09/05/1164

William’s House

Zack lay on the bed, too feeble to move, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

‘This is so… boring.’

His eyes darted through the room once again, traversing the all too familiar room once again.

‘I am confident that even with my eyes closed, I remember where everything is in this room and how it looks.’

Closing his eyes, he let out a turbid breath. Trying to move his arms or legs, a weariness seeming to originate from a lack of energy filled him down to his bones, making it hard for him to move a muscle. At the same time, from random parts of his body, a sense of pain filled his senses, making his face look as if he had swallowed a fly.

‘Should I try to push it again?’ the boy thought, a grimace surfacing on his face. A certain scene flashed through his mind.

‘I don’t want to fall down on the ground again. No. Just no. I’ll patiently wait till someone comes here. Sigh… why did I have to get injured? Just what was I doing to get injured this bad? I must be an idiot!’

Cursing his former self for a while more, he passed his time, bored out of his mind.

However, not long after, a goddess like woman answered his prayer. Aria walked into the room, a bowl of medicine resting on her one hand while a roll of bandages rested on another.

“Zack, I’ll be changing out your bandages. It might hurt a little, so please try to bear with it and don’t scratch your head.” Aria said while propping Zack up, a motherly smile on her face.

Zack nodded in agreement before closing his eye.

He felt the bandages wrapping around his head begin to loosen. Not long after, one of the areas on his head, formerly covered with skin, permeated a cool sensation filled with an almost unbearable itchiness.

The boy’s hands trembled as an urge to scratch filled his head.

However, just an instant later, the remaining shreds of rationality curbed the urge in its bud.

Soon, more and more of his covered skin got exposed to the gentle breeze, making him tremble with an unquenchable desire to scratch his skin away, causing him to shake as the last vestiges of his rationality desperately fought back like soldiers on the verge of death, doing their best to annihilate their enemies in a final flash of glory.

But the itchiness kept on attacking without receding, his resistance weakening by every second.

His hand moved, causing pain to shoot back to his head. A moment of clarity returned to his head.

Yet, the itch eroded it not long after, causing his hand to tremble more and more.

As the itchiness neared its peak with the bandages being removed every moment, his hand trembled several times.

With pain like a drug and him like an addict, he began moving his hand in small motions like turning his elbow by a few degrees to moving his fingers, and before long, his hand moved through the air, reaching towards his left eyelid, the centre of all the unbearable itchiness.

But before it could reach the skin, a warm hand wrapped around his wrist, stopping it in place. Instinctually, he tried to struggle free, all for it to be a lost cause.

His hand didn’t budge one bit.

“Stay still. Don’t do anything stupid. If you scratch, it will only hurt more.” Aria chided.

“Oh. I-I’m sorry.” Realising his mistake, Zack hurriedly apologised.

After a bit of silence, Aria’s voice chimed through his ears again.

“I think you need something else to focus on so you can forget this itch, no? Hmm… lets see… Would you mind reading me a book?”

After a slight hesitation, Zack nodded.

“Okay then, but remember not to try to open your left eye by mistake. Or it would hurt a lot. Wait a bit. I’ll go fetch it.”

Sound of footsteps left into the air as Aria’s voice floated through the air.

Timidly, Zack opened his right eye, doing his best to not disturb his left one in the slightest.

‘I need to get used to it as fast as possible.’ He thought, helpless.

As soon as he opened his eye, he saw Aria walking in, holding a thick book with a thick cover.

Looking at the book before looking down at his hand, he estimated the book’s thickness to be thrice as that of his tiny palm.

Zack asked, “Aunt, do you like to read books?”

A smile bloomed on Aria’s face as she replied, “Although not as much as I used to, that I do. Books give a pleasant change of pace alongside a lot of useful and interesting information.”

Zack couldn’t help but nod in agreement.

Flipping through the pages, Aria opened up a particular page before passing the book over, saying, “Start from line three in paragraph twelve.”

His eye moving over, he soon found the sentence.

“The legends speak of an ancient battle as the cause of the distribution of the land. Rumours and myths claim that back in the day, the various landmasses were a single landmass covering the entirety of our world, with seas and oceans being mere decorations atop it, unlike the current situation, with water covering more than half the area.

“From the distinct murals all over the world to the legends passed down through inheritances of various ancient lineages, murals and artefacts, all that comes to light is a cata… catist…”

While in the middle of the recitation, Zack got stuck, unable to articulate the next word.

Aria corrected, “Catastrophic.”

Zack nodded in understanding before continuing, “All that comes to light is a catastrophic battle long ago, said to have happened between gods. The scale was large enough to split apart the land, turning mulberry fields to enormous seas we see today, as well as overturning mountains and plains…”

Zack kept reading, taking occasional stops to catch his breath. The more he read, the more engrossed he became.

“Not bad. You’re doing quite a bit decent.” Aria praised. “I’ll get to bandaging now.”

As if having not heard her, Zack kept on reading, his voice gradually losing its volume bit by bit.

While the woman tied a fresh layer of bandage, the boy kept on reading. Besides an occasional grimace, the book absorbed him completely, making him forget about everything else.

A scene of a few majestic figures formed within his mind, a wave of their hands causing terrifying lightning to scorch the lands as big as a nation, while a clap generated sound piercing enough to rupture mountains.

The boy’s voice eventually vanished, filling the room with silence.

Aria smiled contentedly, continuing to wrap the bandages as she did so. She couldn’t help but lament, ‘He really didn’t change much. If big-sister was here, she would be proud. I hope she is smiling while looking at this from the other side.’

Aria sighed, continuing to wrap the bandages. In a matter of half an hour, she finished with her task, sweat lining her forehead. Looking at the boy still engrossed in the content, she left without a sound.

Time flew by as only the occasional sound from a page flipping over filled the room.

‘…and thus, from the scenes etched into the caves below the seas, along with all the previous mentioned extracts from the scriptures, we can conclude that a battle between the gods took place, which changed the entire map of our world.’

Zack straightened his back after finishing the chapter he was reading. Closing the book, his eyes wandered around, searching for the figure of a certain missing woman.

‘Where’s Aunt? Did she leave alr—what?! The sun is setting? Wasn’t it high up in the sky minutes ago? Didn’t it only take a few minutes…’

Confusion surfaced on his face before turning to a helpless smile as he looked at the book resting in his lap.

‘Wait… No. Save me. Not again. I’ll have to drink that thing once more in a bit. Can’t the day go any longer? If I was strong like those gods, I'd keep the sun up for a few days so I wouldn’t have to drink that medicine.’

Shaking his head before using his hands to crawl to the edge of his bed with enough caution to put an explorer in an uncharted territory to shame, he made his way near the bedside before picking up a pen and his diary. Next, he began scribbling, writing about his experience.