CH 307

I’m dreaming. Yes, this is a dream.

This is a dream of the time I had a mother, who was very hands-off when it came to raising me, and when I trained with a mysterious dojo master.

I was always left at that dojo when my mother was off at work.

It was a very odd place, and there were people who came there, where you wondered how they had all met.

A mercenary soldier who walked through battlefields, a fearless person who fought in underground arenas, people who guarded royals in foreign countries, and there were even some who were assassins. They would tell me about their lives, and when they felt like it, teach me original techniques.

These weren’t the modern, sports-like martial arts, but the kind that was popular during the feudal era, that were meant to kill.

Military martial arts, ancient martial arts…and also qigong.

They told me that these would become useful one day. But I was sure that I would never have to use them. Still, I absorbed all of it.

I didn’t have a father.

It had been this way as far back as I could remember.

When I asked my mother, she would pretend as if she had just recalled something, but it was all lies.

“He became a star.”

“We just met at that festival.”

“I fell in love on the battlefield.”

With that last one, I had to say, ‘You’ve never been on a battlefield!’

In the end, she never did tell me who my father was.

It seemed like the dojo master knew, but he too never told me.

However, I had the distinct impression that my father was no longer in Japan.

Perhaps he really was wandering in a battlefield somewhere.

As I had been left off at the dojo so many times, I started to just spend my time there more often.

And before I knew it, I started to teach instead of being taught. Upon seeing this, the dojo master made me his subordinate, though he called it, ‘acting master.’

“Huh? You want to open a new class?”

He was very fond of new things, and was easily affected by what he saw on television.

“Why do I have to teach that!”

When I went to the dojo the next morning, he had opened a diet karate class that was targeted at women. And he said that I had to teach it.

Before that, it was diet boxing.

Apparently, he mistook me for someone with multiple talents.

And he continued to open different classes and make me teach them.

He even brought low tables into the dojo and opened knitting and computer classes.

I did everything I could to resist him, but if there were already students waiting there, I would have no choice but to yield and teach them.

And then came that fateful day.

As always, I was on my way to the dojo…

“Ah. So it was a dream… No, it wasn’t. It was my past, past life.”

And then I realized something strange.

“My body…is healed?”

While in a vessel known as a Personification, I had fought against the rebels and lost different parts of my body.

I had been doing well, scattering the small fry, but then their leaders appeared.

I think they were called Vargan and Noshe.

The Phantom Light Dragon and the Fang Crush Dragon. I had fought them.

While I had a reason to do it, it had been reckless.

And I nearly died as a result.

My body was so battered that it could no longer be used.

And yet I had been healed.

I had so many wounds, but I can’t even see them now. And I wasn’t wearing any clothes.

“What’s going on?”

Why were my clothes always missing in this world?

As for the place.

It was a room that was just moderately furnished.

And I had no memory of it.

“Where am I?”

“Ah, Sir Golan. You’re awake.”

Juga’s head poked out from the doorway.

“Juga. Why are you… Where are we?”

“We are in the Field of Everlasting Spring, Sir Golan. In fact, we’re in the Crystal Palace.”

“Oh…”

Why?

I had been fighting in the Coast of Everlasting Summer.

That meant the Crystal Palace was still more than twenty days away on foot.

No, nevermind that.

Yamato! After the fight, I met Yamato…I think.

“Sir Golan. You are now inside of a new Personification vessel. Oh, right. I was told to let them know if you came to.”

And with that, Juga ran off somewhere.

While he was a busy one, he was useful.

I had learned a lot during that short conversation.

We were in the Crystal Palace in the Field of Everlasting Summer.

The place where Yamato lived.

And they had unused Personifications resting here.

That’s why I was able to be transferred to a different one.

“And so I have no clothes…”

“In times like this, it’s best to stay put.”

I decided to wait in the room.

In the meantime, I would think.

(Perhaps Yamato brought me here?)

Considering that he was the last thing that I saw, it must be so.

Juga had only promised to take me through the Coast of Everlasting Summer.

So it was surprising that he was still with me, but I suppose he had been brought here too.

In any case, it was good to have someone here that I knew.

I looked at the objects in the room for a while, and then a woman of unknown race walked in.

She was wearing a white kimono. She looked like a snow fairy, but had green horns coming out of her head.

That being said, there were no Ogres like her.

“The Founder will see you now. Come this way.”

“Uh, ah…”

Founder? But then I remembered that Pojun had once called Yamato that.

Then he really had been the one to bring me here.

And so I followed after the woman.

Now, what will happen next?