Clink, clink, clink…
“Please…”, I could hear a faint muttering in the background. My eyelids heavy and engrossed by the previous night bender.
“Sigh, must be the tenant again, and it seems he took the bat warning seriously this time around.”, having a difficult time trying to open my eyes, I groggily tried to get up off whatever I had slept in.
The faint muttering gradually became clearer, and I could finally figure out what the tenant was saying.
“Please wake up, young master.”, a clear and baritone voice, not belonging to my tenant, welcomed my morning. “Huh? Is it someone else? I didn’t have anything for today. For god’s sake it’s Sunday, don’t they have something better to do?!” I tried to wake up just for the sake of venting a bit on whoever was attempting to sell me a bible.
“Hell, could you just piss off with your fantastical bullshit to my neighbours?! Leave me alone!”, gashing between my teeth, I somewhat yelled trying to scare off the possible door-to-door seller. At this point I was already sitting in what felt like a bed and my eyes were almost fully opened. However, due to the lack of light I couldn’t discern my surroundings yet.
“I’m terribly sorry young master, I’ll leave immediately. But please don’t oversleep too much today. I’ll come back soon so we can get you ready for today.”, the voice faded again once more, and I could discern a creaking sound. Facing that direction, I could tell apart the shape of a languish man closing a door urgently. “Ummm, excuse me? How did this guy get in my house?”, rapidly assimilating what just happened, I shot out of my bed, ascertaining if my home was still intact. “Did I leave my door open yesterday? No way I’m not that forgetting. Huh? Where am I?” After the initial check of the room, I came to realize. “This is not my house. And why is this bed so fluffy? Stop stop, useless thoughts aside please, I need to focus. Think. What did I do yesterday after drinking that bunch of beer?”, finally calming myself, I started trying to recall what happened after my drinking spree.
“Alright. I just woke up to an old guy calling me young master, did I hit it big with one of those affluent old ladies?”, muttering whatever could be a possible explanation right now, the first thought that came to mind was that, despite my average build and not-so-demanded face, I had hit the jackpot with a rich madam whose assistant had come to wake me up. “I mean I’m not so easy-going but maybe the alcohol pushed me to do it. Sigh, and here I thought I had standards for my first time, I just threw myself blindly and I don’t even know who it was. Whatever, thoughts for later. Where’s the bathroom?”, after concluding my inner struggle with a peaceful procrastinating episode, I began looking around the room.
I couldn’t tell apart things because there was barely illumination, so I first started searching for a window near the only source of light in the room. “Alright, the curtains should be here”, I gently pulled away the thick, leather-like and opaque curtains, since they were probably worth more than my entire salary, until rays of light started filling the room, and a beautiful back garden that looked more like a whole forest welcomed my sight. “Wow”, admiring the room, I first took notice of the incredulous size of it. “Damn this room is bigger than my apartment, not like it was anything special.” Just the sheer size of it was bigger than anything I had rented throughout my life, though the most I had ever paid for my rent was 300$. “Brokies for the win!”, after pleasing myself with a bunch of nonsense, I continued examining the room. Lavish decorations filled the room to the brim with a golden chandelier hanging above my head in the middle of the room. “Mmh? Are those candles? I guess she has quite the rural taste, not like I have a say in it.”.
Despite the expensively looking furniture, everything gave off a medieval and old-fashioned vibe. I mean, I’m broke, so my taste might be a bit twisted always looking for the most affordable products in this stuff. But these wardrobes, bed sheets and window frames were not old, they were ANCIENT. Like collector stuff you know? Those that you’d get to see in an exposition of an old 16th century king’s possessions at a museum. “Phew, she must be a millionaire at least.”, saying my first impressions, I heard the door being opened again right after and the earlier morning voice greeted me again.
“Oh my, young master. It seems today you didn’t need my help to get out of bed. Please wait a bit and I’ll get the bath ready.”, in front of me stood an aged man, around 60 years old, with ashen hair slid back and violet eyes. He was wearing a grey vest with black trousers, which was pleasing and formal at the same time. “Violet eyes? This madam must be quite exquisite with her assistants looks or he’s into cosplaying”. Giving me a smile, he went past into an adjacent door at the corner of the room. I followed suit behind him, only to discover the old man chanting some fantastical gibberish towards the bathtub. “Why is he talking to a bathtub? Did he lose it or sum?”, immediately after my silent judging about him, water started flowing down the tap. “Huh? When did he unplug it?”, confused as I was, I decided to ask him about it, but the answer was not what I expected.
