He looked stunned.
"M-ä-r, you said?!"
He repeated it, spelling it out like it mattered.
"Y-yeah, is that… bad?"
Though he seemed agitated—business as usual—he calmed down.
"Let's just say… how to put it… names like yours are rare."
Like mine? "Oh. I see."
"Anyway, I'm Bellian! Nice to meet you, M-Mär the lost one!"
"You too, Bellian."
More or less, I muttered, clenching my fist with a forced smile.
His name sounded odd, but considering mine, I wasn't in any position to judge.
"RIGHT THEN!"
He clapped his hands.
"I'll explain the basics so you don't stay completely lost."
I nodded.
"This might be hard to believe at first, but to start with… Well, there are kinder ways to say it, but we're inside a gigantic tunnel."
"Huh?"
I was about to laugh when he continued.
"Wait for the rest before you get lost in your head."
"…"
A tunnel, seriously? He could've come up with something better.
"You've probably noticed already—kind of obvious, really—but we're in one of the many chambers that make it up. Right now we're in H.M-008+."
"Wha—?! H-Hold on, you're kidding, right?"
"The notation looks tricky, but it's not that complicated. The tunnel we're in is made of interconnected chambers, and inside it there are districts. Those are groups of chambers clustered together by shared traits. And those districts themselves belong to an even larger whole. At the moment, we're in the eight-eighth chamber of the District of Mars."
"Eeeeh?! Wait—wait. What?! You think I'm going to swallow that?"
"I'm doing my job as your guide. Whether you accept it is on you."
He was dumping a mountain of info on me—did he really think I could memorize all this nonsense in one go?
And he clearly thought I was naïve. Seriously.
Because even if he didn't look like he was joking, it was hard to believe any tunnel could be not only that big but organized enough to host a system like this. If anything, I'd sooner believe… I don't know, a cave, or maybe a tower.
"Want me to repeat it?"
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Tunnel = (X) Seasons ⇒ (X) Districts/Months ⇒ (X) Chambers
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"A tunnel, chambers, districts or whatever… Can you stop pretending?"
He wore a huge grin, but he wanted me to believe him.
"I know waking up was rough and you're having trouble keeping up, but still."
"Cut it out—you're a terrible liar!"
"And yet!"
"You're saying we're in a massive tunnel wide enough to contain an entire ecosystem? You'd have to be completely insane to believe a lie that big. That would mean there's space to build it, and the effort would be colossal. I can't even imagine how long it would take!"
"Well… And if I add that this chamber is tiny compared to average—am I laying it on too thick?"
"That's enough—are you messing with me?!"
He sighed, exhausted.
"Tru—truly?"
If that were true, then how on earth did I end up here? None of it added up. Why build something like this?
"Yep."
"That's… insane…?!"
"I can tell you're still skeptical, and I won't convince you right away. You'll get used to it. Just know that even if it's not your usual idea of a 'subterranean,' well, neither is ours. There are places in larger chambers that fit that idea, but between us—in front of the other residents—we don't talk too much about the whole Tunnel business."
"I'll be careful…"
"So don't embarrass me by asking random people about it. They'll clock you as lost real quick."
"I said I'll be careful!!"
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I took a moment to breathe, cut to pieces by so much nonsense.
"When you say larger, you're joking… right?"
"You're hard of hearing, I swear."
"…"
"There are a lot of chambers. So many that nobody knows the true total. Counting them would be a full-time job. And structurally, they're all different, so there's no way the others are carbon copies. As far as I know, each one has its own atmosphere, its own traits, even its own belonging, rules, and functions. And to repeat myself: this chamber isn't even average."
"That sounds… enormous, the way you put it…"
I'm going to have a hard time swallowing this without proof.
"You have no idea. These chambers hold places more impressive than wherever you came from. I know one so vast and tall it might as well be a country."
"Where I came from… Where I came from?! You know something about that?!!!"
I lunged at him, grabbed both shoulders, and shook him in desperation. He chose his words carefully—so why hadn't he said this earlier?
"Calm down, Mär! I don't really know where you came from, I'm exaggerating. There are only rumors about that, I just—"
"TELL ME ANYWAY!! Maybe it'll jog something—maybe a way out of here!!"
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH."
"Huh?!"
Bellian seized me by the collar at the mere mention of those words, and his eyes filled with contempt—unchanged, but cold.
"B—"
"Tssht. You know nothing. Leave this place? Oh, sure. If I could just walk out, why do you think I'm still here? If any of us could, nobody would live here. Not even the craziest of the crazies. Especially not in the frozen quarters outside this chamber. Believe me, Mär—we all want to believe in your freeing world. But here, it's impossible." He let go, pity in his gaze.
That flash of anger revealed a deep wound—and a lack of control.
"I'm sorry, Bellian! I—"
"Forget it. My fault. I'm the one who brought it up without context."
"NO, it's on me! I guess I got carried away…"
"Pfft."
"The truth is, even if this place is real, I—I'm struggling to accept it and act like it is."
His reaction was more than justified. Acting like that didn't help him at all. I hadn't even tried to understand where his caution came from.
But it confirmed one thing—this place wasn't home.
In fact…
I don't even have the faintest idea where home is.
Bellian inhaled slowly, exhaled, gathered himself, and went on.
"Even if I reacted like that, I can't really blame you. You all have that reaction. I just thought you were a bit different. For you, I guess it's normal to think about leaving. You just arrived without knowing how, while I was born in this world and I endure it—follow the rules stamped on me. Not the same mindset."
"…"
"In short, even if you've been lucky so far, luck won't help you here. Not if you don't know anything. In this place, as far as I've seen, knowledge is the most fundamental key. It governs everything."
"I get it, but wh-when you say the others, who do you mean exactly?"
"The ones who seem to come from… wherever you do. With one notable difference—they all fell from the four corners of the tunnel. Around here, they drop in from the Glacier of Alchimed's hole."
I see… So that's what he'd been hinting at all along. I wasn't the only one, then?
"Tell me, Mär, I've got a question."
"Yes?"
"Is it true that all of you came down only because you had to?"
"Well, I—"
He snorted and laughed again.
"Obviously you can't answer. You don't remember a thing. All I want is for you not to make fatal mistakes."
Gulp. "F-Fatal?" I whispered, weighing my words.
"Let's move to the other platform via that bridge, yeah? That's where the crystals I need are." he said, suddenly in a hurry.
"Let's go."