Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

Inexplicably, there was a burst of emptiness in my heart. The darkness and coldness came into my eyes so suddenly, and I was squeezed out of my vision again by a faint ray of light.

The swaying world gradually took on color. I turned my eyes slightly and looked around—the surroundings were empty, with only luggage bags stacked by the wall and a bonfire as the only light source here.

I wanted to stand up, but found that my body was bound by something, and I couldn't move at all. A rope was strangled by the arm. It was not magic, but a real thing.

I seem to have forgotten where I was taken...

Or rather, I can't remember at all.

In a daze, the sound of footsteps came from not far away. I turned my gaze and focused my gaze on the person who came. Even though I couldn't help feeling uneasy, I still expected that Charlotte brought me here. When I saw me, there should be that iconic smile on my face. However, not only was there no smile on the face of the visitor, it was even full of bitterness.

Even so, I was quite pleasantly surprised——

"Ningzi...!?" I looked at the girl in front of me in disbelief. She seemed to want to say something, but in the end she just raised her hand slightly. Only then did I notice that, unlike usual, she was not holding a wine bottle in her hand, but instead was holding a book inlaid with gold, with the familiar black border on the cover.

"I'm sorry... Charlotte asked me to." Ning Zi gently pointed to the rope behind me, sighed, and squatted in front of me.

She didn't just apologize for that, I don't know why.

"Hey~ tell me what's going on!" I moved my body, but the rope behind me restrained me in place, "I... I thought you were dead..."

Under the long blue hair in front of her, the girl's eyes are no longer casual as before, but full of sadness.

"He covered me and escaped." Ning Zi's voice was a little low, as if he didn't want to mention the name. I froze for a moment, and a blood-stained face under silver hair flashed before my eyes. Ning Zi glanced at the book in his hand, "He asked me to meet the old man, the store manager, and said that the black magic cultists were aiming at this book, but I... couldn't meet the old man."

"I remember, the cover was torn off... But why now...?" I stared at the seemingly intact book in Ning Zi's hand and asked in confusion.

"This is magic that goes back in time... This book records the origin of magic, so if you own this book... you should be able to learn all kinds of magic."

Ning Zi's words made me stunned for a long time. It's not because this is magic that I've never heard of before, but because I suddenly had some kind of strange thoughts, and my despair was suddenly thrown away, as if I had caught the tail of hope.

"If you have this kind of magic, you can save the store manager and the others! Ningzi, let me go, I want to try..."

"It's useless." Ning Zi's voice was so cold that my emotions fell to the freezing point again, and the hope I had just caught slipped away in an instant, "I tried it, and it can't be done at all."

From nowhere came a terrifying loud noise, which seemed to come from the other side of the wall. Accompanied by the sound, the ground shook, and gravel fell from the top around it.

"It's going to be too late..." Ning Zi whispered something in his mouth. She stood up again, and at the same time opened the book in her hand, as if a pair of invisible hands were holding it, the book escaped from Ning Zi's hand out of thin air, and stood in front of her in an ice-blue magic circle On the night, the book was flipping through the book on its own, as if it had reached a certain number of pages, and the action of turning the pages stopped instantly.

"TIMEFREEZE—Here I made a vow with God to isolate you from time, and the passage of time has nothing to do with you from now on. Close the door to the outside and fall into the eternal sleep of time!"

The girl who closed her eyes whispered quietly. Suddenly, a suffocating coolness came from the ground, and an ice-blue magic circle suddenly enlarged and appeared under me. At the same time, the bonfire beside me was instantly extinguished. Only the ice blue light remained to illuminate the field of vision. The ropes that tightened my hands and the ropes that bound my feet seemed to be reduced to crumbs in an instant. I hurriedly supported the ground which was so cold that my hands were about to stick to it and stood up.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing..." The pointed hat covering the head fell to the hand, and disappeared from the top to the bottom, scattered into the air, and the luggage bag on the side also disappeared little by little. Not only that, but the cloak on his body gradually became transparent, revealing the white skin under the cover. In the space I am in, fluttering catkins are flying around accompanied by glowing blue shards of light.

