The Demon Saint is Missing, so I Ran to Another World

Maddie's Dream (Vol. 10 Prologue, 3rd Arc)

**Maddie**

It was the same dreary landscape, and the same blood-red, and gray, circling mass of clouds...it popped and swirled alternately whenever I was here.

"..."

I don't know. For several times now, after Kuro returned, I repeatedly came back to this dream. This same suffocating, and overwhelming, feeling of sadness. A dream filled with despair, and dread...

"Kuro..."

Just like from before, there in front of me was Kuro. Wearing an all-white clothing, and surrounded by what looked to me as children—I always thought that maybe, those were his students—he just stood there, happily mingling with them. And they were walking away from me, slowly but steady. Yet, I could do nothing else...

"Kuro!" and then, I called out to him. I already knew what would happen next; nevertheless, I couldn't control myself. It's as if my lips would open on its own, and my body was being led by someone else.

"..."

And there, again, were his eyes. Those awful, dead, eyes. No spark, no happiness, nothing. He would stay like that and stare at me for a few painful moments, as if trying to recall my name in his thoughts...me, the girl who loved him with all her heart...

But the most hurtful if all...

"Who are you?" He would ask every time I called out to him in this dream.

"I'm Maddie...the girl who loves you!" was my answer, desperate to convince him that it's true.

"Maddie? I don't know..." he would say, complete with a weak smile, "And please don't play a prank on me; no girl ever loved me for what I am."

"But that's—" I would be tempted to refute his claims. However, after being in this nightmare for so many times, I knew this was just a fake. I knew that no matter how many times I'd tell this 'Kuro' how much I love and yearn for him, his answer wouldn't change.

And I knew, that after I woke up from this, he would still be by my side...smiling, and caring for me.

"Are you even sure of that?"

"!!!"

A disembodied, silvery-cold voice rang out from where I am. I could tell the speaker was a woman, and it's as if she was taunting me. Then, after that, the mass of swirling grey and blood-red clouds suddenly turned into something else. My vision became murky, but the chaos eventually settled, and I noticed that everything—including my skin—was dyed in dark crimson.

W-What's happening?

"Ah, let's get you to a safer place."

"!!!"

Another change of surroundings. The crimson atmosphere quickly disappeared, as if it dissipated at that voice's command, followed by a comfortable whiteness. And then, silence. All that I could hear was the increasing crescendo of my heartbeat, as I slowly realized that this 'dream' was different from what I knew from before.

"Don't you know? Every person who exists in the mortal plane serves only themselves, their selfish desires," the voice claimed. "Though they may tell you the otherwise, every one moves according to their own desires!"

"What are you saying?" I answered the disembodied speaker, "Of course I knew that! It's just a matter of who else benefits from a person's actions, that sets apart a selfish individual from the truly altruistic."

"Hoh...so you still remember how the world works, very good," the voice replied, in her slightly mocking tone. "Yet, you choose to become the follower instead of the one being followed!"