Consciousness returned like a distant echo, as if he had crossed an eternal tunnel and now emerged without knowing if he was alive or dreaming. William snapped his eyes open, gasping. The dim light of a golden chandelier shone from the vaulted ceiling, casting warm reflections on the red velvet curtains and the walls covered with silver-threaded tapestries.
He was lying in an immense bed, softer than any surface he had ever touched. The sheets were pure silk, cool and comforting. His body was enveloped in black sleepwear with blue details, elegant and subtly fitted. He sat up abruptly, his heart pounding.
"What... where...?"
The memory of the mask burst into his mind like a spear. His eyes widened even further. The energy, the pressure, the pain, that damned sound and that figure shrouded in darkness. He screamed, as if doing so could expel the image from his mind.
"Angel! What is happening to me?!"
The feminine voice immediately resonated in his head, calm, lifeless, but providing him with a minimum of comfort.
"Analyzing user's current state... No physical anomaly detected. Everything points to a panic attack caused by a nightmare."
He clasped his head in his hands.
"The mask... I saw... something. I do not know. I felt like I was losing control. What the hell happened?"
There was a brief silence before Angel responded.
"The only abnormal thing was your behavior since last night. You remained in a trance for approximately thirty seconds. Then you started screaming as if you were being tortured. Then you lost consciousness. Aurus called the maids and they took you to rest. Here is the recording."
The images began to play in his mind. He saw himself, rigid, with open but vacant eyes. Then, the screams. Pure desperation. And finally, the collapse. The next part was more disturbing.
William's unconscious body was taken to this room. The maids began to undress him. One of them, the head maid named Rose, a middle-aged woman with red hair, green eyes, pearly white skin, and large curves, paused, observing William's naked body while her companions cleaned him and put on a new set of sleepwear.
When they finished, Rose ordered them to withdraw. Despite the reluctance of some, none said anything. They knew Rose's temperament and inclinations towards handsome young men. Her position protected her, and no one dared to contradict her.
Rose looked at him with a lascivious smile as she slowly unhooked her bra, leaving her large, round breasts, erect with excitement, exposed. Her breathing was ragged as she leaned between his legs, contemplating him as if he were a trophy.
"You are beautiful..." she murmured, her voice laden with desire. "So young... so strong... I could not resist before... and now you are here."
Her tongue traced a wet path from his abdomen to the erect member that pulsed strongly.
"What a good boy... Are you enjoying it?"
She took him with both hands and slowly caressed him, savoring every inch as if he were a forbidden delicacy. Her tongue slid from the base to the tip, drawing slow, lustful circles. Rose's warm breath made William's skin completely tingle.
"Mmm... so hard..." she whispered as she masturbated with one hand, groaning softly. "I just want to taste it... just a little..."
Her clitoris peeked out between the swollen folds of her vulva like a red pearl, wet and pulsating. Her labia glowed with desire, dripping a sweet and wild essence.
She positioned herself above him, legs open and back towards William, showing her firm, round buttocks. Without wasting time, she firmly took his cock, guiding it towards her wet entrance. Just as the tip began to slide between her folds...
Footsteps were heard. The firm sound of Aurus's shoes approaching down the hallway.
The maid started. With surprising skill, she disguised her posture, pretending she was simply drying him, hoping Aurus would not notice anything strange.
William remained motionless. The sequence of images had left him in an emotional limbo: perplexed, aroused, and, at a certain point, frustrated.
"What kind of damn hentai harem is this?" he murmured ironically.
He had read such stories. Always as an escape. But he never thought he would live a similar scene... without actually being present. Reality, no doubt, surpasses fiction.
He closed his eyes, trying to rearrange his thoughts. He took a deep breath.
"Angel... check my thoughts. I just saw that damn mask. You should be able to analyze it, at least some residual image."
"Checking..." she replied. A few seconds passed. "Nothing. Your thoughts are completely clean. No anomalies, no images related to masks or external entities. All normal."
William tensed. An icy void pierced his back. It made no sense. That image, that energy, was real. It was not just a hallucination. He knew it.
And suddenly... he understood.
Like a flash of lightning. Like something that had always been there, covered in dust, and now he was cleaning it for the first time.
"Since I arrived in this world... I have not dreamed once," he murmured with a trembling voice.
The silence that followed was absolute. Angel did not respond.
"I have never dreamed. In my previous life, I always dreamed. Every night. Even when they drugged me. Even with a fever. Even on the verge of death. I always dreamed."
He sat up slowly, feeling a shiver run from the base of his spine to the back of his neck.
"This is not normal..." he whispered. "This is not just magic or transmigration. There is something else. Something... is happening to me. Something... is blocking my dreams."
He put a hand to his chest, trembling. His breathing quickened.
"Angel... are you sure no one can access my mind?"
"Absolutely sure... I hope," she replied, though this time her voice did not sound as firm as usual.
William lowered his gaze, feeling that something very old, very dark, was at stake. Something beyond his comprehension... and perhaps even beyond this world's control.
The mask had not just marked him. It had seen him.
And the fact that he could not dream...
Was that the clearest sign?
"What could it be...?" he murmured, feeling his mind spin, trying to find answers that slipped through his fingers like sand. "Maybe... I am just overthinking..."