So That Means There's Nothing to Discuss

"Move."

Lynch scooped up little Nara, gave the couple a shove, and as he pushed them toward the doorway, two orange glass bottles flew from his hands.

The smoke and dust at the window cleared, revealing the night sky outside.

A young woman in fine clothes with a black fan was walking gracefully through the air, followed by several humanoid figures clad in black.

"You failed to complete the task, outsider... ah!"

Amidst a shriek that felt like a piercing sonic assault, Lynch flicked his finger without looking back at the window, while the glass bottles shattered against the frame.

Boom.

Flames erupted, completely engulfing the approaching girl and her black clad entourage.

That will teach you to talk so much.

"Move it, what are you still staring at?"

Lynch kicked the dazed couple into action, then rushed out through the front door.

"But... our home..."

"Forget the house! Just get out of here first and figure out what's going on, or do you want to know what those monsters have planned for you? Follow me."

He burst through the door and fired two shots into the lock of the apartment across the hall.

??

What kind of pistol opens locks like that? May you be cursed.

Lynch had no choice but to kick the door open, charging in amidst the homeowner's panicked screams. The pistol was the best pass; the people inside dared not stop him.

"Just passing through!"

Lynch ran through the apartment while holding little Nara. With monsters at their heels and Lynch carrying their daughter, the couple followed instinctively.

The four of them charged to the end of the room. Lynch smashed the window with his cane, glanced around, grabbed the couple, and threw them down onto the rain awning below before jumping after them.

"Ah~~"

The little girl in his arms shrieked, but her terror was mixed with a hint of excitement. This kid had a future.

As for her parents, they smashed through the awning before they could even scream, then scrambled up, rubbing their rumps in a daze.

"Keep moving, don't stop. That blast might not have killed them."

They were behind the apartment building now, and the long structure shielded them from their pursuers. Lynch urged the couple into the alley behind. Luke, the husband, finally regained some composure and began to lead the way. They navigated a series of turns and soon reached a main road.

Looking back, there were no pursuers for the moment.

"What... what do we do?"

The couple leaned on each other, gasping for air. Little Nara bit her finger, silent, her innocent eyes staring up at the stranger holding her.

What are you looking at? Look at your father. This is all his fault.

"Find a carriage and get to the place you mentioned, as fast as possible." Lynch scanned the street, unsure of the time in this world, but there were still plenty of carriages about. "I need to figure out what's happening to have any chance of solving this."

"Then let's take a taxi carriage. I'll go call one."

"Call one? Did you forget what happened to the last driver? Can you even drive a carriage?"

Men in this world generally knew how to handle a carriage, and this was no exception. Seeing Luke nod, Lynch strode toward a waiting taxi. Before the smiling driver could react, Lynch politely pointed his pistol at the man's head and invited him out of the driver's seat.

"You're off duty tonight. Go to the monastery for compensation. Remember not to work the night shift in the future, or you'll run into robbers."

Amidst the driver's friendly, jumping blessings, the carriage sped away, quickly leaving the apartment building behind. Only then did Lynch return the little girl to her mother, Clara. He exhaled, made a face at the curious child staring at him, reloaded his pistol, and prepared for battle.

"Who, who exactly are you? What is going on? There are monsters, and people who can fly."

Amidst the sound of hoofbeats, Luke finally couldn't help but ask, his voice tinged with a sob. Clara held her daughter, trembling and weeping quietly. Clearly, tonight's events were too much for the housewife.

"Tch, isn't this the novelty and excitement you wanted?"

Lynch spoke with a sneer. Having spent so much time dealing with the mysterious, he had a deep hatred for those who didn't know that peace was a blessing—and he was absolutely not jealous, really.

However, seeing Clara cry even harder and watching Luke whip the horses relentlessly—a true corporate slave who was suffering while trying to provide—Lynch decided to explain. "You've come into contact with the truth of this world, and someone has decided you must be purged. I don't know how they intend to deal with you, but I doubt they just want to buy you a drink. So... what exactly do you know?"

"We can't explain it clearly. We just suddenly understood things." Luke said without looking back. "This world is fake. It's just a fantasy or a dream of some sort..."

"The Dreamlands?"

"Yes, that must be it. We're just people in a dream. The city is fake, too; it doesn't really exist. But something terrifying got hold of something, affecting the boundary between the false and the real, trapping the city and us in the gap between that dream and reality. It uses this place to spy on everything happening on the other side. I don't understand most of it; it just crawled into my mind."

So that was it. Was the evil god just doing this to peek and watch the show? Is she sick?

Wait, no. Affecting the boundary between the false and the real? Damn it, it probably used the Gate of Falsehood and Reality to do that. That's why that thing hasn't appeared since the Fourth Age. Because of that, when the likes of William coveted that mirror, they followed the trail here. Hiss, if the Flaming Red Lips could find clues about the mirror, they might have gotten them here too.

But if it's a dream, then people flying or monsters appearing wouldn't be strange. Even if there were flying monsters...

???

What is that?

The wind picked up, carrying a faint, fishy stench.

In the red-mist-filled night sky, several black dots suddenly appeared. They expanded rapidly, turning into masses of shadow within seconds, and finally broke through the red mist to reveal their forms in mid-air.

Bird heads, insect compound eyes, bat wings, fish scales, horse hind hooves, wolf foreclaws—the design was bizarre, as if various creatures had been wrongly stitched together.

Lynch had seen this creature just a few days ago at the Rhine City Museum, where Professor Green had been studying its remains.

Mysterious heteromorphs, messengers and mounts of the evil gods, bizarre beings that traveled between the Dreamlands and the waking world.

The heteromorphs carried riders—the very pursuers he had just blown away. The monster girl in fine clothes, whom he had crossed paths with several times, was leading the pack. Her eyes lit up when she saw Lynch, her speed increased sharply, and the distance between them closed rapidly.

"You said I could refuse." Lynch shielded the mother and daughter behind him and aimed his pistol at the girl in the sky, firing three incendiary rounds in succession. "And I hadn't even made my choice yet. If you want to watch a good show, you have to give me a chance to figure everything out, right?"

Bang, bang, bang. Three fireballs exploded in the air. The heteromorph spread its wings and banked to the side, diving through the flames.

The bloated girl in fine clothes steadied herself with her tentacles and suddenly opened her mouth, spewing a jet of black water that shot toward the carriage like an arrow.

"Damn it, Luke, dodge!"

Fortunately, the carriage swerved just in time, causing the black water to splash onto the ground, instantly corroding a large pit into the road.

"I didn't stop you from refusing, nor did I stop you from figuring things out, outsider. I'm just sending you away along with them. Hehehehe."

Taking advantage of the carriage's evasive maneuver, the girl closed in. She steered the heteromorph into two successive dives, narrowly missing the carriage both times.

So that means there's nothing to discuss?

Lynch's expression darkened. He gave the relentless girl a thumbs-down, then pulled an old piece of parchment from the lining of his coat.

【Parchment of Max (3)】

One of the life-saving mystery relics belonging to Miss Valente.

Well then, goodbye.