The Code

Ch 16: The Code

It's been 65 hrs and 8 minutes and 12seconds since she first woke up in this colored spacious room. The meals were served three times a day with afternoon snacks.

She checked her stat, her HP was almost full but the hole in her shoulders recovered slower. She was given a pill to help her wounds but she refused to take it.

'I should've used a potion.'

Stat:

HP : 340/360

MP : 0/325

Fatigue: 0/150

Luna is jumping around the furniture earlier and now resting at his own mini bed at the corner near the bed.

"Luna, if you sleep after eating you might get indigestion." Luna opened his eyes and yawned then went back to sleep.

'I don't know why I keep talking to you.' She returned doing sit ups.

She glanced at the door and frowned. The door and windows were never locked. Somehow her wariness in this place gradually and that concerns her.

'He is about to come.'

*Knock* Knock*

She didn't bother to say anything when the door opened and he invited himself in.

He is wearing his usual black suit with the shining blue stone pinned in his neck collar. He was wearing an expressionless face.

'What is he thinking?'

"You didn't reopen your wounds today."

Her eyes twitch a little before answering.

"I don't feel like it."

". . . "

". . . "

They've been like this for two days straight. He will come and ask questions and enter a staring contest with her.

Her wound reopened multiple times because of her working out habits. She refused any help and dressed her wound herself.

The man averted his eyes first and sat at the couch.

"Sit down."

Nothing has changed he orders her. If she becomes disobedient he will let out that suffocating energy.

She settled down on the couch across from him.

"Are you ready to talk?" He leaned his elbow on his thighs while focusing his cold eyes on her.

His stares send shivers down her spine but she can't bring herself to avert her eyes first. It felt like he was compelling her not to look away.

'Charisma. . . He is controlling me with charisma. If I don't pull myself together I will lose myself'

"Who are you?" For The past few days he never answered any of her questions and she never gave proper answers. They are stuck with questions and questions.

She is not familiar with their language but he knows hers and therefore he has the upper hand. The only person who can hold a conversation with her.

'If he will not answer my questions I will not answer him.'

In the staring contest the first one that blinks loses and she can't afford to lose.

Faint smile.

'Did he just smile? 'He lowered his head and put his hands together as he looked her straight in the eyes.

'He knows.' That is what her gut feeling is saying.

"I am the current head of the Alexander Family. Konrad Alexander."

He blinked.

'Head of the family?' She tries to hide her questioning look.

"Who are you?"

It's her turn to blink.

"I can't remember. Why did you bring me here?"

"I didn't bring you here. What are you doing in the Forest?

``Look at this sly man, he won't let me take one step ahead.'' She found his answer irritating and amusing at the same time but she was confident because she already prepared her answers.

"I suddenly found myself there. What is your relationship with the person who brought me here?"

He smirked, like he too finds all of these entertaining. He relaxed his position but his cold eyes never left her.

"Son. The language you are speaking, where did you learn that?"

'Son? the guy with a face tattoo? no wonder they look so much alike. If that grown up man is his son then this man is an old man!'

"This is the only language I know. When can I leave here?"

Instead of answering he looked at her wrists. Since she is wearing her sleepwear, long plain cream colored dress with short sleeves, her brown marks on her right side are clearly visible. She became more conscious as he continued to stare. She instinctively put it away behind her like a kid trying to hide the cookie she stole.

He stood up in his seat and looked at her from above.

"Who's stopping you?"

After hearing Konrad's questions, she begins to question herself.

'Why did I think they were holding me here?' She remembered opening the door and finding a clear coat but she never attempted to leave.

'Did I choose to . . . . . . stay?'

In her brain, she cannot process this thought fast. After waking up finding herself trapped in a room all she wanted is to get out. Then why did she stay here?

"You can leave anytime but the moment you step outside, either you end up in prison or killed on sight." He then turned his back on him.

"Wa--Wait. what --?"

"What do you mean by that?" She asked again after she stood up.

