A sharp pain spread across my side, jolting me awake. Rays of light fell down through the cracks that occupied themselves in the withered planks of the ceiling. My disorientated mind was not helped as I took in the surroundings. A familiar scene greeted my eyes, a place I had spent a good portion of my childhood in and a place I longed to forget. Dazed, I pushed myself up from the cold floor, instantly resulting in pain coursing up and down my shoulders and arms as I tried to support my weight.

"Ugh", I groaned, in agony, my voice sounding coarse as though I haven't drunk water in weeks.

I slowly crawled, slowly dragging my limp body to the adjacent concrete wall just a step away and leaned against it. As I did so, I slowly began to recollect towards the events that happened just previously.

The world ended, the demons conquered this world. Chase, Felicia had died. The strongest in the world, Reinhardt had failed.

I was going to die... but Raymond saved me...

My chest filled with butterflies as I recollected what happened after Raymond saved me. His confession of his love to me, His eyes as they looked at me with so much care, the warmth and comfort of his arm as he held me in his embrace... and the taste of his lips as he kissed me.

My face felt so warm that I was sure steam was flooding out of my ears from embarrassment.

"Calm down", I told myself despite the dry sensation that occupied my throat.

Soon, the words that Raymond said began to fill my mind burying the embarrassment I was feeling with my confusion. That all the suffering and pain that the demons had caused was because of him? How he had made too many mistakes? And he used some mysterious book saying he can change this and would send me back?

So many questions clouded my head, before I discarded them all except for one

"How am I still alive?", I asked myself.

The world ended so how was I still here?

Before I could think of the possible reasons for my survival, the soft sounds of water droplets dragged my attention away. A sense of Deja vu filled my head as I watched the slow drops of water plummet from a leak in the ceiling into a small tin bucket in the middle of the room. The room itself was miniscule and the space was similar to the size an attic with just barely enough space to move around. Furthermore, I seemed to have been freed off my armour and replaced with a worthless piece of cloth with multiple tears in it.

Slowly pulling myself toward the bucket, yet another question popped into my head, most probably the one I should have asked first.

"Why am I here again", I spoke aloud once again to myself, as though I was expecting someone to answer it.

Memories I longed to erase from my soul, reappeared.

Unlike the other world's strongest grew up in incredibly wealthy families, who provided them the resources to become as strong as they were, I had lived on the darker side of the world. Even in a place where the usage of mana can solve most problems there was still a dark side.

Mana had given knowledge and understanding to humans which they gave through their eyes. However that did not mean that all humans were gifted this knowledge. The humans who had not been given this knowledge by mana were thought to be lesser and were inevitably tossed aside and cast away into the worst regions of the city and had been shunned by society.

My mother was one such person. I didn't know much about her, she had died soon after I was 5 years old. We had lived together in this very room.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

It was once a basement used for storage before it had been abandoned so it's quality of living was not particularly good. It had just about enough space for one person to stay in there so we were squeezed in together. At nights, there was no proper heating leaving us to curl under the one sheet my mother had fashioned from some used clothes. We had to collect our water from the bucket as the leaks from the ceiling as the only source of water came from the remaining of the rain that flowed from the cracks. Sometimes we had to go days without any food as the distribution of rations were greatly biased

By the time my mother had died, I'd already adapted to living this way

Eventually my eyes were discovered to be gifted with the knowledge by mana and I had been inducted into the curriculum of a lesser known academy than Moros. Despite that, I still reached the level of the other world's strongest within two years and fought alongside them

Perhaps that was the reason that despite being quite intimate with them, I still felt a sense of unbelonging.

The sounds of the droplets of water once again snapped me out of my thoughts, my extreme thirst yearning to be quenched.

But before I could attempt to consume the water before me, the reflection before in the liquid caught my eye.

The reflection showed the image of young girl, her silver hair blackened by mud and bushy due to long periods of improper care, skin covered in blackish soot and silver eyes that seemed to shine even through the bangs of unruly hair that covered them.

It was me, but younger

I brought my hands towards my face observing their details. The callouses which I had accumulated due to years of training with the rapier gone, replaced by soft childish skin covered in mud. The hands themselves were somewhat smaller than they used to be.

Immediately I directed my attention towards the location where my pain originated from. Lifting up the cloth covered my side, I realized that all the scars I had obtained from my previous battles with the Demons and the demonic beasts had disappeared leaving a few bruises which had begun to swell due to lack of treatment.

My mind went into chaos as I couldn't believe the reality of the situation.

I was in the past?

Back to before my eyes were discovered when I had lived in the slums. As my brain began to comprehend the situation, certain words appeared before me

"H, He said he'd send me back,", I said, reminiscing the word that Raymond told me.

"Aghhh", I screamed holding my head as an excruciating pain began to flood through my mind and I began to see a bright light

"Ughhh", I wailed, unable to bear the pain as I kneeled and succumbed to it.

********

Images began to flash through my head. As I watched it seemed as though everything that had ever been in reality slowly morphed into words slowly bit by bit, character by character flowing onto pages that materialized into existence eventually all connecting together, forming book.

A book that glowed bright, the only source of light in the darkness that remained after reality disappeared. No, the whole of reality had become this book.

Slowly , in the unending darkness another being came to be.

The book slowly brought itself to the hands of the mysterious being as he opened it. Almost instantaneously light once again spread bring about another scene that could be witnessed.

It seemed to be a modest room, not particular well designed or well structured, just simple decor and sizable distance to move freely. The most noteworthy was however the high shelf that seemed to be lined with so many books of incredible origin, its ancientness could be affirmed from the binding alone. An ancient oak writing desk seemed to occupy the centre of the room, the seat in front of it occupied by a man.

His wavy black hair made me want to place my hand on his head and see if my hands would be stained with ink.

I moved with no hesitation, almost as though I'd done this so many times before.

I slowly stepped forward until I was right behind him. He seemed to be working on something. Something important.

As I placed my hand on his head, he immediately jerked back in surprise, until he looked at me, his piercing red pupils and handsome face. It was Raymond

As his eyes followed the hand that was touching his head to my face, his gaze softened as his face contorted into a grin that would make most ladies die of a heart attack.

"What are you working on? Ray", I asked, without realizing the words coming out of my mouth.

"Ah it's just a little project of mine", he said, his tone dipped in happiness. He leaned back as he showed me the work that lay in the table in front of him. There lay the book, that all of reality had condensed into, the book that was reality itself.

And then it clicked.

For a second a single thought, a single idea entered my head that seemed to make so much sense but felt so horrifying to actually admit or even think.

But with it everything made sense then, the events that happened that led me here, Raymond's confession.

This reality began to crack and fracture as I realized

"This world is a novel", I spoke aloud

"And the author is Raymond", I uttered, this memory breaking into a shimmering of bright light.