Algeni slowly opened his eyes.
Everything was darkness.
There were no walls.
There was no ground.
There was absolutely nothing.
Only an endless black void that seemed to stretch into infinity.
He slowly looked around, completely confused.
“Where the hell am I?” he muttered, his voice echoing through the endless emptiness.
He tried to remember how he had ended up there.
Then, one after another, memories of the battle against the orc came rushing back.
A bitter laugh escaped his lips.
“So…
I guess my time finally came.
After all that talk about surviving…
look at me now.”
For several long seconds, he stared into the infinite darkness surrounding him.
A single thought slowly crept into his mind.
“Maybe…
if I had run away…
none of this would have happened.”
Almost immediately, he shook his head with determination.
“No.”
His voice rang throughout the void.
“Running away and leaving someone behind has never been who I am.”
“I’ve always been this way.”
“In this world…
or any other.”
Suddenly, the darkness began to ripple.
It was a much younger version of himself.
A little boy was crying because his ball had become stuck high in a tree.
Without thinking twice, the young Algeni ran over, climbed the branches, and retrieved it for him.
A faint smile appeared on Algeni’s face as he watched the scene unfold.
Then another memory appeared.
This time, he was helping an elderly woman who had lost her handbag.
Before he could fully process it, countless more memories emerged.
One after another.
Each one showed him helping someone in need.
For a few moments, a warm smile remained on his face.
But little by little, it faded away.
“No matter how much I help people…”
“Their response always ends up being the same.”
The memories began to change.
The children got their ball back…
Then completely ignored him.
The woman recovered her handbag…
Only to rudely tell him to leave immediately afterward.
Scene after scene repeated the same outcome.
It didn’t matter how much he helped.
Most of the time…
He was met with indifference.
Or rejection.
Algeni slowly lowered his gaze.
The memories gradually began to fade away.
All of them…
Those memories shone far brighter than the others.
As if they were calling out to him.
Algeni slowly lifted his head.
Within those memories, he saw the first time he had helped his friends.
Polar’s smile.
Yeremi’s smile.
Ivan’s smile.
Pearn’s smile.
For the very first time, he saw reactions completely different from those he had always received from everyone else.
A gentle smile returned to his face.
“No matter how people treat me after I help them…”
“If I can fulfill my purpose of helping others, then I’ll do it as many times as I can.”
“That’s who I’ve always been.”
“And that’s who I’ll always be.”
“It’s what my parents would have wanted.”
His body slowly began to fade away.
Tiny particles of light drifted from him until he completely disappeared into the endless darkness.
Algeni slowly opened his eyes once more.
Soft morning light filtered through a nearby window, bathing the quiet room in a warm golden glow.
The soothing scent of medicinal herbs lingered in the air, mixed with the faint aroma of fresh wood.
Every muscle in his body felt heavy and sore, as if it had been crushed beneath an enormous weight.
He blinked several times, still disoriented.
The events of the battle lingered in fragments within his mind.
Slowly, he pushed himself upright on the bed, wincing as pain spread through his body.
His eyes carefully scanned the unfamiliar room as he tried to understand where he was…
And who had brought him there.