Her laugh was like choirs of angels and her smile was as bright as heaven's lights.
Her face is unfair to everyone and her eyes were stars that I can't seem to reach.
She has said those three words that I always dreamed of, but I don't know how to say it back.
... I'm undeserving of something so beautiful.
Then change. Change to something deserving of heaven...
If I do, I'll be breaking our promise.
It's fine. Breaking something small as this is something I can tolerate. So go and climb the stairs I couldn't.
...I'll try.
...
I watched as another flew to heaven with ivory blessings, while I wept as I held mine in my arms.
...
..
.
Numerous voices of people intertwined to make an unusual symphony inside and outside, in the garden of a particularly large manor.
Inside this renaissance manor, the number of people inside surpasses hundreds. Their dresses and suits styles their tastes in older fashion of days passed in this modern era outside this ongoing event inside.
In this large scale of an event lies politics and words with hidden meanings that gives headaches to people that simply desires to drink a fucking coffee in peace.
I hate politics.
But the coffee the chefs brew here is good/10.
"Resting away from politics, Elio?"
Footsteps came and ceased as the person who called his name stood beside him at the corner of the lush garden.
Daisies and roses decorated the edges as two men stood, overlooking the people who conversed with eachother with words of hidden meanings and shadowed letters, all so to make connections with eachother to widen their influence and gain profits to their hands.
"I came here to perform an orchestra, not be subjugated to people surrounding me with hidden agendas."
By coffee addiction, he sipped the mug that he personally requested the chef to make, savoring the bitter flavor of its black texture.
"Ah... I apologise. I did not mean to give you more headaches. To think that plenty of people would have come was not unexpected, but this much is surprising."
The man besides him, the groom of this marriage, held his back high with natural pride just as much inside his sapphire eyes. His three layered attire was suited in pearly white, an attire that announces his presence in duller colors of others around. The groom's blonde hair matches the gold edges of his pearly suit, being a mark of riches unordinary. A cape almost kissed the ground, the gold in it reflecting lights that it might as well be a lightbulb. Look away lest you turn blind.
While Elio does not wear the same brightness as the extravagant white, his black shirt beneath his six button alabaster gray suit makes a great contrast in colours. A similar gray colored coat draped upon his shoulders covered the outline of his form, to shield him from the cold of the night unless he be shivering his timbers like a misused massager. A hat rested on his head to finalise this paragraph of a description for a character's fit.
But even when their greater suited form garners attention, none of the opportunists came to the two. It is because when two or more people of great status than the rest of the crowd are speaking with each other while away from the crowd, then being at the corner of the estate, it is rude to interrupt such small yet big conversations, lest you be seen as a fool and incompetent to see things that are too big for them making you a mockable subject to the people.
To be short and simple: Politik not go to them? PoLiTiKs.
"You should know this would happen, you should have known."
"And then why did you still come here, knowing other people would come for political purposes rather than celebrating an event?"
Sam's wine made a miniature whirlpool as he made circling motion with his hand.
"To show that at least one person is here simply for your happiness, bro."
"...Corny."
Yet the small tug of his lips upward didn't mean he is dissatisfied with the reply.
With a swift gulp to make all the wine in his hand disappear, he made a gesture to a maid holding a plate full of other juices and cocktails, wanting another to make the still lingering hoarseness of his throat from the talks before he came to Elio to disappear.
Looking at the window from the outside, Elio saw a bride talking inside a circle of women.
"You have a diligent wife, Sam. Talking to the wives of your competitors to make a connection, even with being new to business politics."
"Hah! Ain't she the greatest! Everything she does is SO CUTE! Yo Elio, did you know after confessing to me and knowing that I was planning to start my Climber business, she started to go to the Economic library everyday after that! And when she realized that she was pregnant, she tried to surprise me with a surprise date to surprise me with her telling that at the end of the date! She also starte-"
He changed from acting from prim and proper gentleman to a lovestruck guy bragging about his first love.
Adjusting his hat, Elio tuned down the married man's rambles and turned his attention to his coff- Oh it's all out...
:( sad.
Elio's sadness does indeed dampen visibly upon his face in which he has been informed by his process of proper nuance of intelligence that at this moment at this particular time in which his coffee has seemed to run out from his continuous consumption, thus rendering the caffeine to have exhausted on his merry cup. It's also seems similar to the reader reading this paragraph even when this sentence has come to break the barriers of the 4th wall to reach the reader to inform them that they have wasted their time reading this paragraph word for word. And still reading this long paragraph with its subpar usage of even more subpar narrative comedy of subpar author.
