Myths Reawakened

November twenty-second.

Backyard, Wayne’s residence.

With a knightly sword, Vera trained her dragonslaying swordsmanship on the lawn. Her knight teacher, Valkyrie, watched her hard work from the side, nodding with approval.

Vera’s academic performance left something to be desired. It wasn’t because she wasn’t talented, but because she got distracted easily and had a tendency to slack off whenever she could with clever tricks. Every time she got caught, she tried to act cute to avoid punishment.

Any other teachers might let her get away, but not Valkyrie. The mature knight always hit her with a hand chop to ignite her drive to train harder.

The reason was simple: the other person who had a penchant for hand-chopping her was Veronica. The vicious dragon had stolen the ‘princess’, brandishing her fangs and claws and breathing out fire. She even shared the ‘princess’ with their allies from the Church of Moonlight.

The resentment stemming from the loss of one’s spouse could not be appeased!

Say no more. She would practice the dragonslaying swordsmanship and slay the dragon to get the ‘princess’ back.

It had been a week since Wayne went to the inner world. Mona, the only witness, hadn’t told anyone but Auston, who had gathered a team of experts to study the mirror space barrier at the headquarters of the Ministry of Magic for a way to enter the inner world.

The research site was in suburban Londan, where Wayne had disappeared from. The spatial disturbances were complicated, proving that there had once been an entryway to the other world.

Mona hadn’t told anyone else, always claiming that Wayne was on a mission, doing research, or messing around with women, just like he usually did.

A week wasn’t short, but it wasn’t that long, either. With Auston supporting her claim, no one suspected Mona of lying.

“Hmph!”

“Take this, Dragon!”

“Ha!”

“I’ll take your head!”

Wayne strode into the backyard and watched Vera huffing and grunting with his back pressed against a tree. His lips curled up. The surface world was peaceful and shrouded in warm sunlight, soothing his tense nerves. He had been smiling at everyone, even staying amicable with Auston—the despicable landlord, noble, and capitalist—with none of his usual sarcasm.

This was the kind of world people should live in!

After returning to the surface world, Darienne bade Wayne farewell. She needed to submit her report and deliver the container full of negativity back to the Divine Realm. The Goddess of Moonlight especially had to know about the abomination in the inner world.

A mysterious, powerful entity existed in the inner world. Who were they? What did they have to do with the destruction and restart of the inner world? Were they brewing a scheme that would destroy the world? Every single one of the questions was critical.

Before her departure, Darienne said that she would return, asking Wayne to introduce her to William because she wanted to practice cards with him. A great fortune was easy to come by, while a kindred spirit wasn’t.

As a card player, Darienne greatly appreciated an optimistic, good-hearted boy like William. Of course, Filomina had also done well and redeemed the Church of Moonlight at the last moment. Darienne had taken a liking to her, too. If Wayne just joined the table, a game could begin in a perfect situation.

The torment he had suffered in the inner world left Wayne exhausted, both physically and mentally. He wanted nothing more than to return home for recovery. Right after saying goodbye to Darienne, he rushed back home. On his way to his residence, he had contacted Mona and told her that he was back, so she could rest easy and stop looking for him.

The inner world was a mirror reflection of the surface world. It could be projected, but never turned into reality. Those from the inner world could not enter the surface world, and the items from the inner world could not be taken out.

The five divine artifacts were, of course, out of the question, and even the camera, the photos Wayne had taken a lot of effort in taking, and the written permissions from Auston were gone. That further depressed Wayne. It pained him that he didn’t even have anything to remember his experience by.

Thankfully, everyone was still around in the surface world, so he could project the overpowering feelings he had been bottling up on them. Otherwise, he really would become depressed.

“Oh, Wayne, you’re back from messing around with girls?” Spotting Wayne, Vera cocked her head at Valkyrie and got herself a five-minute break. She jogged up to him with her twintails swishing about, breaking into a grin. “I’ll be upfront. Not everyone can enter the Wayne residence. Who is the girl? Who could keep you away for so long? Introduce her to me so that I can judge her worth for you.”

“I wasn’t messing around with girls...”

“Mr. Lando said you were!”

“Yeah, he’s dead,” Wayne said gently, petting Vera’s head. His eyes were slightly moist with tears.

Vera was shocked. She asked him what had happened to change his personality so suddenly.

The surface world wasn’t the inner world, and Wayne didn’t want to talk to Vera about William. The latter had tragically lost everything. There was no reason to make her experience the tragedy, too.

Still, keeping the feelings trapped in his chest was torture. He had to put them into action then!

“What a nice pair of twintails. It makes me want to hold onto the tails and ride...”

“Huh?!”

“Cum. Follow me inside.”

Wayne grabbed Vera’s sword and shoved it into the ground, dragging Vera to the main house under Valkyrie’s shocked gaze.

“Huh?!” It took two steps for Vera to recover from her shock. She hurriedly said, “Tell me what happened, Wayne. I’m scared.”

Something bad must have happened over the past few days, or Wayne wouldn’t have dragged her inside in broad daylight, with Valkyrie watching.

“I miss you, Vera.”

“...”

The simple words were much more powerful than his usual flirting, despite the lack of embellishments, yet the yearning and affection conveyed were incomparably more profound than the empty confessions.

