The Royal Bloodline.

“What… the… heck…?” Hitsuki uttered. He felt nauseating. What he had heard was so wrong in so many ways that he couldn’t wrap his head around it. “That’s disgusting…”

Mukonoshi didn’t say a word. He just smiled silently and looked at the distant scenes, obstructed by the windows.

“Oh how I wish to stand under the bright suns that I was born under…” Mukonoshi muttered. “People really do take the simplest things for granted. It’s only when you don’t have them that you understand what you truly had. Every people are rich, and I think it’s for that reason they think they are poor…”

Mukonoshi stared at the smiles and gossips of Hanahoshi and Sol from a distance.

“I can’t thank you enough for saving her.” Mukonoshi said. “She is probably the only one who cares for me as a sibling. Losing her would’ve meant losing half of my life. For, half of my life outside this room is told by her journeys.”

Hitsuki nodded. “I don’t know how… but somehow I understand your pain.”

Mukonoshi smiled. “I know you do. Your face says it all.”

“It’s weird isn’t it?” Hitsuki said. “I don’t even have a disability, yet I somehow understand the pain.”

Mukonoshi closed his eyes. “No, you have a disability. It’s that you look like a vampire in a world where vampires are despised. Disability doesn’t come in the form of lost limbs or low intelligence, most often it doesn’t.”

“Yeah, I guess you are right.”

“But you know, I have seen some people who doesn’t seem to have any disability, at all.” Mukonoshi stared at Hanahoshi. “It’s as if they are a different breed entirely.”

The silent admiration of Mukonoshi suddenly brought a swing of nostalgia to Hitsuki. His eyes felt teary after a long time. It was not for pain or torture, but loneliness and yearning. His foreign heart ached in this new world. He missed the old streets he used to know, the people he used to meet and the friend’s wedding he was supposed to attend.

As if he was a traveller whose heart aches for his motherland.

“He is definitely winning the bet…” Hitsuki smiled, clearing his eyes. He opened his pocket watch, reminiscing his old world. But to his surprise, the clock’s day hand had turned three digits to the left.

“Has it been only three years..?” He mumbled.

“Hanahoshi, I think you have some more work to do instead of just sitting here and gossiping.” Mukonoshi said.

“Oh right!” Hanahoshi replied, but suddenly a jolt of sorrow floated over her face.

She shook away that thought. “I have to show Mr. Hitsuki around our capital!”

Mukonoshi smiled. “That’s right. And I guess you are tagging along with them, aren’t you, Sol?”

“It’s my duty.”

“Well then, hope to see you the next time we meet, savior!” Mukonoshi waved as they exited his room. “Take care of Hanahoshi for me!”

*****

Hitsuki watched in awe as he left the castle. He stood before the monstrous monument, trying to fathom its gothic beauty. His view couldn’t capture the whole thing in one frame. Its built upon heaps of concrete and metal that glinted black under the five suns that shone over the horizon in different places.

Looking down, he realized he had five shadows under him.

“This world never fails to amaze me, even now.” He said.

“What are you doing standing there?? Come on here!” Hanahoshi yelled from afar. “The carriage is already here!!”

Even the carriage was unique. Because, it was never possible to have something thats bigger on the inside than on the outside in his pervious world, after all.

“It’s… it’s like magic…” Hitsuki uttered.

“What do you mean?” Hanahoshi asked. “It IS magic. You think this type of miracle could happen without magic?”

Hitsuki’s eyes glittered the moment he heard about Magic. He instantly grabbed Hanahoshi’s hands in excitement.

“Magic?? Where?? can you do it??” Hitsuki suddenly turned into a curious puppy.

Hanahoshi blushed at the sudden curiosity. “I don’t think anybody here can perform magic. Magic is only specialty for the species of Wizards in the Kingdom of Mage. They have the Magic Academy of Wizardry. Everything that you think is of magic is probably imported from there. They are a powerful kingdom with a powerful economy.”

“Aw that sucks…” Hitsuki’s mood went dull. “I thought I could generate water out of thin air!”

“I think that book and the thing you have in your pocket might also be an artifact of the Kingdom of Mage.” Sol interrupted. “Do you know anything about it?”

“I found this book by the river, so I don’t know.” Hitsuki said. “As for the watch… wait, why are you calling my pocket watch ‘a thing’?”

“Then what is it?” Sol asked.

“It’s a watch.”

“What is a watch? What are you watching?”

“Time?” Hitsuki was confused.

“What is time?”

Hitsuki then realized that the concept of time wasn’t a thing in this world, and only he can understand the clock’s meaning.

Thats when Hitsuki felt a jolt of inertia hit his body. He dropped on the ground as the carriage shook vigorously. His floating book also felt that drag.

“An enemy attack??” Hitsuki panicked. Looking around.