One Day, I Will Return To Your Side

It feels so real...

This is how Kas felt on his fifth day back home. Although his wife Sereya could be a bit tsundere and fierce, she had taken over almost everything in the household. Aside from the minor detail that she couldn't cook, she was a perfect wife.

His daughter Luna was cute and innocent. Every day, she would circle around the Golden-Branch Giant Antlered Deer, Angeli, or go into the woods to pick mushrooms and nuts. On her way home, she would even weave a beautiful flower crown for her grumpy father.

Everyone in the tribe respected him, believing that after Gona's death, only Kas of the Zagwell Clan was fit to serve as War Chief.

It was only when Kas effortlessly stopped a charging Woolly Rhino with one hand that he realized this dream was realistic enough to simulate his own strength ten years into the future.

The only two strange things were the "system" in his mind and his weapon.

The system had failed, and he knew exactly why: dreams lacked inspiration because everything was proceeding according to a preset script.

Even if he could calmly analyze things while inside the dream, it didn't mean his unconscious brain could generate corresponding thoughts; he was having a lucid dream.

Sitting on the steps at his front door, Kas picked up the longsword resting by his side.

The sword was 1.3 meters long—merely a hand-and-a-half sword to him—and the crossguard was engraved with a line of ancient script: Born Bound.

The pommel was carved into the shape of a fire-breathing dragon's head; this was the weapon of his grandfather, Elliott Dragon-Slayer—Fire-Slayer.

According to Seneya's description, this weapon came from an adventure they had shared, where they found the clan's lost legendary sword in the Rikasa Basin.

As for that battle-axe named "Luna" forged by Radel, it seemed that event had never happened.

"Black Ember Tribe... Baize." Kas murmured. He had vaguely guessed the bug in this dream, but... he still felt hesitant.

Everything was illusory; even his own consciousness was controlled by a terrifying devil, so everything could be doubted.

Doubt everything, and break through the illusion with a point of certainty—this was Descartes' first meditation.

Sacred Number Theory: even if countless hallucinations disrupted thoughts and rules, the basic mathematical rules that existed prior to experience could not be interfered with. 1+2 must equal the 3 of the Ascendance of Contradiction and the Number of Dissolution.

The Sacred Number Theory that defined reality was like the red pill in The Matrix; as long as reason unfolded along the numbers for the first meditation, the illusory external objects could be shattered.

But if Kas were willing to accept the blank ten years of memory, he could obtain most of what he wanted without any effort.

Fame, wealth, strength, family... this dream was so real that you wouldn't even want to think about anything else.

The more he saw the tsundere, clingy Sereya and the cute, innocent little Luna, the more he believed this was reality...

Just as the Lady of Death said—what is seen is believed, and what is believed is seen.

Of course, Kas was not some protagonist, and no one was chasing him across the world to frame him; he was merely in the position of a victim.

He only increasingly understood the Rishiman people's strange attitude toward dreams and oracles; it was indeed difficult to distinguish between them.

"You have something on your mind, kid." Iron Bone floated back, his cracked, dark skull topped with an exquisite flower crown, making his originally majestic and terrifying image look exceptionally comical.

"Yes... I'm thinking about when this dream should end. For us, reality and dreams seem to be the same thing."

"After all this time, are you still obsessed with the death of Blackheart's daughter?"

"So, did the me of that time go to question the Lady of Death?"

"Of course. You provoked the Lady of Death like an idiot, and it took me a great deal of effort to summon your soul back."

"Then the problem arises. The Lady of Death... my slave, that Isidore who didn't understand Rishiman traditions—if he hadn't put on the Mask of the Departed, who would have guided my soul back?"

Kas let out a low laugh. He didn't deny that this dream was perfect enough to be called real, but some details were still too rough.

"The only people who could have worn the Mask of the Departed at that time were Seneya and Isidore. If Seneya had worn the mask to summon the soul, she would have died, but she is still alive now. Yet, that Isidore died on the way back to the tribe."

"This seems to be a loophole you didn't patch, because he didn't understand Rishiman traditions. You cannot simulate someone who is not influenced by the cultural sphere of the Sorrow Mountains."

A subtle curve appeared on the corner of Morse the Iron Bone's mouth. He said in a mysterious tone, "It seems you are still unwilling to believe that the dream is a divine oracle."

"Undeniably, this dream has revealed many things to me and strengthened my resolve to break Seneya's curse, but now, I must leave."

"Even if it means abandoning your wife and daughter?"

"They..." Kas shook his head, his tone firm, his hand clenching into a fist: "I will see them as they are now in the future."

"You are starting to believe that Tina's death stemmed from honor."

Kas fell silent. He was indeed wavering, thinking that the girl's cause of death was more complex than he had imagined.

The combined assault of honor, dreams, and oracles was enough to make her do things that seemed crazy and incomprehensible to ordinary people.

And by "ordinary people," he meant himself before he had experienced the dream.

He raised his head, hearing the whistling wind from afar brushing past his ears, the mournful and long voice of Isidore calling for the wandering soul to leave and return to the original world.

"The stag that accompanies me for life, the seed of pride, the sorrowful child.

When I chant the suffering you have endured, please draw near..."

Kas sighed. He began to calculate the Sacred Number Theory in his heart. Even if this was a dream, he didn't have the courage to face Sereya and Luna, so he prepared to leave quietly.

Luna, holding a flower crown, suddenly appeared from the gate of the fence. With her innocent, wide eyes, she trotted toward Kas on her chubby little legs.

She was currently losing her baby teeth; her laughter was so cute, and the toothless smile always made Kas's heart tremble.

She stood in front of Kas and held up the flowers she had just woven: "Papa, are you leaving?"

Kas nodded and picked his daughter up again, letting her touch her father's fiery red hair.

"That's right, Daddy is leaving. Will Luna be sad?"

"I will, but you'll definitely come back, right?" Placing a flower crown on her father's head, Luna wrapped her arms around Kas's neck, just as Seneya had told her to.

He was dreaming; he had a super cute and sensible daughter.

"Mhm, I will definitely come back... to see you, and to see Seneya."

Kas felt his eyes grow moist, feeling the warmth of Luna's small hands stroking the back of his head.

She was such a sensible girl; for the first time, he felt that love required no reason at all.

"Kas, don't push yourself. You're just too foolish, always obsessed with things I can't understand." Seneya, who had walked out of the house, wrapped her arms around her husband's waist from behind, her tenderness seemingly swallowing him once again.

There was no attempt to hold him back, not even any tears, yet this peaceful scene caused Kas to sink deep into the dream and the oracle; he was willing to pay any price to make this moment a reality.

But wasn't this... exactly what the Lady of Death had said? Glory, dreams, and oracles were one and the same to the Rishiman People.

He could not understand what most of the Rishiman People considered honorable, but a happy, complete family was the highest glory of all...

This dream was truly a lethal killing blow.

Kas gently pulled away Luna, who had her arms wrapped around his neck, wiped the tears from his daughter's face with his thick fingers, and said softly with the greatest tenderness of his life: "Be good, Daddy will be back. Just pretend it was all a dream, and you'll see Daddy again before long."

He turned around and gazed into Seneya's crimson eyes. She hurriedly dodged her husband's sorrowful gaze and said with feigned disdain: "Then hurry up and go. Just pretend this house is rid of a rambling little dog like you; I can raise Luna into a fine girl all on my own."

Kas lowered his head, and just as he had when he first woke up, he received the bite Seneya demanded, deeply kissing the Werewolf Lady he had once failed to understand.

The Werewolf Lady sobbed in a low voice, clutching the Barbarian who had saved her.

"One day, I will return to your side..."