A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"It's easier to understand by looking directly than by listening to someone else's explanation."

“Besides, although I’m called a Ring-Bearer, I don’t have a ring.” Bray shrugged helplessly.

Despite many guys calling Bray "the Ring-Bearer," he had absolutely no idea where his ring was.

When did he get a ring?

Given that he already has a bracelet, tattoo, and eye patch, adding a ring on top of that, let's just leave Bray alone.

Dorothea remained silent.

“I want to see what the ring looks like.” Bray had seen the rings of the other four ringholders.

But the fifth one is the only one I've never seen.

"Just because of these?"

"Then what do you think it's for?" Bray asked back.

The two of them originally entered the stone tablet in order to witness the events of the Second Age.

It is all for the purpose of understanding the truth that is difficult for us to know.

For example, neither the tiger clan village nor Horp has been recorded.

"You and I are just trying to see things we don't know."

"And what follows is simply going to see things we don't know; nothing special."

"You've convinced me." Dorothea closed her eyes to rest. Although she was very averse to that student, the "Prophet," she did want to know the truth about the ring.

Curiosity at play? Probably.

After hearing Bray's words, Dorothea also wanted to know what kind of thing the ring that cursed her life was.

“I want to sleep too,” Bray said to Dorothea.

"Go to sleep," Dorothea said casually. She had already slept and wasn't sleepy at all.

“Wake me up when I’m about to fall to my death,” Bray said with a yawn.

Then Bray closed his right eye and began to rest. "It's time to wake up," Dorothea's voice rang in Bray's ear.

Bray opened his eyes quickly after hearing the sound.

After all, he made Dorothea call out to him when he was about to fall.

Is it about to land?

"Mm," Dorothea responded.

Upon hearing Dorothea's answer, Bray thought it would take at least half a minute before he landed and was about to adjust his posture.

However, no sooner had he finished speaking than Bray felt something in his back.

It has landed.

“You’re going to kill someone like this,” Bray said irritably to Dorothea, who was lying face up.

"You're alright, aren't you?" Dorothea stood firmly on the ground, looking down at Bray.

"..." Bray was speechless for a moment, after all, he really had nothing wrong.

After falling from such a height for such a long time, Bray did not feel any impact upon landing.

The calm was so intense that Bray thought he was dreaming.

The feeling was like casually lying back on the bed.

It didn't hurt at all; in fact, it felt quite comfortable.

The only drawback is that the broadsword on the back is quite cumbersome.

Normally, thanks to the broadsword's flat and wide blade, Bray would feel very uncomfortable every time he fell.

Bray did a somersault and jumped up from the ground.

He wanted to see first what kind of wretched place they had ended up in after spending so much time there.

---

The main color of the surrounding area is red, and the red rocks form the base of this land.

However, the sparse vegetation prevented the area from looking too glaring.

Small, scattered mountains filled their view, and frankly, the scenery of those overlapping peaks wasn't particularly beautiful.

But if we're talking about grandeur, Bray can barely agree.

"Unexpectedly ordinary?" Bray muttered to himself, having expected to arrive at some earth-shattering place.

Because that scholar also said that they should be sent to the place that is closest to the essence of the world.

"He just dumped us in this godforsaken place?" the empress complained.

“It is indeed a bit desolate,” Bray nodded.

However, just as Bray was about to speak, Dorothea covered his mouth with one hand.

“There’s something.” Dorothea narrowed her eyes.

There was no breath, but she could feel a faint vibration around her.

"Ugh..." Bray was annoyed. Even if there was something there, there was no need to cover his mouth, right?

Bray tried to grab Dorothea's hand that was covering her, but the ground began to shake violently.

"..." Bray's right eye looked at the overturned crimson rock in front of him, and for a moment he forgot what he originally wanted to do.

A giant, semi-transparent lizard burst from the ground.

The lizard had a semi-transparent rabbit in its mouth.

The lizard seemed completely oblivious to Bray and Dorothea, opening its gaping maw to swallow the rabbit it had tossed up.

“I take back what I said earlier. This place is not ordinary.” Bray pulled Dorothea’s hand down, his lips twitching.

"Boom!!!" The lizard lay on the ground and pressed down on Bray and Dorothea.

