Chapter 130

He hated this.

He hated it even more.

The memories chasing closely behind him cackled.

They were so intertwined that it was impossible to tell whether they were originally Arenheit's memories or his own.

Yurik and the nameless woman his father had brought home ran with him, and the air was rent by the wailing of his mother and the former Duchess from his memories.

Stop it! Please stop!

The snowman's voice clung to his ear and whispered.

"Why are you running away? These are things you've witnessed once. It's a procedure that everyone who enters Dreamland goes through. You won't die or collapse here. What are you afraid of?"

Crazy bastard!

As the snowman had said, his body, which neither died nor collapsed, didn't even get easily out of breath.

If he had the courage to run away, he could flee as far as he wanted. Fortunately.

While the two tilted moons waned, he escaped the terrible forest and moved in the direction of the wind.

When the blue sun rose and cold light announced a new morning, he passed through a massive purple wall.

At the same time, the voices of the specters that had mocked and criticized him faded away.

"You're quite cunning for a worshipper. Coming straight to Ultar. I'd heard that entrants to Dreamland fall in various places, but I never thought it would be near Ultar."

"You, huff, huff, bastard."

"But it's nice to be able to run like this, isn't it? Would your original body even be capable of running this far? How does it feel, like you've just jogged lightly, right?"

The snowman, who had somehow attached himself to his side, smirked.

Even while catching his breath, he lashed out at the snowman in surging anger, but the snowman dodged easily while laughing.

"Why are you so angry, worshipper?"

"You, worse than a dog."

"Don't tell me it's because of what just happened? It was certainly more tiring than other humans' memories. But it's not my fault. You know that too."

"Shut up! Don't spout such nonsense with that face!"

"Since I've enjoyed the spectacle, I'll be quiet now."

The snowman shrugged and tightly shut his mouth.

After glaring at the annoyingly smiling figure, he turned his head. Finally, he had the leisure to look around.

The sky here was closer to a bluish gray, unlike reality.

Below it, eerie blue clouds scattered like smoke and then gathered, moving like living organisms.

A yellow brick road, reminiscent of the one in "The Wizard of Oz," lay between forests blending deep green and yellow, and greenish fields.

The thick, moist air felt like being in a foggy mountain.

"Where is this..."

"I told you. Ultar. We haven't fully entered the city's domain yet, but we're near it. Since we've passed the city gate, we're in the outskirts."

"Ultar?"

"Come to think of it, you don't know anything, worshipper."

The snowman stood beside him and stretched his hand to match his eye level.

The hand pointed toward the path he had been following.

"This way leads to the Sky River and the bridge that enters Ultar."

The hand turned to the opposite direction.

It was the path he had come from.

"Behind is the way back to the Magic Forest."

The hand pointed once to the right and once to the left.

"Roads leading to Hlanis and Dallas Rin. All are cities that exist in Dreamland while simultaneously being places you dream of."

"What does that mean?"

"It means don't try to understand this world with human common sense or concepts, worshipper."

"How do you know all this so well?"

"Well, I've visited countless Dreamlands, so I'd know. I visited in my main form, of course. Moving between planets is quite arduous, you know."

By this point, he was tired of trying to figure out exactly what kind of place Dreamland was.

As the snowman finished speaking, he immediately stepped toward the road leading to the city called Ultar.

The snowman followed him obediently without a word.

"Are we going straight to Ultar like this?"

"No reason not to. I will absolutely never go back to that forest, even if I die."

He shuddered as he recalled the numerous faces that had lunged at him.

It would be better to die once more instead.

After walking for a while, a bridge similar in color to the purple city gate they had passed earlier appeared.

Swift river waters surged beneath the bridge. It was probably the river called Sky or something like that.

Various abstract sculptures were engraved on the bridge.

Though all had worn faint from age, among them was a distinct pattern that caught the eye.

"...A cat?"

"Ultar is a city protected by Bast. Bast is called the deity of cats."

"Why?"

"Preference. For instance, there's a story that when an elderly couple killed a cat, a boy who witnessed it prayed to Bast, and Bast used cats to kill the elderly couple. Basically a crazy deity who loves cats that much. So they say cats are abundant when you enter the city."

There was nothing sane in this place.

They slowly crossed the bridge and entered the open city.

He had imagined people or bustling streets when thinking of a city, but upon entering, the streets were completely empty.

Confused, he looked at the snowman, who was also squinting his eyes, trying to assess the situation.

"Hmmmm."

"Why is it like this? Did everyone move away? Or is Dreamland usually this devoid of people?"

"That can't be. It wasn't like this when I went to other places."

