Don't be enchanted by anything.

That's what Julia had warned.

It was such an unexpected statement that Rudger asked, why must he do that but Julia didn't answer that question.

Seeing her troubled expression, Rudger couldn't help but notice.

It wasn't that she deliberately wouldn't tell him, but that she couldn't. The moment she spoke, something would clearly be reversed.

Right. That means you have to experience it firsthand to understand.

"I'm going in."

Rudger jumped down.

“Yahoo!”

Seridan immediately hopped down after.

“Eigh!”

Sedina also jumped down with her eyes tightly shut, as if steeling her resolve.

Only Hans, left alone, wavered back and forth.

To be honest, he absolutely didn't want to go in. Hadn't he gotten caught up in this without any particular preparation?

Dreamland's structure becomes increasingly dangerous the further down you go.

Coming into the middle layer's upper section, they had already struggled with rampaging wildness, but going down to the middle section - his meager imagination couldn't even begin to guess what they would encounter.

But when everyone else was going, staying behind alone also felt wrong.

‘Right. Without me, who would assist brother by his side?’

"Ah, let's go together!"

Hans gritted his teeth and jumped into the surface.

The calm surface rapidly approached.

'What if I sink after falling in like this? I'm not very good at swimming.'

Such fear was only momentary.

-Swoosh.

His body that touched the surface sank below it ever so softly.

Rather than water, it felt like sinking into jelly.

'Huh?'

Hans, who had prepared himself somewhat, couldn't help but open his eyes wide at that bizarre sensation.

It's too comfortable to be underwater. He could breathe, and there was no need to flail his arms and legs.

'What is this?'

Hans looked around.

The surface viewed from outside had seemed like looking at an endless ocean.

It was natural to think that an endless abyss that no one knew about would unfold below it but the scenery that appeared after actually entering was completely different.

Below the surface was pure white like a blank canvas.

Is this what whiteout feels like in Antarctica, where snowstorms rage all year round?

A white world where no living things, structures, or natural objects exist.

Looking up, above the surface were islands and blue sky in abundance.

From outside it had seemed like an endless abyss, but the inside was white.

The moment he realized this the world flipped.

"Whoa!"

He felt dizzy as if someone had turned him half a rotation from head to toe.

The pure white world that spread below went up and the blue world that spread above went down.

The scenery changed as if flipping an hourglass that had been standing upright.

-Thud.

Hans' two legs touched the blue ground.

The part where his feet touched rippled finely like water.

Hans checked beneath his feet several times.

The appearance of the sky islands they had descended from could now be seen upside down below what had become the floor.

"My goodness...it's like being inside a mirror."

-Tap tap.

He tapped the surface with the tip of his shoe.

Hans let out a sigh at the elasticity felt at his toe.

"This looks like it'll be hard to go back."

"Not hard - ordinary people can never go back."

Hans was startled by Rudger's sudden answer.

"Ack! You scared me! Give some warning before coming in! And wait a minute. Never can go back? Don't tell me we're trapped here?"

"We're not trapped. We just need to go further down."

However, Rudger gazed at the snow-white scenery with a wary look.

"We'll have to see what exactly happens here first."

"Well that..."

Hans took a step toward Rudger and ─ the world changed.

Rudger's figure melted away like watercolor dissolving in water, and all sorts of colors were painted over the pure white scenery.

Hans stopped in his tracks because a golden wheat field spread out before his eyes.

Hans' mouth fell open and he couldn't help but stare at that wheat field.

The sun was setting beyond the wheat field, spreading out a sunset.

What put the finishing touch on this picturesque scenery was a small mansion beside the wheat field.

A rocking chair sat at the entrance yard of the mansion, and a hammock hung between two trees planted in the yard.

"Ah."

Words wouldn't properly come out of his mouth.

How could he not recognize it?

It was the scenery he had drawn in his mind hundreds, thousands of times.

If.

After everything with Rudger was finished.

When all incidents were concluded, and peace and rest finally came.

