Haruto groaned, his head throbbing as his eyes slowly fluttered open. Instead of the cold, hard ground of the apartment he remembered, he found himself lying on a massive, luxurious bed inside a spacious room.
The decor around him felt entirely foreign—exotic, grand, and unfamiliar.
As he tried to steady his spinning head, a soft, melancholic melody drifted through the air. Someone was playing a piano.
Frowning, Haruto pushed himself up off the mattress. Memories of what happened before he passed out began flooding back. Toya... Marena... why did they do that to me? Why?
Following the sound of the music, he quietly padded across the floor toward the partially open door of the adjacent parlor.
He peeked inside, his breath catching in his throat. Sitting gracefully at the grand piano, fingers dancing effortlessly across the keys, was Lilith.
Forgetting his caution for a split second, Haruto stepped into the room and blurted out, "Wow... I didn't know you could play the piano. I didn't even know pianos existed in this world."
The music cut off instantly.
Lilith stopped playing, her fingers lingering over the keys. Slowly, she turned her head, fixing him with a cold, blank stare as if she were looking at a complete stranger.
"Who are you?" Lilith asked, her voice devoid of any warmth or recognition.
Haruto froze, blinking in sheer disbelief. He spun around, looking behind him, before pointing a finger at his own chest. "Huh? Who am I?! Wait, are you joking—I'm Haruto!"
Lilith narrowed her eyes, standing up from the piano bench with a dangerous aura. "Right. An intruder caught red-handed in a private estate."
"What?!" Haruto stepped back, panicking. "No, wait, what are you talking about—!"
Before he could finish, Lilith closed the distance in a flash. Her hand shot out, grabbing him by the collar with terrifying strength and lifting him off his feet as if he weighed nothing.
With a swift, merciless motion, she hurled him backward out of the room, sending him crashing hard onto the floor.
"Get out of my sight," Lilith commanded coldly, standing over him.
Before Haruto could process the surreal nightmare unfolding around him, Daisy rushed around the corner, her hands on her hips as she glared down at the commotion. "Hey! What on earth are you doing making all this noise?!"
Haruto scrambled backward, clutching his bruised shoulder as he looked up at Daisy with desperate, wide eyes.
"Daisy! Thank God, tell her!" Haruto stammered, his voice cracking. "Lilith, what is wrong with you?! Why are you acting like this?!"
Lilith crossed her arms, looking down at Haruto with a blank, indifferent expression as she shook her head. "Daisy, do you know this weirdo?"
"How would I know him?" Daisy replied coldly, her voice entirely detached. "And besides, he's just standing there shouting out your name like he knows you. Do you know him, Lilith?"
Lilith simply offered a sharp, icy shrug, her gaze devoid of any recognition. "Never seen him before in my life."
Right on cue, heavy footsteps echoed down the hallway as Philo and Geeli hurried into the room, looking around in alarm. "What's going on here? Why are you two making so much noise and fighting again?"
Daisy pointed a finger down at Haruto. "No idea. Some random intruder just broke in and started causing a scene."
Haruto stared up at them, his brain completely short-circuiting. The sheer confusion and betrayal crashing over him made his chest tighten. What... What are they doing? Is this some kind of sick joke?
"Philo! Geeli!" Haruto cried out, scrambling to his feet and reaching toward them. "What the hell is going on here?! Are you guys out of your mind? Why are you acting like this?!"
Philo recoiled sharply, narrowing her eyes as if a stray dog had just lunged at her. She stepped back behind Daisy, crossing her arms defensively. "Wait... how do you know my name, stranger?"
Geeli blinked behind her glasses, tilting her head in a mix of caution and annoyance. "Yeah, and how do you know mine? Who even lets weirdos wander into the estate like this?"
Lilith's eyes flashed with feigned suspicion. "Could he be a spy sent by one of the rival factions?"
"A spy?" Philo scoffed, rolling her eyes. "If this is what passes for an infiltration squad these days, the security standards are in the gutter."
Lilith let out a cold, dismissive sigh, turning her back on him with a wave of her hand. "Whatever. Today is my cleaning duty anyway, and I hate having garbage cluttering up my floors. Someone drag him out."
"Wait, hold on!" Haruto yelled, his voice cracking as desperation fully took over. He grabbed his head, stumbling backward as the reality of their words hammered into him. "Stop messing with me! Look at me—I'm Haruto! Haruto!"
