The familiar waiting room and its furnishings met Agan’s gaze, and he felt good inside his heart. He didn’t exactly have many memories here, but it still felt nice to see. The carpet dampened his footsteps now that he had exited the room.

Doctor Jones didn’t follow him outside, but he didn’t mind.

As there was nobody inside the waiting room, Agan thought that it must’ve been the end of the day; otherwise, there should’ve been at least one person here. It was strangely empty for a place known by many.

As there was nothing he needed to do inside, he looked at the magical white light near the exit and walked towards it. He was sure the doctor would take care of everything here…

-O-

As he opened his eyes from the now dimmer light, Agan expected his eyes to sting from the sun; however, that didn’t happen. In surprise, he looked at the sky, blinking at the red hue.

It was dusk. The sun was setting, and the crowds of people that were originally here had diminished heavily. Only a few people were out on the streets.

Agan thought to himself in shock, ‘Did I really spend that long in there?’ The sun was certainly in the afternoon when he had come in, but he highly doubted he had been talking to the doctor for hours. The time he spent waiting for…Jaffy to come out of the session couldn’t have been long either.

Agan would have contemplated further, but he jolted when someone’s hand entered his right eye’s vision.

Kamae looked at him with an annoyed expression. “I waited for you for a while, you know? What were you even doing there? Did you really talk with that…person? Yeah, let’s say person.” She tapped her foot on the ground repeatedly, and her aura moved around impatiently.

Agan would’ve chuckled, but he felt worried for the woman. “Yes, I was getting help from her. I’m not exactly sure what you were doing, but I hope you didn’t stand here all day.” The man felt a bead of sweat drop from the side of his head. “…Did you?”

Even if the sun was going down, there was still enough temperature to make him feel hot. It was summer, after all.

With a light-hearted scoff, Kamae’s language turned back to normal. “Don’t worry. I was only here for…hmm, five or ten minutes. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if you’d even come back alive or not.”

Agan stared at her with a disappointed, but grateful, expression.

“…Hey, don’t look at me like that.” Kamae said, knowing full well she had meant her words.

“Well…” Agan scratched his head. “If you weren’t here, what did you do while I was gone?” He said, starting to walk over to his home. Kamae followed shortly after. His cane clacked the surface of the stone brick roads, and the imperial city’s lights bloomed over the now darkening sky. “You yourself said that you didn’t wait for me the whole time, right?”

Kamae nodded. “Yeah. I went to a magic lecture while you were gone. It was a pretty interesting one, too.” She waved her hand at the sky with a smile. “Very mysterious!”

Agan was surprised, but he still kept his calm. “You went to a…” He hesitated, as the pronunciation was slightly difficult—of course, that didn’t mean he didn’t know the word’s meaning. “…You went to a lecture? Since when could you do that? I thought only the smart and the rich could afford to do so…”

“Hehe, perks of saving a certain important someone.” She side eyed the man. “Like I was saying, it was an interesting topic. It was about, like, this weird thing that’s starting to appear more often.”

Agan raised an eyebrow and let the woman continue. His curiosity was piqued; however, when he saw the woman’s eyebrows turn into a sad slope, he felt like he should be ready for what she says next.

“Well, it’s kind of sad to think about…but hey, at the time, it was a weird thing that made me feel like a scholar!” Her chest puffed out in pride. “You see, sometimes, when people feel a major amount of emotion, they go out of control, and their strength changes. It usually goes down, but they believe it could go up in certain circumstances.” Agan started to pay a little bit more attention to the conversation now. This was starting to feel a little familiar.

Not noticing the tension starting to rise, Kamae kept on speaking. “So far though…it’s only been seen with anger.” Agan’s pace slowed down. “Weirdly enough, the teacher said that it’s starting to become more common as the years pass by. When it happens, the most obvious sign is the way they act, and—“ The woman bulged out her eyes exaggeratedly. “—especially their red eyes.”

Agan’s footsteps completely skidded to a halt, and Kamae looked back in worry.

“…Agan?” The man stayed silent. “Did something happen?”

“…No. Nothing happened, don’t worry about it.” Agan sighed, feeling as exhausted as he had been inside the psychologist’s office. “Was there anything else you learned from there?”

Kamae was still a tad bit suspicious about the reason for the man’s stop, but she continued talking anyway. “Nope, not really. I was only there for…well, a short while. By the way…” Agan looked at her to convey that he was listening. “…when are you ever going to get your photo taken?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Gah. You know I hate cameras. I do now and I always will.” His bitter response was instant.

Kamae sighed. “Well, it was worth a shot…why do you even hate them so much, anyways? They allow you to see something forever!”

The man’s eyes darkened at that sentence. Agan thought back to the time he was imprisoned by that wretched bastard, and the things he had shown him alongside with it. Then, as his cane clacked once more alongside his feet, he thought of Jaffy solemnly. If only he hadn’t weakened himself…

“…Hmph. I’ll tell you someday, but not right now.” The man rolled his eyes, and looked at the rest of the street. His home was just a little further away. How convenient. “Anyways, are you going to go home?”

Kamae was going to walk him all the way, but she yawned. “...Yeah, I guess I should. The sun has already fallen from the sky, huh? Didn’t even notice.” She smiled, looking around at the air above. Then, she redirected her gaze back to the man. “Well, you don’t need my help to go over to your house there, right? I should probably get to sleep now anyways.”

