A moment ago, the band was entirely unwilling to enter the hall despite the lack of an obvious threat. There wasn’t any rational explanation other than a collective instinct of caution and fear. The boy, for how harmless he looked, invoked fear upon them, his relaxed posture instead causing them to be ever more vigilant. They were all just stuck in place, waiting for someone to make the first move.

Yet as soon as the boy called for them to enter, they felt nothing but an intention to get closer. For all their apprehension and anxiety, they still stepped inside the hall, allowing themselves to be exposed to the bright lights that hung far above their heads. They still had the same instinct of fear, but their legs refused to listen to their minds. Before long, they were already seated before the boy, their luggage placed to the side of the hall.

Throughout this entire time, the boy maintained eye contact with Sofis, the latter increasingly unnerved even as she attempted to ignore his gaze.

It was unmistakable. The boy was exactly the same as the one that appeared in her dream. It couldn’t simply be coincidence. The details of the dream came back like a torrent to her mind. Everything felt so vivid and real, that it was as if she had just finished a conversation with him.

And if she was to assume that everything in the dream was indeed real, then… she and the others were facing the Creator himself.

The boy before her chuckled.

‘Hello, and welcome,’ he started. ‘I hope the journey here wasn’t too bad?’

Gennai finally couldn’t hold back his curiosity. ‘How did you get here?’

‘Answer my question first. I hope the journey wasn’t too bad?’

‘N-No, it wasn’t, really.’ Sofis wasn’t sure if Gennai was being genuine or not. Regardless of what he tried, the Creator would simply display his true thoughts.

‘It’s nice that none of the characters have died yet. Then again, not that I intended for that to happen in the first place.’

‘Then who are—’

‘I’m just a boy. Yeah, that’s it, really.’

Of course no one would believe that.

‘As expected of Sofis to make this deduction,’ the boy said, directing attention towards her. ‘You are correct, though you do, of course, already know me. You want to introduce me to them?’

‘Sofis…?’ Jorn looked at her in bewilderment. ‘What does he mean by… that?’

‘He’s the Creator,’ Sofis said.

‘And that’s correct,’ the boy responded. ‘Though I never directly gave you my name, you guessed correctly that I am the Creator. You know, the one that appeared to Roya back then.’

There was silence coming from the band. Of course, that reaction was natural. The concept of a being like that was hard to wrap around even for Sofis. Even till now, she couldn’t differentiate between her own conclusions and information directly given by the Creator himself.

Whether that was his direct machinations for her or not, she couldn’t know.

‘And what are we supposed to do about this?’ Temia finally spoke up, unimpressed at his introduction.

‘Oh, nothing really. I didn’t imagine you all to have some sort of specific reaction anyway.’ The Creator hopped off his bed and walked towards them. Though not exuding any sort of hostility or danger at all, none of the treasure hunters dared to attack him.

‘You know, when I first created this place, I really didn’t have any idea of what it’d be like,’ he said. ‘How would it be pictured in my imagination? What style would it be similar to? I wasn’t very sure. By the time I created you to explore these ruins, I still didn’t have a complete picture of what I wanted to present yet. Even as I put my pen down and began writing, I had nothing more than my vivid imagination to guide me through this gruelling path.’

‘Boy, you’re lost,’ Gennai said. ‘I don’t know how you got here, but you need to go home. These ruins aren’t your playground.’

‘But I created them, didn’t I?’ the boy replied. ‘This entire world is my playground. I created you as well to fulfil my purpose of telling a story.’

‘And what is this story like?’

‘You already know, my characters,’ he said. ‘It is simply an account of everything you’ve been through since the moment you entered these ruins, the temple for my worship.’

Noticing that none of the treasure hunters could really understand his words, the boy then walked towards Sofis before sitting comfortably at the centre of the band. Throughout this entire process, everyone was like spectators from his perspective, simultaneously both audience members and the actors of his plan.

‘Sofis, do you understand what I’m getting at?’ he asked.

She understood, though she instantly realised it was not of her merit.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

‘Translate it to everyone else,’ he commanded.

‘H-He means that everything we’ve gone through is simply a story for him.’

‘But… I can’t…’ Jorn clutched his head in confusion. ‘I still don’t get it!’

‘Of course you don’t, Jorn,’ the boy turned towards him. ‘Your character is not meant to be smart.’

‘Then at least tell us why you’re doing all this,’ Gennai implored. ‘We chose to be here for the wealth that’s in these ruins. Don’t tell us there’s nothing more after that hall of silver…’

‘Don’t worry, there’s definitely more,’ the boy reassured. ‘I intend to make this entertaining not just for my own sake, but for your sake as well.’

‘Can you at least tell us what to expect?’

‘Well… I don’t know.’

‘The hell you mean you don’t know?’ Temia glared at him.

‘I haven’t really thought of anything yet. As I continue to write about your journey, then there’ll be more to come. I am the supreme creator here, but that doesn’t mean I can just reveal everything to you just yet.’

‘And we’re supposed to just take your word for it?’ Gennai asked.

‘What else are you going to do? Kill me?’

