They were still strolling through the park. Eva walked cheerfully ahead, the golden Evergold blossom still tucked neatly behind her ear.
Lumian followed behind, his steps heavier. His grey eyes ceaselessly scanned their surroundings, monitoring every corner, every passing face. Yet, all he encountered were the ordinary gazes of city folk—admiration for the pretty little girl, or curiosity about the tall, sturdy young man whose face was shrouded in serious shadows. Not a single one felt threatening. It was just the normal life of people noticing unfamiliar faces.
After about twenty minutes had passed, the relief Lumian had just begun to feel started to give way to a familiar wariness. He approached Eva, his soft voice piercing her bubble of happiness.
"Eva, it's time to go home. Aunt Maya must be starting to worry."
Eva turned around. Fine wrinkles appeared on her forehead, her bright face dimming for a moment. "Can we stay a little longer, Brother?" she pleaded, her small voice full of hope.
Seeing that expression, Lumian's toes unconsciously tapped the ground inside his shoes. He couldn't bring himself to refuse, but the rising sun reminded him of the risks. They couldn't stay too long.
However, before he could find the right words of refusal, Eva let out a long breath. "Alright… I understand," she said, breaking through Lumian's indecision. Her small, sincere smile, though slightly faded, showed an understanding that made Lumian's heart feel both heavy and warm.
Thank goodness she understands, he thought, even as a familiar guilt crept into his heart.
He nodded, giving a gentle 'let's go' signal. As he turned and began to walk, Eva immediately followed, walking beside him while clutching her small shopping bag tightly.
Together, they left the oasis of the park.
...
The atmosphere of the market they entered felt different—much louder and more chaotic than when they had arrived. It wasn't just because it was later.
Is there a celebration today? Lumian's mind buzzed softly. His eyes swept over the crowd denser than on a usual workday.
Ahead of them, the small river dividing the town came into view.
Then, Lumian's gaze was drawn to a merchant wearing foreign clothing—a grey suit with a high collar and a neat cut, different from the simple attire of the locals. On his display counter sat an object that reminded him of the past.
Eyeglasses!
Lumian's mind drifted to his father's advisor—'Eldrich', the wise old man who always wore a single lens of glass before his eye. Back then, young Lumian had asked what the object was for.
"My sight has begun to fail, Your Highness. These glasses help me see the world at least a little more clearly."
His instincts immediately tingled. Aunt Maya.
The image of Aunt Maya's hands, increasingly fumbling as she prepared meals, struck him. If only he had more money...
Unconsciously, his fingers found the emerald pendant from his father, hidden beneath his cloak. The green gem felt cold, as if holding the last whispers of the King.
This isn't just for Aunt Maya's glasses, but for our needs for the next few months. Should I sell it?
He hesitated. It was the last remaining item from his old life, the final tangible link to his father. But weren't the living more important?
Not now, he finally decided, releasing his grip on the pendant with a heavy heart.
His gaze shifted to the antique clock in the shop next door. The clock hands showed '09:00'—still quite early, yet the crowd was unusually dense.
Lumian had reached the riverbank, its water shimmering clear under the morning sun. He stopped for a moment, gazing at the calm flow. For Lumian, this river was like a balm for a weary soul. The market's hustle and bustle with all its haggling and shouts could still be heard, but it felt muted behind a curtain of tranquility woven by the babbling water. Here, he could think. Here, he could feel safe, if only for a moment. His gaze shifted to Eva, faithfully following beside him. The little girl's face was radiant.
"Are you satisfied with today?" he asked, his soft voice slipping through the market's din.
"Of course!" Eva replied spiritedly, her eyes shining. "Thank you for bringing me, Brother!"
Lumian smiled warmly. "I promise to take you to the market more often."
"Really?" Eva looked up, her gaze full of hope and innocence.
"Brother promises." ...so you can learn more about the outside world, he added in his heart.
Eva's smile widened—seeming capable of melting all the burdens and weariness that plagued his days.
Lumian took a deep breath, trying to enjoy this quiet moment. In his heart, he hoped the exhale would carry away all the unease lodged in his chest.
Get out…
As his eyes returned to the river, his gaze was suddenly drawn to a figure on the opposite bank. A man in a neat black suit with a collar, his black hair streaked with blue strands slicked back neatly, wearing glasses with a gold chain around his neck that rested against visible tattoos. The figure looked so familiar to him—from his posture, his way of standing, to the elegant aura he projected.
Clo-vis?
His heart whispered the name. Clovis—his cousin, who had fled the palace just before the bloody coup night. If he was here, that meant...
The figure turned, slowly stepped back, and disappeared into the crowd.
He must know something!
Suddenly—
All the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. An unnatural chill seeped into his body—so piercing and deep, crawling directly into his bone marrow, ignoring the warmth of the sunlight on his skin.