After the visible sign in which the author is trying to extend his word count, maybe, probably, Elio signalled to a nearby server to have his mug refilled.
"-nd that's how we married today." And he finished his monologue of... A love life? Monologue of how his wife is adorable or something, I dunno.
Heard of it a nth time for today of the reason of his friend's marriage, he has long grown accustomed to simply tuned down and turning his attention to a much more valuable subject.
"So, where is your child at the moment?"
Seeing a moment to enter and diverge to an earlier subject, a reason why he was invited to the marriage, other than being a good friend, was to introduce him to his children.
Seeing as the two have not met for a year and a half and their earlier meeting does not have children running around and his wife not having the image of a bloated nelly, the child must be an infant of at least less than a year.
Having been diverted from his gushing over his wife, Sam's attention turned to the upper floor of the building.
"The twins are sleeping at the moment. Having guests fill the manor, they would be crying at unknown faces."
"Oh? So it's actually twins?"
Having known that he has a child was obvious enough with this guy bragging online, but there is no indication in his numerous bragging posts in the child's gender, age, or if they could be twins.
"So what's the name of the two?" Elio questioned curiosity about what oh' so awful name this name disabled guy could come off with.
"They're Gretel and Hansel. Named of the girl and boy respectively." Ah. So the wife picked the names, huh?
If Sam was the one to name them, it would've been 'Super Cute Princess' and 'Galaxy destroyer' respectively. It would be funny if he was joking, but unfortunately, he could not make a decent logical name. Look at his pet lovebirds, 'Green', 'Yellow', 'More Greener', and 'Yellow Green'.
"Hn. So like the name of that one children's story?" Isn't that where the two kids and a witch or something similar?
"Well, she said that those names were names of her favourite story when she was younger."
Elio nods at that. Sipping at his refilled coffee, he tasted it like it was a gourmet review.
Noticing that his friend's mug is fuller than when they were in the middle of talking, he asked Elio for a confirmation in his thoughts. "Isn't that your fifth cup today?"
"Ninth."
"...You'll get heart palpitations if you're continuing drinking."
"Bold of you to think I'm not experiencing it currently."
"..." Sam was genuinely worried for this coffee addicted being.
"Out of everything I've experienced, you should know this doesn't do anything littlest to me. The thing you should worry about is this being the Forty-eight song Pepsiman and Cocacolaman are breaking down on."
"DOMAIN EXPANSION: DIABETIC LAKE!"
"YOU CAN SEE IT! YOU CAN SEE MY TECHNIQUE!"
"~Lonely lonely, I guess I'm lonely. Pust'vse budet kak reshit, monolog tvoei dushi."
Two skin tight costumes and an exaggeratedly muscular body can form an interesting sight, coupled with the two breakdancing at the center of the open space outside.
"...Wait, why are they here?" Shouldn't this be a marriage ceremony? Why are there two drinks breaking it down?
"My beautiful wife wanted to have her two favourite drinks invited. At least the political atmosphere is less prominent because of the two."
"...I see..."
Sam snorted at Elio.
The celebration's merry yet calculated atmosphere are becoming prominent as the two's conversation seemingly becoming on hold.
The two simply watch the scene Infront of them, the dance battle of two mascot of different prominent beverages, the talk between guesses, and the laugh of people who do not know the larger world beyond the curtain they call their reality.
This world is riddled with seven spiral towers, a trial for humanity to overcome. The public knows and they have long since made it the new normal of today.
Such a bizarre event of seven pillars that seem to reach the very heavens beyond the clouds appearing in a single instance of the night has long since forgotten. The world knows the other world beyond the tower's gates, and what miracles and curses it brought.
From what you could read in stories, the spiral towers revealed the mystery of magic in this technology orientated world. It's powers brought upon powered people that ventured forth beyond the gates, coming back with riches and gold that has once thought only recorded in ancient times. Telling stories of swords and magic, where monsters exist yet other beings similar to humanity as well.
This immensely generic theme of an ever typical second hand embarrassing novel, then dear god, please don't let it be the apocalyptic one. Or worse - 'the too horny for their own good' one.
The appearance of this tower brought those that are intelligent a glimpse of a breakthrough. Adventurers a taste of another world to explore. Ambitious a path to choose. The gluttonous an ever more feast. And the greedy their wished golden vault.
