Aeren spent time with Quella for 2 years. Aeren learned about the people around him and had almost gained control over all his emotions.
Aeren had cured a few patients around Quella's place, and they were all rich, so Aeren earned too much money through his doctor profession. But his real focus was never money—it was his relationships with others and emotions.
Aeren had tried to lose them, but they had gotten sealed inside him and those emotions started playing around with him. But now Aeren had almost achieved control over his emotions, and not a single emotion was out of control.
Aeren was sitting on his chair reading while the moon shone outside. Books were scattered all over the place, and Quella was sleeping on his bed.
When Aeren was reading a book, he heard footsteps from the hall, so he stood up and went to investigate.
Aeren came to the hall, and his steps were heard by someone. Aeren then saw the thief, and the thief also saw Aeren. The thief's mind went blank and he fired.
BOOOOMM
BOOOMMM
BOOMMM
The thief shot Aeren, then went into a panic and thought, What have I done? I have to run.
The thief ran away from the hall, and Aeren fell to the ground, his blood spreading all around him as the ground became soaked with red blood.
Quella heard the shots and ran toward the sound. "Aeren, where are you?" she screamed.
A few moments later, Quella saw Aeren's dead body. Her eyes stared at him in shock, but she didn't cry or scream. She went silent, looking at Aeren's dead body and started thinking, This is an illusion. Aeren always spoke about illusions. So I'm seeing an illusion.
Quella continued looking at Aeren's body and stayed like that the whole night, waiting for the illusion to shatter.
A few patients came for their regular checkups and rang the bell at the mansion, but no reply came, so they started thinking something wasn't right.
The patients asked their neighbors about them, and they said they hadn't gone anywhere.
Then those patients asked for help from neighbors to enter the house. A few neighbors came to help, and they broke down the door and saw Quella standing close to Aeren's dead body, her eyes not believing what she saw.
All of them understood the situation and shook Quella, but she didn't reply to any of them. Her eyes remained fixed on Aeren.
All of them arranged a funeral for Aeren, and Quella stayed silent, not saying a single thing to anyone or doing anything—just following their lead.
A few days later, the funeral ended, but Quella's illusion didn't shatter. Then she thought, I want to sleep with Aeren. That's my freedom.
She stood up from the couch and went to the funeral site, where she started digging at Aeren's graveyard. She finally found his coffin, but the coffin was broken and no one was inside.
A few days ago:
Aeren opened his eyes and saw darkness all around him. He whispered, "I missed it. It's fine. I'm close to my freedom, and I have enough time to achieve it."
Aeren's breathing was getting slower and slower, but he didn't panic.
Aeren saw his surroundings and understood the situation. He kicked the coffin, and it blasted apart.
When he was shot by the thief, Aeren could have dodged or even killed him if he had wanted to, but he wanted to get shot. So he took the shot.
Aeren got out of his coffin and left the place.
Now:
Quella started crying after seeing no one was there, and she understood that Aeren had left her to achieve his freedom. He had always said that he wanted to achieve it.
Aeren came back to the ghost house where he had once screamed, cried, and felt fear, despair, and more.
Aeren entered the ghost house and saw that a few new ghosts had joined them. The new ghosts wanted to take Aeren's body, but Aeren killed them. The old ghosts laughed at the new ghosts.
Aeren's gaze went to them, and he said, "Go outside and get me all the books from around the world. From small, shitty books to the craziest books you can find. If you miss any book, I'll kill you all."
Aeren thought: Books are the only way to reach my freedom. Because some puppets start to understand their puppeteer and begin to feel frustration at being puppets. They start to see the world and then begin to feel that this world is missing something. So those puppets start to write and create their freedom, and those freedoms become cages for eras. Then new frustrated puppets are born, and they feel the same thing about the world and start to create new freedom and write new freedom.
Those books are famous all over the world, and now all the puppets enjoy their freedom until they're on their deathbed. But I don't care about dead puppets—I only care about their freedom.
Their freedom will help me achieve the freedom I want to achieve.
The ghosts left the house and went out to find the books Aeren wanted.
Aeren took the books with him, sat in his chair, and started reading other people's freedoms.
Aeren read for a year but achieved nothing.
Aeren continued reading, and the hall became full of books. More years passed, but still Aeren couldn't find anything.
20 years had passed, but Aeren was still reading books. The books had become mountains, but he started to create new things that the world didn't even understand. But Aeren didn't stop there—he kept reading other freedoms, and Aeren started to see that his freedom was almost here.
20 more years passed.
Aeren's black hair had become white hair.
Aeren stared at books with his full concentration, and Aeren never looked left or right.
Outside the world:
The world started to shake in every corner—shaking and shaking.
BOOOMMM
Space broke through and the world's limits broke. The world's illusion shattered and broke the limit of the world, achieving a new ERA.
Inside the ghost house:
The book slipped away from his hand, and a whisper was heard by Aeren: "I achieved it. My freedom."
"I became myself."
"I created 'Self Freedom Realm.'"
Aeren stood up. He looked like an old man, but after walking a few steps forward, his old age was gone and he became young again.
Aeren stepped out of the ghost house and saw the world after 40 years.
"This Realm is empty, and I will write my own freedom with my own hands."
Aeren body blasted instantly the next moment after saying that.