Aaron's Side Story Chapter 25: The First Dream (9)
“Let’s go together.”
Aaron knew what those words meant.
Sragin smiled and said,
“I’ve been pondering this for decades since I came here. What does it truly mean to be strong? Is it being strong if you wield a sword better than others, if you’re good at killing people?”
“You found the answer?”
Aaron’s weak question.
Sragin nodded.
“I’ve found my own answer. That’s why I made this proposition to you.”
Sragin extended his hand.
If he took that hand, he could return to the outside.
“Acknowledge it. And do your best, which is all you can do. You worked hard. No one will blame you.”
Being strong.
Sragin had decided on his answer to the meaning of that complex word.
While Aaron was lost in a maze without an exit, he had even gained that.
“I’m going back.”
Aaron muttered.
Is he asking him to go?
To the side of his comrades waiting for him.
To Taonier.
“What have I gained?”
He asked himself.
What did he learn compared to Sragin, who had learned countless things in the past sixty years?
There were some things.
That there was a version of himself he didn’t know.
That he wouldn’t be able to progress forward in his life.
Two things in a long time.
Haha.
He laughed.
Aaron thought of Sragin as his best friend.
Sragin had said something similar.
We’re friends.
‘Friends?’
That couldn’t be true.
The meaning of the word friend is,
It means an equal relationship where you can help each other.
This is not friendship.
They were just both mistaken.
Aaron realized.
He didn’t take the outstretched hand.
A silent answer.
“......Aaron.”
Sragin’s expression changed constantly.
From expectation to anxiety, from anxiety to pity.
Finally, it turned into resignation.
“I’m sorry.”
Aaron turned his head.
He couldn’t go back.
He hadn’t gained any answers.
‘If I were to go back...’
How would his brother and comrades think of him without answers?
They wouldn’t berate him.
They might even sympathize and comfort him.
Being strong.
Sragin’s answer to that question is this.
To accept reality and live the best life you can.
From now on, even if Sragin encounters a stronger opponent than him, he won’t crumble like before.
There’s no pointless jealousy or boiling envy.
He will let those emotions flow away like water.
He will do his best in his life.
‘I...’
I give up because I can’t do it.
I am content with my lot and live as an ant.
I can’t comprehend this answer.
“That’s your answer, then.”
Sragin smiled.
The emotion that appeared there was resignation.
And genuine encouragement.
“If that’s the case, don’t give up.”
Sragin turned his back.
The man walked forward without hesitation and disappeared outside the dimensional gate.
Woooosh.
The dimensional gate distorts.
The space shakes as if it’s trembling, and then it disappears.
Nothing is left in the clearing.
“Hmm.”
The boy looked at Aaron as if it were nothing.
Aaron said nonchalantly.
“Why are you doing that?”
“It’s strange. I thought you’d happily go with him.”
“I haven’t found my answer yet.”
“I knew it. You suffered a lot.”
The boy shrugged.
“You just missed a golden opportunity? You don’t know when the next one will come. It could be decades later, hundreds of years later, maybe even over a thousand years. Is that okay?”
“It’ll be okay. Probably.”
“That’s not a satisfying answer.”
The boy blurted out.
“You know?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know what I would do if you became a specter. You might have kicked away your chance to survive.”
The boy’s heart is unfathomable.
Is it a joke? Or is it genuine?
Aaron asked.
“I want to ask, too. How come you’re perfectly fine?”
The boy seems unfazed.
He must have spent hundreds, thousands of years here, much longer than Aaron.
“Are you asking now?”
“Yes. If it’s okay, would you tell me?”
“There’s no harm in that.”
The boy didn’t hesitate.
“You see, I have a dream.”
“A dream?”
“Yeah, isn’t it cool? I’m a romantic man, you know.”
“......”
“Oh, you just thought, ‘A kid like him talking about being a man, what nonsense!’ didn’t you?”
“No.”
“Hey! It was written all over your face!”
“It’s a misunderstanding.”
He did think that for a moment, actually.
But Aaron decided not to say it.
* * *
Seventy years have passed.
After Sragin left,
Aaron’s daily life became even more desolate.
The occasional conversations he shared with his friend were a cure for his loneliness.
Now, Sragin is gone.
Alone, Aaron thrust his spear all day long at the training ground.
In the dark room, he read martial arts books that were tattered from being memorized long ago, relying on a single candle, and wrote letters to himself.
* * *
Eighty years have passed.
In this distorted world, even eating and sleeping are unnecessary.
But Aaron forced himself to separate day and night and live according to a plan.
He also ate meals, separating morning and evening.
He stuffed his mouth with steamed, clumped-up leaves.
Seeing its rounded shape, other ingredients must have been added to solidify it.
The boy made lots of this food and kept it in jars.
“This is the Fasting Pill!”
“What’s a Fasting Pill?”
“Oh, you don’t even know that? It’s food that immortals eat.”
“Immortals?”
“It means people like us!”
Sometimes, the two would gather at a table and eat the Fasting Pill together, sharing stories.
Munch, munch.
The boy stuffed several self-proclaimed Fasting Pills into his mouth.
After swallowing them, he exclaimed.
“Ugh! It tastes terrible!”
The same goes for Aaron.
