A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

It's like asking someone from out of town why there's an unfinished building here—who the hell would know?

“…” Bray squinted as he approached the abandoned house.

However, after taking a step, Bray drew his longsword from his waist without warning.

The blade gleamed with a captivating cold light in the night, tracing an elegant arc in mid-air.

"Clang—" The sword blade cleaved through the wall in front of him.

“…” Bray stared blankly at the person in front of him with his right eye.

"I've been tricked," Bray muttered, his sword-wielding stance unchanged.

After the wall was broken open, there was a cardboard box inside.

The box suddenly opened, and a doll that looked remarkably like Jonathan popped out.

The doll swayed in mid-air, its mask displaying Jonathan's annoyingly exaggerated smile.

"Hello, Mr. Monk, hello, Mr. Monk..." came a voice from the doll, repeating the same sentence.

Bray calmly sheathed his longsword, and two sounds rang out simultaneously as the sword was sheathed.

The sound was the sound of a sword being sheathed.

The other sound was the sound of the doll in front of them being split in two.

After Jonathan's doll was split open, it turned into a pile of cotton wool.

"Are you surprised to find you've come to the wrong place, Mr. Monk?" A voice floated down from the ground.

Although the words sounded quite rude, Bray couldn't detect any sarcasm in his tone.

Well, it sounded like a child's triumphant laughter after successfully pulling off a prank.

"Every time it's Mr. Abstinence who goes straight to the final boss and starts the fight, things get really boring, Mr. Abstinence."

How about we enjoy ourselves a little longer this time?

As soon as he finished speaking, the cotton wadding began to ignite like gunpowder, emitting a dazzling light, looking like fireworks at night.

Bray sighed.

What the "mind's eye" perceives should be real, since its function is to see through illusions and not be influenced by external things.

This time, however, the "truth" was obscured by Jonathan.

Just how many abilities does that guy have?

After all the residue had burned away, Bray frowned.

"No way... I have no idea what that guy is up to." *Glug glug* Dove exhaled bubbles underwater.

"Whoosh!" Then she suddenly popped her head out again, splashing countless waves.

Many people may lose interest in the sea after seeing it too many times.

But this could never happen to Dove; she loved the sea from the depths of her soul, after all, she was a child of the sea.

Redup sat casually on a rock on the shore.

He watched silently as Dove played in the sea.

Redup isn't the type of person who's very good at getting along with kids, and he doesn't know how to join in when the kids are having fun.

For example, Dove is having a lot of fun right now, but he only knows how to stay by his side and doesn't understand what else he can do.

Play with her? It sounds simple, but it's actually not that easy to do.

If playing with children were easy, then the whole world would be full of people who are good at getting along with kids.

"Redip!" Doffin stretched her fair legs out of the sea and called out to Redip.

"Five more months!" Dove said, waving his hands haphazardly.

Redup was stunned when he heard Doffin's words.

Yes, Redip promised Dofen that he would leave the Western Continent in six months to travel to a new place.

Is there only 5 months left? Actually, strictly speaking, it's a little over 5 months, but Dove obviously ignores the remaining days.

“Yes, there are still 5 months left,” Redip responded.

"I will take you to play on the Northern Continent."

Speaking of which, Redip has never been to the Northern Continent. What would a continent covered in ice and snow look like?

Will it be exactly as I imagined?

After traveling with Dove for a long time, Redup actually started to look forward to future journeys.

Is that dead heart perhaps coming back to life?

However, describing myself as having a "dead heart" is truly shameful; it's a bit too pretentious and childish.

"It's great that he doesn't know anything," Redip murmured, his eyes momentarily unfocused.

Dove was completely unaware of what was happening in Eratabari; the oppressive atmosphere seemed to have no effect on him.

It's no wonder, children don't think about things as much or as complicatedly as adults.

Those hidden conspiracies and killings never approached those innocent children.

Including Dove in front of Redip.

When children come into contact with those things, they are destined to stay away from them because of their simplicity and innocence.

This is torture for a child.

"At least you'll be happy until I die," Redip muttered to himself, closing his eyes quietly.

He must have made a secret vow to Dove.

Doffin will never know that Redup once made such a vow.

“Oh my, Lord Fisherman, you really dote on that little girl.” Jonathan sat down silently next to Redip.

Jonathan curled up his legs, hugged his knees, and stood next to Redip in a silly-looking pose.

His smile on his mask wasn't as exaggerated as before, but it was still quite annoying.

