"I-I did it…" Liam said breathlessly, still dazed from the pain. "Why didn't you tell me it would hurt that much?"
In his exhausted state, he had forgotten that he could speak to the System through his thoughts instead of saying everything aloud.
His arms trembled as he tried to push himself upright against the stall wall. At some point during the recalibration, he had fallen from the toilet seat and ended up crumpled on the floor. His entire body felt weak and strangely light, as though something deep inside him had been hollowed out and filled again without being placed back quite right.
The screen floated calmly in front of him, completely unmoved by his suffering.
[PAIN WARNING WAS PROVIDED.]
Liam stared at it, his mouth falling open slightly in disbelief.
"That was not a warning," he muttered hoarsely.
[HOST SURVIVAL RATE REMAINED ABOVE ACCEPTABLE THRESHOLD.]
His expression flattened.
A weak sound left him, somewhere between a groan and an exhausted sigh, as he pressed the heel of his hand against his forehead. The pain itself had faded, but the effects remained. His body would not stop shaking, his head felt stuffed with wool, and even his thoughts seemed slower than usual.
"Whatever," he murmured. "The important thing is getting home."
He knew he should have been more excited.
An SSS-rank talent had only appeared once in recorded history. Sareno, the Good One's chosen servant, had possessed one, and he was still remembered and worshipped tens of thousands of years after his death. Any noble family in Ortheon would lose their minds at the mere possibility of another appearing.
Liam was simply too exhausted to care properly.
There was only so much a ten-year-old could endure in one day.
He had attended his Awakening Ceremony expecting to receive a normal System and, hopefully, a respectable talent. Instead, he had been thrown into another world, nearly flattened by strange metal machines, taken to a police station and then painfully torn apart by an impossibly rude System.
At that moment, he only wanted his bed.
And Mathilda.
Maybe something warm to eat as well.
His shoulders drooped at the thought. After a moment, he raised his gaze towards the floating screen again.
Can you send me back to my world?
The interface remained silent.
Several seconds passed, long enough for the hope inside him to begin fading.
[YES, BUT FOR A PRICE.]
Liam almost scoffed.
A price. Of course there is.
Nothing that day had been simple. Still, the answer made his stomach tighten.
What price?
[PRICE UNKNOWN.]
[RETURN FUNCTION REQUIRES EQUIVALENT EXCHANGE.]
[CURRENT SYSTEM OUTPUT INSUFFICIENT FOR FULL CALCULATION.]
"Unknown?" he whispered.
That was not comforting. Not even a little.
Liam pulled himself back onto the closed toilet seat, although the effort left him breathing harder than it should have. If the System itself could not calculate the price, then the exchange might harm him in a way neither of them could predict.
The screen continued.
[PROBABLE COST: TALENT CORE DEGRADATION.]
[FINAL RESULT CANNOT BE GUARANTEED.]
His eyes widened.
Talents were not small things in Ortheon. They shaped a person's Path, future and standing in society. Noble families obsessed over them, the cathedral recorded them, and people were praised or dismissed depending on the rank they received.
Liam's fingers curled against his knees.
"If I do this," he asked, trying to keep his voice steady, "what will happen?"
[RETURN TO ORIGINAL WORLD: POSSIBLE.]
[HOST TALENT RANK: UNSTABLE POST-TRANSFER.]
[ESTIMATED OUTCOME RANGE: S RANK TO UNKNOWN.]
Liam released a small breath.
S rank was still excellent. His father and mother were both S rank, so they would have no reason to be disappointed by that.
Even A rank would be fine. It was not extraordinary by his family's standards, but it was respectable enough for an heir.
B rank would be disappointing. His relatives would compare him to his parents, and other nobles would probably offer those awful sympathetic smiles adults used when they were secretly pleased about someone else's misfortune.
C rank or lower…
Liam shivered.
He did not want to think about that.
Losing an SSS-rank talent would hurt. Anyone would be disappointed to lose something so legendary, especially a rank connected to someone like Sareno.
But he wanted to go home.
A talent, no matter how powerful, meant little if he remained trapped in a strange world where nobody even believed Astravia existed.
His mouth had gone dry. He swallowed with some difficulty, already knowing what his answer would be.
Yes.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the stall tilted.
The mirror, the walls and the narrow space around him twisted at impossible angles, as though someone had reached into reality and turned it by hand. Liam grabbed the edge of the toilet seat, but before he could steady himself, the room dissolved into white light and static.
A violent pulling sensation seized his entire body.
His vision flashed.
The System screen stretched into a long ribbon of grey light before vanishing.
Then the ground returned beneath his feet.
Liam stumbled out of the portal and back into the cathedral.
His shoes struck the marble floor, and he pitched forwards from the sudden change. His hands flew out, catching him just before he fell properly.
He remained there for a moment, breathing quickly and blinking as the cathedral came back into focus around him.
The noble children were still waiting for their turns.
Their guardians stood behind them, and the woman with the clipboard remained beside the portal as though Liam had only been gone for a few moments.
Several people were watching him.