When he first ate it, he had to spit it out several times.
Somehow, he’s now adapted to eating it.
‘Because.’
He’s afraid he might forget.
That he’s human.
He’s afraid he might forget that he needs to eat to live.
The same goes for sleeping.
He just lies down under a blanket.
No matter how hard he closes his eyes, his consciousness doesn’t fade.
“Haha! Still, we have to eat, what else can we do!”
Aaron laughed loudly.
He followed the boy and forcibly stuffed a Fasting Pill into his mouth.
Let’s try it.
Just imagining it makes it a delicacy!
Yes.
When he was first summoned to the lobby, he ate a lot of steamed potatoes.
What did they taste like?
What did they taste like?
But how did potatoes look?
Oh, right.
He remembers Miss Jenna catching a deer.
The girl handed Aaron a well-cooked deer leg.
But was the girl’s name Jenna?
Jenny?
Gina?
“......”
The boy's expression suddenly changed.
The boy was staring at Aaron, who was munching on the Fasting Pill with a chuckle.
“I remember, I remember.”
Aaron said with a smile.
He was so excited that it was hard to imagine his usual personality.
“Miss Jina’s deer meat was exceptional. The taste, well, it was like this! It tasted earthy! But what was deer? Was it born from the earth? Yes, deer are friends with potatoes! Puhahaat!”
“......”
“When I return, I’ll eat lots of deer! Don’t they come out when you dig in the earth? I’ll tear off the hind legs, roast them over fire, and dip them in salt. One bite, and it’ll taste exactly like this!”
Aaron crammed all the Fasting Pills on the table into his mouth.
His cheeks were about to burst.
He felt like he was going to puke.
“Cough! Cough, cough!”
A violent cough escaped his lips.
But Aaron didn’t stop laughing.
He was choking, so he grabbed his chest with his left hand.
Tears were welling up in the corners of his eyes.
“Delicious... cough! Gulp!”
He drank a bottle of water.
He drank it several times before he could swallow the Fasting Pill.
“I didn’t know this taste all this time. You’re an idiot! It’s so delicious, but I didn’t eat it. You have to eat it. You must eat it.”
Aaron babbled on and on.
It didn’t matter whether anyone heard him or not.
“My brother, too, Miss Gina, Miss Lolna! Belkist, too! Khahahat! You know, you know...!”
“Stop it!”
Bang!
Aaron flew off his chair.
The wooden table overturned, and the glass plate holding the Fasting Pills shattered, sending shards flying.
The boy glared at Aaron.
“Do you even realize what you just blabbered?”
Aaron was lying on the floor, sprawled out with the chair.
His expression, which had been filled with a wide smile just a moment ago, was as empty as glass art.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
Reason floods his vacant eyes.
“This is strange.”
Aaron said.
His voice was devoid of emotion.
“Why am I here?”
“You chose to come here. Why are you asking me?”
“That’s true.”
The boy closed and opened his eyes.
“The second dimensional gate will open in forty years. Take that one and go back.”
“......”
“If you’ve been wasting your time for one hundred and twenty years, that’s all you are. I have no more reason to see you.”
“......”
“Pointless struggles only make those around you miserable. If your comrades and family saw you like this, they’d find it quite amusing.”
Effort.
Effort without results.
It makes not only yourself but also those around you miserable.
It makes those who watch and cheer him on suffer.
“This is the last time I’m accepting your selfish desires. So, achieve something, somehow. Whether you move forward or accept your weakness and come to terms with it.”
The boy’s words pierce him like a spear.
“Think about why Master sent you here.”
Did he send him to give him a chance to become strong?
Or did he send him to give him a chance to give up?
It’s both.
If he transcends his limits and becomes strong, that’s fine.
It doesn’t matter if he fails.
All he has to do is accept and understand it himself.
Aaron failed at both.
He betrayed his brother's expectations.
“If you’re going to become strong, become truly strong. If you’re going to fail, fail completely. You’re neither one nor the other right now.”
The boy declared.
“If you can’t do it, I’ll do it for you. If you don’t find your answer by the time the next gate opens, I’ll force you into it. I wouldn’t want to have a grudge with Master for killing his subordinate.”
“Forty years, is it?”
“You better work hard. You think it’s short?”
Thud.
Aaron moved the chair that was weighing him down.
“Aaron, make a promise with me.”
“......”
“It’s not a promise for you.”
Aaron understood the meaning.
It’s not for him.
His mind goes over it one by one.
The faces of those who were trapped in eighty years of time became clear, their faces that had become blurry.
The last to appear is the face of his only family.
‘Nina.’
I want to see her.
I wanted to meet that child.
“......”
The black emotion that was boiling inside him was gone.
He just wanted to see her.
His family’s face.
“I understand.”
Aaron nodded.
“I will make a promise.”
“What’s the content of the promise?”
“If I don’t find an answer in forty years, I will... give up.”
“Good.”
The boy extended his hand.
Aaron grabbed it and stood up.
“Work hard.”
“Thank... you.”
He answered in a daze.
But there was one thing for sure.
He has to find his answer within forty years.
He has to reach a conclusion, one way or another.
With a firm resolve in his heart, Aaron envisioned his path forward.