Aaron's Side Story Chapter 29: The First Dream (13)
Aaron's goal is to return home.
To achieve that, all he needs to do is forgive himself.
Where else can you find something so cost-effective?
All he has to do is forgive his own sins.
Then, Aaron will be able to return home safely.
“It’s a hundred times, a thousand times easier than forcing yourself to become strong.”
The boy declared.
Aaron agreed.
All he had to do was change his mind.
“It’ll be easier for you now. Your heart must have cooled down a bit.”
Aaron agreed with that, too.
If it were before, he might not have been able to control his emotions.
But now, it’s different.
He could judge himself with a clear mind.
A hundred years had given him composure.
He doesn’t need to read martial arts books.
He doesn’t need to grapple with a spear.
It’s okay to stop sweating blood to become strong.
‘What were those years for?’
Forgive yourself for your sins.
Face the past honestly and overcome the sickness of your heart.
Was that the purpose of finding this answer?
That’s right.
“Twenty years left.”
“Twenty years? It won’t take even a year. The remaining time, well, take it easy. There’s a perfect resort.”
“What kind of resort is there in a place like this?”
The boy grabbed Aaron’s shoulder.
He flicked his finger, snap.
A momentary feeling of floating.
In the blink of an eye, Aaron arrived in an unfamiliar place.
“Huh?”
Aaron gaped in astonishment.
An unimaginable landscape unfolded before his eyes.
Gurgling.
Water flows.
It was a small river.
Various trees, flowers, and grass surrounded the river.
On the left side of the river, a charming pavilion stood.
“Where is this?”
“Where is it? It’s a place to play. You have nothing to do until you go home, right? Come along with my hobby.”
The world Aaron knew was filled with wasteland.
But suddenly, a garden?
“It probably took over three hundred years to make this, right? It’s hard to dig the river, and the trees and grass don’t grow well. It’s something I barely managed to grow after constantly tending to it.”
Aaron tried to understand the situation.
In other words, this garden was something the boy created as a hobby.
“It’s okay. It’s better than swinging a spear all day.”
“......”
“Take it.”
Whizz.
Aaron caught the flying object.
It was a straw hat that farmers often wear.
“Take this, too.”
Thud.
A heavy leather bag landed in Aaron's hand.
Upon looking inside, he saw it was filled with various seeds.
“Plant them as you see fit. Ask if you don’t know anything.”
“......”
“Oh, don’t ask why. I think you know.”
The boy put on the straw hat and said,
“You have to do something. If you want to live like a human.”
“Like a human...”
“If you go home and act like a can, will Nina like it?”
That’s true.
Aaron has lost quite a bit of his humanity, tired of his unchanging routine.
If he doesn’t pay attention, even changing his facial expressions becomes difficult.
“It’ll be helpful.”
“Is that so?”
“These guys are honest. They grow as much as you put in the effort.”
“That’s really fortunate.”
Aaron couldn’t help but smile.
They grow as much as you put in the effort.
What a blessed creature.
‘Twenty years from now.’
If the past hundred years were a journey to find an answer.
The remaining twenty years are a journey to restore his heart to its original state.
He decided not to refuse.
‘Brother.’
It took a hundred years to find this answer.
When he returns to the lobby of Taonier, he will apologize to that man.
And he will do his best in the task given to him.
Because that will be the true meaning of being strong.
“Thank you.”
The boy chuckled.
The two, standing side by side, began to tend to the garden.
Aaron started by weeding.
“Can I call you Master?”
“Are you trying to die? What have you learned from me?”
“I haven’t learned how to use a spear, but haven’t I learned how to use my heart? If that’s the case, I think it’s appropriate to call you Master.”
“Just do your work.”
Aaron smiled.
This concludes the young man’s journey.
Although he couldn’t surpass the limits of his talent, he gained peace of mind.
The sickness of his heart will trouble him, but it will surely be cured someday.
He was able to return to the hometown he longed for.
Yes.
This is Aaron Delcut’s...
* * *
Aaron took his hand off the book.
The book, revealing its pages, was imbued with a brilliant radiance.
“Why are you doing that, Aaron?”
Yurnet smiled softly and looked at him.
“It was such a good part. The story of a young man suffering from a sickness of the heart who heals with the help of a master. Isn’t it beautiful?”
“Is the content of this book true?”
Aaron said in a low voice.
“Of course. It’s the memory you were hiding. It’s exactly as it was.”
Aaron’s eyes flickered.
Strange.
I’ve gained what I longed for after a hundred years?
All I had to do was acknowledge that I abandoned my sister and repent?
“Then, what am I now?”
“Huh?”
“Why am I here? It’s strange.”
