Inside Neo's room, Esme leaned against the door. When they got in, Neo was busy drawing and tearing off pages.
She didn't know what he was doing, but the map lay right in front of him the entire time.
Neo crumpled a rough sheet and tossed it onto the left side of the table with the rest.
It was as if the more he tried to memorize it, the faster he forgot.
Back in his world, it wasn't like this. Neo's memory was very sharp, which could only mean one thing... it was the map.
It seemed not only to hide itself from those searching for it, but also from those trying to understand its location.
Neo was frustrated. There were only a few minutes left before the summoning began.
When he tore out another rough sheet, before he could crumple and toss it, Esme held his hand.
"You shouldn't be stressing your palm that much," she said.
Neo paused.
Esme took the paper from his hand and dropped it on the table, then unfolded one crumpled sheet, then another, until there were six laid out.
"You've been drawing it, right? The same thing over and over again, so why are you crumpling them?" she asked.
Perplexed, Neo stared at the map and at the supposed nonsense he had drawn.
His eyes widened in shock. Everything he had drawn was ninety-eight percent identical to the map.
'Shit, this thing has been messing with my head,' he thought.
The map was simply trying to hide its location from Neo. But Esme shared the same bloodline as Ymir, which made things far easier for her.
Neo sighed. "So, you know the map?" he asked.
When Esme confirmed she had memorized it inside the limo, Neo wasn't surprised. After all, she hadn't known what she was memorizing.
"What is there?"
Neo treated her question with caution. He didn't reply immediately; instead, he stood and moved to sit on the bed.
"Just a place I'll be hiding. You know the origin is full of monsters, and I'm weak," he said quietly. "So I need to hide."
Esme blinked. Who would have believed an arrogant person like Neo would admit he was weak?
But Neo was certain he wouldn't die in the origin, or so he believed.
"I didn't think you'd ever admit you're weak," she said.
Neo chuckled. "I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to have a conversation with you."
Esme stared at him before Neo lazily looked away. Then she sat beside him with the map and asked, "And what made you think that way?"
Neo sighed. "I don't think beautiful girls would have anything to do with a weakling. We're only this close because Mom hired you. In any other situation, you'd never notice me."
For the first time, Neo saw her smile. She tried to hide it behind her usual cold expression, but he still caught it.
"And what would the rich son of the strongest villainess want with an average beauty?"
Neo laughed softly at her words. "Average?" he asked. "Are you doubting my elite taste in women?"
Esme didn't understand how Neo was making her feel nervous in a good way. She didn't even know how this conversation with Hera's son had started.
She also didn't want it to end.
"Besides, after passing your first trial, you'll shine even more," Neo added.
Esme looked away, then stood up with her arms wrapped around herself.
Before she was hired, Esme had worked at a coffee shop. The jitters... she needed money for her mother's hospital bills.
The same hospital Neo had been admitted to.
By chance, she had bumped into Hera. Hera, being far from naive, recognized talent when she saw it. That was how Esme became Neo's bodyguard.
"I feel sleepy," he said.
Neo tried to stand but quickly dropped to his knees. Esme rushed toward him, only to see him smiling.
"Relax, I think it's the summoning. It's starting. We probably won't spawn in the same place," he explained.
He wasn't exactly sure what his experience in the origin would be like. He was heading somewhere completely unknown.
"No matter how vast it is, I'll find you." Esme carefully helped him lie down on the bed.
This was also one of the reasons Esme had been assigned as his guard. She was the same age as him, which meant she could follow him into the origin.
Neo looked at her. Unlike him, she wasn't feeling sleepy, though he suspected she was resisting it.
Only a few people could do that. Esme was definitely a monster.
Overall, Neo was confident he wouldn't die in there. If he tried to imagine how a weakling could survive that long, Esme was the only answer he saw.
"Let's meet at the location on your map. It's in the origin, right?"
As time passed, Esme's voice grew distant. Neo's eyelids felt unbearably heavy, and he struggled to stay awake.
At least not yet.
"You won't die, Neo. I promise I'll find you. Neo?"
In the end, Neo couldn't fight it anymore, and he was pulled into the darkness of the origin.
Before anything else, Esme stood, locked the door and windows, then sat on the bed with her legs folded.
"If possible, I'll try not to sleep. After he completes his first trial, then I'll sleep," she said.
Esme watched him as he slept. When she felt her eyelids betraying her, she shook her head. "I won't sleep," she muttered faintly.
Even though she was talented, no one had ever fully resisted the pull.
"Neo."
With that final word, she ended up collapsing on top of him, her head resting against his chest.
She succumbed to the pull of deep slumber, and everything went black.
In the end, they both heard an unfamiliar voice, along with a hovering blue interface.
-[The Incompletes, welcome to the Primordial Origin]-
-[Please prepare for your first trial... Failure to do so within the time limit will result in a penalty]-
-[Penalty: You shall die... Good luck, Incompletes]-