When Kayden opened his eyes, he was no longer in his room lying comfortably on his bed. Instead, he seemed to be standing inside some sort of dilapidated shack. Everywhere he looked, the ceiling, the wall, the furniture, it was all run-down and barely functional. Termite-infested holes riddled the surrounding wooden foundations, and here and there grew small patches of moss. It was hard to believe that anyone lived here, and by the Gods, the smell was atrocious!

‘Hold on… Smell?’

Kayden felt like he was physically present in the scene, which was strange since it never felt like this whenever Hel dragged him into the Realm of Consciousness. Just what was going on? He had assumed that this wasn’t real. How could it be? He had never seen this room before in his life!

Just as he had that thought, he heard the sound of a creaking door as a person stepped inside the room. It was the half-hag, half-beauty, full-goddess, Hel, and she looked equally as confused as he was.

“[Kayden? Why are you here?]”

“Huh? Didn’t you bring me here? Come on, let’s go back to reality already. I’ll need to come up with a drug smuggling plan.”

Hel paused and concentrated, but after a short while, nothing changed.

“[This is certainly not my doing. It seems that we’re both stuck here.]”

 Kayden was speechless. Had he been transported to a different location while he slept? But if that was the case, Hel should definitely have noticed and woke him up. No, it was more likely that this was some kind of dream.

Yet, everything felt too real. The acrid scent in the air, the sound of creaking floorboards, there was just no way this was a simple dream.

Creak…!

The door creaked open slowly again, but this time, they could hear voices.

“Sigh. Just what have I been raising you for?! You can’t even pass the first test? Even after all I’ve done for you!”

“S-shut up! I’ll just pass it next time! There’s no limit to how many times I can try…”

“You useless idiot! It costs money each time! Do you know how expensive the fees are?!”

“I-I’m not useless!”

A little boy and what was presumably his mother stepped into the room, arguing back and forth non-stop. Judging from the contents of the argument, this mother-and-son duo had a strenuous relationship, and the son had just failed some sort of test.

Kayden and Hel were very much still present inside the room. They have not been discovered yet due to his quick thinking, which was to turn them both invisible. Unfortunately, they were now stuck. They couldn’t talk nor move an inch from their spots, for if they did, the creaking floorboards would reveal their presence. All they could do for now is stand still.

Suddenly, the boy threw his backpack at Kayden, who quickly dodged it by ducking. The bag fell upon a dusty couch behind him.

“Casey! Don’t throw your things!”

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

Kayden sighed internally, relieved.

“You little— Go to your room!”

“…Fine!”

The boy then ran towards them with tears in his eyes, and it was clear that he wasn’t looking straight. Though even if he did, it was not like he could see them anyway.

Kayden presumed that the boy wanted to reach the door behind them, but they couldn’t just step aside. Kayden had to improvise.

Judging from the direction in which the boy ran in, he was going to collide with Hel no matter what. With as much strength and speed as he could muster, he carried Hel off the ground and let the boy run underneath her. Surprisingly, Hel wasn’t as heavy as he had imagined, and he was able to hold her up quite effortlessly.

The floorboards did creak slightly, but most of it came from the boy’s own footsteps anyway. In any case, no one was suspicious.

The boy slammed the door behind him as he shut himself in his room. The force sent tremors to the unsteady foundations of the house, shaking it slightly, but it held on. His mother obviously wasn’t pleased by the rude gesture but chose not to scream at her son this time.

Instead, she picked up a pouch that was off to the side and left the house with a door-slam of her own. After a tense silence, it seemed that no one else would be coming into the room, and Kayden could finally breathe easy.

“[…Watch where you’re touching. Put me down already.]”

“Ah, right.”

After placing down the disgruntled goddess, he tried searching for a place to hide, but with how shabby everything was, nowhere looked good. So Kayden settled for outside instead.

He dragged Hel by the arm and left through the same door the mother left with, expecting to be greeted by the outdoors. However, when he stepped out the door, what greeted him was… an empty, stone hallway.

“What in the world…?”

