When Foduei opened his eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted him.
The lighting fixtures recessed into the ceiling were nothing like the ones he was accustomed to seeing.
Though he felt sluggish and parched, his consciousness gradually returned as time passed.
Along with it, his memories grew clearer too.
The captain falling ill, growing distressed.
Then the captain had suddenly lunged at him.
Foduei's memory cut off the moment searing pain overwhelmed him.
He couldn't comprehend what had happened.
The captain was a man Foduei trusted.
The idea that such a man would betray him with such a crude, hasty method was almost impossible to believe.
Foduei tried to steady his still-chaotic head, only to become rattled all over again upon grasping his current situation.
His body lay on a bed.
That much was fine.
However, thick straps were fastening his body to it.
Multiple layers of them, at that.
"What the hell is this?"
It was hardly surprising that Foduei had blurted the words out loud.
Foduei was universally acknowledged as a titan of the business world.
He was, in effect, a VIP — the sort of person for whom being restrained like this was utterly unthinkable.
What could possibly explain a situation where a man like him was being bound?
The word "kidnapping" flashed through Foduei's mind.
But he shook off that thought.
Even granting that the captain had betrayed him and kidnapped him, the circumstances were far too strange.
Foduei turned his head — the only part of him that could still move freely — and surveyed his surroundings.
What came into view was medical equipment stationed beside the bed.
An IV tube ran from it, connected to his arm.
Taking it all in, he could tell that this place was some kind of hospital.
If he'd been kidnapped, this made no sense at all.
But even knowing that, the fact of his restraint remained unchanged.
He had to find someone and get answers.
Making that decision, Foduei shouted toward the door.
"Someone! Is anyone there?!"
The shout made him even more acutely aware of his parched throat.
With age, Foduei had all but stopped noticing thirst day to day.
The intense dryness he hadn't felt in so long made him cough involuntarily.
Perhaps his shout had been heard — a flurry of hurried footsteps drew near and the door was flung open with force.
Light streaming in from the hallway was blinding, and Foduei squinted.
At the same time, he belatedly realized that despite the room being pitch dark, he could see remarkably clearly.
Between the extreme thirst and the fact that his eyes had adjusted far too well to the darkness, Foduei concluded that he must have been unconscious for a very long time.
"You've woken up?"
He turned toward the figure standing in the hallway and was taken aback — it was not who he had expected.
Foduei had assumed a doctor or nurse would come rushing in, but the person who appeared was a police officer.
"A police officer?"
The question slipped out just as the thought formed.
Hearing that, the officer looked startled.
That exaggerated reaction irritation Foduei.
He wanted to protest the outrageous treatment of waking up to find himself restrained, and his tone grew sharper.
"What is the meaning of this? You do know who I am, don't you?"
At Foduei's words, the officer visibly flinched.
It seemed he understood exactly whom he was dealing with, so Foduei made a demand that ought to have been obvious.
"Remove these restraints at once."
But to that demand, the officer did not comply.
"I'll — I'll go get someone!"
With that shout, the officer ran off before Foduei could respond.
"How many fingers am I holding up?"
How much time had passed since the officer fled?
Foduei, left alone in the clockless room, had no way of knowing the exact time, but he was certain that he had been subjected to an agonizing stretch of forced inaction — bound and unable to do anything but wait.
That much time had indeed elapsed.
And when the next person appeared, the officer was not among them. In his place, seven people crowded in.
Among them was someone who appeared to be a physician, and Foduei was examined.
While still restrained.
"Three."
Foduei answered with a touch of exasperation at the number of fingers the doctor was showing.
At first he had demanded that they release him and explain the situation, but the only answer he received was a vague assurance that the restraints would be removed "once safety is confirmed."
It was as though they considered him a dangerous person, and Foduei seethed at the implication.
Yet everyone surrounding him — the doctor included — wore expressions of solemn gravity, exuding an air of urgency.
Deciding it was wiser to cooperate for now, Foduei swallowed his complaints and submitted to the doctor's examination.
"Pardon me. May I ask you to open your mouth?"
"Mm."
Foduei opened his mouth as instructed.
The doctor peered inside, and Foduei felt a twinge of discomfort.
Normally, when a doctor looked into someone's mouth, wasn't it to examine the throat?
But what the doctor was looking at was further forward than that — as though he were inspecting the teeth.
And it wasn't just the doctor. The other six were all staring intently into Foduei's mouth as well.
"Are we done here?"
Feeling thoroughly uneasy, Foduei closed his mouth.
"Ah — yes."
The doctor answered evasively.
"So? Did you find anything?"
Foduei asked without bothering to hide his displeasure.
The examination had been brief.
Rather than checking his overall health, it seemed designed to confirm whether he was lucid.
To Foduei, who despite having just woken up was clearly and fully alert, the whole thing felt almost insulting in its triviality.
"Mr. Foduei, you retain normal cognitive function."
"Well, obviously."
It was understandable that Foduei spat the words out the way he did.
"It is not obvious."
A voice cut in to deny Foduei's remark.
It belonged to the man among the group who appeared to hold the highest authority.
"You are the only one — and I stress, the only one among all those infected by vampires — to have recovered your normal faculties. You alone are still sane."
The man pronounced this with solemn gravity.
"Come again?"
The dopey sound that escaped Foduei's lips was, all things considered, hardly unreasonable.