"Ugh..."

Pain.

Excruciating pain enveloped Rohan’s entire body when he awoke. So much that he couldn’t even feel his body. He only knew he still had all four limbs and remained intact because of the pain spreading from each and every nerve across his arms, legs, and chest: all hitting his brain like a speeding car into a brick wall.

His mind wasn’t quite prepared to handle such a level of pain, but Rohan forced himself to remain conscious regardless.

His eyelids twitched.

It took him a while to muster enough energy to open them.

’Argh... fucking bright.’

White, sparkling clean white light. That was the first thing to greet his eyes, and for a disorienting amount of time, his mind could only latch onto how wrong it was.

Couldn’t someone turn the damn light down? Or preferably just off entirely.

But then it hit him. This wasn’t the dark, gloomy ceiling of the boss’ lair, nor was it the bright blue sky you’d expect to see when you return to Earth.

A white ceiling, suspiciously spotless, with recessed lighting set neatly into it.

His smell was the next sense to return, and the air smelt faintly like antiseptic and expensive cleaning products rather than blood, dust and burnt stone.

Even the ambient sounds felt wrong after his hearing re-established itself. The constant hum of AC that didn’t have a lick of disharmony to it — clearly being well maintained.

’Wait, why am I thinking of all this?’

Rohan’s brow creased.

He tried to lift his head.

Pain immediately spiked down from his neck into his shoulders, hard enough to make his vision blur and go dizzy.

"Don’t." A voice said from somewhere to his right. "You’re lucky to be alive. Don’t push yourself any further, or you’ll have to get comfortable using a wheelchair for the rest of your life."

The voice was deep, definitely male, and even had a hint of authority to it.

It was calm in a way that put Rohan on edge. He didn’t like voices like that; they creeped him out. Especially after dealing with Liam.

His head snapped as far as it could before the pain multiplied, and he was able to catch a glance of the face behind the voice despite his body punishing him for it.

A man sat in a chair by the side of his bed.

He looked to be in his late thirties or early forties, but in the age of Awakened that didn’t mean much. Someone like that could be over a hundred years old for all he knew.

The Origin Realm had only been around for human civilisation for a little over a hundred years, but other races had been exploring it for far longer. Everyone already knew that the higher you rose as an Awakened, the longer your lifespan, with the higher ranks even reaching into thousands of years. Nobody publicly knew the upper limit, because the government chose to restrict that kind of information from reaching common ears.

Which made Human Awakened rather young by the cosmic standards.

The man’s presence filled the room without any apparent effort — he was clearly an Awakened, and a powerful one at that, which only served to put Rohan even more at unease.

His pulse kicked a notch.

This wasn’t someone he recognised.

Which, after everything he’d been through, meant danger until proven otherwise.

"Who are you?" he immediately asked, his voice rough from disuse and damage to his lungs still yet to heal.

The man studied him for a second, his expression completely unreadable to Rohan.

The only thing he could discern was that it wasn’t a hostile look, which didn’t really help much.

Rohan had dealt with enough people now to know that calm faces could hide the most despicable personalities with the worst intentions imaginable.

’Why am I acting so hostile and distrusting right now? Has the situation with Liam really affected my mentality that much?’ 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

The man leaned back slightly in his chair, speaking somewhat mysteriously.

"I’ll let my daughter answer that question."

Rohan’s face froze in confusion. For half a second his brain couldn’t connect why on earth the man would need his daughter to do the talking for him. Was he not confident enough to answer the questions himself?

’What a weird guy...’

Then footsteps started to ring from outside of his room.

Rohan had already come to terms with his location by this point in between his conversation with the mysterious man to his side.

This was definitely a hospital room, which meant he succeeded in killing the Pseudo-Commander tier beast after all.

Though he was slightly confused — this was a private room and quite a spacious one at that. It wasn’t something he could afford on his dime.

’I hope this guy doesn’t expect me to pay for it.’ Rohan inwardly scorned. He was already thinking of excuses to get out of paying when those same footsteps from earlier hurried up and abruptly stopped once they reached his door.

POW!

The door swung open, hard, slamming against the wall behind it.

"Quite the fiery temper your daughter has—"

Rohan stopped midway through his jeer.

After spending so much time together, the face that just entered his room wasn’t one that he could forget easily.

"Good, you’re awake now!"

Elane’s delighted voice floated over to Rohan’s ears, finally bringing some life to the plain white room.

Rohan’s gaze darted between the calmly sitting man and Elane, who’d just entered. It didn’t take long for things to click in his mind.

"Elane!? She’s your daughter!?"

Elane looked exhausted, much worse for wear. Her body was covered in a good amount of bandages, though not nearly as much as Rohan’s, and the usual composure she showed had been dulled by obvious worry and a lack of sleep.

"Well, I suppose that lets us skip the awkward introductions. Good riddance for all of us, isn’t that right?"

Seeing his daughter enter, Elane’s father finally revealed a smile — though there was a hint of guilt hidden underneath.

Elane gave a tired sigh.

"Right... I guess it makes sense that your father would rush over after hearing what happened."

Rohan turned to face her father.

"But why are you in my room, instead of hers?"

Elane coughed, bringing their attention toward her.

"...We have a lot to catch you up on."