Wednesday, 29th of January, at exactly five in the morning.
Donovan slowly woke up. An aching in his head immediately got him out of his sleepiness. What happened…? Where am I…?
He slowly sat up, finding himself in the entrance of his apartment. F*ck…
Suddenly, the aching in his head intensified! It was as if little worms were wriggling inside his cranium!
Donovan immediately stood up, sluggishly heading to the bathroom. Upon entering, he fell on both knees in front of the toilet, and vomited!
Sounds of retching echoed throughout the apartment room. This continued for a while.
Exiting his bathroom, Donovan wiped the tears in his eyes. Then, he sat on the sofa, leaning back as he let out a groan and a sigh of relief.
I feel like sh*t… It's been so long… since I had a hangover… Ah, my head still hurts…
Donovan laid down on the sofa. I guess I'll skip out on a mission for today… God, I don't remember much… I can't remember anything beyond what happened after Mr. Tiero made that challenge of having to pay the bill. Ugh…
He wanted to cry because of the ridiculous and excruciating headache. How are the others… doing…? I'm guessing Mr. Tiero feels completely fine… I don't know about Dean and Vincent…
***
Dean exited his bathroom. He had just finished vomiting for ten minutes.
As he was walking to his sofa, his body gave up, succumbing to the headache. He lost consciousness, falling asleep on the floor.
***
Vincent was still in front of his toilet, vomiting his guts out.
"Man, what'd I tell you? Hangovers suck, huh?" said a man standing beside Vincent.
The poor, vomiting Vincent ignored his words, and continued to vomit.
***
Tiero made his way to the Portal Chamber as he walked on the sidewalk. He yawned. Ah… It's been a while since I've had a good drinking session with others… Just like the old days… I sound like an old man now.
Hm. I seem to remember that those three haven't drank in a while. Haha! They must be dealing with a hangover! Come to think of it, I haven't had a hangover in such a long time…
He reached the Portal Chamber, slightly late from his usual time. There were already Visitors waiting there for him.
Two hours had passed.
The AI assistant Iris was playing soft, slow music.
Donovan was sitting in front of his personal computer.
He was playing an online game to try and get rid of the lingering effects of his hangover, but the constant losses were not doing him any good.
With an irritated groan because of losing five times in a row, he turned off his computer and went to the sofa.
I should just sleep… or read something… Actually, will I even be able to do those two with this goddamn headache?
Sighing, Donovan turned on the TV.
Aria's office.
Sounds of pen writing on paper filled the room. Aria was still watching the memories of the Tosla expedition corpse.
And from what she's seen in the memories, the corpse was known as Joramiel.
This is incredible…! I've never been this motivated to do something before! Good thing I told everyone that the MCE machine won't work for the corpse!
I'm the only one able to see this!
Suddenly, Aria held up her head with her hands, and fell from her chair, groaning from the sudden headache. Shortly after, she slowly sat up, taking deep breaths.
Not good. The more I see, the more I get these headaches… But knowledge is not without hardships. A little pain is nothing…
The memories extracted by the MCE machine are only the most significant memories by the corpse, so Aria is currently seeing the most important events in the history of the universe.
Inside a little office in Umbrellas, one scientist is witnessing events that only the most important beings in the universe have seen.
In a dark, endless void.
"Master. We must take the prophet here. She is witnessing more and more of The Great Purging. She… is ready…"
A voice that echoed throughout the void resounded from behind.
A wooden desk, as well as a wooden chair were placed inside that dark endless void. On the chair sat a man wearing a dark formal vest along with a white dress shirt, as well as brown tailored pants.
The man had dark, curly hair, and a young but handsome face. The man's eyes seemed to be glowing with white light.
He seemed to be writing on a book with a quill on that desk. On the surface of the desk were a small pile of books in the corner, a lit candle, and a cup of coffee.
Suddenly, the man said in a low, gentle voice that also echoed throughout the void, "Let her witness more. See if her mind can resist. If she is still alive after witnessing the climax of His death, we shall retrieve her from the drifting city. But if she is to be claimed by the hands of death, then we shall begin."
"We must thank the humans for inventing that machine…" he continued.
The Blot behind the man stood up, walking away.
8:57 p.m., same day.
Rain poured down heavily, as though it was desperately trying to drown the man walking towards the gas station.
Upon arriving at the entrance, Donovan furled his umbrella, shaking it. He then entered the gas station, the cool breeze embracing his body.
The reason he was here was because he wanted… or needed to buy some pizza and a few cans of beer. No, no, I swear I'm not addicted… It's just for one night…
Whether he was truly addicted or not, he wasn't sure. Besides, there's no way I'm addicted, I've only tasted it like… once. For the first time in a long time, too.
He was dressed in a black jacket, a white t-shirt, and gray pants. The inside of the gas station was very much similar to the gas stations in his previous life.
