Chapter 873

"You were looking for me so desperately—does that mean it said something important?"

Since all there was was a hand, calling it “that” wasn’t technically wrong. But Yuder still felt vaguely unsettled by the phrasing.

"It didn’t exactly speak... but we had something like a conversation."

"A conversation, huh. Like before, with its fingers?"

Yuder nodded. The palm that the white glove had grabbed onto suddenly felt hot, almost itchy. He wanted to clench his fist to shake off the sensation, but the bandages made it difficult, so he ended up just fidgeting uselessly.

Tearing his gaze away from his hand, Yuder took a deep breath and began recounting the encounter with the white glove in his dream. The greeting, the questions and answers, and the fall that ended it all.

This time, telling it didn’t feel as difficult as before. If anything, revisiting the dream seemed to bring his mind into sharper clarity. After he finished recounting the short dream, he summed up all the thoughts and feelings that lingered during and after the experience.

"To be honest, after that dream, I’m not sure it can even be called just a dream."

"You mean... it felt like something that actually happened?"

"Not completely. But close. Especially after I heard what Inon said once I woke up. Do you know? Before I regained consciousness..."

"—Your soul suddenly disappeared, he said. That was the first time I ever saw him so rattled."

His voice was calm, but his eyes were not. The red gaze that had been watching Yuder darkened momentarily before returning to normal.

"Yes. I still don’t know why that happened, but... I started wondering. Maybe what happened in the dream took place during the time when my soul was missing."

Kishiar slowly lowered his eyes, murmuring, "I see."

"You’re suggesting it was like those old legends, where a soul leaves the body, meets something mysterious, and returns. The kind of stories you hear here and there, even if no one’s sure they’re true."

"Yes. That’s the impression I got."

The presence of the white glove this time had felt far too vivid to dismiss as just a dream. It had seemed to know things Yuder couldn’t understand and had expressed its own will far more clearly than before.

Even without a voice or a body, things could still be conveyed through brief contact. And that being—whatever it was—had possessed a presence too tangible to be brushed off as imaginary.

Even the darkness he encountered after touching that hand hadn’t felt like some meaningless void. It had given a definite impression—almost a setting.

Kishiar pointed out the same thing.

"If we assume you actually went somewhere and returned, the first thing to do is find a clue as to where it was. In that final darkness—did you notice anything unusual?"

Yuder thought of the writhing black shadows behind the white glove. At the time, he’d had the sense that he’d seen them before, and now he remembered.

"When I saw that darkness, it felt familiar. Thinking back now... it resembled the inside of a rift. Specifically, right before the monsters poured out of one."

A churning, seething mass of pitch-black darkness, slithering without pattern, threatening to erupt at any moment. So deep and dense it gave no shape—just a premonition of disaster. What if that same ominous presence crossed through a rift and engulfed the world?

To Yuder, it had felt like he’d seen the moment that possibility became real.

"Maybe I’m overthinking it... but it’s the only thing I’ve encountered that felt that similar."

"The inside of a rift, huh. Everything keeps circling back to the rifts," Kishiar murmured.

"You had that strange dream for the first time after an abnormal rift appeared—and this time is the same. If it’s happened twice now, I’m not sure we can still call it coincidence."

"......"

"If the place was full of the same darkness we saw inside the rifts, maybe it really was inside a rift—or beyond it."

"Beyond... the rift?"

"Yes. A place no one’s ever seen with their own eyes. Known only as the land of the black moon, where the monsters are said to come from."

Even though Yuder knew the term was a metaphor from the scriptures, his heart thudded uneasily.

No one knew what lay beyond the rifts where monsters appeared. Rifts normally vanished within moments of forming—far too quickly for any human to observe their interiors.

An abnormal rift that lingered was already an anomaly. Seeing monsters emerge from it directly had been even more so.

"Honestly, thinking of it as some place the dead go to might make more sense."

"Or... maybe it’s both."

"...What?"

Yuder looked up in surprise, and Kishiar gave a faint smile.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

"I mean, maybe that place you dreamed about really is where the dead go—and also what lies beyond the rift. What if those two places aren’t separate? What if they’re the same?"

That was something Yuder had never considered.

"Think about it. We know the space where monsters come from exists beyond the rifts. Even if humans can’t reach it, the rifts prove its existence. Right?"

When Yuder slowly nodded, Kishiar continued.

"Separately, if there’s a place where the remnants of someone long dead still linger, that’s more of an afterlife than a physical location. If the same darkness from the rifts was there, then maybe—just maybe—they’re the same place. It would be the most reasonable theory we can form right now, whether it’s right or not."

It was the same attitude Kishiar had shown when he’d said he would believe that Yuder had returned by crossing time itself.

No matter how unbelievable something was, if you laid out the facts and connected the pieces, you’d eventually be left with one conclusion. Even if that conclusion was irrational, if it was what remained after testing every possibility, Kishiar was the kind of person who would accept it.

Logically, it made no sense. But then again, the very existence of Yuder Aile—alive now—was the most irrational answer of all.

Yuder lowered his gaze and murmured part of what the white hand had "said."

"A place that’s neither dream nor reality. That’s how it put it. If what you’re saying is true... then that would describe it perfectly."

"Regardless of whether we can figure out how to reach it or if any of this is correct... one thing’s clear. It’s definitely a place you wouldn’t want to go."

Don’t come back.

Yuder recalled the words the white glove had written with such force.

"I can’t claim to fully understand its intentions. But from what you’ve told me, I don’t think it lied. It didn’t invite you there. It didn’t want you to return. It didn’t seem to wish you harm. All that considered... it sounds like a conversation that wasn’t as dangerous as it might’ve seemed."

"......"

Yuder’s chest rose and fell with a strange, hollow ache. He bit down gently on his lip.

"...Anyway, I’m sure of this much—I didn’t go there because I wanted to. I didn’t dream that dream by choice."

"Exactly. If only it had told you how you got there, that would’ve been helpful."

Kishiar reached out. The fingers that brushed against Yuder’s bitten lip eased the tension. In those red eyes, Yuder saw his own pain reflected.

"Don’t torture yourself. You don’t need to."

"......"

"Whatever brought you there—well, if nothing else, think of it as gaining one more ally in a place we don’t understand. From my perspective, I’m grateful it helped bring you back."

How could someone show such strength, even when the subject should stir emotions more complicated than Yuder could imagine? He didn’t know.

But the strange thing was... those words brought him comfort. He followed that hand’s gentle guidance and exhaled deeply, closing his eyes.

"......Understood."