Chapter 503: Within the Dream

Valdel who was not feeling well because of the flood of information assaulting his mind was currently being carried by a knight. In the real world, Valdel didn't know who the knight was, but upon looking at him a memory of the knight popped into his mind. This was Raymond the personal knight, who was assigned to guard him and his family. 

'Wait, we're being guarded by a knight, why?' Though Valdel already had the memories of the dream world version of himself, he hasn't combed through the memories so it was hard to get the information he needed without context. So he wasn't too sure about some details, it seems like it would take a while before the new memories settle in. 

"I'm alright now, thank you, Raymond," Valdel spoke while standing up on his own. Raymond then saluted Valdel and stayed at a distance. Right now Valdel and his family were in a room inside a huge castle built in the middle of New Grenton. 

"Lisa, why are we living in a castle?" Even though Valdel already has a vague answer, he wanted to hear it from the owner of the dream itself, since he wasn't sure if the memories he received were accurate or even complete. 

"Why are you asking something like that? Are you really alright?" 

"Please just answer the question." When Lisa saw the serious look on Valdel's expression, she looked at Raymond and gave an order. 

"Raymond, please bring Rex out, the king and I need to have a private conversation." Raymond gave a salute and approached Rex. 

"Prince, please follow me outside." Rex hesitated for a bit before nodding his head in agreement. After the two left the room, Lisa approached Valdel. 

"Now tell me, what's happening to you?" 

"It's just that my mind is currently in a mess, and my memories are all over the place." 

"Do we need to call a mage that specialized in mental manipulation? Maybe you're being attacked by somebody." 

"I don't think that's it. You know how strong I am, if there's someone that could do that to me then no mage would be able to help me. So please just answer my questions." Lisa knew that Valdel's statement was true, so she sighed before asking. 

"Alright what do you want to know?" 

"Why are we in a castle?" 

"It's because you are the king of the entire continent." 

"The king... Me, then what happened to Ren?" 

"Ren... Such a nostalgic name it's been years since I last heard of him from your mouth."

"What happened to him?" 

"You really don't remember?" 

Some memories flooded Valdel's mind, but he wanted to hear them from Lisa. 

"Yes, please just tell me." 

"Years ago, after the four of us finished our adventure in roaming the entire continent. Ren grew bored and started conquering the kingdoms, the other races and uniting them. After conquering everything in his sight he grew too strong. There was nothing in this mortal plane that could fight him, so he went to the upper realms. Alongside him were my sister and a few others." 

Valdel had a memory of those times, there were like passing thoughts in his mind. A flash of images came and went, the four of them went around the continent and had numerous adventures, but at some point, the adventures stopped. 

"Then why are we here and not with them?" 

"You really don't remember... We are here because Ren said that the two of us were too weak to follow him and so he passed the role of king to you. But we both knew the truth, Ren left us behind not because you were weak, it was because I was weak, not to mention I was pregnant at the time. Even if I wanted to I could not follow, since I didn't want our child to go around an unknown world full of dangers. You, of course, stayed with me and we've been here ever since. Why are you asking this, is it because you're starting to regret your decision to stay?" Valdel shook his head before responding.

"I might not remember much, but I'm sure that I would never regret that decision." Hearing Valdel's answer put a smile on Lisa's face. Valdel then continued to ask Lisa a few questions and got the basic idea of the situation in this dream world. 

This place was a utopia, after Ren conquered everything, he was able to settle the differences between races and stop all wars. Ren had basically started a war that would end all wars, and he won. Though nowadays there were still some minor fights between races, those were easily dealt with. 

The prideful young dragons and even the cunning half-demons were living in harmony with each other. In this world, the Temple of Light never existed in the first place. Ren had conquered even the world deities and the temples became charity organizations that dealt with orphans and the poor. 

As Lisa was telling their story she was always smiling, she was happy and proud of the things they had accomplished in this world, to her this world was perfection itself. She had Valdel and her son beside her, she was able to have that grand adventure with her sister and friends. Now she was living a life of peace and joy. 

It was at this moment, Valdel hesitated to tell her the truth of this world. Even though this world was fake, it was real to Lisa. The experiences she had, the joys she had in this world were all real. 

'Wait, the joys?' 

"Lisa, how are the people from our village?" 

"Oh, everyone is doing fine. You know they're all high-ranking officials now. Why are you asking?" 

"Did a half-demon ever attacked the village?" Hearing Valdel's new question Lisa tilted her head in confusion. 

"A half-demon attacking the village, I never heard of that happening... Though I did have a nightmare of that happening once, in that nightmare I was also there in the village, but that could not happen, since the four of us left the village ages ago."

Valdel finally understood why he felt something was wrong. This world was too perfect, Lisa had never experienced any sorrow, it was all blissful happiness. Even the moment her sister left her, it didn't cause Lisa any grief, since she was happy that Lara was able to follow her beloved Ren. 

'Is bringing her back to the real world, truly the right thing to do?' Valdel's resolve suddenly wavered as the thought popped into his head.