But what they do not know is the 'why' reason this interconnected tower brought with it a bridge to worlds beyond the stars. Why it gave them power and opportunities. And the inevitable promise of the distant unknown.
After all, scales must be balanced. No great blessing comes without a great calamity.
The silence between the two broke.
"In all honesty, I didn't expect for you to come. With the things you are planning and done, I did not expect you to attend, that letter was more of a formal image than an invitation. Why?" Sam spoke first. The words he said were not unexpected, yet Elio hoped he didn't ask. Simply just to let this facade of friends last longer, but that shouldn't be so with how cautious Sam has became after finding his meaning of love inside his bride.
"...Just think of it as a friend's congratulations and, although it may be insignificant, blessings."
Sighing, Sam twirled his red wine. Its swirling image oh too similar to the colour of ichor inside the living bodies that he spilled. The sins he ever ate with its tainted puss. "There is no insignificant in your blessings, Elio. Every small thing is as important as the foundation of it all."
"...Yet those above the stars will laugh at our insignificance. After all, for them, they only see comedy in our life called tragedy."
...
..
.
In a distant world, or rather, in an entirely different reality, or realm, or universe, or whatever you call something of a different world turn made show, or comic, or anime, or something.
"Good heaven's. Tis' exquisite delicacy bussin'"
"Did you turn a medieval knight slash noble or something?"
"With his bald head, I'd say he turned into a viking."
"By Odin's beard, give me ale!" The first voice spoke again but gone the swagger of a false noble. The plastic bottle in his hand aggressively being drunken similar to the way a supposed viking the boy thinks they should do.
Three boys in their late teens walking their merry way through the streets filled with students dressed similarly to the three.
But the difference made by their features this group of three held is more prominent than the other students walking in the surroundings.
One is a student with a shave cut that might as well go bald all the way. Another with eyes diluted that he needs glasses, with an ever gleam that reflects sunlight that should be impossible unless science got a paid leave. And the last being a normal brunette boy. But being with the other two says that he might as well have an oddity in himself.
Said trio is named respectively: Matsuda, Motohama, and Issei.
Said trio that you might remember associated with a show too obscene that you might say it's a softcore hen with a tie.
But surprisingly, they aren't oogling or being perverted plebs that you have known with the fanfiction media that you have may or may not consumed in your history of reading wish fulfilling fetish filled stories.
O' God, why is Webnovel full of systems and horny? Why are normal stories more hidden than power fantasies?
Rather, they are normal? Surprise surprise. The sun must be rising from the west if this is true. But be more worried because the sun is rising from the east normally as always.
Behind the waves of students is the highschool of Kouh. The day of study has ended and the learners are released from their painful prison of calculus and arithmatics.
"What do you guys wanna do today?" Matsuda, the ever hairless, asked his two friends.
"Nothing. Maybe I'll read people arguing on discord or something." Motohama, the ever blinding glasses, replied.
"Sleep." Issei, the all-suspicious, replied with a short and simple action word that not all have the privilege to act upon. Really need that eight hour sleeps before the world changes it to five hours in adulthood.
"Then jump in Call of Duty, I desire the blood of the innocents! Need to make some random guy rage quits." The sadistic urge to just mess some random dude's day online is immense.
"I'm in." Mr. Glasses agreed.
"Nah, not today. I need sleep, badly. I did an all nighter last night getting back my rank after the reset." Sleepy brown denied.
"Pft, weak are those who sleep." Glasses quip.
"Sleep tight for your beauty sleep, princess." Bald added.
"Eat shit."
"Saying what you're gonna do tonight?" Glasses add again.
"Motohama doesn't need to eat that, he already tasted one." Bald used betrayal.
"Bro..."
"Oh, then I'll change that. Eat ass. Something you can't get."
"...Why do y'all do me like this?" Damage is too much for his glass hardened heart, like his eyes.
The two continued their war of words, each filled with constant betrayal and backstabs. The three of them being fluent in the language of shit talking.
As they arrived at an intersection of where they must part, their loving hate words flew as their farewell.
Those farewells have poetry. "Bye, the neverhair and the great maidenless"
"Adiós, sleeping beauty and asswipe" the convo listener.
"Fuck off." And the local gamer language user.
The three parted but this portion of this story focuses on the not surprising brown haired boy. That should be obvious with a fanfiction like this.
