“Damn it. Seriously!”
Seridan stamped the floor hard in frustration.
“That bastard Hans. Just let me catch him! I’ll kill him with my own hands!”
Seridan gnashed her teeth as she recalled the vanished Hans.
Up until the moment they were swept away by Nirva’s sand, Hans had still been with her.
But when she came to her senses, the only one left by her side was Ludger, who had fallen asleep.
Unwilling to sit idly by, Seridan slung Ludger onto her back and wandered the labyrinth.
Because of the size difference, Ludger’s legs dragged along the ground, but so what?
It was still better than grabbing him by the legs and dragging him along.
If Hans had been there, she wouldn’t have had to suffer through such hard labor in the first place.
Seridan resolved that once she found Hans, she would repay him with pain greater than what she herself had endured.
“Stupid bastard.”
She was annoyed, but she wasn’t ignorant of why Hans had left.
There was no way that Hans, who was more loyal to Ludger than anyone, would abandon him and run.
That fool must have run away on purpose, thinking he couldn’t control his instincts.
He didn’t want to rampage again and hurt someone, the way he had before.
“How arrogant. Who the hell does he think he is, worrying about who?”
Seridan was determined to drag the runaway Hans back by force.
If he didn’t listen, she would beat him. If he rampaged, then she would leash him.
Thinking that way, Seridan decided to fix this awkward way of carrying Ludger.
“Let’s see.”
After a moment of thought, Seridan decided to make a stretcher to drag the injured man.
There were no materials nearby, but since this was Dreamland, it didn’t matter.
“Stretcher. Stretcher. Stretcher.”
Seridan muttered the word to herself like a mantra, eyes squeezed shut.
Bombs and «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» such, she could make without even closing her eyes, but anything else demanded considerable concentration.
“Stretcher!”
She shouted, then snapped her eyes open. Next to Ludger, a stretcher had appeared, ready to carry the wounded man.
It looked crude and clumsy, but it was enough to serve its purpose as a tool.
Seridan, with her small body, struggled and grunted as she loaded Ludger onto the stretcher.
She tied the rope attached to the end around her waist and began walking again.
Screeeech.
It was easier than carrying him on her back, so Seridan’s steps felt much lighter.
“I wonder when my lord will wake up.”
It was a rare sight: a dwarf girl of such tiny build dragging along a grown man on a stretcher through the labyrinth.
* * *
“Damn, gathering everyone was a filthy chore.”
Alex let out a relieved sigh as he looked at the gathered members.
It had taken an absurd amount of time just to regroup in this three-dimensional maze.
Part of it was because the space itself was twisted and distorted, but they had also wasted twice as long because everyone insisted on speaking their piece.
“Wow. The view from here is different again, huh?”
When Arfa leaned against the railing to look down, Violetta hurriedly stopped him.
“Hey! Arfa! Don’t wander off on your own!”
Pouting at her words, Arfa stuck out his lower lip.
“If it were teacher, he would have kindly explained everything.”
“I’m not your owner. And especially in times like this, no one is allowed to act alone.”
Watching Violetta nag Arfa, Alex muttered under his breath without meaning to.
“What are you, his mom?”
Violetta’s head snapped around at those words.
Seeing the fire blaze in her eyes, Alex flinched without meaning to.
“Don’t you dare call an unmarried woman a mother!”
“Uh, no, that’s... I just meant... you’re similar, that’s all. Not literally. Hahaha.”
Arfa, listening at the side, tilted his head in thought, then smiled.
“Now that you say it, it does seem like that!”
He blurted out his honest thoughts.
“Then, does that mean teacher is the dad?”
“W-what...?”
“If there’s a mom, of course there has to be a dad too, right? And to me, the only one who’s like a dad is teacher.”
Arfa glanced at Violetta cautiously and asked carefully.
“Uh, did I just say something rude?”
“Well, ahem. Not exactly.”
In an instant, Violetta smoothed over her expression and spoke in a soft voice.
Her reaction was completely different from when she had just been glaring at Alex.
“Ahem. Arfa? You really mustn’t wander around like that in situations like this, okay?”
Her tone had even softened, like that of a real mother.
“...Good grief. What a sight.”
