Chapter of Unknown Promise: Dream of a Distant World

When I opened my eyes… I was greeted by yellow.

Yellow to my left. Yellow to my right. Yellow right in front of me. Yellow up high. Everything was stained in yellow.

The heck is going on? Why am I here?

Hadn’t I been in the wagon just now? Together with Karen. We had been… doing a small experiment, right? Then… What then? I could vaguely remember that we were suddenly more fooling around than bothering with the experiment. But we still kept up and then… My memory went blank.

“Sis? Sis, are you here?”

No response. But it was strange… It felt like I was still wrapped in Karen’s warmth as if I had never left her embrace. In that case… was this a dream? It might be a dream. In other words, Karen and I were probably asleep right now—or at the very least unconscious—and this was just something my mind was making up.

Makes me wonder how screwed I am in the head to dream of a place like this.

This was no joke. Seriously, who could dream of a place that was only yellow? It was hurting my eyes to look pretty much anywhere.

Wait… Can you even feel blinded in a dream?

It… was a dream, right? It had to be. I raised my hand and pinched my cheek. They always said you didn’t feel pain in dreams, after all.

“Ouch?!”

This wasn’t a dream?!

No way… But… What?

I was absolutely certain that I was still with Karen, right now. But I couldn’t see her anywhere nearby. There was… a disparity between what my body told me and what I was seeing right now.

Okay… Is this a dream then, after all? Or not?

It was a little odd how calm I felt, right now. Karen’s presence, even if I could neither see nor hear her, was reassuring. In the end, maybe it didn’t matter what I was seeing here. The most important part was, that I was with her.

Still, I would prefer if she was simply right next to me, though… Or actually, I’d rather not be in this place Like, at all.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like I’d go anywhere anytime soon. Considering the timing, this might have to do with our experiment.

If it is related to what we did… Well, I don’t know… Hopefully, it’ll be over on its own at some point? But if not...

I surveyed my surroundings, hoping to gain some kind of inkling about this place. It was… still yellow. That impression hadn’t changed in the least. But looking at it a little closer—after my eyes got used to the burning bright torture that called itself yellow—it was more than just that. This was…

“... A wasteland?”

This place was the very image of a wasteland. Dry earth with small cracks running over it. No plants, no life. Nothing was thriving here. It was… dead. The only difference to a normal wasteland was that even the ground was a glaring yellow. The stones that were jutting out of the ground were yellow. Some of them were even emitting smoke plumes out of small holes. Of course, they were… White. Not yellow.

Even so… It’s like someone dropped a yellow paint bucket on this place…

There was really no exception except for the smoke. Behind me, in front of me, to my left, to my right. Even the sky was just a slightly darker yellow. No clouds were in sight but I could very well imagine how they’d look if there were any. Probably yellow. Or maybe white, like the smoke?

Whatever… I have no idea where I am… Or why I am here, for one…

But just standing around wouldn’t change anything either… So I walked over to the nearest stone emitting smoke. These stones were about the only movement in the entire surroundings, so they naturally caught my interest. Plus, the smoke wasn’t yellow. Well, it was smoke.

But they’re just stones, aren’t they? They look a little blocky but they’re still stones, I think. No, of course, I knew that, but… Nn? Woah?!

The stone suddenly spewed a thick smoke cloud right into my face.

“Ughhhh! It smells!”

I fell backwards, grimacing from the unbearable stench.

What the hell? How can something smell this bad?

It was incredibly unpleasant. Reminiscent of rotten eggs, just several times stronger. And as such, several times more unbearable.

I’m not going to get close to these again for sure.

Taking my distance from the stone, I glared at it, quite annoyed at the unpleasant experience it had given me.

Ugh, this is horrible… Not only do I not know where I am, the only stuff around smells like rotten eggs… What is that anyway?

Something that smelled like rotten eggs… There was something that came to mind. Something that, coincidentally, was quite… yellow.

“Is this… Sulphur? Are you kidding me?”

