The next day, Mereli and I decided to explore the castle.

Even though I call it exploring, it was more just Mereli dragging me around, and showing me the various places she frequented. Really, it felt like someone was giving me a house tour, except, you know, the house was a ruined castle and the tour guide was a little girl with horns.

Well, it’s not like I was complaining. Having gotten over yesterday’s brief existential crisis, I closely followed behind, as my overly excited tour guide happily led me around the premises. In truth, exploring the castle was part my idea and part hers.

While Mereli’s enthusiasm came primarily from her excitement to be with someone, my motivation was spurred by a weird amalgamation of curiosity, caution, and boredom.

Curiosity in the sense that this archaic looking structure excited the inner child in me. For a bitter romantic like myself, this place practically screamed adventure. A forgotten castle, ancient ruins, a mysterious and unknown environment, something like that was ripped straight from every young boy’s fantasies.

Of course, the fact that it was an unknown environment was also the reason for my original caution. Whatever dangers this place had, I would have no way of knowing unless I first thoroughly understood the very ground that I walked on. In this sense, exploration became more of a necessity, as opposed to a simple past time.

But while curiosity and caution were both important, the primary motivational factor came from the feeling of impending boredom that drilled its way deep into my heart. More precisely, it wasn’t just my boredom, but Mereli’s as well.

Earlier this morning, I wanted to ask Mereli just what it was she did to pass the time, but I had a gut feeling that the answer I’d get would either bring tears to my eyes or leave me incredibly depressed, so I didn’t bother asking.

With that in mind, unless I wanted to spend the whole day cooped up in some dreary, sparsely decorated, vintage knockoff of the bat cave, there really was nothing better to do around here, other than walk around and explore.

In regards to the castle, it was quite unique, in both its design and location. While Mereli wasn’t familiar with every crack and crevice of the castle, the parts she brought me to were enough to leave me in awe.

The castle was a massive behemoth, something that would easily put even the largest stadium from earth to shame. Of course, that was just the main building. The property itself was made up of several courtyards, towers, and various other sub buildings. The total amount of land it took up was astronomical.

In addition, the spires, ramparts and castle walls that were all a part of the castle’s overall design, were all equally grand, and perfectly fit with the rest of the compound’s grandiose, and excessively lavish design.

To put everything into perspective, everything that I saw was merely a part of the remnants. I couldn’t even begin to imagine just what such a castle looked like in the past. Even the vestiges of what’s remaining were enough to leave me in jaw dropping shock, much less the completed product.

As for its location, it was odd, to say the least. I wouldn’t call it weird, but the surroundings really didn’t match with the castle’s exterior. The place was built on a relatively large patch of open field, while trees as far as the eye could see surrounded the property from all sides. Basically, the castle appeared to be situated in the middle of an extremely dense forest.

It was like a lone raft floating across an endless dark green ocean.

Trees that somewhat resembled the pine trees from my past life dotted the surrounding landscape. I only say resembled, because there was a substantial difference between the trees surrounding the castle, and the trees I was familiar with. The biggest difference was the fact that the trees here were several times larger than the ones in my memory.

Their trunks were a shade of dark charcoal, while thick stumps no smaller than the width of a school bus, shot up into the sky and grew far past the eye could see, threatening to pierce the unshakeable heavens. In this sort of forest, even the shortest tree dwarfed the castle’s tallest tower.

I stared dazedly at the large expanse of murky green without so much as moving. Right now, I felt like a tiny ant, standing amidst blades of towering grass.

Building a castle in the middle of a forest was quite unusual. Although being able to build something this grand was already a pretty amazing feat in and of itself, the fact that it was built so far away from civilization, and in the middle of such clearly difficult terrain, made it even more so unbelievable.

While it was indeed amazing, that didn’t change the fact that this castle was clearly situated in uninhabited land.

Why? What good was something so amazing, if there was nobody to see it?

I shook my head, and let out a long drawn out sigh. Even though I had so many unanswered questions, I knew staring blankly at the scenery wouldn’t give me any answers. At least, not any that would satisfy me.

“This place really isn’t Earth.” I sat down on the ground, and listlessly gazed at the forest. Right now, I was in front of the castle gates, a place that could be called the very edge of civilization, where the land bordered the forest. After two hours of wandering through decrepit halls and tattered rooms, I somehow ended up here.

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“What’s Earth?” Mereli’s voice penetrated through my thoughts, as her question slowly floated to my ears.

From the corner of my eye, I glanced up at the girl who stood by my side. She was leaning against a broken column of stone, which was once a part of the castle’s gate. The black tail behind her swung excitedly in the air, while her eyes stared fixedly at my face, the gleam of curiosity twinkling within her irises.

“Earth is… Earth is where I came from.” I answered after much hesitation.

Her lips twisted into an uncharacteristic frown. “Even though Mereli created you, you still came from somewhere else?”

I could only nod at her apparent doubt. Sometimes, even I found it hard to believe. In the book, it never once told of any homunculus that possessed preexisting memories, yet, all the same, here I was. “That’s right, before I was… before I was a homunculus, I lived on Earth… at least, I think I did.”

“Really?” Her eyes widened. “Mr. Homunculus wasn’t always a homunculus?”

