To you: After the End

'He smells so bad.'

"Look, I'm just a regular university student. I don't know what you're talking about."

Johan's bright gaze dimmed a little, but the light of hope didn't fully disappear.

"Yes, I mean, I'm not an evil wizard conspiring against the Empire. How did you even get that idea?" Leor continued, taking a deep breath.

Completely crushing Johan's dreams.

He didn't have time for this. There had to be another intruder. How else could this be explained? Leor took another look at Johan and shook his head. But he couldn't just leave him like this. The guy didn't even know where he was. He should take him to the Church—they could deal with this.

"Johan... I see that you don't know anything. I'll take you to Goddess Aethira's Church. They run a charity. If you ask nicely, they'll help you get home and look after you for a while," Leor said after some thought, observing Johan's reaction.

'Huh, what's wrong with him now?' His face fell, his eyes filled with the threat of fresh tears.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong now? I'll help you get to the Church if you don't know the way."

"Can you not?! They might figure it out... Can I stay with you? I'll be your slave if you want. I'll do anything!" Johan lunged, hugging Leor's legs. "Just please don't take me to the Church..."

He started sobbing dramatically.

'So he's a criminal? Or a partner of the real intruder?'

Leor stared at him coldly. Johan looked back, eyes pleading. A momentary silence stretched between them.

"If I heard you correctly, you'll be my slave, right? Do anything I say without question?"

Leor could see the regret already creeping into Johan's expression. Either he was just a lost, naive kid, or he was a master manipulator lying through his teeth.

'If he's the friend of the intruder, I should keep an eye on him. He won't be much of a threat to me anyway, and if he tries anything suspicious...'

His gaze flickered to his knife. Decision made.

"Can I ask you something, Master?"

'Master? Isn't he a bit too fast to accept slavery?' Leor thought, clearly satisfied by the obedience.

Keeping his expression cold, Leor responded in a nonchalant tone, "Go ahead."

"Do the people here… in this Empire… hold witch trials? Burn suspicious people alive? Were you sending me to the Church for that?"

His voice shook. A mischievous thought crossed Leor's mind.

'What's the harm in lying a little bit here and there?'

"Yes. If anyone else had found you in that gooey substance, they would have immediately taken you to the witch trials. Not only would they burn you alive, but first, they'd remove your skin, put salt on your wounds, then slowly burn you by covering you with wax. You'd burn as the wax melted away. Even my sister or brother would have instantly sent you there. You should thank me."

Leor had read in history class that something similar had happened around the 1010s, but dehumanization like that had been banned long ago—at least on the surface.

He glanced at Johan again, struggling to keep his face serious. Inside, he was already grinning maliciously at the sight of Johan's sobbing face. Tears welled up in his eyes, his hands trembling as he clung to Leor's leg. His face turned pale, lips quivering as if he wanted to scream but didn't dare. Fear twisted his features into something ugly.

Only a single thought rang,

'Worth it!'

Leor took another look at him, savoring his reaction like it was the last crumbs of the mutton rib.

Maybe he'd gone a bit overboard, but the reaction was definitely worth it.

'He did scare me half to death by suddenly appearing in my house.'

"Now, don't worry too much. Just be grateful I was the one who found you. You can take a bath in the bathroom and clean yourself. Then clean my room, dry my books, and do the dishes. And wear some pants for a change. Our sizes should be about the same."

Johan was still mumbling about something, but Leor ignored him. There was someone else in the house. He also needed to go to the university—missing that class was basically asking to be kicked out.

And he couldn't leave without reporting to the police first. The terrorist had to be around here.

And that wasn't all.

He glanced back at Johan, who was now rubbing the slime off his body.

'Who is he, and how did he get here?'

That was something to worry about later. For now...

'I could just ask Vane for help with him too.'

Vane was the heir to one of the ten Great Royal Families, Lorraine—and a close friend. If Vane was busy, there was always Alya. Her family, Rurik, was also one of the Great Royal Families, and she was the daughter of the wealthiest man in the Lavenham Empire.

They both could use their connections to find out more about this Johan Orlven.

Leor's gaze turned serious.

Leor, Vane, and Alya all believed in the theory—more of a conspiracy nowadays—that there was something… something more beyond the Dark Seas. There were rumors that the world they knew, the three great empires and all the small nations, were just a very small corner of an extremely vast one.

Leor stared at the mysterious man.

'He might be the key to understanding it—to finding the truth about what lies beyond the sea. No normal person would just spawn out of nowhere, and what even is that goo...?'

It perfectly matched the patterns of countless myths and legends he had heard about the Dark Seas.

"Could you not stare at me while I'm getting dressed?!" Johan yelled with annoyance, breaking Leor's inner monologue.

Johan stepped out of the bathroom wearing Leor's old grey tuxedo, black trousers, and simple black sandals.

He looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, slightly more muscular than Leor. He had a handsome, pale white face, shiny blonde hair—now messy after the bath—and light brown eyes staring at Leor, probably waiting for instructions.

They were now standing in the middle of a wooden hallway, which felt tight because of two tall men standing there.

Both men had deep, thoughtful looks. But their thoughts were entirely different from each other.

'Mom and Dad must be so messed up right now… Their only son did die in such a gruesome way, and Freida...' Johan thought, a deep ache throbbing in his heart.

He scratched his chin from time to time, waiting for Leor to initiate the conversation, who was now just staring at him sternly.

"I still don't trust you. And I still need to know how you got here. And you don't have to call me 'Master,' at least in public. Slavery is illegal… for commoners, at least, so we can't make it public." Leor paused, watching Johan's reaction. He seemed much calmer now.

'I wonder what's going on in his mind now.'

"So you'll need to follow me for a while. Let's first report the terrorist attack to the police."

As Leor expected, this caught Johan off guard, shattering his calm slightly.

"What terrorist attack?" he asked, clearly worried about being labeled a terrorist.

Leor quickly explained everything in detail.

'Johan could be useful. Maybe he was connected to the terrorist without even realizing it. This could definitely create a lead, at least.'

Johan, to Leor's surprise, was still able to regain his calm fairly quickly, his eyes narrowing in thought.

"What kind of organization is the police? Are they like guardians of society?" Johan asked curiously.

'If they're the same as back home, this isn't really a problem for me…' Johan thought quietly.

"Yeah, something like that… mostly," Leor spoke in an unsure tone, making Johan look at him with intrigue.

"Why are you so passive-aggressive about everything you say?" Johan asked directly.

"What are you talking about?" Leor asked, clearly confused by the sudden question.

"No, I mean, like, when you were talking about slavery and now the police. It's just an observation," Johan said in a thoughtful tone.

"No, I'm not," Leor said simply, his tone annoyed.

Thump! Thump!

As they were talking, the walls started shaking—like an earthquake. A very strong one at that.

But nothing was falling like it should. The walls just kept shaking violently.