Satin took the first step. He walked slowly, scanning the area as he passed the spot where he had woken up.
“Too many branches getting in the way.”
Twigs he hadn’t noticed kept snagging at his face and upper body. Fortunately, he was wearing a long-sleeved shirt—if it had been short-sleeved, his bare skin would’ve been covered in scratches by now.
Despite his usual curt demeanor, Cain followed him immediately.
“Did you… by any chance…”
Cain started to say something but trailed off. When Satin looked back at him, Cain shook his head.
“It’s nothing.”
“What, that’s it?”
When Satin teased him with a smile, Cain seemed flustered and awkwardly furrowed his brow, trying to change the subject.
“I’ll go ahead. Just follow behind me.”
Cain broke off the annoying twigs as he walked, making it noticeably easier for Satin to follow in his wake.
Thankfully, his guess had been right. Not far off, they spotted Rita and Edward. Rita had conjured a fire arrow and was using it as a makeshift lantern, making them easy to locate.
“Satin! You’re safe!”
Rita rushed over and embraced Satin in a burst of relief. After a quick chokehold-style welcome from her, Satin asked,
“Were you two together from the start?”
“Yes. When I opened my eyes, Rita was already lying nearby.”
Then they must’ve landed in the forest in the same positions as they were back in the hall. Rita and Edward had been close together, and Satin hadn’t been far from Cain either.
Now that everyone had confirmed they were safe, it was time to figure out what the hell was going on.
“But I had this weird dream,” Rita said first. “A dream where I became someone else.”
Edward looked slightly startled as he chimed in.
“Same here. In my dream, I became a woman…”
He stopped mid-sentence, tilting his head in confusion. Satin wasn’t sure why, but from the look on Rita’s face, she seemed to understand. The two exchanged a glance full of meaning that went right over his head.
“What’s with you two?”
Satin asked, and Rita, her cheeks slightly flushed, replied,
“I think we had dreams where we became each other. Isn’t that wild? Like, seriously, how does that even happen? What about you—what kind of dream did you have?”
“Me? I…”
Satin paused, trying to recall. He had dreamed before waking up in the forest. But he hadn’t thought he’d become someone else. There was no sense of identity at all in the dream.
“I was just lying still. That’s all.”
If he had to elaborate, he’d say he was lying in darkness. But it wasn’t pitch black—faint, hook-shaped glimmers of light twisted and stretched in all directions. The air had been so hot it stung his cheeks and the backs of his hands.
It might’ve been a fire. A burning building. He dreamed of being a blind person trapped in the flames.
Still, Satin didn’t mention the fire. At first, he’d brushed it off as just a dream. But hearing Rita and Edward’s stories, he was starting to reconsider.
‘That was Cain’s memory.’
Rita and Edward seemed to think they’d randomly dreamed as each other, but Satin had a different take.
He rarely dreamed. And when he did, he almost never remembered. But the sensations from this dream had been vivid. Probably because it hadn’t been a dream at all—more like a vision, showing him someone else’s past, perhaps just by being in close proximity.
Classic trope.’
A trap that forces someone to relive their trauma, or a spell that lets you peek into another’s memories—those had always been standard fare in old fantasy novels. Even modern ones still used them, just rebranded as things like “Dungeon Penalty” or “System Backlash.”
If that fire was the same one from four years ago—the one that burned down the school—then what had Cain been thinking, lying there helpless in the flames?
‘More importantly…’
What had Cain seen?
If Satin had still been the original Satin, there wouldn’t be an issue. But he wasn’t the person Cain remembered. If Cain had seen some unfamiliar world and assumed it was Satin’s memory, that would definitely raise suspicions.
‘I’ll have to pretend it’s not mine.’
Satin feigned a calm expression as he asked Cain,
“What about you? Did you have a weird dream too?”
Cain furrowed his brow and nodded. But he didn’t say what the dream was about. Satin considered letting it slide, but Rita asked instead.
“What kind of dream?”
“…A dream where I was the son of a murderer.”
Rita’s eyes went wide. Edward also showed a flicker of surprise. Satin subtly glanced at their reactions and parted his lips, doing his best to look appropriately shocked.
Cain brushed the dirt from his robe with a flick of his hand, unable to hide his distaste as he muttered,
“Really disgusting dream.”
***
Since Rita and Edward hadn’t lost their weapons during the fight with the golems, they led the group at the front. Satin walked in the middle, keeping an eye on both sides, while Cain brought up the rear, watching their backs.
“We didn’t end up in some completely random place, did we?”
Rita asked, her voice laced with doubt and unease. Normally, Edward would’ve scolded her for saying something ridiculous, but this time, he remained silent. Maybe he shared the same unease.
