Hannas's Desperate Dream

Church craftsmanship, trustworthy.

Under the effect of the Sacred Dream Amulet, Hannas was drawn into the dream Jia Xiu had prepared—"Turtle's Nightmare."

The whole process was so smooth that he did not react at all.

The immersive dream was like another lifetime, leaving Hannas unable to tell the difference.

In this life, he was no longer the second son of the Baron of Creekwood Town, but an ordinary blacksmith. His grandfather had been a blacksmith, his father had been a blacksmith, and so was he.

He ran the small family blacksmith shop, mainly forging kitchenware and farming tools, occasionally making weapons. As for armor, that was far too difficult for him.

The dream was so real that he believed it was his true life.

Those vague memories of being a noble were treated as idle fantasies.

As a blacksmith whose skills were not particularly exceptional, something had been troubling him lately.

He was about to turn eighteen and was still unmarried.

At eighteen, he was considered an older bachelor in town. Most of his friends around his age had married at fifteen or sixteen, and quite a few already had children.

Yet he did not even have a sweetheart.

The mockery of his friends and the gossip of the townspeople left him deeply irritated.

With no other choice, he sought out the town matchmaker to arrange an introduction.

Before long, the matchmaker brought him some not-so-good good news.

She had found a girl of suitable age and family background.

"But her family wants a bride price of 2,888 crowns."

"They want what?" Hannas thought he had misheard. The term bride price felt unfamiliar to him.

"Oh, it is only a bride price of 2,888 crowns. If you want to marry their daughter, shouldn't you give them some money?" the matchmaker explained.

Hannas hesitated.

"2,888 crowns... that's, that's way too much."

The matchmaker grew impatient.

"Listen to you, boy. You want a wife, but you are unwilling to pay a little price? You know your own circumstances. Your family has nothing but that broken blacksmith shop, and you are not exactly handsome. If that girl is going to live with you, she cannot be expected to ask for nothing..."

After the matchmaker's long-winded persuasion, Hannas ultimately gave in.

He spent all his savings, the money left by his father, and even sold off much of his property before barely scraping together the bride price.

Not long afterward, he married the unfamiliar girl from another village whom the matchmaker had introduced.

Married life was fairly ordinary, and they had a child.

But Hannas lost much. He had no savings left and had to support his child, so he could only work twice as hard at the forge. He had less time to gather with his friends, and only occasional fishing brought him a brief sense of peace.

He wanted a new fishing rod.

A wooden pole carved casually by hand could make do, but he wanted to go to the town carpenter and commission a real, well-balanced fishing rod.

A perfect fishing rod.

He craved it so desperately, as though that rod could save him from his bleak, suffocating life.

But all the household money was managed by his wife.

So, over dinner after a hard day of work, he said to his wife, "I want some money to buy a fishing rod."

Before he could even name the price, his wife snapped, "What are you wasting money on that for?"

"It isn't a waste."

Hannas felt wronged. It was clearly money he had earned.

"What is the point of thinking about fishing all day?"

"But you spend money learning horseback riding too."

His wife had joined a riding class run by the town's equestrian instructor and attended two lessons every week.

The moment he said that, the atmosphere at home dropped to freezing point.

The silence lasted more than ten seconds before his wife became angry first.

"So what? How is that the same?"

"How isn't it—"

"I do that to improve myself! Improving myself is so this family can live better..."

Hannas could not argue with his wife.

He did not buy that fishing rod, and he gave up fishing as a hobby as well.

A long time passed. The child gradually grew up, and Hannas realized that the child looked less and less like him.

He explained it to himself: looking like his wife was fine too.

But no matter how he tried to convince himself, he could not ignore that the child looked like the town's equestrian instructor.

Over the years, he had heard plenty of rumors around town, but he had always chosen to pretend he had not.

Once the seed of suspicion was planted, it inevitably took root and sprouted. At last, Hannas could endure it no longer.

It was dinner time again.

"I heard there is a very capable druid outside town who can test whether a child is biologically yours..."

Just like when he had wanted to buy a fishing rod years ago, his wife still did not give him the chance to finish.

Only this time, her reaction was far more intense.

"What do you mean, Hannas?! Let me tell you, I knew long ago you were harboring bad intentions, you heartless thing!"

Words alone were not enough to express her anger, so she began smashing things around the house.

When throwing a tantrum did not work, she switched tactics and sat there wiping away tears.

With an aggrieved look, she said, "After all these years I've been with you, you actually suspect me..."

But no matter how she performed, she could not move Hannas.

His mind was made up.

Under his insistence, they went to see the druid anyway.

The result was no surprise: it was not his child. As for who the real father was, whether it was the equestrian instructor or not, he no longer cared. He was tired.

Now, he only wanted a divorce as soon as possible.

The marriage had been conducted under the Church's witness, so the Church also handled the divorce.

As the priest made his ruling, Hannas suddenly remembered the 2,888 crowns he had paid as a bride price.

That had been paid for the marriage. Now that the marriage was over, the bride price should naturally be returned.

So he said to the priest, "I have no other demands. I only hope to recover the bride price I paid, a total of 2,888 crowns."

As long as he got that money back, he could start living again—a better, freer life.

Yet the priest merely glanced at him and calmly replied, "The bride price was a voluntary gift given before the marriage..."

Hannas did not hear a single word after that. All that remained was a ringing in his ears, echoing through his mind.

Then he saw his wife—no, his ex-wife's undisguised smile.

It was like the smile of someone whose business venture had succeeded.

Rage completely consumed Hannas. Only one thought remained in his mind.

Find something with a good grip.

A blacksmith's hammer. Yes, a blacksmith's hammer...

At the same time, outside the dream.

Jia Xiu was carrying a bucket of some unknown blood-based liquid, the same kind used for cultist altar formations, and carefully drawing runes representing the God of Deceit and Curses across Hannas's body.

As he drew, he watched Hannas's reaction.

Hannas was trembling all over, as if trapped in an incomparably terrifying nightmare.

His right hand was making a motion as though swinging something down to smash it.

A vicious aura radiated from his entire body. Combined with the cultist runes all over him, who would believe he was not a cultist?

"So this is the ending."

From his movements, Jia Xiu judged which part of the dream's script Hannas had reached.

It looked like he had ultimately chosen to resort to classical mechanics.

Jia Xiu found that entirely understandable. After experiencing the carefully crafted Turtle's Nightmare, if someone could still hold it in, they would truly be someone remarkable. No, a remarkable turtle.

At that moment, the glow of a teleportation spell lit up in the distance. The Punishment Paladins were probably about to arrive.

Jia Xiu immediately tossed the bucket and brush into the cave, roughly tugged at his clothes a few times to make himself look like he was fleeing for his life.

Then he shoved Billy's obsidian dagger into Hannas's swinging right hand.

The scene was ready: a brutal, deranged cultist who had lost his reason, pursuing a "kindhearted" dark mage.

The instant the Punishment Paladins appeared in the teleportation light.

The dream ended!