Everything went silent once again.
The door hit the wall hard, the hinges creaking from the impact.
Aurelion rushed inside, his red eyes wandering across the room. "Kaelen," he screamed.
His eyes stopped once they met Kaelen.
Everyone followed, their reactions the same.
Aurelion gasped, his voice tightening. "Kaelen, tell us what happened."
Kaelen pulled out a chair from nearby and sat on it without saying a word.
Everyone followed him.
Aurelion and the man sat with their hands sneakily guarding their torso and head.
The girls sat with full comfort, looking at Kaelen with a condescending gaze.
Kaelen started explaining everything to them.
The men slowly rested their arms on the chairs' arms, and the girls' gaze changed to a respectful one.
The man opened his mouth and took a few seconds before saying, "You are filled with even more surprises than I thought, that you made someone as selfish and immoral as Rowan choose you above himself."
Aurelion signaled with a hand to stop the man. "Do you remember each term in that contract? Write whatever you remember and give them to me before morning."
Kaelen stood up and walked to a drawer, his gait slightly wrong—each knee lifting higher than it needed to, like his body was still remembering how to move on solid ground. He took a paper out of it.
The paper shone bright; everyone covered their eyes as Kaelen kept looking at it. A strong gust took over the room before the paper stopped shining.
The paper had turned bright red, its contents written in yellow demonic script, every letter curved and rotated at angles that were painful to follow.
Kaelen crumbled the paper and threw it towards Aurelion.
Aurelion caught it without looking, then opened it slowly. Halfway down the page, his lips stopped moving; his eyes looked at the same place yet kept moving wildly. For a moment he tried to say something but couldn't. He kept reading till the end.
His reaction grabbed others' attention; they brought their chairs closer and peeked at the contract.
The moment Aurelion was done, he asked, "How did you manage to get them to give you an infinite chains contract?"
"It's normal for my greatest performance to be so special."
The white-haired girl jumped out of her chair and placed both of her hands on Aurelion's chair and scolded Kaelen, "Your special what? Don't waste Aurelion's time."
Kaelen couldn't hold his laugh and said, "Hi, Cinderella."
The girl tried to reach Kaelen, but Aurelion shut her down.
When the girl sat down, she noticed everyone was struggling to suppress their laugh.
"Very funny."
The man said, "You still haven't answered the question."
"Letting me go to the real world was good for them so I could force them into giving me a few things and make it an equal trade."
"There are a few terms that are almost as incredible as this one, but I will inspect them in the morning; for now, go to sleep."
It was a good night; they talked for hours. Still, Kaelen couldn't ask for their name.
One by one they left to sleep or work.
Kaelen started testing everything he got.
Infinite chains. Projecting images and simulating outcomes. Fast recovery and others.
His body got tired fast; fast recovery took care of it, but it made him hungry.
His walk was still funny; it had become more natural instead of how he used to walk.
His instincts told him where the kitchen was. The kitchen was huge; it had every accessory and food item he had never seen. And with that kitchen all to himself, he could finally test every food hack he had bookmarked and never had the time for.
He tried to remember what his favorite food was from the time when he had his own kitchen, his own room, and his own house. The edges of it were there, the taste, the texture—all of those memories had gone soft. He picked up something he had never seen and started reading its packaging. He could tell what its taste would be like.
Kaelen noticed Aurelion watching him from the corner of his eye, standing in the doorway.
Aurelion pointed a finger towards the packet and said. "I did think of that possibility as well."
Kaelen immediately said. "What possibility?"
Aurelion acted surprised for a second before saying. "Oh yeah, you don't remember, do you?" The reason why one of the terms was unreadable was because you don't remember it because the term was most probably something that took away some of your memories."
Kaelen set the packaging down on the counter.
There was a strange feeling; none of them reacted the way they should have to such information. They were being as real as they could, with no wall of pretending between.
He looked at the kitchen for a moment. The enormous amount of things he had never seen.
Kaelen smiled and shrugged. "How will I know what I lost if I forgot it?"
Then he picked the packaging back up and kept reading.
"I never thought you would become so optimistic after losing memory."
"I think Silas was right; I made many mistakes; I couldn't let things just happen; maybe I lost every reason to keep doing that."
"I have never seen this type of brain damage in my life."
Both of them chuckled, accepting each other's side of the conversation, and continued their work.
There was a sense of loneliness for another 2 minutes, till Kaelen was done selecting a recipe online.
It turned out good, a bit too creamy for his taste, but it was fine.
Aurelion came out of nowhere, took a bite, and left. Once he disappeared into the dark hallways, he said, "Try scrambled eggs next time."
Kaelen left the dishes dirty and went to sleep.
He opened his door; it had a new pinkish scent to it.
Both of the girls stood in front of him, arms folded, staring at him in a way that made all of them uncomfortable.
"Listen, all of us already have enough work on our hands; don't go creating trouble."
"I have only helped you guys till now."
"What about the time Aurelion saved you and when Zeph made a chain for you? What about those two times?"
"It feels like some people are already jealous of my work."
The pink-haired girl said with a deep tone matching that of a depressed teenage kid. "You heard her; just keep following it."
Kaelen pointed at her and then looked at the white-haired girl and snapped his finger. "You must be Cindrella's servant."
Aurelion said while walking upstairs, "Lyne, Nyx, come upstairs."
Kaelen moves aside as the girl went through the doorway and shouted as loud as he could while maintaining his tone. "Thanks, Aurelion."
It was enough teasing for today. Fast recovery could heal him physically, but his brain still needed rest by sleeping.