"The end will come for everyone, including me."

  The boy woke up to find the notebook on his face, lying in the middle of a decaying, old wooden room.

  "Ah."

  He began groaning in pain all over his body — a terrible pain. He couldn't move because of it; he had only just become aware of his surroundings.

  He looked around in confusion and astonishment at the things he saw. He found himself sitting on a wooden bed, its edges infested with moths, and a tattered quilt with its corners chewed up by rats. The room looked extremely old and worn out.

  Then his eyes returned to the notebook that had been on his face. He tried to reach out and grab it after brushing it aside. He succeeded — it seemed he had regained the ability to move his hand.

  He began looking at the page where the ominous phrase was written, the one that sparked all his curiosity.

  But what astonished him most was that he could understand the sentence, even though the language was unknown to him — a language he had never encountered before.

  The pages were all written in that same language, and yet he could read them. It was as if he was discovering himself through them.

  On the day 1/1/1867, we found it — me and an expedition team. It was a relic from the Third Age, tracing back to the House of [Beliorna], according to the wall murals. The Beliorna family ruled an independent kingdom during the era of the Divine Emperors.

  On the second day of the exploration, 1/2, I went with two researchers from Claude National University. We descended into the depths of the relic and found something truly astonishing.

  A massive box, the height of a grown man and as wide as a grand elephant. We tried to open it, but it refused to budge.

  On the tenth day at the relic, 1/10 — I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

  I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

  I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

  "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me."

  "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me."

  "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me."

  "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me."

  "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me." "Everyone will die, including me."

  These words repeated on every remaining page of the notebook. Only the first two days of exploration were written. For the remaining eight days or so, the writer wrote nothing but those words.

  When he closed the notebook, he saw a name written on it — in beautiful handwriting, clear as the sun in the sky — on the brown cover of the old notebook, the name was written: [Sharlock Vo James Hall].

  That was the name of the body. It sounded noble, but he was merely a poor man from the working class, living in a society of extreme wealth.

  From that point on, Sharlock regained his ability to move, stand, and speak freely.

  He tried to move his mouth and utter a sound: "Ah... He... De." Once confident in his speech, he stood up and headed toward the mirror, hoping to see his full body.

  He stood before the mirror to see himself — hair black as pitch, skin pale as a corpse, and his height appeared to be around 1.7 meters. His blue eyes shone in the dark.

  He noticed scratches on his hand and even near his throat, remnants of blood still present. But when he saw the wound still open, he removed the white shirt he was wearing, revealing a massive wound on his chest — it looked as if it was made by a wild beast's claw.

  Sharlock heard footsteps creaking toward the room. He quickly put his shirt back on and headed to a desk near the window. He wanted to open the window to create an excuse.

  When he opened the window, he saw a moon — one half pitch black, the other pure white. His attention drifted when he heard the sound of his door opening.

  Sharlock turned and saw a small girl. She resembled him in features, except she was clearly a girl. Sharlock instinctively assumed she was his sister, despite remembering nothing.

  His assumption was confirmed when she said, "Brother, did you finally wake up?"

  Sharlock gave a faint smile. "My little girl, why have you come at this late hour of the night?"

  It was the only solution he had — he wanted to find out what had happened to him. Even a small piece of information from her would help, at least her name.

  The girl smiled sleepily and said, "It’s good that you’re okay. We feared for you since the relic incident."

  Sharlock understood that there were a few others here besides the girl, and he connected the notebook to the 1/1 incident — the Beliorna Relic.

  "My little girl, what’s your name?" he asked, so he wouldn’t get into trouble in the morning if he didn’t know people's names.

  The girl laughed at his question. "Brother, are you dumb? You forgot my name?"

  Sharlock smiled at her words. "No, not that — I want to do a magic trick! But I need you to say your name out loud so the trick works."

  "Oh, you’re going to show me a trick?" All her sleepiness vanished in an instant.

  "Yes, my little one. I’m going to show you a fun trick."

  She said, "I am Fenn Vo James Hall," then her face and eyes lit up with excitement and anticipation.

  Sharlock didn’t know what to do, so he said, "Little Fenn, I’m sleepy. I’ll go to bed now. I promise I’ll show you the trick tomorrow."

  She pouted and said, "Okay," then left without explaining why she had come.

  For now, Sharlock decided to read a few books on the shelf near the library. Little Fenn had interrupted him earlier.

  He went to the shelf and picked a random book to test his reading ability. He chose a large, red-covered book with golden letters: [Records of the Industrial Age].