Welcome to Taranios! It’s Halloween!

Three days before Saya arrived in Taranios, Iwao was heading serenely toward the city. He was riding on the cart of the people he had found.

During the day and during the night, he never once dropped his invisibility. It consumed a lot of energy and, to regain it, night after night, he devoured the passengers’ nightmares. Seeing their relaxed faces as their nightmares disappeared made him happy.

While they slept, he also repelled the monsters that wandered in the surrounding area. It was his way of thanking them for the journey, even if they didn’t know he was there.

In the blink of an eye, the three days had passed, and he arrived in Taranios at the end of the afternoon. He stood at the main gate of the fortifications surrounding the city.

“So, this is Taranios. It looks a lot like Paris in the 1800s. I remember seeing sketches and photos in my history books at school. It’s as if Baron Haussmann was reincarnated here to built a second version of Paris. It looks the same… except for this.”

As he was walking toward the other side of the city, still cloaked in invisibility, he noticed a district covering a third of the city that was unlike the rest. It looked like a slum, but with real houses. The streets were narrow and laid out like a maze.

“This seems like a good zone to eat tonight. Poverty in all its beauty... the children's nightmares must be atrocious here. And since they seem to celebrate Halloween too, all the conditions are met. I will return later at night… when the children will be asleep.” Iwao muttered in a sad tone.

In the meantime, he went through other parts of the city to explore and gather information about daily life, commerce, and even how the citizens used magic.

“The lives of citizens must be quite different from those of the people constantly traveling on the roads” He thought.

After a long walk, he arrived at what seemed to be the main avenue. He couldn’t resist the urge to whisper, “Wow! Beautiful!”. The city was completely immersed in the Halloween atmosphere. Magic was everywhere.

The street lamps didn’t just shine with magic light – they also projected Halloween patterns onto the buildings. Pumpkins, skeletons, and other festive shapes floated in the air. But the most incredible thing was the costumes.

“I don’t know any of these characters… yet I can tell they’re well dressed and take this celebration seriously… If only it had been the same on Earth...fewer and fewer people participated each year...”

He didn’t dare speak much, or he would have been spotted, even with his invisibility spell. So he just devoured the sight with his eyes.

By listening to the citizens, he learned that Halloween here consisted of a parade, a banquet in the streets, and then fireworks. He grew impatient.

“It’s just like in my childhood! I’m feeling like a little kid again...”

As the thought crossed his mind, he silently cried while admiring the colorful city from side street near the main avenue.

“I wonder what they thought of my death… Sometimes, I miss them… Even if I was nothing more than a good student or a good son instead of just being myself, I wasn’t really lonely. I was accepted, and I had someone to talk to… But now that I’m dead over there, I can’t really go back, right…?” He whispered.

The memories of his childhood stabbed at his chest.

“I never said goodbye. I have no way of returning there, nor even to contact them… I prefer a world where I had value rather than this one, where I’m nothing more than a splinter in people’s feet...”

He didn’t cry for long, as the parade began before his eyes. People were disguised as monsters, others in fantastical armor or strange clothes. Behind them, chariots drawn by enormous ostrich-like creatures with four eyes rolled by.

On the chariots, bands played music while dancers cast spells that produced dazzling rays of light. The atmosphere was marvelous, and no one could take their eyes off the spectacle. Ten minutes later, the parade ended on the main avenue, and Iwao hurried to finish his exploration.

Through restaurant windows, he saw cooks using fire spells. In the streets, when a hat flew off someone’s head, magic retrieved it. In shops, customers made their wallet appear with magic, as if they were in another dimension. Iwao saw all sorts of magical uses, from simple tricks to complex spells, like maintaining fireballs to heat apartments. His gaze shone brightly as he admired it all.

But then he returned to his senses. Hunger gnawed at him, but he had to wait until the banquet and fireworks were over. He returned to the slum to wait.

A few hours later, at midnight, the first children were asleep. The Halloween atmosphere in the slum wasn’t as captivating as on the main avenue, but it had its charm. Iwao searched for ropes that hung outside apartments and houses, waiting for him.

He found one, a large one. That meant the nightmare was horrible, but it would silence his hunger. With a spell, he verified that the rope belonged to a child. He touched it and entered the nightmare.

Taranios was in flames. The child was crying before the bodies of what seemed to be his parents. Fireballs were everywhere in the sky, as if the ones heating apartments had broken loose and were about to destroy the city. Everyone in the nightmare was running and screaming for their lives. Debris flew everywhere.

“Oh…! A really big nightmare, but not something insurmountable. In just two minutes it’ll be over. After that, I’ll finally get some sleep. It’s been three days since I last closed my eyes.”

Iwao opened his mouth toward the sky. Depending on the nightmare’s size, he used different methods. A small one could be swallowed by plunging his mouth into the earth, but for the big ones, it started with the sky.

A whirlwind formed from his mouth, and the nightmare slowly began to transform into energy. He was devouring it, but when it came to swallowing the fireballs, something was wrong. They burned him, even though they had already been reduced to energy. He ignored the pain.

“Well… I know this pain will disappear once I leave this nightmare. I must not worry.”

At the end, he consumed the rope and returned outside the child’s house.

“This nightmare… parents dead… The memories of this child… Mom…” Iwao thought, doing all he could to keep from crying.

As he walked away, searching for a quiet place to sleep without being found, he heard a voice.

“So, you finally finished. It was fast. I thought I wouldn’t arrive in time to see you and finally talk to you.” A feminine voice said, calm and steady.

Iwao froze. He turned toward the young woman. She seemed about twenty years old, with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail. She was tall and wore what looked like adventurer’s clothes. She had a bright smile, but her serious gaze pierced the dark.

“Yes, I’m talking to you, Mister Invisible. I’ve been following you for quite some time now. My name is Celi. Now that I’ve told you my name, show yourself! If you’re worried about what you look like, don’t be. I’m not afraid, and I don’t care at all. Since the first time I felt your presence and saw you, I knew something was off. You intrigue me. I want to talk to you – maybe even go on an adventure with you. I have a great feeling about this. I’ll listen carefully to your worries if you have any. Have faith in me!” She said playfully.

“She can see me? She’s not afraid? She wants to talk? Too many new things… what do I do? But she doesn’t seem to be lying…” Iwao thought, too stunned to move.

He sighed deeply and let his invisibility fade.

"How did you manage to see me?" Iwao asked calmly.

"Oh, that! I just see things others can’t!" Celi answered happily.

“I want to know more… but I can’t ask. Her smile… it surely tells me she won’t answer my questions anyway.”

As the wind blew dust into his face, Iwao coughed before clearing his throat.

“Where do you want to go to talk? I can’t stay here, or we’ll have problems because of what I look like.” He whispered, making sure only Celi could hear.

“But someone’s already watching us, you know?”

“Yes, but I don’t care about her. She won’t do anything except follow us and try to listen in. I know her intentions well.”

“So then, do you want to include her in the conversation?”

“No, I’m fine. One person at a time.”

A young woman, also in her twenties, was hidden behind a house. Her strange outfit made her stand out. She wore a white suit that highlighted her blue eyes and short brown hair. She was watching and listening to the two of them talk.

“Do you know her?” Celi asked.

“Not exactly. I only know a few things about her. Her name’s Saya Benegram, princess of the Polmo Kingdom. I know what she looks like. That’s about it.” Iwao muttered, not realizing Saya could hear him.

Saya was shocked – her eyes widening, her mouth agape, and her lips trembling.

“It… knows me…?”