"...So, this is the place?"

“…Did we arrive already?”

Murakami and I were confused by where Loveta had brought us. Since apparently, we were still in the middle of the forest. There was no sign of life around here.

"Just follow me!"

Loveta says that while walking and all of a sudden—Did she disappear? There was only me and my classmate left, who stood there without understanding a thing.

“Um, I believe it's an invisibility barrier. As this place accepts soul-linkeds, it needs to be hidden from view of the Empire.”

“It makes sense...”

Murakami turns to me instantly, with her brows furrowed above her beautiful blue eyes. She was doing her classic serious expression. But it's not like you feel terrified by looking at her face, no way, that expression she put on makes her cute somehow. Of course, if her intention was to really cause fear, then things would be different. I've already been through this after all.

“Ryouzen, before we enter this city, I need to talk to you about something very important. Under no circumstances reveal that me or you are human creators. We being here violates the nature of Aether. If someone discover this, and that someone has any ties to the moonstrucks, unprecedented disorder could take place. Of course, Loveta is an exception, as she is your creation and I have already checked on her mind.”

“Don’t worry... I won't do anything that might put us at risk.”

My adventure around here is just at the beginning, how could I mess up everything right from the start?

The girl with the pretty silver ponytail seems to be satisfied with my answer, and so she resumed her walk until disappears too.

...Well, I guess now it's my turn.

I also take one more step, and just as I do it—Everything changes! Wow!

I didn't think I could be more surprised, but I ended up being. Half a second ago I was stepping onto the grass, but now there was a sidewalk right under my feet!

Looking around, I could see several different stores, which varied in type of construction and model. There were those from the classical medieval era, actual era, and even those that might appear be from the future! They seemed to sell everything.

Oh, I already found a manga store! I need to go there later! Just imagine what must be there?? Maybe works that don't even exist yet? Or that are yet to be released? I'm really curious!

The number and types of dreamians that roamed around here was also surprising. There were flying dwarves, robots controlled by mini turtles, and even tentacle eyes! Yep, now I can say for sure that we are in the “Dream World”.

“Hohoho! New Dreamians! Welcome to Never City! Wouldn't you be interested in seeing our horror show?” Says a bipedal three-eyed fox handing out flyers.

"Err, no thanks, I think I'm seeing enough weirdness for today..."

I don't even want to imagine what a 'horror show' would be in a place like this!

But Never City, right? A name that fits perfectly well for an exotic city like this.

As Loveta took the lead, Murakami was stunned by what she saw.

Strange, I thought she was already used to this sort of things, as she has been in Aether longer than me.

"Perhaps is this your first time seeing such random things Murakami?"

"Y-yes... I've never seen anything like this in Azurya, not even in its surroundings. I thought I would only see chaotic things like this after Elysia...”

Now that I think about it, it makes sense. Nothing before we entered this place, seemed so abnormal as what we see now. Everything from before was just normal, as you would expect from a medieval magical world you're used to reading around. Nothing until we set foot here was anything out of the extraordinary... But now, instead of having whales flying over ancient cathedrals, we had futuristic cathedrals carried by ghost whales!

“...By Elysia do you mean this region we're in?”

“Yes. Elysia is where Azurya is, and other cities connected to the Empire. By orders of the Emperor, this entire region was to be maintained in medieval fashion. Why I don’t know, but they say it's his taste for the ancient era, who knows...”

Murakami seems to understand quite a bit about the Empire, which makes sense, since she was summoned by the Emperor's own bishop. But hum, this is still a little strange, however, why would the bishop invoke her? Is she really 100% free from the Empire? I'd really like to ask her that, but I don't think now is the best time.

“Gyuu! You guys are too slow! What are you waiting for? Hurry up and come!”

Loveta had entered a corner inn, and was waving to us outside.

We followed her and entered the place.

There were several dreamians sitting on tables and chairs, drinking incessantly. Apparently, the place was a tavern too.

A woman at the counter notices us and waves at us.

A dreamian who looks like a person? Finally!

Unlike most, she was a normal human, or almost so. Her breasts were certainly very large, a few inches larger than Loveta's perhaps? And take a notice that Loveta's size is already a miracle.

...Could this one be Hansuke's creation? Well, I wouldn't doubt it.

“Look if it's not Love-chan!”