It was a critical hit. Vera silently melted.

Not long after, a soundproof barrier was created in the master bedroom. Valkyrie looked at the main house in exasperation.

She said five minutes. Her student had better return soon.

***

Later, Wayne emerged from the bedroom refreshed, having vented most of his frustration. Behind him, the cream puff lay boneless on the bed.

What had transpired wasn’t anything to write home about. He had grabbed the two troublemakers and reprimanded them with his silver tongue. Then he followed the trails to get to the bottom of the case, cracking it wide open.

Those who understood would understand, and those who didn’t understand were only pretending not to.

After dealing with the first target, Wayne drove straight to the residence of the second target, the High Reverend of the Church of Moonlight.

She wasn’t home. He went straight to the Church of Moonlight’s Londan head office and finished the deed in her office. He couldn’t wait until they were home. The High Reverend’s desk was quite large.

Women were sensitive creatures. Just like Vera, Filomina realized how different Wayne was. Though he had always liked doing it standing up... he suddenly felt a lot more mature, as well as shameless.

“I remember now. That’s General Yuwen’s line![1]”

Wayne came to the realization only after he walked out of the office with his hands on his waistband and saw the twins guarding the door. So it was an antagonist’s quote.

Virna and Diede glared at Wayne with distaste. How could he expose the High Reverend in broad daylight? She had a reputation to uphold. If news got out, and the High Reverend lost her respectable image, how was she going to command her subordinates?

Wayne didn’t find it shameful. Loss was the most painful lesson for how to treasure what one had. They from the surface world had taken things for granted. Auston and the others from the inner world would’ve easily given their lives away for a chance to reunite with their loved ones, let alone their dignity and image.

Thinking of Auston, Wayne felt another wave of regret.

Since it was time to punch out, he picked up the blissed-out High Reverend and brought her home, coaxing her with a few sweet words before driving to the Lando Estate.

During the family dinner, Wayne looked at everyone with undisguised joy. Not only was Veronica weirded out, but even Silvia and Megan felt a little unnerved.

Auston frowned. The others didn’t know that Wayne had entered the inner world, but he did. The complicated gaze could only mean that the Lando family had met a tragic end there.

He didn’t say anything, only giving Wayne a look to invite him to a chat in the study after dinner.

***

Study.

Megan stood inside the door and set up a soundproof barrier. Wayne had shown up with Silvia and Veronica, which confused Auston. If the family had met a tragedy, it shouldn’t be shared with everyone.

He had a feeling that he would be launched into the sky tonight.

“A few days ago, I unfortunately fell into the inner world while dealing with a demon... Don’t worry. I’m back, ain’t I?”

“It’s a post-apocalyptic world filled with negativity. The churches’ wars, the nations’ wars, and the nonstop clashes between people had destroyed the world. Even I, an outsider, could feel the overpowering despair.”

“The Lando family didn’t fare well there.”

“The last time the inner world was rebooted was around two years ago. I’ll start with Veronica’s graduation. She, Vera, and Kristen were cursed when cracking down the base of the Church of Death, but because of the influence of negativity, she kicked William, the man Vera transformed into, out of the team. Without his guidance, she didn’t end up meeting me.”

“Wait, what do you mean that I didn’t end up meeting you just because Vera wasn’t there to lead the way?”

Veronica objected to the flawed logic. He made it sound like Vera had claimed him first, and she had stolen Vera’s boyfriend from her.

“The truth proved that she did have first claim!” Wayne said. It was an official recognition.

Just like in the surface world, Vera had fallen at first sight in the inner world, too. No matter which world it was, she insisted on throwing herself at Wayne. He would take her side this time.

Veronica felt even more frustrated. That wasn’t what Wayne had said. She remembered an entry in his diary and turned away with her arms crossed.

If a man is late to his date with a woman, he’s either slept in or slept in someone.

In Wayne’s case, it was clearly the latter.

Bah, scumbag!

Veronica’s bad mood needed to be appeased. Wayne smiled, taking her hand in his. “You and Kristen headed to Klofron alone and were never heard from again. You had likely met your demise there.”

He turned to Silvia. “Teacher, I’m the Death Knight in the inner world, and under the influence of the negative information, I charged into the Londan head office of the Church of Nature and killed everyone, including you.”

Silvia nodded, unsurprised. The fortuneteller in the Frozen Land had said as much.

Fate had changed course, and the other past wasn’t what had happened to her. Besides, the tragedy had happened in the inner world, while the Wayne of the surface world was her lovely son. She couldn’t put herself in her other self’s shoes and thus felt no anger.

Not only that, she got curious about how the Wayne and Auston of the inner world interacted.

Seeing Wayne’s apologetic look, Silvia pulled him into her arms with a smile and said passive-aggressively, “You’ve only made a mistake because of the influence of negativity, unlike a certain someone, who wiped out the Londan head office of the church in the surface world, without the influence of negativity.”

Auston stared at the mother and son. That’s double standards!

Still, there was no talking to an overprotective mother. Auston stayed silent, pretending that Silvia was mocking someone else.

1. Referring to the earlier chapter, where Wayne was wondering whose line “I hate wasting things, so I always finish every grain of rice in my bowl” was. ☜