Kera was still standing inside the room.
His gaze remained fixed on Zeldryn, who was already fast asleep on the bed.
“...”
The longer he looked at the boy...
The stranger it felt.
‘Hmm...’
Kera narrowed his eyes slightly.
‘The more I think about it, the stranger it gets.’
But a few seconds later, he simply shrugged.
‘But... whatever.’
After all...
Kera himself had only truly known Zeldryn for a very short time.
Most of what he knew about the boy had come from other people's mouths.
His personality.
His behavior.
His reputation.
None of those were things Kera had witnessed with his own eyes.
‘I haven't even known this kid for that long.’
‘All this time, I've only known about his behavior from other people's stories.’
Kera looked at Zeldryn again, who wasn't moving at all.
Then his smile slowly returned.
‘And here I was planning to give him a first-meeting gift.’
And not just that.
A gift for Zeldryn finally becoming...
A Level 1 Manholer Candidate.
But...
Kera looked at Zeldryn's condition once again.
Asleep.
Completely knocked out.
“...”
‘And you went and collapsed instead, brat.’
Kera let out a small sigh.
‘Whatever.’
‘I'll just leave it on your table.’
Kera raised one hand.
The mana around him began to move.
The empty space beside him slowly changed.
Between the gaps in the mana...
Something seemed to open.
A void.
Kera immediately reached his hand inside.
“Hmm...”
His hand moved around inside it.
As though he were rummaging through a cabinet.
A few seconds later...
!!??
Kera pulled his hand out.
And along with his hand...
Something appeared.
Hair.
Skin.
A face.
A human head.
Yes.
An actual human head.
Separated from its body.
Kera held it casually.
He didn't look disturbed by the thing in his hand in the slightest.
If anything...
His smile became even stranger.
“This is for you, kid.”
He walked toward Zeldryn's table.
“You'll definitely be happy tomorrow.”
Kera placed the head on the table.
“...”
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Then his gaze fell on Zeldryn's writing tools.
Kera intended to grab a sheet of paper.
But before he could...
His eyes caught several notes scattered across the table.
!!??
“Huh?”
Kera picked one up.
“What the hell is this?”
Strange lines.
Symbols.
An arrangement of writing he didn't recognize at all.
Kera frowned.
‘Is he scribbling nonsense again?’
At first, it really did look like meaningless scribbles.
But...
The longer Kera looked at it...
The more he felt something was different.
‘Hmm?’
He brought the paper slightly closer.
‘Now that I look at it...’
There was a pattern.
Some shapes repeated over and over again.
The spacing between the marks wasn't completely random either.
Almost as if...
It wasn't just scribbling.
‘This actually looks like writing.’
Kera tilted his head.
‘What the hell is this kid writing?’
But after a while...
“Good grief.”
Kera put the note back down.
‘Whatever.’
‘I can ask him later.’
He took a blank sheet of paper and Zeldryn's writing tool.
Then began writing using the Nhalir alphabet.
Letter by letter.
Until finally, one sentence was written.
Kera looked at the result for a moment.
Then...
He casually picked up the human head from earlier.
And placed it directly on top of the paper.
As though the head were nothing more than a paperweight keeping the note from flying away.
“...”
Kera looked satisfied.
He then began controlling the mana around his body again.
Slowly...
The sound of his presence disappeared.
His body also began to fade from sight.
As though no one were there at all.
Kera walked toward the door.
His hand touched the handle.
CREAK.
The door opened.
But before leaving...
Kera looked back toward the bed one last time.
Zeldryn was still asleep.
Completely unaware of what kind of gift was now waiting for him on the table.
Kera grinned widely.
“Sleep well, you damn brat.”
Then he stepped outside.
TAP.
!!??
CLINK! CLINK! CLINK!
The sound of dishes suddenly came from beneath his foot.
Kera immediately stopped.
“...”
He looked down.
Zeldryn's dirty dishes were still sitting right in front of the door.
Kera stared at them for several seconds.
‘I knew he left the dishes outside.’
After all...
He had been watching Zeldryn this whole time.
But...
Kera looked at where the dishes had been placed.
‘At least don't put them right in front of the damn door.’
“...”
But Kera didn't do anything about it.
He simply stepped over them.
Then continued walking down the corridor.
Farther and farther away.
Until eventually, he disappeared.
And once again...
Zeldryn was alone inside the room.
“...”
“.....”
Time continued passing.
The night grew deeper.