The snowman, in Leandros's form, continuously tapped his mouth and then looked at him.

"Ultar is full of people. There are monks, and cats are sprawled all over the streets because of the law forbidding the killing of cats. That's the Ultar I know."

"But now there's nothing here."

"The only thing I can surmise now is that your Dreamland is desolate. Do you understand? Not Dreamland, but 'your' Dreamland."

"What do you mean?"

"Dreamland is a place you can enter through your dreams. A dimension that can exist in countless places simultaneously. A space that is both individual and belongs to the gods."

"Explain so I can understand. I don't get it at all."

"In the reality where humans live, everything is singular. Let's say there's a tree. If someone cuts that tree down, people who come later will only see a tree stump."

"Usually... that's right. That's the norm."

"But in Dreamland, even if a tree is cut down, it might appear intact to someone else. Not only that, while you might see a green tree, others might see a red tree, a gaunt tree, or something in the form of a tree."

"That's not a tree then!"

"Only from your perspective. Dreamland has many irregularities. Some things change, and some don't. And the criterion for irregularities is the person who has entered their own Dreamland, the worshipper."

To think that he was the criterion for irregularities.

The snowman gestured toward the empty street.

"Your dream is empty. Not even a stray cat is present. The only beings permitted in your dream might be me or other deities."

"Why is that?"

"It's because you are empty, worshipper."

"Empty?"

"Yes. You have no dreams, no hope, no desires, no goals, nothing. You are a truly strange and peculiar human, worshipper."

Wait. What was that?

"So to summarize, because I have nothing, my dream is this desolate?"

"Since you love no one and wish for nothing, your dream can only manifest with such tendencies. Ah, except for those memories that followed from the Magic Forest. Those are like nightmares."

A city without anyone.

There should have been something originally, but because he didn't want it, everything disappeared.

He mulled over this fact repeatedly.

Did he really not want anything?

No, that couldn't be right. There must have been a mistake.

He loved his brother, wanted to return to Korea, and wanted to lead Leandros to the ending.

Why was he described as empty when he had so many things he desired and loved?

As he was trying to calm himself, the snowman asked as if he could clearly see through his thoughts.

"But why did you run away from the Magic Forest? Your dead brother was there."

"That's, that's because other people came out too..."

"But you didn't even glance toward where your brother was, did you?"

"No, that's not true!"

His shout reverberated through the empty city.

"If I didn't love him, why on earth would I be here! Why would I have said I'd stay here and write stories for him? He was my only family! I loved him because he was family! We were always together, and no one understood him as well as I did—"

Had he really understood him well?

He still didn't know why his brother had written such a terrible world.

To please him?

To lighten his burden because he seemed troubled?

Did he want to be a brother who wouldn't embarrass him?

But this novel was harsh.

The grotesqueries writhing within the text, the ancient gods, the despair and fear of people, were unbearably painful.

What kind of thoughts did one have to live with to write such things?

There was no way someone could be happy with writing about thousands, tens of thousands of people dying.

In fact, hadn't he been misunderstanding him?

Hadn't he been boasting only about their relationship as brothers and the emotions he felt for him, rather than his essence?

...Suddenly, he felt that kind of fear.

The fear that what he thought he knew well might not be so.

The fear of realizing that what he vaguely thought he understood was far away at some point.

A complex silence settled.

The snowman who had been observing him opened his mouth.

"I should tell you about you and your brother someday. That was the contract between you and the great me. But that doesn't mean it's now. I just had a good idea."

"A good... idea?"

"Because your heart and mind are completely empty, you were helplessly torn apart by the pig-humans, right?"

"I know quite a lot, actually."

"It's quite unsightly for the great Aphoom-Zhah's worshipper, and I can't show my face. So, since you've come to Dreamland, I'll tell you something good. Consider it a blessing."

Was it really good?

Though he tried to be suspicious, he couldn't grasp what the snowman's intentions were.

Damn. Since when did he not have a single person to trust around him?

But it was true that this snowman knew more about Dreamland than he did.

And though he didn't know for what purpose, the snowman had definitely said before that he would teach him.

It couldn't hurt to trust him.

"What kind of blessing? Just try saying nonsense. I'll leave here immediately."

"Worshipper, you're prickly. Ultar isn't just a city with many cats. There are very few cities in Dreamland that gods actively patronize."

"But are you saying that a god protects Ultar because it has a reason worthy enough?"

"That's right, worshipper. The reason is a book in Ultar."

"A book? What book?"

Were there even books here?

As he looked bewildered, the snowman grinned.

"The oldest grimoire on this planet, the Pnakotic."