Chapter 128

Where was this place?

As soon as he came to his senses, he realized that he was descending a staircase.

A staircase?

Even when he looked back at the path he had come down, the starting point was nowhere to be seen.

Just stairs continuing endlessly up to a distant height.

Looking down, it was the same.

It seemed as if only he and the stairs existed in the void.

After pondering briefly, he decided to continue going in the direction he had been heading.

Though he didn't know where this place was, somehow a corner of his mind sensed that he was almost at his destination.

After moving his feet steadily but slowly, a massive door appeared before him.

A door standing alone out of nowhere was something he had never seen before.

He walked around the door and observed it for a moment, but the front and back of the door were identical.

Even if he opened it from this side, it would only lead directly to the opposite side.

Why was there a door that couldn't function as a door?

Out of simple curiosity, he knocked on the door, then slightly pushed it to check if it would open.

With the creaking sound of hinges, the door opened, and what appeared beyond was not darkness.

"...A forest?"

Air laden with moisture.

A small path winding through densely overgrown trees.

It was definitely a forest.

But somehow it was different from any forest he had seen before.

The sky was purple, with two moons.

Gaunt trees with writhing black shadows.

When he stepped through the door, instead of the sensation of treading on an ambiguous object, the feeling of crumbly soil beneath his feet was distinctly transmitted.

In the middle of the narrow path stood a blurry figure.

Though it was clearly someone he was seeing for the first time, there was a feeling that this was someone he had known.

Behind him, he heard the door closing by itself.

It turned its head towards him.

"You've arrived safely. That's a relief."

Even the voice seemed familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere.

Who was it again?

"Excuse me, but have we met somewhere? I can't remember your name at all. If it's not impolite, may I ask your..."

"What could be more futile than a name? Who do you think I am?"

"Um, who was it?"

The more he approached it, the more impossible it was to pinpoint its identity.

It had a familiar appearance, but sometimes it looked like a completely different face.

It felt like continuously seeing portraits of people who had passed by him, changing without pause.

The face changed increasingly rapidly, and it became difficult to find familiar features amid the unfamiliar ones.

It asked him again as he just stared at its face.

"Think differently. What face is most familiar to you?"

Even before he could answer, the appearance froze into one form with the question.

Facing his dead brother's face, he responded, at a loss for words.

"It's true that I thought of my brother, but I don't want to see this face on someone else."

"Then I'll choose the next most familiar person."

The face changed again.

The overall appearance resembled Leandros.

The Leandros he knew had pitch-black hair and eyes, but this Leandros was completely snow-white.

"That's better. But you can't be Leandros. He doesn't talk like this."

"Just because the outside is the same doesn't mean the inside is too."

"But really, who are you?"

"The one who evacuated you to Dreamland. The shared fate entity accompanying you, and the great..."

"You're the snowman, aren't you? I didn't recognize you because you suddenly started speaking proper sentences."

"You immediately switch to informal speech. I highly value your ability to rapidly adapt like that."

"Whatever, where is this place?"

"I just told you. It's Dreamland."

Dreamland.

He didn't think it had appeared in the original work.

When he stood blankly with an uncomprehending face, the snowman sighed and took the lead.

"Let's talk as we walk."

The forest was strange, and the snowman in the form of white-haired Leandros walking in front of him looked even stranger.

This being with perfectly formed limbs was the ice lump he knew?

Whether aware of his suspicious glances or not, the snowman spoke first.

"Dreamland is not a place one can come to so hastily. Those wishing to enter must find the stairs in their dreams. After climbing seventy-seven steps, passing the gatekeeper, entering deep dreams, and crossing seven hundred and seventy-seven more steps, one becomes qualified to move to Dreamland."

"I did come down stairs."

"But you didn't encounter the gatekeeper. That's because you're already in a state akin to deep dreaming."

"Deep dreaming?"

"Yes. Your body in reality is frozen."

What!

His mouth fell open.

To think that cryogenic humans, which appeared only as science fiction material in Korea, had been realized here.

To think that unproven, over-the-top technology was being experimented on his body!

"W-why on earth did they do that? Who ordered it?"

"It seems you don't remember well. You were eaten by pig-humans."

"Pig-humans, that..."

As soon as he picked up the words "pig-humans," a scene flashed back like a flashback.

Eyes, snouts, hooves, filthy muck.

When he paused speaking due to an inexplicably unpleasant feeling, the snowman continued for him.

"It happened in Glico village. It's still ongoing. The human woman and knight in reality decided this to save you. The idea of Dreamland was my suggestion."

"So you were the cause."

"I had no choice since my only worshipper would die if left alone. But you had to come to Dreamland anyway. The timing was just advanced."

"Me? I had to come to Dreamland? Why?"

"Why? Don't you remember what was said when you met me?"

When he had met Aphoom-Zhah in the north?

-Meet me in dreams. Worship me, move according to my will, and tell me stories of things that are not dreams.

-My servant who does not serve me and does not believe in me. Come to the Dreamland.

"Could that Dreamland be..."

"Between dreams and dreams. A place that exists but does not exist. A world no different from the human world, but one where you can achieve what you desire."

"You can achieve anything?"

"That's right. Humans who come to Dreamland can unveil all mysteries and solve the enigmas of continents that sank thousands of years ago. Many things are arranged for you, as Aphoom-Zhah's worshipper... though there are things to do before that."

Things to do?

Two moons tilted obliquely in the sky above him.

A low sound was heard from behind.

-Whirrr.