I wasn’t quite sure but I was pretty sure that sulphur was the cause of the stench in rotten eggs. And while it definitely had been a while since I last had to… smell this stuff, it was striking enough that I’d never mistake it. At the very least, this probably ruled out that this place was a dream. At least, I couldn’t remember a single dream where I could smell something. Then again, neither could I remember a dream where I could feel pain.

“But everything is yellow… Then… is all of this…”

I stared at the ground again… then at the stone emitting the plumes. I had already noticed before that it had some oddly blocky appearance but I didn’t think much of it at first… But a natural stone didn’t look like that, did it? The ground, however, really looked like regular ground that was just weirdly yellow.

Great… So I am stranded in some weird place full of sulphur? Wait, was sulphur toxic? I’m pretty sure it was...

The more I understood about this place the less I wanted to be here. Even if I was sure that this wasn’t per se ‘real,’ there was no way of knowing whether I could get ill, in the worst-case poisoned. But even if I didn’t want to be here, there was no way for me to leave right now, was there?

Am I… screwed?

This was bad. I had no idea if I could even get poisoned by sulphur but I wasn’t all too keen on finding that out either. What would happen if you got poisoned by sulphur? Unfortunately, I didn’t know.

Let’s… get out of here…

While it seemed like there was no escape from this yellow hell, standing around definitely wouldn’t change that either. With that in mind, I began to move. My first thought was to look for the sun and just walk in that direction but… there was no sun. At least, none that was visible.

With the lack of any decent landmarks and orientation points, my only choice was to go down a random direction…

Yeah, I’m definitely screwed… I want to go home…

Back to Karen and the others… Preferably right now in this very instant. Alas, my prayers went on deaf ears. Nothing changed. The horrible monotonous scenery remained. It would’ve been nice if someone had added a different colour to this place.

Guess I have no choice… Time to… explore?

Left with no option, I decided to walk towards the horizon.

In other words, I walked.

And walked.

And walked...

---

Time went by incredibly slowly when nothing was happening. A little ironic considering my attempt at fleeing boredom had brought me here. Probably.

At some point, I had found something that reminded me of a road. Or that’s what I wanted to believe it was. I followed it for quite a while until I finally found a change in the scenery. It was… a single yellow sign. From the outward appearance, it reminded me of wood. Except, it was dyed in the same colour as everything else.

“But as expected, this is a road… Nn… What does the sign even say…”

Something was written on the sign, obviously, but it wasn’t in any language I had ever seen before. Not even the script seemed similar.

“At any rate… It probably will be fine to just follow the road then. I’ll just hope that whatever is written there is the name of the place.”

With a sigh, I resumed my unfortunate journey in this single-colour hell.

I hate this… I want to go home…

Couldn’t I have a happier dream or whatever this was? Or actually, I just wanted to snuggle with Karen right now. Feeling her but not seeing her was a rather unpleasant discrepancy. No need for a dream or anything.

“Haaa…”

Alas, no matter how much I wanted to complain, it wouldn’t change anything.

“I’ll hug Sis a whole lot when I wake up… Haaa… Nn?”

Right then, something became visible in the distance. It was only a little but something was jutting out there.

Finally, something else! And probably it’ll be a town, right? Hopefully.

Not like I could imagine anyone living in this place. And even if there was… would they be even human? I didn’t know. But, I’d find out soon.

I walked just a little faster, eager to reach that place. After a while, the shape appearing from behind the horizon became more distinct. It was a yellow wall. Wasn’t this a town wall?

Hurray! Civilization found!

After a while, I could make out the gate. Whatever was behind it, though, was hidden behind the wall. Nonetheless, I hurried towards it. The distance shrunk quickly until I finally stood in front of the closed gate. There was just one problem. Nobody was to be seen.

I have a bad feeling about this…

It couldn’t be… right?

“Excuse me? Is anybody here?”

My voice echoed into the distance, completely unhindered by anything else. No reply. Only silence followed.

