A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"..." Bray stood with his hands in his pockets, staring blankly at old man Owen's house.

Bray hesitated for a moment, then walked towards the door of old man Irving's house.

In the past, old man Irving would probably have opened the door before Bray even arrived.

But this time, a long time passed, and the door remained unopened.

Bray stood in front of old man Irving's house for a long time, like a fool.

They didn't call out to the door, nor did they knock.

After a long while, Bray pulled his right hand out of his pocket and placed it on the doorknob.

"No lock?" Bray frowned.

He was surprised to find that old man Owen's house was not locked at all.

Bray pushed open the door and walked into old man Irving's house.

Irving's house has always been unlit.

After all, the presence or absence of light made no difference to old man Irving.

However, the elderly Irving still enjoys basking in the sun because he can feel the warmth that a lamp cannot provide.

Bray arrived at old man Owen's study. The curtains were drawn back, and morning light streamed into the room through the window.

The light fell on old man Owen, who was sitting at the desk in the study.

Old man Irving still showed signs of life; he had not died.

But Bray noticed that the old man's expression was different from before; it had become somewhat blank.

Bray took a step forward and walked up to old man Irving.

Even when he got within half a meter of the old man, the old man still didn't react.

Bray raised his right hand, hovering it in mid-air, and fell into a brief moment of contemplation.

Then Bray patted old man Irving on the shoulder with his right hand.

"!?!" Old Man Owen seemed to be alarmed.

He looked around, but since he couldn't see anything, it was pointless for him to do so.

After a while, the old man seemed to lose interest in looking for Bray and continued to sit blankly in his wheelchair, facing the window.

"Is it already too late?" Bray sighed.

Old man Irving's condition is similar to that of teacher Kaima.

It has lost the agility that people should have.

Sunlight streamed into the study, allowing Bray to see everything inside.

Then Bray found a stack of papers on the table.

Next to the paper was a fountain pen whose ink had dried out.

The paper was covered with writing.

Bray picked up the stack of papers and began to read them.

"I had already foreseen my own end, so I began writing these words to you before nightfall."

"I am a sinner, Logan is a sinner, and I am a sinner. I suppose my end will be very miserable."

"I beg you to end the sins of Logan."

"You are very powerful and could easily deal with Logan."

"But you can't do anything about Migolavin behind Logan."

—"You need to master the 'mind's eye' so that you can see the truth when you can no longer see with your eyes."

Bray didn't understand what Irving meant by "mindset".

The old man had spent countless hours figuring out "the mind," so how could Bray understand it so easily?

But that doesn't matter, because old man Owen had long anticipated that Bray wouldn't understand.

Words crawled from the white paper behind him onto Bray's hand.

Then the words, as if alive, continued to climb from Bray's palm.

As the characters climb higher, the writing becomes blurry.

And countless pieces of knowledge that he had never learned would appear in Bray's mind.

As the last words disappeared, Bray collapsed to the ground, clutching his forehead.

Old man Irving used his unique, brutal methods to teach Bray what "shrewdness" meant.

And I learned about one of the ideas of the elderly Irving.

—"Though in darkness, one sees through illusion and is not trapped by it."

—"Resembling Heaven but not Heaven, following the path of karmic retribution."

"This is an Asura."

"Asura" was merely a word condensed from many syllables, but to old man Owen, it contained infinite depths of meaning. Old man Owen sacrificed all his senses for the sake of his "inner eye."

But it's clearly unrealistic to expect Bray to do the same.

Bray hasn't gone so far as to self-harm.

And old man Owen had no intention of letting Bray deprive him of all his senses.

All Bray needed to do was shut down his vision.

Old Man Owen explained to Bray how to temporarily close his vision while simultaneously opening his "mind's eye".

All of this is hard to describe in words, so Irving used a rough method to tell Bray.

These words were written by old man Owen before he went into a nightmare last night.

He anticipated that if something happened to him in his nightmare, Bray would definitely come to his house.

And naturally, you would notice this stack of conspicuous papers.