Hans dreamed of buying a large plot of land with his saved money, building his own mansion, and living quietly.

Sitting in the rocking chair, drinking cool beer with the setting sun.

Satisfied that another peaceful day had ended like that, looking at the beautiful starry sky spread across the heavens before going to bed.

That was Hans' blueprint for the future.

That scenery was now spread out before his eyes exactly as he had imagined it.

Rather, it was perfectly conceived down to minute details that hadn't existed in his imagination.

Looking at the rocking chair, a clear beer glass with rising bubbles sat on a small wooden table beside it.

-Gulp.

Hans unknowingly took a step toward that scene.

At this moment, he completely forgot where he was and what he was doing.

Only the fact that the future he desperately wanted was there stimulated Hans' mind to the point of sweetness.

It was natural that his heart was drawn to the utopia spread right before his eyes rather than an unclear and opaque future that he didn't know how would turn out.

Just as he was about to take a step toward the mansion like that.

"Kehek!"

Hans let out a breath at the rough hand that grabbed his nape.

"Wh-Who?"

"Hans. What exactly are you doing?"

"Brother? Ah, well right now..."

The moment he saw Rudger's sculpture-like face, Hans belatedly became aware of the sense of reality washing over him.

"Right. Come to think of it, I'm in Dreamland...but the scenery spread out in front of me right now..."

Hans pointed at the wheat field and mansion with a trembling finger.

Rudger narrowed his eyes as he looked in that direction.

"What are you talking about?"

"Brother! Can't you see it? There, the scenery itself has changed!"

Hans' voice trembled with excitement.

Rudger became even more suspicious at such a reaction from Hans.

It was too sincere a reaction to be simply lying but Rudger's eyes couldn't see any scenery.

Only a world like blank paper was spread out.

"You..."

Just as he was about to say something to Hans, Rudger closed his mouth again because the sight of Hans he was looking at disappeared, and suddenly a scene unfolded.

-Whooosh.

A snowstorm raged on a cold mountain ridge covered in white snow.

Orange light faintly leaked from inside a makeshift cabin there.

It was a scene from his memories.

Rudger stood still in place, staring at the cabin.

Soon the cabin's door opened, and a man wrapped in a fur blanket walked out.

-It's snowing tremendously.

-Are you going?

The one seeing him off was Rudger.

More precisely, Machiavelli from the time he was active in the Yuta Kingdom's civil war.

Rudger, with a long gun on his back, asked the man.

-We can't see the enemy's movements because of the snowstorm. If we carelessly venture out from here, we might end up surrounded instead.

-It's obvious without looking. Those bastards will raid nearby villages. They'll need to replenish their insufficient supplies in this weather. Even as we're having this conversation, they're probably steadily approaching the village.

-Tomorrow we're carrying out a large-scale surprise attack on their forward base. Now when they've left their positions is perfect. Are you going to kick away this important opportunity?

-Will the operation fail just because one person like me is missing?

-That's too modest coming from the Northern Mountains' best marksman.

At Rudger's words, the man in his mid-forties gave a bitter smile.

The steam that flowed from his mouth was instantly torn apart by the snowstorm, as if foreshadowing what his fate would be.

-What are you thinking of doing alone as a sniper? You'll die if you go.

-If I don't go, the villagers will die.

-We've already issued evacuation advisories. We warned them several times it would be dangerous. Most have actually evacuated, and those who remained are people prepared to die.

-No one in the world can truly be prepared for their own death. Do you think they didn't leave because they didn't want to? They couldn't.

-I can't help you.

At Rudger's words, the man shrugged as if to say 'why state the obvious?'

-You're an essential force that can't be missing from tomorrow's battle that starts early dawn. Of course, where else would they use Machiavelli if not in such an important battle.

-I can give you a few men.

-Not needed. They'd just hold me back. Don't worry too much. I'm just planning to buy time with some sniping.

-...

-Haha! This is completely different from your attitude toward the princess. Were you such a deeply affectionate man?

