Lackluster Detective's Grand Case [Albedo x Reader]

ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ ５

A vague shadow laid still in the middle of an open field. Opening her eyes just briefly, the [eye color] color in her eyes became deluded of color, filling the void of her sight with the shade of white. White, white, and more white. Endless snow. Endless trees. Staring into the open sky, she felt rather drowsy.

'Am I dead?' She couldn't help but wonder.

She could hear the faint echo in her head, the soft lullaby her father would sing her to sleep all of those days when she was still an adolescent.

The sky blew a song through the cracks of the lone mountain, lulling a breath, heaving heavily in a rough tune: whoo..!

It was only then, did she awaken to the heavy pain stilled into her limbs.

The storm sung, swinging wayward an inch of white snow over her head. [name] shivered, hand trembling. Her throat could only squeak out a breathless, almost soundless cry, wishing with all it could to just sob away the pain, the cold. As though, if she could just even let out a single tear, then she would awaken away from this madness一from this dream, but the world called to her with another flock of snow whitening over her nearly lifeless body.

She felt numb. So, so numb.

'Appa, I want to go home.'

Right. She remembered uttering those words right before she crashed.

She wanted to go home一that was right.

[name] attempted to move again, only to feel a sudden sting ache throughout her body. Her back arched in pain.

She had to go home.

Her teeth seethed into each other, burying the weight of the pain of her entire body into it, with all that she could. Her arm moved upward.

"Ow..!" She flinched, eyes wet. "Can't..." She breathlessly breathed, unable to even finish her own sentence aloud.

'Can't do this.'

Thus, she laid there, letting the storm engulf her in the howls of their rage.

She couldn't move, so maybe... This time, she may actually die, huh? Except, to the cold this time.

Her eyes narrowed hazily away at the sky. It had been a long time since she had last seen Leon look so distraught. She had first met him two years before now, through Malik. [name] remember being there for the day he was garnered to hold his ancestor, Diluc Ragvindr's vision before his ancestral shrine. That day, she watched as he had made a small mistake during the bestowing of the vision, and had been beaten by his father that night.

To be placed the heavy duty of carrying on your family's name at such a young age, must have deeply hurt him.

It was funny to her: Leon Ragvindr, the prodigy of the prestige Ragvindr noble clan, was even less giving to himself than anyone else.

He didn't look pleased in the slightest to be the holder of such a powerful vision. Tall and dignified, but a terrified, meek, small boy behind the door of his judging predecessors.

Never complaining, always still, even through all of those times he had been bashed between his family, his peers and the public eye.

Maybe it was that mask she knew he always wore, that made her quietly accept him even despite how aggravating he could be sometimes.

Leon Ragvindr, what a pitiful person he was.

Her breath halted suddenly.

In the distance, she could almost make out some sort of figure.