“We can figure something out later. Let’s freshen up first.”
The man said, tightening his arm around his shoulders and ruffling his hair.
Schizo scowled at him, “What are you doing?”
The man’s finger got caught in a tangle, and he chuckled apologetically at the glare Schizo shot him. With careful movements, he untangled his hand.
Schizo walked to the lake, examining the water.
It looked clear enough, but…
What were those sparkly things?
“Don’t worry, they’re edible,” The man said.
Schizo turned his head, looking at him suspiciously, “And how do you know?”
The man shrugged, “I’ll prove it to you.”
He walked forward, and as he said, cupped a handful of water before bringing it before his lips and lightly sipping.
His Adam’s apple rolled, shiny droplets of water sliding down his chin and onto his neck, leaving a pale trail.
Schizo tore his gaze away and looked back up at his face.
The man looked back at him. “Told you.”
“What if it’s a slow acting poison?” Schizo asked, raising an eyebrow.
“If the poison doesn’t kill you, dehydration will.”
“…”
Schizo took out his bottle from his bag and put a filter over it. He then lowered the bottle into the water, filling it up.
After it was halfway full, he brought it up to his lips and took a few sips, before dipping it back underwater and filling it again.
The man stood patiently at the side, observing his actions.
Soon, the bottle filled up, and while Schizo was putting it back in his backpack, he heard the man say, “What’s that?”
He looked up to see him squinting at something from the direction they came, and following his gaze, he saw it was a black substance slowly oozing forward.
Curiously, both men went closer, observing it.
No, it wasn’t a black substance.
It was rather…
Hard to describe.
It was like nothingness.
Like a void extending forward.
Out of curiosity, Schizo extended his hand forward, closer to it.
The man stood right next to him, observing.
His slender fingers curled in hesitation, before finally giving in.
However, no more than the tip of his finger had entered the blackness when he screamed out loud and yanked his hand back, clutching it.
“FUCK!”
“What’s up?” The man quickly stepped forward with his brows drawn in a frown, taking his hand and gently tugging it towards him.
Schizo had his jaws clenched tightly, tears welling up in his eyes, with an unnaturally tense expression.
The man examined his hand, and saw that the tips of his fingers that had touched the void were melting, dripping skin and bones and blood.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
His flesh was melting.
Cr lo bc mef, atf nblv revvfcis rqfv eq, fzafcvlcu obgkjgv ja j ojrafg qjmf.
Ktf wjc ugjyyfv Vmtlhb’r batfg kglra jcv egufcais aeuufv tlw yjmx abkjgvr atf ijxf.
Dbat raewyifv abkjgvr atf ijxf lc j teggs, jcv atf wjc kjr jybea ab pewq lcab atf ijxf ktfc Vmtlhb qeiifv tlw yjmx obgmfoeiis.
“Are you out of your mind?! We’ll drown!” he said, his tone distressed.
“And melting to death is a better option?”
Unlike him, the man was exceedingly calm. It irritated Schizo all the more.
He opened and closed his mouth a few times, but couldn’t come up with a retort. The man took the chance while he was off guard and yanked him, jumping into the water.
The water was cold and biting against his skin, but the muffled splash sounds were refreshing nonetheless. It took him a while to realize how long it had been since he last heard any sound of life, even if it was just a tiny splash.
His vision blurred, and then refocused in an instant.
The first thing he noticed was how good the water felt, engulfing his hair. It felt particularly mild and sweet like the first sip of iced water after days of labor in a sunny desert.
Then he noticed the slight glow in front of him. Millions of blue and silver tiny, glowing particles covered a figure, leaving only the collarbone and up out. The exposed skin was as white and smooth as jade, and the face held a peaceful, serene expression, as if the person was asleep. His white hair floated in the water, looking as natural as seaweeds swaying in water.
And then his eyes opened. Icy blue pupils stared back into his eyes, empty like two deep voids. They were outlined with a glimmering silver, appearing no different than a blue lake surrounded with frost.