He’s confused.
His memories don’t fit together.
The Aaron who forgave himself returns to the lobby of Taonier twenty years later, admits his mistakes to his comrades, and does his best in the tasks given to him.
That’s how it should be.
But Aaron was here.
He did not return to Taonier.
“Why didn’t I go back? Did something happen? For example, the dimensional gate opened late...?”
“No. According to records, the dimensional gate opened on time. It opened exactly one hundred and twenty years later, in Ruanan’s time flow, to the second dimensional gate leading to the lobby.”
Thud.
Aaron kicked the table and stood up.
“It’s strange.”
“What is, Master?”
“It shouldn’t be like this.”
If it was for his family.
He had to return home.
Nina needed a family to help her.
Even if Taonier escaped its fate of destruction and the dead were resurrected, Nina’s life would be difficult.
She, who was frail from birth, needed a helping hand.
Aaron had to help her.
He faced his own heart as well.
He knew the truth that he had abandoned his sister and sincerely reflected and repented.
His sister would forgive him.
He knew it.
But why?
‘It doesn’t make sense.’
Even if he swapped the puzzle pieces, they wouldn’t connect.
Was the first piece wrong from the start?
Aaron pondered for a long time, but no suitable answer came to mind.
“Heehee.”
Yurnet chuckled, watching him.
Aaron frowned slightly.
“What’s so funny?”
“Well, you’re pondering a natural problem.”
“A natural problem?”
“Sit down for a moment. I understand your dizzying feelings.”
Aaron, who hesitated for a moment, sat down on the chair.
“Your memories aren’t complete, are they? It’s one of the side effects of Karma.”
He couldn’t deny Yurnet’s words.
When you spend a long time in that world, your memories are bound to get mixed up and become murky.
Aaron was experiencing considerable confusion.
“Shall I guess the answer?”
Yurnet’s voice had an ominous resonance.
Aaron tried to refuse, but for some reason, no sound came out.
He couldn’t even understand the reason himself.
“Aaron.”
“......”
“What you truly wanted was not your sister.”
* * *
An endless wasteland stretches out.
Leaves are scattering in the never-ending twilight.
A young man stands there.
“......”
The young man’s eyes open.
When he first arrived in this world.
His eyes, which had been filled with the light of will, now reflect nothing.
They were muddy like clay and murky like a swamp.
The young man tried to smile, but his facial muscles only twitched, and he couldn’t smile.
His oddly twisted lips were rather eerie.
“How many years have I been here?”
The young man says.
His monotone voice was like a machine.
“Well, I haven’t counted from two hundred years, probably?”
The boy standing next to him replied.
The boy, with his arms crossed, was watching the young man.
“I don’t feel anything.”
The young man muttered.
The long, long years had worn everything down.
Once, the young man called himself ‘Aaron’, but now that name has become meaningless.
Rustle.
The young man stroked the fallen leaves stopping in front of him.
He didn’t even know what he was touching.
He didn’t feel anything.
“Why didn’t you go?”
The boy asked.
Creak.
The young man’s neck twisted and moved.
His two eyes slowly observed the boy.
“Anyway, you could have gone back. You said you would accept your sins and return to your family.”
“Are you reproaching me?”
“Yes.”
The boy unclasped his arms.
A black spear was already in his hand.
“Wasn’t the goal of your life to return home?”
One hundred years ago.
Or was it two hundred years ago?
It doesn’t matter now.
He doesn’t really know about time anymore.
Anyway, back then, the young man who was called Aaron had an opportunity.
The dimensional gate leading to Niflheim opened.
But Aaron didn’t go.
Aaron stayed here in the end.
He forced himself again.
If that’s the case, then it must have been wrong.
It must mean that his feelings for his family were false.
Even his heart to protect his sister was a deception.
“I guess not.”
“Looking at you, it seems that way.”
Therefore, now.
What remains?
“I warned you, Aaron. You had to go back.”
Swish.
The black spear, Ruin, extends long from the boy’s grip.
“Master, you didn’t really try to stop me.”
“Did I?”
“You said you would kick me out even if you had to force me, but you respected my decision.”
The boy smiled playfully.
“Did I? I don’t remember.”
“Master, you had something else you wanted from me. Otherwise, there’s no point in leaving me here.”
“So?”
The young man had a premonition.
If he couldn’t present what the boy wanted, his life would be over.
The tip of Ruin was flashing ominously.
“I don’t even know who I am.”
“That’s right. Three hundred years in a place without any stimuli. You’ve endured it well.”
“I’ve become indifferent to it.”
My brother.
My other comrades.
Nina.
Returning home.
Any emotion eventually fades.
