Chapter 12: Outside The Castle [3]

"That's right!" he exclaimed, looking at Evan in astonishment. "Speaking of which, I meant to ask you about this before, like Mathias had suggested."

"Mathias suggested it?" Evan said curiously. "Why?"

"He said that you Summoners dream of hints about your Guardians' locations if they're nearby. Is that true?"

"Yes, that's correct. But what is the connection…?"

"I think… I think I dreamed about a garden before. Like this one," Ardyn tried to explain. "I normally don't remember my dreams, but I feel like I can recall bits and pieces of my last one. It probably resembles a scene like this…"

"Is that so?" Evan looked interested. "So you've actually dreamt about this world before you died?"

Ardyn nodded. "I think so. I feel like I saw fireflies there… No, there was also a fountain, I think… Wait, hold on."

He could tell that he was making no sense at this point. He just didn't know what to say, honestly. His memories were still unclear.

But even though it was just a dream, it just felt important to him for some reason, which was why he was desperately grasping at straws.

"You shouldn't stress yourself," Evan said in a gentle tone, having noticed Ardyn's troubled expression. "It's normal for people to forget their dreams most of the time. But since this might be a vital piece of the puzzle, let's tackle it one by one. Was it a pleasant kind of dream? Is that why you're trying so hard to remember?"

"Huh? It was… nice, I guess," Ardyn said slowly.

"I'm asking because the scenery that you described is quite generic, if I'm being honest," Evan said frankly. "There are a lot of gardens in the world, even in yours, I presume. It cannot be this particular place either because there is no fountain here."

"Come to think of it, you're right. But there's another..." Ardyn's voice trailed off, and he frowned slightly as he stared at the fireflies — or glowbeetles, whatever — circling the flowers. He couldn't help but stare at their glowing tails for some reason. "Hold on… why are they green?"

"What?"

"Why are the firefl — I mean, the glowbeetles green?" Ardyn repeated. "Shouldn't they be blue instead?"

Evan blinked. "Glowbeetles can only glow the colors yellow, green, and purple. There has never been one that glows blue."

"Oh," Ardyn said, feeling a little disappointed for some reason. Seriously, what was wrong with him tonight? He couldn't even use hunger as an excuse because he had already stuffed himself back at the banquet. "I thought…"

"The only few things that glow blue in this world that also like to stay in gardens are the Lingers," Evan said thoughtfully. "They don't come as often as the glowbeetles do, but they do visit from time to time."

Ardyn stared at him. "The… what?"

"The Lingers," Evan repeated patiently. "They're remnants of human souls that have already passed on. They don't look like these glowbeetles, though. On the outside, they look like tiny winged species, with one black wing and one blue wing. They also have this blue spherical glow around them. Basically, they look entirely different."

Ardyn stared at him, stunned.

No.

No way…

Everything made sense now.

Then, the butterfly that he saw back in his world just before he died…

It was a Linger?

But what did that mean?

First off, if it originally existed in this new world, why did it appear to him back then?

Had it been a sign of his impending death?

That's morbid, he couldn't help but think.

"You look like you've just realized something," Evan observed. "Does your world also have Lingers? Or a different version of them, perhaps?'

"No... I..." Ardyn hesitated for a moment. "I saw them in my dream. I think."

"You seem pretty fixated on what you saw in your dreams..." Evan thought for a moment. "I don't seem to recall dreams being connected or important to a Guardian. But perhaps I am mistaken. I should ask my Guardians about this."

"Not just in my dream!" Ardyn said quickly. "I saw them too... saw one, back in my world. Just before I died. I remember it so well because I thought it looked unusual at first glance, and you described its appearance so similarly."

"Unusual? Where do the remnants of human souls go in your world? Do they manifest in a different form?"

"No. When humans die, they simply die," Ardyn said helplessly. "What happens to their souls after that is just a bunch of theories. Maybe they go to heaven, maybe they reincarnate, or maybe they just fade out of existence. There's no definite answer."

"Oh. I see." Evan nodded. "Interesting. So you saw a Linger before you died. Was it still alive?"

"Yes. It flew past the car I was in. In my world, they look like a certain species that's typically called a 'butterfly'," Ardyn explained. "There are a variety of butterflies that exist, but none that looked like a... uh, Linger. As you called it."

"Butterflies?" Evan seemed fascinated by this information. "Come to think of it, that probably explains things."

"What do you mean?" Ardyn asked.

"When I found you on that beach earlier, I saw a dead Linger by your side," Evan explained. "Which is a paradox in itself. After all, a Linger is already dead since it holds remnants of a person's soul after they have passed on."

Ardyn was staring at him, trying to comprehend his words. "So you mean that Lingers never die," he stated.

Evan nodded. "They are an immortal species, just like how our souls are never really dead. 'Death' is simply a term for souls that are no longer within the world of the living. In this world, after death, the souls go to the realm of the 'afterlife', which is the Eternal Meadow."