‘Travel between heaven and earth. That’s definitely a fairytale way of saying that this white dragon can travel between worlds. And if that’s true, then it can surely give me a ride back to my world.’

  With a burning determination, Aren decided to become a Sorcerer and seek out that dragon, and if possible, give it a couple of punches as payback for biting his neck.

  With a cheerful smile, Aren questioned her further about the dragon. However, all he received were tales of its greatness, stories that most likely no one had ever truly witnessed.

  As the light, which most likely came from some kind of dragon, as there was no sun, began to fade, Mira led him toward the top of the hill where the temples were situated.

  The stairs leading to the summit were long, but the worst part was that they were uneven in height and size, causing his knees to ache as he lost his breath. Still, he kept climbing, while Mira, who led the way, was clearly in far better condition than he was.

  ‘Damn my pride. I will not let you down today,’ he muttered to himself as he longed for cold water. Thankfully, this world had refrigerators, and not some ice dragon using its frozen breath to make ice. That would have been truly disgusting.

  As his lungs felt like they were melting from the heat, they finally reached the top.

  ‘Finally.’

  Aren walked toward the edge, expecting to witness a beautiful scene like those found in every wallpapers. But what he saw shocked him to his core.

  A town of tiny houses surrounded by pure blue canals and well-cultivated farmland stretched before him. On the horizon, devouring the mountains, stood a gigantic wall of pure shadow.

  “Wh-What is that?” Aren almost forgot all the fatigue he felt from climbing the mountain.

  “The Shadow Gate. The doorway to another world. The only medium that connects our world with the corrupted one,” Mira said blankly.

  Aren was truly mesmerized by what he saw. Wonder, fear, anticipation, excitement, and a desire to know what lay within it, alongside a powerful will that wished to remain ignorant, all these emotions surged within him at once.

  “What’s inside it?” he asked in a trembling voice.

  “Man-eating monsters. Abominations that must never come to our world. And… an opportunity,” Mira replied.

  “Opportunity?” Aren asked.

  “Aren, I—I want to ask you for something,” she said hesitantly.

  “What is it?”

  “I-I want you to become a Sorcerer.”

  *****

  The tiny farming planet of Kita was completely dark in the absence of light, which could be considered night in its own way, and Aren struggled to fall asleep.

  Whenever he closed his eyes, the image of the Shadow Gate returned to his mind, along with Mira’s wish for him to become a Sorcerer.

  ‘No, no, no. Becoming a Sorcerer means inviting death to your doorstep. I’m not becoming one. Forget the dragon. Forget going home. That world wasn’t good enough to risk my life anyway. I’d rather live like an ordinary person and find a job. Damn it, I am not going to become a Sorcerer.’

  Aren changed positions multiple times, adjusted his pillow, removed it, and placed it back again. Yet the uneasiness in his heart refused to vanish.

  ‘I thought Miss Mira was a good person, but now I see I was just stupid. She’s the same as everyone on Earth. No… no, I can’t live here. Yes, I should run away while I still have the chance. Who knows what that woman might ask of me later?’

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Aren got out of bed and opened the door with the utmost silence he could manage. Still, the damned wooden door made a sound like a cackling witch.

  He climbed down the staircase and reached the main door, which was locked.

  After searching for a bit, he found the key inside a shoe nearby. As he opened the door, he heard approaching footsteps that stopped close to him.

  “Where are you going at this hour?” a mature female voice asked with slight concern.

  Aren froze, holding the door half-open, without turning back.

  “You said your son died a day after the Dragon King Festival, right?”

  “Umm… yes,” she replied softly.

  “Does that mean he failed to awaken as a Sorcerer?”

  “Yes…”

  Aren paused, as if resisting the words he was about to say.

  “ Whose dream it was for him to become a Sorcerer?”

  As he said that, a cold shiver ran through his entire brain.

  “...” Mira remained silent.

  “Miss Mira, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me these past few days. I promise I’ll repay you one day. But… my life is far too precious to lose. I’m not going to become a Sorcerer. Goodbye.”

  With that, Aren slowly closed the door and ran without looking back.

