We Can't Kill Sleeping Beauty (7)

"How many days have passed?" I wondered.

"Almost a year inside this room. Outside, around a few days at most," Luke checked the settings on the room.

Attached to many machines, my stomach grumbled from my long period of sleep. I was turning into sleeping beauty. The difference between us was closing as Luke's anger seemed to have completely vanished from time. I couldn't believe I was asleep for that long. What if she was trying to make me the same as her?

"How?" I trembled.

"You were slowly bleeding from all your erupted organs the longer you slept. We had to move in all the equipment we had to keep you alive," Luke frowned from his memories.

"I can't believe she would try to kill me for not helping her," I looked down at all the bandages.

Maybe she was still watching me while in her slumber. She responded every time when I talked about her out loud. I squeezed my hands into fists, knowing that sleeping beauty would never leave me off until I killed her. However, this tale was a thousand years old. There were many versions of the same myth with each having its own ending.

That tower was the only hope I had left if I didn't want this to repeat again. I wondered what Luke was thinking every time I fainted from aggravating sleeping beauty. Those times, I thought it would be better to die than to come back here. However, after resting for such a long period of time, the thoughts vanished.

I wanted to live. I wanted to revisit all those places in the second district. I wanted to travel around the third district with Oili again. I had to see my parent's faces one more time. I didn't want to become like sleeping beauty. Why would I have to live the same fate she did? Her story was tragic, but she drew in many innocent victims as well.

"You won't die. As long as you're inside this room, no matter how much you get hurt, we can keep you alive," Luke dismissed my worries.

"How about school? Don't we need to return to school?" I needed to know.

"The school didn't contact us to return yet. Now that you're awake, we can go to the first district since there are better medical supplies there," he closed his book.

"Your family mansion? Not the infirmary at school?" I tried to rise from the bed.

Luke nodded his head. I guessed the school was still sorting things out. But this meant I would be forever in this state, not able to do anything on my own. I needed to remain in the second district since I knew I may not be able to come back here again. Sleeping beauty got her wish. For my future, I would go to that tower.

"I need to stay. I need to visit that tower," I hinted where my picture was taken.

"Remember the deal? If you did end up leaving the hotel room, you agreed to stay inside the mansion where you weren't allowed to leave your bedroom until we went back to school," he reminded me.

"Are you telling me to live the rest of my life like this?" My jaw almost dropped.

"At least you'll still be alive," he tried to comfort me.

"What do you want in exchange? What will it take for you to trust me again?" I gritted my teeth.

"One hour at the tower for these conditions," he pulled out another contract like he was prepared for this.

This time, I carefully read through all the clauses. I had learnt my lesson from signing a contract for my otaku supplies last time. I grimaced while reading all the terms. It was more extreme than the other one. I had to agree to get the permission from the Roselia family for things like what I could do after I graduated from school. It went into the long term, meaning they would plan out the rest of my life for me.

If I signed this, there was no hope for me to escape from his family. Although I wouldn't feel most of the impacts now, I could already predict how my entire life would change. I would need permission whenever I wanted to leave a district. There was also a list of duties that I would need to fulfill. The penalty from breaking any of them meant I didn't have the ability to ask them for permission anymore. I had to do whatever they demanded me to do.

Did he know I planned on escaping after my graduation? This contract couldn't be written within a day. All these clauses were more detailed and precise to their words. Some of them were unlikely that Luke had written them himself with his style I was familiar with.

"Father wanted me to get you to sign this someday," he noticed me wondering where the contract came from.

My shoulders slumped from the news. He must have received this at that time when we visited his parent's house. Looking at his expression, it seemed he still didn't want me to leave this room. However, this was a good opportunity for him. I sighed as no matter where I turned for the escape route, I was stuck.

"I can't sign this. You know what this means to me," I placed the contract down.