But what happens in real life after the elderly person has an accident in their nightmare?

If things continue like this, old man Owen will eventually become unable to take care of himself and die.

The reason why old man Owen is able to live a good life is entirely due to the support of his "mindset".

It seems now that the old man, Irving, has completely lost his shrewdness.

Bray sighed, tore up the blank paper in his hand, and threw it into the trash can beside him.

After spending months of his own research and taking the lives of innocent people, the old man Irving simply handed over this theory.

"Good luck..." These were the words the old man said to himself yesterday morning.

It's quite ironic that now it's Bray's turn to say this to the old man.

"Where is that guy's real body?" Bray leaned against the study window, lost in thought.

Logan must exist in reality; Bray doesn't believe Logan is dead in reality.

However, Irving never once mentioned what Logan looked like.

The only thing Bray knew about that guy was probably his name.

"This is really a headache." Bray slapped his sword, left the study, and left old man Owen's house.

---

However, when Bray returned to his residence, he found that someone was already waiting for him there.

“Hello, Mr. Bray.” William sat on the sofa in the residence.

"What's going on?" Bray asked Naruko beside him.

“Mr. William said he wants to talk to you about tonight.” Naruko shrugged.

Levy gently wagged her tail beside her, and the fireball followed suit.

"Yes, I want to know what's going to happen tonight."

William had always thought the town had returned to normal, but last night monsters reappeared, and there was more than one of them.

How many monsters are there in this town?

“Even if you ask me this, I don’t know,” Bray replied regretfully.

Bray doesn't really know how many of these chimeras there are.

And it's unknown whether any other monsters besides the chimeras will appear in the town.

“That’s true.” William looked dejected.

“I got too excited,” William apologized to Bray.

“Something seems wrong in the town. The number of monsters has increased, and many villagers are sick,” William said.

"Sick?" Bray frowned.

"Yes, they're sick. Those people might not be in a good mental state because of their illness."

“I’m worried that this is a plague brought by those monsters,” William told Bray, expressing his concerns.

After William explained for a few minutes, Bray understood the truth.

It wasn't an illness; the townspeople were killed in their nightmares.

“Besides, someone in town had been sick before, but we didn’t notice. That was really negligent,” William said, his face full of regret.

It seems that because more people have recently encountered problems, those who had problems before have also been noticed.

“So what are you going to do?” Bray asked.

"Thank you for your hard work this time, but I think you probably can't handle the follow-up."

“I plan to find some high-level adventurers, and also invite people from the church,” William said to Bray.

"But don't be angry, I will give you extra compensation. You've worked hard during this time."

"Is that so? I understand now." Bray nodded, surprisingly not continuing to chatter with William for much longer.

"I'm going to arrange for someone to post the quest at the Adventurers' Guild now. I'll be going now." William sat up from the sofa.

William left in a hurry, leaving Bray, Naruko, and Levy looking at each other in bewilderment.

"So, we're going back?" Naruko asked.

"Let's go back in a couple of days," Bray said, yawning.

"I want to go to sleep first."

---

After William left where Bray lived, he did not arrange for someone to post a quest at the Adventurers' Guild.

He turned back to his home halfway down the street.

Back home, William sat in a chair, his hands clasped behind his head.

If William used to always have a serious expression, now he looks quite wicked.

"His personality is too mild; he gave him hints but still couldn't get rid of that guy." William, no, he should be called Logan now.

"Looks like I can't activate Nightmare tonight. I'll continue my experiment after he leaves," Logan murmured.

Logan was genuinely a little afraid of Bray.

Even with Irving gone, Logan's control over the nightmare will not be diminished.

However, after witnessing Bray's fighting prowess, Logan became extremely cautious.

The saying goes, "Better safe than sorry," and Logan didn't think there was anything wrong with being overly cautious.

Decades have passed, and Logan's appearance has not changed, while Irving has become gray-haired.

Logan's years of experimentation have yielded far more results than Irving's.

Of course, the cruelty of the experiment far exceeded that of Irving's.