As the world lay blanketed in white, I walked along the pale ground, glancing ahead while addressing the three team members trailing far behind me.
“Though we talked about this before entering, this is a domain where your ‘mind’ constructs your physical form. It’s the realm of magic.”
No one responded.
It was a one-sided explanation on my part.
Even Yunia, who might have been expected to comment on such a unique space that defies physical laws, remained silent, simply following along.
“Miss Yunia.”
“Yes.”
Her response was curt.
It seemed she was genuinely upset, like a Golden Retriever promised a park visit only to find itself at the vet for shots—crestfallen and sulking.
“For the record, this place transmits emotions more directly, making them easier to feel than elsewhere.”
“…”
“You feel it too, don’t you, Miss Yunia?”
“Feeling it and hearing it directly are two different things.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Then that’s fine.”
With my genuine apology, Yunia ran forward and stood beside me.
“Next time, give me a heads-up, so I can at least prepare myself.”
“Miss Yunia, are you saying you want to keep secrets between us?”
Ludmila stepped forward, now clad in her battle-ready bunny suit, replacing the swimsuit she had worn earlier.
“Where’s the swimsuit?”
“I’m more comfortable in this, especially for combat scenarios.”
“You’re prioritizing safety over showing off to men, right? Disappointing, but understandable.”
“…Then what about the swimsuit I’m wearing?”
As soon as I complimented Ludmila’s choice of clothing, Yunia, puffing her cheeks, pointed to her red bikini.
“Are you saying I dressed like this just to impress men without any consideration for my comrades?”
“Miss Yunia.”
“Yes.”
“Am I wrong?”
“Ugh.”
Yunia’s boldness demanded equally blunt honesty on my part.
This was the terrifying truth of this realm.
Everyone wears masks and hides their true feelings, but here, such facades falter.
“Does that mean Miss Evangeline dressed like that just for Phoenix to notice?”
“Miss Yunia, calling that ‘dressed’ is a stretch. It’s practically just a few patches of cloth.”
“Oh? Shall I take a look?”
“No, you shall not.”
“Absolutely not.”
Yunia and Ludmila grabbed my head from either side, pulling me along as we walked.
In the real world, the tanned delinquent Golden Sun would never have dared to act this way. But here, with this atmosphere, everyone was bolder and more direct.
“Alright, but we can’t leave Evangeline in the rear forever. At some point, at least an A-rank monster will show up, and we can’t fight blind.”
“That’s true, but what do we do if she’s not ready yet?”
Evangeline’s voice quivered behind us.
“Manipulating mana to form an outfit… I still need to get the hang of it!”
“Which is why I suggested a swimsuit.”
Constructing clothing with sheer willpower in this mental realm was no simple task.
Unlike Yunia and Ludmila, Evangeline’s mana and abilities were comparatively lacking.
In overall combat power, she sat somewhere between C- and B-rank, far below A-rank Ludmila or Yunia, who, though unassessed officially, was practically A-rank.
Evangeline’s struggles weren’t unexpected.
Still…
“Is it one of those swimsuit designs where I’d need to avoid looking or risk a nosebleed?”
“…”
“In reality, when you bought that swimsuit through Silverstar’s Golden Carriage, didn’t you try it on?”
“Well…”
It seemed Evangeline’s mental image only conjured something overly daring.
This posed a problem for me as well.
For others, envisioning the outfits they’d bought with real money was straightforward.
But Evangeline?
She kept… growing.
Not upward, but in other ways, as if all her growth hormones funneled into her mana pockets.
“Looks like we’re nearing the ‘entrance.’ Evangeline, I’ll craft you a mana suit this time. Next time, though, you need to conjure proper clothing on your own, okay?”
“O-okay. It’s not going to be weird, right?”
“Of course not.”
I crafted a simple outfit using mana, akin to making a mana skin, and handed it to her.
The sound of footsteps rushed toward me as Evangeline grabbed the clothes.
“This is…!”
“You wear pajamas to bed, don’t you?”
It was a cute animal pajama outfit—green, designed like a cartoon dinosaur.
Unlike her usual doll-like aura, this gave her a playful, childlike charm.
They weren’t clothes that I knew as a player, but rather [Made in Korea] products, which were one of the many clothes I actually bought in real life.
