Chapter 4: The Burnt Stick
Lumin spent his night buying a bed from one of the shops in the village instead of going to the inn as usual.
He decided to buy a bed for Fiona and Dico so they could spend their nights on it instead of sleeping on the floor or on the small guest room sofa.
He returned home and collapsed onto the ground to sleep. After some time passed, he slowly opened his eyes.
He found before his eyes an endless expanse of darkness. Lumin thought he had gone blind. He moved his head in all directions but found nothing except darkness.
He felt the darkness stretching his body in all directions with overwhelming force. He tried to endure the pain and bit his lip until it bled.
An extremely tiny white point appeared beneath his foot, barely visible due to its small size.
He stared at it for a few seconds, and a familiar feeling seeped into him. He couldn't sense the distance between himself and the point.
He felt closer to that point than anything he had ever seen before, and at the same time, he felt that the white point was an unreachable distance he would never reach.
Lumin realized the extreme danger of this darkness. Surrounded by infinite darkness, he lost his sense of logic and relied only on sensation.
He focused all his vision on the white point beneath his foot due to the overwhelming disturbances from the expanding darkness. He felt as if his mind might explode.
While watching the white point, Lumin noticed that he had lost all sense of time due to the surrounding darkness. He heard a loud drumbeat pounding directly in his ears, and the pain exceeded what he could تحمل as the sound intensified.
The drumbeat continued repeatedly in his ears, growing sharper, until another sound began to appear alongside it.
He heard something like a rushing stream in his ears, and it grew louder until it surpassed the thunderous drumbeat.
As the pain intensified and the sound of the rushing stream colliding with something grew, Lumin realized it was the sound of his own blood pouring from his ears.
He tried to raise his hand to cover his ear, but failed to move it in the right direction due to the loss of direction and distance in this infinite darkness.
The drumbeat grew faster and more intense. Lumin had no choice but to endure and keep his gaze fixed on the white point below.
He did not know how long he had been staring at it, but he began to notice fluctuations emerging from and returning to the white point.
He noticed that the fluctuations turned into three colors before disappearing and returning: red, blue, and yellow.
After several fluctuations, other colors began to appear, such as green and orange, followed by new colors he had never seen before.
"Wha—" Lumin tried to think about these colors, but unbearable pain struck him from the act of thinking itself, forcing him to stop. The pain was stronger than the drum and the rushing sound in his ears.
The colors began fluctuating faster than before. Lumin couldn't comprehend the sheer number of colors emerging from the white point.
He felt one of the veins in his head swelling from seeing the new colors. In mere moments, he felt it burst.
The fluctuations returned to the white point again, but this time they did not emerge.
The white point began shrinking further, collapsing into itself until it disappeared completely into the infinite darkness, leaving no trace behind.
Lumin felt a wave of nothingness coming from where the white point had been before it vanished.
He regained his sense of time after touching the wave. A few fractions of a second passed, and he noticed the white point returning to its place.
Another wave came from the white point, and upon touching it, he regained his sense of direction and distance.
He felt the true distance between himself and the white point and experienced a headache from how vast it was. He realized that the distance exceeded any numbers he had ever learned.
Within fractions of a second, a third wave touched him. He felt his body stretching toward the white point.
He felt his body splitting into millions of cracks. The pain exceeded what he could bear. In another fraction of a second, Lumin's body shattered into millions of pieces—and he died.
The pieces continued to crack toward the white point until they became too small to be seen.
After the first second of the first wave, the white wave began expanding within the infinite darkness.
…
Lumin woke up on top of the bed in fear. He found himself on a red bed, just like his previous one.
He struggled to breathe, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and realized he had experienced a nightmare.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember what had happened in the nightmare.
He lay back down, telling himself, "It's just a nightmare. I shouldn't give it importance."
He closed his eyes and tried to sleep again.
After a few moments, he opened his eyes and quickly got up. He remembered that he had sold his bed six months ago!!
Lumin couldn't understand why he woke up on the bed. Before he could start forming hypotheses, a card appeared out of nowhere, floating above the bed.
The card depicted a massive white castle stretching high into the sky, with a man standing atop its walls wearing a black robe.
The man held a sharp spear slightly longer than himself in his right hand, and the card clearly showed burns on his left hand. He was looking toward the black clouds in the sky.
The black clouds above him were surrounded by white clouds, forming a human-like shape.
Written beneath the card in the Foden language, used in the Kingdom of Fajin and the Lancelot Empire, in bold black script: "The Castle."
Lumin examined the card carefully, then decided to leave it and investigate what had happened.
He looked around every corner of the room but noticed no difference from before.
He walked to the table placed against the wall in front of the door and touched it to confirm whether he was dreaming or not.
He felt its texture—no different from reality. He opened the first drawer and found a book with no title on its red cover. He opened it and flipped through it.
After some time, he returned it to the drawer, saying to himself, "It's still the same… am I dreaming?"
"But… how can I be aware of what I'm doing while dreaming?"
Lumin turned toward the window, stepping on the red carpet in the center of the room. He felt a strange sensation walking barefoot over it again.
Instinctively, a sense of comfort seeped into him with every step.
He grabbed the medium-quality red curtains and pulled them with all his strength.
Outside, night had swallowed everything. Many buildings lay collapsed, chaos spread everywhere, and in the distance, oddly designed buildings were burning. He couldn't hear anything except the sound of flowing water. No one was screaming or trying to extinguish the fire.
Lumin was stunned by the sight and thought, "These buildings… are astonishing."
"I've never seen this architectural style before, not even in books."
He focused on the buildings and noticed carriages of various colors on the roads.