W-What is this?
He glanced at Eva and his chest tightened instantly. His sister was shivering, her small hands rubbing her own arms, her face pale.
"I-Is it going to be winter?" asked Eva, her voice trembling slightly.
Lumian's heart raced. His view swept the surroundings—other people also looked confused, asking each other with the same bewildered and fearful expressions. This cold was different. It wasn't merely a drop in temperature; it was like thousands of fine needles from another dimension stabbing directly into the soul, stealing warmth from within.
This isn't normal!
Then, his eyes caught a figure in a blood-red robe with a pulsating, seed-shaped pendant around his neck. The man's mouth moved as if reciting an incantation, and a gloomy energy radiated from his body.
Is this because of him?
Lumian didn't want to take any chances. Swiftly, he pulled Eva closer, wrapped his arms around her tightly, then guided her, simultaneously shielding her with his own body.
Her skin is so cold!
Suddenly, his steps halted. He just realized—scattered among the crowd were several people in black and red robes. Not greeting each other, not physically attacking, but from their empty stares and moving lips, it was clear an invisible battle was raging.
The air seemed to tear. Clashing energies radiated like shattering glass, seeping from the cracks in reality. The colors of the world faded into gloomy shades of gray and blue, shrouded in an unnatural, freezing aura.
"Eva, we have to get out of here! Now!" He gripped his sister's hand, which felt increasingly cold and stiff.
But his pull felt heavy, and she didn't move. When he turned to look, his breath caught in his throat. Eva was frozen solid, eyes still wide open, her body stiff as a statue—as if time had stopped only for her.
"Eva?!"
Suddenly, his grasp passed through Eva's hand as if clutching smoke.
"Hah?!" Disbelieving, he tried to touch her arm, only to watch in horror as the tips of her fingers began to disappear, turning into fading golden particles of light, spreading from her feet upwards, like sand blown away by the wind.
"EVA!!"
The scream tore from the depths of his soul, heart-wrenching. His heart pounded wildly, almost exploding from his chest.
"NO! NO! NO!"
Lumian screamed, staggering back. His wildly trembling hands pressed against his temples, trying to comprehend the surreal chaos unfolding.
Something's wrong!
Around him, time had completely frozen. Merchants with mouths open mid-shout, a child frozen mid-leap, smoke from a food stall frozen in the air forming strange sculptures—everything was still. Only he could move.
DRGGG!
From the side, the stone pavement suddenly swelled and sharpened, lunging at him like a giant stone serpent.
Lumian reflexively jumped back, barely avoiding it. But the moment he landed, several other mounds of stone emerged from the paved road, targeting him with vicious, living movements—following his every step.
I don't want to die!
CRASH!
His foot caught on another stone that suddenly jutted from the road. His body tumbled hard, and as he looked up, the pointed peak of the stone was already aimed directly at his face—
He rolled hard to the side, avoiding the lethal stab.
Small stones scattered towards him, and in his panic, he realized something: the frozen, statue-like shadows of the people around him vanished upon contact with physical objects.
What is really happening?!
Then he felt a piercing chill from behind. From behind the buildings—shadowy whips—dozens of them—speared down from the sky at a terrifying speed.
Lumian's eyes widened. There were too many. Impossible to dodge! It was too late to even summon a Matrix now.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Consecutive explosions shook the marketplace, deafening.
From the opposite direction, fireballs shot out, intercepting the shadow whips about to impale Lumian, saving him at the last second.
BOOM!
The final attack moved too fast to see—no longer mere fireballs, but a wave of deep crimson energy that split the air and made his eardrums ring. The energy obliterated the remaining shadow whips down to their source.
Then, the ground beneath Lumian's feet suddenly cracked. A stone foothold formed, pushing him up into the air.
Reflexively, Lumian jumped around—searching for a safe footing.
Now, the scenery around him had completely changed: stones flew everywhere, the ground was cracked all over, the entire market had transformed into an absurd battlefield.
Lumian stood stunned, his breath coming in gasps. His body was drenched in cold sweat, his chest rising and falling irregularly. His mind spun chaotically, trying to make sense of the sudden ambush.
Tap... tap... tap...
Footsteps echoed from behind—elegant, measured, breaking the silence of the frozen world. Three figures in black robes approached with a calmness that was itself frightening.
They lowered their hoods.
Them?!
Lumian recognized two of the three. In the center was the black-purpled haired woman with black lipstick—the woman who had bumped into him on the way to the market.
Beside her was the light-brown-haired man who had intervened in the earlier market disturbance—now he was smiling at him. Thin smoke still curled from his hands.
And the most striking was the third figure—a boy his own age, with pale skin, hair as white as snow, and blazing red eyes.
