"You ask a lot of questions."

Tatiana smiled sheepishly.

"I know."

Leonid looked ahead again.

"And no."

His answer came without hesitation.

"I don’t miss being human."

His voice wasn’t bitter.

It wasn’t sad either.

It simply carried the acceptance of someone who had already wrestled with that question.

"I’ve had enough time to accept what I’ve become."

His eyes wandered across the unfamiliar streets around them.

"Eventually you stop comparing your current life to your old one."

He shrugged lightly.

"You simply... live."

Tatiana quietly listened.

Leonid continued speaking in the same calm tone.

"I won’t pretend becoming a vampire didn’t take things away from me."

"It did."

"But it also gave me things I could never have imagined."

He smiled faintly.

"So no."

"I don’t miss being human anymore."

"I’ve come to accept..."

He paused briefly.

"...and even love what I am now."

Tatiana slowly nodded.

"Hmm..."

She couldn’t fully understand his feelings, but she respected them.

The conversation naturally faded away as the group arrived before one of the largest buildings in the settlement.

From the outside, it looked surprisingly elegant compared to the surrounding homes. Three stories high, with polished stone walls and broad wooden balconies decorated with hanging plants, it overlooked one of the busiest streets in the village. A beautifully carved wooden sign hung above the entrance, displaying a symbol that every one of them could now instinctively recognize.

An inn.

Without wasting time, they pushed the large wooden doors open and stepped inside.

Immediately...

Every single one of them paused.

Cool air gently brushed across their faces.

Not ordinary cool air.

It was crisp.

Fresh.

Refreshing.

It instantly washed away the heat that had accumulated during hours of walking beneath the setting sun.

Tatiana blinked.

Leonid slowly looked around.

Even Irina couldn’t hide the surprise on her face.

It felt...

Almost identical to stepping into a room cooled by an air conditioner.

Except there wasn’t one.

No vents.

No machines.

No fans.

Nothing.

The air simply remained perfectly cool throughout the entire building.

Mary slowly turned in place, studying the walls carefully.

"...Interesting."

Gregor also ran his fingers gently across one of the polished stone pillars.

Mary narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.

"It feels..."

She searched for the correct words.

"...artificial."

Agatha quietly observed the ceiling.

Mary slowly nodded.

"I believe magic has been woven directly into the structure itself."

She gently tapped one of the walls.

"Or..."

She paused.

"They’re using some kind of energy source that powers the entire building."

She looked around again.

"I honestly can’t tell."

Her voice carried genuine curiosity.

"For the first time in years..."

"I don’t know."

That admission alone made Irina glance toward her.

If even Mary couldn’t explain something magical...

Then whatever civilization built this place was far beyond anything they had expected.

Before anyone could investigate further...

Soft footsteps approached them.

"How may I help you, honorable guests?"

A young girl, perhaps nineteen years old, approached them with a warm smile before respectfully placing one hand across her chest and bowing politely.

Irina instinctively returned the greeting exactly as she had learned from the little boy’s memories.

She bowed back.

"We’re looking for four rooms."

The girl nodded patiently.

"For four days."

Without needing to calculate very long, the receptionist smiled.

"That will be forty bronze coins, ma’am."

Irina reached into her pocket and removed the silver coin they had obtained earlier.

The young woman’s eyes briefly lit up before she accepted it with both hands.

She carefully slipped the silver coin into a secured pouch hanging from her belt.

Then she reached into another leather pouch and began counting aloud.

"Ten."

"Twenty."

"Thirty."

"Forty."

"Fifty."

"Sixty."

She stacked the sixty bronze coins neatly into Irina’s palm before producing four beautifully crafted wooden keys. Each key had a different colored crystal embedded near its handle, making them easy to distinguish from one another.

Irina accepted them.

Without even looking...

She casually tossed one key toward Tatiana.

Tatiana caught it instinctively.

Irina looked directly at her.

"You’ll stay with Liam."

Tatiana blinked once.

Irina continued.

"Keep an eye on him."

"At all times."

Tatiana didn’t hesitate.

She simply nodded.

"I will."

Leonid carefully crouched down, allowing Tatiana to slide Liam off his back without disturbing him. Even unconscious, Liam remained surprisingly heavy, but Tatiana adjusted him comfortably across her own back before securing one of his arms around her shoulder. She had carried him before, so the movement felt almost natural now.

After making sure he was comfortable, she looked down at the wooden key resting in her hand.

The moment her fingers wrapped around it...

Something strange happened.

A faint warmth spread through the wood.

Tiny engraved lines carved into the key began glowing softly.

Tatiana’s eyes widened.

The crystal embedded within the handle emitted a gentle pulse.

Then...

A matching crystal hanging far down one of the hallways lit up.

"...Huh?"

She took one step.

The glow remained.

She stopped.

It waited.

She took another.

The crystal farther ahead shimmered once more.

Realization slowly spread across her face.

"It’s..."

She whispered almost to herself.

"It’s guiding me."

The key wasn’t simply opening a room.

It was leading her directly to it.

Tatiana stared at the softly glowing crystal in complete amazement before looking back at the others, who were equally surprised by the clever enchantment.

"...Wow."

——

Two days later...