Considering the location of the Demon King’s Castle, this forest was most likely the southern woods of Cloverland. Still, it wasn’t certain. The Demon King’s Castle was nowhere in sight. Given its colossal size, it should’ve been visible no matter where they were in the forest.
Soon, Edward pushed through some overgrowth and voiced his thoughts.
“This is strange. We definitely saw people leaving.”
Satin nodded reflexively, even though Edward couldn’t see him up ahead. Before entering the castle, the gatekeeping wyverns had told them—those who hadn’t passed all the trials wouldn’t be allowed through.
“Then why did we end up somewhere like this instead of the castle’s gate?”
Two possibilities came to Satin’s mind. One: this was just another part of the trial. Two: the Demon King’s Castle had disappeared. But if it had vanished… why?
Just as Satin was sinking into thought, Edward spoke up again.
“Do you remember what I mentioned earlier?”
“What was it?”
Rita swung her fire arrow too close to Edward’s face. He flinched and stumbled back.
“Could you please be a little more careful? You did the same in the dream.”
“What are you talking about?”
“In the dream, you shattered a window. You used wind magic.”
Satin interrupted Edward before they could go off-track.
“Let’s get back to what you were saying earlier.”
“Ah, I almost digressed. I was talking about the record I saw at the temple this morning.”
Edward’s derailed explanation returned to its original path. Rita seemed about to say something, but then closed her mouth. Despite her quirky personality, she wasn’t so scatterbrained that she couldn’t grasp the weight of the conversation.
That was a relief for Satin. He didn’t know exactly what she was going to say, but if it had anything to do with the dreams, he wanted to avoid the topic altogether.
‘Cain might start thinking something’s off.’
He glanced subtly over his shoulder. Cain didn’t seem interested in their conversation. It was hard to tell whether he was just on high alert, keeping watch behind them, or preoccupied with his own thoughts.
Edward continued,
“There was nothing about the Demon King—only records about the one who defeated him receiving lavish praise.”
“Yeah, I remember. So what?”
Rita nodded, though her expression said she didn’t get why Edward was bringing this up now.
“If the chroniclers at the time didn’t even find the Demon King important enough to mention, doesn’t that mean something?”
“How could the Demon King not be important? The whole city was on the brink of destruction.”
Edward stopped walking. The others halted with him. He rested his hand on his chin like someone deep in thought.
“I’m beginning to think… maybe the Demon King wasn’t a being who existed to torment people. Like I mentioned before.”
Apparently, that was a conversation they’d had while Satin wasn’t around. He stayed quiet, letting them speak.
Rita immediately fired back.
“But he hurt people.”
“To be precise, not yet. He’s just sleeping.”
“Then what’s he planning to do?”
Edward shrugged.
“I don’t know. But my point is—we shouldn’t get hung up on the name ‘Demon King.’”
He had a point. A name didn’t always reflect the truth. Satin himself wasn’t really Satin, after all.
Edward looked around at them all as he spoke.
“The Demon King as he’s described in fairy tales is just that—a fairy tale. There’s no telling what he’s actually like.”
“Ooh, looks like someone’s been reading a few storybooks.”
“Ahem, anyway—let’s try to draw some conclusions based on the Demon King’s Castle we saw.”
When Rita teased him, Edward cleared his throat awkwardly and looked away. Their eyes met by chance, and Satin, caught off guard, ended up speaking.
“Uh, maybe the Demon King’s Castle was actually a testing ground. It even said so inside the castle, remember?”
Rita looked at Satin. Unused to being the center of attention, Satin straightened his back for no reason and continued,
“If we just take those words at face value, doesn’t it make sense?”
While fighting the golems, Cain had assumed they must have a weakness. His reasoning was simple—since it was called a test, there had to be a solution. Satin had thought the same.
“If we assume the Demon King’s Castle is a testing ground, and that the battles with those monsters were part of the test, then the Demon King’s goal would be this—”
“What?”
Rita tilted her head, as if the idea of exams was foreign to her. Satin, on the other hand, was well-versed in them—after all, he’d spent nine years in school.
“Selection.”
The interior of the Demon King’s Castle had been too stable. Sure, there were the swarms of monkeys, a massive snake, and golems—all of them intimidating—but they only appeared in the designated test chambers.
Before reaching the hall, there hadn’t been a single threat.
No lethal traps. No monsters jumping out of nowhere. For a place called the Demon King’s Castle, it had been surprisingly tame. If Indiana Jones had shown up, he probably would’ve left complaining about how boring it was. The name didn’t live up to the hype.
But if the castle had been built as a testing ground to select a so-called “Hero,” then it all made perfect sense.
Wait go back… Satin what is it w your father and the murder…. did your der sister save you from your father?? Wait whaaa