hell is this supposed to be?
Creak.
Huh?
"That sound again."
It was only now that I started to realize I was lying on something hard beneath me. It wasn't the ground—at least not regular ground. It was something else entirely, something that shifted slightly when I moved.
I grabbed one of the things scattered around me and felt it carefully with my hands, trying to identify it by touch alone.
"Bone."
I threw it away immediately.
Clack. Creak.
I picked up another object, this one rounder and hollow feeling.
"A skull."
What in the world is going on? Where the hell am I?
"Ugh," I groaned, holding my waist as I forced myself to stand up slowly, then began looking around despite knowing I wouldn't see anything. It's so dark I literally can't see my own hand in front of me, and honestly it feels like the darkness itself is pressing against my skin, like it has actual weight to it.
"Ugh, shit," I groaned again as sharp pain lanced through my legs and arm, making me stumble slightly.
Tsk, I don't get it. Is this a dream or not? If it isn't, then where is this place? Why is it so dark? Who brought me here? Why are there bones everywhere? But if it IS a dream, then how can I feel pain? Dreams don't hurt like this.
I don't believe this is the afterlife either, assuming there even is one in the first place. Come to think of it, there probably isn't an afterlife at all since I only woke up in another world after dying in my first life—there was no heaven, no hell, no judgment, just another world with different rules.
But that's beside the point. What matters now is getting out of here, wherever "here" actually is, and finding my way back to the mansion. That is, assuming I'm still alive and not trapped in some weird in-between state.
There's also the fact that Veronica might be looking for me. MIGHT. Because no matter how concerned she acts sometimes, I don't believe she would actually risk her life to find me unless she didn't have a choice in the matter. She did abandon me before after all—what stops her from doing it again?
However, I still can't completely cancel out the possibility that she could be searching for me right now. You can never predict Veronica after all, and that unpredictability is honestly one of the most frustrating things about her.
"Sigh." I let out a long breath as the pain in my body finally eased to something more manageable.
But really, sometimes I don't understand her at all. Escaping the mansion, though risky as hell, hadn't been nearly as dangerous as it had played out in my head. My first plan—which I won't lie, even I was sure wouldn't work—didn't work at all, just like I expected.
I had ordered her to step aside and let me out of the mansion, using every bit of authority I could muster, but she had vehemently refused my command. She even used mana pressure in an attempt to force me to back down from my escape plan, to which I had responded by engaging her in combat.
It ended exactly how you'd expect. She completely wiped the floor with me, then proceeded to sedate me with something she apparently carried on her person.
That was when I knew she had that sedative with her, and it became my main target for escape. I couldn't confront her directly—that approach would never work, even if a hundred versions of me appeared and attacked her at once. She was just that much stronger than me.
However, if I could find a way to drug her and knock her unconscious for even five minutes, then there was a genuine chance of escape. The problem was that no matter how much I thought about it, I didn't see any realistic way to get that sedative away from her.
UNTIL a stupid idea came to me, one that was as crazy as it was reckless. An idea that involved getting her distracted and close enough for me to steal the sedative and use it on her long enough to escape the mansion.
I had ordered Veronica to strip and sleep with me.
Now imagine my absolute shock when she actually wanted to do it, when she didn't refuse or question the order but instead started moving toward me with clear intent in her eyes.
"Alright, time to find out what's going on," I exhaled with determination, then began walking forward into the unknown darkness ahead of me.