“Hello? Hello?!”

I kept shouting yet no one answered. There wasn’t even the slightest bit of sound or noise.

This is… This town is totally going to end up empty, isn’t it?

The bad feeling only grew stronger. But even if this town was empty, there was no way for me to enter and make sure anyway. Feeble me would never be able to open that gate on her lonesome.

But maybe there’s somewhere else I can enter?

I approached the gate, examining it from close up. It looked like a normal town gate except for its colour. Unfortunately, no doors either.

What to do… I don’t want to be stranded out here... 

Wasn’t there any way for me to get past this? Maybe I could climb up?

No way… I could probably lengthen my hair long enough to abuse it as a rope, but there’s no way I could get up without help.

With a sigh, I dismissed that option. In that case… The tentacles? No… For one, I had no mana crystal with me here and without a crystal, there was no chance for me to grow them enough that they could help me out.

Maybe a doll? They could at least scout what is past it but… I got no materials…

The dolls so far had always used wood. I didn’t know if I could make use of other materials in the same way, though. I had my doubts about that.

Wait, what material is the gate made of… or was made of?

Once more, I examined it closely… This… might have been wood?

That could work… But…

Destroying the gate would probably get me into trouble if there were people behind it. I was pretty sure there weren’t, though. Still, I could at least warn them in the off-case I was wrong.

“Err…. Excuse me?! Please open the gate! If you don’t, I might damage it, okay?!”

Still no reply.

Well, in that case…

I held my hand up against the gate and concentrated on the mana within me. Only to remember… This wasn’t reality… The mana I wanted to tap into… Wasn’t there…

You kidding me…

Great… No mana, no magic. I was powerless.

“Ahh, come on! Eh? Wahh!”

Annoyed, I kicked the gate and my foot got stuck in it. Losing my balance, I stumbled backwards.

“Ouch… Ugh… What the heck…”

My foot was firmly stuck in the gate, having kicked a wonderful hole into it.

“...”

At this point, I didn’t know if I should be exasperated or annoyed. Somehow, I just felt… deflated.

“So the gate is brittle. Haaa…”

Unable to suppress a sigh, I pulled my foot out of the hole. It was a splendid hole… Large enough that I could peek through it.

“Oh, there really is a town… with nobody in it.”

In fact, the town didn’t look like it was in a good shape. Many buildings had collapsed.

“At least, nobody’s going to get angry, right? Right. Then, let’s do this.”

Since I didn’t want to injure my hands, I kicked the gate, enlarging the hole until it was big enough for me to crawl through.

“No one here, huh… But maybe there’s something that tells me how to get back… or wake up.”

Or, at the very least, something that told me what this place even was. If you ignored the colour and the collapsed buildings, the townscape was actually quite beautiful. A wide well-paved street, large buildings with delicately ornamented fronts, remnants of what might have been trees lining the middle of the road… Whatever happened to this place, it probably had been quite nice before then.

I wonder what happened to this place, though… This yellow… All this sulphur, it’s probably not natural, is it?

I walked down the road, taking in the sight around me. After following the street for a while, I arrived at what had likely been a plaza. A large fountain was right in the middle with the remnants of a statue on top of it. And then… a barricade had been built, splitting the plaza into two sides. It was damaged all over the place, parts of it were even crushed flat. And among all the rubble and remnants…

“No way… Are those… skeletons?”

In the same sulphur colour as everything else… Skeletons, whether whole or scattered, were all over the place.

This looks like… like the aftermath of a battle…

I walked around the plaza, looking around. I wasn’t going to freak out about skeletons at this point anymore… Although, I would prefer no skeletons at all.

“Nn? That statue…”

Looking above the fountain, I stared at the statue, or what was left of it. Right below it, words were written. It was the same unfamiliar language from earlier. But, this time… I felt like I knew what was written there. As if I could hear someone tell me its meaning.

“Glory to our eternal nation.”

“... The hell?”