Lilith stopped dead in her tracks, slowly turning her head back over her shoulder. A blank, agonizingly hollow look painted her face.
"Haruto?" Lilith repeated flatly, her voice dripping with absolute coldness. "Who the hell is Haruto?"
Haruto's breath hitched, desperation bypassing all logic as he blurted out the first defense that came to mind. "Wait—stop! You... you love me! You told me—!"
The moment those words left his mouth, Lilith's expression completely shattered. Her face twisted into a mask of pure, unadulterated disgust.
Haruto flinched, his mind racing in sheer panic. It was the first time in his entire life he had ever seen genuine loathing and revulsion directed at him by her.
Without a word, Lilith whirled around and snapped her fingers at Daisy. "Give me your sidearm."
Daisy hesitated for a fraction of a second, tossing her a sleek, mag-tech pistol. Lilith caught it effortlessly, marching straight back to Haruto.
"Shut your filthy mouth," Lilith hissed, her voice trembling with manufactured rage. "Are you out of your mind, spinning pathetic stories like that? Why on earth would anyone ever love someone as pathetic as you?"
Before he could blink, Lilith grabbed him violently by the collar, slamming him against the wall. With a cold, merciless motion, she jammed the barrel of the gun straight under his chin, forcing his head back.
Haruto instantly threw his hands up in surrender, his heart hammering against his ribs. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as chaos tore through his thoughts. What is happening to them?! Is someone manipulating their minds? Is this some kind of cursed spell or mass brainwashing?!
Behind them, Daisy crossed her arms, letting out an annoyed sigh as she glanced at the pristine marble floor. "Hey, keep it down. Don't make a mess in the drawing room. Just drag him outside and shoot him already—trash belongs on the street."
Lilith didn't hesitate. Gripping the pistol tightly, she didn't pull the trigger, but instead used the barrel to ruthlessly shove him backward toward the grand exit. "You're out of time, piece of garbage. Figure it out yourself."
Before Haruto could process a single fragmented thought, Lilith hauled him out through the heavy double doors and hurled him violently off the mansion's steps.
He tumbled hard onto the cold, unforgiving asphalt of the outer road.
The heavy iron gates slammed shut right in front of his face with a deafening thud, locking automatically.
"Get lost," Lilith's cold voice echoed from the other side. "And never show your face here again."
Haruto groaned, pushing himself up from the cold asphalt as the bustling, hyper-futuristic sounds of Grand City washed over him. Neon lights bled across towering skyscrapers, and streams of anti-grav vehicles hummed overhead.
He stared around in absolute bewilderment, the pedestrians casting brief, cold glances at the shabby black-haired commoner on the ground.
What... what is happening? Is the whole system glitching out? he thought, clutching his head.
Suddenly, heavy footsteps approached. Haruto looked up, his eyes widening as Lilith stepped through the crowd, accompanied by Daisy.
"You know what?" Lilith said, her voice dripping with calculated contempt. "You really crossed a line back there with your pathetic insults. You deserve a proper lesson."
Before Haruto could even scramble back, Lilith motioned sharply. "Daisy, grab him."
Daisy moved instantly, locking her arms around Haruto and dragging him forcibly away from the main avenue, pulling him into a narrow, dimly lit alleyway behind a row of ventilation units.
"W-Wait, what's going on?!" Haruto panicked, thrashing against her grip. "What are you doing?!"
Lilith stepped close, drawing her sidearm with chilling casualness. Without a single word of warning, she pressed the barrel flat against his stomach and pulled the trigger.
BANG.
The muffled shot echoed sharply in the alley. Haruto's breath hitched, his eyes blown wide in agonizing shock. The bullet bypassed his vital organs with calculated, surgical precision, but the raw impact and searing pain tore through his nerves.
As the warmth of his own blood began to pool against his shirt, Lilith leaned in close and she thought: Sorry... but this has to look real. Make it hurt, Haruto. Suffer through it.
Before his brain could fully process the nightmare, his knees buckled. Haruto collapsed hard onto the filthy pavement, his vision blurring as a widening pool of crimson soaked into the concrete beneath him. His eyes remained cracked open, staring blankly at the alley floor as consciousness began to slip away.
Just as his senses faded into the cold abyss, a pair of worn, dirt-stained boots stepped into his line of sight. A hand reached down, grabbing him by the rags—Toya, dressed in cheap, commoner clothes, hauling him up to save him from bleeding out in the dirt.