Free Web NovelChapter 1: A moment in absurdity
"Chirp! Chirp!"
I could feel a strange headache.
"Chirp!"
This strange sensation was unlike any other headache I had ever felt.
"CHIRP~!"
It was too concentrated. Unlike the normal headaches where your head hurts, unlike the different kinds of headaches where you feel different parts of your head being under a certain level of strain, this seemed more like... hmmm... how should we put it?
-Tap! Tap! Tap!
"Chirp!"
Oh, right. Poking.
It seemed like something as small as a sunflower seed was poking right on my head.
Additionally, a strange chirping sound was ringing inside my head.
’I knew there would be birds in the afterlife...’
I had died on an island that existed beyond the edge of the world. I lost all of my friends and students, and I died without learning about the truth of this world.
There were many things I wanted to know the answer to, but nothing could be done now.
At the very least, this afterlife should be a place where I could meet all of them once again. A place where I could meet–.
"Chirp!"
I was lost in my thoughts when the strange poking pain that was focused on a single part of my head shifted to my left eye.
"Ouch!"
The shock to my eye was strong enough to pull me out of my loathing, forcing me to open my eyes to find the actual source of the pain that I was feeling right now.
"Hey!"
"Chirp!"
The first thing that my eyes saw was a strange-looking bird with a mix of white and red feathers.
This strange bird was only as big as my palm, had a beak so small that it could be compared to my fingernail, and at the same time, the strange bird had eyes that were just as strange as the rest of its features.
"What are you? Why are you hurting–."
"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!"
I was in the middle of complaining when the small white-red bird jumped onto my hand, directly landed on my head, and started hitting my head with its yellow beak once again.
"Hey! Hey, you little...!"
This was a strange bird.
I had never seen a bird like this before.
Seeing how I was still in my room right now, there should not be any creature that resembled something like this—.
"Wait. Wait, what?"
Somehow catching the white chick who continued hitting my hand with its beak, I finally looked around at the rest of my surroundings.
"Is this how the afterlife is supposed to be...?"
I was back inside the room of my old home, the room where I had spent the early years of my life.
This wasn’t an identical place to my old room, but the exact same place, as I could tell from the bedsheets that were as new as one could think, from the blue-lily curtains that never left this place, from the desk that still had a pile of books on different beasts, and with how unmistakable the different elements of this place were, I was sure.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
"Can you please calm down for a minute? I’m trying to process something here."
The clock beside my bed showed [8:02] and the sunlight was starting to fill up the room. It was early morning right now, and, as I could feel after taking a closer look at my body, I wasn’t the old man I used to be.
"So you get young once you enter the afterlife? How convenient is that, huhuhu."
"Chirp!"
"Now if only there wasn’t this bird to annoy me like this."
The small bird was nothing more than a furball. The way it was trying to hurt me did not seem malicious, so it was certain that there was something that it was trying to say.
But I could not understand anything it was saying.
’As it has always been the case, I could not understand anything the creatures say, even with all my abilities to interpret their intentions.’
The small creature needed something. But I don’t think I’m the right person for anything it wants from me.
"Chirp!"
The bird finally stopped for some reason and looked directly into my eyes.
A light then sparked inside the dark eyes that seemed endless, like an abyss.
"Hmm? Wait..."
The light that sparked inside that darkness reminded me of the last moments of my life.
The last moments where I undoubtedly encountered a being of unfathomable status.
"Chirp."
As if to have read my thoughts, the chick slipped through my hands and jumped on the bed.
Then, it jumped down from the bed for a moment, found something on the floor, and jumped back up with something held in its small beak.
"What...?"
This thing, this strange-looking thing, was shaped like a card.
It had a design I had never seen before, but I could tell what it was instantly.
"Whose Essence Card is that, little one?"
All beasts that bond with a Tamer manifest a card-like thing that holds their essence.
These cards, while having different functions and natures, are primarily used to recognize a beast’s bond with someone else.
"Chirp!"
A unique mark manifests on the Tamer’s body that only appears when the beast is summoned. The essence card is where the tamed beast rests while the card stays inside the unique marks on the tamer’s body.
’These are the basic things any child of this world would know.’
And if this little guy is carrying this essence card, it seems like it belongs to someone already.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
I wondered who the master of this small creature could be.
"Chirp!"
It continued making those sweet little noises, but I was lost in thought.
This small creature may not seem anything special to ordinary people, but for someone like me, seeing this unfamiliar being in a familiar environment was a new experience altogether.
"Chirp!"
I really wanted to know who the master of the bird was so that I could ask them more about it. It was a pretty special-looking creature, so I wanted to know more about it.
"Chirp. Chirp chirp! CHIRP!"
But it did not seem like the restless chick wanted to waste any more time as it jumped up on my shoulder.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
I was holding the essence card, so as I watched what the little guy wanted to do, it pointed at the card in my hand first, and then started poking at my chest.
"What do you mean?"
It was trying to tell me something.
"Chirp!"
"I don’t understand that. I can’t understand you, you see."
"Chirp!"
"Yes, I know what you’re saying, but you need to understand this, little one. I am incapable of–."
"Chirp!"
"Hey now, don’t call me a fool just for saying that. You do understand that the disease I have makes me incapable of bonding–."
"CHIRP!"
The chick seemed to have gotten fed up as it poked its beak at my face.
"Chirp chirp chirp!"
"Hey! I’m telling you I can’t understand you! Why are you saying that? I’m not dumb! I used to be one of the smartest people... hmm?"
Wait.
No. Wait a minute.
"You. Say that again."
"Chirp!"
"I’m not dumb... and... I know what you just said."
"Chirp!"
"What do you mean that’s what you’ve been trying to tell me all this time?"
Exhausted by all the drama, the chick finally fell flat on my shoulder.
It stopped its chirping and did not say anything further. However, thanks to all His efforts, I suddenly realised something.
"There’s... It can’t be, right...?"
I unbuttoned the shirt of my younger self, my heart beating at an alarming rate.
"I can’t. I have [Energy Decay Syndrome]..."
The terrible illness made it impossible for me to bond with any beast. I was one of the rarest few in the world who had it.
And I still have that illness. I’m sure of that fact.
Then...
"It’s here."
Then, why did I have this on my chest?
"How do I have this bond mark?"
Questions flooded my mind.
Possible answers and all kinds of different scenarios followed right after that.
’Is this what happens in the afterlife? Do you get what you have always desired? Your wish comes true?’
For some reason, that did not seem to be the case.
What I was experiencing did not seem like the experiences after crossing over to the afterlife.
This right here, this moment, was something else.
-Knock. Knock.
"I’m coming in, young master."
It was only speculation and possibilities until that point, but then, a face I had not seen for a long, long time entered the room that once belonged to me in my younger days.
"Young master...?"
"Lexie...?"
A face that belonged to the first person who sacrificed her life so that I could walk out of this damned household that despised and disgusted the very sight of a trash.
The sight of someone who, even after giving all they had, never came to possess a beast they could call their own.
