Chapter 20: Fake and Real
Aisha finally arrived in front of her grandmother’s room, which sat in the middle at the end of the corridor.
The doors were tall and carved with a faint, intricate silver design. Even at first glance, it was quite obvious that everyone placed this room with great dedication and importance.
Daisy fumbled with the door, scratching her head in confusion. "Miss, I’ll go downstairs and ask the head butler for the access k—"
Before she could finish, Aisha lifted a hand and pressed a finger against the door. As soon as her finger touched it, the door rippled as if it were water, and a female robotic voice spoke.
"Access Approved."
Daisy’s jaw slacked as she whipped her head to look at her young miss.
Aisha ignored her shocked gaze and stepped inside.
She paused.
The room took up a massive space than she expected, at least three times the size of the one Aisha Novalis had been staying at previously. Floor-to-ceiling glass windows stretched along the walls, curving gently in the shape of the villa itself. It even overlooked the surreal view of the city below. Hover cars fly in the distance.
Everything felt grand and unreal.
But what caught her eye wasn’t only the size of the room or the view. It was what was in it.
Plants and flowers.
They were everywhere—some creeping against the walls, spilling over the edges of bookshelves, hanging from the ceiling like vines. Leaves the size of her palms rested atop the cabinet. White blossoms bloomed beside the bed.
For a moment, her heart skipped a beat.
It reminded her of the original world she left behind. Not the rotten world it had become after being mutated, but a distant past when everything was still peaceful and normal. If she only ignored the other things that made this world opposite, she would believe she had returned to the past.
But the moment that thought had just entered her mind, she realized something critical.
She stepped closer to the nearest shelf, touching the edge of a glossy leaf.
But her fingers passed straight through it.
Aisha blinked, flinching at that. She tried again, but it was the same as the first time she had laid her hand on it. She watched as her fingers went past the leaf without resistance. Usually by now, that leaf would have swayed under the pressure of her finger, but it remained where it was, perfectly still.
They’re not real.
None of them was.
Every single plant in the room was nothing more than a projection. Holographic light rendered with such precision that even at a close distance, it was impossible to spot the difference between the fake and the real. Even the faint rustling she thought came from them was mere animation designed to make everything feel real.
Aisha swept her gaze around the room.
Now that she looked carefully, she noticed several pots were scattered around the room. But nothing had grown from it, only soil filling it. Except for one.
At the center of the room sat a single glass canister raised on a pedestal. It was tightly sealed like an artifact inside a museum. Aisha approached it and found that nestled in the dark soil was a tiny green sprout that was almost two inches tall.
"It looks fascinating, right?"
Daisy’s voice came from behind her. The young maid peered into the glass canister with wide, admiring eyes and added, "It grew even taller than the last time I saw it when it was my turn to clean this room. When was it again? Hm... ah! It was two years ago."
Aisha turned to Daisy to show a stunned expression.
"Two years ago, how tall was it then?" She slowly asked with a frown.
Daisy tapped her cheek as though she was struggling to remember. She pinched her two fingers and showed her how tall it was back then.
"About this much?"
Two years ago, it wasn’t even an inch tall.
For it to grow that much... Aisha straightened. "What about the rest of the pots?"
Daisy blinked at the question. "They’re all empty."
Not expecting that answer, Aisha fell into deep thought.
Seeing Aisha fall silent, Daisy remembered the state of her memory. She didn’t wait and explained, "Real plants are... very rare, Miss. It’s almost impossible to come by now. The ones that still exist are seeds. They’re guarded like treasures. Some are even treated like heirlooms. People collect these seeds to grow them into something one day. But..."
Daisy pointed at the empty pots on the table. "No one really knows how anymore. The knowledge on how to properly grow them was lost a long time ago, back when the cosmic corruption first began spreading. And even if someone manages to get a seed to sprout, which is extremely rare, the miasma taint won’t keep it alive for long. That’s why Guides are needed to purify the soil and the seed separately before growing them."
Aisha learned something new about this world again. It coincided with what was in her memories, which were fragmented and scattered in pieces.
Suddenly, she thought of something and said, "But the grasses at the hospital’s garden..."
"Ah, that!" Daisy exclaimed. "Wasn’t it even more amazing? They looked so realistic!"
"Those weren’t...real?"
Daisy shook her head. "No. Though they looked and felt real, that was only because, through a special material mixed with the holographic, the hospital made it so that it resembled the real grass of the relic."
Relic
Aisha almost wanted to laugh.
No wonder she hadn’t been given a single piece of real food during her stay at the hospital. She hadn’t thought to question it before. For some strange reason, she thought she didn’t feel hunger anymore, blaming it on her new ability as a guide. She thought it helped her not feel hungry.
Here, hunger came and went like a mild inconvenience.
After the young maid left the room, Aisha walked toward the window. She looked outside, where hover cars glided through certain lanes, and the world that stretched endlessly before her.
At this moment, she truly could say she was in a different world.
The things she was used to no longer exist here.
She let out a sigh, watching the world turn dark as time passed by.
To think that even in her second life, she was still deprived of real food.