"Ugh..."

A small moan escapes my lips as my consciousness returns. I slowly open my eyes while covering my forehead with my right hand.

"Huh?"

The moment my vision clears, my eyes lock onto the foreign ceiling. I rise and scan around the room.

The room itself looks like it was taken from a castle. The white walls are silky smooth, with various etchings of mythological-looking creatures above the bottom dark wooden border. The floor is made of dark oak and shines brightly, reflecting the rusted-golden candelabra in the center of the white ceiling.

That said, the room is overly spacious. Only a few decorations hang from the walls. The main piece is the four identical paintings hanging in each wall's center. Each one has the same golden frame and displays an older man wearing a red robe and a golden crown.

There are only a few pieces of furniture on the floor. A lone dark-oak dresser stands in one of the corners with various drawers, each with a golden knob. There is also a king-size bed which I'm currently lying on top of—a corona hands above it, covering my left and right in bed hangings. The frame is also dark oak with an inner carving of various flowers. The covers are plain black and white but soft to the touch.

"Is... this my room?"

I continue looking around but can't recall any of the items. Come to think of it, I don't remember what my room is supposed to look like in the first place. Did I even have a room? Wait...

"..."

Who am I?

My heartbeat begins to accelerate while millions of thoughts rush throughout my head.

M-my family... Who are they again? Do I have any? What about friends? No luck either... I should be able to recall my name... Shit! Age? Hometown? Height? Anything?! Ahh!!

I take a deep breath and fall onto my back.

"Why can't I remember anything..."

I close my eyes as I exhale. I attempt to dive deep into my mind, searching for anything. I searched through the void, exploring every nook and cranny; however, I couldn't find anything. I reopen my eyes. Staring at the ceiling, I loosely sigh.

"Ugh... What in the world is h- Ack!?"

My body suddenly jolts. Nausea strikes my head, and a high-pitch noise rings in my ears. I attempt to cover my ears; however, the sound penetrates them, getting more deafening. I clench my teeth as my head rapidly pulses. A sharp pain enters my body and bounces through, leaving a stinging cut with each bounce.

"AHHH!?!"

I scream while the pain crawls its way up. Finally, it exits for a second, leaving only the numerous stinging cuts; however, it returns with more intensity. I pull on my hair with tears running down my face. Blood drips from my ears, and my vision begins to fade in and out. My heart screams. I can feel my heartbeat exploding, racing with the pain as it goes in and out of my body.

My screaming escalates. Blood begins seeping through my eyes. The pain enters my head, causing my headache to pulse faster to the point where it's about to explode.

...

Then it all stops... I stare at the ceiling with my hands still connected to my hair. Still breathing heavily, I rest my hands on my side while taking several long breaths. Once my pulse stabilizes, I exhale.

"I remember."

I pull myself up. I check my ears and underneath my eyes with my hands. I then move them in front of me. Seeing no blood, I clench both my fists and shake them.

"That's right... I died."

I close my eyes and reenter my mind. This time, however, instead of an empty void, I'm filled with various pieces of memories. I watch them one at a time. Finally, after exploring them all, I returned to reality and let out a small laugh.

"Haha... How could I forget?"

I remember them all - my death, the voice, my previous life, and... my promise.

I nod to myself as I recite my promise.

"This time, I will live a life of adventures and contribute to society. I will live as a decent human being! Now then..."

I look around again. Recalling the voice, this must be my new life, but wasn't I supposed to start as a baby?

I look down at myself. My body has shrunk to the size of a child, not a baby. Could the voice have lied to me, or perhaps only now could I recall my previous life? Hold on... Who are my parents in this life?

"..."

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I can't recall anything about this life. None of the memories I received had anything related to this new life. Why? Perhaps instead of reincarnation, I got transferred into a living soul instead... I don't know...

"There's probably a valid reason somewhere... Nevertheless, I should quickly learn this world's customs."

I did keep some of my common sense and knowledge, but that was for Earth. I wonder if they will apply to this world too. Oh, weren't there scenarios like this back on Earth? Yeah, some novels depicted scenes like these, but... Ah, I remember now. I wasn't allowed to keep all my memories, only those that pertained to my failures.

"That sucks... Alright, how about I go..."

Wham!

I jerk my head towards the door across the bed and watch as a young lady bursts into the room. As she pants crazily, she frantically scans around the room until her white eyes meet mine.

""...""

I took a moment to examine the lady. She has long black hair covering both of her ears. Laying within is a white rose ornament placed right above where her left ear should be. She's wearing a black kimono. Various sizes of white flowers are scattered throughout it. She looks like she is in her mid-twenties or early thirties. Her complexion is also ashen...

As o stare at her, I find my cheeks heating up. Suddenly, however, tears run down the lady's face. She then charges at me.

"Sho!!"

She embraces me tightly. My face gets smothered between her ample bosom. As she squishes me, o pull away, trying to catch my breath.

"..."

