IMAGINE

Lance finds himself in the same void, where lay a wooden door in the middle.

This time, Lance wasn't afraid like before. A voice rang out from within the door.

"Come inside!" It was a gentle and warm voice.

Lance raised his hand to the golden knob of the door, showcasing symbols of the Moon, Water, and Eye.

He opened the door, and within was a plain filled with nothing but purple-colored grass. The wind blew fast, and the grass danced with it. The sky was bright blue with the sun shining high. No matter how far Lance could see, all he saw was the plain area.

He took a step inside, and the door behind him was sucked into an unknown void, disappearing completely.

Before anything else, Lance could tell someone was standing behind him. He slowly turned his face, and his eyes caught a glimpse of a woman around the same height as him. She had a bowtie in which her bright red hair rested. Her eyes were gold itself, she had a soft nose, a round face, and she wore a beautiful red and white dress.

In all her beauty, Lance could still spot the bruises hidden in her sleeves. He could see a big vertical scar around her neck, like someone had put a knife there. He could see the girl's cheeks red as blood, as if someone had slapped them viciously. He could tell that the hair was a wig.

Although there was something Lance didn’t know how he knew—like how the wig was actually her real hair, as if someone had pulled it out.

The woman, who resembled Reality a lot, but was someone else spoke—breaking the silence. She seemed to have spotted Lance looking at her scars.

"This," she put her finger at her neck, "some horrid people did this to me. However, no need to worry about me. They are already gone!" She smiled at Lance.

"Did it hurt?" Lance asked.

The girl looked at Lance, her eyes becoming watery.

"Yes. Yes, it did. It hurt a lot."

Lance, looking at the woman getting emotional, opened his arms as he smiled back at her.

"Want a hug?"

The woman's eyes widened for a second before she regained her beautiful smile.

"I would love that."

As the two hugged, the woman couldn’t help but cry out.

"I thought they would never kill me."

"I thought I would live the rest of my life over there."

She pushed Lance back after the hug and bowed down with a big smile—an honest smile, a face filled with gratitude.

"THANK YOU!"

Before Lance realized, he too was crying.

The woman turned her back to Lance and started walking, before uttering one last sentence:

"Well done."

The dream ended, and Lance woke up next to Sunflower, who was sitting on the ground waiting patiently for Lance to wake up.

Sunflower, noticing the sudden awakening of Lance as if he saw a nightmare, slowly whispered:

"Did you do this?"

Lance noticed Sunflower pointing somewhere. As his eyes trailed in that direction, he saw three graves next to each other. The tombstones were replaced with a Sword, a Bow, and a Warhammer.

Lance immediately realized who those weapons belonged to.

He turned to Sunflower and honestly replied, "Yes."

Sunflower continued sharpening her dagger, as if she already had a guess of what Lance would say.

"I see," she replied in a very slow voice.

"They were seriously strong. The girl with the bow and that boy with the warhammer gave me a tough time," Lance spoke out.

Sunflower’s interest grew. "What about the boy with the sword?"

She was referring to Arnold.

Lance took a moment to structure his sentence in his mind. "Oh, him! He was really strong. He probably gave me the hardest time out of them all!"

Lance didn’t know when it happened, but he had started understanding people more. Maybe it was the dream he just had that enhanced his ability to read people.

The moment Sunflower asked about Arnold—Lance could tell the boy was someone very special to her. So, he decided to lie to put Arnold in a brighter light. However, in reality, it was because of Arnold that the trio died so quickly.

If Arnold had acted together with his team and didn’t seek glory alone, the trio could have bought enough time for Sunflower to make it. However, upon Arnold’s arm being cut off and his intense screams, the remaining two were also injected with fear through his cries. This led to blind spots, which Lance utilized to end them quickly.

Sunflower stood up, stretching her arms and legs.

"Okay, I’m ready. You can do it now."

Sunflower tossed the dagger she had been sharpening toward Lance, implying he should kill her.

"Why?" Lance inquired.

"It’s just an easy way to do it, especially if both parties want the same thing. I want to die, and you want to uplift the curse. So, pick up the dagger," Sunflower answered coldly.

"Why not kill me and then take your own life? That would avenge your people," Lance asked.

Sunflower, who already had a hunch that Lance was behind the meteor and the destruction of her home, honestly replied:

"I wanted to kill you, but it wouldn’t change anything. Another person would come for my head. My next stage of life would be constant struggle against the cursed, until I fell in battle."

Lance stood up with a confident look on his face.

"The curse is over. The voices are gone. My mind is not telling me to kill. In fact, it never told me to kill. When I met those three," Lance pointed toward the three graves next to each other, "when I was fighting them, my mind buzzed with a constant message to kill, to eradicate, to erase them all.

But my mind is clear now. Come to think of it, my mind only got corrupted when I entered your village," Lance said.

"WHAT?!" Sunflower was shocked. From what she had heard from Dawn, the prophecy spoke of eradicating everyone with the blood of Tresia.

Another thought entered Sunflower’s mind—when she stood up to fight Reality, she was able to end the one-sided battle easily. Why had Reality grown weak? Was it because the prophecy had maybe completed? Then that can only mean—

Sunflower took a few steps back in shock.

"I am not from Tresia!"

Lance blinked twice.

"What?!"

Sunflower immediately looked at Lance.

"What about my parents? Were they from Tresia?"

Sunflower wanted to know if her parents were from somewhere else—or was she adopted? However, Lance could not give a clear answer.

"I can’t tell if your parents were from Tresia. My mind just kept telling me that all my problems were the village."

Sunflower, in disappointment, sat back down with the dagger in hand, contemplating whether to live or die. Her curiosity about her real parents overwhelmed her.

Amid her confusion, she saw Lance pick up a bow lying near him. She watched as Lance began to look deeper into it. Curious, she also laid her eyes on it.

"Uh, where did you get this bow?" Sunflower asked, confused.

Lance asked, "Why?"

"This is one of the few high-grade bows from our weaponry, made from the finest wood."

Sunflower paused for a second before continuing, "Did the kid with the sword bring it with him?"

Sunflower knew that Julie had brought one with her, as she was allowed to. Only a couple of individuals were granted access to this weapon, including Dawn, Julie, and Sunflower herself. Others weren't skilled or responsible enough to wield it—especially not Arnold.

Lance replied, "No, I made it."

"You made it?" At first, Sunflower thought the curse hadn’t fully left Lance.

Lance replied, "More like I imagined it—and it came to reality."

Sunflower, with a serious face, understood how the meteor appeared over her village, but she was still surprised that all it took was to imagine it.

"Can you imagine anything?" Sunflower asked, curious.

"I can try." Lance closed his eyes. Darkness everywhere. He began to imagine a small object, concentrating on the object's texture. Upon fully visualizing it, he opened his eyes—and between the two sat a basket filled with loaves of bread.

However, the excited Sunflower took one bite of the bread only to realize that it tasted nothing like bread—it tasted awful.