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“Oh? I was just chanting the necessary activation spell for the water stone to start functioning, young master. It works similarly as your bedside lamp, though that one is powered by a light stone.”, the old man explained calmly while putting a finger down and checking the water’s temperature. “Sigh, if only we had a purer stone to work with, young master wouldn’t have to wait so much to enjoy his bath”, the old man muttered under his breath.
“Um, excuse me, but what’s a water and light stone? And why are you addressing me as young master? Did your madam order you to call me as such? Sorry for so many questions, but I’m not used to these things”, sceptically pointing out my actual concerns, I fired off all questions that had been bothering me.
“What madam, young master? Please abstain from such jokes at least for today, the guests wouldn’t be comfortable if you brought up such distasteful jokes.”, the old man had a stern gaze that made me look down unconsciously. “Huh? What does he mean? There’s no madam? Then who did I sleep with or how did I end up here otherwise?” I quickly checked my rear for any possible soreness or pain, confirming everything seemed fine. “Phew, at least I was not in the receiving end in that case, but how did I get such a luxurious service otherwise? And what does he mean by receiving guests?” unfocused and without hesitation, I continued questioning him.
“Um I don’t know exactly how I ended up here, but could you enlighten me a bit on it? Like if you work for somebody here, could I meet up with them to know more about my situation?” I started backing off a bit because even though the old man seemed kind, the situation was turning weird.
“What do you mean, young master. Obviously, I work for the Lukard household. Your family household.” The man, with a baffled expression, began approaching me. “Did you forget about me, young master?”, puzzledly the man kept inquiring me, every time a bit closer.
“Hey old man, I don’t know who you are but right now I’m starting to get quite tense, even if you look family friendly and all that, you better start slowing yourself and explain whatever is happening here. I don’t know anything about the Loukerd household or however that is pronounced, but I’m quite sure none of my parents had that complicated of a name. And in the case you like roleplaying and that stuff, I’m not into it.”, while backing off I finally leaned against the room’s door through which the old man came earlier. Right now he stopped advancing and stood in the middle of the room, barely 5 metres away from me.
“Please rest assured young master. This humble servant means no harm towards your person. My name is Edward and I’m but a mere servant of the Lukard household, your family household. You’ve been in coma for a week until some days ago when you first woke up, though today has been the first one you’ve begun talking again. I’ve been taking care of your daily necessities all your life, as the main butler of the estate.”, the man started prostrating himself in the floor, as I guess a “formal salute”? I’ve only seen this kind of attitudes in historical films after all. “The hell he means a coma. And all my life? The closest thing to a servant I’ve had in my life is the defective roomba I bought some years ago to clean the house.”, by this point an awkward silence reigned between both and I started frowning profusely.
The man was not even looking at me, he was just prostrating himself while looking down, not moving in the slightest. “Either I’ve been abducted by a crazy roleplayer or the guy is telling the truth and somehow I travelled realities like one of those sci-fi films, what was it’s name? Back to the future? Nah but that one was on Earth, I don’t think we have those stones or whatever back there, I’m not so ignorant I think at least. After all, paying electricity and water bills would be cheaper that way probably.” Musing over everything I’ve seen so far; I was inclined to believe the latter idea seemed more plausible. Moreover, because I was one hundred percent sure that my broken ass couldn’t afford even a single candle in this room, and since I didn’t have any talents worth scouting the odds of being offered this service for free seemed impossible. Also, Edward telling me there was no madam or other owner in the estate clarified my previous misunderstanding. But could I believe him?
“Oi, Edward? Could you bring me a mirror or something to reflect my face on? The windows are for some reason non-reflective, and I don’t know where things are.”, I inquired the old man about something that could be quite useful to prove if my travelling idea was right or wrong. Thankfully, he complied with my request and brought a strange looking glass from the bathroom. “This is a light stone adapted so it acts as you mentioned.”
“Leave it on the floor and back away some distance”, I wasn’t going to take any chances on him jumping on me in case my theory was wrong, and this was still Earth. I slowly walked forward and bent rapidly grabbing the item. It was square shaped, without a handle, and with a rough looking border. I hesitantly faced the item and what I saw in the mirror would change my way of viewing life itself.