Chapter 11 : Dream

The ground beneath my feet felt like sand.
Soft, yet cold and rough.
If this were a desert, there should be desert plants, but there were none.

*

It was a barren land where no living thing could survive.
Just as my mind was filled with the perplexity of how I had returned to this place, I heard Dahye’s cry.

“Is this really the Demon Realm?”

But she looked completely different from how I’d recently seen her.
Her glasses were gone, and instead of her usual suit, she wore a pure white dress—the outfit she wore as a magical girl.

Moreover, her words were identical to what she’d said when we first entered the Demon Realm.

Only then did it hit me: I was asleep. Dreaming.
The lack of pain when I pinched my cheek or bit my tongue confirmed it.

But that wasn’t the only reason I realized this was a dream.
While I had some control, it was minimal.
I was essentially reliving past events. The way I instinctively scanned my surroundings, for example.

*

I wondered why I was dreaming of the past after so long.
Perhaps it was the video I watched before bed, or Jangmi’s presence in the house.

“Let’s be careful. There might be hidden demons.
It’s risky to fly around; we could become targets.”

She repeated the same words as before.

It was unsettling.

Because this space was recreated from my memories, everything felt off.
Places marked with X’s like broken graphics, and areas of excessive blur.

Then, my vision was momentarily obscured by intersecting black and white lines, like static, before returning to normal.

We were now in the demon village.

All the buildings were mud huts.
Back then, I was curious how they were built in a place with nothing but sand. Of course, now I knew they were made of demon flesh and blood.

“You killed our warriors.”

The one who appeared, speaking those words, was the demon responsible for opening the dimensional gate to Dahye’s world.

Clad in black cloth, the demon radiated the aura of a cultist, though he hadn’t said as much.
With even his horns hidden, he could almost pass for human, but his unusual skin color gave him away.

“Be careful, he’s powerful.”

“I know.”

As we watched him warily, he reacted with what seemed like indignation.

“You fairies and humans are always the same!
You plead for help, then steal the lives of my people!”

“Lies– huh? Why is it blue?”

“Oh? You also possess the eye to discern the truth, like that fairy?”

Then, he uttered cryptic words.

“Then listen carefully to what I have to say!”

Pointing at me.

*

“….!”

He was ranting, spitting as he spoke, but I couldn’t hear a thing, as if muted.
He seemed to be telling us something important…

Like a silent film, both Dahye and I seemed to be communicating, but we only looked like fish gasping for air.

*Chiiik–*

Along with static, I heard Dahye’s voice.

“Haaaa!”

The battle cry before unleashing her magic.

Without any particular stance, Dahye fired ‘Pure White Light’.
It illuminated the ashen sky of the Demon Realm, heading straight for the demon.

“Denying the truth… how foolish.”

But he was the one who controlled the dimensional gates. He wouldn’t take it lying down.
Before the light reached him, he opened a gate and redirected it back at us.

*The truth?* Did he say what he was about to tell us was the truth?
Then why couldn’t I remember any of it?

“Look out!”

Just before impact, I pushed Dahye out of the way, narrowly avoiding it.
Sand rained down on us, but that was the least of our concerns.
The aftermath of the attack was far more alarming.

Where the light struck, the sand had melted and fused together.
Elsewhere, flames erupted from the intense heat.
It wasn’t a simple attack that would cause instant death. It would’ve inflicted agonizing pain, making its victims curse the world in their final moments, just like the demons we’d fought.

We tried to shift to close combat, but it was no use.
The gates he opened everywhere were a constant threat. Dahye’s hair and clothes were sliced by a suddenly closing gate.
If any part of her body had been caught, the results would have been horrific.

We were constantly on the defensive, predicting where he would use his magic next. Exhausted, I thought we would die just like the others.

“Ah… uh… aah…”

As if reacting to the strange sound, the demon stopped.
The androgynous, layered voice came from one of the mud huts.

And from it emerged something horrifying.

Visible, pulsating veins proved it was alive, but its form was grotesquely distorted.
A mass of melted, congealed flesh, like a lump of meat.

Seeing it, the demon screamed in anguish, blaming us.

“….!”

Again, I couldn’t hear anything.
Even if my memory was fragmented, why couldn’t I remember the crucial parts? It felt like someone had maliciously edited them out.

Unfazed by my doubts, the creature moved.

With each wriggle, dark blue fluid oozed onto the ground.
A familiar color.
The same color as the dust that flew into the dimensional gates whenever Dahye defeated a demon.

As the face buried within the mass turned towards Dahye–

*“Ugh!”*

Clear vomit spilled from her lips.
Tears streamed down her face, distorting her features.
She kept muttering the words she’d spoken back then.

“….!”

What?
The world was suddenly collapsing.
The buildings, the demon, even Dahye, were crumbling into sand and scattering in the wind.

This wasn’t right.
It didn’t end like this.
We fought to the end. That’s how I remembered it.

*“….! My Lord!”*

After everyone else had dissolved, I was the last one left.
My body, buffeted by a fierce wind, rapidly disintegrated, carried away by the gusts.

There was no pain. But I couldn’t just vanish like this.
I had to survive, to confirm the truth he revealed…

“Amber!”

A piercing cry jolted me awake.
Drenched in sweat, I gasped for breath.

Birdsong and sunlight streaming through the window told me it was morning.
I’d slept deeply for the first time in a while, but the dream left me feeling uneasy.

“Did… you have a nightmare?”

“Huh?”

Jangmi crouched down to meet my gaze.
Her eyes blinked with concern as she repeated her question.

“Was it… a bad dream?”

“It…”

I closed my mouth.
The vivid details of the dream were already fading.

Dismissing it as just a bad dream, I calmed my ruffled fur.
Grooming myself with my forepaw, I looked around.
Dahye was nowhere to be seen.
Tracing her magical signature, I found her at the school.
She’d mentioned leaving early for work yesterday; I’d completely forgotten.

I glanced at the clock: 8:34 AM.
Around this time, the kids should be heading to school, too. Why was Jangmi still here?

My still-foggy brain could only manage a few words.

“Aren’t you going to school?”

“I should.”

“Then why aren’t you?”

“I don’t know the way.”

That made sense. This place was completely different from where she used to live.

“Then why didn’t you go with Dahye?”

“The teacher asked me to have you take me.”

“Ha… ugh!”

I stretched, trying to work out the kinks in my body.
A sticky note on the corner of the cushion caught my eye.
It contained the same message Jangmi had just relayed.
On the back, an additional note threatened dire consequences if I refused.

I opened a gate in the sky above the school, angled so she could see down below.
Since Jangmi would be going through, I made it slightly larger than usual.

Below, students were already on their way to school.
As Jangmi watched them with fascination, I instructed her.

“Go on.”

“Huh?”

She took a step back.

“If you can mimic Dahye’s magical signature, flying should be easy, right?”

“I… I can’t do anything but transform.”

So, that wasn’t a lie either. What was going on? This was getting more and more confusing. Should I take her to the island after work and test her abilities? But then *I’d* have to go back to the school. How annoying.

I moved the gate to a spot beneath a tree, away from the crowds.

“You don’t have anything after school, right? I’ll create a gate here around 2:40 PM. Come here then.
Got it?”

My tone was a bit curt, but she just beamed.

“Yes!”

Ignoring her enthusiastic waving from the other side, I closed the gate.