"Hmm?"
'Where am I...OUTSIDE?????' I'm surprised to find myself in the middle of a city street, a beautiful city, with bustling streets and vibrant colors.
[Hello, I'll be your guide for now]
A semi-mechanical voice comes from an Aetheris on my shoulder.
"Aetheris, you can talk?" Another shock goes through my mind, Aetheris can talk?
[I'm not Aetheris, I'm Chapter 1 of the book "Ancient Ruins and Runes"]
'Chapter 1...Am I in the book?'
"H-How does this work?" I ask full of doubts.
[You are now witnessing the content of Chapter 1, even if you change something here, it won't happen in reality. This experience is only for the reader to have a better understanding of the book's content. When this dream ends, you won't be able to return to the dream of Chapter 1, so I recommend trying to learn as much as you can]
"...Why do you look like Aetheris?" This kind of bothers me, knowing that something is impersonating him.
[I took the form that has the greatest connection with the Reader, in this case I could have any form based on the thing with the greatest connection to you]
'I see...WAIT, I'M WASTING TIME' I start walking through the streets, I don't know when I'll wake up but I want to learn as much as possible.
I start walking while looking around.
'So this is the ancient civilization...it's beautiful' It has a somewhat modern touch but with fantasy, in the city center I see a huge castle, it has a beautiful aesthetic and can be seen from very far away, it's very well-made.
On the streets I see that there are many members of various races, the streets are full of life, while children run around playing with each other.
"Is that a vampire?"
'I thought they were seen as pests...'
[You're correct, all races live in harmony in this city, as you walk around you can find beings of any race]
"Okay, thanks for the information"
It's incredible how beautiful this place is, and as I thought, it really has things from the modern world but adapted with runes to have similar effects.
"Urk" I end up bumping into someone and falling to the ground.
"S-Sorry..." I apologize while looking at who I bumped into.
'G-Golem?'
He must be about 3.5 meters tall, and much bigger than me, I tremble slightly, fearing he might do something.
"It's okay, little miss" He says, extending his hand to help me up, his kindness surprises me. I've been in a dangerous place with people who want to rape me for so long that I end up bringing my caution to this peaceful place.
"Little miss, you should pay more attention...are you lost? If you're lost, you can go to the guard station, it's 3 blocks from here...I have to go now, have a good day" he says as he accompanies a woman, he seems to be the security guard for the woman who is dressed like a noble.
"H-He was so nice..."
[I don't know what your life is like outside the book, but in this city, most of the population lives in harmony. Aurora taught that there's no reason to have intrigues among us, and that it's easier to solve things by talking]
"Could you take me to Aurora?" I ask the Chapter 1 that has the form of Aetheris and is on my shoulder.
[Yes]
He soon starts guiding me through the city towards Aurora, while I observe the city, it's very similar to the modern world, but I see that the objects have things written on them, showing that they are made with Runes.
After a walk, I arrive at a square, it's quite busy, I notice how the population lives peacefully and how everyone seems happy.
[Aurora is that woman disguised with a hood, she's currently sneaked out of the castle to take a walk]
Seeing how happy this city is, I question Aurora, I hated her when she brought me to this place, but seeing how she takes care of the city's citizens, it fills me with doubts, if she's so nice, why did she do this to me?
I walk up to the hooded woman and hold her sleeve, I see that I'm much shorter than her, making this movement is almost like a daughter holding her mother's sleeve not to get lost.
"...H-Hello young lady, do you need help?" She asks cautiously at first, but when she sees me, her tone changes to a gentle one.
"Could we...talk a little?" I know this is not the real Aurora, but I want to ask, I need to know more, I'll ask questions without revealing too much so that she tells me things.
"...Of course, young lady, but won't your parents be worried about you talking to a stranger?" she says with concern.
"I don't have parents, can we go somewhere private?" she shows a comforting smile as she apologizes and nods.
"I apologize for my rudeness, we can go" we walk through the streets for a while as she takes me to a private place.
"Goddess Aurora...you take such good care of your people...why?" I don't mind revealing that she is Aurora, she continues walking and talking.
"Do I need a reason? I just take care of them because they need it" she speaks, but something seems...wrong.
"Do you like your people?" I feel tempted to ask this question.
"...No" her answer surprises me, she was super honest, but to say that she doesn't like her own people when she takes care of them so well.
"...Then do you hate them?" I ask cautiously.
"Not that either" her answer confuses me.
'She doesn't like or hate them?'
We arrive at a private place, she pays for a room and we enter it, she removes her hood and sits on the bed, her appearance is stunning, her beautiful dark purple hair is gorgeous and reminds me of space.
Her skin, as clear as porcelain, seems almost unreal, I guess it was to be expected that she would be so beautiful, being a goddess.
"What do you feel for your people?" I ask her, trying to clarify my doubts.
"...Hmm...Nothing, I don't feel anything for them" she thinks for a moment and responds.
"C-Can I know the reason?"
"Of course, young lady, the reason is quite simple they will die" she speaks calmly and elegantly, but what she said surprises and confuses me.
"What do you mean?"
