He was in that familiar sea of flowers… the kaleidoscopic sky, the dazzling roses, and the forever gently swaying flower basket…
Shu stood in place for a long time before he realized he had regained control of his body. Then, memories of the Demon King, Kiana, Joyce, and everything else flooded his mind like a tidal wave.
His heart began to pound in his chest, a powerful palpitation filling him.
No… I have to get out of here, fast!
Shu frantically began to search for an exit.
Kiana and the others were still waiting for him to lead them out of that dream! He couldn't waste too much time here!
"In such a hurry to leave?" Just as Shu was searching for a way out, a childish voice suddenly came from his side.
Shu turned in surprise to see a small park swing set, also covered in roses, breathtakingly beautiful and heartbreakingly fragile.
It was a two-person swing. On one of the seats sat a child in very simple clothes, so simple they could have been pajamas or a patient's gown.
Was it a girl? Or a boy?
They had hair of medium length, bare feet and legs, their entire body covered by a single large shirt that concealed everything it needed to.
Their face… Shu couldn't see it clearly… Their long bangs obscured their features, and a light from an unknown source blocked his view.
Shu watched the child sway with the swing, then after a moment's silence, took a step forward and asked tentatively.
"Hello…?"
"Oh my… do you have to greet me too?" The child tilted their head in surprise. The swaying swing gradually came to a stop. Shu watched them hop lightly off the swing, their bare feet landing among the roses.
Even from their voice, Shu couldn't tell if they were a boy or a girl. He felt as if two voices were speaking in his ear at once, one a boy's, one a girl's.
Shu wanted to ask who they were, where this place was, how to leave…
But facing this child, he couldn't ask anything. He had a strange feeling that they should know what he was thinking without him having to say a word.
But the child had one hand behind their back. Though they were much shorter than him, they raised a finger in front of him, one hand behind their back, and bent slightly at the waist.
"I don't know~ If you don't say what you're thinking, no one will ever know~" the child said, then gently placed a finger to their lips in a shushing gesture.
Shu didn't speak. He watched the child straighten up, return to the swing, and start spinning in a circle, holding onto the pole like a compass.
Finally, Shu spoke, asking his first question.
"How do I get out of here?"
The child continued to spin.
"Leave here?… You can leave whenever you want to~♪" As the child said this, Shu suddenly saw a glowing door in the distance.
It seemed like the door had been there all along, and Shu just hadn't noticed… just like the swing set, it had always been there, and Shu just hadn't noticed.
The moment he saw the door, Shu breathed a sigh of relief. He started to walk towards it, ready to leave this place and return to the "dream" to find Kiana and the others.
"You dropped something… or should I say… this is your friend's?" But the child's voice came again. Shu couldn't ignore it and turned instinctively.
The child sat on the swing, facing Shu, holding a familiar magic wand.
It was a wand with a purple star, the kind you'd see in the hands of a magical girl, with a distinct toy-like feel.
It was the wand Sirin had thrown away before she began to grow up.
"How do you have this?" Shu asked his second question in surprise. He took two quick steps forward and took the toy wand from the child's hand.
The button on the side, the battery compartment in the handle, the seam along the side of the wand, the small speaker holes, the translucent purple star through which he could see wires and an LED light.
"Because this wand and I are fated to be together, we're drawn to each other?" The child swayed on the swing a couple of times, then tilted their head and said to Shu.
"Haha, just kidding~♪"
The child waved their hand and said no more. Shu didn't press for the real reason, instead frowning at the toy magic wand in his hand.
"Hm? Is there something else?" the child asked, turning to Shu with a puzzled look.
Shu felt like they were playing dumb, but he couldn't help but tighten his grip on the magic wand.
"What's the point… of me going back out there?"
"Hm?"
Shu took a deep breath, his eyes dimming.
"I don't know how to fix everything… I can't beat the Demon King. I can barely even face that dragon… To turn this all around, I can only…"
Restart the loop.
"No chance~" the child said suddenly. They weren't looking at Shu, but at the gently swaying basket of roses.
As if afraid Shu hadn't heard clearly, the child repeated the sentence.
"No chance~ No matter how many times you restart the loop, even if you go back to the very beginning of the dream world, even if you succeed in making Sirin trust you and she's willing to open the dream's exit for you, you still can't leave~"
"Why?!" Now Shu was truly anxious. "Can't even Sirin get us out of here?!"
The child's swing slowly came to a stop. They looked at Shu and nodded very seriously.
"That's right. Not even Sirin can let anyone leave… because she isn't the master of that dream at all."
Shu froze, quickly replaying all the details in his mind. "But… isn't Sirin a Herrscher? Isn't she… her eyes, they were clearly…"
If Sirin wasn't a Herrscher, didn't that mean all their plans had been for nothing?
"Cores can be transferred… have you forgotten?" the child asked with a hint of confusion, as if Shu had made a very basic mistake.
That's right… cores could be transferred, and authority could be granted… In the original story, Sirin had created four pseudo-Herrschers and sent them around the world. Joyce had also passed down her core through generations…
"But… if Sirin isn't the Herrscher… then who is?" Shu's mouth was dry. He looked at the child before him, waiting for an answer.
The child just glanced at the magic wand in Shu's hand, then looked back at Shu.
"It's the dream~"
"The fairytale-like dream you're in… that's the Herrscher…"