After a while, Donovan paid for a pack of beer and the pizza. As he was about to leave, someone entered and bumped into him, making him take a few steps back. Thankfully, Donovan had already recovered from the last remaining effects of his hangover, and didn't fall down.
"Ah…! I'm sorry, I didn't watch where I was going…" The one who apologized was a young girl with short, maroon-colored hair. Her eyes were a deep brown, and she was quite short. Overall, she looked beautiful.
But what surprised Donovan was her clothing. A school uniform! Her uniform consisted of a dark blue skirt, along with a white long-sleeved shirt with an umbrella logo on the left chest.
Upon seeing this, Donovan was reminded of the original Donovan's school days, all with the single goal of becoming a proper Visitor.
With a chuckle, Donovan waved her off and said, "It's alright, no harm done."
The girl apologized once again. She bumped into him because she was in the middle of wiping her hair because of the rain. With that, she walked deeper inside the gas station store.
Donovan unfurled his umbrella, leaving the gas station. As he walked, his mind went to the school she belonged to.
In Umbrellas, there's a school that everyone must go through if they wish to become a Visitor. The Magic and Technology Academy… or "MTA" for short. Graduating means becoming a Drizzle Rank, Category 1. It's located quite far down south.
It's so far, so what is she doing here? Does she live nearby, or did she just get lost?
Also, I only gave in to my desire to drink beer tonight… Only for tonight! I promise I won't indulge in this ever again…
The rain intensified, and Donovan started to run. Sadly, he had forgotten—because of his alcohol-infested brain—that he could just fly and activate his barrier.
Five minutes later, he reached his apartment. He didn't need to turn on the lights because of the light emitting from the billboard right outside.
He took a quick shower, sat on the sofa with his beer and pizza in front of him, and turned on the TV. He was going to binge watch a 12-episode school romance anime for tonight. And again, unfortunately, he had forgotten about his sleep schedule.
Four and a half hours later, Donovan turned off the TV. In the end, the main character managed to confess his love towards the love of his life, and they graduated high school. There was even a small tease at the very end of the two of them getting married.
This made Donovan want to tear up. Sadly, he found out that there was no second season, dampening his mood.
Checking the time, he realized that it was way past midnight. With a yawn, he threw the empty box of pizza and the beer cans in the trash.
Fortunately, although he was quite drunk, he managed to finish what he was watching, and even miraculously understand everything that was happening without falling asleep.
Suddenly, he seemed to realize something as he sat back on the sofa. The original Donovan would never stay up late, eating pizza and drinking beer while watching anime! And it was only after transmigrating into the body of Donovan Volgard that his habits had changed.
Donovan didn't know what to feel about this. Shaking his head, he laid down on the sofa. The bed was more comfortable, but he was too lazy to get up now.
See, the original Donovan would never be lazy to get up. Sighing, he forced himself to get up and walk towards the bed.
The only noise were the sounds of rain coming from outside, serving as good white noise. He stared at the ceiling, his mind wandering.
The anime he had finished watching made him recall the original Donovan's school days. Though he wished to recall the school days of his previous life as Leon Valentin, Donovan's was undoubtedly better.
The original Donovan graduated high school back on Earth at 17… He was tempted to go to college on Earth, but found that becoming a Visitor was far more interesting…. So, he graduated MTA at 21… Not bad.
Sigh, as for me, in my previous life, I graduated high school at 18, and graduated college at 22, majoring in education… which I didn't even put to good use. I wanted to become a teacher, but I still somehow failed at that. I just ended up wanting to go for becoming an office worker, but I transmigrated just four months in. The life of Donovan Volgard is better than the life of Leon Valentin…
He then recalled his old high school friends, both in the life of Donovan Volgard and Leon Valentin.
Donovan's friends from high school stopped getting in touch with him. Even the ones at MTA. Sam and Ariel are Donovan's— no, "my" old friends from MTA. Aguilar… well, he was from high school.
Clarence, Althea, Aaron, and Gabriel… My old friends from high school from my life as Leon Valentin. Thankfully, Gabriel got into the same college as I, and we kept in touch for a while. The others, well… I hope they're doing well. Hehe, Gabriel's probably in a relationship with Althea already, since he was the only one who kept in touch with her. Clarence is chasing his dream to become a police officer, and Aaron… sigh, I hope he doesn't enter the gambling business. I'm worried about him. Heh, if Aaron does get into gambling, and Clarence finds out…
Look at me, reminiscing about the old days. Are they… worried about me, I wonder? Because of this damn transmigration… Mom and Dad, how are you doing?
A wave of pure depression and sorrow suddenly struck Donovan's heart. Not good. I should stop being so depressed about this transmigration, and look on the bright side of things… I have magic, money, a good life…
With a sigh, Donovan shook his head. Why did I think of all of that? Is it because I'm drunk? Are Dean and Vincent alright? It was quite cold, and Donovan was already being lulled to sleep.
Ah, I want to get the Visitor Records from Mr. Tiero already… I wanna know more about Benedict's time as a Visitor…