After that relentless spiral of pain,
I stared forward for a few seconds,
my thoughts still scattered…
Until my senses slowly returned.
And that's when I realized ..
I was no longer inside the black castle.
"Where… am I?"
That was the first question I asked myself.
But the answers ..
They were starting to take shape… on their own.
I was sitting on a wooden chair… inside an ordinary room with a single bed, a desk, and a few simple pieces of furniture. Things that made it obvious the space belonged to a guy in his twenties.
Right in front of ...
another person sat.
Also in his twenties, with a look so familiar I recognized him instantly.
We were face-to-face.
I started laughing—quietly at first.
A hollow laugh, wondering if I'd finally lost my mind.
After all…
This room was mine.
These were my things.
And the person sitting across from …
Was .
Or rather—
The version of I used to look like, long ago…
before the reincarnation.
Before everything began.
My past self smiled as I laughed like a madman.
"Welco back,"
he said, using my old voice.
And sothing about it felt deeply, fundantally wrong.
"Welco back where?"
I asked, still smiling uncontrollably.
"Ho," he answered calmly.
The mont I heard that word, I sighed.
Exhausted.
Tired of all this illusion.
"Ho? Did you people go and recreate my old house? Turned it into one of your little trials?"
I wouldn't even be surprised if the walls suddenly exploded and monsters ca crawling in to devour my brain.
My past self chuckled at my reaction.
"So cynical… life really hasn't been kind to you, has it?"
His words were simple ..
but they hit harder than I expected,
especially coming from an old version of myself.
A version that once lived a peaceful life,
far removed from the endless spiral of blood and death I've endured since then.
If I were still the sa person from back then…
I probably wouldn't be thinking this way at all.
That realization left a bitter taste in my mouth.
It made angry ..without even knowing why.
"Who are you? What illusion have you trapped in this ti?"
To be honest, I'd already tried to strike him multiple tis.
But neither Balerion nor the Dark Sister answered ..
no matter how hard I called for them.
Powerless, I was left with no choice but to play along with this absurd play.
The smile on my forr self's face slowly widened,
as if he could hear every thought racing through my head.
He looked around and said:
"This isn't an illusion.
It's what you call 'ho,'
but not your real ho."
Annoyed, I cut him off.
"What are you even talking about?"
"This place is the safe haven your mind created.
The place you feel most at ease.
And ?
I'm the version of yourself you long for more than anything."
Silence settled for a few seconds as I tried to process his words.
"So in other words… all of this is happening inside my head?"
He nodded.
"That's right."
Once I got my answer, I leaned back into the wooden chair.
"I really have lost my mind this ti, huh?"
With a smile, my past self agreed.
"You lost it a long ti ago."
Sitting here,
talking to myself inside my own head without restraint…
I couldn't help but wonder ..
When did everything start to slip from my hand?
When did I change this much?
"You haven't necessarily changed,"
my other self said,
"And yet—you have."
He pointed at himself.
"My existence is proof of that."
"What do you an?" I asked.
"Like I said… I'm the ideal version of you.
The one you wish you could be again.
And this place is the sanctuary your mind has built around that wish.
This is where your 'family' lives."
"And what's wrong with that?" I asked.
"These choices of yours an you're still trapped in the past…
You still see as the better version of yourself ..
not the person you are now, Frey."
"And this place..." he said, casting a thoughtful glance around him before continuing,
"...this is still the place you call ho ...
but not the Starlight estate, where your reincarnated father lives... and your sister resides now."
He looked genuinely sorrowful as he said those words.
"In other words… you're still stuck in the past, Frey.
You've changed ..
and at the sa ti… you haven't."
Between past and present…
A lot had changed.
That much was inevitable, given the life I had lived since my reincarnation.
And yet…
deep inside, parts of remained exactly the sa.
Deep down inside…
I was still yearning for the life I had lost—
a life I knew I could never return to.
Just thinking about it stirred feelings I didn't want to face.
So I shut his words down with cold detachnt.
"Hey."
With the sa cold gaze I'd always given my enemies, I looked straight at him.
"Isn't it ti you told why I'm here?"
The mont I asked, my other self looked surprised ..
then smiled again, faintly… with sorrow in his eyes.
"So… ti's up, huh?"
"Ti for what?"
"You're about to get answers to so of the questions that have haunted you."
As soon as he said that, I felt my curiosity stir—despite myself.
"But you're not ready to hear them yet…
which ans you'll have to face what's waiting behind that door."
"Door?" I asked, confused ..
only to realize that a strange door had appeared behind him.
His expression grew more sorrowful as he glanced at it.
With a half-smile, I looked at him.
"So there's another test, huh?"
Nothing new.
I've never gained anything without a struggle.
But my other self only looked more pained.
"This ti… it's different."
He stamred slightly, his eyes locked on mine.
"You won't be able to overco what's behind that door."
Lowering his head, his shoulders trembled.
"That's why I brought you here… Please, Frey… don't open that door."
With every word he spoke,
the cracks in the closed door behind him began to glow brighter.
"There has to be another way… you don't have to do this…"
"Please… don't go."
Lowering his head toward ,
I stared at the man who was supposed to be .
And though he tried to stop ,
he truly was worried for .
I could feel it.
Because he was .
But ..
He lifted his head when I placed my hand gently on his right shoulder,
offering him a faint, bittersweet smile.
"I'm sorry."
I didn't need to say more.
If he truly was ,
he already knew the answer.
With sorrow, he nodded.
"There's no other way… is there?"
There were no shortcuts.
No easy paths.
If I wanted to reach the end,
I had to face whatever waited for —no matter what it was.
And so, with resolve,
I stepped forward.
And opened the door.
A brilliant light erupted, swallowing whole.
My other self remained where he was,
watching with a pained smile.
"You won't win this ti, Frey…"
The light faded slowly,
allowing to see what was on the other side.
"This ti, your opponent… can't be defeated."
The place I now stood in ..
was hauntingly familiar.
But it wasn't the room itself that made tremble.
It was the people inside.
"You won't win… not against them."
Darkness swallowed the previous room—
my old self vanishing along with it.
And the space I had just entered lit up fully.
There, inside that room, stood four figures.
"Welco back…"
They spoke in unison.
And I stood frozen, completely stunned.
"…W-What?"
In the blink of an eye,
my mind went blank.
Everything faded.
Everything I had been until now was erased—
mories slipping away like water through fingers.
Before the people I had chased for so long ...
like chasing a mirage…
My family.
They were all here.
With a mind too empty to even process it properly,
I smiled—
a smile I hadn't worn in a very, very long ti.
"I'm ho."
Ho… at last.
User Comments
0 comments from readers