’What... is this...?’

He was certain that it had only been about fifteen minutes in the mindscape before his real body woke up. But that was so strange.

He was well aware of the time disparity between the mindscape and the real world. There was no fixed connection between the two.

Since the time his body spent sleeping in the real world had to be stable, the time in the mindscape was what caused the disparity. Sometimes he spent more than twenty-four hours in the mind world, before his body woke up, and sometimes his body would wake up after only spending an hour there.

But never had he woken up before spending less than an hour in the mindscape, so waking up after fifteen minutes was too weird.

And most importantly, his body had woken up as soon as he had tried interacting with the connection he felt with the mindscape.

As his mind began connecting the dots, a theory slowly began to form in Adrian’s mind.

’I need to do some experiments to know for sure.’

But the problem was that it would take too much time, since those experiments would require him to sleep and wake up multiple times.

It would take several nights.

Just then, the door of his room suddenly opened, and his personal maid, Rue, stepped inside. She was carrying a broom and a piece of cloth in her hands.

As soon as he saw her, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.

He turned toward her—which was somewhat hard due to the thick roll of bandages around his neck—and called out.

"Rue, I need your help."

She turned to him instantly. She looked mildly surprised as she answered.

"Yes, Young Master Adrian, I am here to help. Please tell me how I can help you, and I will do my best."

She seemed enthusiastic about it, which felt somewhat strange to him. But he dismissed it since he was benefiting from her enthusiasm.

"I need you to assist me with a few experiments."

***

After two hours, Adrian was still sitting up on his bed, lost in thought.

Suddenly, someone placed their hand on his shoulder and shook him lightly, bringing him out of his thoughts. As he looked to the side, he saw his personal maid looking at him with an expression of concern on her face.

She leaned in and asked lightly.

"Young Master, are you... okay?"

Adrian furrowed his brow.

’What is she talking about?’

"You were strange to begin with, but you are somehow acting even stranger today."

For a while, he stared at her in confusion. Then he sighed.

"I am done; your help is no longer required, so you may leave now."

Hearing him, she slowly turned around and left. But even until the end, she still had that concerned look. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

After she left, he lay down on the bed once again and closed his eyes. It took some time, but he was finally able to drift back to sleep once again.

Adrian opened his eyes, seeing the tall buildings of Earth’s architecture. He was still standing in the middle of the four-way intersection of the roads, the same place where he had been when his body in the real world had woken up.

But a few things had changed since then.

It was now morning, allowing him to get a clear view of the surroundings. And standing in the middle of the city’s one of the busiest roads without a single vehicle passing him by, the feeling that he was the only person to exist in the world grew even stronger.

Well, he actually knew that he was the only person who existed in this mindscape, but knowing something and feeling it were two different things.

Anyway, that was not the only change.

Adrian looked at his left hand. There was now a vintage analog wristwatch on his left wrist; its silver belt and frame glistening in the sunlight.

This wasn’t just some simple wristwatch; it was a tool that allowed Adrian to control the time disparity of this mindscape.

By twisting the crown of this wristwatch, he could either make it so that one second in the real world becomes an hour in this mindscape, or one hour in the real world becomes a mere second here.

’I can imagine so many uses for this.’

The experiments he had conducted were simple. He had told his personal maid that he was going to sleep once again and that she should wake him up after counting to a thousand. He had repeated this process several times.

It was very hard to simply fall asleep like that repeatedly, and he probably wouldn’t have been able to do this if he hadn’t already been drowsy from having just woken up.

At first, it was extremely hard to interact with the connection since it was vague and intangible. But after the third try, he suddenly found this wristwatch on his left wrist, and he felt the same sense of connection with it that he felt with the world.

After giving one last look at the watch, he pulled on its crown and twisted it. And the next second, his eyelids became heavy, and he began feeling extremely drowsy. He sat back down on the road and closed his eyes.

In the real world, Adrian opened his eyes and slowly sat up straight, looking at his left wrist where the analog wristwatch had been in the mind world.

’It seems that Immutable isn’t a simple Origin ability, at least not as simple as I had first believed. The mindscape—something that was never mentioned in the compendium—is changing and expanding, giving me strange powers over it. But... to what end?’

What was the point of that mindscape? It was simply something that existed in his head that was probably not going to change. So how would that even benefit him?

No, maybe it wasn’t even supposed to benefit him.

Adrian pressed his temples, once again feeling overwhelmed. Then he took a deep breath to calm his mind.

’I should just be happy with that wristwatch for now; at least it can be useful in some way. Something is better than nothing.’

With that, he got off the bed and left the room, starting his new day.

...even though it had been quite late due to his experiments.

After several hours, Adrian was once again in his room, reading the compendium in silence. Just then, the door opened, and his personal maid stepped inside.

She walked up to him and held out a piece of folded paper.

"Young Master Adrian, I was supposed to deliver this to you."

Adrian looked at the folded paper and took it from her hands. After inspecting it briefly, he slowly unfolded it and saw its contents.

==========

Child, look out of your window.

==========

Adrian stood up from his chair and walked toward the window.

Just from the way of address, he could easily guess who had sent that piece of paper.

And as he looked outside, his guess was confirmed.

Out there on the plane, grassy ground clear of any flowers, Sir Avalon casually sat under the shade of a tree. It was the same place where they had first met yesterday.

Suddenly, Sir Avalon looked up and noticed him. Then he waved while smiling. Seeing that, Adrian understood what it all meant.

It was time for the second lesson.