Not a barbarian warrior.

It was an extremely dark night, with thick clouds even obscuring the moonlight.

Inside the mansion, Lorena was moving busily.

After clearing away all the furniture and odds and ends around with Eugene’s help, she drew a large circle on the floor.

“What you’re drawing now, is it a magic circle?”

“Ye-Yes…”

After drawing the circle with precise skill, she carefully inscribed complex shapes and unknown letters inside it. These were things Eugene couldn’t understand at all with his shallow knowledge.

While she was diligently drawing the magic circle, Eugene divided the greenish liquid in the flask into two by pouring it into another flask.

“Ugh… Lorena, what on earth did you put in this?”

A foul odor strong enough to make Eugene pinch his nose wafted out.

Unlike usual, Lorena answered her disciple’s question half-heartedly.

She was that focused on drawing the circle.

“Um… Fo-Forget-me-not and mandrake, lavender, water lily, belladonna, black cohosh… And I mixed several other things…”

“Isn’t belladonna highly poisonous?”

“It-It’s okay. Since there was a process to neutralize the toxicity, you won’t die from drinking it.”

When the circle was completed, the two stood on it facing each other.

“What should I do now?”

“Um… Could you bend your waist a bit?”

As Eugene’s head came down low enough, Lorena reached out her hand.

Eugene felt a sudden sting.

“Ouch…! What was that?”

“I needed this.”

She showed Eugene a strand of his hair, waving it. Then she also lowered her head towards Eugene.

“You should pu-pull out one of my hairs too. It won’t hur-”

Before Lorena could finish speaking, Eugene’s hand moved quickly.

“Gah…! Ugh…”

As Lorena curled up, clutching her head, Eugene quietly smiled, his mouth corners turning up.

She moved her fingers carefully while complaining of pain.

Lorena tied the two strands of hair together, then tied one end to her little finger and the other end to Eugene’s little finger.

“Can you give me the potion divided in half?”

Eugene handed over the flask and asked:

“Now, how can I help?”

“Af-After I activate the magic, we’ll slowly lose consciousness and then wake up in some kind of dream…”

“And then?”

“Find me in the dream… If you follow the hair tied to your little finger, you’ll surely me-meet me…”

“Is that all?”

“There’s a low chance that I might not be aware it’s a dream. Then you need to wake me up. So that I can realize it’s a dream.”

“…What if I’m not aware it’s a dream? Or if both of us aren’t?”

“The former doesn’t matter… I can find you and wake you up. But in the latter case… This is just a guess, but probably… we’ll wander in a nightmare…”

“Hmm… That doesn’t seem too dangerous?”

“It-It might be just a moment in reality, but it will feel like a long time in the dream…”

“How long?”

“I-I don’t know… If we’re lucky, it might be a few days, if we’re unlucky… about… a year…”

“…”

Lorena was anxious, worried that Eugene might change his mind about helping.

Eugene looked at her complexion and said in a confident voice:

“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely find you and wake you up.”

At his words, Lorena smiled and nodded.

“Th-Then I’ll start…”

As Lorena raised her staff and stirred up mana, the magic circle drawn on the floor gradually began to emit a blue light.

The method she mainly used, being unable to handle incantations, was moving her staff.

For her, who couldn’t recite incantations verbally, hand gestures were like sign language replacing speech.

As her magic began to manifest strongly, the flute made from the Ruerhon’s horn slowly started to respond.

The flute placed inside the circle slowly rose into the air, then began to pour out clear and beautiful melodies.

To Eugene, her waving of the staff looked like the conductor of an orchestra.

At some point, Lorena stopped her staff and looked at Eugene, saying:

“No-Now we should drink the potion. It’s better if we drink at the same time.”

Eugene and Lorena lightly clinked their flasks and drank the contents simultaneously.

Compared to the foul odor, the taste wasn’t that bad.

“Be-Be careful not to break the hair… when lying down”

The two lay down side by side in the middle of the magic circle and looked at the ceiling.

Perhaps due to the potion’s effect, both felt their eyelids growing heavier.

As the sound of the Ruerhon’s flute rang like a lullaby, Eugene opened his mouth before falling asleep.

“Come to think of it, I didn’t ask this… Lorena, what’s the name of this magic…?”

She slowly spoke in a drowsy state.

“…I haven’t thought about it, buut… if I had to give it a suitable name… Le… thee…”

“Le, the… what does… it mean…”

As the consciousness of the two touched the black water surface, their conversation ended there.

Eugene felt his body sinking into the darkness below the water’s surface.

Everything around was dyed black, and soon even the beautiful melody he had been hearing faded away.

The feeling of weight pressing down gradually began to disappear at some point.

His dimmed mind slowly became clear, and feeling a sense of buoyancy, Eugene suddenly raised his body.

“Huff…!”

