I woke up, my vision blurry and my environment foreign. I looked calmly down at my body, which was covered in leaves. I didn't really know what was going on, so I just laid back and relaxed.

I closed my eyes, and got comfortable while I pondered.

My body felt warm and mushy. I wasn't really sure why, but I didn't really care. I felt good. Everything was peaceful and the hard surface I was laying on was surprisingly cozy.

I laid there for about an hour in silence. My mind had been completely quiet, but suddenly there was a feeling like I had forgotten something very important, and my heart jumped a little as I got up in a panic.

As I was in a sitting position on the stone bed, I looked around to see that I was in a room that was completely made out of stone or more likely carved into stone. The bed was the only thing in the room, and it was simply an elevated surface.

I stood up a wobbled out of the door, that was actually just a door-shaped hole that had been carved.

After getting out of the room with the assistance of the walls, I found myself in a fairly large room where there was a table and chairs made out of stone. In addition, there was a gray haired man sitting on one of the chairs and eating off of a wooden plate in front of the table.

The man raised his brows, "Oh, you woke up."

I blinked once or twice before coming to the conclusion that this was the man I had fought straight after arriving in this ruin.

But why was he here? No, where was here? And where were my clothes?

"Weeth ma clooth?" I muttered, even though I felt fully capable of speech.

"Hahaha! How did you even make it through the night?"

My dagger instantly appeared in my hand, and I was just about to throw it into the man's eye socket before an elderly woman slapped me on my back.

"You moron, get back to laying down. You have some injuries that won't heal in a day if you don't rest. If you have trouble with staying still, I can give you another dose of sedatives."

The grandma had gray shoulder-length hair and was wearing brown clothes that seemed to be made out of the same material as the gray haired man's.

"Hoo ath yu?"

"I'm that boy's grandma, and the person who fixed you up, so you better get back to laying down."

My mind was too jumbled for me to form rational thoughts, so I decided to heed the woman's orders and cancelled the summoning of my dagger.

"Wht abath ma cloth?"

"You'll get your clothes! Just go lay down for now." the woman said as she pushed me to go back into the room I came from.

I got back onto the bed and laid down, and the woman a little bit of some kind of gray powder onto her fingertip and made me sniff it.

After doing so, I was overwhelmed by drowsiness and passed out.

***

The next time I woke up, my head was clear, and I felt stiffness of my muscles and constant sting around my wounds that the leaves caused.

I groaned as I rose into a sitting position, with my knees on the same height as my chest. I looked down at my crotch to discover that those two had at least had the decency to leave my underpants on.

It was a bit chilly in here, so I still needed my clothes back.

"Aaaa... ehem... hello..." I tested my voice to see if I could now speak normally.

I then got off of the stone platform and walked outside to see nobody in the large room. In order to get my clothes back, I would need to find the elderly woman who had hidden them somewhere.

I looked around the room that had three doors, excluding the one that led into the room I had come from. One of the doors led outside and one led into a room exactly like the one I had come from.

I checked outside, but there was nobody there. I then checked the other small room, but again found no one. Now there was only one door left, but it led into a staircase, which I wasn't very enthusiastic about entering.

In the end, I concluded to do something I probably should have done right from the start.

"Hello, where are you?!"

"What?!" the elderly woman's voice came from the direction of the staircase.

Having determined the direction from where the sound came from, I started to walk towards the torch lit staircase. I descended the unexpectedly long staircase, and arrived in a cave that was also illuminated by torches. The cave seemed to have been hand made and had polished platforms with all sorts of interesting items on them.

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"Well, are you just going to stand there, or are you going to tell me what you were yelling about?"

I turned around to face the woman, "Huh? I was just asking where you were. I would like to have my clothes back, you see."

"Well, you aren't getting them. They were so torn up, I decided to burn them."

My gaze darkened as I looked at the woman, "What?"

"Hey, don't get all angry now. Those clothes were useless. You're better off without them."

"Give me my clothes back. I don't care if you need to sacrifice an arm or a leg to get them."

"Calm down, I'll get you some clothes."

After saying that, she cupped her hands and whispered multiple sentences into them, after which she cupped her left hand by itself, and with her right hand she reached into the hole formed by her left hand.

Once she pulled her right-hand back, there was a set of clothes in her grasp. She reached back into the hole, and shortly after pulled out a pair of shoes.

I looked at the clothes, which were an identical copy of the ones the gray haired man wore, awed by the show of magic.

"Don't go underestimating grandma. These hands may be old and wrinkly, but they sure can make some magic happen."

I quietly took the clothes, and soon they were on me.

"Oh, you look just like Angus."

'That asshole's name is Angus?' I thought.

"Angus, as in your grandson?"

She nodded faintly, "Yes, you too are very much alike, it seems. Oh, I forgot to ask. What is your name."

"I'm Akir."

"My name is Amelia, it's nice to meet you."

I raised my brows in an unimpressed manner, "You have quite low standards for a nice meeting."

Amelia gave a small laugh, "Perhaps. To my defense, we don't get many visitors here. Other than those who want to kill us and are handled by Angus."

"The ones who come from this world or from The Ruins?"

"Those from The Ruins. Nobody from the outside world can enter this forest. We are trapped here, you see. There is an invisible wall in every direction which can't be crossed or harmed by anyone."

"How did you and Angus end up here, then?"

"We were placed here 362 years ago as punishment from the madman responsible for the creation of The Ruins."

"How are you still alive."

"The Creator is a cruel man. As soon as my father committed suicide instead of continuing to assist him, we were transported here, and we stopped aging. By we, I mean my whole family, including me, my daughter, her husband, and their son, Angus. Unfortunately, my daughter and her husband died early on because Angus did not yet possess his current combat prowess, and was not capable of protecting them."

"Your father aided in the creation of The Ruins?"

"Yes, he was fooled by The Creator, who was in need of his expertise on summoning sorcery, but once he realized what they were actually trying to do, he stopped working for The Creator. The Creator didn't like that very much and threatened to kill us if he did not continue. My father decided to commit suicide in the hopes that it would prevent The Ruins from every being created, and that The Creator would not harm of because of the uselessness of doing so. He was wrong about both of those things. Immediately after his death, we found ourselves in this place that was restricted and cursed by The Creator, and also he succeeded in the creation of The Ruins, which he rubs in our faces by making people come here from The Ruins."

Everything was starting to click, but there was one crucial part of the puzzle missing.

I opened my mouth slowly and uttered a single word, "Why?"

"Who knows? Madmen aren't called that because of their reasonable actions."

"Surely there is a reason for all this suffering."

"I don't think there is. The man just wanted to play god, and he got what he wanted. Now we are powerless and deemed to suffer. That is the reality of this world."