I know that he is strong but this is just insane. I can barely block his attacks and even if I tried to trick him into a feint, he easily saw through it and avoid it like nothing. He was very strong that even when I am using my katana, it is still not doing quite well enough against him. Even with my knowledge in battle and countless experiences on the battlefield, it seems like it is nothing compared to him.
"I admit you have the skills but you don't have enough power to fight toe to toe with me."
I grit my teeth as blood spills through my severed right arm. As much as I want to stay in a fight, I am already having a hard time stopping the bleeding on my right arm. I had to bite the hilt of my katana just to properly hold it as my left arm is trying to suppress the bleeding effect of my right arm.
"I guess I went too overboard huh?" He scratches his head as he stares at the injuries that I suffered in his hands.
"From the looks of it... I failed right?" I struggled as the pain is still lingering. It might not be as painful as my head earlier but it was still painful nonetheless and the fact that I lost an arm from the battle, is an automatic F grade and can be already said to be a failure in a trial.
"Fail? No, no. You are mistaken. You passed with flying colors."
"Huh?"
"You think you failed because you got defeated right? Well, that is an obvious thing, kid. No one can defeat me in combat if not for the curse, I wouldn't have died. Still, managing to fight against me for quite a long time is something else. Anyone who might have fought me the moment I attack them is also the day they might have breathed their last. You on the other hand only lost an arm and a few fatal wounds but other than that, you are still pretty much alive. That is already pretty impressive."
"I..."
"Since you passed the trial, the amalgamation of my weapon and your weapon will soon be done the moment you wake up. Also, I will be erasing this memory that transpired here. You will only think it's just a passing dream and nothing more. After all, it's still not yet the right time."
"What do you..." before I can say what I needed to say, my consciousness blacks out and I lost all of the senses I have.
...
"Are you sure this is alright?" the guy turned to look at the figure before him.
"Yeah, this is fine."
"Are you sure he will be the one who will change everything?"
"The world has already done a reset once and the only one who can change everything is him. Our role is just to watch him and see him do his decision, whether he succeeds or not. We are not here to interrupt, we are here to guide him," the figure stares at the unconscious "body" of Manato.
"The wheels of fate are already doing their motion. Things won't be as smooth as it is right now."
...
...
...
"HA!"
I opened my eyes as I felt like my body has been pulled out from the depths of the abyss. I was so surprised that I didn't get to respond to what happened to me. Then I just remembered, I was suffering from a very bad headache. And from the looks of it, I lost consciousness after trying to hold the pain in my head.
That was the most painful experience I have ever experienced in my whole life including the past timeline. It's just too unforgettable and I don't think I will forget it anytime soon. I tried stretching my body and arms after a long sleep when a pang of pain suddenly crawls on my right arm. It only lasted for a bit but it was something familiar to me. However, for some unknown reason, I don't think I can remember it. My body seems to remember it but my mind seems like it refused to listen.
Did I do something while I was unconscious? No, that shouldn't be the case. Just looking at my arm, there is nothing here that would make me wince in pain. There isn't even any sort of bruise here that would cause me to feel that pain I felt earlier. Is it because of my sleeping position after I lost my consciousness? Perhaps that was it.
Thankfully, the pain in my head is no longer present. I don't even feel it anymore which means the process might be done already.
But I still didn't want to go to the game and check it out. I have to spend a single day of rest playing the game straight. I still needed to balance reality and games after all,
I check the time and it's already 11 45 A.M. It seems I already missed my breakfast but that doesn't matter, I can still go on without one. I should take an early lunch instead.
When I got outside the room, I heard voices in the dining room so perhaps they are already eating their lunch much earlier. I didn't go straight to the dining room and went to the bathroom and decided to take a bath for now. I feel so grimy from all the sweat that accumulated in my body after the terrible headache last night.
...
I just used the shower as an easy way to get rid of the grime since heating water will take some time to finish. Besides, the water is not that cold and it is faster this way. Maybe I would soak in hot water later this evening but right now, I don't think it's necessary for me.
As I wipe off the grime in my body, the water that passes through my body slowly turned black and I was startled. I thought the water is dirty so I tried to grab a container if the water is dirty but it turns out it is not as I noticed that the water that came in contact with my body turns that dirty after.
"The f*ck? Is this how dirty my body has become? I am sure I take a bath at least twice a day and even on times I didn't interact with others, I still take my bath regularly. So this amount of grime is absolutely impossible to accumulate in just one night.
It took me a few hours before the water no longer turned black. It didn't smell but it was unpleasant to see, knowing that my body is this dirty. I made sure to take a few cleanse with soap just to make sure my body is clean.
When I got out of the bathroom, Janus was outside the door.
"Hey, man. It's almost 4 hours you spent in the bathroom, are you doing something miraculous there or something?"
"No, I am just taking a normal bath. What the heck are you talking about doing something miraculous, I only do that if I am in my room!"
"No, seriously dude. That wasn't a normal amount of time spent in a shower. If anyone was in a hurry and needed to shower, they would have been immediately going to enter the bath the moment you enter the room."
"Dude, this is not the toilet for someone to be in a hurry to enter it. This is the shower room, anyone can take their time in leisure to spend inside the bath and no one needs to take a bath as soon as possible, that wouldn't make sense instead."
He argued with me for a bit but I didn't tell him about the black grime in my body after I took a shower. He doesn't need to know about it anyway as it doesn't involve him in any way.
The siblings greeted me before they entered their rooms. They are currently going back to the Alternate World when I arrived so I just had the wrong timing.
Pandora and her brother would still have yet to come back so the only people wandering around the house are the siblings and Janus. Thankfully, the siblings are quite diligent in cleaning, or else, Janus would surely make some clutter here and there that would make me feel a headache.
...
"Yo, Manato. Have you already registered for the school enrollment? It's already ongoing. Riko and I already did our enrollment. We didn't disturb you last time since you don't want to be disturbed while doing the quests but now that you are already out of the game, I thought you might need to remember it."
"Is that so? It seems I missed the first day of registration huh?" Due to my focus on the game for the past few days, I didn't expect I would forget about it. This shouldn't be happening with my eidetic memory. However, maybe this was just the cause of me paying much more attention to the game rather than school.
It might not be as interesting in the game but perhaps, with all the changes that happened due to my actions, there might be some changes I have not expected.