When he turned around, a black horse stood on the path that he and the snowman had walked.

Sleipnir with its magnificent mane was gleaming with garnet-like eyes.

"-Sleigh!"

He was alive!

He ran towards Sleigh almost reflexively.

But before he could take even a few steps, Sleigh's body crumbled to the ground.

Why?

Several shadows were attached to Sleigh's body.

Burly, swollen things were tearing at Sleigh's body, which was floundering and kicking on the ground.

Low cries came from those who had buried their heads in the horse's body, ripping living flesh.

[Squee-eek, Squiii-oink.]

His startled body froze.

Each time Sleigh whinnied high-pitched, his red eyes lost their vitality.

From one side of the forest, a swarm of winged creatures took flight.

In the direction of the sound, not far away, his brother's body hung in a noose, swaying slowly, wearing a yellow golden cloak.

A thick red book was in his brother's hand.

Below this was an old gallows, and a woman with sunset-red hair was looking at him.

Her lips moved.

[Arenheit, you were born as a vessel for a foreigner from another world.]

The audience at the gallows was his mother, blurred in memory, and his father, never to rise again from drunkenness.

Black water dripped from the boiler room. The dented brass pot could never return no matter how loudly it was banged. The hanged corpses moved one by one like products carried on a factory conveyor belt. At the end, Yurik was laughing like a madman, directly swinging his sword at the necks of dead people. So, all those dead people were red-headed, and some were cut, some were missing limbs, some had their chests pierced, and they were all blaming him, so, so.

The white Leandros behind him laughed.

"One must deal with one's own faults. It's Dreamland. Did you think the dream world would always be a beautiful star realm?"

The monster living in Dreamland,

Was the monster called trauma sleeping in his body.

* * *

For Leandros, who had faced demonic beasts from the Dikenter Mountains to the monsters of the north, dealing with pig-humans wasn't difficult.

The pig-humans had several times the strength of ordinary people and had the habit of trying to eat anything.

But except for that, they weren't much different from powerful mercenaries.

On that night of terrible bloodshed,

When Leandros, covered in sticky bodily fluids, smashed the head of the last pig-human.

The people who had survived in that place dared not speak carelessly.

What could they say to someone holding a pig-human corpse with brains and blood dripping from his hands?

A different kind of fear from when encountering demonic beasts.

Leandros glared at such villagers and spoke.

-I am a knight of the Hartmann ducal family. The new Duke, right here in Glico, had already encountered the atrocious acts the residents were committing and expressed deep regret.

-W-wait. From the Hartmann ducal family, why at such a moment... Evidence, show us evidence!

-Is that important? Originally, you should all be reported to the territory representative and be executed according to the kingdom's law. Whether the witness is a ducal knight or a mercenary, the result doesn't change.

The pig-human corpse that Leandros threw made a heavy thud as it rolled on the floor.

People who saw the corpse of the pig-human with its head half gone turned deathly pale.

The villagers had conspired to kill travelers, dispose of their bodies, and conceal the murders.

Someone shouted angrily.

-It's not our fault! If demonic beasts appeared, mercenaries should have come! But since they didn't, we had no choice but to defend ourselves!

-The representative is to blame too! The mercenary band contracted by the representative was inadequate! Call the representative!

-Call the representative? Do you think the representative will willingly admit to his failings? Even after seeing the state of this farm?

People closed their mouths again at Leandros's fierce appearance.

Someone rose urgently.

-I, I don't know anything. Nothing! I was just dragged here. I know what the villagers did, but I didn't help these people!

-What are you saying? You helped dig that pit deeper! I'm the one without any fault!

-Me too, me too! I just lent some farming tools! I came here because people pushed me!

Villagers who had been watching carefully all stood up abruptly, claiming their innocence.

They were innocent, they didn't know travelers had died, they hadn't done it willingly.

Through all the clamor, a calm voice was heard.

-B-but from the r-representative's viewpoint, it's v-village-wide conspiracy. You all w-won't be able to avoid p-punishment.

-No, that can't possibly be...

-I'll t-tell you one w-way to survive.

At the mention of a way to survive, numerous gazes fixed on Amelia.

She, who had come up after laying down the sleeping Arenheit, couldn't believe the sight before her.

To think this was human nature.

Struggling to suppress her nausea, she proposed.

-Belong to the H-Hartmann ducal family.

-Belong to the ducal family... Are you saying to become part of the ducal territory again?

-That w-would be the r-result. Now it's t-temporarily classified as a r-royal direct territory, but o-originally it was ducal territory, and s-someday it will be again. However, w-with your consent, it c-could change to ducal territory m-more quickly.

-Are you saying if we become ducal territory, the new Duke will overlook all this?

-That's right.

-What...!

-If it b-becomes ducal territory, the d-disposition of territory residents lies in the l-lord's hands. So it w-wouldn't be strange even if you d-don't follow the kingdom's law.

-But how is that even possible? Can you make it happen?

Amelia merely drew in her chin slightly.

But how this silence and slight gesture was interpreted by the people was obvious without seeing.

At the farmhouse where mercenaries didn't come,

In this situation where most villagers were too scared to offer any opinion, it turned to Leandros and Amelia's advantage.

Amelia scoffed. Asking if it wasn't excessively good luck.

The incident at the farmhouse in Glico village was not expected to be reported to anyone for the time being.

Including the fact that the number of villagers had noticeably decreased,

And that people no longer gathered at the inn.

Leandros and Amelia received the promised horses and immediately left the village.

They fervently prayed that Arenheit was having good dreams.