What kind of expression is hidden behind that mask? It's impossible to know.

Not only his expression, but even Jonathan's thoughts were unfathomable.

He was like a 20-sided die that had been tossed into the air; no one knew which side would land face up until it hit the ground.

Admittedly, there are times when lead dice are used, but those are just occasional occurrences.

Most of the time it's unpredictable.

"..." Redip glanced at Jonathan expressionlessly.

Redip wasn't surprised by Jonathan's sudden appearance, nor was he happy about it.

Jonathan is a clown who appears and disappears unpredictably, and Redip had become quite aware of this by this time.

The guy who agreed and actually postponed his breakdown could appear around him at any moment.

After Redip agreed to join the "Alliance of the Gods," something clearly suppressed his breakdown.

However, Jonathan also told Redip that the collapse of the Aragami could only be delayed, not stopped.

There are no exceptions for lower species, since they were never suitable containers from the beginning, and any later modifications are meaningless.

"Hmm?" Jonathan leaned his head toward Redip's left.

"Hmm?" Then he stretched his head to Redip's right.

"It seems that Lord 'Fisherman' wasn't very happy to see me."

"I can't be happy," Redip answered honestly.

"Oh dear, this is quite troublesome. After all, we're now in the same organization, and it won't do if we don't maintain a good relationship," Jonathan said dejectedly, looking utterly dejected.

Even the expression on the mask showed a sad, crying face.

"Hurry up, Dove is here." Redup didn't want Dove to know too much.

A carefree life is always good for children.

“It’s alright, the little girl won’t notice that I’m with you,” Jonathan said lightly, twirling the cane that had suddenly appeared.

"..." At this moment, Redup realized that Dove had frozen in place.

Not just Dove, everything around them froze.

"Time has stopped?" This was the only possibility Redup could think of.

Otherwise, how could such a bizarre situation have occurred?

"Stop time? No, no, no, only someone with cheat codes can do that." Jonathan quickly waved his hand. He didn't have the ability to stop time, and it wouldn't be good if Redip misunderstood.

"..." Redip remained silent. If time hadn't been stopped, how could he explain the fact that everything around him was frozen in place?

"This is a separate, overlapping spacetime that the little devil specially created!" Jonathan said, gesturing excitedly.

“I don’t understand.” Redip shook his head decisively; he couldn’t understand a word Jonathan said.

"Actually, it's just that you and I are in a space where the flow of time is completely different from the outside world, except that this space is also part of Kapras."

"If we adjust the time, the outside is 0, and the inside is an infinite multiple."

"Isn't that amazing and unsolvable!"

“That’s what I think too,” Jonathan began to say to himself.

Redip stared directly at Jonathan with his dead fish eyes.

"So what exactly did you come to me for?" Redip asked after a long silence.

He didn't know anything else; all he knew was that in this state, Dove was unaware that he was talking to Jonathan.

So, just ask whatever you need to ask and answer whatever you need to answer.

“I actually admire people as straightforward as you,” the talkative Jonathan continued rambling.

“This time, I’d like you to deal with Mr. Ring-Holder a little,” Jonathan said with a snap of his fingers and a grin. “Who is Mr. Ring-Holder?” Redip asked, as he didn’t know “Mr. Ring-Holder,” so of course he had to ask.

"Oh, you didn't know?"

“People who wear rings are called ring bearers,” Jonathan said, spouting nonsense with a straight face.

"..."

"Well, it seems I can't joke around too much in front of you." Jonathan scratched the back of his head and quickly bowed, as if apologizing.

So who is it?

"The man you know, the man who is very similar to you."

"..." A figure vaguely appeared in Redip's mind.

When someone resembled him, Redup couldn't help but think of another dead-fish-eyed person.

“Blakeras,” Jonathan said the name very slowly.

He spoke almost word by word.

But after saying the whole name, Jonathan clenched his fist.

After a while, he relaxed his fist again.

“I refuse.” This time, Redip said “no.”

He had silently completed all the tasks Jonathan had asked him to do, without ever refusing.

But this time, it's different.

"Huh?" Jonathan patted his mask, surprised by Redip's answer.

“You value that little girl highly, don’t you?” Redup pointed to Doffin, who was positioned at sea.

"..." Redip did not answer with words, but his eyes already revealed his answer.

They clearly valued it highly; otherwise, they wouldn't have glared at Jonathan with such murderous intent.

Being stared at by dead fish eyes is a terrifying experience; Jonathan has experienced it several times.