"Did I sleep outside yesterday?"
The question rose in his mind. But the pink sun in the sky gave him a strange feeling that not everything was as simple as he thought.
He got up, despite his body aching and itching in some places. What he saw was a massive field of blue flowers stretching far into the horizon. In the distance, clouds rose toward the sky, seemingly trying to catch the sun. But a layer of stars—bright enough to outshine the daylight—stretched across the sky like a fence, keeping the clouds in line and away from the pink sun.
The sight was unfamiliar to Henry. The sun, as he remembered, had always been yellow. And stars had never shone during the day since he was a child. But most of all, it was the field he stood in, and the flowers in full bloom, that gave him the unsettling feeling that he was in a strange place.
The blue-colored flowers blew in the wind, emitting a refreshing fragrance into the air. Henry smelled it and felt a familiar sensation—and a memory from his freshman years surfaced as an answer.
"Malv flower seeds."
He remembered these flowers, and the refreshing scent that was distinct only to Malv flower seeds.
"But as far as I know, Malv flowers are incredibly hard to grow, and there's only one known place that can properly cultivate them."
Slish!
Slish!
The same constant, annoying sound that had woken him earlier could be heard again. Because of the strangeness of the place he was in, Henry had momentarily forgotten about the sound that had first disturbed his sleep.
"What is that?"
He looked in the direction of the source of the sound and saw Auran, who was digging through the flower field, seemingly looking for something very important.
"Au... Auran?"
Henry was confused at first about how Auran was here, but at the same time, he felt relief having someone familiar with him.
"Hold on, did we do something yesterday to end up in a place like this?"
Henry was curious about everything happening and called out to Auran, but the moment he opened his mouth, he froze. From far away, he saw dust rising—a cloud in the form of a smoke field, rapidly approaching their direction.
"What's that?" Henry tried to investigate what he saw in the distance. But...
"Don't move."
Someone said this from behind him. Henry looked back and saw a man wearing a full dark armored suit, pointing a somewhat odd object at him.
Having learned about other fields of magic before choosing the curse path, Henry recognized the object in the man's hand.
"A mana blaster. Those are pretty expensive… and only someone with a legal permit could wield them openly like this. Are they some kind of criminal or..."
Henry stayed calm despite the mana blaster aimed directly at his face. Taking a deep breath, he glanced slightly to the right and left and saw a few other figures in the same suits appearing at random spots in the flower field.
On the ground beneath where they appeared, he caught sight of strange marks.
"Teleportation portals... so that's how they managed to suddenly appear here."
They outnumbered him, and with the mana blasters already pointed at him—devices capable of projecting powerful magical force depending on the mana infused—it was clear they weren't joking when they said not to move.
"Who are you?"
He asked, lifting his hands above his head to show he wasn't a threat.
"We'll only say this once—don't move."
The suited figure commanded him again.
"I'm not moving, see?" Henry raised his hands as much as he could and glanced at the man who had given the command—but the man's gaze wasn't on him. It was fixed on Auran.
It was then Henry noticed Auran still appeared to be searching for whatever he had been looking for from the beginning—and he hadn't responded at all to the words of the man with the mana blaster.
"Psst! Auran! Hey, Auran! Put your hands up—hey!"
Henry called out to Auran from where he stood, but Auran didn't respond and kept searching through the flower field. Although there was a slight distance between them, it wasn't so far that Henry's voice couldn't reach him.
"Is he ignoring me? What the hell is going on in his head?"
Being ignored by Auran made Henry realize something wasn't right. Looking at how desperately Auran seemed to be searching for something, Henry came to the conclusion that something was definitely wrong with him.
"In this sacred ground of Malv, no one is allowed to step in. Now, please obey our orders and surrender yourself without resistance. If you resist, we will follow our law and take you into custody by any means necessary."
The man in the suit gave the final warning, and all of them pointed their mana blasters at Henry and Auran.
Henry's panic mode rushed to its limit.
"Auran, do what they say! We don't have any way to defend against mana blasters!"
He exclaimed, but Auran still didn't listen and continued to search through the flowers.
"Where is it?, where is it?"
"Sir, obey our orders. Your continued disobedience is forcing us toward the path of subjugating you by force," said one of the suited men, who appeared to be the commanding figure among them.
He observed Auran, who still didn't seem to be listening to their words. The man then looked at one of his comrades and gave a signal. The latter raised his weapon and prepared to fire it.
"Wait, don't do that!"
Henry exclaimed, seeing they were about to fire at Auran. The men in suits, however, ignored him.
Shit!
Before the man could trigger his mana blaster, Henry extended his hand. A dark mist surged from him and rushed toward the man.
[Curse of Blinding Darkness]