Chapter 16

-In Void World-

Somewhere in the Void World, Rein paced back and forth, clearly restless.

“Who the hell are void travelers?” he muttered in his mind. “Why are there still some who resist my control?”

”You’d better listen to those Void Travelers if you don’t want your pretty little kingdom and everything in it erased by me.”

That voice of the Voidkeeper echoed in his mind.

His brow furrowed deeper. “I can’t let them wander. If they spread… it’ll be a hassle. They’re wrong. They shouldn’t be free.”

Just then, he spotted the people he loathed most—unregistered civilians. He narrowed his eyes.

“Unregistered…,” he hissed.

“Hi! Sorry—how would you like to be called?” Leo said, waving awkwardly.

“…What?”

“Y-yeah? Like, uh… what do the guards usually call you?” Leo stammered.

Rein’s face darkened. “Guards. Seize them.”

“W-wait!! Haha, we were joking! Boss—I mean, um, King! Ah—Your Highness!” Leo yelped, panicking.

Rein’s eyes widened slightly. He raised his hand, and the guards stopped.

“…Speak.”

Leo took a deep breath. “Right! Uh—we need your help, Your Highness. There’s been some… inconvenience. And we believe only you can solve it.”

Rein tilted his head. “Hm?”

“Could you… please follow us, Your Highness?” Leo said, managing a nervous smile.

“Only me, hm?” Rein smirked slightly, clearly pleased. He nodded and selected two guards to follow alongside him.

The group led him to a place resembling a school. Despite the distorted architecture and eerie silence, the school bore traces of a real-world place—only altered and tightly controlled by Rein.

Remon and Leo immediately began scouring the building, rummaging through classrooms and shelves.

“If there’s anywhere to start, it’s school,” Remon whispered. “Lots of memories get left behind in a place like this.”

Kierra, focused and determined, tried converting several objects into memory orbs, but none of them worked. Rein started watching them more carefully, suspicion flickering in his eyes.

“Please!” Leo called out, waving. “Could you help us choose something you think is valuable?”

“…Why would I do that?” Rein said coldly.

Remon stepped in quickly, sensing his doubt. “P-please… Your Highness,” she said, the words feeling unnatural in her mouth.

Rein looked unmoved.

Remon clenched her fists, took a deep breath, and bowed deeply. “Please.”

There was a pause. Rein tried to hide it, but the faintest smile tugged at the corner of his lips. He clearly enjoyed the attention.

He walked past them, scanning the room slowly. Then he stopped.

A book.

He picked it up, staring at the worn cover.

“Why does this… feel familiar?” he whispered to himself. He flipped it open—inside were scribbled notes and handwriting that sparked something in him.

Leo nudged Kierra. “Now.”

In a flash, Kierra snatched the book and swiftly converted it into a glowing orb of memory. Rein’s eyes widened but before he could react, they pressed the orb against him.

A blinding light exploded around them. All of them instinctively covered their eyes as the world around them began to shift—

“Rein?”

“Yes, Mom?”

“What are you doing?”

“Oh! Look, Mom! I wrote a story for my homework! Can you read it?”

“Oh? Let me see…”

A young Rein grinned brightly and handed her a piece of paper. His mother took it and read it with a soft, patient smile.

“This is wonderful, honey. Do you like writing stories?”

“Hmm… maybe?”

Just then, the front door opened. A man stepped inside, holding bags of groceries.

“I’m home! I brought some food!”

“Dad!” Rein leapt up. “Can you read this? I made this!”

The man laughed, setting the bags down and taking the paper. Rein bounced excitedly in place as his father read.

“This is amazing, son! How did you come up with this?”

“I just wrote it!”

Suddenly, Rein clutched his chest. “Oof—”

“Whoa, slow down,” his father said quickly, steadying him. “Come sit for a bit.”

“You’ve been moving around all day, haven’t you?” his mother added gently. “You need to rest.”

“Urrgh…” the boy groaned, sitting down carefully.

A moment of silence when his parents were treating him and giving him a glass of water.

“Oh, right,” his dad said, reaching into one of the bags. “Since this one’s for homework, why not write your next stories in this book?” He handed Rein a clean, empty notebook.

Rein’s eyes lit up with pure joy. He hugged the book tightly and grinned from ear to ear.

“Thank you, Dad!”

The world around them slowly returned to normal. The light faded. Everyone stood in silence, their eyes turning toward Rein.

“…We all saw that, right?” Leo whispered.

Remon and Kierra both nodded.

“What just happened?! What was that?!” Rein’s voice rose, almost panicked.

“Oh my… I can’t believe that actually worked…” Kierra muttered under their breath.

“HEY! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!” Rein shouted.

“Uhh, we might need to run,” Remon suggested quietly.

“No!” Rein’s eyes darted around. “That wasn’t real… right?”

He looked back at the guards, expecting reassurance. They remained still and silent behind him.

Grinding his teeth, Rein turned sharply and began walking away.

“Rein! I mean—your highness! Wait!” Leo rushed after him.

Rein’s crimson eyes sharpened, fury burning in them. The guards straightened, ready to act on his command.

“C-can we ask for your help again? I’m sorry, your highness, but we really—”

“No.” His voice was cold. “Guards. Seize them.”

“Wait! Please—!”

Leo panicked, motioning to the others. Kierra sprang forward, throwing her arms out—their power flared, freezing the guards in place.

Rein's eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in fury.

“You’re not done yet…? Fine. You’ll regret this.” He spun on his heel and stormed off.

“Y-your highness…!” Leo called out, voice cracking. He tried to follow, but Rein didn’t stop.

Remon placed a hand on Leo’s shoulder. “Welp. I guess we can’t do anything else for now…”

“Ugh… what should we do now? This is hard…” Leo groaned, sitting on the floor with his hands in his hair.

“I actually have a question,” Kierra raised their hand slightly. “Why did you call him ‘your highness’ back there?”

“Ah, great question,” Leo said, pointing as if he’d been waiting for that. “So, as the ruler of this place, it’s not weird for him to expect people to praise him, right? He wants to be treated like he’s above everyone else. That’s why my plan was to act like his loyal little lapdog—get close, gain his trust.”

He rubbed the back of his neck, smiling nervously. “But uh… this plan we just did? Total gamble. I didn’t actually think it would work, so I didn’t plan what to do next if it did work. Oops.”

“…Seriously?” Kierra deadpanned.

“Then what should we do now?” Remon chimed in. “We know the memory orb trick works. We just need to turn more objects into orbs, right?”

“Well, yes and no,” Leo replied. “See, the memory orbs only last for about five seconds before disappearing and showing up somewhere else. That’s why we need Rein to stay close when we find the object.”

“Oh? So we can turn the object into a memory orb even if Rein’s not with us?”

“Yup. But if he’s not around to receive it right away, poof—it’s gone. Then we have to hunt it down again, which takes forever. So yeah, getting Rein to cooperate is super important.”

“I see…” Remon nodded. “So our goal now is to win Rein over?”

Leo stood up, brushing dust off his clothes. “Yup. That was always the main plan… we just kinda skipped ahead.”

“Alright then, let’s keep going.” Remon stood up, letting out a faint smile, feeling confident.

“Let’s kidnap Rein!!” Kierra shouted.