I laughed wryly to myself. It just occurred to me that Mereli never actually named me. It was unfortunate that I couldn’t really remember my name from the past, but aside from mild inconvenience, it didn’t really seem all that important right now.

I muddled over her question for a while, before responding. “I guess not. In the past, I was probably a human. Has Mereli ever met a human before?”

Although I was slightly unsure whether humans existed on this world, I still asked.

Contrary to my expectations, Mereli nodded. “Father had metal uncles working for him. Some of them were human. They were strict, but nice, especially the ones that gave me candy.”

I widened my eyes in slight surprise, before I nodded my head. “Is that right? Your father must have been pretty amazing to get humans to work for him.”

Mereli enthusiastically bobbed her head up and down. “That’s right, Father had a lot of people with him. He was really cool, and also really strong. Not even the metal uncles could beat him, even when they worked together.”

The metal uncles… if my understanding was correct, they should be knights, right? I don’t exactly know how strong knights were, but if Mereli’s father could beat them as easily as she said he could, then he was probably a pretty amazing guy.

Damn, good job dad.

“He was strong, he was super strong but… in the end, he’s gone.” Mereli’s tone grew somber, as the early gleam in her eyes dimmed. She stared at the ground in silence for a while, before a meek voice quietly asked. “Your home, what was it like?”

“I don’t really remember…” I answered honestly. “Just that, it was noisy, and filled with people. We didn’t really have castles like this, nor were there any trees as large as the ones over here, but there were skyscrapers—metal buildings that shot up so high in the sky that they touched the clouds.”

“That sounds really cool.” She half mumbled to herself, before she looked up at me with hesitant, yet expectant eyes. “Do you—do you think Mereli can go there someday too?”

I laughed bitterly to myself. “That, I don’t know about that.”

Even I don’t know whether I can make it back to Earth… nor do I know whether or not I even want to go back. After all, who knows how humanity would react to a homunculus. Although I looked partly ordinary on the outside, save for my grey hair, still, there was no changing the fact that I was different.

Plus, I have a feeling that my memories of Earth aren’t all exactly positive. My desire to return to my old world… it could all be summed up with a big, fat zero.

Rather than Earth, I was more interested in this world.

I looked back down at Mereli. Seeing her downtrodden expression, it was apparent that she had misunderstood my earlier words as a rejection.

I scratched the back of my head, and mulled over an appropriate response, before I said, “Well, it’s just that my home is located pretty far away from here. I don’t even know how to get back myself, but if I do find a way, I promise to take you with me.”

Hearing my words, Mereli finally looked up, and cracked a slight smile. “You promise?” she asked timidly.

I nodded. “Yes, of course, I promise.”

Her smile grew wider, while her earlier despondence completely vanished.

“But you know, before we go to Earth, I’d like to find out more about this place.” I added. “Since I heard Mereli’s pretty smart, I was hoping she’d be able to tell me a thing or two.”

Mereli’s facial expression turned serious. She nodded repeatedly to herself, while confidently saying. “Mereli is super smart. Mereli is super, super smart, smarter than Mr. Homunculus, but… there are even some things that I don’t know about.”

She eventually sighed, shrugging her shoulders in the process. “Mereli has never left the castle, so Mereli doesn’t know, but… there was one thing that Father told me about…”

“Oh? What thing?” I curiously asked.

“… Father told Mereli to never go into the forest.” She replied with a serious expression.

“Why is that?”

“Because the forest is dangerous. If Mereli goes, Mereli will get eaten by the monsters that live there. Not even Mereli’s bones will remain if Mereli get eaten.” Her shoulders shivered uncontrollably in genuine fear, as she unconsciously took a step back from the forest, and hid behind my back.

Even though her words sounded just like the fairy tales that adults told to their children late at night, considering magic and alchemy existed in this world, I felt that there was more truth to her words than just mere fantasy.

But still, if the forest was so dangerous, why were we safe within the castle?

I bitterly shook my head. Thinking over such things was useless, at least for the time being. While I made an invisible note to be wary of the black forest (which is what I started calling it, on account of the charcoal colored trees), I couldn’t help but grow despondent.

“I see…” I let out the sigh that had been building in the back of my throat.

I didn’t have much hope for Mereli at the start, and even the little info about the forest was more than what I was expecting, but still, I couldn’t help but be disappointed at the lack of information. Right now, for me, information was a very precious resource, and the fact that I had none of it was enough to send me spiraling into a circle of frustration and anxiety.

“But…”

Just as I began to wallow in my own myriad emotions, Mereli’s wavering voice suddenly spoke close to my ear.

“What is it?” I quietly asked her.

“Um, Mereli knows of a place where Mr. Homunculus can find out, but Mereli isn’t allowed to go there.”

“Not allowed? Why?” I knitted my brow and asked. “Is it a dangerous place like the forest?”

She shook her head. “It’s not dangerous, but Father didn’t let Mereli go there.” After hesitating for a few seconds, she added, “—um, that was before he, he disappeared.”

My eyes slightly brightened. I resisted the urge no longer, and asked, “What is this place?”

Her hesitation was apparent in her wavering eyes, but after a few seconds of terse silence, she eventually said, “Father’s old library…”