“I can do at least this much, can’t I? There’s no way I can miss it.” Agan scoffed, but it was clear that he was being playful to the woman. “Go get some rest, alright?”

“Yeah, you too. Good night!” The woman exclaimed, waving goodbye to the man.

Unfortunately for Agan, he didn’t even have the time to wave back, nor did he have the time to wish her good night when she was there. He still did in his mind, however.

As he went back home, a very firm determination rose up into his heart. When he remembered his past memories, he realized that in them there was always one main problem.

He was never strong enough.

-O-

It was dark.

Coincidentally, tonight was one of the nights where the moon’s glow wasn’t shining in the night sky. The stars filled in for its presence, but their shine was nowhere near as much as the moon’s.

Tonight however, Agan was not focused on astronomy.

He had been avoiding it for years ever since the incident, but after having that talk with the doctor, Agan decided to give it one more try. The man walked towards a certain closet, and his cane resembled the clacking of the long gone cane the Village Chief had. Though, he wouldn’t be surprised if the Village Chief of all people managed to live.

He was one damn monster, that’s for sure.

Creaking open the closet, Agan looked at the brown wooden box inside. It was finally time. Using what little strength he had in his deflated muscle, Agan opened it with caution.

There it was.

It was slightly rusty, but Agan could recognize it at first glance—the metal sword given to him all those years ago by the Emians. He managed to recover it after a long time, but he never ended up using it to its fullest.

The man began to lift it up…

“Wh—GAH, FUCKING—“

…however, before he could even begin carrying it like a normal sword, the blade grew too heavy for him to wield, causing his body to limp at an uncomfortable angle. Agan frowned in pain, and then decidedly put the sword back inside the box.

The man sighed as he put the box away. He closed the closet, but he didn’t lock it. Agan was too tired to do so.

“...Yeah, what was I thinking? I’ll never be strong enough to wield a sword ever again.” Agan muttered to himself.

Then, as he picked up his cane, Agan slowly walked back to his bedroom. It was a long walk, and it was certainly something he should have done instead of trying to remember his old moves. This was stupid of him.

However, on his way to a good night’s rest, a certain hallway’s door blocked his path. His cane stopped moving, and a menacing air loomed from it.

‘This door wasn’t always open…’ The man thought.

There were two options presented to him: he could either go in and check out the disturbance, or get a good night’s sleep.

On any ordinary night, the man would most likely ignore this kind of ominous sign, but tonight was not one of those nights. With his grip on the door’s handle, he nearly closed the door; however, he shook his head.

Something like this…was not something he needed to run away from.

Despite that, when he looked inside the room, his heart wavered. Although he had been walking with no light, his eye was used to the darkness; thus, he was still somewhat able to see what was inside it.

There was a small light shining on the ground, and as his right eye loomed over it, he noticed some kind of smoke coming outside of the room. The detail made him cautious, but he wasn’t going to stop here. It didn’t smell, after all.

Strangely enough, the light shined on some kind of dirt, rather than the wooden floor his house had. It was a familiar texture, but there was something about it that made it seem different from regular dirt. With trepidation, Agan slowly walked into the room cane-first.

Instantly, the moment he walked inside the room, the temperature had dropped down. In an unconscious response, Agan’s skin shivered to the cold air; he nearly dropped his cane along with the temperature. Then, as he looked around his surroundings, a misty fog suddenly entrapped his vision.

“...Unbelievable.” The man’s jaw dropped, and his voice shook. “No…are you serious right now? You…” The man picked up his cane and swung it around him like a sword angrily. “WHO ARE YOU!? COME OUT OF HERE!”

His eyes sparked red, but they started to sting before their candle tips could be lit. Grasping his eyes, the man calmed down slightly with a sweat. Something strange happened there for a moment–although he tended to get angry easily, the effects would only appear after he had thought about what happened.

His emotions were out of control in this place, and now, he remembered exactly what this place was. He shouldn’t have forgotten, especially since it was the same reason he had stopped hunting.

“...The Land of No Return, huh? That sword sure would be useful here…” Agan grimaced, and there was a pain starting to appear in his heart. He didn’t want to remember the things that had happened here, but the counseling of the doctor had refreshed his memory.

The man wanted to go back, but he forced himself not to do so.

Although he had no sword in his hand, the Village Chief’s fighting style was suddenly inside his mind. Agan had dueled against him a fair share of times, and sometimes, he would use his cane to fight. It appears that he was going to have to take some inspiration…

“...Fuck it. It doesn’t matter if this is an illusion or not…”

As he mimicked the stance the old Village Chief had back then, a new, comforting feeling surged through his veins. It wasn’t perfect, but Agan could already feel the unique pose helping him. Was this how the Village Chief was able to fight so well, despite being so weak? Well, it didn’t matter.

“...This time,” Agan ignored the door he came from, walking away from it, “I won’t run away from you, monster.”

Because now, he had an opportunity to make up for his actions in the past–even if…

A child’s cries rang out, and although Agan felt an unbridled fear, he pressed onwards. It was the exact same one in his memory, and even if it seemed fake, the voice was still enough to get him cautious. His cane never left his wielding hands, and the man's stance was stiff as stone as he walked through the forest.

…the opportunity was just a nightmare.