Aisha's Dream

Blank

I opened my eyes, and all I could see was blankness.

Where was this...?

I tried hard to remember why I had come here.

That white light...

All I remembered was that white light rushing toward me, and I seemed to have just stood there in a daze... until...

Until my brother shielded me...

"So... am I dead? Is this a place like heaven, like Mom talked about...?"

I muttered to myself and took a few steps forward.

Even though I was moving ahead, the grayish white before my eyes didn't feel like it changed at all.

Suddenly, a voice rang out.

"You're not dead, you know."

I turned around and looked toward the voice.

It was a person, a blurry white figure.

"Little girl~ you're alive."

"Oh..."

For some reason, I instinctively hated this weird person a little.

It gave off a really unpleasant feeling.

"Aren't you curious who I am?"

"Uh... Mom and Dad both told me not to talk to strangers, so I don't want to ask..."

"Oh~ But what if I told you I was a god?"

"A god...?"

"That's right, an all-knowing god. I'm not all-powerful, though. In the world, I'm known as the [Human-God]."

A person calling himself a god, in my dream...?

I didn't believe him. That disbelief wasn't because I was especially smart or because I knew a lot. It was just instinct. My instincts told me not to trust him.

"You don't have to believe me~ But, well, you and your brother might very well die."

It... could hear the voice in my heart...?

"For a god, isn't that simple?"

"So... what is Lord God doing in my dream...?"

The god before me looked me over from the left, then went around to the right and looked me over again.

"Your brother."

"Huh?"

"I'm very interested in your brother. But, you see~ I can't enter his dreams."

"So...?"

"So I'll use my [all-knowing] ability to have you help your brother. When the time is right, I'll make your brother become my believer."

Those words sounded exactly like something a swindler would say.

In my heart, I decided I would absolutely never trust this swindler of a god.

"Don't be so quick to deny me~ You're still so young. If you don't listen to me and help your brother, you, your brother, and that young lady could die at any moment."

...I'll die... why?

"After all, the Demon Continent is a harsh place. There's barely anything to eat, and the number of monsters is on a completely different level from the Central Continent. Even if your brother is amazing and can speak the language over there, so what? Can he really take a four-year-old child and a twelve-year-old young lady out of that continent? Can he truly do it? Your brother, I mean."

"The Demon Continent...? Why would I be in a place like that...?"

"You were caught up in a large-scale magical disaster and transferred there~"

"A magical disaster... was that the white light?"

"That's right."

The god before me looked relaxed, as if this whole thing was something good to him.

Even though I didn't believe him, what he said seemed right.

I had heard of the Demon Continent... in the stories Mom told... ferocious magical beasts all came from the Demon Continent...

If... if I really had been transferred to the Demon Continent... then even if my brother was a genius, even if he was amazing... it would still be very hard for him to get me and Eris out...

"Right, right? That's why I'll give you advice. As long as you follow my advice, I'll let you all make it safely out of the Demon Continent~"

"I have one question... why my brother...?"

"Do you know why your brother is so smart, and why he's so powerful?"

"Because he's a genius..."

The god before me looked like he wanted to say more, but then he nodded.

"Exactly! And I am an all-knowing god. Your brother will become unimaginably powerful in the future, so isn't it only natural that I'd want to turn someone like that into my follower?"

That... kind of made sense...

"Now then, this is my first piece of advice. After you wake up, obey your brother's instructions unconditionally, and tell him that west is..."

After it said that, an image appeared in the dream.

The image spun for a while, then came to a stop.

A barren stretch of flat land, and at the end of it, a canyon.

Was this... west...?

"This is west, and it's also the only road that can take you back home~ All right, from now on, I'll appear in your dreams from time to time and give you advice. Whether you believe me or not is up to you. After all, I know I'm pretty suspicious myself~ But my authority is only omniscience, so this is all I can do to help my followers~"

I still had questions...

Before I could say the words, it disappeared.

The dream scattered, and I opened my eyes.

The night sky... and a campfire.

My brother was looking up at the sky, as if he was worrying about something.

I looked around for a while. It was the same as that image in the dream.

What the Human-God said was true... We really had been transferred to the Demon Continent...