Voyage Of The Villainess

"Ma\'am we\'re here." Carolle\'s thoughts were interrupted. She paid the fare and went down the taxi. Without wasting any time, she walked inside the mall. The first thing she did was to withdraw money since she gave almost everything she had in her wallet to that nurse. Then she finally started her mall spree.

Carolle started with all the foods she hadn\'t eaten for a while. Such as French fries, burgers, pizzas. Then she watched a horror movie at the cinema and went to the arcades next. For the entire half of the day, she just enjoyed her time at the mall. And yet somehow, after doing all of this alone, she only felt emptier inside.

A few hours later...

*Ting!*

Carolle made it back to her house. She simply removed her shoes and socks then jumped to her bed. She picked up her phone from the pocket of her hoody. Then saw that Ms. Gina had sent her a message. 

{Ms. Gina: Alright. See you on Monday. Don\'t forget to come to school before 7:00 am.}

After reading the text message, she simply threw her phone on the bed. Then glanced at the white ceiling of her room. \'So many things have happened just when I got out of the house. Sometimes, I wonder why I am always attracting a lot of trouble like I am some kind of protagonist in the story.\'

She simply decided to close her eyes and a few moments later, she finally succumbed to sleep.

In her dream, she saw her friends and crewmates that she left in the world of Illahayah. They were fighting against those red mask crazy people. And they were badly wounded and injured. While she couldn\'t do anything but just watch them being hurt.

She tried to reach for them but they disappeared within her grasp. "No! Please don\'t go! I\'m still here!"

With that said, Carolle ended up waking up. She was panting really hard as cold sweats were dripping down her forehead. She simply clenched her fist. "I will soon be back there. Please hang in there, everyone."

***

Time passed quickly and it was already Monday. Carolle\'s eyes opened when her alarm sounded. When she looked at her phone, it was 5:00 am in the morning now. The cockadoodledoo of the roosters outside the house.

She grumpily kicked out her blankets and rose from the bed to do her morning routine. She took a thirty minutes bath. She simply picked a white blouse and tucked it in high waist blue jeans. Then she partnered it with white sneakers. Then she tied her long black hair into a high bun. She simply put on light make up then looked one more time in the mirror to check herself.

"When I have time, I should have a haircut," Carolle said, then headed out to the house. She called for a cab and soon they traveled on the road. She messaged Ms. Gina that she was on the way to school. Ms. Gina replied immediately to her to head to her office once she arrived at the school premises. 

After twenty minutes, they finally reached the school grounds. Since it was still 6:30 am in morning, students were entering the school premises left and right. The guard greeted Carolle when he noticed her. And she greeted him back. Some students looked at her with curiosity and she just smiled at them in return. 

Soon, she entered the halls and directly walked towards Ms. Gina\'s office. And at the same time, the students looked at her with curiosity. She simply had a polite smile on her face as she continued to walk towards the office.

When she arrived there, Ms. Gina was already there. But there was also someone else there. A man, wearing a casual blue-collar shirt and pants. \'He must be the other sub teacher that Ms. Gina was talking about earlier.

"Carolle, you finally arrived." Ms. Gina was the first one to notice her. However when the man turned around to see her...

"You!" Carolle was beyond shocked to see who it was. Although his hair color and eyes turned black, he still had the same annoying grin on his face.

"Malaya, or Carolle?" 

  "I\'m Carolle in this world," Carolle said with a deadpan tone in her voice. "What is he doing here?"

"Don\'t be so cold to me, Carolle. You see, when I teleported, I also arrived at this place. Do you know how scared I was to arrive in such an unknown world?" Oliver said.

Hearing him, Carolle felt a little guilty. When she arrived at the world of Illahayah, it was also hard for her to adjust to the new world and surroundings that were very different from the place she used to live in for so many years.

"For some reason, people started flocking me and giving me so many things and even cash. The people in this world are such hospitable and kind beings." Oliver said with a huge grin on his face. "Then I met Ms. Gina and explained some things to me."

Hearing his story, the guilt that Carolle was feeling about him, instantly vanished. "It doesn\'t sound like you are having a hard time arriving in this world." Carolle released an annoyed grunt.

"Once the flag ceremony is over, I will head now to the class," Carolle said. "I\'ll just go to the library for a while until it is time for the first period."

Carolle immediately went out, without waiting for anyone to speak. "Then I\'ll do that as well!" Oliver said and followed Carolle. She just released a tired sigh when Oliver followed behind her.

"This world is truly fascinating. There are so many things that my world doesn\'t have there." 

"When did you arrive here?" Carolle asked.

"Just the time when you awakened from your coma." 

"I see," Carolle finally reached the library then she glanced at her watch. The general assembly will be finished around 8:00 am and right now, it is still 6: 55 am. She still had more than an hour before the classes started. Though she could just go to the general assembly she found it quite tasking to stand there for an hour and listen to the principal\'s long speech.

When they arrived at the library, the librarian was already there. It was a petite woman with glasses. Somehow Carolle was reminded of the same glass girl she met at the rooftop.

"Goodmorning, how may I help you?" The librarian asked.

"We are the new sub teachers here. I\'m Carolle Linette and this is..."

"Oliver Torress."

Carolle looked at Oliver with a questioning gaze. "Ms. Gina said that to have an identity in this world, she made me her nephew," Oliver whispered.

"Oh," the librarian clasped her hands. "I\'m Edna Li, you can simply call me Ms. Edna in the school. Feel free to stay here in the library." 

"Thank you," Carolle said with a smile on her face and proceeded to head to get some books on the bookshelves. Then sat in the chair.

"There are so many interesting books whenever I look at," Oliver said as he sat on the next right chair with her.

"You can read English?" Carolle glanced at the book he was holding. \'World History.\'

"Yes, I can read them pretty well," Oliver said as he started reading.

Carolle dropped her book on the table. Since she already read it a long time ago. She just picked it up for pretenses. She leaned her face on the table while looking at Oliver with deadpan eyes. 

Oliver felt her stare and stopped reading.

"What is it? Do you fall in love with me since I have black hair though my eyes are not red?" 

"Nah," Malaya monotonously denied right away which made Oliver chuckle lightly. 

"What a direct rejection," Oliver said. "But if you want to stare at me, I don\'t really mind since I always experience that with a lot of girls. 

"Hah, I didn\'t know that you can be so full of yourself either." 

"That\'s just what we called reality since I was born handsome," Oliver said with a grin. 

Carolle simply rolled her eyes. "I\'m just curious. You seem not worried enough to be different while the world is back there and my friends and even Hyun Jae are facing some troublesome things."

This time, Oliver\'s grin disappeared. Then he just leaned more on his chair as his gaze diverted to the front. "Worrying will not do anything well. You of all people should know that. The only thing we can do is to continue to act. And that is to do what your teacher told us to do."

Carolle turned her gaze away from Oliver. Then stood up. Without saying anything, she returned the book back to the shelf. "We\'ll just see each other later. Good luck with your class." 

"For Lady Malaya to wish me luck, I wonder what kind of wind had passed here," Oliver said as he returned the book as well.

"I\'m just wishing you luck. After all, this world is still something different from where you came from. It must be tiring to adjust yourself to all this. Maybe you can just think of this shit as some vacation in another world." 

"..."

"See you later," Carolle said and left.