Countless fragments of dreams were floating.
With every step I took, unfamiliar memories blocked my way. There were landscapes soaked in tears like a teenager’s pillowcase, and there were scenes dry and coarse like the sand of a desert.
Most of them were nightmares.
Blood, blades, and death.
It was rare to find a memory without one of these three. I wandered through them with a dazed mind, thinking with a brain where blood did not flow.
Perhaps it was because only the impressive sights remained.
Experiences that leave deep scars in the unconscious mind are rare, and I was certainly no exception.
I wonder if my unconscious space is like this.
Guildford, Miltram, Leorick, Yulen…
As I muttered the names that came to mind one by one, I moved my steps.
Suddenly, there was a landscape that filled my vision.
It was the back of a crying man.
The corpse of the woman he held was cold. Her once vibrant skin was now pale, and her lips no longer breathed moisture. Raindrops fell from the sky, soaking the half-destroyed forest.
The man must have been crying for a long time.
It took that long for the warmth of the corpse to fade.
As I gazed at that figure for a moment, I tried to take another step.
I had brushed past all memories like that until now.
But a voice caught my ankle.
“Kid, it’s time to go back.”
A voice saturated with fatigue.
My gaze drifted behind me. There, a gloomy golden light hung alone.
It was a man.
He had already seated himself on a rock. The sword lodged in the ground supported his body like a staff.
My pupils shifted back and forth between the two men.
The man crying in front and the man behind, whose tear ducts had run dry.
After a long silence, my lips stirred.
“… Still, I guess you used to know how to cry back then?”
“I was still young.”
The man said this as he slowly rose.
The sound of his footsteps echoed sadly. He passed by me, standing like a nail driven into the ground.
In the golden retinas, past landscapes were passing by.
The dead apprentice, the dead teacher, and lastly, himself shedding tears in front of them.
“All tragedies felt like the world’s imposition. It was like that every time I lost someone precious.”
“Do you not feel that way now?”
“It was a time when tragedies were ordinary.”
It was a heavy statement.
From that one sentence, I saw a clue. It explained why the man would go out of his way to come back to the past and struggle to protect a place that wasn’t even his own.
“I’m not the only one. Everyone felt that way… Losing family or lovers is trivial. Many soldiers limped around clutching spears, missing arms and legs. There were even those for whom death was preferable.”
Although his tone carried no hint of a sigh, the quietness of it amplified the veracity of his testimony.
There were memories still lingering in my mind.
The orphans who became flesh seeds and the elves who offered their souls to the Dark Cult.
They were living lives more painful than death itself.
And that was likely just a tiny fraction of it.
What the Dark Cult was doing on the continent was known only to the Dark Cult themselves.
Except for the man standing before me.
“… If you do not protect it, it is a future that will inevitably come.”
The man’s golden eyes turned towards me again.
My reflection, submerged in a shallow melancholy on the transparent retina like a frozen lake, was visible.
“So don’t do anything foolish going forward. Prioritize your own safety… The Vampire’s Five-Element March is out of sync with the equilibrium of time and space. If the barrier collapses, the surrounding area…”
“… Senior Elsi?”
Suddenly, the face that flashed through my mind caused me to speak up.
The man chose to remain silent instead of answering.
“What happened to the Great Witch? You said the surrounding area would collapse!”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
It was a coldly indifferent response.
I felt incredulous at those words, only to quickly fall into a strange sentiment.
Whether or not the Great Witch was fine was one thing, but Senior Elsi was my companion. Even if her body was occupied by a future personality, that remained the same.
There was no way Senior Elsi would return to a dead body.
Yet the man asserted to me.
That “I” without worry.
If that was the case, who else should be worried about them besides me?
At least to my knowledge, there was only one person.
“… Still, aren’t you worried?”
It wasn’t mockery.
Rather, I carefully chose my words to express this question. Hoping to hear his honest feelings without hurting his pride.
The man remained silent for a while in response to my inquiry.
He simply turned his gaze to the back of the crying man.
Unable to stand the silence, another question escaped my lips.
“He’s your teacher.”
“He’s not my teacher. That person has already passed away.”
“But he’s your apprentice.”
“Well…”
The man, who was about to present a counterargument, ultimately let out a heavy sigh.
There was nothing to say.
He was showing a rare and overt change of emotion. He brushed his face with both hands and took a deep breath.
It was a habit that surfaced when I was feeling upset.
From that view, he indeed was correct.
“… It’s a story that’s already over.”
“Why’s that?”
“What would change if we met now?”
It was a difficult question.
As I fell silent, unable to respond, the man continued with a sigh in his voice.
“What do you want me to do about it now? Even if we meet again, nothing will change.”
“Is that why you dislike it?”
“Because it’s inefficient.”
It was a sharp assertion.
The man said it again with a tone that left no room for further discussion.
“I told you, kid. There are limits to how much I can interfere in this time frame… And you want to waste that precious opportunity without any meaning?”
“It’s not entirely meaningless…”
“It’s already a finished matter.”
For the second time.
A peculiar loneliness was evident on the man’s face as he spoke. Yet the reason his gaze remained unwavering was likely due to some conviction he held.
This assumption was soon proven true.
Without turning his eyes from the crying past, the man whispered with bitterness.
“I’ve cried enough and regretted enough… The past cannot be turned back. The only solution is to leave no more things to regret.”
There was no gap in that solid voice.
It wasn’t a mere evasion of the subject. Those words were probably the unhidden belief of the man.
“… Still, you want to turn back, don’t you?”
“Stepping over that regret, I stood here. After countless tragedies….”
That was the last of it.
As usual, the man drew his own conclusion and abruptly ended the conversation.
His eyes, dim as embers, turned toward me.
“I’ll take care of the aftermath. Again, don’t act like a fool next time. Value your life most.”
With that, the man resumed his steps. As I thought that his back heading somewhere unknown looked quite lonely, I glanced at the memory of the crying man.
A striking woman with black hair was cradled in his embrace. Upon closer inspection, she did resemble a vampire.
So this is what the Great Witch looked like.
There was not even a hint of hatred on the crying man’s face. He seemed utterly overwhelmed by sorrow to the point that he couldn’t even hold a single drop of water anymore.
Why was he feeling this much sorrow?
I involuntarily reached out my hand. It was an act done without any particular intent.
But the moment my hand touched the face of the crying man.
I felt a sensation of the ground opening up beneath me.
In the unexpected fall, I was met with a deluge of countless memories. Laughter, cries, and numerous figures blended together like a stream, bursting forth in various colors.
It was a now familiar experience.
I wandered through the man’s memories for a while. Experiencing the emotions and appearances of others in their own memories was a unique yet violent experience.
It was as if time was being forcibly crammed in, whether it was months or even years.
How long had it been since then?
Suddenly regaining my senses, I groaned due to a strong dizziness. Even as I staggered backward, the man was still walking without changing his pace.
As if he would disappear somewhere.
So I strained my vocal cords, even in my confusion.
“… Wait!”
The man abruptly halted his steps.
I stumbled but pursued the man. After only a few steps, I almost lost my balance and fell.
He still hadn’t turned to look at me.
Not until I spoke a word.
“No matter how I think about it, you need to meet.”
Breathlessly uttered, my words finally drew the man’s gaze toward me.
There were few emotions I could read in those dry eyes. In fact, it was rare for even fragments of emotions to be revealed.
Indeed.
The man was agitated.
I seized the opportunity without letting it slip away.
“Your apprentice.”
In the deeply imbued golden eyes directed at me, there was no wavering. Yet, I wasn’t about to avert my gaze either.
The wind was blowing across the barren plains.