“Grrr! I've already told you not to call me that, the only one who can do that from now on is my Master~”

Loveta clings once more to my arms. Yeah, I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

“Ara, ara! Looks like you've finally found the lover of your dreams!”

“But of course~, after all, my Master is my crea—"

At the same moment Murakami and I cover Loveta's mouth. Saying that we are creators is not an option!

Loveta averts her eyes to me and licks my hand. Phew, this girl... Was it on purpose?

“Well, well, would this be a triangle relationship?”

T-triangle—?! Oh! If that was the case, I would be in heaven! Not that I'm not already in... Ah, it's complicated.

“Impossible.” Murakami gets a little embarrassed, and closes her eyes.

“Gahaha! As if my Master would be interested in a boring girl like her~”

Yeah, it looks like this dream is still somewhat distant...

“How awesome! That gave me a brilliant idea for my novel!”

The big chested woman becomes deluded in her own thoughts, until she comes back to her sense.

“Oh, I'm sorry! I think I got a little carried away~ By the way, my name is Aneesa. It's a pleasure to meet our S-Rank huntress' friends!”

"S-rank huntress?"

Who is she talking about? Loveta?!

“Yea!! Love-chan loves to hunt corrupted heads! The number of fragments she brings here is jaw-dropping!”

“What can I do~, those creatures ask to die! Gufufufu!”

Murakami is startled.

“Do you trade corrupted fragments here?!”

“But of course! The Empire pays a high price for each of them... Our traffic works well, you know?” She whispers to us.

Am I the only one who doesn't understand a bit of what they are saying right now?

I rise my hand, a little embarrassed.

"Err, what are these corrupted fragments…?"

Aneesa looks at me in surprise.

"Ara, don't you know?" Well, it must be because you're new to the area. A few weeks ago, the number of 'corrupted dreamians' increased a lot, as well as getting more aggressive. Our hunters report that along with all that, they started dropping these fragments, which apparently have a high value for the Empire.

“Drop”, even the way of speaking in this world is similar to that of RPG games—Fantastic! And if I were to made a more general analogy, these 'corrupted dreamians' would be the mobs of here.

“It’s believed that the ones behind this misfortune are them” She complements.

“Them?”

“Yes, them!”

Okay, she must be referring to some sort of evil force... Making an analogy to games and manga, it would be something related to the demon king, but in this world, the only evil thing I know of is—

“Are you referring to the moonst—”

Aneesa immediately interrupts me.

“Shhh! Don't attract negative energy here...!”

Apparently, talking about moonstrucks is taboo around here. Everyone in the tavern is staring at us strangely... Gulp!

She lowers her voice.

“But yes, it’s just like you said.”

“Gah! Just kill them all and problem solved. The Empire knights could die too!”

“Oh my, Love-chan is really inspired today! Fufufu.”

Murakami sighs.

“Sorry for changing the subject, but is there any room available for tonight? We kind of are in a hurry...” Murakami glances at me, she wanted to communicate something important to me... What could it be?

She then touches her wrist.

——!

That's right, the time! I didn't even notice the time passing! The sunset should happen in a few minutes, and we can “disappear” any moment from now.

“Of course, of course! I have the perfect room for you three~”

Aneesa walks over to the key ring and hands us one of the keys—It was shaped like a heart… Huh?

“You can pay me tomorrow! Now go out there and have fun~” She give us a smug smile.

* * *

Oh right, now I got the ‘have fun’ part. Really, the size of this bed is no joke. Three people are not enough for that!

That manager is certainly as crazy as Loveta, but well, I won't say I didn't like the bed and the intention, fufufu. But too bad it's useless, since any moment from now I'll be returning to my world.

Hum, there are other interesting things around here too, like a huge 4K TV and video games consoles. This city, as Murakami said herself, isn't attached to medieval standards, so it's only to be expected that more modern things would exist here.

Loveta jumps on the bed.

“Hey Master Kazuki, we still have some time before you go back to your world~” She pats the bed.

No, although it looks like she has those intentions, it's actually something else. Loveta had taken the video game control and wanted me to play with her. Yep, no wonder she is my creation, my ideal type of girl.

As I was about to go play with her, Murakami, who had sat on one of the chairs in the room, caught my attention.

“Ryouzen, these last few minutes are important, and there's something else I need to discuss with you.”

“Guuuu! You're stealing my Master from me again!”

