[The affairs of the territory had been completely settled. It was time to explore the extraordinary and the immortal!]
[Month of Snow-Covered Green Elms. Forty-three days had passed since I began moving in my dreams, and I still hadn't seen a continent. I was starting to lose heart...]
[Day 46. Using all the mysterious energy for travel was too wasteful. Perhaps I should make a new plan and divide the energy generated each day I entered the dream into three parts: one for travel, one for strengthening myself, and one for savings?]
[Day 50 of the journey. It was night in the dream world, and I witnessed something terrifying. It seemed that something dreadful had also appeared on the Crimson Moon. I saw the shadow of a swaying tree, with malformed flesh offerings hanging from every branch... At the same time, I heard a world-spanning whisper... My guess is that another being like the Black Sun has appeared.]
[I was summoned by Father to attend the territory's winter festival. Judging by what I observed, he seemed reasonably satisfied with the title Count of Green Forest?]
[Month of the Silent Green Elms. Spring was approaching, but it made little difference to me. Nothing was happening in the territory, and I remained immersed in my dreams...]
After finishing the last note in his hand, Aaron yawned, changed into his pajamas, and lay down on the big bed. He soon fell asleep.
Lately, rumors that the lord of Blackstone Manor had developed a sleeping disorder had been spreading like wildfire, but Aaron hadn't paid them any mind.
If he could, he would have spent every hour of the day in that other world.
The dream world.
A consciousness sped across the surface of the sea.
For Aaron, the experience of watching the view draw closer was no longer novel.
What truly worried him was the appearance of one strange phenomenon after another.
"Along with the strange phenomena and broadcasts I've seen before, I estimate that about five terrifying beings have descended upon this world... They all come with those world-spanning broadcasts—or should I say, calls and corruptions?"
Aaron couldn't even be sure whether they could detect him.
He couldn't help feeling more anxious.
He gathered his thoughts and divided the mysterious energy generated by entering the dream that day into three parts: one to strengthen himself, one for the journey, and one to save.
At first, Aaron thought the day would pass just like all the others, in boredom.
But today, things were a little different.
A black line suddenly rose above the horizon before him.
Aaron froze, almost unable to believe his eyes. He wondered if he was imagining it.
But after waiting for a while, the black line was still there!
"It's land!"
His consciousness nearly boiled over. "Finally... I've found land!"
He hurried forward. The black line expanded, becoming a coastline, and more and more of its outline gradually came into view.
It wasn't a continent, but only a small island.
The pale woods on the island seemed to have undergone some kind of mutation, resembling palms reaching up toward the sky.
Strange creatures moved about in the shadows.
"Looks like the creatures on land have also been corrupted and affected by the Scarlet Sun?"
Aaron pondered as he circled the island. It wasn't large—only a few dozen square kilometers or so.
Still, it was an immense encouragement.
At the very least, this was the first stretch of land he had encountered.
"Perhaps... the true continental shelf isn't far away..."
Though he tried to encourage himself, Aaron still traveled for more than twenty days before discovering the true continent.
The coastline stretched as far as the eye could see, with no way to tell how deep the land ran.
"Finally... I've finally made it ashore!"
Aaron felt a surge of emotion. After sixteen years at sea, he had finally set foot on a true continent!
And not far away, he could even see a harbor.
Behind it, a city stood in a sprawl of buildings, paved roads, and towers!
"Today must be my lucky day!"
Aaron reached the harbor and saw sailboats stranded there. Some still bore signs of fighting, and dried blood stained the ground around them.
The docks were just as wrecked... A large ship, split cleanly in two, lay stranded not far away, as if some deep-sea monster had torn it apart...
"Did the monsters from the sea... make it into the harbor?"
Aaron Sothoth felt a heaviness in his heart.
If he hadn't changed the sun, this might still have been a prosperous harbor instead of an abandoned ruin.
He followed the paved road all the way into the city.
Human remains had been carelessly discarded along the roadside, weathered into bones. There were marks where something had gnawed on them.
"Looks like it's not just the sea. Everything on the continent has been corrupted too?"
Aaron muttered to himself, then suddenly sensed something and looked ahead.
At the corner stood a motionless figure, like a stone statue.
Suddenly!
The figure began to move slowly, stepping toward Aaron.
Clack!
Its clawed foot landed on the flagstones with a crisp sound, leaving a trail of filthy blood.
As it drew closer, Aaron felt as if he'd been struck with a hammer.
He saw...
A humanoid monster, its entire body covered in calluses, its face stripped of skin!
Rags still clung to its body. It looked as though it had once been a human from this world!
It had no eyelids, and its enormous eyeballs stared straight at Aaron. One arm had completely mutated into a tentacle like an octopus's.
One step, then another...
The monster kept approaching, then... passed right through Aaron's body...
"So even a monster can't touch me?"
Aaron looked along both sides of the street. Strange symbols marked some of the shops, likely words from this other world, but he couldn't recognize a single one.
Even with Extraordinary Memory, I'd probably learn quickly, but I'd still need someone to teach me...
A bone-deep terror seized Aaron. "Could it be... that all the intelligent beings in this world have gone mad?"
Just then, the monster turned around and charged straight into a building.
Its enormous, mutated ears, shaped like a bat's, twitched repeatedly, as though it were listening for something.
"No, that's not it. It didn't sense me. It sensed some other prey?"
Aaron suddenly had an idea and hurried through the wall into the building.
It seemed to be a bakery. Several shelves lay toppled on the floor, and a dried corpse hung in the air, swaying now and then in the breeze.
Aaron used his ability to pass through walls and looked around, but found nothing.
The monster was the same. It stood motionless on the floor.
Suddenly... Aaron thought of something and dived underground.
Beneath the floorboards, there was a secret passage!
Inside it, a brown-haired boy wearing what looked like a shirt and jeans, his face completely black, was covering another girl's mouth. They wriggled through the passage like a pair of worms.
The girl's hand was still clutching a piece of black bread...
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