2 Nina

When Eren regained his conciousness after what seemed like a long time and short span at the same time, he found himself inside in a small room. He felt like he had seen this place before.

Eren got up and sat upright on the bed. Oddly enough, he didn't feel like his joints were giving him trouble like they would at the start of every morning.

The pitch-black darkness had made its presence dominant in the room. But it couldn't spread its dominion in one corner of the room where a slightly closed window was letting some light in. It looked like the first light of the morning was soon going to break.

Eren rubbed his eyes a little and tried to remember what had happened to him last night. He remembered being attacked by that dumb beast.

That rage-evoking beast had first reaped off his arm. But that wasn't enough. It had the mood to have a sausage fest. And only after chewing on his Lil bro, the beast had an epiphany of killing its prey. It killed him off.

'It killed me, right?'

Eren asked the question to no one in particular while checking up on his neck.

His neck was intact. That was strange. He also felt something weird when he touched his neck.

That's right!

The lack of beard. Eren had an overgrown beard. Not because he wanted to keep it. But because he simply found it troublesome to trim it.

Eren then noticed his skin is more smooth and suppler than he remembered. Eren felt confused. Then he realized he was using the same right arm that had been ripped off by the beast.

'What's going on in here? Am I in a dream or something? A few nice moments before I die for good?'

Eren felt like this was the most logical conclusion. He didn't feel like he was in a dream but that itself won't be enough as a piece of evidence.

Eren then checked his groins. The thing he was worried about the most had accompanied him in his last dream.

Now if he could just live this last dream to its fullest, that'd be a great way to call it quits.

Eren got up from his bed and decided to head out of the room. When he did, he noticed another familiar setting.

'That's right. This is Aunt Nina's house. Wait a minute, why are things looking so much bigger in height?'

Only then Eren realized that things hadn't gotten big like he thought they did. Instead, he was in a smaller body.

More correctly, it looked like he was in his younger days when he was just a teenager.

This last dream sure is convenient, Eren thought. It had brought him to his most comfortable days in life. Aunt Nina was one of his father's party members when they were adventurers.

Eren's father had gone MIA a few years back when Eren was just 10 years old. And his mother had left him soon after to Aunt Nina to search for him.

Later on, it was known that searching for his father was just a ruse his mother had made up to run away with her new lover. She had established a new family with him in a distant city. And had two more kids by now.

But aunt Nina had never mistreated him. She looked after him the way she always did even after knowing his mother was never coming back. She homeschooled him and trained him to be a good elementary potioneer.

Nina remained single all her life and died shortly after Eren turned 40 years old in his previous timeline. He just didn't know the cause of her death because, by then, he had lost contact with her.

Eren's life when he was a teenager was pretty laid-back, living with Nina. She had opened her apothecary and was used to working there from morning to late evening. She ran her business downstairs in her home while the only upper floor housed two bedrooms for both of them. Eren was used to helping her in her work by handling the manufacturing of all the elementary potions.

Aunt Nina's house/apothecary was located at the far ends of the city of Osan, near the southern city wall. It was a typical one-story suburban abode of medium size. Although the population wasn't that dense in this part of the city, aunt Nina's business ran just fine.

That's because she had contracts deals with the city's various adventurer and mercenary guilds. There were also a few adventurers who'd come looking for her apothecary when they found out about her reasonable medicine and treatment prices.

Currently, Eren found himself in the same setting he had experienced long back. When he finally connected his memories from the past with his 'current dream', Eren self-explained to himself that this was to be expected.

His life after he left aunt Nina's place would keep on getting more turbulent than before. His life in the academy wasn't something he was fond of remembering. Eren was considered as the academy's worst lot. And life after that only got tougher for him.

Eren didn't blame anybody for that. He knew he was at fault for not taking hold of his life. He spent the days as easily and leisurely as he could without worrying about the future. And that had spiralled into something he couldn't easily get out of.

So it was only natural that Eren was dreaming about his life with aunt Nina in his last moments. At least that's what Eren had concluded.

He stepped downstairs. He didn't feel like freshening up was a good idea when the dream could end anytime after he dies. He wanted to see aunt Nina before that happened.

To be honest, Eren had a crush on his Aunt Nina. She was a stunning beauty in his eyes. She had just crossed the 40s milestone but didn't look her age at all. After all, she was a C Class healer. Aunt Nina looked like someone in her early 30s, with a mature look and curves at the right places. She was a tall, slim, yet buxom mademoiselle, with dark grey hair and violet eyes.

