A sea of twinkling stars was painted across the dark sky that served as the roof over half of the world tonight.
The cries of crows answered one another together with owls and the sound of thousands of mosquitoes crashing into something invisible.
The fat mosquitoes could no longer follow their instincts to suck the fresh blood of the thousands of figures sleeping in the open field that had previously been the battlefield.
Darkness blanketed the figures of various races sleeping beneath the sea of stars.
Meanwhile, a single point of light could be seen within the darkness, the light coming from the cigarette Van was smoking as he sat at the edge of the forest while reading a book.
He created an invisible bench that became the only throne in the world two million years ago.
Van turned another page while frowning. On the cover was a title that read:
Ice Age Period Schedule From Two Million Years Ago Until the Present.
Van exhaled cigarette smoke, then added the cold taste of beer that tightened his throat to the sweetness lingering in his mouth.
"Good grief... what year is it now? How much longer until that terrifying ice age arrives?"
Van clicked his tongue as he wiped his mouth.
"That old man really doesn’t care about his student... he should’ve given me the exact timing of the ice age... I mean, I can adapt... but..."
Van’s words were interrupted by his own thoughts. He tilted his head while taking another drag from his cigarette.
"But what? Technically, I’ll definitely survive as long as my head stays intact..."
Van leaned back against his invisible chair and looked at the sea of stars decorating the dark sky.
"That’s true... I’ll be fine after all. The ones who won’t be fine are probably everyone else."
Van shifted his gaze toward the sleeping humans resting beside the other races, who were also asleep. He let out a sigh.
"I still have to go to Antarctica... should I just give them a summary of knowledge? Yeah... maybe I’ll awaken their potential too?"
Van sighed again before taking another drag of his cigarette.
"That should be enough, right?"
"What are you talking about all by yourself?"
From the darkness of the forest behind Van, a woman’s voice answered the question Van had asked himself.
Van hurriedly stood up as his heartbeat instantly accelerated.
"Shit! Why are you in the forest?! Go sleep over there!!"
From within the darkness, Kalula stepped out with a blank expression.
"Are you seriously telling me you didn’t notice me approaching? Are you really the person who fought the six of us alone...? Your instincts are truly terrible."
Van sighed, held his chest, then sat back down on his invisible chair.
"What’s the point of having good instincts right now? I mean, if it’s just wild animals trying to eat me, I can bite them back... what even exists two million years ago?"
Van looked Kalula up and down. She was wearing a white dress that swayed with every step.
"Ah, that’s true too... there’s a lost dragon here. I guess I really do need to train my instincts."
Kalula shook her head and tried feeling around the empty space beside where Van was sitting.
"You use your power in such a strange way. Is there a chair here too?"
Van nodded while lighting another cigarette.
Kalula finally sat down, trusting Van’s words, but instead of floating like Van, her butt landed directly on the ground.
Van burst into loud laughter while exhaling cigarette smoke.
"Are you really a dragon? I mean, what kind of dragon gets fooled that easily...? Stand up. I’ll make a comfortable sofa."
Kalula let out a tired sigh. She had only met Van this morning, yet somehow she already felt exhausted.
Van chuckled while creating a soft invisible sofa. He even spread a cloth over the invisible sofa to reassure Kalula.
The two of them finally sat side by side beneath the sea of stars, level with everyone else who was asleep.
Neither of them spoke for quite some time.
Van finally stopped smoking when Kalula rubbed her eyes repeatedly.
A heavy sigh escaped Kalula as she rested the back of her neck against the invisible sofa while stretching out her legs.
She turned toward Van, who was enjoying the sea of stars.
"Do you want me to tell you about the sea monster gate now? I think it’d make a good bedtime story..."
Van shook his head and yawned slightly.
"Ah, I’m already tired today... tell me later. We’ll be together for quite a while anyway... today was a crazy day..."
Van looked at Kalula.
"Isn’t it kind of strange? I mean, just this morning we were practically trying to kill each other... and now we’re relaxing together. Isn’t that development a bit too fast?"
Kalula nodded several times. One eyebrow rose as a question appeared in her mind.
"I didn’t get the chance to ask this earlier because things were serious. Isn’t two million years an insane number? Are you really going to live through two million years? Why don’t you just return after collecting the Artiums? Two million years is an incredibly long time... you might go insane."
Van chuckled as he looked at Kalula, supporting his head with one hand against the sofa’s backrest.
"Whoa... don’t dragons live a long time too? You live that long as well, don’t you? At least?"
Kalula shook her head with a blank expression.
"Do you think dragons are gods? At most, we only live for five thousand years... at least that’s what I know... that’s nothing compared to you."
Van shrugged while chuckling.
"But at least until one year from now, I’m still much younger than you, right?"
Van rubbed his forehead and bit his lips, which still tasted sweet after smoking.