  He ran until his lungs begged him to stop, but his tears pushed him beyond his limits. Finally, in an area unfamiliar to him, he collapsed, gasping for air with his mouth wide open.

  “Damn it… I really said such cruel things to her.”

  As he slowly calmed down, his gaze fell upon a little girl staring at him silently. In the moonless night, with only a single dark, planet like structure shape hanging in the sky, Aren momentarily thought she was a ghost. After adjusting his eyes under the streetlights, he recognized her as the little girl from the morning.

  ‘I should’ve known better than to trust government departments. They didn’t find her after all.’

  After taking a long breath, he stood up.

  “Hey… you remember me, from this morning…” He paused, having forgotten her name.

  ‘What was it again?’

  “You still haven’t found your mother? Want my help?”

  He slowly walked toward her with what he believed to be a charming smile, especially effective on girls.

  Perhaps frightened by that forced smile, or perhaps sensing that Aren was not someone to trust in the middle of the night, she ran away without warning.

  “Hey, stop! You can’t just run away from home. Your mother must be worried. Damn kids these days.”

  He chased after her, one hand tightly pressed against his stomach, not even considering how this scene might look to a passerby.

  “Stop… please stop. I—I can’t run anymore. Gasp… I might die at this rate.”

  Just as he was on the brink of collapsing from exhaustion, he saw the girl stop.

  “Finally, you little devil.”

  Panting heavily as he reached her, Aren realized there was no one there. In fact, he was completely alone in an area stripped of streetlights, standing in total darkness.

  Before him loomed a jaw-breakingly tall wall of pure shadow, but somehow still visible in pitch darkness.

  Aren staggered back two steps. He tried to look up at its peak, but the creeping darkness swallowed his vision.

  “Why… why am I here? Damn it, this is the one place I never wanted to come.”

  Then he heard the ringing of metal, an unmistakable sound of clashing blades, something he had only heard in movies.

  Hiding behind a thick bush, he saw a young woman with ashen-gray hair clad in dark armor, fighting a creature that looked like a corpse raised after rotting.

  “Eh…”

  In any other situation, he might have assumed it was a movie shoot. But standing near the Shadow Gate, a place forbidden to all non-Sorcerers, he knew this was real.

  Monsters existed in this world.

  Yet more than fear, it was the woman’s beautiful swordplay that captured his attention.

  Wielding a sword redder than blood itself, she severed the monster’s arm in a single fluid strike. She spun a full circle and kicked the creature in the gut, sending it flying, before dashing forward at near-invisible speed and decapitating it with her crimson, slightly curved blade.

  ‘Beautiful… so this is a Sorcerer.’

  Aren forgot to be afraid, mesmerized by her presence.

  He stared at her silky pale skin, her ruthless armor, and her deadly red weapon engraved with unfamiliar symbols.

  Perhaps sensing his intense gaze, she suddenly looked in his direction. Aren quickly ducked down, hoping he hadn’t exposed himself.

  ‘What would she think if she found me like this?’

  With that thought, he crawled away toward the city.

  Once he felt he had gone far enough, he stood up. At that moment, a bone-chilling roar echoed from behind him, likely the final scream of the creature the Sorceress had been fighting.

  Then another sound reached his ears, not from behind, but from ahead.

  From the Shadow Gate.

  From the veil of darkness emerged an unbelievably thin hand, rotten and reeking of decay. Then came the rest of its unholy body.

  The creature had no visible face, or if it did, it was hidden beneath a dark, shroud-like covering as it hovered in the air.

  The moment Aren saw it, a childhood fear resurfaced, the monster he once imagined staring through his window at night. And the creature before him looked exactly like that nightmare.

  Forcing himself not to freeze, Aren ran without looking back. But his movements slowed to a crawl. His body went numb, his thoughts barely functioning. It felt as though he were a soulless doll, unable to escape, only capable of observing.

  Then, a bright flash of red cut through his vision, and his thoughts snapped back into place.

  He turned around and saw the female Sorcerer standing before a decaying corpse.

  She stared at him with murderous intent and asked,

  “What are you doing here?”