"To think we'd find a 'Medium Soul' in the market crowd," the woman said, her voice flat, breaking the silence between them.
'Medium Soul'? Lumian ignored the foreign term—
Eva!
"Where is my sister?!" he roared, his voice hoarse and filled with a heart-rending despair.
The woman wasn't perturbed in the slightest. "No idea," she replied coldly. "Perhaps she's waiting for you to wake up outside."
Outside?
Lumian's mind grew more frantic, trying to grasp the nonsensical words. What did she mean "outside"? This market was open; there were no clear boundaries. Where had Eva disappeared to?!
"This is merely an illusion world," the woman said, breaking through his tangled thoughts. She lazily wiped her face as if out of pity.
But the explanation only confused Lumian more. An illusion world? What was that?!
Suddenly, the trio's gaze shifted to a point behind Lumian.
Lumian followed their line of sight.
From behind the still-floating stones, three other figures in red robes emerged. They merely glanced briefly at the black-robed group—a look full of contempt and sharp wariness—before melting back into the shadows, as if vanishing without a trace.
"That's enough. Let them go," the brown-haired woman said abruptly, with a hint of satisfaction. In her palm, a small crystal cube pulsed with a soft yellow light inside, floating slowly like a living thing. "I've obtained what I was looking for."
Her gaze shifted sharply to Lumian. The look felt piercing, as if probing every layer of his mind.
I must be careful…
At that moment, the world around them began to shake violently. The debris of shattered stones and buildings reversed like time rolling backwards, their forms distorting, melting, and reassembling like mosaics struck by a storm. The colors that had faded slowly saturated again, yet with unfamiliar hues that were no longer the same.
Before his world completely changed, the woman calmly pointed towards a narrow, dark alley between two shops whose ruins were beginning to reform. Her voice, cold yet authoritative, echoed directly in Lumian's mind:
"We meet there. Do not try to run."
Her own body began to waver, dissolving into a thin, fading mist, followed by her two attendants. The light-brown-haired man managed to wave at Lumian with a faint smile before he too vanished.
Lumian froze. The world around him—which had just been shaking and spinning wildly—suddenly fell still.
And—!
The low roar of the marketplace, which had been muted until now, flooded his ears like a deafening wave. The real world felt alien, too sharp, and almost painful to his senses, still fixated on the illusion.
"Brother? Brother!"
Eva's voice sounded faint, as if coming from the far end of a long tunnel. Lumian didn't move, his mind still locked in the remnants of terror that paralyzed his reason.
Clap!
A soft yet firm slap landed on his cheek. The physical touch was like a lightning strike jolting him awake. Lumian flinched, his breath catching for a moment before coming out in ragged gasps, exactly like someone who had nearly drowned and finally reached the surface. His hands reflexively braced his unsteady body on his knees. His heart beat wildly, erratically, and only now did he realize his whole body was soaked in cold sweat.
"Sorry, Brother. I had to do that," Eva said, her face pale and filled with deep anxiety. "You... you suddenly went still and your eyes went blank. It... it wasn't funny at all." Her voice trembled.
Lumian looked up, his wide eyes staring at her. In a panic, his trembling hands grabbed Eva's shoulders, checking every inch of his sister—her still-intact blonde hair cascading down, her grey eyes alive and full of fear, her warm, real body under his grasp. No wounds. No fading particles of light.
She's okay… She's here.
A gratitude so powerful flooded his chest until it felt tight. A deep sigh of relief finally managed to escape him. How precious this simple reality was—Eva was standing in front of him, whole, breathing, and alive.
"Thank goodness..." he murmured softly, more to himself, before trying to calm Eva. "I... I'm fine," he said, his voice still hoarse. Moving a little stiffly, he stood up, wiped his forehead, then picked up the shopping bag that had fallen. "Maybe... maybe it was just the heat and exhaustion earlier."
Eva shook her head, the furrow in her brow deepening. "But you were standing still for so long, Brother. And your expression... it was terrifying. Your joke wasn't funny at all!"
Huh, so I was just standing still here? How long?
Lumian quickly glanced at the clock on the nearby shop wall—09:04. If he had come to about a minute ago, it meant he had been trapped in the illusion for only about three minutes. Yet, to him, it had felt like a life-and-death struggle lasting hours.
Then, his memory returned to the voice of the woman in the black robe. Unintentionally, his gaze was drawn to the narrow, dark alley between two shops—exactly where the woman had pointed.
"We meet there."
The whisper echoed in his mind again, cold and authoritative.
Now, he was faced with a choice: leave, taking Eva away as fast as possible, or... go to that alley and face whatever awaited. Each choice carried its own risks, a gamble where the stakes could be their very lives.
He looked at Eva again, seeing her face still clouded with anxiety and confusion. Lumian's heart felt heavy.