With grime of uncomfortable pain, Auran slowly opened his eyes to a bright sky with a pink sun. There was a sweet aroma in the air he breathed and a refreshing sound of wind heard in his ears.
A dream? was the first thought that appeared in his mind. He had lived in a dorm room that had only one window and was surrounded by other dorms. Other than seeing the sunlight, he couldn't remember a time that window managed to catch a wind strong enough to blow through the whole room since he came to the academy.
"This feels like not a good dream," The pink sun in the sky kept brightening the surroundings of Auran, and he slightly turned his head to see a field of blue-colored flowers below him.
Hold on, if the sun is above and the flowers are below me, where am I?
Auran lifted his head to see the branch of a giant tree—and its tip—where Auran currently lay. Thanks to the massive leaves of the tree and their strong endurance, Auran had not fallen from the branch.
However, once he saw where he was, Auran panicked and caused the leaves holding him to bend.
"No..."
The tree branch gave way unevenly, losing the balance it had to hold Auran. As a result, Auran fell down, hitting several branches of the tree that were growing below.
"Ah, uh, ouch."
Although being hit by the tree branches didn't cause him much pain, the bruises, scratches, and cuts left as the aftermath of the collision made him groan in slight discomfort.
Tin!
Among those branches, something hard grazed against Auran's body. The sound and texture felt like a glass bottle.
However, Auran didn't have the time to look for the source, as he rapidly approached the ground and finally landed with a loud sound.
Thud!
Thankfully, the ground below was covered by layers of flowers—and there was a massive amount of them, enough to absorb the pressure of someone like Auran falling from above.
Auran, who expected pain upon landing, was surprised by the comfortable feeling he got from the flowers. It felt like he was lying in a soft sofa.
He once again looked up at the tree from which he had fallen. It was huge and tall but had only a few branches. How did I end up on one of those?
But just then, Auran caught something in his eyes—something falling from above, tiny and in the shape of a bottle. It was headed directly toward him along the same path he had fallen.
"Uh—"
Auran kicked his legs and rolled to the side. Whoosh—like a stone diving into a puddle of water, the object—or more clearly, the bottle—dived into the massive bed of flowers Auran had just been lying on and disappeared.
"Brain Deceleration Drink?"
Before it completely vanished through the flower field, Auran managed to catch a clearer glimpse of the bottle. It looked similar to the drink he had consumed the night before. He even doubted whether it might be the exact same one.
"Wait... what happened last night? Also... dreams can't cause pain... but this feels so real."
Auran felt like he was in a dilemma, so he strained his mind to understand what was going on. But the moment his thoughts began to form properly, an immense pain struck his head and dropped him to his knees.
"Aghh!"
The pain was unbearable. Auran, on his knees, pressed his head to the ground. The sensation felt like a massive force was being injected directly into his brain, and Auran couldn't even think about processing a single ounce of the knowledge or information flooding in.
"What the hell is going on?"
Despite the pain, Auran recovered some of the memories that had been buried—what felt like years' worth of memories. And Auran remembered what had happened the previous night... and the terrible action he had committed.
"Shit!"
With regret, he inspected the imagined space in his mind that held the notebook.
What he saw made him feel even more regretful. The notebook, which had previously guided him, was now torn to shreds. Pieces of the book were floating around in the dark space like stars in the night sky. Although it still appeared possible to match a few of them correctly to learn something, figuring out what matched with what would be the most difficult task.
Moving past the frame of the notebook, Auran continued forward, because there was something in the middle of all this that caught his attention even more.
It was a round object, and upon closer inspection, Auran realized it was the magical circle he had drawn on the surface of the book's time shield. But now it was different. It had undergone changes Auran could not understand, and it seemed to be connected to the circle of space the notebook had opened to extract information from time.
The two circles seemed to resonate with each other, and between their space, there flowed a small, water-like substance. It moved like the glowing current of a river. When observed, Auran knew it was the mana of time that was flowing—but he couldn't say for certain it was truly mana. The thing that flowed felt more profound and mysterious than anything he had ever witnessed before.
"Is this the true source of time?"
He pondered. But unexpectedly, the moment his brain started to process the thought, the whole space shook, and the two circles became more active than before. This caused the flowing river of time to grow more chaotic and spill out from the structured flow into the surrounding space.
"No—if even a tiny drop of time gets into my head, I will surely die from the pressure!"
Auran panicked, but he had no solution at the moment. However, just as suddenly, a barrier appeared around the two circles, managing to block the spilled flow of time. Yet, because there seemed to be a connection between his mind and the circles, the moment the time flow began to go berserk, Auran started to receive an immense amount of information and knowledge he couldn't even begin to process.
It was like trying to swallow a massive piece of food while already having too much stuck in his throat. There was no more space for him to process, but the knowledge kept pouring in.
"The more my brain starts to work, the more active the circles become, which causes the mysterious time to fall into my head. There's only one solution for this—and that's to decrease my brain activity."
Despite the immense influx of information and knowledge, Auran managed to understand what was happening to him. Maybe it was thanks to some unknown force guiding his mind through the chaos.
Knowing what was happening, Auran already knew the answer.
"Where's that damn bottle?"
Back in to reality, Auran dove into the flower field with the purpose of finding the brain-deceleration potion.
. . . . . . .
Shrush!
Shrush!
A constant, annoying sound slowly woke Henry from his deep sleep. And once he opened his eyes, what he saw was the pink sun in the sky.