Reol stared blankly at the child who had just spoken.
Short in stature, green-haired, and grinning far too wide for someone loitering near a bridge at night.
The boy looked no older than fourteen. His clothes were mismatched, his posture was loose, he walked in mud with bare feet, and his emerald eyes were visibly sparkling.
For a long second, Reol's thoughts stalled.
"What in the world is wrong with this kid…?"
The sheer absurdity of the boy's presence snapped something inside him. The roaring river below, the cold rain soaking through his clothes, and the urge to kill himself all just disappeared.
Reol let out a tired sigh and stepped back from the edge of the bridge.
Without a word, he turned and walked away, choosing the strategy of pretending nothing had just happened.
Unfortunately, the child still pressed on.
He could hear the light, almost bouncy footsteps followed close behind, splashing through puddles with a cheerful hum.
"If you're planning to die~" the boy chirped, "I can suggest waaaay better methods than jumping! Much faster and much less pain! All you need is a teeny-tiny payment, and I guarantee customer satisfaction!"
Reol stopped and shot him a glare.
"You're mistaking it," he replied. "I didn't plan to die."
"Is that sooo~?" the boy hummed, tilting his head at an angle. "Oh! Then are you having big, heavy, sad thoughts in your brain? What a coincidence! I also run a Super Happy Therapy Company!—"
"No thanks." Reol cuts him off before the child could even finish.
"We're very cheap compared to the others!"
"No."
"There's no harm in trying!"
"I said no."
Reol resumed walking, ignoring the child's blabbering.
So did the boy.
The child kept his pace effortlessly, hands clasped behind his back, peering up at Reol as if they were old friends on an evening stroll rather than strangers in the rain.
"We also offer free pamphlets," the boy added helpfully. "And stickers. Kids love stickers! Adults pretend they don't, but they do."
Reol's eyes visibly twitched.
This child was persistent.
To think that the very first thing Reol experienced after returning to this world was a scammer desperately trying to sell him a service.
Somehow, fate always found new ways to disappoint him.
Seriously... What a pain.
He ignored the green-haired lad, thoroughly.
Yet the kid kept talking.
And talking.
And talking.
At this point, even seasoned con artists would have known when to cut their losses. But this one? He spoke with tireless enthusiasm, and that cheerful tone began to annoy him.
Reol finally snapped as he stopped his track.
Rain slid off his cloak as he turned slightly, then took a step back, and raised one hand to cover his mouth.
The words he murmured next were quiet, kind of murmurs- seemingly whispering a spell under his lips.
The boy blinked in confusion.
"Hm? Do you want to avail our service? Because if that's so—"
He was never able to finish the sentence.
Reol's body began to dissolve, starting from the edges, breaking apart into pale mist. In the span of a single breath, he was gone, scattered into rain and air, ab=nd erased without spectacle.
The bridge fell silent, and only the rain remained.
And the boy stood there, staring at the empty space where a very troubled man had been moments ago.
"…Huh."
The child scratched his head, squinting thoughtfully at nothing.
"Rude," he muttered. "He didn't even take a brochure."
****
A few hours passed by.
Reol reappeared several streets away, high above the settlement, where the rain softened into a whisper among the leaves.
He lay sprawled across the thick branch of an old tree, with his cloak draped over rough bark, staring up at a starless sky.
Distant lanternlight glimmered through the canopy like weary scenery.
And with it, lies a fragile sense of peace.
As he rested there, his breathing slowly evening out, Reol began to take stock of what he had seen.
The world had not changed as much as he feared.
The town he remembered still stood.
There's no change of technology or anything... Stone roads still exist under the clustered wooden balconies, and it's still the same structural view as before.
And yet... Something was terribly wrong.
The first thing he noticed was that the adventurers' guilds were gone.
Guilds used to exist, with shouting mercenaries, people finding parties, and contracts nailed to crowded boards... yet there was not a single sign of them now.
Instead, people moved through the streets carrying strange glowing stones. They used them to light their way, to signal one another, even to perform simple tasks that had once been effortless through the arts.
"Have the arts been forgotten?" Reol whispered.
The thought felt absurd. As Reol knew that the arts were the backbone of life itself.
With "arts", fire was called from nothing, water can be shaped by will, wounds mended by light.
In other words, it was a 'magic', and it was not a luxury. It was a blessing naturally given the moment we breathe.
Despite the eerie similarities to the novel description, this world feels foreign to Reol.
As if it only lingered as a story half-remembered.
Reol's fingers curled against the bark beneath him.
"…Did the author change it?"
Reol pondered in silence for a long moment with rain tapping softly against leaves.
"…No," he muttered at last. "I saw it with my own eyes. He deleted the novel."
No matter how he see it, everything seems out of place.
"…Then, did someone… change the story?"
The branch creaked gently beneath his weight. The rain eased into a thin drizzle. And the world remained still.
Then suddenly...
A head popped up upside down from the branch above him.
"Helloo! What a coincidence!"
Reol's eyes flew open.
The boy dangled there like a badly ripened fruit, green hair soaked and dripping rainwater straight onto Reol's face.
It was that same kid from a while ago.
"Do you have no place to stay?" the child asked brightly. "Because wow! Sleeping in a tree is very unsafe! Fortunately for you—"
Reol did not move.
Somewhere deep inside, his soul quietly packed its belongings as he genuinely got goosebumps.
"I also run a Very Affordable Home Renovation Company!" the boy continued. "We do roofs, walls, doors, emotional foundations- oh! And tree-to-house conversions are half off this week!"
A vein twitched on Reol's forehead.
"How did you find me?"
The boy tilted his head, still upside down, as if the answer were obvious.
"Silly, I didn't search for you. Its just a coincidence I met you again! Hehehe, I think it's fate?"
He shot upright, locked eyes with the boy, and muttered something once again.
The air warped.
The tree shook.
And Reol vanished in a violent rush of displaced wind, leaving only swaying branches and falling rain behind.
The boy blinked.
"Ah! Again?!"