The memories didn't come gently.
At first, it was only fragments. A voice here, a face there, a strange feeling he couldn't place. Then, without warning, everything crashed in at once.
Kael dropped to the floor, his back pressing against the bed as if it could hold him together. His knees drew up instinctively, palms flat against the cold tiles. His eyes remained open, but he wasn't seeing his room anymore instead he was seeing something else entirely.
Lyra at eighteen, sitting on the worn couch in their living room. A hunter's badge rested proudly on her chest, catching the light as she smiled through her exhaustion. She told him they didn't need to worry about money anymore now she had became a hunter.
The memory unfolded vividly in his mind, as if he were reliving it through his own eyes. And in that moment, he felt the emotions.
Not happiness nor proud, it was rather something darker.... Jealousy.
The memory shifted, time moving forward like a scene he couldn't pause. Lyra returned from the tower again and again, each time more battered than the last. Bruises, cuts, exhaustion written all over her, yet she never stopped. She cooked, cleaned, held the house together, and still found the strength to visit their mother at the hospital.
And him?
He saw himself too. Sitting in front of a screen, lost in games, day after day. Doing nothing. Contributing nothing. Just existing while everything around him slowly fell apart.
The days blurred into years, repeating the same pattern until one day, something changed.
That memory was sharper than the rest.
Lyra came back worse than usual. This time, she didn't bother hiding her injuries behind oversized clothes and a forced smile.
There was anger in her eyes. Real anger, the kind that had been building for a long time.
They argued.
No, they shouted.
Her voice trembled as she told him to at least help, even a little. She was the one earning, the one suffering, the one carrying everything. The least he could do was not sit around all day.
Kael's chest tightened as he heard his own reply.
Cold.
Harsh.
Every word hit harder as the memory replayed. He wanted to stop, to take it back, but it didn't slow down.
It just kept going.
He felt his chest clench at the words leaving his own mouth. They were cruel words.
At the end Lyra turned away and walked into her room.
That was the last time he saw her.
Lyra had always been careful. No matter how hard things got, she never entered the tower without recovering first. Sometimes it took weeks, sometimes months, but never less than a few days.
Except that time.
Maybe she was too angry. Maybe she just needed space. Maybe she was simply tired.
She went back into the tower the very next day.
And she never came back.
The years that followed felt distant and blurred, like watching someone else's life. There was alcohol, regret, and bills piling up faster than he could handle. When the money ran out, he was forced to act.
Odd jobs at first. Then harder choices.
Their mother's medical bills kept rising until they became something he could no longer ignore. So at twenty-five, he made a decision.
He became a hunter.
It was dangerous, but it paid. Or at least, it could.
But it was already too late.
He had started too late.
His potential was gone before he even began. He struggled, survived, barely moved forward while everything else kept slipping through his fingers. His mother died not long after.
And years later, so did he.
On the fiftieth floor of the tower.
The memories ended there.
Kael gasped as he returned to himself, his body soaked in sweat. His chest rose and fell rapidly as he reached for it, expecting pain, expecting something.
There was nothing.
No wounds. No blood.
Just his body, whole and untouched.
His gaze slowly lifted, taking in the familiar walls of his room. Everything was the same, exactly as it had always been.
"I'm… here?"
His voice came out low, uncertain.
It had felt too real. Not like a dream or an imagination, it felt like he had just lived twenty years within those short period.
His head throbbed as confusion settled in. He felt eighteen, yet at the same time, he felt like a thirty-eight-year-old man who had already lived and died. Two sets of memories clashed inside him, both vivid, both real.
He let out a slow breath and touched his face, only now realizing he had been crying.
"…What is this?"
No answer came.
Only silence.
Kael closed his eyes briefly before opening them again, something steadier forming beneath the confusion. It didn't matter whether it was a vision, a memory, or a life he had truly lived.
If even a small part of it could become reality, then he would stop it.
His expression hardened.
Everything traced back to one thing.
Money.
If they had money, Lyra wouldn't have needed to become a hunter so early. She wouldn't have pushed herself like that. Their mother wouldn't have been left without proper treatment.
It all came back to money.
Raw, simple, unforgiving.
"I'll change it," he muttered quietly.
He knew exactly how to do that.
The tower.
It was the fastest way to earn and also the most dangerous. But if he wanted to change anything, it was a risk he had to take.
In that other life, he had started at twenty-five, when it was already too late. But that wasn't the case now. He was eighteen. He was at the exact age where potential was sharpest and growth came fastest.
Resolve settled in his eyes as he slowly pushed himself to his feet. His legs felt weak, but they held. His gaze swept across his room and paused.
Clothes scattered everywhere. Empty wrappers. Old pizza box.
A total mess.
He stared at it for a moment before letting out a small breath that almost turned into a laugh.
"…Yeah. Let's start here."
If he couldn't fix this, then everything else was meaningless.
He rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
---
Twenty minutes later, the room looked different.
Not perfect, but clean enough. The window was open, letting fresh air push out the stale smell that had settled in over time. After changing into a fresh set of clothes, Kael stepped out of his room.
The house was quiet.
Lyra sat at the table, halfway through her meal. For a brief moment, he just stood there, taking it in. She was real. Alive. Right in front of him.
She looked up.
Their eyes met.
Both of them flinched almost immediately and looked away. Lyra suddenly seemed very focused on her bowl, while Kael scratched the back of his head and walked over to the seat across from her.
A bowl was already placed there.
He sat down and started eating without a word.
Silence filled the space between them. Not comfortable, just awkward and heavy. The soft clink of spoons against bowls was the only sound.
Kael kept his gaze on his food, focusing on it for a moment. Then he set the spoon down and broke the silence.
"Lyra," he said, looking up.
She paused, but didn't lift her head.
"I want to register for the hunter exam."