The Immortal King

Nor.

That’s what the man introduced himself as.

It was a weird name, or simply one I’d never heard before, but I didn’t have the courage to joke about it with him.

He didn’t look like the type of guy you joke around with.

“So…w-what do you want with me?” I finally took up the courage to ask. My eyes were kept on the knife laying next to him. As far as I could tell, he was probably a human. As long as he weren’t half-human, I should still be fast enough to dodge an attack by him—

—Who am I kidding?

This man looks like he could kill me faster than I could react.

I could even be dead right now and not know it!

…I might be getting ahead of myself a bit.

Nor stood with smooth, fluid, almost cat-like movements. It didn’t betray his appearance but still felt unreal how anyone could move like that.

“With you,” he began, “I want nothing.”

Huh?

Well, it wasn’t the first time I was told that. But in that case—

“Why am I here then?”

“Hm…” Nor scanned me from head to toe. “Araldo Tsutsumi…you might just work.”

Did he just…?

“Wait, h-how did you—?”

“Know your name?” he shrugged, “At this point, I probably know more about you than you do…at least, more than you allow yourself to.”

A chill ran down my spine. His emotionless words were like daggers jabbing at my chest. I couldn’t figure out what about him terrified me, but it didn’t help if he really knew everything about me.

His eyes narrowed, “But for now…we don’t have much time.” He reached into the pocket of his long coat. From in it, he pulled out a crystal that rang a bell as soon as I caught a glimpse. It was the same crystal I touched back at the ruins.

With that in mind, I looked at my surroundings again. That’s right. This entire place looked almost identical to the ruins Ze’Seki and I had fallen into.

Was I…?

“What is this place?” I decided to ask.

Nor looked at me before answering, “My tomb.”

Not a very helpful answer, but that’s about as much as I would probably get so I had to take it.

“Touch this,” he presented the crystal to me. “But I warn you…don’t make any sudden movements.” His warning felt like it was cementing itself into my soul. At this point, I felt like I had very little control over the situation.

My best bet was to follow along until I was finally free.

At least I hoped.

So I did as he said. I slowly reached out for the crystal, watching it glow with every centimeter I closed in.

Brsh!

A blinding light filled the room, flashing for an instant. It was like the sun had shot into my eyes.

I sucked in a breath as I suddenly snapped my head back and nearly fell over.

“!!!”

With a mechanical Crchunk, the wall to my left slammed to the floor and revealed an array of holes. Then shark spears shot from the holes, straight towards me.

It happened in a moment.

Less than a second.

The spears faster than I could track.

But Nor was a blur.

He wrapped one arm around my back and pulled me into his chest. The sharp tips of the spears jammed into Nor. One after another. Relentlessly.

My head was placed in a way where I just barely could peek over his shoulder. And that’s when I saw a spear rushing straight towards my eye. It was much too fast for me to react—yet…

Nor raised his hand to block it and the spear cut deep into it—or not…

The spear simply bounced off his hand, shattering the metal tip into hundreds of shards.

It was like Nor was indestructible.

Being this close to his chest, I could feel his heart thumping faster than it should even be possible. It was like an engine running at full speed. He breathed heavily while he clutched me tight.

“What…what the hell did I tell you?!” he screamed, his voice desperate.

I wanted to snap at him. How was I supposed to not make sudden movements with something like that?! But I simply couldn't. His furrowed brows, heavy breathing, watery eyes…

This sudden shift from no emotion to this was…too much…

“S-Sorry…” was all my mouth could let out.

Although I didn’t know what this place was, I now knew I could technically die here. From what Nor explained, it was like only my consciousness traveled to another place, so my body was still home. So, if I died here my body would still be alive, but I wouldn’t.

It’d be like I was in a coma forever.

I had to be careful here.

But at least I now knew Nor wouldn’t be an issue. If he wanted me dead, he could’ve let me die then and there.

Why didn’t he?

“Now will you listen?” he asked.

I nodded while trying to move as little as possible.

“As I said before…you aren’t the one I needed, but now I don’t have much of a choice.”

“Who did you need then?”

There had to be a reason why this happened. How was I mixed up in all of this?

“Well, it’s someone you’ve come to know recently. The one who you refuse to call your friend—”

Ze’Seki. That was the first person who came to mind.

…that’s when I realized he was really telling the truth when he said he knew everything about me. I hadn’t told anyone how I felt about Ze’Seki. I was certain Kokoro and my aunt had an idea, but Nor spoke as if he knew it as a fact.

Only I know that.

But what did this man need from her?

“And what do you need her for?”

“That’s something that stays between me and her—you will be nothing more than a proxy.”

Well, something told me I wouldn’t be able to get anything else out of him. It still felt suspicious though. But it wasn’t none of my business, right? Especially from someone who was nothing more than an acquaintance to her.

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Well, you have the easy task—you’ve already been doing it, whether you realize it or not.”

“Huh?”

I hadn’t done anything as far as I knew. What exactly was he talking about?

“I need you to get closer to the girl named, Evy Ze’Seki.”

…what?

I was expecting something entirely different, but I mean…

“And…how is that supposed to help you?”

“That’s not for you to know.”

“Of course it isn’t.”

But getting closer to Ze’Seki didn’t feel like a very concrete task. How much closer? Why? What did it even mean to get closer?

Was he asking me to be her friend? That’s what it felt like. If so, then…

My heart rate increased. I took sharp breaths as I tried to keep my mind in the moment. To ignore the past.

“Calm down, I’m not asking you to be her friend,” Nor placed his hand on my shoulder.

Heh, he was only proving more and more how he really knew everything about me. Even if it sounded impossible, or like something that required some sort of magic, I had to accept it at this point.

“…then what do you want?”

“At most, just pretend to be her friend. You're pretty good at lying, aren’t you? At least, you do it to yourself all the time.”

…

Pretend. Yeah, that’s something I could do.

“Pretend to be her friend?”

“Yeah, all I need is for you to know her better. That’s it.”

That sounded like more trouble than if I just ignore everything he said.

“And what if I don’t?”

“Heh,” he chuckled, “You don’t have to do anything. I could give you a reward after all of this…on the other hand—” he shook the crystal in his hand. “I have complete power over you.”

A reward? Yeah…that sounds like it might be nice. A gift from someone like him could only be good, right? On the other hand, not helping him would either end in being mind controlled or killed.

As if a reward is what you want.

I shook whatever thought was sneaking in and instead answered, “I guess I don’t have a choice, huh?”

Nor smiled, “You always have a choice.” The crystal in his hand glowed. “But sometimes…all you need is a little…push…”

He placed his free hand against my chest—and my vision turned white. My chest filled with a void, my mind with a wave, then my vision snapped to black.

“We’ll meet again soon,” Nor’s voice echoed in my mind.

The familiar smell of my covers filled my nose. My AC hummed loudly off to my side.

I was back home.

Or I guess, if I based it off of what Nor said, I technically never left

“Hm?”

But a second scent I usually didn’t get wafted towards me as well. It was a smell I recognized as the shampoo my aunt and Kokoro used, but that shouldn’t have been the case. Why would it smell like that in my room, in my bed no less?

That’s when I realized there was a warm sensation on the left side of my body. Something long and thin wrapped around my chest and wriggled as I made sudden movements.

I quickly removed my blanket only to find—

—Ze’Seki was sleeping right next to me.