He turned his head to look around, and as soon as he confirmed there was no danger nearby, he immediately looked at his hand.

The hair wrapped around his little finger was stretched out long in one direction.

“Thank goodness. We won’t be wandering in a nightmare.”

Eugene stood up and examined his body.

He was wearing armor all over his body as if going out to hunt monsters, and was also equipped with a sword and knife.

“Even paralyzing poison and emergency medicine are here.”

Seeing that even consumables he hadn’t yet filled were fully stocked, Eugene felt reassured.

He started walking in the direction the hair was pointing.

After moving for about half a day, the hair led into a village.

There was no palisade outside, at best just a shoddy wooden fence. Moreover, there was no militia guarding the village.

Eugene cautiously entered the village, but even seeing a black-haired barbarian, the villagers just went about their business as if nothing was amiss.

‘Is it because this is a dream…’

Eugene put aside his needless worries and started walking with big strides.

Before long, he was able to meet a woman with hair tied to her little finger.

Eugene confirmed that their hairs were connected and looked at her as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Lorena…?”

Then, a little child who was squatting and playing alone in the dirt raised her head and said:

“…Who are you, mister?”

“…”

The young Lorena who had become a child didn’t recognize Eugene at all.

“Uh… Um… I’m Eugene…”

Eugene recalled what Lorena had said before entering the dream.

‘She said I just need to wake her up so she can be aware it’s a dream…’

He decided to try shock therapy first. After thinking for a while, he came up with something he thought would work.

“…Little girl, do you want to be secret friends with uncle…?”

It was a line from the protagonist in one of the secret collections under her bed, .

Eugene was expecting her to react by screaming ‘Wa…waaah-!’ right after.

However, this embodiment of innocence gave a completely different answer than expected.

“Hmm… Okay! I didn’t have anyone to play with anyway!”

“Ugh…!”

Eugene staggered, clutching his chest.

An enormous sense of guilt welled up from deep inside his heart, mercilessly tearing at it.

As he slumped down, Lorena grabbed his sleeve and said:

“Now then, from now on, you’re the husband. I’ll be the wife. Honey-”

The young version of Lorena with clear eyes and an innocent smile constantly in place didn’t even give Eugene time to collect himself.

She held out a ball made of tightly packed dirt and said:

“You must be tired from work. This is freshly baked bread! Hurry and eat it!”

“…Lorena…mmph!”

She suddenly shoved the dirt into Eugene’s mouth as he was hesitating.

“My goodness! Was it that delicious?”

Although it was clearly a dream, the sensations were vivid.

Feeling the taste of dirt in his mouth, Eugene couldn’t help but be greatly confused.

‘Why…?’

Only then did Eugene realize this wasn’t just a simple dream.

‘It was magic using a magic circle, potion, and a flute made from Ruerhon’s horn… It’s not strange that I can feel all five senses…’

After turning his back and spitting out all the dirt in his mouth, Eugene went along with Lorena’s house play for a while.

“Ho-Honey. The bread is really delicious… I-I’m full now so…”

“There’s still this much left! Hurry and eat more!”

She didn’t even stutter and kept trying to shove more bread made of dirt into Eugene’s mouth.

‘There’s no choice… I guess I have to go along with it for now…’

He pretended to eat voraciously with his vivid acting skills.

Then, a childish giggling laughter burst from her mouth.

Eugene continued this childish play while racking his brain.

‘How can I make her realize this is a dream?’

After thinking hard, he came up with another method.

‘Yes, this is it…! This will surely…’

As Eugene suddenly stood up, young Lorena looked at him with a gloomy expression.

“Mister… Are you leaving already?”

“No. To play house, we need props to make it more fun, right? Wait just a bit. I’ll be right back.”

He started running hurriedly.

The villagers were still treating Eugene as if he didn’t exist.

Thanks to this, he could easily enter any house and take out the items he wanted.

When Eugene returned panting heavily, young Lorena smiled brightly and urged him to resume playing house.

“Lorena, this time I’ll be the mom. You be the dad.”

“Okay!”

He put on a borrowed apron and even wore a headscarf to complete his costume.

Although it didn’t have the cute frills like the one she had given him in reality, it had similar floral patterns.

When the small and dainty apron combined with Eugene’s large body, a truly tremendous disharmony occurred.

Eugene endured even the overwhelming sense of shame that washed over him. He then waited for her reaction, expecting her to burst into laughter.

However, young Lorena, holding a tree branch she had brought from somewhere while Eugene was gone, just shouted:

“You damn woman! If you don’t want to die, bring the bread right now!”

“…”

As Eugene froze coldly without saying any lines, she poked him with the branch and shouted once more.

“You damn bitch! Not making food! Not cleaning! What the hell have you been doing all day!”

Eugene was dumbfounded by her passionate acting with a young voice and muttered:

“Oh my God…”