Liam straightened immediately.
His legs felt weak, and his head continued to swim, but he forced his expression into the calm, blank mask his instructors had taught him. He adjusted his clothes as well as he could before walking back towards Mathilda.
His steps appeared steady enough.
Inside, however, something felt wrong.
The other children had emerged from the portal without any trouble. Some had looked confused, while others had appeared bored or disappointed, but none of them seemed as though they had been gone for hours.
Liam felt completely drained.
Why am I so tired?
He tried to remember what had happened inside the Gate.
Nothing came.
There had been something important. He was certain of it. Something painful, frightening and impossible to forget.
Yet the harder he tried to reach for the memory, the further it seemed to slip away.
"Weird," he murmured.
Mathilda's tense expression eased the moment she saw him approaching. She opened her arms slightly, and when Liam reached her, she placed one hand on his shoulder and quietly looked him over.
"You're back," she said. "How do you feel?"
Tired.
That much was obvious.
A dull ache had begun forming behind his eyes, and his thoughts felt strangely scattered.
"I… don't know," he admitted.
Mathilda tilted her head. "That's normal. Most children feel a little disoriented after their awakening. It should settle soon."
"Nana Mathilda, I'm tired." Liam rubbed his temple with two fingers. "Can we go home now?"
Mathilda's expression softened immediately.
She crouched until they were at eye level and brushed several loose strands of hair away from his face. Her fingers paused briefly against his forehead as though checking his temperature.
"Of course," she said. "You did well today. Let's get you home."
Liam nodded, too tired to say anything else.
His legs felt heavier with every step as they left the nobles' section. The sounds of the ceremony continued behind them, names being called and portals humming, but Liam barely paid attention.
By the time they left the cathedral, his headache had grown worse.
Mathilda kept one hand on his shoulder as they crossed the cathedral district and returned to their carriage. She helped him into his seat, then sat beside him instead of across from him.
Liam stared out of the window as the carriage began to move.
The Grand Cathedral of Origins slowly receded behind them, its silver spires and glowing runes becoming smaller with every turn.
The strange feeling remained.
He had forgotten something.
Something important.
Liam pressed his fingers against his temple and tried to think back to the moment he had entered the portal. He remembered the cathedral disappearing and a strange sensation moving through his body.
After that, there was nothing.
Only a gap where something should have been.
Mathilda noticed the crease between his brows.
"Still feeling tired?" she asked.
Liam hesitated before nodding.
"Yes. A little."
It did not feel like the complete truth, but he could not explain something he did not understand himself.
Mathilda gave him a small, knowing smile and guided his head onto her shoulder.
"Then stop trying to think so hard," she said. "Rest for now."
Liam allowed himself to lean against her.
Even after closing his eyes, the feeling remained lodged at the edge of his mind. Something had happened beyond the portal, but whenever he tried to focus on it, the memory dissolved before it could take shape.
The carriage rocked gently beneath them as it travelled away from the cathedral district and deeper into Astravia. The noise of the city gradually faded, replaced by the quieter rhythm of the noble territory.
Liam stopped trying to remember.
He was simply too tired.
Outside, the dense urban structures gave way to the older architecture of Astravia's noble district. Clean stone roads stretched between large estates, and the buildings were built in a more traditional style, with pale walls, high windows and silver-blue roofs.
Mathilda reached over and adjusted the blanket covering Liam's lap. She had wrapped it around him shortly after they entered the carriage, and now she smoothed it carefully into place.
Liam barely noticed.
By the time the carriage rounded the final corner, the Velrodi estate stood ahead of them.
Tall gates of dark iron had already opened to receive them. Trimmed hedges bordered the estate road, while lanterns cast a warm glow across the path leading towards the mansion.
Beyond the gates, the house rose in elegant layers of white stone, with deep royal-blue accents around its windows, balconies and roof. Its windows shone warmly against the evening sky.
The carriage slowed before the front steps.
Mathilda moved first, then gently helped Liam sit upright.
He opened his eyes and blinked several times, trying to clear away the last traces of sleep.
A servant opened the carriage door, allowing cool evening air to brush across Liam's face. Mathilda stepped down before helping him out.
His legs wobbled when his feet touched the ground.
Liam caught the edge of the carriage door and remained there until the unsteadiness passed.
"Let's get you inside," Mathilda said. "You need to rest."
He opened his mouth to answer, but even speaking felt like too much effort, so he settled for a small nod.
The front steps seemed much taller than they had that morning.
Liam began climbing, silently cursing whoever had decided that a house occupied by a child with short legs required so many stairs. Mathilda offered to carry him, but he refused immediately.
There were servants watching.
He was not going to be carried into his own home like a baby.
By the time he reached the top, however, he was breathing harder than he wanted to admit.
That morning, excitement had carried him down the same steps without effort. Now, after only a few hours away from home, it felt as though he had been travelling for days.
All Liam wanted was to reach his room and sleep.
The servants opened the grand front doors, and he stepped inside expecting the familiar quiet of the estate.
Instead, he was met by a sight that was anything but welcoming.