"Knock… knock…"
The sound of knocking interrupted his thoughts, making him hesitate.
He hesitated to open the door due to the destruction outside. The absence of people increased his suspicion.
After thinking carefully, he decided to leave the room without going outside. He approached his door, hoping to see his sister in human form, even though he knew he might be dreaming.
The hallway creaked as Lumin stepped out and headed toward his sister's room.
He noticed a wooden clock made by the founding emperor of the Lancelot Empire before his revolution, who monopolized its production along with portable clocks for a long time.
The clock had passed midnight, reinforcing the idea that he might be dreaming.
He opened her door and scanned the room.
She wasn't there. Not in her white bed, nor on the chair beside the desk where Rahel used to study at night.
He stared at the room for minutes, then sat in her chair. He opened one of the drawers, took out an empty notebook, and grabbed a pen.
Lumin only had one notebook, which made him use Rahel's. He began writing in a narrative style, as he used to in school.
He wrote everything on his mind:
"Rahel used to go out every Wednesday evening and return late because of the mysterious gathering…"
"I woke up from the nightmare and found the house as it was six months ago… I have three possibilities: I'm dreaming, I've been transported to another world like in Lancelot's novel Re:Zero, or reality itself has been distorted… the Red Mist…"
"If I am dreaming, how did the strange buildings and carriages outside appear? I remember from Virgal that dreams are merely a reflection of what I live through. It is impossible for an animal I have never seen before to appear in my dream. I have never described these buildings anywhere, which makes this possibility unlikely."
"I may have seen these buildings during an old trip with my father, but I forgot them when I was still a child… the person knocking on the door will determine whether I am dreaming or not. I only know the Foden language. If he speaks a language that I have never encountered at the inn, such as the January language, then that means I am not dreaming. At that point, I can eliminate the first option, leaving me with the last two."
"I cannot confirm or deny the second option except by exploring outside. That will bring me many risks."
"If the one knocking is someone I know, or someone who speaks the Foden language, I can confirm the third option—I am still in the Kingdom of Fajin."
"I may have been injured in the catastrophe six months ago, and my sister saved me. I lost consciousness and lived in an imaginary world created by my mind to improve my mental state after the shock I experienced during the catastrophe. But if I was unconscious, why is my physical condition intact?"
"I have not eaten or drunk anything for six months. My sister may have helped me drink before she left, but what about food? I must find a logical explanation for this."
Lumin closed the notebook and returned it to the drawer as he thought:
"To know the truth, I must go open the door and see who is outside… but this might be the worst option. I don't know his intentions toward me, and why he is still knocking until now while I have not given him any sign of my presence."
Before closing the drawer and getting up from the table, Lumin remembered something important and said to himself:
"Ah… how did I forget! The man in the castle card."
He took out the notebook again, opened a new page, and began writing:
"The man standing atop the castle in the card might be the one who saved me from the catastrophe that happened. But it did not happen in the past—it happened while I was asleep. And with some ability, he redesigned the place to what it was six months ago. This means I did not return to the past… and that Rahel is still transformed."
"If she is still transformed, then where did she go? She should be in her room. I confirmed that before I went to sleep."
"Of course, there is a possibility that the man above the white castle restored her to her previous form using one of his extraordinary abilities. The card is still floating above the bed."
"I must first confirm his intentions before making any move. He might be a blessed servant of an evil ruler."
Lumin returned the notebook to the drawer and closed it. He left the room and noticed that the time had passed two-thirty at night.
Due to his hunting experience, Lumin assumed the least likely possibilities. He did not turn off the lights in his sister's room so that no one outside would notice the lights going out and come to the house.
Lumin descended from the first floor to explore the house and observe all the changes and details. He decided to start with the guest room.
He made this decision because he had placed the axe on the table in the guest room. Searching the house while having his weapon was the best and safest option. After finishing, he would take the card and open the door for the person waiting outside.
He sighed as he walked and said:
"It would be great if the axe is there. But if it isn't, I won't exhaust myself thinking about why. But it would definitely mean I am in the past."
A creaking sound came from the door on the ground floor of the house. Lumin opened the door and immediately directed his gaze toward the round table between the sofas.
He did not find the axe on the table. Instead, he found in its place a small wooden stick, burned on one side.
Next to the small stick, he found a card bearing the same drawings as before—the castle man card!
Lumin placed his hand on his chin and thought:
"It seems to me that the man above the castle replaced the axe with this stick and left the card to tell me it was his doing."
Lumin picked up the stick and continued thinking:
"But what use is this stick? It's small and not sharp… it's useless. Using a knife wou—"
Suddenly, the stick in Lumin's hand transformed into a knife, like the kitchen knife he used for cooking. Instinctively, Lumin threw the knife to the ground.
"Ha… when I thought of the knife, it turned into it? Even the handle is green like it… Did… did the castle man give me this extraordinary item instead of the axe?!"
Lumin picked up the knife from the ground and thought of the axe he had bought from Lumit.
Immediately, the green-handled knife transformed into the axe.
A smile appeared on Lumin's face, and he began tossing the axe from one hand to the other.
He played with the axe for a while, then placed it on the table and thought:
"When I saw the stick, I thought of the axe, but it didn't transform. I hadn't picked up the stick yet. But once I picked it up and thought of the knife, it transformed. And when I picked up the knife again and thought of the axe…"
"The axe will transform into any weapon I think of… but what about other objects? Will it turn into a table…?"
The moment Lumin thought of the table, the shape of the axe on the wooden table changed into the shape of Lumin's table in his room, and the guest room table broke.