-...Now that we've said this much, anything more would be a waste of time for both of us.

-Of course.

The man was about to leave, breaking through the snowstorm.

Rudger watched his back for a moment before quietly calling his name.

-Hey. Leonis.

Leonis' footsteps stopped and he turned to look at Rudger as if asking what was wrong.

Looking at Leonis' back like that, Rudger sensed they would never see each other again.

Though he said he would just buy some time, it was clear he was going to die to protect his country's citizens.

He shouldn't have let him go from here.

That one life was worth easily 1,000 regular soldiers' lives in the civil war.

So he should have forcibly stopped him from going, and even if their relationship became distant, he should have saved him here.

But the words that came out of Rudger's mouth at that moment were the complete opposite.

-See you tomorrow.

To someone departing, the only words that could be said were just a single line to give a tiny bit of courage.

Leonis' eyes went round at those words, then he burst into loud laughter and nodded his head.

-Ah ah. Yes. See you tomorrow.

With that, Leonis headed down the mountain ridge where the snowstorm was raging and he never returned.

Later when the civil war ended in victory for the Princess faction, the name of Leonis, the sniper with a hunter background, was enshrined in Yuta Kingdom's Hall of Heroes, but honor given to the dead was far too empty.

‘Should have stopped him from leaving.’

That was what Rudger thought while looking at his gravestone as Gerard before finally leaving Yuta Kingdom.

"So that's what it was."

Watching that scene, Rudger seemed to understand why Julia Plumhart had warned so strongly.

"The warning not to be enchanted by anything was because of this."

This pure white place realizes the desperate wishes that person holds.

A regretful past they want to return to.

A present needing stability and abundance.

The ideal future they dream of most.

Who could there be that doesn't regret the past, isn't satisfied with the present, and doesn't look forward to the future?

The weakness inside that everyone must have as humans.

This world persistently digs into humans' weak hearts and endlessly tempts them, like the scene Rudger is seeing now.

At that time if Rudger had stopped him even by bringing up military law, Leonis would have lived.

Instead the people who didn't leave the village might have died, but considering they had been warned several times, that was what they had been prepared for.

In the intensity of the civil war against the Prince faction, Leonis' rear sniping was the best support that reliably protected Rudger.

That's why among those who could be called comrades, their relationship was particularly special.

To be honest, he regrets it.

More than the strangers who didn't heed the warnings.

Wanting to save a comrade who had crossed the ridge of death with him several times was naturally the right thing as a person.

If it's here he can undo that regret.

If he just immerses himself in this world, he could erase the past he so wanted to erase and start the life he wanted.

This is poison, a poison that seeps fatally into the very marrow.

Therefore it was sweeter and more delicious than anything.

"How insulting."

Rudger gave a cold smile.

"Certainly I regret what happened that day. But even if I had stopped him, wouldn't I have regretted it?"

Leonis nobly departed prepared to die to save the people.

If he forcibly saved him by trampling on such resolve, would that man truly be happy?

In the end their relationship would crack, and that would only birth another regret, perhaps an even bigger regret.

"I certainly regret it. But making that choice that day was solely my will."

The moment he saw Leonis' expression, Rudger knew he couldn't stop him, that's why he let him go.

Leonis too didn't speak words of regret as he left.

He just proudly leaped into death to save people.

Correcting that day's regret here would be an act of breaking even the final promise shared with that man who was now dead.

"And if I wanted to correct my regrets, I shouldn't do it in a place like this."

Even if you change a regretful past in a dream world, isn't it fake in the end?

It was no different from mental gymnastics hoping to ease one's own mind.

-Gooooo.

Rudger raised his magical power along with his anger.

Blue magical power spread around him like constellations, forming magical formulae.

The magnificently resonating magical power reverberated together and erupted high like a volcano.

The torrent of magical power spreading in all directions completely erased the snowy mountain where the snowstorm raged.

Among the scenery shattering like glass, Rudger's blue eyes flashed.

"Something like this can't stop me."