A treasure hunter nearly stood up, only to be immediately sat back down on his own accord.

‘The truth is that everything you do, every choice you make, every encounter you find is but something to further the story. Sure, you make those choices yourselves, but at the end of the day, I put that thought into you. At the end of everything, whether you are to find the treasure you seek or not is completely up to me. Whether you like it or not, that’s the truth. And this is the truth that I, your Creator, has chosen to reveal to you.’

There was little reason to not become utterly frightened of the boy. Was there any way to disprove his claims? Perhaps by killing him, but would that even be possible? If the boy was as he claimed, then there was just no way out of this. Whatever they did was ultimately at his whims, and whatever they sought was ultimately… meaningless.

‘You understand what I mean now?’ he said. ‘I promise a great treasure that lies at the temple at the very top, but whether you can receive it or not is ultimately at my discretion, not yours.’

‘And we’re just supposed to accept that?’ Temia stood up with great struggle, eyeing the boy with hostility.

‘Ah, Temia, the character that is designed to be distant but grows more emotional over time. You are only a character here. Your resistance is futile.’

Weapons suddenly appeared beside everyone. Knives, spears, swords, clubs, bows, staffs… It was clear whose work it was that conjured up these items.

‘Try to kill me if you want,’ the boy goaded. ‘It doesn’t prove anything in the end. For creation to kill the creator is absolutely impossible, especially when the creator resides in a different existence altogether.’

He walked towards Temia and gave her a knife. ‘And even with this knowledge… Do you want to try and kill me?’

Sofis observed everything from her position. Something felt off. The Creator felt different to when she met him in that dream, if it could even be called a dream at this point. There was no sense of… power, as if the boy was merely also the same as them.

‘I have the power to destroy and erase this world if I desire. Even still, are you attempting to kill me?’ the boy asked Temia again.

No… This is too strange. Sofis couldn’t shake off that instinctive feeling. They were facing a being who claimed to have complete control over their fates. Assuming everything was true, Temia stood no chance against him. Yet there was no one to stop her, not even Gennai who usually tried to protect everyone. Jorn was emotionless, drastically different from his usual self. Sofis wanted to call out to stop her, but she could not speak a single word. Temia herself was surprisingly calm and confident, unfazed by all the words said by the boy earlier.

But… in the end, she still lowered her arm.

‘In the end, I alone am in control,’ the boy declared. ‘It doesn’t matter what you try. Nothing can realistically kill a god. Unless he wills it to be so.’

It was infuriating. Sofis hated the fact that he was above any sort of rational system or compromise just because he claimed to be the Creator. The fact that no one was willing or even could challenge him only proved his point. As much as she wanted to just thrust a weapon at his throat, she cannot. She had never been trained in using weapons, nor did she expect to even get close to him before something horrific would happen against her.

If anyone were to act, it definitely couldn’t be her.

The boy turned back and began to walk towards his bed. ‘Well, I guess I’ll take my leave—’

Shhhk. The sharp knife cleanly cut through his torso, exiting through his chest. Temia pulled the knife back, and instantly blood began gushing out. Human blood.

The boy couldn’t speak a single word. His skin went pale. He could only turn his face in shock before he collapsed onto the floor, his clothes stained with his own blood. In an instant, he was dead, reduced to a lifeless corpse. Whatever grandiose claims he had earlier turned out to be empty words. All that was left was a husk of a human being, his lie rapidly torn apart, and the penalty for fraud: his life.

‘It doesn’t matter whether you’re the Creator of this place or not,’ Temia coldly spat. ‘We are here because of our choices. And that’s it.’

Gennai shakily stood up and approached the corpse. ‘Temia… You do know the penalty for killing children in our law, right?’

‘Yes, and?’

‘... We should remove it.’

They quickly went to work. Wrapping the corpse in a bundle of rags, they soon tossed it to the side after making sure that no more blood or other fluids were leaking out. More rags were used to soak up the blood before water washed over any remnants and stains. They had to be vigilant. After all, it was expected that more parties from the Academia would come and explore the area after they had reported back their findings. Without a place to hide it inside the current hall, a couple of treasure hunters dragged the corpse away until they found a sizable window. There, they tossed it out, hoping that nature would quickly cover up their traces.

Sofis chose not to document any of this after she retrieved her notes from the chest. Instead, she wrote briefly of the encounter only for her own reference, not expecting anyone back at the Academia to believe her even if she tried to fight her case.

What a fraud…

In some ways it was a disappointment. She somehow wanted his claims of being some sort of supreme being to be true. Though it was a concept that only existed in rural superstitions, to have something like that actually exist would be infinitely fascinating, especially if she had the ability to converse with it. It would be extremely scary, but it would create literal waves in the world of philosophy or perhaps even in the Academia as a whole.

And yet… that boy turned out to be nothing more than a crazed boy. She sighed. Perhaps it was only a coincidence that she met him in her dreams, then.

The cleanup was soon complete. Still a little unnerved by the blatant murder, the band opted to quickly depart from the hall and ascend the next set of stairs.

Their weapons, perhaps, would soon come in handy.