Alex shook his head.
What mattered now was how to escape this bizarre space.
No—that there was a way to escape, that much was certain.
They could choose one of the many doors scattered around and move.
But there was no way to be sure which was the right way.
What if they opened the wrong one and ended up falling into another strange place?
“We don’t even know where this is, to begin with.”
Franz, who could have explained it, had been separated, and the one they truly needed to meet—Ludger—they hadn’t even found yet.
‘As it is, we’ll just have to put our heads together and agree as best we can.’
But since they knew nothing, they had no choice but to seek advice from someone.
Alex fixed his gaze on Phantos for a moment.
“What?”
“No, no, never mind.”
“...?”
His eyes shifted toward Arfa and Violetta.
Not them either.
They didn’t seem like they knew anything special about this place.
Finally, Alex’s eyes landed on Bellaruna.
But his gaze didn’t linger there for more than a second before he moved it away naturally.
“...Excuse me. Why aren’t you saying anything to me?”
Realizing she was being ignored, Bellaruna demanded an answer.
Feigning innocence, Alex replied.
“Huh? When did I?”
“You did! Just now—you looked at me, you had something to say, but you swallowed it down!”
“No way. It’s just... you didn’t seem like you’d know much about this place, that’s all.”
“That’s insulting! I—I actually do have a way to know about this place!”
“What?!”
Alex’s eyes flew open in surprise.
Violetta and Arfa were just as shocked.
“...Are you serious?”
Even Phantos unfolded his crossed arms and listened to Bellaruna’s words.
“...It feels like I’m being underestimated, but I’ll assume it’s a mistake.”
“No, that’s...”
Isn’t it because of the way you usually act?
Alex barely managed to choke down those words before they escaped his throat.
“...A mistake, yeah. So what is it you know about this place?”
“Mr. Franz told me. He said this whole world is a dream.”
“When did the two of you even have a conversation?”
“On the way down here, I asked him everything I was curious about. He actually answered pretty well.”
Alex was dumbfounded.
He had made only a temporary alliance with Franz—nothing that warranted trust.
That’s why he hadn’t bothered with much talk.
But this clueless elf girl apparently couldn’t hold back her curiosity and had asked everything from behind.
“This place is a labyrinth prison created by the demon of dreams. Naturally, everything that makes it up is tied to dreams.”
“Right?”
“That means these doors are likely passageways leading to other dreams.”
Her reasoning was logical and convincing.
Everyone listened intently to Bellaruna’s words.
“To escape this place, I think we have to step through one of those doors and break through the world beyond it.”
“And why do you think that?”
“Because a dream is something you’re supposed to wake up from. That’s what Mr. Franz said. That’s the essence of a dream.”
“That waking up is its essence. Hm. Strangely, that makes sense.”
“Opening a door and moving beyond it is like beginning a new dream. And as we wake from each one, our consciousness gradually rises closer to the surface of sleep.”
“So this prison was made with that meaning.”
Alex stroked his chin.
There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with Bellaruna’s words. There was no proof, but Alex’s instinct screamed that it was the truth.
And the intuition he had honed since stepping into the realm of a Master also sided with Bellaruna.
Alex’s judgment meant that Phantos had reached the same conclusion.
“So in the end, we just have to break through one.”
“Exactly! Seeing how many doors there are, each one must have different characteristics. We just have to choose the least dangerous among them.”
As everyone paid attention to her words, Bellaruna grew more excited.
She strode to the nearest door and spoke with confidence.
“My guess is that this one is the safest!”
But when she pushed it open, a monstrous roar erupted from beyond.
Kwoooooarrr!
The gust of wind that followed whipped Bellaruna’s hair violently.
Slam.
She shut the door again and forced an awkward smile.
“Ahem. I suppose it must be another door.”
“No. That one pleases me.”
“M-Mr. Phantos?”
Phantos stepped in front of Bellaruna.
His gaze was fixed on the door—more precisely, on the being that had roared from beyond it.
“There is a splendid prey inside.”
What lay past the door was a steaming, humid jungle.
The scenery was shockingly different, but Phantos paid it no mind.
All that mattered was that prey capable of stirring his hunter’s blood had appeared before his eyes.
