房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

While the black-haired boy was trying to gather his thoughts while his head felt as if it was about to split in half from the avalanche of memories that didn't quite settle in yet, a sound of approaching footsteps came from the other side of the door and someone knocked on them.

After a few seconds, the door opened and a petite woman with jet-black hair peeked inside with a rather grumpy expression on her sleepy face.

"Aku... you promise me and your father that you will have a break from that game until the exams are over..."

She groaned, furrowing her brows strictly and glaring at the speechless boy.

Because... she not only called him Aku but also... wasn't she Learen...?

Zoemi's mother...? But... she was dead, right...?! What was she doing alive and wearing a cute pajama that was a bit too childish for her age...

"M... mom...?"

Zoemi – or Aku, as he was just called – shook his head and perked himself up on his arms staring at the woman in complete disbelief.

"Yes...? Wait..."

The woman looked just as Learen raised her brow and shrugged her shoulders but then her eyes wandered from her son's face to his messy hair.

"..."

The woman entered the room and approached the boy decisively, sitting on the mattress and reaching her hand to his head.

The boy flinched and wanted to back off but the genuine worry in the woman's eyes made him stop and lower his head so she wouldn't have to strain her arm.

Then he felt her fingers combing through his hair until...

"OWW!"

...she found a large bump and pressed on it, causing it to sting and the black-haired boy jolted back sucking the air in pain.

"Did you fall out of your bed? You must have hit your head pretty bad... dear, I hope it's not a concussion. Wait a bit."

Seeing his reaction, the woman made a worried expression and stood up, leaving the room while muttering to herself.

"...I... feel pain because of a mere bump...? No... in the first place, why do I have a bump?! Practicing the law of Aries for so long should make my body... more... resilient..."

Zoemi was more shocked about the bump than his mother, that's for sure – he touched the sore place and winced again even under his own touch, but that only made him turn to the other side and look out of the window...

...to the sight of a suburban landscape at night...

As the black-haired boy was watching the street below with open mouth, a few cars and a semi-truck passed by the house.

"...huh...?"

Zoemi felt as if something heavy pressed against his chest making it hard for him to breathe, and he looked around his room again.

Although at first, his brain glossed over it, the TV set, game console, even the light at the ceiling...

none of that existed in the Kingdom of Bellcephora or any other nation in the world he was reincarnated into...

But... was he even reincarnated in the first place...?

The electronic alarm clock by his bed was displaying the time and day and was most likely accurate, but it did not help the black-haired boy at all.

He had long forgotten the exact time and date of the motorbike crash that sent him into another world at the wish of a being of light called Presence.

Was the date the same?

Has he been in a coma and just woke up – making everything that he lived through just a long dream of a mind that could not stand the darkness of inactivity?

"No... it can't be...!"

Zoemi bit his lips and clenched the fabric of his t-shirt, crumpling it on his chest as if he wanted to get rid of the pressure weighing on him.

"Aku...? Aku, here, put it against the pump."

"...?! Ah... o-okay... thank you, mom..."

Suddenly the black-haired woman returned to the boy's room and handed him a pack of frozen peas that he accepted and pressed to the sore spot.

The woman didn't leave again and instead crouched by the bed looking at the boy with worried eyes.

"Zoemi, tell your mom how are you feeling. Do you feel as if your head is spinning? Are you nauseous?"

She asked, reaching out and gently getting a hold of his face.

"N-no... it's just that I'm a little bit confused... I... I can't wrap my head around what is going on... I mean... what am I doing here? Where's the Academy? The teachers?"

Zoemi asked dispirited hoping that what he was seeing in front of him was only a dream...

...and not the other way around...

"Academy? Oh, sweetie... the pressure of the exams must have gotten to you pretty bad..."

The woman furrowed her brows and made an even more worried expression.

"Aku, you are a high schooler, you are preparing for the exams so that in the future you will be able to enter a good university... were you having a nightmare about the future...?"

She reached out and started patting the frozen-peas-free side of her son's head.

"I... am not sure... maybe? I hope not..."