Arriving, he opened the front door and announced his arrival. "I'm home!".
"Welcome back!" The voice of his mother never fails to always respond back.
Taking off his shoes, he replaces his footwear with comfortable slippers.
"There's hot water ready, you can brew your coffee, I'm just about to go for groceries. Your father is not coming back tonight, he has a business trip, he won't come back until the weekend." An older brown haired woman came out of the kitchen, a cloth being used to clean her wet hands, likely just done cleaning.
"Did we run out of coffee powder again?" With everyone in the house a drinker for coffee, coffee beans and grounded coffee powder are usually the reason for the common visit to the groceries.
Miki Hyoudou, the mother of Issei Hyoudou and the bride of Gorou Hyoudou, shook her head as a sign of denial. "No. We've run out of vegetables and meat. Although there's still half left, I'll buy a pack of coffee powder and beans as well. Do you want anything for me to buy when I go?".
"Ah. Can you also buy crackers as well?".
"Will do."
"Thank you."
A smile is the reply for the boy's thanks.
Walking up to his room to change clothes and place his bag down. He came back down to the kitchen to brew himself a cup of coffee.
He did say that he'll catch some Zs to his friends, and the cup of caffeine will. How does drinking coffee help you sleep when it's made for literally the opposite? Don't know. It's always a roulette of four outcomes: Makes you sleepy, makes you a shitting machine, makes you tweak out, or actually helps get rid of your bed charm.
And when it's this late in the afternoon and nearing evening, the first three are the only outcomes left to be put in the gun.
"I'm going out now!". His mother's voice came out the doorway, the door opening being sounded alongside the voice.
The child of the Hyoudou house said his bye. "Be safe!". With the sound of the close door.
And being left alone inside the house, he sipped his brewed caffeinated drink. Looking at any messages he might have got, being with his phone always at DND mode all the time.
The only messages he received is a yellow cat picture Matsuda sent just a few minutes ago, likely taking the pic as he went home.
+1 notification.
"?". Clicking the new message, an unknown number texted a, frankly, weird message.
"(Do you want to see worlds beyond what you know.)"
Who starts a conversation with that? Chunibyos apparently. Or some weird guy that escaped the psyche ward.
The only smart thing to do in this situation is to ignore, obviously. Could be a scammer.
+1 notification.
A persistent one, huh?
But it wasn't the same number, but a notification of an application being downloaded.
The only known reason for an unknown app being downloaded is the unknown number being a hacker. And said hacker might have installed a malware.
The only reaction Issei Hyoudou has is obvious.
Panic.
"NOOO!!!".
Having your phone hacked is the scariest thing to happen to someone at home, more so with a newly bought phone. Leaked location and leaked group chat conversations.
The horror!
As he screamed the app has already been downloaded.
That app being called 'CHAT group'. The word 'chat' being in capitals.
"The hell is this?!" Now his phone is being hacked and with an app being installed faster than his internet speed. Issei Hyoudou just wanted to sleep, not getting a panic attack!
The application opening by itself cemented that his phone is indeed hacked.
"Fuck!" Slapping angrily at the poor innocent table, the boy stomps his legs to the bathroom. Leaving the phone there, knowing he can't do anything anymore for his brand new phone.
The phone alone with the unfinished coffee, messages appeared on the screen.
(Cultivation Girl: What kind of glowing contraption is this?)
(Cultivation Girl: It can project my thoughts as letters?)
(Cultivation Girl: Oh my! How interesting!)
(MagikMagik: The hell is this?!)
(Cultivation Girl: Oh my. Quite a vulgar language. Could you be of someone of the same ownership of a rectangular contraption that glows perhaps?)
(MagikMagik: What's with that fashion typing? Of course I have a phone, how would I be typing?)
(Cultivation Girl: So this is called a "Phone"? An interesting choice of a name for a contraption that can communicate and glow.)
(MagikMagik: You're committed to your bit, huh. Is this your role playing account?)
(Cultivation Girl: Bit? No, I'm not biting this so called Phone.)
(MagikMagik: You act like a rich girl. Are you a guy? Acting like this is gay, bruh.)
(Naive Pilgrim: A phone in this world?!)
(MagikMagik: Damn, my phone got hacked just to get thrown to a roleplaying group chat. Lonely fellas huh.)
And the chat continued without the knowledge of Issei Hyoudou.
The boy's life is simply getting started. With a curse of a bizarre crew sprinkled like a salt to a wound.