Life didn't get easier, even in another world

226 Invitation

It was an ordinary day of his life.

Just like always, he woke up in his room, washed up, changed clothes, ate breakfast, and walked to his school.

“Argh, my head!”

Except for one thing, his head hurt like hell since early in the morning.

Leaning on his seat, he placed his head on the back of his chair and stared at the white ceiling of the classroom with a blank face.

“Hey, Kairen!”

“...”

He glanced at his always-energetic friend for a second and nodded his head in his answer, before looking up at the ceiling again.

‘Maybe I should’ve taken some painkillers before coming here...’

.....

“Hmm? You still sleepy?”

Reyan examined Kairen’s sleepy face while sitting on the seat beside him.

“Um... Kairen...”

He turned to look at Reyan who seemed to have something to say.

“Good morning, guys!”

The door of the class opened at that moment and the teacher walked in. Seeing the teacher, Reyan closed his mouth and opened his notebook. The class started at that moment and they had to study at school for hours afterward.

Ding Ding

“Haaah!”

He heaved a heavy sigh. The bell rang, meaning his suffering finally came to an end. Packing his stuff as fast as he could, he stood up from his seat to head home. He wanted to go back, take some pills, and sleep the whole day as fast as he could.

“Hey! Wait for me! Let’s go together.”

Unfortunately for him, his friend seemed to want to follow him. He and Reyan would walk home together most of the days so it wasn’t something unusual, still, he preferred to rush to the orphanage as fast as he could and rest instead of walking home and chattering with his friend.

He stopped midway through the stairs and waited for Reyan to come, then the two of them started to walk their same route home in silence.

“So... Kairen. Listen.”

After walking for a few minutes in silence, Reyan hesitantly opened his mouth.

“Yes.”

He answered Reyan without even glancing at his face.

“Uhm... Actually... My mom...”

“Actually your mom...”

Reyan’s eyebrows frowned more and more as if he was really struggling at the moment.

“She... invited you to our house.”

“....”

“....”

He finally turned to look at Reyan.

“Why would a humble person like me be invited to such a steemed person’s house?”

He was indeed surprised.

After the incident that happened in their first year in high school, the one where Reyan was attacked and he bravely(??) saved Reyan from the attackers(?????), Reyan’s mom acted nice towards him all the time. She wanted to show her gratitude in any way she could think of.

She would send gifts to him on his birthday and even new year gifts, send him delicious food and snacks for some unknown reasons, and even sometimes give him pocket money!

Although he wanted to reject those gifts, he just couldn’t. Reyan’s mother didn’t give up no matter how many times he rejected the gifts so instead, he gave up and just shamelessly accepted the gifts. Anything free was a good thing, so why not take them?

And now, he was invited to their house?

“Stop talking like that! I’m already embarrassed myself.”

“Why? Isn’t what I said the truth? A commoner is being invited to a noble’s house!”

“I will punch you right in your face if you don’t shut up!”

He knew Reyan wouldn’t.

“As you order, my lord!”

And his friend’s face was getting redder and redder, either from shame or anger.

“You! Really!”

“I apologize for offending you, young master!”

“HAAAAA!!!”

Really, was there anything more enjoyable than teasing Reyan? He didn’t think so. Reyan’s face was so funny that he could continue to do this for hours and not get tired, but of course not now that he was suffering from such a headache that even teasing Reyan wasn’t so much enjoyable.

“So, when are you coming?”

He tilted his head.

“I don’t know. You are the one inviting me! When should I come?”

Reyan scratched his cheek and pretended to think about his question as if he doesn’t have an answer prepared beforehand.

“How about tomorrow? We can leave the class and go home together. Are you free?”

“I’m free but... Are you inviting me for the dinner?”

Being too late to come back to the orphanage might be troublesome so it would be best if he could just go soon and return early.

“Maybe?”

Reyan shrugged his shoulders.

“You don’t even know yourself...”

Reyan shrugged again.

“I told you. It was my mom who invited you, not me. Ah, also... Actually, my mom might insist on you staying the night. No, she will definitely insist.”

“Yes?”

Hearing Reyan’s words made him get chills all over his body. Why would he stay in their house? Just thinking about staying in such a family’s house was scary.

Still, wouldn’t everyone wish to see such a famous place for themselves? He had heard that the place was super big and beautiful and had a lot of maids and guards just like in those fairy tails! Even for one night, he would like to experience how rich people lived!

“She is so insistent! I’m telling you beforehand so that you can come prepared.”

“Come prepared?”

He tilted his head.

“If she catches you off guard, you will be forced to stay the night! You can’t refuse her once she decides to make you do something!”

Reyan’s face looked like a commander teaching his soldier how to survive on the battlefield instead of a boy inviting his friend to his house.

