Chapter 68: So That’s It
"I guess I’m back," Adrian muttered as he walked into the very familiar, unfamiliar apartment, closing the door behind him.
Everything was as he remembered leaving it, even the laptop on the bed was still there, with a battery that was dead for ages now since he didn’t leave it connected.
With a sigh, Adrian walked to the bed and lay down, staring at the ceiling for a while.
Fortunately for him, dust didn’t seem to have piled up in the room, so he didn’t need to clean up right away.
Though, he might need to restock his fridge and throw away the stuff in it since most might’ve expired already.
"I’ll do that later," he muttered as he picked up the laptop and connected its charger.
He switched on the laptop and it conveniently continued from where it last was before shutting down.
On the manhwa panel with the Villainess’s, Renelle’s, face and he couldn’t help but smile, "it’s been a while, my lady."
Adrian froze as he realized how he just addressed her, yes he was obsessed with this fictional character, but he had never been insane enough to address her as ’his lady’.
...
Well, he might’ve addressed her as his Renelle a couple of times, but for some reason call her his lady felt so natural.
«Idiot,» a voice was suddenly heard in his head.
What?" he muttered, his brows furrowing as he slowly looked around the room.
He was still very much alone in the apartment.
"I guess I’m imagining things," Adrian muttered before he turned back to the laptop.
«Turn around ,» the voice came again and he immediately turned around only to freeze.
Sitting on the backrest of his bed, tail lazily swaying from side to side was a black cat, the same one from outside.
«Isn’t it about time you woke up?» the cat spoke up? Yes, he definitely wasn’t imagining it, the cat was the one speaking.
"Right, right, this can only be a dream."
«No.»
"I hit my head harder than I thought."
«Also no.»
Without saying anything else, he just put the laptop to the side, pulled up his covers and closed his eyes, convinced that this was some type of weird dream.
«...»
The cat looked at him with blank eyes, wondering if this truly was his contractor.
Still, it knew exactly how to snap him out of it.
«I guess your obsession was so shallow that it’d only take this much to forget her,» the cat said as it hopped off the bed.
Slowly Adrian sat back up, since it seemed trying to go to sleep didn’t snap him out of this dream, he might as well just experience it.
«Renelle was her name?» the cat continued, «I guess she wouldn’t miss you much, after all, you’re merely just a butler.»
Adrian frowned, wanting to say he had no idea what it was talking about, after all, as far her he knew, the only Renelle he knew was the one from a Manhwa.
But for some reason, there was a nagging feeling that he was forgetting something important,
And it definitely wasn’t because of his three months long coma.
With that realization, a wave of headache hit, one that forced him to grab his head as blood dropped from his nose.
Familiar images were being dumped into his head and every passing second, the headache got worse, so much so he felt his brain was melting.
Adrian didn’t know how long it lasted but he still grabbed his head a few seconds after the headache passed.
Slowly, he let go and lifted his head, revealing a nose that was still bleeding but he wasn’t bothered, instead, the expression on his face had completely changed.
His shoulders were slightly trembling as a smile formed on his face and he immediately started laughing, almost like a man insane.
He laughed for a few seconds before finally calming down and muttering, "so that’s it?"
«Took you long enough,» Noctis said as it looked at its contractor finally return to normal.
Adrian got off the bed, walked to his bathroom and stared at the reflection on the mirror.
Before him was a slightly mature face that he had almost forgotten he once had.
His black hair was still messy, and his grey eyes seemed as empty as ever, but even through that, he was grinning.
He finally realized what was happening and why he was back on Earth.
"Absolute hypnosis," Adrian muttered to himself as he looked in the mirror, "Isla really is fit to be the first arc’s boss."
«You expected this to happen didn’t you?» Noctis asked as it appeared on his head, its reflection also appearing in the mirror.
"Yes," he nodded in response, "since it was to get her to awaken, getting caught in her ability was inevitable."
«How do you intend to escape?» the cat asked as it lay comfortably on its contractor’s head.
Adrian slowly wiped the blood off his nose as he thought of it, pain wasn’t going to work, whether that be inside or outside the illusion.
The way the ability worked, his only way of escape was either his real body’s death, Isla’s death or she deactivated the ability.
His or her death wasn’t ideal, and the current state she was in would not allow her to deactivate the ability.
Which meant there was no way out for him....
But if that were the case, he wouldn’t have made this gamble in the first place. The thing was, Isla’s ability wasn’t perfected just yet, which meant there was a flaw he could exploit.
"It should appear soon," Adrian muttered, and just after his words,
BOOM!
The entire building shook as if it had been hit by by something, but instead of caution, Adrian smiled,
"Right on time," he said as he ran out the bathroom and towards the open window.
Without hesitation, he jumped out with Noctis still comfortable on his head.
A second after he did, the entire building crumbled to dust and whilst falling, Adrian turned back noticing that the once bright sky had turned completely dark,
But that wasn’t what he focused on, instead, he was looking directly at what was responsible for the crumbled building.
With a grin he said,
"There you are."