The candles slowly burned out.
Darkness filled the room.
Then...
Night gave way to morning.
Sunlight began entering through the closed window.
Little by little...
The light reached the bed.
Touching Zeldryn's face.
“...”
His eyelids slowly moved.
Heavy.
Extremely heavy.
Zeldryn tried opening his eyes.
But they closed again for a moment.
“Eummgh...”
His body shifted slightly.
A few moments later...
His eyes finally opened.
!!??
‘Huh?’
Zeldryn blinked several times.
Morning light immediately filled his vision.
‘It's morning already?’
He stared at the ceiling.
For the first few seconds, he simply lay there.
Then he slowly began remembering what had happened the night before.
The mana experiment.
Coughing up blood.
His Mana Hole becoming empty.
His body suddenly losing all its strength.
And after that...
Sleep.
“Tch...”
Zeldryn rubbed his face.
‘So in the end, I really was mentally and physically exhausted.’
At least that was the most reasonable explanation he had right now.
Zeldryn then stretched his body on the bed.
“EUMMGGH...”
Both arms lifted upward.
His back arched slightly.
The stiffness in his body gradually eased.
“Haah...”
Once he finished...
Zeldryn opened his eyes wider.
Then looked around the room.
The bed.
The window.
The table.
The chair.
“...”
!!???????
Zeldryn's eyes stopped on the table.
His entire body instantly went stiff.
“...”
‘Huh?’
He blinked.
Once.
Twice.
Then looked again.
“HUH???”
Every hair on Zeldryn's body immediately stood on end.
‘WTF...’
‘WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!’
His body instinctively backed away.
His back nearly hit the headboard.
Zeldryn couldn't look away.
On top of his table...
There was a human face.
No.
Not a face.
A human head.
‘AM I STILL DREAMING?!’
That was the only explanation that immediately came to mind.
Zeldryn hurriedly raised his hand.
Then...
SLAP!
He slapped his own cheek.
“OW!”
His hand immediately grabbed his cheek.
“That hurts, fuck!”
“...”
!!??
Zeldryn slowly looked back at the table.
The head was still there.
It hadn't disappeared.
It hadn't changed.
It was still sitting there.
‘So...’
His throat felt slightly dry.
‘This isn't a nightmare?’
“...”
Zeldryn swallowed.
He tried gathering his courage.
Slowly...
His feet lowered from the bed.
One foot.
Then the other.
But he didn't immediately approach the table.
No way.
Instead, Zeldryn slowly walked toward the window.
His eyes still occasionally flicked toward the human head.
‘Calm down.’
‘Calm down first.’
He finally reached the window.
It was still closed.
Zeldryn immediately opened it.
CREAK.
Morning air entered the room.
The wind brushed against his face.
Normally, the sensation would've been refreshing.
But this time...
Zeldryn barely noticed it.
His mind was still completely fixed on the object sitting on his table.
“...”
He took a breath.
Then slowly exhaled.
‘Okay.’
‘It's just a human head.’
“...”
‘Fuck, there's no such thing as just a human head.’
Zeldryn looked at the table again.
After a while...
He finally gathered enough courage to approach.
One step.
Two steps.
Three steps.
The closer he got...
The clearer the head became.
Zeldryn stopped beside the table.
He didn't touch it immediately.
Didn't pick it up.
Didn't turn it over.
Instead, he walked around the table slightly.
Looking from the right side.
Then the left.
“...”
It didn't move.
Nothing suddenly jumped out at him.
Once he felt safe enough...
Zeldryn raised one finger.
Slowly brought it closer.
Then...
Poke.
He pushed the cheek of the head.
Slightly.
“...”
No response.
Zeldryn pushed it again.
Poke.
‘Is this a toy or an actual human?’
He examined it more closely.
The skin.
The hair.
The shape of the face.
Everything looked...
Too real.
‘Strange.’
‘This really looks like an actual human head.’
Not merely similar.
Every detail looked real.
Extremely real.
But there was something strange.
There was no blood.
None at all.
The head looked dry.
As though all the blood that should've remained inside it had already been completely drained.
“...”
Zeldryn was still busy examining it when...
!!??
His eyes caught something.
A small patch of white could be seen beneath the head.
Paper.
Zeldryn frowned.
‘Huh?’
He tilted his body slightly so he could see it more clearly.
Right.
There was a sheet of paper underneath the human head.
“...”
‘What the hell is this?’