I stepped back into the building, scanning around the lobby. For the most part, it was empty. The only people I could see were a young woman and her husband enjoying their evening sandwiches. The medicine bottle remained clutched in my right hand.
I quickly ascended up the stairs of the apartment complex and entered our apartment room, where I saw Shinso sprawled on the bed. He was asleep, a tiny sliver of drool running down his chin.
Letting out a humored chuckle, I approached the apartment stove and turned it on, watching the tiny flames emerge from the charcoal furnace. Grabbing the pot Shinso has used to make his tea, I filled it up with water from the small sink and sat it atop the stove. In the meantime, I figured I'd make myself a small dinner.
While the water slowly boiled, I fled downstairs and entered the kitchen of the Parterre de Fleurs and grabbed all the items I needed. Although I was uncertain if the apartment complex allowed guests to make their own meals, I guessed they wouldn't mind some leisure. As long as I didn't burn down the building, I don't think they cared about what I did with their food.
Entering my apartment room again, I spotted Shinso, who was leaning up in his bed. He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he stared at the stove. Upon seeing me, his expression softened.
"I thought I had left it on, but you're here..." Shinso chuckled dryly, eyeing the food in my arms.
"Making dinner?"
"Yeah." I replied, sitting the vegetables on the counter. I reached into the lower cupboard and took out a fork, cutting into a carrot with efficiency.
"Shouldn't you use a knife? It's easier." Shinso rolled his eyes, his voice a low grumble.
The word knife wasn't one I wanted to hear. I felt the Blood-Moon Charm buzz in my pocket, quickly alleviating my memories. "I-I...prefer to use forks. There's nothing wrong with being different, right?" I said with a small, self-loathing smile.
"Right..." Shinso replied, leaning back in his bed and letting out a low groan. "I feel like I'm on fire, mind tossing me in the tub with freezing water?"
"But you'll catch a cold." I replied, turning around to face Shinso. The last thing I wanted was more complaining from him.
"Whatever." Shinso pouted slightly, huffing as he snuggled under the sheets.
After I had sliced all the vegetables I put them in the pot alongside the herbal medicine. "I figured making soup was a better alternative than making more tea. You need substance in your system."
Shinso looked at me. "What are you, my mom?"
I thought back to my own mother, feeling my heart constrict. "I mean...maybe. We don't have ours in the meantime."
Shinso's expression softened, he seemed to be feeling similar emotions as me. "Yeah..."
The indigo-haired boy looked up at me, his expression softening with uncharacteristic gentleness. "You may not be my mother or anything, but..." Shinso paused for a second.
"...you are someone who does seem to love me a lot."
"L-love you?" I felt my face visibly flush, and I turned away. "I'm simply taking care of my sick friend, I don't see anything romantic about that."
"Oh, ok..." Shinso's shoulders drooped slightly, and observed his face heating slightly.
"I mean, do you love me or something?" I turned back to face the boy in bed.
At that moment, Shinso's face flushed even more. He rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Why would I love someone as ugly as you? You have glasses and look like a total doofus."
Hearing his words, I felt a wave of sadness. "Is that...true?"
"Learn to take a joke, Isaac." Shinso exhaled through his nose and smiled softly, showing his oddly straight teeth.
The room fell silent. I didn't know what to say to Shinso. I knew he had poked fun at me by describing my appearance as dorky—but in the end—was that really true?
...
After I filled the tub with hot water, I stepped into the porcelain and sank into it, feeling the water on my skin. I closed my eyes and let out a low sigh. "Should I practice that cogitation that guy mentioned? I need a distraction."
My mind couldn't help but wander back to the terror that the man in the market had felt when he looked at me. After making a quick deduction, I took the opportunity to practice cogitation in the bathtub of all places.
"You might drown if you do." The illusory voice sounded in my mind again.
"Should I wait?" I asked, looking around the bathroom before laying my eyes on the slightly cracked mirror. In the reflection, the cloaked figure stood in the corner of the room in their usual spot. Seeing this, I was taken aback.
"You're watching me." I grumbled, my face flushing slightly.
"I apologize." The figure gradually dissipated into the shadows, melting away in the corner of the room. After I ensured I was completely alone, I stood up from the bathtub and dried myself off. "Though, you randomly spawned into my life, and I'm curious about who you are."
I stepped out of the bathroom with a linen towel around my waist. The dim lighting of the bathroom seemed to slightly rouse Shinso, causing him to roll over and face away from the door, grumbling softly. I made my way over to the drawer near my bed and took out a pair of loose white pajamas, slipping them on and buttoning them up.
The voice rang out in my mind again. "I found you interesting, so I decided to stick around you, Isaiek."
"Interesting, me?" I whispered, my lips curling into a small smile. "Why would I be interesting to you of all people? Aren't you a God or something?"
"No, I'm not a God. I'm a Spirit Creature."
"Spirit Creature? Well, you don't look very creature-y." I scoffed, pulling up the covers and slipping under them.
"Appearances are never what they seem, twisted and ruined are their essence." They said in an ethereal tone.
"I won't even ask what that means." I sighed, sinking into the sheets.