"I'm sorry soul-lin... Loveta, but there is something really important I need to discuss with him, since this might be the last time we will meet in this world."

Last time...? What does she mean by that?

“You must already be aware of the nightmare episodes that have been happening on Earth, no?”

“Yes… People have been having more nightmares than usual.”

She nods.

“Aether is involved with this problem, and that is a fact. I could be more specific, and say that the moonstrucks are the cause of this.”

But these guys are really a problem, huh? They are behind everything!

“If you take a moment to analyze, it's no wonder that the number of 'corrupted dreamians' also increased here, more or less the same period that the episodes started to appear on Earth.”

“Now that you mention it, these 'corrupted dreamians' would be what, exactly? Some sort of result of people's nightmares?”

“It is what I think. I've never faced them exactly, because I was more concerned with hunting soul-linkeds... Loveta must know more about them than I do.”

“Gyaaa… there's not much to know. They are nothing more than a bunch of zombies. They don't know how to speak properly, and they attack you in case you get too close.”

So I was right, they are just the mobs of this world; they don't chat and are hostile.

She continues.

“My job as a knight of the Empire wasn't just that of soul-linkeds hunting, though. We also aimed to find any clues that could be related to the moonstrucks’ whereabouts. The problem is that these clues never came... The most we could find was that their core community was located after Elysia.”

“Um? But didn't you say you never left here?”

“Yes, and that's the problem. The Emperor doesn't seem to care much about us finding them for real, and restricts our stay in this region. That was the second reason I left them.”

Murakami looked very disappointed with this, and I could understand why.

While there is a clear enemy that threatens both worlds, the Empire, which was apparently supposed to guarantee peace, was not making the minimum effort necessary to contain them... Honestly, they're just a bunch of cowards!

“…And since I don’t want out world to continues to suffer, I had no other choice but to abandon them, and continue the work myself” Complements.

She seems to be hiding something. Maybe she has a selfish reason behind it, but well, I don't judge her. Wanting to end the episodes is already a common good, and that's enough already.

"Murakami, there's something else I've been wanting to ask you, but didn’t get the chance. Did the Empire really let you out freely, since they were the ones who summoned you? Wouldn't you, as a creator, be missed by them?”

“Um, let's see… The bishop, responsible for my invocation, was totally against my exit, but the Emperor consented. Even though I'm a creator, my skills with swords aren't out of the extraordinary, you know? It's not like they would gain any visible advantage by keeping me there, so there would be no reason to force me to stay. Maybe they had summoned me thinking I would manifest some kind of extraordinary power, but they ended up wrong...”

"But we both used the only two summoning crystals there were left, right?" They won't be able to do another summon anytime soon...”

“Certainly not. But it's not like they have that much interest in creators... The only thing they care about is hunting soul-linked with knights, and gathering 'corrupted fragments' with autonomous hunters.”

Really, these guys are dead air. Um? I look to the side and see Loveta asleep on the bed. Yep, I think I’ll never get tired of seeing her like this.

“Ryouzen, having said all that, I need you to stay in this city.” Murakami had changed her tone again. “You've seen how dangerous the world outside is. If you stay here, I don't think you'll have any big problems, especially with a dreamian like Loveta by your side. I, on the other hand, have business to deal with them, and so I'll be leaving the inn first thing in the morning.”

“…And do you think I’ll just accept that, and not go with you too?”

“Huh...?”

She's caught off guard by what I've said, and I quickly continue.

“The world you're trying to save is the same as mine, isn't it? So it wouldn't be fair for you to do all the work yourself while I'm standing here idly. It's only fair that I also help you in this story. Well, I know I'm going to need to take some training classes, but I promise to do my best!”

Tell me, who would want to miss the chance to be a part of a realistic RPG adventure? No way would I miss this opportunity! Besides, I'm already tired of my dull, everyday life back on Earth.

Noticing the abrupt silence, I proceed, a little embarrassed, and scratching my head.

"Unless you think I'm going to be a burden of course, haha...”

Murakami shakes her head.

“It's not that... It's just that it's rare to find people with this same determination as you these days... Thank you, your help will certainly be appreciated, and it will mean a lot to me.”

Wait… Is it just me, or did the 'Iron Heart' just flash a beautiful smile to me now!? I’ve never seen a smile on her face before! Oh man, I think I just won the lottery!