In a blink of an eye, the flutters were pulled together by something, forming lines, and then the lines joined end to end to form a translucent cuboid, enclosing me in it.

The temperature is getting lower and lower, and the eyes seem to be getting darker and darker. Immediately afterwards, the perception of temperature seemed to be lost, and I felt a burning pain instead. The icy blue light seemed to hit me directly, lifting me up instead. I frowned tightly, and wanted to reach out my hand towards Ning Zi, but the next second my arm lost its strength and hung down, and then I couldn't move anymore.

I supported the eyelids that were about to close in an instant, the blue hair of the girl in front of me was as crystal clear as ice, her beautiful brows were furrowed, she seemed to be in quite pain, but she was still insisting on something. The surrounding walls were covered in ice, so that the trembling from the other side could no longer be felt, much less heard.

The girl standing not far away was gradually suspended in the air, and the frost spread upward from the bottom of her feet, freezing her little by little, and my consciousness also fell into a long sleep.

As she said, as if everything seemed to have nothing to do with me. I could only follow the strange magic power, and gently closed my colorless eyes in a daze.

＊＊＊

After the brief darkness came into view, unbelievable light spots dotted the pitch-black field of vision. I seemed to be pulled back to my eyes from a distance by a strange gravitational force. I immediately raised my heavy eyelids and sat up.

There was no burning heat that woke me up from my dream, let alone that desperate picture of hell. Birds chirped outside the open window, and the fragrance of flowers brought the flower language of a new day to my ears. Memories seemed to be covered with a layer of black veil, I couldn't remember a word, so I had to rub my long hair that was pressed under my body just now.

I gently moved to the edge of the bed and got out of bed, put on my slippers, and was driven by an inexplicable mood to push open the door. The warm sunshine fell on this small town in the early morning, and the shouts of fruit shops came from not far away. I closed the door and walked forward step by step along the shore of the lake glowing in front of me.

"Don't get so close, be careful not to fall into the lake~" The boatman's hoarse but gentle reminder came from beside me. I turned my head slightly to thank him, and then walked forward with a strange mood. I accidentally bumped into a child running towards this side, and I quickly supported the child so that she didn't fall to the ground. I saw her looking at me strangely.

"Sister... Are you a friend of brother silver-haired?" The other party tilted her head in surprise, always feeling that there was candy in her mouth, she asked me in a childish voice.

"Yes... yes." As I answered her, I turned my eyes and looked into the nearby shop. Ace's father was swinging the ax seriously, beating the wood. As usual, the children gathered in the shop. Although that guy always speaks harshly to Charlotte and is cold to others, he unexpectedly likes getting along with children.

"Sister, why don't you wear that black cloak~ I don't recognize you anymore, by the way, there is also that pointed and curved hat~" She said while clumsily moving on her head After gesticulating, I immediately looked at myself, and found that I was wearing a red short sleeve, and my lower body was also a pair of shorts that only covered half of my thighs. I rubbed my long hair embarrassingly, and the child touched my hair with his lips.

"Where is your brother?" I was stunned, and asked the child softly.

"Go to the usual magician's tavern~" After listening to her words, I thanked her lightly, rubbed her head, and walked quickly towards the tavern.

On the road, I ran into Ning Zi who had just closed the shop door, she also noticed me, after staring at each other for a while, she gently shook the wine bottle in her hand.

"Do you want a drink?"

"What, I don't want it..." Hearing my disdainful words, Ning Zi chuckled.

The carriage passed by with the majestic posture of a self-satisfied rich man. Ning Zi shook his little hand, and suddenly a circle of wine bottles was tied to the tire. With the crisp sound of crushing glass, there was a startled cry from the rich man in the carriage. The two of us looked at each other and smiled again, then walked to the tavern.

At the door, the girl in the red dress waved the broom lightly, her manner was so elegant that one could feel that she was pouring a cup of strong tea. After hearing footsteps behind her, Riko turned her head and smiled.