“B-but...!”
“Weren’t we supposed to break through whatever world lay beyond the door anyway? Then there’s no need to bother looking for another.”
Isn’t that so?
Phantos glanced at Bellaruna as though seeking agreement.
But the cold gleam in his eyes carried a clear warning: if anyone disagreed, he was ready to force compliance.
Bellurana felt suffocated and desperately sought help from the others with her eyes.
But everyone only shook their heads.
“Well, whichever way we go, what matters is that we reach the end, right?”
“We don’t exactly have choices anyway.”
“Jungle exploration! Sounds exciting!”
The majority had spoken.
Bellurana’s shoulders slumped.
“We go.”
Phantos opened the door and stepped through first.
The group followed after him, and Bellaruna trailed in last, dragging her feet.
* * *
The massive prison Nirva had created continued to swallow people endlessly.
The Infinite Prison.
Or the Labyrinth of Dreams.
A world where twisted spaces and overlapping dreams blended together—dreamlike, yet more than enough to evoke terror.
“What are we supposed to do?”
Taishy hugged her knees, crouched down, looking nothing like her usual lively self.
But there was no one to comfort her.
The other students around her looked no different.
Two figures watching them whispered quietly.
“This is bad.”
“Yeah.”
Only two remained clear-headed:
Aidan and Flora Lumos.
Even in this situation, they had not lost their reason, and both racked their brains over how to escape.
“Shouldn’t we at least try one of the doors?”
Brave Aidan refused to sit idle and suggested doing something.
“No. We already confirmed it earlier. Beyond each door lies a completely different world.”
They had checked beyond three doors already.
Each time, a different scene had unfolded.
The depths of a dark ocean.
A barren canyon, scoured by sandstorms.
A swamp overflowing with toxic miasma.
Each was an extreme environment where an ordinary person wouldn’t last an hour.
“If this many people move at once, there will definitely be casualties.”
Flora insisted that they couldn’t recklessly rush in and risk lives; safety came first.
Aidan reluctantly agreed that she was right.
“But if we stay like this, everyone’s just going to go mad from anxiety.”
“...True. That’s the problem.”
It was unrealistic to just sit and wait for rescue.
That meant they had to move despite the risk—but would the others follow their lead?
‘If it were Professor Ludger, he’d have already seized everyone with charisma.’
The thought flashed in Flora’s mind and she shook her head.
‘The only person I could even consider asking to fill that role is like that right now.’
Her eyes drifted to the corner, where the Third Princess Erendir was crouched.
Even if she was a princess, it was too much to expect her to keep her composure in a situation like this.
Especially with Rine, who usually stayed by her side, nowhere to be seen—her unease must be all the worse.
At that moment, Aidan suddenly brightened with an idea.
“Then let’s break the wall! Maybe we’ll find something!”
“What? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“With my magic, I can do it!”
Judging that doing nothing would doom them all, Aidan pulled out the staff at his waist.
“Wait—!”
Flora tried to stop him, but it was too late.
Aidan swung, channeling anti-magic into the wall.
It would have been fortunate if only his staff had broken. But to everyone’s astonishment, the wall split open, revealing a clean cut.
And beyond it was not another alien world, but a three-dimensional space much like the one they were already in.
Was this... success? So easily?
Flora’s eyes widened in disbelief—then she heard something.
From the darkness of the space Aidan had opened, came a dragging sound.
Screeeech.
“Wh-what is that? What’s that sound?”
The students stared in terror at the gap.
Something was approaching.
Flora bit her lip and prepared magic.
Even Aidan, who had cut open the wall, gripped his staff tightly in nervous tension.
Then, suddenly, something popped out of the gap.
“Huh? What’s this? There’s an opening here?”
The figure that appeared was a little girl, so young that their tension seemed absurd.
White hair tied into pigtails, brown skin.
The sight of Seridan Ironfeet left the students bewildered.
“A-a child?”
“Alright. Hold on. Someone help me with this, will you?”
Even more astonishing was that the dwarf girl had tied a rope to her waist and was dragging something behind her.
When the figure on the stretcher came into view, the students gasped in shock.
“Professor Ludger?!”
Why are you here?!