She could steal the hearts of men in mere seconds if she just interacted with them a little. But for some reason, she kept herself away from the company of men.

It was a self-imposed limitation that Nina couldn't overcome all her life. Eren remembers she had a few flings when he was just dropped at the place by his mom. But that also had entirely stopped after a few years.

Eren felt like that was such a huge loss for the entire menfolk not to have a chance anymore to care about and treat this lady right like she deserved to be treated. She acted all friendly and cordial with her customers, but her blank face would soon resurface after they had left her establishment.

Eren finally laid eyes on a beautiful lady's back he knew to be his aunt Nina's. She too heard him stepping down and turned towards him. He saw her flash her signature faint smile at him that was saying 'good morning' to him.

Eren was left aghast!

Aunt Nina was even more beautiful in his dreams than he remembered.

No… that was not it.

All those years messing around with cheap w**res had made him drop his standards in women so much that aunt Nina was starting to almost look like a fairy-like existence to him. His skewed standards had been finally set straight after looking at aunt Nina.

'This is exactly the kind of dream I need before I die. I couldn't do it by then, but in this dream, nobody can stop me.'

Eren thought and launched himself towards Nina.

==============

'This is exactly the kind of dream I need before I die. I couldn't do it by then, but in this dream, nobody can stop me.'

Eren thought and launched himself towards aunt Nina.

He hugged aunt Nina so tightly right after seeing her, she was taken aback metaphorically as well as literally. Eren's growth spurt hadn't started by this age so he was a lot shorter than her, with his 5.5ft height, making him look younger than he was. His head tucked right under Nina's bosom.

Eren felt like he was standing right in the middle of a garden full of roses that were in full bloom after taking Aunt Nina in his embrace. She exuded an enchanting bodily fragrance that was exclusive to her, according to Eren.

Eren was in a self-imposed hurry. He allowed his hands to roam around aunt Nina's back for some time before he moved towards the softest zone he could lay his hands on with his position.

Nina thought Eren had a bad dream and was finding some sort of support in the embrace and started caressing his hair. But his abrupt hand movements soon afterwards were something she wasn't expecting. And when they headed towards her derriere, she thought she had to break the siege. Nina pulled herself apart from the forced embrace, pulled Eren's cheeks hard till they turned soft red and admonished him:

"This is not the way you can come down here little lad, even if you had a bad dream. I run a business here. What if somebody saw you walking here all unkempt? Go get freshen up first. Then come by the breakfast table. I've made pancakes. Your favourite. I'm sure you won't be able to have them often once you enter the academy. So I'll compensate you with these small treats every once in a while during this month."

But Eren was in a zone of his own. He tried taking Nina in her arms again. Thinking: 'Even in my dream, she is playing hard to get. I can only imagine her reaction had I acted the way I acted back then.'

But Nina wasn't to be underestimated. She was a C Rank healer after all. Her body stats were far more prominent than a normal woman of her age. She held Eren's head in her palm, stepped back from her position, and watched him struggle to get close to her.

Nina didn't understand what had happened to him today. He was always a shy kid, speaking to her only when it was necessary. And that too with short replies and non-verbal nods.

But today's Eren felt like he was a man on a mission. And he didn't even stop to reply. Nina thought Eren had a psyche-shaking nightmare, probably related to his parents and that had made him unstable.

Nina had almost decided she should allow him his sought-after hug after thinking like that. But Eren's next words made her change her mind in 180-degrees:

"What's wrong with you? I don't have much time and yet you are still trying to maintain decorum. And for what? Don't shy away from your maker. In this world, you belong to me. I control you. With my thoughts, I can make you disappear. And with my thought, I can make you look ugly. Do you want to look hideous?"

'This isn't a nightmare, this is one of 'those' dreams. He is a growing boy after all.' Nina thought and puffed her cheeks. With a sullen pout, she pulled Eren's cheeks some more to make him snap out of his apparent daze:

And it worked. Eren soon got sober and started thinking rationally again after the cheek pain woke him for good. He looked at his aunt Nina and his surroundings again while caressing his now-swollen and beet-red cheeks:

'The level of detail is too real for this to be a mere dream.'

Eren started walking around the place while mumbling to himself.

'The atmospheric pressure, the surface texture, the light reflection rate, the physics, and shadow details!'