The next morning I left my apartment room still clad in my pajamas. I stepped into the lobby and picked up one of the papers that Carter had mentioned, the job papers. After stopping by the kitchen area and picking up a tray of complimentary morning cocoa, I walked back into the lobby and sat down in an armchair by the circular table.
The morning sun filtered through the windows, casting an ethereal yellow light onto the lobby of the Parterre de Fleurs. I picked up the paper and began to scan through the jobs that were hiring, but the recollections from last night stopped me from taking further action.
"After one consumes a potion, Spirit Creatures habitually lock onto the host corresponding to their Pathways. Since you consumed an Apocalypse pathway potion, I—being an Apocalypse pathway Spirit Creature, naturally gravitated towards you."
"How...I saw you in the mirror before I came here, and you existed before I consumed the Apocalypse pathway potion." I felt my mind churn with confusion.
"It's...complicated. In other cases, one's spirituality can naturally create these Spirit Creatures aside from pathway gravitation."
"How could my spirituality have done such a thing if I didn't have any power until I consumed the potion? The only thing I remember doing is...transporting us here."
The air around me seemed to cool slightly, and I felt a strange feeling of being watched from an unknown location. "I've watched you for quite a while before you came to this world."
"How long exactly?" I raised my glass, taking a sip of the hot cocoa.
"Well. Ever since you made that student drop dead in the hallway, I felt naturally gravitated to you."
"I see...but, how have you been watching me? You only appear in mirrors, and barely appear in the real world." I sighed.
"I'm afraid I can't disclose such information."
"So it's in the scope of corruption?" I arched an eyebrow, feeling a surge of curiosity. The moment my emotions shifted, the air around me grew even colder.
"Knowledge of higher dimensions is beyond even my scope to a certain extent—I'd consider even the likes of me lucky that habitual information restriction is an ability of the higher Orders."
"Habitual...information restrictions?" I asked, puzzled.
At that moment, the illusory voice sighed. "At a specific level, information about many topics from certain places is corrupted."
"Corrupted? It's the same topic Catherine and Carter brought up with Sealed Relics."
"Correct." The voice acknowledged.
"Though, I'm curious. Would learning your name kill me?" I felt a pang of amusement asking that question, my lips curling into a small smile.
"The Umbridge." The illusory voice rang out in my mind, layered and ethereal.
"Ahh...cool name." I replied.
At that moment, one of the doors opened leading from the kitchen, and a young woman walked out. Her hair was tied in a messy blonde bun above her head, and she carried a tray of food. When she looked at me, her eyes widened with terror and she bolted out of the room with quick, erratic breaths.
Seeing this, I paled slightly. "That's the second time that's happened. Yesterday, now today."
I recalled the scene from the market, remembering how the bulky man had paled in fear and departed from the scene in terror.
"Is that one of the abilities the cloaked figure mentioned?" I whispered to myself.
The figure had initially called it an Aura of Displacement. But that didn't look much like displacement, rather of terror. Everyone exposed to the ability ended up being terrified of me, and fleeing from the scene after even subtle interactions.
"Yes. The Aura of Fear is one of the abilities you currently have in your arsenal. But...I find it confusing as to why it's active right now."
"Why didn't Shinso react last night? Is tiredness a nullification of this or something?"
The figure fell silent, after a few moments they sighed. "One of the activation requirements is emotional instability—peroids of distress, anger or sadness."
Hearing this, I was taken aback. "I knew that...but...I'm not feeling those things at the moment. Would that mean my friends would suffer?" I felt a wave of guilt wash over me.
"It's a possibility."
"Damn it." I grunted, putting my cup of hot cocoa onto the circular table, pushing it back. "If I were to get an occupation, would that render my employers open to such side effects?"
"I'd lean towards that being true. Try searching for jobs that would render you with limited human interaction."
I considered their statement for a few moments before looking towards the papers beside me on the table. I reached down and picked one of them up. The sheets on the top listed the most difficult and hard-to-acquire occupations in the city. They included jobs such as architecture.
Architecture? I had previously taken note of the scale of establishments here. Buildings like the cathedral were very intricate and layered in pastels, stones and carvings. And the other buildings in Seraphis Kingdom, like the industrial buildings and apartments, often scaled many floors. If I could recall—the Parterre de Fleurs had a record-breaking twelve floors!
The subsequent on the list was a biochemist. Heh, reminds me of a class I would have taken at school. The initial job description labeled it as a job requiring interaction with animals and plants, almost on a molecular level. My first thoughts labeled the job as sounding relatively straightforward, but the comment of incisions, intestine removal, surgeries, and operations made my skin crawl.
Was this kingdom mainly pacifist? I didn't know ethnic matters would affect job depletion.
"I'll pass out on the job if I become a bio-chemist." I sighed, a small self-ridiculing smile forming on my face.
"One can also pass out if they don't sleep enough." I heard a voice ring out in the lobby. I felt my heat leap in my skin as I looked up. I saw Isaiah sitting in the lobby, smoking a pipe. I didn't know when he had arrived.
"It's true." His voice was reminiscent of a reporters.