“I still don’t get why I should be prepared.”

He was confused by Reyan’s actions.

“To reject my mom? It’s the weekend the day after tomorrow. Who knows how long will she keep you in the house! You might even be forced to stay for breakfast and lunch for the other day.”

He opened and closed his eyes.

“I should reject her?”

His voice sounded somehow disappointed, but Reyan didn’t seem to notice that.

“Why are you asking such an obvious question?”

Reyan’s words made him really annoyed all of a sudden. Was it because of the headache that he wasn’t in a good mood?

“Oh? So you hate me staying at your house that much, huh? I should refuse her at any costs? I see!”

Reyan’s commander-like face turned to that of a confused boy all of a sudden.

“Huh?”

“If you don’t want to, I can refuse the dinner invitation as well.”

Sending an angry glare to Reyan, he turned around and resumed walking.

.....

“What are you talking about?”

Snapping out of his daze, Reyan ran behind him while still confused.

“What am I talking about? Why do hate me visiting your house so much? You could’ve just said that you don’t want me to come.”

He wasn’t so eager to stay in their house from the beginning, but he was still annoyed.

“T-that... I don’t hate it! I didn’t mean that!”

Reyan, who had never seen his friend be so angry about such a trivial thing before, started to line up his excuses.

“I just thought you might not like to stay! I was helping you run away from my mom as she might be too scary for you to deal with!”

“Yes yes!”

Snorting, he kept walking without looking at Reyan.

“Are you really sulking? Okay! Come stay at our house as long as you want!”

“Nope! I don’t wanna. Go get lost.”

He fastened his steps.

“What the... What is your problem? I said I didn’t mean that!”

Reyan also walked faster.

“Anyway, I’m leaving.”

He turned to one side, parting ways with Reyan.

“You are leaving already? Hey! Are you sulking?”

“I have a headache.”

“No, but you are sulking!”

“Really, my head hurts. I going home.”

“Are you sick?”

“No. It’s just a headache.”

“I will come with you.”

“No need.”

“Hey!”

Reyan ended up following him till he reached the orphanage.

Even though he did exactly as he wanted, that meant taking drugs and sleeping all day without even touching his books to study, the next morning he still had a headache, this time even more intense.

“Ughhh!”

He put his head on the table and decided to completely ignore the teacher.

‘It’s this shit again.’

By now, he already knew what this kind of continuous headache meant.

He would see one of those visions again. He didn’t know if it was true to call it vision, memory, prophecy, or anything else, he just called them however he liked since there was no one to name them besides him anyway.

“Poooffff!”

There was nothing he could do about it at this point. He only had to endure it until he fully saw the shitty vision.

‘Will I faint again? Please no!’

At first, he would only have a fever and headache when these visions came to him. The more time passed, the less frequent these visions got and the more intense the attacks would be.

“Huuuhhh!”

He didn’t want to go through the same thing again. Why didn’t these visions just stop? Not that they had any usage anyway!

“Um...”

He ignored the blonde boy who had been peeking at him every two minutes since morning and continued to nag inwardly. He heard the teacher call him a few times and even threaten him about minus points and such, but he didn’t care. Not that some minus pints would affect him, one of the school’s top students, in any way!

“Hey!”

After school was over, Reyan finally jumped out of his chair and walked toward him.

“What’s wrong? You’ve been like this the whole day.”

“Nothing.”

Reyan stared at the marks left on his friend’s forehead from putting his head on his book for so long.

“Are you still not feeling well?”

“Nah, I’m fine.”

Packing his stuff, he happily stood up to walk back home.

“Uh! So won’t be coming after all...”

He stopped at Reyan’s words.

“Coming? Where?”

“....”

Reyan frowned.

“To dinner? Where else?”

“Ah!”

‘I completely forgot about that!’

He gestured for Reyan to come beside him.

“Yes, let’s go to the dinner.”

“What? But you don’t feel fine-”

“Nah, it’s fine.”

‘I’m probably in the best condition I will be in the next few days.’

If it was really one of those attacks, he would be sick for about a week. Reyan, as well as his mom, wouldn’t let him rest in peace if he postponed this party because of sickness.

So, the two of them walked to Reyan’s house just like that.

“Wow!”

He stared at the huge house with his eyes wide open.

“It’s... huge!”

It was just as he had seen and heard before. The building indeed looked like one of those castles from fairy tails! It was a huge, white, and beautiful castle.

“Let’s go in!”

Compared to the beautiful and expensive house, the two youths jumping out of a bus with one of them completely dazed looked really ordinary.

“This way!”

Reyan walked forward, leading his dazed friend inside the building.

“Huuuu!”

Taking a deep breath and massaging his forehead, he followed Reyan inside the building while hoping that he wouldn’t create a scene before everyone else.