"Hey, G, aren't they looking too familiar?" said Valentine in puzzlement.

Graham was also watching the scene unfolding in front of him with a curious expression on his face. His right hand was rubbing his chin while the elbow was resting on his left hand. He squinted his eyes to see better since he didn't have Supersight in that world.

"They are indeed the students from our university year..." he replied, "Which means, this place is most likely a projection of our memories."

"That seems to be the case. But there must be something significant here if it's shown to us. It's not like we've forgotten those years," added Valentine.

"You're right. Let's look around. We need to also check if we can interact with them or if they can even see us," said Graham.

The two men walked farther inside the faculty building and found themselves in a large hall with a large dome ceiling with paintings on it. They were mostly of animals in the prairies and beautiful flowers and sunshiny skies. There were a few babies with bat wings and horns here and there depicted as playing with the animals. Those paintings, coupled with the shape of the dome and the natural lighting, evoked the feeling of majesty and greatness in the onlookers.

Below the dome, the students, who were mostly wearing thin clothing, were busy with their own things. The paintings had ceased to amaze them since they saw it basically every day.

"Val, remember when we first saw those paintings? We would be looking at it for minutes and minutes until we were late for class. But after a while, we didn't even remember they existed," said Graham nostalgically.

"It was mostly you, although I must admit those are great paintings although no one knew who made them," replied Valentine.

"True. Even Professor de Groot didn't know anything despite being the oldest here. He just said those paintings are as old as this building,"

They kept walking past several students who didn't seem to notice them. Graham waved his hand at someone but got no response.

"Yes, it's clear that they cannot see us," concluded Graham.

In the bright faculty building, the two identical men walked across the hall that they were very familiar with. Being there again brought back a lot of memories, both good and bad. Graham then stopped and pointed at a young male student who was wearing a green t-shirt and a pair of cotton pants. He was surrounded by a group of other students and his expression seemed happy.

"Val, that's Jonas..." said Graham with a heavy tone. His expression looked somber.

"That's indeed him. That means we are in our first year of university," replied Valentine. Although he sounded rather monotonous, there was a faint hint of unhappiness in his tone.

"It's a pity that he had to die gruesomely. He was such a kind guy," added Graham.

"He was the kid who was chopped into pieces by that bastard of a professor, wasn't he?" said Valentine.

"Yes. And even worse, Jonas was raped by him before being killed. It's ironic that this is the Faculty of Law but one of the professors committed a heinous crime like that," said Graham. There was mockery in his tone.

"At least he has been arrested and should be rotting in jail right now," replied Valentine coldly.

The two of them then left Jonas who still had a happy expression on his face with his friends. Although it was not the real world, it still somehow put a smile on Graham's friend to see his dead friend smiling again.

Graham and Valentine walked across the hall with a marble floor and entered the corridor at the end of it. It was the direction towards the Department of Criminology where they used to study. There were fewer students there compared to the common hall, but the number was still quite big.

Suddenly, they stopped again because they saw a face that was all too familiar. It was their younger self!

The younger Graham Hymes was wearing a thin white shirt and a pair of striped pants. His amber hair was just as curly as his current hair and there was stubble on his face. His green eyes, however, looked colder and distant. He was carrying a briefcase that was different from his current one and was walking quickly towards a lecture hall on his own.

"Val, that must be the first year after the service. No wonder I still looked miserable as hell," he said with self-mockery.

"I think I was even worse," replied Valentine shortly.

They followed their younger self and entered a lecture hall that was already filled with other students. The professor had already started his lecture and seemed to be too focused on it that he didn't notice the late student. The younger Graham entered quietly and took a seat near the wall where the least number of students were sitting.

"Val, I think that professor always knew we were late but he just pretended not to notice," said Graham. Looking from a third-person view gave him a new perspective.

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"That seems to be the case. Besides us, there were other students who were late and he never raised a fuss. Maybe he knew about our situation," replied Valentine.

The two of them were standing in front of the lecture hall near the doorway and were watching everything. The professor was very passionate about delivering his materials and his voice was loud and clear. However, since he was rather old, he didn't use a wide range of gestures but mostly just stood there. The students looked rather interested in the lecture, although there were still some who couldn't stop yawning.

Suddenly, Graham's attention was drawn to a person sitting on the backmost row looking at his younger self. It was an old woman of Longese descent with black hair that had mostly gone grey. She was wearing a black dress with a red dragon pattern on it and was sitting elegantly while watching the younger Graham.

"Val! That's..." he nudged his other half and pointed at the woman.

"That's Paim?? What is she doing here?" replied Valentine. His voice was full of puzzlement and disbelief.

They had met Paim only after getting the commission from Ruben Arnaud to find his missing son, Fabien. Even then, it was only because of Ruben's jeweler friend, Emiel, that they got to know about the antique store on Oosteindestraat. They had never seen the old owner of that mysterious antique store before, so the fact that she was in this same lecture hall watching their younger self felt so abnormal.