That eternity didn’t seem to last…

This is really creeping me out…

My desire to go home was slowly reaching a critical point. I just didn’t want to be here anymore. In the first place, why was I here? I had absolutely no recollection of this place. And I was pretty sure a place like this wouldn’t exist in my old world either. Then, why was I here? Because we fed my mana crystal? In that case, how was this related to me?!

I just want to go back to Sis…

But I was still here.

“...”

I sat down at the edge of the fountain and closed my eyes. I wanted to go back… but for now, I had to calm down. I was still feeling Karen’s warmth. It was still there. It was just that my mind wasn’t quite with my body right now. Nothing more, nothing less.

Okay. I’m calm. I hope…

First, what did I know about this place? It stank like sulphur and was yellow. The town was ruined and the surrounding land was pretty much a wasteland. I had absolutely zero recollection of this place, too. But I was still here, for some reason. Probably because of my mana crystal. Maybe, this place wasn’t real but something my crystal was showing me. That would explain why it wasn’t quite like a dream. And why I was still able to feel Karen.

However, that begged the question as to why I was seeing it. It wasn’t something that seemed to have any relation to me whatsoever, after all.

But, maybe it’s not about me?

There was someone else who might be related to this. Her. That monster. The witch Yumias.

Maybe this is a memory of hers?

That was the only reasonable explanation I could think of. But if it was her memory, I still didn’t understand why she was showing me this. There had to be a reason.

“If this place is related to her…”

I opened my eyes again, before closing them on reflex again. The yellow stung…

“Can I complain to whoever is at fault for this?”

Complaining would surely lift my spirits. Alas, nobody to complain to.

Whatever… Let’s look around some more.

Leaving my seat, I searched the surroundings for a little more. Behind the barricade, there was a lot of rubble. Judging from its proximity to the fountain, this might have been the statue. Unfortunately, it was so damaged there was no way to identify who it had shown. Or what.

“Doesn’t look like there’s anything else to see here… Nn? Wait…”

The back of the statue… or rather, of the pedestal on the fountain. There were more words written on it. These didn’t look like they had been carved by a professional. No, these were very clumsily carved into the stone. And there was a lot of it.

“This is the result of our hubris.

We have betrayed the world.

We have betrayed the one who gave us life.

We have betrayed our children.

Our conceit bred contempt. And our contempt led to their tragedy.

We have failed all we stood for.

For we were unable to give happiness to our children.

The Morning Shroud will claim us soon.

The Evening Shroud will burn our sins.

All hail our eternal nation.

Death to us all.

Death to us all.

Death to us all.

Death to...”

“...”

Once again, something told me what was written there. But even then… Just what was this?

Is this what she wanted me to see?

If so, this was… quite in poor taste. Whoever had written this… was probably not sane anymore. The last line was repeated over and over again, filling most of the back of the pedestal. As if it was some kind of twisted wish.

More like a curse…

I averted my gaze. This wasn’t something I wanted to look at for long. It felt like I’d go crazy as well if I read all of that.

But, there were a few things that made me curious… Did this nation destroy itself? Did… people create this… hell?

It reminded me a little of something I had heard in my old world. Humanity already had the power to wipe itself out. Maybe… Maybe this was a possible outcome of having attained such power…

Sure gives you food for thought…

I left the fountain behind and continued searching the place. There were no more mad carvings around, fortunately. On the other hand, it still didn’t tell me in the least what was going on. It was frustrating. Seriously and utterly frustrating. In a way, this place was an emotional rollercoaster without even doing anything.

“Hey, can’t you let me leave already?” I shouted at no one in particular.

No reply, as expected. Who would have thought?

I’ll really go crazy at this rate... 

If it wasn’t for the warmth surrounding me the entire time, that might have been a very real possibility.

“Haaa…”

Left with no other choice, I kept up the search for anything of note. But no matter how much I walked around, the plaza didn’t offer anything new. Since there was no point to keep walking around here, I decided to follow the road opposite the one I had come from, deeper into the town.