Zoemi's eyes widened before he looked down with a miserable expression.

"Aww... sweetie..."

The woman's expression softened and she hugged the boy.

"I called the clinic, they said that if you don't have nausea, and your vision isn't blurry it would be okay to wait until morning with the visit... so, you aren't just trying to act tough like your dad, are you? Mom is worried, you know?"

The woman said while gently patting her dispirited son.

"I think that I am okay... I just... if it was just a dream... it was just so real... and I remember everything with such details..."

Zoemi breathed out and leaned against the woman feeling fragile like never before.

"It's okay, sweetie... oh but don't go sleep right away – if the symptoms that I mentioned appear or your headache will get worse mom will wake up dad and we will take you to the clinic."

The woman spoke gently and then her voice became serious as she declared with a serious expression.

"...okay..."

The boy agreed and let himself be pampered.

...the morning came and none of the worrisome symptoms appeared – even so the boy's mother insisted that they would visit the clinic in the morning just in case.

"Kiddo, your mom is right, head trauma is a bitch."

When Zoemi walked out of his room and found his way to the kitchen the black-haired woman was already discussing the whole situation with a handsome foreigner with honey-blond hair and striking blue eyes.

It was Zoemi's father, but the boy could swear that he looked exactly like Neramis - or Nathan Ramis - his father from the... dream...

"Kiddo, your spacing out... should we go to the clinic right away? You don't look good..."

The man furrowed his brows and stood up from his seat, moving towards the cupboard and picking up the car keys.

"Darling, he should at least try to eat something – whether he will be able to or get nauseous might be important for the doctor to know."

"Yeah, you have a point."

The black-haired woman pointed out and the honey-blond-haired man agreed with her after a second of consideration and returned to his seat.

Zoemi was looking at his parents, but besides the memories from another world, he could not remember a thing about either of them.

"D-dad...?"

"Yes, kiddo?"

The black-haired boy gathered his courage and asked a bit timidly, and his father answered him with a concerned expression as it seemed like normally their conversations were more lively and lighthearted.

"Did... did you ever have such a long and realistic dream that you thought that it was real even after you woke up...?"

Zoemi asked cautiously, feeling that he doesn't want to unnecessarily worry the honey-blond-haired man.

"Well... I can't say that I don't. It has been so long that I don't remember what was I dreaming of exactly, but I certainly recall waking up one night in a cold sweat thinking that a whole week have passed."

"Is that so...?"

Zoemi's father answered but the black-haired boy didn't seem to be reassured at all – quite the opposite...

"Eat up."

Nonetheless, the black-haired woman put a plate with toast and a glass of orange juice in front of the boy and sent him a worried smile.

"If anything's wrong, tell us immediately."

"I will."

The honey-blond-haired man pointed out and the black-haired boy nodded after taking a bite.

Overall he felt much better – physically that is.

But his mind was struggling with putting everything in order – what was true and what was false, what was the reality and what was a dream.

Was it possible that everything that he went through until this point was... a figment of his overworked brain?

"My head is such a mess... I wasn't hit by a motorcycle or something?"

Zoemi smirked and asked, doing his best to make it sound like a joke but also carefully observing his parents to see whether an accident like that did happen in the past...

...although now that he thought about it, there was little chance of him surviving something like that...

"No, but with this joke, you permanently lost a chance to get a driving license for motorbikes, young sir."

Well, it was supposed to be a joke but Zoemi's mother made an upset expression and crossed her arms before scolding him.

"Seriously, kiddo – you might have messed yourself up falling out of bed and you now think about motorcycles? You got guts, that's for sure~!"

"Nate! Don't praise him about that!"

The honey-blond-haired man snickered but his wife smacked him on the shoulder with a grumpy expression.

A few minutes later all three of them got into a car and went to the closest clinic.

All the way Zoemi was looking out of the window absentmindedly, struggling to accept the cars, busses, and tall buildings built with steel and glass instead of solid rock as something real.

It was the world of technology...

Then... was the world of magic and star power only a dream after all...?