The image sent a chill down his spine.
And after that, a wave of overwhelming grief washed over him.
His heart ached.
It ached like he had just lost a loved one, like he had been forced to leave them behind and let them suffer eternally while he got to move on and live a fulfilling life, forgetting about them.
Leaving behind all memories like they were words scribbled on the paper absentmindedly. Leaving behind all the whispered secrets like they were melodies sung dismissively.
And he got to move on, while they had to hold the weight of the past on their shoulders, fully aware that he was enjoying life in their absence.
Guilt, regret, yearning. All of these emotions were like chapters in a book, its pages flipping constantly in front of his eyes and making him read and feel all of it.
He opened his mouth to instinctively call out a name, but as soon as his lips parted, water rushed in, pouring down his throat and filling up every inch of him.
His legs, his hands, his abdomen, throat, head, it all filled up with water. He felt like an empty container, being filled to the brim from head to toe. The water kept pouring in endlessly, and soon he felt like he might burst any second. Blood rushed in his head, his nostrils and throat burned, and his ears were ringing, making him shut his eyes.
Then everything went silent, and he was floating mid-space.
There was nothing around him. No water, no person, nothing. Only emptiness.
Vast, endless emptiness.
◇○○○◇
Schizo felt the light and ticklish brush of something soft on his neck. He slowly opened his eyelids, blinking a few times to adjust his blurry vision.
The first thing he saw was the man’s face, way too close for comfort. Before he could register anything that was happening, the man looked at him, his eyes lighting up.
“You’re awake!”
“Mmh…” Schizo nodded lazily, his body feeling too exhausted and heavy to move an inch.
A hard heaviness weighed down on his chest, like he had just run a marathon and climbed the highest of mountains.
He ignored it, slowly sitting up. He noticed a piece of cloth in the man’s hands, and raised an eyebrow at it.
“I was drying you off,” the man sheepishly chuckled, scratching the back of his neck.
“Oh,” Schizo said, “thank you.”
The man just looked away and smiled, neatly folding the towel on his lap.
Schizo took notice of some water on the ground, and curiously poked it.
It jiggled.
Schizo, “…what is that?”
The man cleared his throat, “Ah, that…when I was drying you off the water wouldn’t get absorbed and it just…became like that.”
“…”
“It’s cute, though…?”
Schizo sighed, and moved to get up.
Just then, the man poked the water again, and it moved.
Both men froze.
After five seconds of silence, the water moved again.
It slid over to Schizo, pooling around his hand propped up on the ground.
The soothing relief it brought made Schizo realize his hand had a burning pain ever since he woke up.
Right, he had touched that void thingy…
Recalling that, he looked towards the lake, and suddenly many questions popped up in his head.
“Where are we?” he asked.
The man explained, “After we jumped in the lake, you passed out, so I carried you and swam underwater. The void engulfed the surface of the lake, so I dove deeper and deeper until at some point it suddenly stopped.”
Schizo frowned, “It just stopped?”
The man nodded, then continued, “So with no way back, I could only dive deeper. Until at some point the surroundings suddenly flipped and I found myself swimming upwards, and surfaced here in this place.”
Schizo rubbed his temples. “Okay, okay. Anything else?”
The man’s face suddenly lit up, as if he recalled something. “I remembered my name!”
Schizo raised his eyebrows questioningly, getting up from the ground.
“Stein. It’s Stein.”
“Stein?” Schizo stared at him for a moment, looked around at their rocky environment, and scoffed, “Of course it is.”
Stein saw nothing wrong and nodded in confirmation. His eyes then traveled down to Schizo’s wrist, and he pointed at it.
Schizo looked down to see the water wrapped around his wrist, still covering his fingers.
He shrugged, “Let it be.”
“Are we gonna take it?”
“Yeah, why leave it around?”
