RE: LORD OF TIME

Chapter 2: Thank You

William felt as if he had been thrown into a dark room, a place where he could neither see nor hear anything.

His body was bound by some kind of shackles that made it impossible for him to even lift a finger.

The only thing he could do was stare at the infinite darkness before him.

’So this is the scenery after death, huh.’ This thought eventually arose in his mind.

’This is more boring than I had expected.’

Before death, everyone sometimes wonders what it will feel like afterward. William had naturally considered such things as well.

He had thought about meeting the King of Hell, being fried in boiling oil, or being tortured in different ways.

He had also considered going to heaven instead of hell, but thinking about all the things he had done while he was alive, he felt his chances of going to heaven were about as good as his parents one day saying that they were actually filthy rich and had been living like beggars just to gain some kind of bullshit experience.

’Now that I think about it, I seemed to have seen something different on my status window just before my death...’ William suddenly remembered and tried to open his status window.

But unfortunately, he couldn’t open it.

’Looks like you can’t even see your status window after death.’

William eventually stopped thinking about anything and simply stared at the darkness in front of him with a blank expression.

It wasn’t that he found staring at the darkness interesting, but he really had nothing else to do.

Not to mention, he was still processing the fact that he had died.

"Hmmm?"

Suddenly, William felt someone touching his cheek.

’A ghost?’ He immediately thought about the filthy spirits of hell he had heard about in his childhood stories.

Slap!

A resounding slap rang out in the darkness, and William’s head jerked to the side, a look of disbelief appearing on his face.

’I was... just slapped by a ghost?’ A look of confusion flashed across his face as he still found it hard to believe that he had just been slapped by some unknown entity.

Slap! Slap! Slap! - - - -

But the first slap was just the beginning, and soon, he understood what it felt like to get slapped repeatedly.

William tried to move, but his body was still bound by shackles, and he couldn’t do anything.

He couldn’t even open his mouth to curse the bastard ghost and could only endure its "care" silently.

"Wake up!"

As the number of slaps increased, William began to hear muffled whispers.

’What are these whispers?’ He wondered, and just then—

Slap!

He received the hardest slap he had ever experienced in his life, followed by—

"Wake up!" A banshee-like scream that immediately turned his world upside down.

The darkness around him shattered, and William was jolted awake.

"You are finally up." A familiar voice reached William’s ears, and he slowly turned his head, only to see a middle-aged woman, around thirty-five years old looking at him with a displeased expression on her face.

"Mom... you... you also came to hell after your death?" He spoke in disbelief, not understanding how his kind mother had entered hell.

Did she take the wrong taxi?

Slap!

A hard slap once again landed on the back of William’s head.

"It seems I have been too lenient with you these past few days. You even dare to curse your mother?" The woman spoke in a dark tone, her hands itching to give him another slap.

The slap at the back of his head finally brought William back to his senses, and he immediately looked at his surroundings.

A small room with nothing but a single bed, a desk at the side, and some other miscellaneous items.

The walls of the room were painted brown, but they looked somewhat dirty, as the paint had grown quite old.

"This... it’s my room from years ago." William’s eyes widened in shock as he looked at the familiar room that had been destroyed long ago.

"Are you still half asleep?"

William turned to look at the woman standing just a meter away from him and opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out.

The image of a sick woman lying on a bed with her eyes closed all the time flashed through his mind for a brief second before he finally managed to speak.

"I am up, Mom."

The woman standing before William had light brown skin and a head full of long black hair, with some gray strands mixed within it.

Her eyes were similar to William’s—green in color and full of vitality. Her hands were full of calluses, apparently because of working on the farm.

"If you are awake, then hurry up and come out to eat. Your father and I still need to go to the farm," Elena said with a strange look on her face as she felt her son was behaving oddly today.

’Is he feeling pressured because of the Aether Affinity Test next month...?’ She thought, and her expression softened.

"Don’t feel burdened about anything. Your father and I will always be with you."

William, who was still wondering if he was dreaming was taken aback when he heard Elena’s words.

Even though he couldn’t fully understand what she was trying to say, he could feel the concern in her voice.

"I am fine, Mom. Just give me a minute. I will join you after washing my face."

Elena nodded upon hearing William’s words and turned around to head out.

Just as she was about to leave, William didn’t know why, but he suddenly had the urge to say the words that he had always wanted to say to her before but never got the chance to, as it had been too late.

"Mom..." He called out to Elena, and as she turned around to look at him in confusion, he smiled.

"Thank you."

"Hmm?" Elena gave him a strange look before walking back to him and touching his forehead, checking if he had a fever.

"Son, are you sure you are alright? Should we go to the Light Church for a checkup?"

William’s eyes twitched slightly when he saw Elena’s concerned look, and he jumped down from the bed.

"I am fine. Just go out already."

Elena breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that he was alright and couldn’t help but tease him.

"Thank you," She said in the same way William had spoken just a moment ago before bursting into laughter and looking at him as if he were some rare antique.

Black lines seemed to appear on William’s forehead, and he felt like dying from embarrassment upon seeing the way she was laughing at him.

’Dammit, why the hell did I say those words?’ He couldn’t help but scream inwardly.

But as he stared at Elena’s laughing face—which was countless times more pleasing than her sick face from his memories, he couldn’t help but smile as well before pushing her out of his room.

"Alright, just go out already. I need to get changed."

As William began to close the door after pushing her out, Elena turned to look at him and smiled slightly.

"You are welcome."

"Hmm?" William was taken aback for a moment when he heard Elena, but he soon understood that she was responding to his earlier words.

He didn’t say anything else and closed the door behind him.

Once the door was shut, he slumped down on the ground, looking at everything around him with a dazed expression.

"Just what is going on? Didn’t I die on the battlefield along with Leon?" He frowned in confusion.

After talking to Elena and feeling the sense of physical touch, along with several other details, he was certain that he wasn’t dreaming.

Suddenly, he remembered the question that Leon had asked him, and his eyes widened.

’Don’t tell me what he asked really came true...’

As this thought came to William’s mind, his breathing quickened, and a look of excitement appeared on his face.

"Oh right, my status window."

He suddenly thought of something, and the next instant, a status window opened before his eyes.