Dulmi woke up.
His place - his former "home" - was a three-story building, with his room on the second floor, facing south on the east side. Right now, the morning sun was shining in, piercing through his eyelids and waking him up in an instant.
He wasn't sleepy at all. He calmly sat up, threw off the covers, then got up and walked to the window. He yanked open the curtains and saw the distant sea horizon.
The [Sun] rose high, generously pouring light onto the world.
...What a peaceful morning, as if the Outer Zone had never existed.
Dulmi let out a cold laugh to himself.
He turned back and felt around his pillow until he found a small glass jar.
He stared at the jar for a while but couldn't see anything special. It seemed empty. But Dulmi was sure this was what the dream creature had given him last night - that dream.
The colorful ball of light from the Outer Zone had turned into this ordinary glass jar in reality.
Dulmi looked at it for a bit, then put the jar in a drawer. The drawer already had some other things he'd collected from the Outer Zone. Without exception, they all looked pretty ordinary, only becoming strange and brilliant in the Outer Zone.
But Dulmi still didn't know what caused the difference.
Was it "power"?
He thought about it, but his mind quickly wandered as he rubbed his empty stomach with a groan.
If the Outer Zone wanted to starve him to death, it had definitely succeeded.
Dulmi hurried downstairs, quickly made some hot soup, and cut some dry, coarse bread. As he ate, he pondered what to do today.
In the end, he decided to head to the Shenlo Association—time to set sail for the "normal" daytime grind.
Life suddenly snapped back to its usual rhythm.
You could say Dulmi went through this routine every day.
From the normal human world to the crazy Outer Zone, then from the Outer Zone to the quiet Curtain, and finally waking up from the Curtain to find himself back in the human world, even peacefully lying in bed under the covers, as if he'd really enjoyed a good night's sleep.
The Outer Zone even remembered to tuck him in. He was so grateful. His dear mom and dad stopped tucking him in after he turned fifteen.
...Dulmi slowly lowered his eyes.
He stared at the bread on his plate for a while, then mumbled softly, "Mom, I miss your cooking."
Before leaving, Dulmi changed his clothes. These clothes were even prepared for him by his parents when they were still alive.
Although the people of Sheran might not necessarily believe in those gods, they always tried to be respectful and proper when visiting places related to the gods, especially when it came to the seven main gods.
[Sea Mirror] was one of those main gods.
[Sea Mirror] was the god of nature and the ocean. Land hunters worshipped Him, and so did sailors on the sea, even more so after the Fog Wall disappeared. Ships traveling on the Shenlo Sea were all under [Sea Mirror]'s protection, or at least, they prayed for it.
Dulmi adjusted his cuffs and looked at himself in the mirror.
The blurry mirror reflected the image of a young man with black hair and green eyes. Dulmi Knight was handsome, inheriting his father's strong features and his mother's delicate ones. He always had bright eyes and a smile, the kind of guy the people of Nightingale would call "likeable."
Though he didn't think nighttime Nightingale liked him very much.
He winked at his reflection, then headed out.
Nightingale's bustling street scene hit him along with the thin morning mist. People walked briskly, buying fresh vegetables and fruits from nearby towns at the market, or daily necessities from distant cities, or rare treasures from the faraway Fogland.
Dulmi browsed the market with interest, especially curious about the things from Fogland.
For most residents of Nightingale, even though they lived by the sea, Fogland was still shrouded in mystery, always half-understood. But for Dulmi, Adeline had told him quite a bit about Fogland.
On the first day the Knight family moved to Nightingale, Adeline stood on the second-floor balcony, pointing to the distant sea, her voice full of joy as she told Dulmi: her hometown was on the other side of that sea.
So, those smooth-talking merchants actually left Dulmi a bit disappointed.
Losing interest, he walked on by himself, soon arriving at the central square. Nightingale's square had a beautiful fountain, a huge statue, and a tall clock tower.
The fountain was just decoration, but the statue and clock tower were far from it.
The statue was of Andre Fanes, the [Emperor] of Sheran. Countless years ago, this brilliant and talented emperor unified all of Sheran, establishing the once-glorious Fanes Dynasty. The Kingdom of Augustus, where Nightingale was located, was a direct descendant of the Fanes Dynasty.
The clock tower, on the other hand, belonged to [Chronology].
[Chronology] was the god of time, calendars, and seasons. Many people also associated Him with history.
[Chronology] recorded human history, particularly remembering the most important moments.
Chronology's clock towers stood unshaken in every city of Sheran and Fogland. At sunrise and sunset, Chronology's followers would ring the bells, and the whole world seemed to echo with the sound.
The morning and evening bells would last for ten seconds. On normal days, people would only hear these two bells. If the bells rang at other times, it meant something big had happened—something that could hugely impact the entire world.
The last time the [Grand Bell] rang was three hundred years ago—for Fogland.
Dulmi could hardly imagine what the great bell three hundred years ago must have sounded like.
Did the whole world shake because of it?
No, it should be the other way around—were even the gods shaken by Fogland's appearance?
Clearly, it was an incredibly important moment in time, so important that [Chronology] rang the death knell for the old era and opened the doors to a new age of governance.
As for now?