Three hundred years was too long for a young man who only had memories of less than thirty years.
Even more so if he had been trapped in one place for three hundred years.
Now, the young man’s heart was empty.
No matter what emotion he poured into it, it would disappear like pouring water into a punctured pot.
The human heart, if it doesn’t receive constant stimulation, will harden like plaster.
The young man was like that.
As a result of living in a numb world for hundreds of years, he even lost his emotions and became no different from a walking doll.
That was what the boy called a specter.
The young man was on the verge of becoming that specter.
“So, you’re saying you have nothing left now?”
Depending on his answer, the blade will pierce the young man’s heart.
The boy’s grip tightened.
“I have one thing left.”
“What is it?”
“A dream.”
“......”
“My former Master said it. He said I had a dream. He said it was because of that dream that I could endure for so long.”
The boy closed his eyes.
The young man couldn’t tell what the Master was thinking.
Yes.
The young man’s heart was empty.
Time had taken away all his emotions and reactions.
But not everything had disappeared.
A single dream.
It filled the young man’s empty heart like moonlight.
It was after losing everything that the young man realized.
“A dream.”
The boy muttered with his eyes closed.
“What’s that dream?”
The young man replied.
What his dream was.
What had led him here.
“......”
The boy listened silently to the young man’s answer.
And.
Time passed.
* * *
The young man opened his eyes.
When he opened his eyes, he was standing on a plain.
The vast plain stretched out to the horizon.
He probably wouldn’t reach the end of the plain even if he ran for days and nights.
With a strange conviction, the young man took a step.
He had something to do.
To become strong.
The memories before that automatically fall into place.
Memories piled up and gathered, becoming consciousness, gradually forming the ego of someone named Aaron.
‘My name is Aaron Delcut.’
The young man became aware of himself.
He was born in Taonier and summoned by the system.
His fate was that of a game piece, swayed by a being called Master.
Aaron accepted that role.
To survive.
To meet Nina again, his only sister and family.
And Aaron met his comrades.
He learned what it meant to bond while fighting alongside them.
“......”
But that was it.
Aaron could not help them.
He lacked the qualities of a warrior.
He didn’t want to hold them back.
He wanted to prove his worth by fighting alongside his comrades.
But he failed.
He put his comrades in danger due to his own incompetence.
He wanted to become stronger, but he could no longer progress.
But his brother gave Aaron a chance.
‘I cannot fail.’
Aaron vowed.
He said there was a hero here who was in a similar situation.
He said he had transcended the limits of his talent through effort.
He wants to know.
And he wants to catch up to him.
With a firm resolve, Aaron walked on.
This is a strange world where the sun never sets.
Fallen leaves seem to be suspended in mid-air, neither falling nor not falling.
As he walked, a strange sense of familiarity enveloped Aaron.
“Hmm?”
Aaron scratched his cheek.
‘Did I come here before?’
It’s strange.
The landscape of this place is so impressive that it would be hard to forget if you had seen it even once.
It clearly feels like the first time in my memory.
But it feels like I’ve been here.
It feels like I’ve seen this before.
They call this déjà vu.
Aaron tilted his head and walked on.
A large cabin appeared a short while later.
After clearing his throat twice, Aaron approached the cabin.
“Is anyone home?”
Knock knock.
He knocked on the cabin door.
There was no response.
Creak.
As he opened the door, the interior was revealed with a dull sound.
It was more like a wooden mansion than a cabin.
Aaron carefully passed through the kitchen and dining room.
“Waaah!”
“Uwaaaah!”
At the shout from behind, Aaron rolled over.
“Puhahaat! You’re such a fool! You should have checked properly if there was anyone here!”
“What’s going on? Who are you?”
Aaron jumped up and assumed a battle stance.
On the table, where there had been no one, a boy was sitting with his legs crossed.
He hadn’t sensed his presence at all?
“Who? Who could I be?”
“I don’t know!”
He’s never seen him before.
No, has he seen him before?
No...
A strong sense of déjà vu.
Aaron frowned at the sensation that was swirling in his head.
“Ah, there was another one of your comrades. Do you remember him?”
“There’s another one? Who is it?”
“Don’t you remember?”
“Remember what? I just came here for the first time. I came alone.”
The boy smiled wryly.
But that expression disappeared as quickly as it came.
“Come on, come on, let’s go. It’s your second playthrough, right?”
“Second playthrough? What are you talking about...!”
“Run, run, you’ll get in trouble! You’ll get in trouble!”
Aaron was pushed toward the training ground as if he were being chased.
He has no idea what’s going on.
He did come here to become strong, but it’s a bit much to just push him in without any explanation!