(POV Bill)
When consciousness returned to him, Bill's world felt tilted and painful. The first thing he felt was a dull ache throughout his body and the metallic smell of his own blood mixed with the scent of dust and rust from the ruins around him.
He awoke with a jolt, his breathing ragged, and his wild eyes immediately checked his wounds, only to find his body, which should have been shattered, now neatly bandaged.
The pain that had been tearing at his consciousness was now gone, replaced by a deep fatigue, as if his wounds had healed miraculously under the layers of gauze.
He looked around, realizing he was in his own room at the inn, not the ruins where he should have died!
The room was utterly silent, with no one there.
Only the soft whisper of the night wind slipping through the window cracks, bringing a chill that made his hair stand on end, and the sound of his own breathing that sounded so loud amid the silence.
With difficulty, he tried to rise from the bed.
He walked with deliberately stiff and limping steps, his back slightly hunched, his face grimacing as if enduring immense pain, perfecting his disguise as a surviving victim.
Every movement was a performance he had planned!
At that moment, he stood in front of Chloe's room door for what felt like an eternal few minutes, gathering his thoughts, before finally knocking with his trembling knuckles.
"Come in," a soft answer came from inside, but there was a faint confusion in the voice, an oddity that made 'something' inside Bill wonder, 'Did something happen while I was unconscious?'
He turned the cold doorknob and stepped in, only to find Chloe sitting on the edge of the bed, her head also bandaged.
The girl stared at him with a blank and confused gaze, as if looking at a stranger.
Something inside Bill sensed the strangeness and approached, putting on a worried expression he had practiced.
"Who are you?" Chloe asked, her voice innocent like a child's. She scratched her cheek with her finger, then chuckled softly as if feeling guilty for not recognizing her visitor.
Bill was shocked inwardly. 'Has my disguise been discovered?' Instantly, a predator's instinct took over.
A cold and sharp killing intent flashed in his eyes. 'If it's been found out, what can I do,' he thought, and he began stepping forward with a threatening aura.
However, at that moment, he suddenly stopped.
Chloe asked again with the same confused tone, "Do... we know each other?"
That question made him rethink.
'Something's off....' His killing intent vanished instantly.
He pulled a chair, sat down, and stared at Chloe in silence for a few moments.
"Do you remember your name?" he asked softly, trying to figure out the real situation.
Chloe paused for a moment, her eyes staring blankly at the wall. "Henri said... my name is Chloe."
After hearing this, Bill finally understood completely.
The girl before him had lost her memory!
At that moment, he could barely hold back his lips from curving into a grin.
"What else has he told you?" he asked again.
Chloe paused longer this time. She moved her body stiffly, her index finger touching her lip, her head slightly tilted as if trying to recall something from the void.
"A lot," she answered softly. "About you, about me too."
At that moment, Bill suddenly smiled, a warm and affectionate smile.
"Then, let me tell you things he didn't, things that could be said... only you and I know." He leaned his body slightly closer. "How about we talk while taking a walk? I know a good place to clear the mind."
Chloe paused for a moment, as if weighing the offer. But not long after, her pale lips slowly curved upward, and she nodded. "Alright. I'm bored here too."
***
(POV Furina)
Far in the dark and deadly forest, after their horrifying conversation ended, the old man who introduced himself as Armand stared at Furina with a strangely pitying gaze, before finally smiling.
"My time... is near," he said with his old hoarse voice.
"It was nice talking to you, Miss. It's been a very long time... since I spoke with a human." He paused, his breathing heavy.
"As a farewell gift, accept this. This item can help you get out of here."
Furina didn't answer; she just stared at the old man in silence, feeling a strange sadness enveloping her heart.
"I was glad to talk to you too," she said sincerely. "I got to hear amazing stories."
Armand smiled weakly. "Good...."
As he uttered that word, his frail body suddenly glowed with a soft golden light, then slowly faded into particles of light that flew upward, leaving his ragged cloak and an object that fell with a soft clink to the ground.
Furina stared at the event with widened eyes, about to scream in fear thinking the light was an explosion, but she quickly covered her mouth, remembering the rifthounds.
At that moment, she noticed that the fallen object was an armband made of thin bronze plates, its surface engraved with ancient rune symbols representing air, wind, and lightness.
"Is this... the gift he meant?" she whispered.
Carefully, she picked it up and put it on her arm.
Instantly, her body felt so light as if she could float.
In the narrow pit, she tried jumping, and she managed to jump much higher than she ever imagined.
The first genuine smile appeared on her face.
The cloak worn by the old man also lay on the ground. Furina stared at it for a moment before taking and wearing it, covering her identity.
Being cautious is a basic human trait!
Then, she looked up, and with the help of the Featherlight Band, she jumped out of the pit easily.
Above, no rifthounds were visible, only the forest's oppressive silence.
She no longer felt afraid; this amazing item gave her confidence to escape if needed.
After walking through the forest for hours, she finally found a village.
There, she saw several residents who looked like undead wandering with slow and aimless steps.
Sneaking silently among the shadows, Furina entered the village.
Her stomach suddenly growled loudly, reminding her that she hadn't eaten for a long time!
She felt embarrassed, but fortunately no one was near her. While holding back hunger, she continued walking carefully.
At that moment, her eyes suddenly widened.
She caught the silhouette of two humans who didn't look like undead!
They were a man and a girl. They spoke a language she didn't understand, like a foreign language. This made her narrow her eyes and follow them from a distance, hiding in the shadows.
