Chapter 221: Memories (1)

Rewen found himself floating on a seemingly infinite vast space. The space was dark, yet he could clearly see the 'dark'. He could clearly see his body but everything else was just dark. As he was wondering about this situation, he felt his body slowly descending.

He didn't know how much time had passed since he had been in this place but he did know that he needed to get out of this place. One thing he noticed as soon as he got here is that his headache has completely disappeared. 

Soon, he landed on a smooth floor. Aside from his body, he could only see darkness.

'Where is this place?' He questioned the last time.

[This is your heart.]

Unexpectedly, he got a response. The voice was ambiguous and unrecognizable. He tried looking for the source of the voice but unfortunately couldn't. Nevertheless, he was glad to find that he wasn't just brought here because of no reason and logic.

"Are you the system?"

[No. I'm not.]

"Then who are you?" Even though Rewen asked this, he was pretty sure that he would either get a vague response or not get the answer at all.

[None of your concern, at the current moment.]

'So it's the latter.' Rewen looked around and crossed his legs sitting on the smooth floor. "In that case, what exactly is my concern at the current moment?"

[Look in front.]

"I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at other than plain darkness… in this place but I'll try anyway." Raising his head, he looked in front. He looked without blinking for a couple of seconds.

All he could see was darkness.

"There's nothing I could see."

[Look carefully.]

"Okay." He again looked in front. 'Nothing other than darkness is visible… ah.' Amidst the infinite darkness, he could see an extremely small point of light but it's too small. Unless it's seen carefully, it wouldn't be seen with the naked eye.

"I see something. What is that?"

[It is you.]

"Please speak clearly." Rewen hated having this kind of philosophical exchange. According to him, speaking in this manner is to avoid answering the question. The answer the unknown voice gave could be interpreted in several ways.

[That is yourself. Your memories. It contains the cause of your pain. Go ahead and take it.]

"Sure thing." Rewen got up almost instantly and started walking towards the light. He had no time to waste on this place. He was still dealing with X. Even though he had a feeling that both he and Denny are safe at the moment, staying here for long doesn't seem like a good option. Besides, it's great that he would get to know the cause of the deadly sadistic headache.

'What 'memories' am I supposed to have though?'

[Remember to be firm in your road towards the light. You fail the moment you stumble and fall…]

The unknown voice faded away.

Rewen pondered about the words for a while. 'The owner of the voice surely doesn't expect me to stumble and fall on a smooth floor, does he...er, or she? Fuck. Who cares.' Although he said that, he knew that the road to the light won't be as pleasant and easy as he initially thought it would be.

'System, activate [Freestyle Knights Combat].' 

He waited for a few seconds.

Usually, when [Freestyle Knights Combat] is activated, he could feel changes in his body. His blood flow increases and he could feel a vigorous stream of unknown energy flowing through his body. 

Right now, he felt no such changes.

That can only mean that the system has failed to respond.

'Hello? System? Are you there?'

He got no response.

'Either the system isn't responding deliberately or.. this is kind of like a 'special' place. A place where even the system cannot appear or respond. Interesting.'

With this, he also thought of a question which he should have thought way back - Why does he need the system to activate [Freestyle Knights Combat]?

He shook his head to put all the miscellaneous thoughts at the back of his head and focused on the road in front of him. 'From my estimate, it shouldn't be more than a mile… I can't really accurately estimate it because it depends on how intense and 'big' the source of the light is.'

Taking a deep breath, he started running. 

*Tap*

*Tap*

*Tap*

He felt as if he was running on a glass floor that was rigid?

Even though the floor was extremely smooth, he had friction with the floor for some reason.

'Well, at least I won't 'stumble and fall' as the voice said.'

He ran for about thirty seconds when he observed some changes in his surroundings.

"Wait, what's happening?"

The light he was heading towards suddenly blinded him forcing him to close his eyes.

A few seconds passed by. 

As he felt the intensity of the light slowly dimming, he opened his eyes to find himself in the midst of an astonishing sight. 

It was afternoon. 

Since it was the month of June, the weather was mildly cold.

Standing in front of a small hut, Rewen wondered about the place.

"Where the fuck am I?" He looked around and saw plain grass fields and small huts all over the place. 'This… looks like a village.'

Nearby, he noticed a villager walking close by him and approached him. "Hey, Uncle. What is this place?"

The villager ignored him as if he had not noticed him.

Rewen felt that it was a little strange. 'Is the guy deaf?' He decided to try to talk to the man once again and stretched his hand on his shoulder.

His hand went right through his shoulder.

Rewen had a startling realization.

He had become a ghost! Or at least something similar to it.

Just as he was wondering what he should do, he heard a female shriek from inside the small hut near him.

"Ahhhh!"

"What the fuck is going on?" Rewen went inside the hut to check what was happening only to be startled once again. This time, however, the level of being startled was way above anything.

There were three, no, four people in the hut. Two were in their late teens - one man and a woman. The other was a middle-aged woman holding a crying baby in her arms. 

The young woman appeared to be sixteen and had a babyface. She could easily be counted as someone who was very beautiful. She was lying on the bed with sweat all over her face. Eagerly looking towards her newborn, she stretched her hand towards the midwife.

The midwife gently smiled, rubbing her forehead. "It's a boy." She proceeded to carefully hand the baby over to her.

The young woman smiled while looking at her newborn.

For some reason, Rewen was blinded by the smile. Not only was it the most beautiful and dazzling smile he had seen, but the smile also radiated love.

"Haha! Told ya!" The young man standing beside her bent down and laughed merrily while looking at his newborn, then turned his gaze to look at his wife. "Why don't you give him to me? You didn't want him, right?" 

"Nonsense! Why would I not want him? I wanted a girl but this is also good! You can leave if you don't want to deal with me and my son. Hmph!" The young woman feigned anger looking at him for a while, then burst into a wide smile. 

The young man grinned, nustling his nose against her lovingly.

"I'll come later. For now, take a rest." The midwife tapped the young woman's shoulder and went out of the hut.

Rewen found a chair nearby. He stretched his hand to see if he could touch non-living objects. 

He touched the chair and thus, sat on the chair and calmly looked at the scene in front of him.

His eyes went to the young man first. The young man had black hair and was tall for a sixteen-year-old. For some reason, his face was seventy percent similar to Rewen's. To put it plainly, he looked like a younger version of Rewen.

Then, his eyes traveled to the young beautiful woman. She looked like someone he was very familiar with.

Lastly, his eyes went to the crying baby in her arms.

Looking at the family, he felt... bitter-sweet.

The father had passed on early while the mother and son had recently started to grow apart.

Rewen was extremely progressive. Part of it was due to the influence of his predecessor's memories but most of it was innate. He wasn't a staunch believer of family values and believed that the phrase - "Blood is thicker than water" to be very incorrect. 

Even though he grieved for the tragic death of his father, he never felt the emptiness because his mother filled up the gap for him. 

'They all… look so happy. Well, the sky is blue and a family is a great thing to have.' 

With a heavy heart, he got up. Instantly, the surroundings collapsed and he found himself staring at the tiny light.