Finally, after a moment, she pulls away, wiping her tears with the sleeves of her kimono. She smiles.

"Please forgive me, Sho. It has been too long... I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you. I thought this was a dream, but..."

She reaches her hand out to me and touches my left cheek.

"Y-you're real, right?"

I silently nod.

"Oh, thank the Gods!"

She jumps at me again, embracing me even tighter than before. As she rubs my back, I begin thinking.

She must be my mother, right? I guess she could be someone else too, like a maid or something... Well, there is only one way to find out.

I gulp as I move to her ear. I whisper.

"W-who... you?"

For some reason, only a few of my words came out. Huh, why can't I correctly? Darn, I hope my message goes through...

Luckily, it did. The lady's body twitches, and she quickly pulls away, intensely into my eyes. Tears begin forming in her eyes, but she immediately wipes them off. She softly chuckles.

"Is that so... I should have known that there would be no possible way to survive without any problems afterward. We should be glad that your memories were the only thing taken away..."

I push my head to the head with a weird expression on my face. Survive what? Is this body sickly, or did it contract some deadly disease? I rather not die again any time soon, so I hope not...

The lady reaches for my face and begins rubbing my head. She smiles warmly.

"Let's start over. I'm your mother, Nii Michiko. In case you forgot, your name is Nii Sho. You suddenly fell into a coma two years ago and have slept since. None of the doctors we hired could figure out what was wrong. They tried an assortment of skills and potions, but none worked. We were just about to give up..."

My ears twitched.

Two years?! How can a body survive that long... What are skills and potions? Wait... I heard of them before, but where?

In this sudden instance, a flash of light shines before my eyes revealing a monitor with the words Adventurous displayed in the center of the screen. The light immediately dissipates. What was that?! Adventurous? That name sounds familiar, but...

While lost in thought, Michiko coughs and quickly changes the subject.

"A-anyway! Your father has also been quite worried too. How about we see him? Here, I'll give you a lift."

Michiko separates from me, bends beside the bed, and motions me to crawl to her. I obey and crawl into her arms. After taking hold of me and positioning me into a cradle carry, she slowly lifts me. She takes her time, stopping once every few centimeters as her entire body shakes. After some minutes, she finally lifted without trouble. We make our way out of the room.

"..."

We enter the hallway. The walls are lined with candles, alternatively between lit and unlit. Various landscape paintings hang all the walls. At the end of the hall is a staircase leading downwards. Before the stairs, there are two closed doors, each opposite one other. What could be in those rooms?

As I stare holes at the two doors, Michiko chuckles.

"Curious?"

Faintly blushing, I nod. She smiles and points to the door on the right.

"This door leads to the supply closet."

She opens it, revealing various cleaning supplies and instruments scattered throughout the room. As she closes it, she points to the room on the left.

"And that room over there is your father's study. Though, he mostly uses it to store all of our books."

Books? That's it! I'm clearly out of touch with this world, but If I could access those books, that problem would be solved. Well, that is only if those books are more than just fiction...

"Your father doesn't like having his room being snooped, so you'll have to ask if you want to see inside."

I nod, and we continue down the path and descend the stairs. At the bottom, a young man is leaning on the wall and tapping his foot, muttering. I take a moment to inspect him.

Unlike Michiko, the man has short silver hair. His complexion is similar to hers, too but is slightly paler. He is wearing a plain black yukata.

As soon as we reached the bottom, his head jerked to us. His black eyes make contact with mine. His face tenses up for a moment before he blasts off toward us.

"Sho!?"

He snatches me from Michiko with tears rolling now his cheeks. He tightly embraces me. Then, right before o suffocate, he releases me and ruffles my hair.

"Thank the Gods! I'm so relieved that you're all right... We were just about to give..."

His voice trails off. He quickly shakes his head with a cough while wiping away his tears.

"Nevermind! All that matters is that you're back."

He continues playing with my head; however, he instantly freezes when Michiko whispers in his ears. He looks down at me with tears reforming in his eyes.

"I see..."

He shakes his head and smiles.

"Well, that is a shame, but at least you're back. I, uh, am your father, Nii Kaichi."

He reaches out and hugs me one last time. He then faces me.

"We will have to celebrate some other day. We wouldn't want you to relapse, would we? So it would be best if you rested for a couple of days. Then, I'll get a doctor to ensure you are alright."

Kaichi then carries me back up the stairs and back into my room. After tucking me back into bed, he leans over and whispers.

"Please stay here in the meantime. We want to make sure that nothing else is wrong with your body. I'll bring some food, too, so stay tight and rest."

He leaves my side and walks toward the door. Before exiting, he looks up at the ceiling and claps once. Most of the lit candles from the candelabra immediately go out. He then turns around and leaves, leaving the door cracked open.

For the 3rd time today, I find myself staring at the ceiling. I feel alright, though...

It makes sense to be worried after so long, but I don't feel like I slept through two years. I am slightly hungry and thirsty, but that's it...

I hope I'm alright...