He observed everything that was in his sight keenly. He even changed his positions, made his hands touch a few objects, and jumped on his position for some time, as if to confirm something.

'They can't be considered as mere renditions in dreams. And it's still too much for an illusory spell. The caster needs to be a highly ranked mage specializing in illusory spells. Nobody at that level would care enough about me to cast such spell and trap me in it, especially when I was dying at the time.'

'Then… that means…..'!

Eren looked at aunt Nina with his mouth wide open, as if trying to find an answer through her he suspected the most at the time:

"This… this is all real?"

"Hehehe. Looks like you still haven't fully awoken from your sleep. Yes silly, this is not a dream. And what kind of dream you were envisioning that needs me to be ugly?"

Eren smiled mirthlessly at Nina's reply and answered her question with the question of his own:

"Aunt Nina, what day is it? And why didn't you tell me my mother didn't go looking for my father but in fact has settled down in a different city with her new family?"

Eren asked the first question to know exactly what day it was. And he asked the second question to finalize his hunch for good. Eren didn't find out about his mother's new family before his teen years were over. He had visited aunt Nina at that time, and she had finally told him.

By asking her the second question, he wanted to gauge Nina's reaction. The high-ranked illusory spells can indeed mimic the past to a certain extent, but they are still based on the particular set of memories that belonged to the person on whom the spell was going to be cast on. If the caster had only read about the memories Eren had when he was a teen, he couldn't read and connect the memories from when he was past his teen years to these memories. Otherwise, a flaw would surface in the spell and it could get broken.

But nothing like that had happened.

Nina acted like the real Nina if she had been given such news at that time. She felt shocked, puzzled, and then angry at someone.

"How do you know about your mother? Who told you?"

"I was told by some stranger I don't know. He had left before I could ask him about anything else. But your response tells me it's not a lie. don't worry aunt Nina, I was just confused and emotionally not at the right place when I woke up thinking about the same thing that man had told me over and over.

But I'm alright now. don't worry. I'm not thinking about confronting my mother. First, I heard from that man that she had settled down in a very distant city from here. And second, what would I even ask her after finding myself in front of her? That why did she leave me? Why did she need to start a new family?

I already know the answer to those questions. I've figured them out. She left me because my face reminded her about my father. He has been missing. Not dead, and not run away from her. Just missing!

She must have loved him dearly. And his inconclusive status was something unbearable for her. It didn't let her have her much-needed closure. That's why she ran away. From me. And from memories of my father.

My mother must have left to look for my father. Maybe she found something about him, or maybe she realized that searching for him anymore would be futile. Either way, she had to give up on her husband. And to give up on him, she needed to give up on me as well. Hence she didn't return from her unfruitful search. As for why she started a new family? Why shouldn't she? She is still in the prime of her life. A new family means a new start. That new family must have given her something that I never could. The ability to forget my father.

How can I blame her after understanding all this? I was the unlucky party in this equation. Let's just say luck wasn't on my side. There are far worse fates men have gone through in this world. Compared to that, this is still nothing. It's better for all of us that we just accept the fact as it is and move on.

I also have you who takes care of me so much, I feel more pampered and protected than kids who stay with their parents. Should I even call myself unlucky after finding a blessing in you? I don't think so.

More importantly, why don't you try and answer my first question? What day is it?"

Eren had already closed his distance and embraced his aunt Nina again while saying all this. His actions were natural and his tone was calm. Almost like someone speaking from experience. But he also had shown his vulnerability with his hug.

Eren's act did have some flaws. For example, he seemed extremely rational and devoid of emotions for a boy of his age when he said this. Especially considering the things that he was supposed to be going through because of his parents' situation. But having those flaws made his act perfect. Sometimes, perfection is found in imperfection. Wabi-sabi!

Nina considered that flaw to be Eren's defence mechanism to keep himself away from getting hurt, by blocking all the emotions.

'That's why he was so rattled up after waking up today. He must be thinking about all these things last night. He must have felt like the fate he was cursed with wasn't in his control. That dream must mean him trying to subconsciously gain that control back. By imagining himself to be the 'maker' of his world, and control his subjects.

But, amazingly, he came to such a sound conclusion on his own. I still consider him too young, but his thought process is showing signs of maturity.'

Nina started ruffling Eren again in her embrace while being engrossed in those thoughts. Therefore she didn't realize that Eren's hands had landed on their intended targets ever-so-covertly this time!