=== (POV Tyche)

 

What should I do?

At the moment I was standing at the door with the number 14, should I decide to go through there is no going back. Eris would gradually regain her memories, and I was sure she would get stronger ...but... why was SHE here? I had a guess who she was, but I wasn’t sure about it.

I’m going through this now!?

I opened the strange white door and strode through.

I got caught in a whirlpool of everything and nothing, and the only anchor was Eris.

...

...

I drifted through pictures for pictures through memories of places I had never seen before and beings I didn't know. My trip came to an abrupt end when I landed in an almost entirely white room.

“Where am I?”

I spoke my thoughts out loud and started looking around. The room looked cold and didn’t seem like it was a place people wanted to live in, but there was an empty bed in this room.

“You are in a hospital.”

A voice answered my thought. I looked at the windows from which the voice came. A human woman from the late twenties to early thirties sat in a four-wheeled chair.

“What is a hospital? And what is this device?”

I pointed to the chair on which the woman was sitting.

“You don’t know what a hospital is? Or what a wheelchair is?”

I nodded.

“Hmmm... I don’t know which corner of the moon you’re from, but be careful. A hospital is a place where sick people can be cured of various wounds and illnesses. And a wheelchair helps people who can no longer walk for a variety of reasons to move around.”

I was not familiar with either, but I understood the meaning behind both.

“You can no longer walk?”

“No, I can’t walk anymore. There is a rare nervous disorder in my body that will continue to paralyze my body until I can’t even move my arms or neck, but the doctors say it won’t even happen because the disease stops my heart beforehand.”

Her eyes watered for a moment before she turned away from me and looked out of the window again.

“Say, do you know someone named Eris? I’m looking for her.”

“...Eris? No, never heard of it. Only I live here in the room. By the way, I’m Emilia, and you?”

Emilia, huh?

“I’m called Tyche.”

“Tyche? What a strange name. HAHA!”

“Yes…”

Emilia looked up at my face and put her head to one side.

“Tell Tyche, why are you here?”

The expression on her face grew more severe, and the abrupt change of mood made me miss the words.

“As I said, I’m looking for Eris.”

“What if there is no Eris here?”

“What do you mean? She has to be here!”

She grimaced and rolled past me in her chair. She stopped under the door frame and turned to me

“Come over! I’ll take you around.”

I decided to follow her. We went through an empty passage because there was no other being here. It was like nobody else was here.

“Did you notice it?”

She looked at me and stared at me.

“This emptiness? There is nobody here except us.”

“Correct! I'm counting how long I'm here, and I never met anybody else. Just in time for meals, there is a knock on the door, and a cart with food is in front of it, but there is no trace of a person pushing the cart out the door. It’s the same with my illness! Since I have been here, my condition has remained unchanged, and I can at least move freely within this building.”

How long has she been here!? What was she doing here, anyway? Wait... she... she must be Eris! Another, the former Eris?

“Come on. I’ll show you something.”

She waved her hand to follow her. She rolled over to a door that read “Lounge.” She opened the door, and I followed her inside.

“Even if I couldn’t play video games, I could spend my time doing various things here.”

Inside the room were tons of books and boxes with pictures on them. I didn’t know what video games were, but I felt like it was something to amuse.

My eyes fell on the wall, which was full of lines.

“What is this?”

“I counted the day everyone disappeared. I started keeping a list of how many days passed in this room.”

“And how many days are there?”

“It’s been twelve years and around 200 days.”

Eris is twelve!? Then…

“What do you think? Where is this, and why are you here?”

“Where am I? I don’t know. Maybe this is the afterlife? Heaven or Hell? And why am I here? I think I died twelve years ago.”

“I think so too, but I think Eris is the new you!”

A deep wrinkle appeared on her forehead, and she looked confused.

“Can you explain it to me in more detail?”

“Eris is a horned rabbit who was born almost 13 years ago. She is smart and intelligent, a little too emotional, but she has the heart in the right place.”

“Is this other world a fantasy world?”

“Fantasy?”

“Well, there is magic, dragons, and adventure! There are also other intelligent humanoids besides the human race.”

“...I am also not a human being, and yes, other races such as dwarfs, elves, or jotuns exist.”

“No human?”

Her eyes started to glow, and she began to feel me from top to bottom.

“What are you doing?”

In a calm voice, I asked her what she was doing.

“Well, see what special features you have!”

She answered me without stopping.

“You can stop. I look no different to you humans, in contrast to others of my kind.”

“How can that be?”

She put her head to one side, irritated.

“Well, depending on our ancestors got my siblings and other relatives, different characteristics from me. One of my aunts has pointed ears, and a distant relative has stopped aging and looks like a 12 to a 14-years-old girl.”

Her eyes shone again.

“What kind of breed has such characteristics!?”

“Uhm... deities...”

Her eyes suddenly stopped shining, and there was more shock on her face.

“I’m sorry!”

She immediately began to apologize.

“Stop! Stop it! I am in Eris’s debt.”

“Eris...”

She pondered this name.

“Yes, she is your current you.”

“Can I see her? Or meet?”

“It is not possible… We are here in another realm, to be precise, in an intermediate realm created by magic. Eris’s body is the portal, and if she walked through it, this world would collapse, and if you walked out, your body would turn into pure magic and unite with Eris.”

“And how can you be here?”

“I? I walked through the portal, which I thought parts of Eris were trapped and locked behind the gate, but it doesn’t appear that she is trapped here, but the echoes of her former selves.”

“Former selves?”

“You are number 14, and therefore Eris is number 15.”

“Wow! Do you know who or what the others are or were?”

I shook my head.

“No, I don’t know. I can’t crisscross the numbers, because the door with number 1 didn’t appear, I have to work backward. So you are the first I met.”

“What are you going to do with me?”

“I’ll try to free you so that you can fuse with Eris.”

“Will I disappear?”

“Maybe... but it can also be seen as if you would complete the current you. Think of a puzzle where a few pieces are missing, and you are one of them.”

“Do you have any idea about how you want to free me?”

“No, I don’t know... not yet.”

 

=== Eris’s messages ===

I left Astel with the others to find the noble.

On the way to our first target, we were attacked by a group of wolves and later from a group of shapeshifters.

When we reached the watchtower, I noticed that some shapeshifters were hiding between the guards.

I took the chance to infiltrate the shapeshifters and was on the way to their village the same night.