He looked back at the door but discovered that it only led to an empty abyss. A very familiar sight. There seemed to be a consistent theme with dark voids in every dream or vision he had.

“Well, that confirms it. It must be a dream of some sort. Why are we dreaming about this guy?”

“[Well… It’s more likely that you’re the dreamer, while I’m just along for the ride.]” Hel said as her eyes shifted around the area. “[Still, it doesn’t explain the realism, or the fact that I’m a physical entity here… Let’s keep watching.]”

Seeing that there was no other option, Kayden agreed and began to walk down the hallway. The journey was short, as they soon emerged into bright light. The first thing they heard was the sounds of cheering and clapping, and after their eyes got used to the light, what they saw ahead appalled them.

It was your typical coliseum, with a circular battlefield in the middle and spectators surrounding it on top. On that battlefield was a raised, square platform where a fight between two boys was taking place. One of them was a tall, dark-haired boy, who seemed to be overpowering a shorter boy with blonde hair.

“Hold on, isn’t that the same boy from just now? He looks a bit older though…”

The blonde boy, Casey, was getting beaten to a pulp. He held a short sword in one hand and a buckler in another, yet they were of no use. They looked pitiful when faced off against his opponent, who seemed to be able to conjure black, shadowy snakes to mercilessly strike at his opponent. Just from a cursory glance, Kayden already knew who was going to be the winner.

“[The boy sure is determined, all bruised and battered yet still doesn’t know when to give up. How… admirable.]”

Kayden couldn’t tell whether or not that was sarcasm from Hel. Perhaps he was just imagining it, but he could have sworn that Hel was referring to him too.

“Yo! Lady, is this your first time here?” A man to their right called out. He had a big mustache and a few missing teeth that seemed to be chewing on some kind of bread. “Let me tell you something interesting. Do you see that blonde kid? This is his twentieth time trying! He takes the exam every month but still cannot enter! What a joke!”

Kayden’s interest was piqued. So this was the entrance exam the boy and his mother were talking about? It seems that quite a long time had passed since then.

He turned around to speak to the laughing man. There was information he could extract from him.

“Twenty times? Is the school’s standard so high?”

“Huh?! Who the hell are you? I’m talking to the lady!” the man yelled with bread still in his mouth, leaving Kayden speechless. All he did was ask a question!

Hel wasn’t impressed either and gave the man a side-long glance.

“[Answer the damn question.]”

“Tch! Whatever! The school isn’t that demanding—I work as a janitor there—, it’s the boy who’s the problem. From what I’ve heard, his only ability is to resist pain better than others. Not very helpful, though he does become a good punching bag!”

Saying that, the man laughed once more, and went back to chewing his bread.

Kayden had no idea what to do with this information. Why was he even in this stupid dream in the first place?

“[I have a theory… it’s very likely that we’re following this boy’s memories and experiencing them for ourselves. There’s no other explanation.]”

“Huh? But why? What’s so special about this boy?”

“[If I had to make a guess, it’s very possible that it’s the fault of your ring. Either that or you’ve taken some of the drugs without me noticing.]”

Well, the drugs were certainly out of the question. Kayden didn’t even open the bag, which meant that the ring was the only plausible answer.

‘It’s a gift from my master… Why would she want me to see this? Hmm…’

“[Anyway, let’s go. I’m guessing that once we’ve exhausted the memories of this person, we’ll be able to leave.]”

Kayden snapped out of his reverie and nodded. Things were sure to be clear once they reached the end.

“Wait!” the bread-eating man called out. “Lady! How about you and I go have some fun after this? I’m— AHH!!!”

The man screamed, alerting the surrounding spectators. The man had tried to hit on Hel but was only able to see the right half of her body from where he was sitting. When Hel turned around to face him…

“Sigh. Would it kill you to look a bit different? I can disguise your other half if you want.”

The spectators around them were beginning to notice Hel’s hideous appearance and were yelling aloud in shock. The commotion grew so large that even the fighters stopped to look at the crowd. Kayden even heard a baby crying in there.

