Chapter 182: Ch 182: A Waking Nightmare - Part 2

Erin’s hands were large and warm and as they reached for Noah’s neck, he could not help but accept that touch.

It burned to be touched by his nightmare, but Noah felt like he deserved the punishment for what he had allowed to happen.

"Are you regretting letting me go? If so, then this is not enough at all. You need to regret it a lot more. Where are your tears? Don’t tell me that you cannot even cry for my sake?"

The voice that asked this question was getting more and more curious. But for Noah, it sounded almost angry. He did not know what he was supposed to do about this situation anymore.

Maybe dying at the hands of Bluey won’t be bad at all. That way, he would be able to repent and be with the small bird once more.

The pressure was tightening around his neck but all Noah did was keep calm and look forward with a smile. He had no regrets in his life...

As soon as he thought of that, Alan and Daniel’s faces flashed across his vision, causing him to stiffen. Just thinking about them made him want to live a little longer and he struggled just a little bit.

The hand holding his neck stopped moving and something flashed across Bluey’s eyes in front of him.

"You..."

He started speaking before stopping and taking a step back. At the same time, the hand holding Noah’s hand also pulled back and he felt like he had to hold on to the person walking away from him.

"Bluey, wait-! No, Erin...wait for me. I-"

He rushed after Erin but it was of no use. Just as the figure had arrived, it went away as well.

"You are not ready to come to me yet. You still have a lot of lingering affection left for this world. So I will come again later, once you have lost everything and you no longer cherish anything in this world. I will come and ferry your soul over."

If Noah had been in a better headspace, he would have realized how suspicious those words sounded. But right now, all he wanted to do was get to Bluey and be with him.

"No wait-! I am ready-"

A hand tugged Noah and pulled him back. He tried to struggle against it, but it was too hard.

He woke up with a gasp and looked outside. It was still dark and cold and the sun would likely rise in two hours.

Noah felt exhausted, but he knew that sleep won’t come to him again tonight. So he decided to keep himself busy by mixing medicine.

It was a thankless job to make so much medicine. The local doctor of this town was a guide that had recently awakened and as such, they had left for better opportunities outside the village.

It had not been Noah’s intention to inform him out the outside world, or what his prospects were if he went out, but he had done so anyway. And as a result, he felt guilty toward this village that lost it’s healer.

Noah still felt reluctant to help these villagers out. But he also knew that he had a duty toward them after what happened.

He turned on the radio for the music and lost himself to the repeated process of grinding herbs that he had found and grown nearby. He was working harder and harder until the news cut through the hazy fog in his mind.

"-and in the recent news, we have the new dungeon for the Selfies opening. It’s estimated to be an A-grade dungeon and today, the SSS-golden pair was assigned to this dungeon. We are still trying to find out why the golden pair keep doing these low-level raids-"

Noah felt his heart skipping a beat at that news.

The ’golden pair’ being mentioned in the news was Alan and Daniel. Sometime between Noah coming to this village and now, Alan and Daniel had finally decided to partner up and gotten a name for themselves.

It filled Noah with a sense of joy and sadness at the same time thinking about it.

But it was something he had wanted for a long time for the pair, so he tried his best to feel happy for them.

At the very least, there was no need for him to feel jealous of the pair since this had been their destiny from the start.

"Well, maybe I was the problem all along after all. They never made progress as long as I was around. Even when it looked like they would get together, they decided to prove me wrong..."

Noah waited for the voice in his head to tell him that he was wrong or to omit his thoughts, but the voice of the system that guided him was gone.

Now, even that small comfort of knowing the future had been taken away from him. It truly felt like he had nowhere left to turn and he should give up on life. The knife in his hand looked inviting as it cut though the herbs and he wondered how it would feel gliding though his skin-

But when he tried to actually make a cut, he was not able to. Erin’s face flashed in front of his face and invisible hands grabbed his wrist, making it impossible to act.

"He...hehehe...That bastard-!"

It was clear that Erin had used his abilities to make sure Noah won’t be able to do anything drastic. He had only realized after coming here without knowing how he made it or where he was.

This was all arranged by Erin and he had no idea how.

But he did know one thing- Erin wanted him to live, so Naoh had no choice but to live his life out as intended.

This was his punishment for what he did and his redemption at the same time. And if this was what Bluey wanted, then Noah would make sure to endure this as well.

After all, his life and will no longer felt like his own.