"Yeah, you’re right... I also thought I should’ve been able to return after collecting the Artiums... but what can I do?"
Van’s smile turned upside down as he remembered being trained mercilessly by the old man. He chuckled to himself, making Kalula look at him.
"The old man who sent me is truly insane... yeah, my mission isn’t that different from yours, but he sacrificed a lot just to bet on me... I mean, he placed his bet on someone like me..."
One of Kalula’s eyebrows rose as she frowned.
"Why do you sound so lacking in confidence? Someone like you could even fight all of us by yourself... we’re the ones chosen for our mission, you know."
Van showed the sunset tattoo on the back of his right hand.
"You know? I trained in here for three years... can you imagine spending three years under an eternal sunset? Well, now it’s become an eternal night because that old man is gone... ah, I also keep the Artiums in here. Do you want to see them? Ah, never mind. Maybe another time."
Kalula looked at Van in disbelief before finally laughing at the edge of the quiet forest beneath the sea of stars.
The two of them laughed amid the snoring of thousands of sleeping people. They were like restless night guards.
Kalula wiped away the tears that had accidentally come out.
"What will you do during those two million years?"
Van’s expression became strange as he seriously thought about Kalula’s question. He eventually shook his head to clear his thoughts again.
"Don’t ask crazy questions like that... I only arrived a few days ago. What could I possibly imagine?"
"But one thing’s for sure, I’ll do whatever I want... yeah, maybe after two million years I’ll become the most skilled human in the world... hopefully."
Kalula blinked several times before falling silent for a while.
"Then what will you do when you lose the people you love over and over again for two million years? Two million years is obviously a very long time..."
Van let out a sigh. His gray eyes reflected millions of twinkling stars.
"I don’t know... same as before, I don’t know. The only thing I know is that they’ll become immortal..."
Kalula frowned.
"Huh? Immortal? How?"
Van raised his right hand. He pinched the air, and a camera appeared in his grasp.
He turned it on and showed her the many pictures he had taken that afternoon. He showed various moments of people interacting. He had even taken pictures of the different races interacting with humans while getting food from the buffet.
"Ah, before you think this is some kind of magic painting... let me tell you. This is called a photo, and this thing is called a camera that produces photos. Remember, this isn’t a magic painting."
The veins on Kalula’s forehead bulged as she gritted her fangs, making Van laugh.
"It’s basically the same thing. This is a magic painting, isn’t it?"
Van clicked his tongue.
"Good grief... what exactly is Pangea like? You don’t know what books are, but you can build ships that should be sailing on the sea instead of flying through the sky... isn’t that a bit unbalanced?"
Kalula wanted to answer, but Van spoke first.
"There’s no way, right?" Kalula’s expression became strange, while Van looked at her seriously. "You couldn’t possibly live in caves, right? I mean, that’s what I know... but you don’t, right?"
Kalula let out a sigh. She couldn’t take it anymore. She immediately grabbed Van by the neck and shook him with all her strength, making Van beg for mercy.
The two of them kept talking until their mouths grew tired, not allowing even the stars to join their conversation.
Eventually, they leaned their necks against the backrest of the invisible sofa from exhaustion, even though they had only been talking.
Van blinked several times.
"I’ve got an idea..."
Kalula looked at Van. The two of them looked at each other again.
Van scratched his cheek.
"You know, I probably won’t remember this moment a hundred thousand years from now..."
"I might not even remember your face anymore..."
Van raised his camera and waved it.
"But this can help... and I’ll probably make notes to go along with it."
Van smiled faintly.
"Want to be the first one?"
Kalula turned her face away and looked up at the starry sky instead.
"Elena might get jealous..."
Van chuckled as he stood up. He dismissed the camera in his hand and summoned a Polaroid camera instead.
"Whose fault is it that she got drunk..."
Van stood in front of Kalula, who was sitting stiffly.
He took her picture right beneath the sea of stars and the flash of the camera. He took several shots and showed her the results as physical photographs immediately developed.
He then sat down on the ground while taking out a photo album and a pen.
Kalula simply looked at Van in confusion before looking at the photo of herself.
"Name?"
"Huh?"
"Is your full name just Kalula? Or what? Besides that, your birth date, birthplace, hobbies, favorite food, favorite color, maybe your favorite song? Wait... there are songs in your world, right? I remember that Ryu guy singing..."
Kalula grabbed Van by the neck again because she couldn’t stand her world being mocked over and over, but in the end she cooperated with Van’s interview session and received a photo of herself as a gift.
"Take good care of that photo... treat it as an heirloom. You know? It’s the only one in your world. I mean... there aren’t any paintings that small in your world, right? Hahaha."
"You crazy human."
The two of them continued talking without stopping until the stars left them behind and dragged the sun in as their replacement.