Swish.
“Uh, how does it look?”
Evangeline stepped forward. The outfit, complete with a dinosaur head biting her own, was oddly endearing—more “adorable Jurassic Park” than terrifying predator.
It was a design that would make you feel like you were going to get bitten.
I didn’t make anyone wear it, but it was one of the pajamas I ended up buying anyway.
I feel bitter about making these pajamas.
“…W-Why are you looking at me like that? Do you have bad memories with drakes?”
“Not bad memories, exactly.”
Drakes, she said.
But it was a tyrannosaur.
In this world, dinosaurs didn’t exist, their roles taken over by dragons.
It made sense, given the lore of Bread Academy.
And since the illusions we were facing didn’t include dinosaurs, Evangeline had no frame of reference and naturally thought of it as a drake.
“Evangeline.”
“Yeah?”
“It suits you well.”
“R-really?”
“Of course. When we return to reality, I’ll make you a custom one for free. Wear it whenever you like.”
“Really?!”
Evangeline reacted enthusiastically, tugging at her dinosaur pajamas with a beaming smile.
“Absolutely.”
“Absolutely! Now that Evangeline’s ready, it’s time to look around and make our choice.”
I stopped precisely at the center of the area.
The surroundings were pure white, but amidst the whiteness, paths clearly existed.
“Miss Yunia, what do you think this place is?”
“A transcendent space created 500 years ago by the Four Saints using grand magic that defies physical laws?”
“Correct. This place transcends the concepts of time and space.”
“So, it’s like a dream world?”
“Exactly. If you’ve ever had a lucid dream where you realize you’re dreaming and gain freedom to move around, it’s something like that.”
Lucid dreaming, in essence.
“Think of it as a more realistic version of that. Since this space is created by magic, don’t overthink it. Everything that happens here is… an illusion, created by the magic of a great hero.”
We could afford to be lighthearted.
Even if gravity inverted, stairs rose endlessly to the sky, or anything equally bizarre occurred—
“If the path we came through is the entrance, then seven paths stretch out from the central circle, excluding the entrance.”
As I stood at the center and released my mana, seven beams of light radiated outward in seven directions.
“This is…!”
“Are those the seven attributes of mana?”
“Exactly. By the way, the path we came from is the exit.”
Red, blue, green, yellow, gold, black, and silver.
While they appeared similar to the seven core colors found on Earth, they represented the seven Dukes of the Demon World here.
“We’ll have to conquer each of these seven zones.”
“Zones? H-huh?!”
Evangeline gaped, pointing at the seven towering beams of light rising from the directions I indicated.
“Are you saying those are the zones?”
“That’s right. To be precise… ‘towers.’”
As the light subsided, seven towers emerged, all similar in appearance but each distinct in color.
“We need to climb to the top of each tower and defeat the ‘guardian’ at its peak to complete the trials.”
“…This really does feel like a proper trial.”
Ludmila stretched her arms, licking her lips in anticipation.
“If the seven attributes are divided like this, doesn’t it mean that with the right preparations, matching the mana attribute to the opponent, this will be relatively straightforward?”
As if she was already strategizing, Ludmila clenched her fist and pointed at the yellow tower.
“And in this space… it might even be possible to unleash techniques without holding back.”
“…I might also be able to show some of what my master taught me more freely.”
Yunia nodded with determination.
“As for me, there’s not much difference from usual. Actually—huh?! W-what’s this?! My doll just appeared out of thin air!”
Evangeline, who initially seemed unsure of herself, suddenly panicked as her primary weapon—a doll—materialized in the air.
She flailed her arms in alarm.
“B-but I didn’t summon it yet…!”
“In a mental world, nothing is impossible.”
“R-really? That’s how I should think of it?”
“Exactly. Take everything at face value. Whatever happens, just remember—it’s an illusionary world created by the great hero, the [Sage].”
“An illusionary…”
“World?”
“Exactly.”
This space was the creation of one of the Four Founders, [Sage Allister].
And now—
“It’s about time for Instructor Kadisha to ‘make contact.’ Let’s decide which tower to challenge first.”
Kadisha Allister, our alchemist and infirmary instructor, was named after the very Sage who created this space.