Sighing once more, Kayden grabbed Hel by the shoulder, and they both disappeared, leaving the spectators confused. When they reappeared, they were at a new door, far away from the alarmed crowd.

“Isn’t this bad? Aren’t we directly affecting the boy’s memories or something?”

“[…No. Memories don’t work that way. It’s more likely that we’re in some sort of simulation, a recreation of those memories.]” Hel explained. “[Still, I didn’t expect the very human responses from these people.]”

She turned around and looked at Kayden, who was giving her a reproachful look.

“[…All right, fine. I’ll change how I look! Happy?]” Hel sighed, and to Kayden’s surprise, conjured up a mirror made of ice in front of her. “[Let’s see… What other avatars do I have? …This should be okay.]”

Saying that her appearance changed before his very eyes. Instead of the half-beauty like before, she now looked much more human. The undead-looking half of hers was now completely gone, replaced with a woman’s half with long, pitch-black hair and eyes.

She still looked a little too… unique… to pass off as a human, but it will do. Also, black and white just so happened to be Kayden’s favorite color scheme.

“Good! Ten outta ten!” Kayden gave her a smile and thumbs up.

“[… Don’t patronize me. Don’t worry, I’ll be looking scary again next time, just for you.]”

Her long black-and-white hair swayed gently as she walked over to the door and pulled it open, leaving Kayden to agonize over having to see that hideous form again.

‘Ah whatever! I’ll get used to it! …Eventually.’

Following behind her, Kayden stepped through the door and as expected, was now in a completely new area. The coliseum that should have been behind them was gone, now just an empty void like before. Kayden wondered what he was going to see next.

The next area that they found themselves was in another run-down shack, though not as shabby as the boy’s house from before. What separates this from that, however, was that the room was filled with various trinkets and baubles, each glowing a strange variety of colors. One look and Kayden could tell that they were all magical, which meant that…

“[It’s an artifact shop… None of the items here seems particularly powerful, so keep your hands to yourself. I doubt you can bring them out of this world anyway.]”

Kayden was offended.

“I’m not dumb! I already knew that.”

His hands told a different story, as he sneakily put some stuff he had just taken back onto the shelves. Before Hel could chastise him further, the door opened, and the blonde boy stepped inside.

It wasn’t very accurate to call him a boy anymore, since he aged quite a bit since they last saw him in the coliseum. His was still young, but gaunter, and he was a good bit taller now. If Kayden had to guess, the boy was now about fifteen, slightly younger than himself.

To avoid attracting unwanted attention again, Kayden turned both him and Hel invisible, and they quietly observed from the side.

“I’m not useless!” Casey muttered under his breath. He looked quite angry.

“I’ll show them! As long as I have a magical artifact, I’ll pass that exam easily! It’s all Mum’s fault for being so poor!”

From his pocket, he pulled out a set of keys and proceeded to unlock a door behind the counter. Where he got that, Kayden didn’t know, but he quietly snuck behind the boy. There must be a reason why he’d been dragged here to see this. As long as he stuck close, he’d know eventually.

Casey didn’t bother closing the door behind him as he hurriedly crouched down in front of a chest. With another key, he unlocked it, and a resplendent glow began to shine as soon as the lid was open.

It was a treasure chest! Filled to the brim with jewelry of all kinds! Kayden drooled and almost couldn’t help himself, but quickly realized that he couldn’t take it with him even if he wanted to.

“Aha! I knew there was a secret stash of magical stuff! My boss sure is rich! I’m sure that he wouldn’t notice if one of them goes missing…”

Kayden nodded in agreement. He would definitely have done the same if he were in his shoes. And did the boy just say that they were magical? In that case, he would definitely have taken more than one…

“Alright! I choose this one!”

Kayden took a peek at the item Casey chose with excitement. What did he choose? What could it do? Picking out magical treasures was such an exciting thing.

He was all smiles until he took a good look at the object in the boy’s hands. It was a small, sapphire ring. The jewel on it was hexagonal in shape and had a blackish-blue color, while the ring itself was a shiny silver.

‘What?!’

That was no doubting it, that was… his own ring!