บท 27: Bygone Contemporaries, II

I brought a hand to cover my face from the shocking revelation, "So you truly are from Earth?" I said, feeling bewildered that my worst fear was actually true.

"Huh, of course? Where'd ya'll come from?" The leader spoke after hearing my words.

"Wait, I think we should take a step back and introduce ourselves." Luke chimed in from my side, acting more mature than he seemed. He was the oldest from our squad, so it is only fitting he has that role.

"I am Luke Crimson, and the dark-blue-haired guy here is Sean Dayward." Luke gave out his and Sean's name to the party of people in front of us.

"I'm Helis, Helis Roadgray." I voiced exasperatedly.

"Ahaha, I see, you all got unique names!" The party leader yelled out, and then spoke out his name, "Valen Weis, a pure-blooded American."

Yeah, I can clearly see that from how you look and behave.

"And the guy beside me is, Michael Donovan." He introduced the meek guy beside him who had a longsword bigger than that was suited for his build. He seemed to be a kind and respectful guy, though.

"Yo, yo, I am Aoi Akihiko, the japanezu guy who will kiru everyone who gets in watashtachi no way!" A snow-colored, lean-bodied, attractive guy butt in the conversation, speaking weirdly as a mix between Japanese and English.

I nodded, pointing my eyes to the girl next to him.

A girl who seemed to be your shy type with a plump round face, "She reminds me of a dumpling!" I wanted to say but kept it to myself.

"H-Haruka Maki… I'm from Japan." She spoke with a bit of an accent, but it just made her all the cuter.

"Hm?" I turned to my side after feeling an intense gaze, "Erm…" I didn't say anything.

Sean was looking so intently at the reserved girl, Haruka, to the point it made me a little uncomfortable.

I slid a bit to the side, "Buwah!" I slapped his face and then smiled to continue the conversation smoothly.

"What about you?" I asked as I looked at a guy who had the eye of a pervert. Don't ask me how I can recognize that.

"Ren Uemura, Japanese too." He bowed slightly.

"And you…" I trailed off after my eyes fell on the girl who looked like Selica.

Now that we're closer, it just reminds me of her much more effectively.

She blinked her sharp eyes once and glared at me, she perked one side of her lips as if she was disgusted, "Mai Sakaguchi, Japanese."

Oh… her voice too.

I couldn't help but peek at the faces of Sean and Luke, their reactions were similar to mine.

I just bobbed my head up and down once and continued, "What about you all?" I shifted my neck towards another small group of Asians staying together.

"Sho Dae-hyun, South Korean." He had a striking appearance of built muscles and a spear resting by his side, and so did the two females companions also have spears in their hold.

I wonder if it's a cultural thing.

"Lee Hae-won, the same."

"Qo Soobin." She didn't even repeat the same, but she knows we must've realized that we already know.

But her appearance was at least the most striking out of the Korean group, she had a wonderfully dark-brown hair color and so were her eyes like cups filled with honey the way they shone under this sunlight.

"And last but not least?"

"Elijah Langston…" A skinny guy with a low voice clothed all black with two daggers by his waist and a set of screwdrivers…

Screwdrivers?

Why would one take screwdrivers with themselves on an adventure?

But he sure seems gloomy and creepy, I'll be cautious regarding him.

"Well, that concludes our introductions, right?"

"Valen, Michael, and Elijah are from the American group."

"Aoi, Ren, Haruka, and Maki are from the Japanese group."

"Dae-hyun, Hae-won, and Soobin are from the South Korean group." I made sure to mention the "South" part since they may be sensitive about it if we mistook them.

"Wait, you know the places we're from but what about you three? We enter this dungeon fully geared and prepared and encounter three kids stranded in this desert without anything to keep you alive…" Valen was about to ask us our nationality and then trailed off, probably recalling something.

"Wait, you're not the only ones stranded here anymore." He said with a quieter voice than the usual loud one.

"We've become the same. But just what is going on, I wonder? Just a month ago everything was alright, and suddenly a dungeon appeared out of thin air." He stopped to take a breath.

"Please continue," I stretched my fingers respectfully towards him in a fluid motion.

"Then a selection time and date was set, whom only people of high status in society could apply to go through the tests and whatnot."

"And you're the ones who won?"

"There were supposed to be two more with us, but we haven't heard of them in a good while."

"That's certainly weird, something must be changing there…" I mumbled to myself.

"There?" Valen repeated. He must have sharp senses to be able to hear me whisper stuff to me.

"Nothing. Can I just ask what year it is now?" I frowned my brows as I squinted my eyes.

"Year? Well, anybody knows it's two-thousand-twenty-one." He replied, perking his lips out.

…

"Is something up?" They asked.

How could something NOT be up when we're stranded in a dungeon, I've met with the people of the previous world I've reincarnated from, and now, that only two years have passed since my death.

This concludes that time moves differently from Earth and Crisyes.

Sixteen years of time on Crisyes equaled only two on Earth.

Wait… does that mean my mother may still be grieving over me?

Ah, this surely added more weight to my pile already.

Clack.

A slapping noise entered my ears.

S-Splash.

And then a splashing one, as if someone dropped a bucket of water upon cement.

I whipped my head to the source, hoping it wasn't what I was thinking, "Gh, gha–!" Michael held his neck which was bleeding gallons of blood.

I widened my eyes at the one who had done such a vile act, "Elijah…"

Once again, I failed from protecting another life from being lost.