"Yo, good morning both of you~"

I was stunned for a moment, and for some reason, a strange image flashed in my mind. The girl was lying on the cold floor and lost her breath. There was a moment of uneasiness in my heart, but I couldn't remember it in a blink of an eye.

I followed Ning Zi into the tavern slowly, and the hustle and bustle echoed in the tavern as usual. Everything in front of me made me feel a bit lost in reality, and my heart was inexplicably sour. I walked towards the front desk step by step. Ace sat in the middle and looked at me.

"Morning." Ace greeted us both coldly.

At the front desk, the old man with his arms wrapped around him sat casually on the counter and took a nap. People who have just arrived will not believe that he is the store manager here.

There was a feeling that his hanging head would accidentally make him fall to the ground in a second, making one want to step forward and push his head so that he would not fall.

Ning Zi beside him was helplessly relieved, walked to the side and found an empty seat to sit down, and the clerk brought the wine glass to Ning Zi.

I tilted my head, quietly approached the store manager, and shook in front of his eyes.

Suddenly, the old man took a breath, narrowed one eye, and was startled by the figure that appeared in front of him, he backed up abruptly, threw his head back to the other side of the counter.

"Mr. Store Manager!"

"Eluth, the store manager, I can't be scared when I'm old. Can young people be more prudent in doing things! Really..."

The store manager rubbed his head that knocked out a bag, jumped up on the spot and sat back on the counter. Speaking of this kind of person who just sits casually at the counter in the store, ignoring the weird eyes of passers-by... really has the right to make others calm. Just as I was thinking about it, I was suddenly punched in the head. I hurriedly held my head and looked over in displeasure. The store manager jumped off the counter with a look of anger.

"Little guy, I know what you're thinking."

I just wanted to say something, but there was an indescribable warmth in my heart, which brought bitterness and sourness.

"Oh, old man, you are really old..." Ning Zi put down his wine glass, but the store manager, who was attracted by the sound of collision, smiled indifferently.

Why... Even the scene in front of me, which I have been used to for a long time, is so gentle that it makes me choke up, and I can't help rubbing my sore eye sockets.

So, even I didn't know the reason for crying, and the tears fell down so suddenly. The noise around him was magnified several times and broke into his ears, and the world in front of him was covered with a thin layer of white mist.

"I'm back!" Suddenly, there was the sound of the door being kicked open rudely behind me. I was taken aback, tears were still running down my cheeks, so I turned my head.

The boy walked into the tavern with a huge luggage on his back, and when he took steps, he accidentally stepped on someone's tail, causing that person to scream. He hurriedly stopped in his tracks to apologize, but when he turned around, the rolled up blanket hit Ace's head, who was about to get up. Ace rubbed his head with an annoyed expression.

"Hey... you kid definitely did it on purpose!"

Ace's words made Charlotte lose the idea of ​​apologizing for a moment, and instead looked like he was about to fight Ace here.

"Ha, what are you talking about? Is there something wrong with you dead ice boy? Sure enough, you should hit your head a few more times to wake you up."

"Tch... I won't be as naive as you, I'm going to fight..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Charlotte punched Ace in the cold face, causing his body to knock down the table behind him, and then rolled back all the way to the wall.

The store manager sat opposite Ning Zi, with a familiar face, he raised his glass and took a sip of the wine.

"He's really young and energetic... This kid will be very lively when he comes back."

"The manager... I drank this glass before." Ning Zi looked at the manager with a helpless expression. The old man suddenly sprayed out the drink and put down the glass as if nothing had happened.

I stood there in a daze, letting the tears slide down my cheeks and drip down. It was as if... nothing had happened.

But why?

Is there always a burst of unexplainable sadness in my heart?

Strange...

What happened?

"Eluth... Hey, what's wrong with you?" A voice suddenly brought me back to reality. I quickly raised my head and reached out to wipe the corners of my eyes.

"What, I'm fine. I just feel...happy."

Hmm... I should just be thankful that I can become a part of this town and be a companion with them.