Jay turned around.
A handsome boy in his teens stood behind him. The boy, while looking strong, also appeared rather bony. His ivory skin was tainted with dirt; although there wasn't too much of it, it certainly detracted from his looks. His clothes were also of a seemingly mediocre quality. Obviously, this youth wasn't a member of high society, if that existed in this world.
"Yeah? What is it?"
Jay probed in as polite a tone as he could muster.
The boy looked at him, smiling brightly, and asked shamelessly.
"Could you please donate some money to this poor orphan?"
Jay blinked before laughing.
"Unfortunately, I can't. I'm just about as destitute as you, and frankly, more clueless than you."
The boy stared at him with genuine confusion. Jay certainly looked like he was rich, as his clothes were of an incredibly high quality, so what was he blabbing about?
"I've lost my memories of everything, and when I came to, I was just standing in the middle of a rather tasteful garden."
While he was speaking to the orphan, Jay pondered. This wasn't nearly as bad as what he was expecting when he was randomly called out.
The boy looked at him incredulously. Was this man just claiming that he had forgotten everything and woke up in a garden? Just so he could fox his way out of having to donate some money to an orphan? This truly was the first time he'd seen someone so incredibly shameless.
"I see..... Well, then, would you like to join the group of beggars that I made?"
The boy grinned as he said this. There was no way that someone would join, especially when they were wearing clothes that probably cost more than him and his entire group of vagabonds. If Jay declined, he would have far more grounds to beg properly. After all, if he declined, that meant he thought of himself as better than a beggar, which implied that he should be able to donate to beggars.
"Sure."
Jay accepted without any hesitation. It was good to have a place to stay until he could figure out what was the easiest way to clear the Nightmare.
"...."
The orphan stared at him, flabbergasted. After a few seconds, he recovered his composure and threw on a shaky smile.
"...In that case, follow me."
Internally, he was wondering whether he truly had picked up a worthless amnesiac. Not that he knew words like amnesiac.
As they walked through the bustling marketplace, Jay took quick glances at the items being sold. There were horns from Awakened, and very rarely, Fallen creatures being sold. Only the gods know why they were being bought. There were enchanted weapons and clothing, which was fitting considering that they were in the dream realm.
There were also hundreds of kinds of different food. There were fried strips of some kind of aquatic nightmare creature, and there were the eyeballs of some sort of plant-looking nightmare creature.
Jay was a little curious and did actually want to try them, but he held himself back. After all, he was broke, and his priority was to survive the nightmare, not try exotic nightmare creatures.
"By the way, what is this place called? The city?"
The boy didn't even spare a glance back as he answered.
"Seretis. It's the largest city in the domain of the Storm God."
Jay's step faltered for a moment. The Storm God? Wasn't her domain the Stormsea? There was clearly land below the island. After all, he witnessed the carcasses of nightmare creatures on land.
While he was lost in thought, they suddenly ran into a crowd.
"What's the crowd for?"
The boy tried to look into the centre of the crowd and, after a while, finally answered.
"It's recruitment for the military. You can join and try fighting beasts. It actually has good pay, but most people wouldn't join. After all, why risk your life on rubbish like that? Only people concerned with honour and pride would actually sign up for it. It's not for-"
The boy stopped talking when he noticed Jay pushing himself to the front to try to register. He just stared at Jay's back and, after a while, sighed.
"If you ever want to leave the military, remember, my offer's always valid! My name's Kerras! Ask around the backstreets if you wanna join!"
And with that, he walked away.
Jay nodded as he finally got to the front of the pack.
The recruitment officer looked him up and down a few times before nodding.
"Would you like to register for the military, mister?"
Jay blinked as he looked at the officer. He internally recoiled. Sheesh, what an ugly bastard. It's not his fault that he lost an eye or burnt his cheeks, but still.
"Uh... yeah. My name's Jay, and I'd like to register for the military."
After a few trivial questions and some time later, Jay found himself walking to the military barracks.
He considered his situation as he walked. The goal of this nightmare was probably to kill some monster as part of the military. Since he was already part of the military, it shouldn't take too long for him to run into whatever creature he was supposed to kill. So if he was lucky, he might be able to make it out in a week? Maybe even less?
He got to the barracks and looked at the standard issue equipment. A dormant sword and a few clothes. Brilliant. As he looked around the empty room, he noticed that the rest of the bunks were empty.
"Sweet. Does that mean this whole huge room is mine?"
Just as he was congratulating himself on scoring some privacy, a man burst in. Clearly, this guy was a lot higher on the military hierarchy than Jay was. He was also an ugly bastard. Jay internally wondered whether everyone in the military was ugly.
The man roared at the top of his voice.
"Get your ass UP! You're assigned to fight with another cohort! There's an abomination out there that needs quelling! MOVE! NOW!"
..Well, that was quick.