They all stepped back in unison.

The strong wind pressure generated by the lizard tousled their hair.

"..." Dorothea frowned, then a nine-section whip appeared in her hand, and she lashed it out without warning.

"Zzz—" After the nine-section whip slammed into the ground, the ground was dented, and countless azure currents surged in all directions.

However, the nine-section whip passed right through the giant lizard and only hit the ground.

The seemingly powerful electric current appeared to have no effect on the lizard whatsoever.

The crater created by the nine-section whip made the lizard unsteady and almost cause it to fall over.

The lizard hurriedly regained its balance, its head rapidly turning left and right, as if it had no idea what had just happened.

His adorable appearance contrasted sharply with his enormous size.

"Interesting." Dorothea's lips curved into a beautiful smile as she murmured.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!!!" The giant lizard headed away from Bray and Dorothea.

The loud rumble of the lizard stomping on the ground seemed to linger in Bray's ears even after it left.

Dorothea's ambiguous smile left Bray completely bewildered.

“Take a closer look,” Dorothea said, pointing to the vegetation they had first seen.

"Like this guy, it's semi-transparent." Compared to that big, moving thing, the vegetation isn't very noticeable.

"This applies to all living things."

However, upon closer inspection, one will find that the vegetation is also semi-transparent.

This is very interesting; all living things are translucent and completely unaffected by them.

“Well, these things are completely undetectable.” Bray frowned. He had tried to sense them when Dorothea said that all living things were translucent.

But he found that in his perceived world, there was only deathly silence.

That enormous lizard seemed to exist out of nowhere.

However, the sound of its huge footsteps, and the scene of it devouring its prey, were indeed so real.

Bray wasn't sure about the others, but he was certain that what had just happened wasn't an illusion.

“Yes, it’s as if we’re in a different world from these things, yet we share the same space,” Dorothea aptly put it.

Her metaphors are much more normal than Bray's.

"I initially thought it was boring, but now I think it's alright." Dorothea had initially found this place uninteresting.

However, it seems that's not the case.

“But we have no destination,” Bray sighed.

The scholar dumped them here without giving them a clear direction.

The words were too vague. Do guys like to talk like that nowadays?

Pretending to be mysterious or similar will make things very inconvenient for others.

“If you don’t have a destination, just decide one yourself.” Dorothea looked up at the crimson moon overhead.

"When you first came into this world, how did you decide on your direction?" Dorothea tried to ask.

"Oh, you mean that?" Bray's dead fish eyes lit up.

Dorothea's words gave him a hint.

Bray placed the longsword on the ground and then spun it around forcefully.

That's right, that's how he determined his direction when he first didn't know where to go.

"..." Dorothea's expression froze a little when she saw this, but she quickly recovered.

After all, it's Bray; it shouldn't be surprising if he does something strange.

"Alright, this way." Seeing that his longsword had finally settled in one direction, Bray sheathed it at his waist, stood up, and pointed to his left.

"Don't use me as a compass!!!!" Finally, a certain girl couldn't help but roar.

At the same time, ten people, all bundled up tightly, were walking in this place.

They all carried many packages on their backs, which seemed to contain a lot of things.

They, like Bray and Dorothea, came from the outside world and did not belong here.

All the living things here are translucent, but they are clearly not.

"How much further do we have to go?" one of them said in a hoarse voice.

"I don't know... but it will come eventually."

"It will come eventually... I've heard that phrase so many times." A weary voice came from among the ten people.

They were ten artisans who came to this place with the help of the "prophet" in order to obtain something.

They were all renowned craftsmen, but for a vague purpose, they gave up their reputation and everything they had to come to this place.

"If we don't believe it, then that thing won't exist."

"..."

"Let's keep going. Since we've already persevered for several months, why not keep going?"

During their months-long hiking trip, they witnessed all sorts of things that existed in this world.

There are giant trees that can move, whales as big as several ships that are in the air, and insects that move so fast that the eye cannot catch their movements.

These entities all share a common characteristic: they are "semi-transparent".

They will not be discovered by these beings, nor will they be directly harmed by them.

However, they are also unable to do anything about these beings.

They don't even have a way to get food in this place.

These artisans have survived until now thanks to the food they brought with them.