"Why is she watching us? Has she been doing that all this time, Val?" asked Graham. His tone was curious and guarded, "How come we've never noticed her?"

"That, I don't know, but this is definitely not normal. Let's go over there and see if we can get any clue," replied Valentine.

Graham nodded and the two of them walked towards the raised platforms where the students' desks were without anyone even noticing them. They walked up the steps to reach the backmost row, but suddenly, they froze.

Paim was looking straight at them!

"What the fuck!" exclaimed Valentine.

Swoosh!!

Suddenly, they felt like something was dragging them from behind violently and they couldn't do anything about it. Before long, they found themselves under the dead tree again and the thick fog was surrounding them.

Graham tried to get up from the ground that was full of wet grass and once he was up, he realized he had come back to his hotel bedroom.

"!!"

He had woken up from his dream and his forehead was full of cold sweat. He looked around to make sure he was really inside the hotel where he was staying and once the familiar place was registered into his brain, he calmed down. Graham controlled his breath and then wiped the sweat off his skin.

"Val, that was too sudden. We didn't even get the chance to see her from up close. And the fact that she was looking directly at us despite that place being from our memory is creepy if I should say so myself," he muttered. However, this time, there was no response from Valentine because he had come back to the real world.

"It's a shame that we cannot talk to each other for real here, Val. But at least we now have a place where we can do it. Maybe next time we don't have to explore and just stay there and chat until we wake up," said Graham again.

He looked to his right and saw the sunlight trying to penetrate through the thick curtains without any success. He then reached out to the brown watch that he had left on the table next to the bed and checked the time. It was almost nine in the morning.

"Now, Val, what do you think about Paim being in our memory. If she was watching us even in our first year of university, that means she had known us for that long. And yet she acted like we didn't know each other when we went to her store. It feels really strange," said Graham analytically.

"I have a crazy theory, Val, but there is no proof for now. What if everything was set up by her? What if the guys who were chasing Fabien were hired by her. We've never seen the two of them again after that, after all, so it is even more suspicious. But why had she arranged all this? To make us a Contractbound? But why?" he said while stroking his chin.

"It sounds rather far-fetched, but that's the only explanation I get think of as to why she was watching us during our first year of university. She must have been looking for the perfect opportunity for that. But why wait that long? Why not make us a Contractbound much earlier? The more I think about it, the more I don't understand, Val," Graham then stretched his hands in frustration.

"For now, let's just have breakfast. And we need to check up on Luuk to make sure he is still alive. I'm sure the answer will come along sooner or later, so there is no need to hurry. We can ask Ruben and Fabien about the detail some time, but for now, we need to focus on our survival. Do you remember why Val?" asked Graham with a cheeky smile, "Because we're still targeted by the Pale Society. They launched a large scale attack last night so they are not an organization we can look down upon."

Graham got up from his bed and had a quick wash. After that, he looked in the mirror and started chanting.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Cunningness and Transformation, hereby change my whole being to that of Hansen Müller!"

His whole skin itched and then he grew taller and more muscular. His exposed torso showed his bulging chest and strong biceps and the big scar on his back gradually disappeared. His skin also became darker and the features on his face changed. In less than thirty seconds, Graham had become another person entirely.

Once his Transformation was completed, he went back to the bedroom and unzipped his large suitcase, and took out the biggest shirt he had. He put on a black shirt and changed the denim pants that Valentine had worn the previous night with a pair of striped cotton pants. After that, he put on his gun holster along with the bullet pouch along with Valentine's dagger. Valentine had put all of them under Concealment so they were covered by a thin yellowish mist. Now, they didn't have to worry about being randomly searched anymore.

Graham put on his brown trench coat to hide the weapons he was carrying and left the hotel room before locking the door. He then walked up to the room next door and knocked on the door slightly.

Knock knock...

"Who's there?" asked a voice from inside.

"It's me. Let's have breakfast," he said with a voice deeper than his original's.

"Give me a minute," shouted Luuk from inside.

Graham waited patiently for his neighbor and not long after, he came out wearing a black sweater and a pair of denim pants. Luuk was surprised for a split second when he saw Graham but then he quickly remembered that the man was wearing a disguise. Although it was not his first time seeing his neighbor like that, he was still not used to it.

"Anyway, did you go out last night?" asked Graham.

Luuk looked at him and raised his eyebrows.

"Of course not. We were told to stay indoors by the Police," he replied.

It was Graham's turn to raise his eyebrows now.

"We were? When?" he asked curiously. He had not received any announcement like that.

"The receptionist told me when I went down. He didn't tell you?" asked Luuk.

Graham shook his head.

"There wasn't even anyone downstairs when I went there."