Liam’s eyelids felt impossibly heavy as they slowly fluttered open. For a few long seconds, everything around him was nothing but a blur of unfamiliar colors and strange shapes, his mind refusing to catch up with reality. A dull ache pulsed through his entire body, but the sharpest pain came from his side, right where it felt like someone had driven two burning nails into his flesh. He instinctively lifted a weak hand and touched the spot, wincing the moment his fingers brushed the bandages wrapped tightly around his waist. His memories came back in scattered pieces—the witches chanting around the portal, the overwhelming flood of energy ripping through his body, the feeling of falling endlessly through white light... and then nothing. Absolute darkness.

He slowly turned his head, taking in the room around him for the first time. Everything looked... different. The walls weren’t built from concrete or painted wood but smooth blocks of pale stone fitted together with impossible precision. Strange glowing crystals were embedded into carved holders along the walls, filling the room with a warm amber light that somehow felt softer than electric bulbs back on Earth. The furniture was simple yet beautifully crafted, every piece carved from polished wood with intricate patterns running across the edges. Even the ceiling had exposed beams decorated with symbols he couldn’t recognize.

His eyes drifted toward the bed beside him.

Tatiana.

She hadn’t even noticed he was awake.

She lay comfortably on her side with one elbow resting beneath her head while the other hand held open a thick book whose pages were filled with elegant handwriting he had never seen before. She was completely absorbed in reading, occasionally turning a page without lifting her eyes.

Liam frowned slightly at first.

But the frown disappeared instantly as his gaze settled on her.

She wasn’t wearing the clothes she’d left Earth in.

Instead, she wore clothing that looked as though it belonged to another era entirely. A long cream-colored linen dress flowed gracefully down to her ankles, the sleeves fitted neatly around her forearms before widening slightly near her wrists. Around her waist and upper torso rested a carefully stitched brown leather corset reinforced with polished straps and brass buckles. The fitted leather hugged her figure with delicious tightness, pushing her full, heavy breasts upward and together. The soft, pale fabric of the dress strained against them, unable to fully contain their generous size. With every slow breath she took, her breasts swelled and spilled slightly over the top of the corset, the smooth, pale curves rising and falling in a hypnotic rhythm that made it impossible for Liam to look away.

To be honest, she looked really good in what she was wearing. The way her long crimson hair spilled freely across the pillow and over her shoulder like liquid fire only made the sight even more captivating — those lush, overflowing breasts rising and falling gently with each breath, practically begging for attention.

For a brief moment Liam simply stared.

Back on Earth everyone had their own style, their own beauty.

Lana had always possessed that fiery elegance that naturally drew every eye in the room.

But Tatiana...

She carried something quieter.

There was a softness about her that never demanded attention, yet somehow made it impossible to look away once you did. Her peaceful expression, the concentration in her emerald eyes as she read, the loose strands of scarlet hair framing her face—it all came together so naturally that Liam couldn’t help smiling.

She looked...

Really beautiful.

"Cough..."

The weak sound escaped his throat before he even realized he’d made it.

Tatiana’s eyes instantly snapped away from the book.

For half a second she simply stared.

Her entire body froze.

The book slipped from her fingers onto the mattress with a muffled thump.

"Liam...?"

Her voice trembled.

He gave the smallest nod.

That was all she needed.

"T-You’re awake!"

She practically launched herself across the bed.

Before Liam could even react, her arms wrapped tightly around him as she buried her face against his shoulder. The sudden movement almost knocked the remaining air from his lungs, and despite how exhausted he felt, he instinctively hugged her back. She was warm—far warmer than the cool air filling the room—and she smelled faintly of sweet scent of soap unfamiliar to him.

For several long seconds neither of them spoke.

Tatiana simply held onto him as though letting go would somehow make him disappear again.

Liam blinked in surprise.

He hadn’t expected this reaction.

Slowly, he realized her shoulders were shaking ever so slightly.

She had been terrified.

He raised a hand and gently rested it against her back.

"I’m glad... you’re okay," she whispered so quietly he almost didn’t hear it.

Liam smiled weakly.

"So... am I."

Another few seconds passed before he finally managed to croak,

"...Tatiana."

She didn’t move.

"...Tatiana."

Still nothing.

His smile became helpless.

"I... can’t breathe."

Her eyes suddenly widened.

"Oh!"

She immediately let go and practically jumped backward, sitting beside him with an embarrassed expression while repeatedly brushing loose strands of hair behind her ear.

"I-I’m sorry... I didn’t mean..."

Liam chuckled, although the laughter quickly turned into another cough.

"It’s... okay."

Her relief lasted only a moment before concern flooded back onto her face.

"I was so scared something had happened to you."

She looked him over from head to toe as if confirming he was truly awake.

"You’ve been unconscious for two whole days."

Liam’s smile disappeared.

"...What?"

"You’ve been asleep for two days."

His brain completely stalled.

"...Two days?"

Tatiana nodded firmly.

"For two entire days you didn’t wake up once. You never opened your eyes, barely moved, and no matter what Mary did she said your body simply needed time to recover. We were all worried... but..." She smiled softly, her eyes noticeably brighter now. "...you’re finally awake."

Liam stared blankly at the ceiling.

"I’ve really... been sleeping for two days?"

His mind struggled to process it.

To him, it had felt like only a few seconds had passed between stepping through the portal and opening his eyes.

Yet an entire forty-eight hours had vanished.

Only then did it truly sink in.

They weren’t on Earth anymore.

They were really in another world.