He unbuttoned his cuff and folded the sleeves. He raises his wrist to her eye level. Black line tattoos, shaped in a perfect box were engraved to his wrists.

"You don't possess a code like this." He tapped the box tattoo in his wrist with unidentified black line patterns

". . ."

"Without this you are not considered human. That's why either you will be imprisoned, experimented on or treated as a monster and be killed on sight."

She remembers the white room, the memory she is not very fond of.

'Is that why I was there? The code am I . . . going back after all?' Her body started to tremble and she hugged her small and skinny body. She cannot fully understand why her body reacts this much.

'If I am going back it will be on my terms.' Her body continues to shake but not because of fear. Its anger and spite.

While she is out of her mind, Konrad puts a black cloth on the table.

"Check my words for yourself."

Konrad said then left the room. She reached for black cloth and spread it. It is a black cloak with a hood.

'He is telling me to go.'

She closed her eyes. She dropped her body weight and lay on her side.

'If what he said is true, then the probability of me getting back to that place is higher.'

She stares at the ceiling and frowns. The image of the white ceiling filled with white lights overlapped the cream colored ceiling.

'Dammit.' She cursed internally.

[SYSTEM]

Level : 19

(Exp needed to level 20)

'If I get caught, how high are my chances of getting caught again?' Contrast to the deafening silence in the room, Her brain is playing different scenarios in her head.

After a few seconds, she sat properly.

'I need more strength and information.'

She grabbed the black cloth and put it around her. She put her hand inside the pocket and felt a paper inside.

"A map?" She stares at it and begins to smirk while frowning.

"Are you serious?." She said it like she ate something sour. Konrad prepared a cloak and a map as if he already knows everything will unfold this way.

She put the map back in her pockets. She glances at the sleeping Luna and heads towards the door making minimal sounds.

The corridor is silent as usual. She pulls the hood up and begins to walk leisurely. The room she was in was located on the top floor, the third floor. The entire mansion interior is clean but empty. She went down on all floors not a single servant was seen and was eerily quiet.

'Weird.' Her whole being is alert as she walks out the mansion's door.

The sun was high up in the sky and it was blindingly shining for her. She looks at the ground as if it hurts to see it.

'I can't get used to these.' She curses as she walks in the direction indicated in the map.

****

A bustling sound of carriage, horses, merchants, store owners and chattering humans greeted her in town. She is keeping her head down while avoiding the most crowded spots.

She is hiding in a corner alley and observing the town. No matter how she looks at it. It was all unfamiliar to her. She saw most of the townspeople have different shades of almond colored hair and some were unique to her eyes, no matter how hard she looked she cannot spot a single person with black or silver colored hair.

'hmmm?'

As she continues to observe, every one she laid her eyes on had their codes engraved to wrists.

She squinted her eyes in one of the store windows and observed the baker kneading the dough. The smell is really enticing.

"(!&!)&!_#*#^)!@_*##&"

')!#*!(^~!!"

")!*#!)#&!)!@^!!!!"

She was too focused on observing that some people tried talking to her. She perked up and hurriedly ran to one of the dark one alleys. She rested her back against the wall. She sighed as she kept listening to the town's noise. She put her hand in her face, while the other one crumpled the map inside her pockets.

'I don't understand a damn thing.'

She walked from one alley to another for hours until she reached the town's gate.

"If I pass through that I can escape." She pulls her hood down and walks towards it.

"!)*$@&!)*#!_"

"!)#_!$@(*@)"

She sneaks a look at a man beyond the gate. He was stopped by the guards. The man held out his wrist and let the guards hold a small rectangular item with blue stone above the man's code. A violet light is produced and it scans the code. The crystal ball placed on the table lights up. Writings were displayed inside, letters she clearly saw but could not understand.

"0)!(#!)@&@($_!#!_A"

"!)*#)$@&$:@"

They talked for a bit before letting the man pass through the gate.

She cannot take her eyes away from the crystal ball until it returns to its normal look.

"Ha. ha . I am screwed." She laughed sarcastically as she walked away from the town's gate.