At the same time, her eyes also caught a silhouette in the opposite direction, walking away from the two.
The figure looked very similar to her friend, Arthur!
She was about to shout to call him, but then she swallowed back the urge. She decided to follow the two more suspicious people first!
As Furina followed them, occasionally she heard the man speaking in a soft and convincing tone, uttering words like "I am your boyfriend" and "we were lovers in the previous world."
Furina didn't understand what they were saying, so she just furrowed her brow and muttered in annoyance. But seeing how the girl often paused for several minutes with a confused expression, she knew that what the man said must be something very important.
Furina followed them until a damp basement.
There, she saw the girl's behavior becoming increasingly strange; sometimes her cheeks flushed, sometimes she seemed hesitant. Meanwhile, the man kept smiling in a seductive way.
Not long after, they started holding hands.
At first the atmosphere was normal, but then Furina felt the atmosphere becoming increasingly romantic and awkward.
She widened her eyes when she saw them continuing to hold hands in silence. She felt embarrassed as if peeking at something very private, and immediately left the place.
At that moment, her face kept flushing as she headed back to where she had seen Arthur before.
***
(POV Henri)
Far from there, at the inn, Henri who had obtained the gold coin managed to escape and return.
He slammed his room door shut and leaned against it, his breathing ragged, before moving to check on Bill's condition.
As he opened Bill's room door, his eyes suddenly widened in horror.
The room was empty!
Could he have woken up? But his body's condition clearly doesn't allow it..., he muttered, remembering how his friend's body was shattered from the explosion.
A very bad premonition gripped his heart.
At that moment, he rushed to Chloe's room front, knocking hard on the door, only to find no answer.
He immediately opened the door and found the room also empty.
He gaped for a few moments before, with anger and panic, he ran out, searching for them both throughout the village.
However, not long after, his instinct led him to a hidden basement. He stared at the basement in silence and swallowed.
Entering it. And sure enough, as he descended the rickety stairs, he found them both there. He was about to approach in panic, but he immediately stopped, hiding in the shadows.
At that moment, he heard Bill's confession.
"Henri likes you, and he hates me," Bill said to Chloe in a soft voice. "But because I am your boyfriend, he won't dare hurt me."
Hearing the lie, Henri couldn't help but feel shocked and speechless. Only, his grip on his hand suddenly tightened so hard that his knuckles turned white.
***
(POV Charles)
At that moment, he walked aimlessly along the village's main road that might have once been lively and colorful.
Now, what remained was a sight of destruction.
Wooden houses stood tilted with broken windows staring at him like empty and soulless eyes.
Overturned merchant carts on the roadside, their once valuable contents now rotted and merged with the soil.
Doors open, revealing darkness inside, as if inviting him into the jaws of death.
The air around him felt heavy and thick, filled with the sweet and nauseating scent of decay, mixed with the aroma of mushrooms and wet soil that pierced his nose.
The only sound accompanying him was the sad howling wind passing through the holed roofs and the low and guttural groans of the undead wandering in the distance, sounds that felt like an endless death chant.
Charles continued walking, his mind drifting far, back to his old life, a world that now felt like an impossible dream.
He remembered the noisy city sounds, the aroma of coffee in the morning, and the normal boredom of monotonous office work.
He snorted, kicking a rusted can on the road, its shrill sound so awkward.
He saw an undead at the end of the road, a woman who might have once been beautiful, now walking with dragging steps, her beautiful dress torn and stained with mud, her face pale and half-rotted.
Charles only glanced at her briefly without interest, then turned into a narrower alley, too tired to feel afraid or disgusted.
He just felt empty.
He remembered Ei and sighed.
At that moment, as he went deeper into the village's silent labyrinth, a strange feeling began to creep into his mind.
The silence around him felt different.
The groans that had sounded distant now seemed to come from all directions, closer, more numerous. He stopped in the middle of a small intersection, where four dirt roads met.
At first, he didn't notice, his mind still too busy cursing his fate.
But slowly, he began to feel it.
Movement in the corner of his eye.
A shadow moving slowly at the end of the alley to his right.
A figure stumbling out from behind a house to his left.
At that moment, he raised his head, and his heart seemed to stop beating.
From every road, from every crevice between the ruined buildings, they slowly began to emerge one by one.
The undead!
They no longer wandered aimlessly.
They were encircling him!
They all stopped, their rotting bodies facing him, their cloudy and lifeless eyes fixed on him.
One, two, five, ten, twenty... he stopped counting.
All escape routes were now blocked by rows of slowly walking bodies.
The silence that had been oppressive was now filled with simultaneous groans.
The air around him felt even colder, the scent of decay so thick it made him want to vomit.
He had walked straight into a perfect trap.
After a long silence where the only sound was his own pounding heart in his ears, Charles's expression changed.
"Hahaha," his laughter broke.
After that laugh, his tension melted away, replaced by an odd calm.
His lips, which had been tightly closed, now curved into a wry smile full of irony.
He slowly raised both hands to the sides in a theatrical surrender gesture, staring at the pale gray sky mixed with purple.
"It seems... my luck is really bad today," he said to the silence, his voice sounding so calm.
***
A/N: Yep, the next chapter is the peak of this story, but that doesn't determine how each character's ending... I'm a bit confused how to resolve all this. Too troublesome, honestly, sigh.
Btw, I'm still expecting comments!
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