Regnum Aetern: Dual Rebirth

Chapter 132: Strange scratches

It took Adrian a lot of time for him to reach his destination in the immutable world.

The main reason for that was the complete lack of public transport since there were no people to drive them. Adrian could’ve also just taken a random car or motorbike. Sadly, he was only ten years old physically, not tall enough to properly drive any vehicle.

In the end, he opted to simply walk there.

But now, it was two in the afternoon, and the sun had climbed right above his head. Thankfully, he had used the analog wristwatch to increase the time discrepancy, making the time here far faster than the real world, so only a few minutes would’ve passed in reality.

And now, Adrian stood in front of a two-story building. It was the same building where that golden-haired girl, Lia, had lived during the time he was stuck with her in the third ’teleportation.’

There was something Adrian wanted to check. Something that had felt trivial back then, and there were a lot of other things that had occupied his mind at that time. Still, it was bugging him for some reason.

Opening the door, the inside of the house was the same as he remembered. Without looking around, Adrian took the stairs and went straight to the upper floor.

Moments later, he was in front of the room that the girl had lived in. As he slid open the door, he was greeted by the same sight.

Dozens of wall calendars covered the wall.

’It’s definitely strange.’

All the wall calendars were of the same year. There was even tape at the bottom, as if to keep them still and in place.

Adrian just hadn’t been able to get them out of his mind until now.

Taking a deep breath, he reached out his hand and pulled away a wall calendar to inspect it.

"Hmm..."

He looked at it from all angles. He flipped through each page to see if there was anything, but...

’It seems like just an ordinary calendar; there is nothing strange about it.’

Adrian sighed.

Was he being too paranoid? Had that whole incident and the mystery of that girl affected him that much? Maybe it really had...

But as Adrian turned to the wall, intending to hand the wall calendar back, he suddenly stiffened.

The wall where the calendar had been—it was covered in long scratches. Alongside those scratches, there were small patches of dried blood.

It looked as though someone had scratched at the wall so desperately that the tips of their fingers started bleeding.

But that was not all. Although irregular and chaotic, those nail scratches looked like... words.

He clenched his fists unconsciously.

{Escape! Escape! Escape! You have to escape!}

Adrian stared at those letters without moving. The sound of his heartbeat could be heard in the quiet room.

And then, he pulled out another calendar nearby. And...

{Remember! Remember! Remember! You have to remember!!}

"..."

Adrian took another deep breath.

Then, one after another, he began removing the calendars. And by the time he was done...

{Not like this! Not like this! Not like this!}

{Coward! You coward! Why are you even ALIVE?!!}

{Die! Die! Die! You should just die!}

{YOU DESERVE TO DIE!!!}

"..."

As he stared at the wall motionlessly, Adrian’s head was empty of all thoughts. The sound of his heartbeat was a bit louder than before.

But then he sighed and quietly left the room.

’Looks like that girl was suffering from mental issues.’

That seemed like the most likely explanation. No, maybe it was her father who had left those scratches on the wall. After all, he knew that man had become mentally unstable, since Adrian had heard that girl’s story.

No, maybe those scratches had nothing to do with the girl at all. After all, according to Lia’s story, her father had sold everything they owned, including their house. And after falling into debt, they would’ve most likely sold anything they had bought with the earnings from the cruise business.

This meant that this house may have been some abandoned house she might’ve somehow paid for. Or maybe it was lent to her by her relatives?

In the end, Adrian didn’t know what it all meant.

But as he walked out of ‌the house, a single thought was echoing in his mind.

’What if... there is more to those scratches...?’

***

Days continued to pass with Adrian remaining motionless in the cave, unable to move.

The vampire would treat him with that dull grey energy every day and take his blood after the treatment. This was like a routine that repeated every day.

By the fifth day, Adrian’s body began mildly responding to him. The horrible cracks were no longer as horrible as they had been at the start.

Still, the vampire warned him not to move his body yet since he was still in a pretty bad state and even minor physical stress could cause his condition to worsen.

The only thing Adrian did to pass the time was chat with Ralz.

The vampire was very talkative and knew a lot more about the world than Adrian had expected. Feralscar Domain was an isolated piece of land, yet the vampire knew about most of the conflicts going on in the empire.

Apparently, the vampire even knew about House Ravenshade.

Talking with him, Adrian had gained a lot of new and useful information. He got to know more about the Feralscar Domain and the vampires. The only topic Ralz didn’t talk about was about himself. Ralz didn’t mention anything about himself besides his name.

Adrinan didn’t try to pry more either.

One day, under the illumination of the campfire, the two of them were talking as they had. That was when Adrian asked something he had been meaning to ask for some time now.

"Do you know anything about the Primordial Gods?"

Ralz tilted his head in confusion.

"The what?"

"The Primordial Gods." Adrian repeated. "In the legends of the immortal, there were said to be fourteen gods who existed in the era of divide, which was apparently the first era."

But as he was speaking, Adrian noticed that Ralz was looking at him strangely.

"Child, were you part of some sort of cult? You seem to have learned strange stories. I have no idea about these Primordial Gods or whatever legend they appeared in. But if you ask me, that story is most likely made up."

Adrian paused.

’He doesn’t know about the legends of the immortals? Hmm...’

It was not that strange now that he thought about it. After all, the legends of the immortals were scattered across the empire, and even most imperial citizens only knew minor parts of it, according to Sir Avalon, at least.

Considering that Ralz wasn’t even an imperial citizen, it was more likely for him to know nothing about it.

Still...

"How can you be so sure that those stories are fake?"

He was too confident while dismissing the legends as nothing more than made-up stories. Sure, most imperial citizens also used to react the same way before the power of immortality reappeared. It was just that he didn’t expect Ralz to be the same.

Ralz sighed.

"It simply doesn’t make sense, logically. That is all."

He paused and looked at Adrian thoughtfully.

"Child, do you know the myth of the world’s creation?"