Herman gazed at the city ahead.
Towering, magnificent, prosperous, bustling.
The tide crashed against the shore, the air carrying a faint salty tang of seawater. Sunlight glittered across the ocean's surface, while white seabirds circled above the docks, their pleasant cries echoing without end.
Ships came and went into the harbor, transporting box after box of freshly caught seafood onto land...
Herman stood on the coast, watching it all.
His expression was still somewhat dazed.
Sainia bordered the coast, while endless wilderness and woodland stretched along its other side. Its thriving maritime trade connected countless nations.
Herman remembered that he had left the city in another direction.
Yet when he returned to Sainia, he had come in from the coast.
He had crossed all of Sainia.
"Keep going in this direction. When you reach the end, you'll return to where you came from."
The witch's words still echoed in his ears.
Herman recalled what he had experienced after leaving the witch. He had walked through the Misty Forest for perhaps several minutes—or perhaps a very, very long time.
As far as the eye could see lay an endless forest and slowly drifting pale mist. He had even worried that he might accidentally wander into the territory of that bad-tempered neighbor.
At some point, both the mist and forest had vanished.
And by the time he realized it, he had already appeared in the Dream World corresponding to Sainia.
He had sensed reality once more.
Herman broke free from the Dream World and returned to the real world.
Recalling this journey, he felt as though he had experienced a hazy, illusory dream.
In that dream had been the Misty Forest that existed in both reality and dreams, a mysterious witch who loved cooking, and a neighbor living next door with a