The car rolled through the drizzle and streetlight haze.Reverend Valt sat with his forehead against the window, watching rain thread down the class.
From the hospital the drive home was rather sour not like it was anything hopeful.
The city outside look like a home seen through a crack mirror, it had the same blocks and same angels yet every shop sign had a letter off.
Marchello's Pizza instead of Marcello's.
Cortech bank where coretek should have been.
[Observation: Structural resemblance to your original world—97 percent.]
The system's voice slid across his thoughts.
"Yeah" he murmured "And that three percent makes all the difference."
When the gate came on to view, they where tall iron and faintly rusted. The mansion beyond them stood on a hill like something proud that haven't realized it was tired.
A fountain gurgled half heartedly in the courtyard.
The driver eased the car to stop and stepped out to open the door.
"Welcome home, Master Reverend," He said in the tone that was crisp but not unkind.
The name hit oddly _MASTER_a word no one in his old life would have used.
"Thanks... Uh what's your name again?"
"Everett sir but you used to call me Ev".
The man's face was older then his voice:
Sliver at the temples and eyes disciplined yet gentle.
When Reverend stumbled getting out. Everett caught his arm without hesitation.
"Still unsteady, Happens after a long rest,"
You'll find the house changed but it's still yours".
A long rest Reverend thought how long have the Mc body rested but he didn't dive into that now so the words in the air was more like punishment then actual blessings.
The foyer smelled faintly of lemon polish and rain. Chandeliers hung above but only half of their bulbs worked.The marble floor gleamed where the light hit, dull where it didn't.
Reverend remembered the first lines of The Wrong Hero:
The mansion of the Royal Valt line stood like a ghost of glory.
He swallowed."Zalt, not Valt," he whispered.
[Correction noted.Variance registered.]
From deep inside a gravel and soften voice from fatigue "Boys already on his feet. Guess the doctor wasn't exaggerating."
Lucian Zalt appeared from the side hallway, sleeves rolled up, tie loose, grease on his hands built broad shoulder and eyes the color of worn coins.
"Dad. " Reverend said before he could think about it.
The word felt natural almost rehearsed by muscle memory he didn't own.
Lucian grinned, a quick flash that made the years drop from his face. "Didn't think you'd call me that right off. Good sign.
"
He slapped a heavy palm on Reverend's shoulder rough,but grounding.
"Still the same weight as before. Your mother's been pacing holes in the kitchen floor. Come on."
The warmth hit him first with the smell of coffee and something buttery on the stove. Marena Zalt stood there with a loose sweater,hair pinned up all the way that looked both careless and deliberate.
She turned and for a instant the light seemed to bent around her, a soft distortion that vanished when she smiled.
"There you are." Her voice was slow and steady,practiced from years of keeping storms and contained.
"Sit.. You look ready to fall over."
He obeyed before realizing it. A mug appeared before him steam curling toward his face.
"Still remember how you take it?" she asked.
"I-I... guess so?"
She gave a small laugh. "You guess so."
She turned to Lucian and said: "You see still the same answer for everything."
Lucian shrugged. "Could be worse atleast his answering."
They bickered like people who have done it a thousand times over but still cared about winning each small round. Reverend watch half lost in it, the way a hungry person watches a meal but not sure if they deserve it.
"Dad, the… network. " he started carefully "It's still running?"
Lucian's expression tightened but didn't close off."Running is generous walking with a limp more like which too many heroes chasing sponsorships not enough who remember where they came from."
Marena poured herself coffee. "You're still helping them though."
"Trying doesn't pay the bills."
She looked towards Reverend her son "It never did."
Her eyes lingered on Reverend a bit too long as if she's reading the air around him. "Your different," she said quietly.
He hesitated. "Do I?"
"Like you carrying a story the rest of us haven't even heard yet".
He smiled thinly "I'm just trying to remember the old one".
After Dinner the house settled in silence that isn't empty but just full of things people choose not to say out loud.
From his room upstairs he could hear Lucian humming tunelessly as he worked in the garage metal clinking ;Marena soft footsteps pacing while she spoke on someone on the phone.
Everett moved through the walls whispering to the paintings goodnight while switching off the candles it looked familiar from what he read. (From what he read)
Reverend sat by the window with tablet in hand scrolling headlines passed:
Hero Guild Restructures Royal Families.
Zalt Assets Frozen Pending Audit.
Exactly like the chapters he once read only here it was his surname,Zalt.
"System," he murmured, "this is the book, isn't it? The Wrong Hero?".
[Confirmed.]
"But the Valt family was rich these people… they're holding on by willpower."
[Deviation acknowledged. This world adapts to your choices.]
He leaned back with his head next to the windowpane while listening to the faint life below:His father workshop radio, his mother's laugh something Everett said. This sound like warmth he forgetten it existed.
"Guess this story decided to give me better parents," he said under his breath.
[Possibility: You were given a chance to learn what better feels like.]
He smiled, a small, uncertain thing.
"Then let's not waste it."
Outside, rain tapped the roof like slow applause, and the old house, for all its cracks, felt alive.