"...One day they will be gone, all of this will turn to dust, why should I care when everything will turn to nothing eventually" I finally understand what she meant, this kind of makes me sad.
She doesn't want to get attached to anything because everything will die while she will continue to live, this makes me think of Aetheris....
'One day...Aetheris will abandon me...' At some point in the future, Aetheris or Uriel will die, so I'll be left alone, I never thought about it that way, but what will become of me when they are gone.
I feel tears forming, the realization finally hits me that the more important things are to me, the more I will suffer when those things disappear.
The silent tears flow as the realization hits me, it's obvious to me now that Aurora doesn't care about the people not because she's not good, but because she doesn't want to suffer from losing something important.
In the book it said that something was missing for Aurora, what's missing for her now is obvious, for Aurora, a being that can stay with her forever is missing.
"Y-You're alright, young lady" Aurora gets a little nervous when she sees me crying, she comes to me and hugs me.
I feel anger and sadness, my anger is directed at Aurora for making me have to watch those I love die without being able to do anything, and my sadness is from knowing that no matter how many important things I have, in the end I'll be alone forever.
I never wanted to think about my immortality, it was obvious to me that nothing would be able to keep up with my life expectancy, but I wanted to ignore it, knowing that I'll be alone forever is terrifying.
Soon I shout accusingly at this Aurora from the book who doesn't even know who I am.
"WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME" I say after pushing her out of the hug and standing up, pointing my finger at her angrily.
"WHY DID YOU MAKE ME SUFFER SO MUCH" I scream with anger as the tears stream down my face, I can no longer hold back, no matter if Aurora is good or bad in the end she made me suffer and that doesn't change.
"..."
"WON'T YOU SAY ANYTHING, WHY DID YOU BRING ME TO THIS DAMNED WORLD, WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME IMMORTAL, WHY DO YOU MAKE ME SUFFER LIKE THIS, WHAT DID I DO FOR YOU TO HATE ME SO MUCH"
"WHY DO I HAVE TO SUFFER LIKE THIS, WHY, WHY, WHY" Aurora just looks at me for a while.
"...I don't know, from what you said I gather you're from outside the book..." Aurora reveals that she knows this is a book.
"...Who do you think was one of the authors of this book?" she speaks, but I don't answer, I'm still too angry at her.
"...Aurora created this book, she created me based on her, so I know this place is a book and I can give the answers the true Aurora would give"
"But I don't know anything beyond what's in the book...so I don't know who you are, but if the true Aurora made you immortal, you can be sure she doesn't hate you"
"Lies, why would she make me suffer like this if she didn't hate me" I retort at the book's Aurora.
"Think what you will, I can't give you an answer, you should look for the true Aurora if you want to know why she made you immortal, but as an apology for her making you have a bad experience, I'll teach you to engrave 3 runes"
"..." I finally start to calm down, it's obvious that this fake Aurora doesn't know anything about me, she's not to blame, I decide to learn to engrave these runes with her.
"First, you'll need something to mark, if the runes are for you to use, I recommend writing on the object with your blood, this increases the quality of the object's magic absorption, but you can use anything to write"
"Look for an object, I recommend jewels, the more valuable and refined the better, they're easy to carry and have great magic storage capacity, so the spells will be stronger and more portable"
"Memorize these names, you must write them in the place where you want to place the magic, these 3 names are earth, thunder, and fire runes"
"After writing, put magic into the object, so the rune will fuse with the object and won't fade over time"
"After that, all you need to activate the rune's effect is to put magic in it while thinking about the effect it has, the hardest part will be engraving the rune, if you write it a little wrong or put too much or too little magic, the rune will fail and the object will no longer be able to have a rune"
"Understood everything?" Aurora finishes her explanation as I memorize everything, the runes don't have a very complex form, in fact, they are written [Thunder], [Earth Trap] and [Fire Explosive] in an ancient language.
[Thunder] creates a lightning bolt that will be fired in a straight line
[Earth Trap] creates a circle on the ground, from this circle thorns of earth will emerge that will pierce whoever is on top
[Fire Explosive] creates a small land mine that explodes on contact.
"Young lady, the earth and fire runes are trap-type, you must engrave them on the ground and put magic in them to activate, they activate when someone comes into contact with them, so be careful not to step on one by accident"
"Thank you..." I thank her for teaching me, no matter how angry I am, I'm not an ungrateful person who doesn't know how to be thankful when I need to.
Soon my body starts to dissolve into particles of light.
"You're waking up...a pity, I'll see you in Chapter 2, I hope you find your answers, young lady"
The last thing I say to this Aurora are my honest feelings about loving others.
"Even if I can't die, I will still love those who are important to me, even if they disappear one day, and I suffer because of it, I will never forget the memories I had with them for all eternity" Even if Aurora doesn't want to create anything important for herself because she's immortal, I still want to try, even if I suffer, I'll never stop loving Aetheris, I'm willing to bear the pain of loss, because I know that my good memories with him will never disappear.
I ended up wasting a lot of time crying and getting angry, this time spent ended up making me learn little, but even though I didn't learn much, what I did learn was very important.
Finally, I'm back in the room, I open my eyes slowly.
"...What?"