The street was basically the same as the one before. Tree remnants adorned the middle, collapsed buildings stood on either side. Depressing, really.

After walking for a while, I finally stumbled upon something new. Another plaza… Actually, it was more like a large crossing.

“More skeletons…”

There was no escaping them. They were just everywhere.

“Let’s see… Maybe there’s something of note here?”

I looked around the crossing but except for piles of bones, there wasn’t anything here. Maybe I’d have to take the plunge and enter one of the buildings? But… I was a little reluctant to do that, even if the owner likely wasn’t alive anymore.

“Be that as it may, I might have no other choice… Oh? What’s that?”

Something was hanging from one of the trees. A… sign?

“Nn… There’s something written on it… But…”

This time, nothing came to mind when I saw it. Just unfamiliar letters. It made me wonder what the condition was for me to ‘understand’ what was written. Since it felt like a voice was telling me, then maybe it was intentional and only certain things would be readable.

This makes less and less sense…

There was just too little information. Way too little. I’d really like it if Yumias had just shown up in front of me and told me whatever she wanted to. Preferably as short as possible, so I could go back to have fun with Karen. Yet, here I was, having to humour her ridiculous fancies.

What even was her relation to this place?

That reminds me… Didn’t the Elder talk about her before… About the ‘Witch’s World’ and stuff like that?

I had some suspicions that this was a memory of Yumias. Then, maybe this was… what remained of her world? And then there were the things Miss Karker had told us about. That Yumias had been… cursed.

Those… Those would fit…

I looked up to the sky. Was this… her home? Or, what remained of her world? If so…

… I don’t know.

I shook my head, trying to clear my mind. There was no guarantee that this was really her world. But it was likely related to her in some way.

I feel like I am only walking in circles with this.

Slightly annoyed at my lack of information, I continued down the street. In an attempt to find any sort of clue, I even tried opening some doors of the surrounding buildings. Alas, not even one of them budged. At all. As if it was fixed in place. It was just like the pebbles from outside this town. In that regard, the gate had been odd since I actually broke it...

“Gee, what the hell is up with this place…”

Just as I complained though, I found something. There was a small bag in the middle of the street. Curious as I was, I tried to pick it up. Lo and behold… I really picked it up.

“And here I expected so much that it would just be stuck in place again…”

Way to destroy my expectations. Either way, I scrutinised the bag from all sides. It was, like everything, yellow. However, the material felt like it was leather. I opened it and… found a small doll inside. Not one of wood but one made with cloth. A soft one, a doll a child would have.

“... I got a bad feeling about this.”

I took out the doll and looked at it. Outwardly, there wasn’t anything strange to it.

“Oh, there’s something sewed on there… Is that… a name tag?”

The unfamiliar letters again. And this time, once again, I heard that voice telling me.

“Mina la Freyr”

As expected, a name… Wait, ‘la Freyr’? Wasn’t that… Yumias… So it really had something to do with Yumias. But who was ‘Mina’ then?

At that moment, a sound echoed nearby. Something falling to the ground. It was the first sound I had heard since coming here. In a hurry, I turned around, looking for whatever had come down.

It was a stone. A red stone. The kind of stone I knew full well. A fire elemental stone.

“Eh?”

It took me a moment to understand what I was seeing. A moment that would take me by surprise once more.

A red flash. Then, the ground turned blue. The air became blue. Everything turned blue as my surroundings were doused in blue flames. It wasn’t hot. It didn’t hurt. But somehow I knew that this would be the end of this surreal trip. A weird sense of calm overcame me as the scenery around me broke apart. Literally. Replaced by a black void. I could sense Karen’s embrace around me, becoming more clear.

Ahh, finally this is over.

Hopefully, this would be the only surprise for me this time. Ahh, I could feel myself falling asleep again. This time, I hoped for more pleasant dreams…

“My, my, such a naughty child you are. Peeking is a bad habit. A very, very bad habit. Ehehehe.”