Stein nodded in acknowledgement. Then, he saw Schizo curiously bring his wrist up to his face.
“What if I drink it?”
“Please do not attempt to drink it,” Stein said, a beat too late.
Schizo had already put his lips on the water, and gently sucked.
A loud gurgling voice sounded, followed by violent jiggles from the water, startling both men.
Schizo stood still in shock, blinking at the water.
“Pfft,” Stein snorted, then roared with laughter. He breathlessly continued with difficulty, “Oh, it didn’t like that.”
“M..my bad,” Schizo looked at the water apologetically.
It showed no further movements, but Schizo could feel it cool down around his wrist.
Both of them still felt tired, so they rested for a while around the lake. They decided to take turns cleaning themselves up.
While Schizo was in the lake, dunking his head to wash his hair, he spoke up.
“How did you recall your name?”
Stein stopped poking the water on his lap and looked up at him. His eyes landed on his back, lean and well-built, and he averted his eyes respectfully.
“It just struck me after I got out of the water.”
Schizo hummed absent mindedly, scrubbing his arms.
Silence descended, the only sound being the dripping and rippling of water.
After a while, Stein’s voice sounded, “I live here.”
“Hm?”
“This is where I live. I’ve never seen the outside world. This has been my world since forever.”
Schizo looked up, staring into his eyes with a complicated expression.
Who was this guy, really?
At first, he really seemed to have forgotten his memories.
And now, he’s been recalling them gradually, informing him every time he remembered something.
But were his words legit?
Was he trustworthy?
Once again, he was bothered by the question of just where this guy came from. He seemed to have been summoned out of nowhere. Would he be honest with him if Schizo were to ask? Was he even safe to be around? Schizo had unknowingly lowered his guard around him. This man made him feel so at ease, it had come naturally. It felt right to be around him. Schizo had merely known him a few days, yet felt like they have always been familiar with each other.
Especially ever since he started gaining his memories. All sense of any stranger went away, even though his memories had nothing to do with him.
Maybe it was his personality. Maybe he just had this social charm of making people feel at ease. It was quite odd for someone who had never been in the outside world, as this man had claimed.
That raised another question.
What about food? Schizo had not seen him eat a single bite all these days. Moreover, where would he even get food from in this kind of place?
Just when his thoughts started spiraling, something ticklish and slippery swept under his foot.
Schizo exclaimed, and took a few steps back in alarm.
Stein chuckled from behind him, and just then the water slid up his chest and latched onto his face.
Schizo stood still, listening to the low gurgles which sounded suspiciously similar to happy and satisfied mumblings.
Stein laughed, “Aw, do you like mommy more than me?”
Schizo frowned, removing the water from his face to glare at him. “Who are you calling mommy?”
In return the water gurgled and jiggled. It was just water, but Schizo could tell it was irritated.
Stein raised an eyebrow and asked, “You want me to be the mommy?”
Schizo put on a pondering expression, before a corner of his lip curled up, “You do look more feminine.”
Stein scoffed. “How so?”
“You’re prettier.”
“…am I supposed to be offended or flattered at that?”
“That is up to you,” Schizo said. He put the water on his shoulder, and it slid closer to his face, seemingly snuggling in the crook of his neck. It tickled, but Schizo didn’t mind.
It was nice, if he was being honest.
He didn’t remember what he came here for. Why he was stuck in the first place. However, what he did know was that he hadn’t felt this nice in a while. Sure, they were still somewhat strangers, and weren’t exactly in the best situation. But it was nice. Better than being alone.
He stepped out of the lake, the faintest hint of a smile on his lips.
Schizo gains SLIME TAMER ability!
Schizo gains SLIME COMPANION LV 1 x1
🤣
Oh! Meant to mention – author, the chapter went in as 4 instead of 3!
Ah, my bad, I mixed up the release schedules for chapter 3 and 4. Chapter 3 is published now
Well, that explains why he suddenly remembered 🤣