In a world where everything was surrounded by a thick fog, Valentine found himself waking up from under a massive dead tree. Valentine got up and looked at his surroundings; only the tree whose trunk was ashen grey and the wet grass beneath him were visible-- everything else was hidden behind the white fog that seemed to be able to hide memory itself.

It was Valentine's second time being in the foggy world, so he wasn't as flustered as before. He focused on the tree in front of him and said in a calm voice,

"I ask that you reveal your secrets to me!"

He was looking at the giant tall tree with thirteen main branches with anticipation. However, the text that he had been waiting for didn't come up. It was apparent that his ability had failed again.

Seeing as he couldn't get any information about the tree, Valentine turned around and just waited patiently for Graham. The latter should be showing up any time soon.

The thick white fog in front of him was moving gently like river water as he was looking at it. There was no sensation on his skin when he touched the fog-- the normal cold feeling that usually came with fogs was not there.

Suddenly, there was a gentle ripple coming from ahead of Valentine. Behind the fog was a shadow of a man that was as tall as himself and the build was perfectly identical. Slowly, Graham's figure was revealed as the fog around him was broken through.

"Hello there, Val," said Graham with a familiar smile.

Although it was already his second time, it still felt rather strange to see his other half standing in person in front of him. It was something different from looking at himself in the mirror.

Graham was wearing a plain white shirt and a pair of cotton pants just like last time. Valentine then looked at himself and realized that he was also wearing the same shirt, although his pants were denim. The pants and their different eye colors were the only things different about their appearance; even their rolled-up sleeves were identical.

"Where did you find yourself waking up in?" asked Valentine as Graham got closer.

He felt that it was strange that only he woke up under the tree. Besides, there didn't seem to be any other place other than the dead tree and the inaccessible house. However, Graham couldn't have woken up there since he didn't seem to know about the house either when they first tried going there.

"You must be thinking why I don't wake up under the tree. I don't know myself. I found myself in the middle of the thick fog with nothing around me. But I seem to know the direction to find you," he replied calmly.

The thick fog surrounding them seemed to be able to muffle their voice as well. They felt like they were speaking in a soundproof room right now.

"This world is curious, isn't it, Val?" he added, and then rested his chin on his hand, "I am sure we've come here this time because you've become a President rank,"

Valentine nodded solemnly.

"I think so too," he replied.

Graham then looked around as if trying to remember the direction of the house that they last went to.

"The house is that way, isn't it? Let's see if there is something new there," he said while pointing at the direction to the right of the dead tree.

"Let's," replied Valentine shortly.

The two identical men walked casually in the direction that Graham had pointed at and the tree gradually became more and more covered in fog until it was no longer visible despite its massive size. Even the topmost part of it was covered by the white fog that reached all the way to the sky.

Crunch...

The sounds of their feet stepping on the grass wet from dew were the only thing they heard in that world.

"Do you think we'll be able to enter this world with each rank up?" asked Graham curiously. He seemed to already know the answer but he just wanted to know his other half's opinion.

"That is likely," replied Valentine.

The fog kept moving around them but their skin felt nothing. After walking for some distance, the silhouette of the big house in the middle of a field started to appear in front of them, hidden behind the thick fog. The grass beneath them gradually shortened like it was trimmed nicely and finally, they found themselves standing in front of the house again.

"Val, last time we couldn't get near the house no matter what we tried. Do you think it'll be different now?" asked Graham while being in deep thought. The expression on his sharp-featured face was serious. His right eyebrow was raised while his eyes were squinted while looking at the house.

Valentine was also looking serious. The house was somehow giving him a strange feeling of nostalgia and familiarity despite him not remembering clearly anything about it. He had a strong feeling that he used to live there as a child.

"I'm not sure either. We can only try, can't we? Let's go," he said.

Valentine's cold eyes were looking straight at the house with anticipation. He and Graham then started marching towards the main wooden door that was just across the field. However, no matter how fast they were walking or how long, the house stayed the same distance and they couldn't get any closer to it.

"So it is still no use, Val. That might mean we have to get stronger first before this place will be accessible to us. So that means, there should be another new place that we can go to; otherwise, we won't be here in the first place," analyzed Graham. He had stopped walking and still found himself in the exact same spot as he had been before.

"That seems to be the case. If the house is related to our memory, the other place that we might find must be as well. What do you think we'll find?" asked Valentine.

"That, I don't know the answer to either," replied Graham with a shrug. He was wearing a foolish expression on his face.

"Then let's stop wasting time here. I say we should go that way," said Valentine decisively.

Graham nodded and the two of them went towards the direction that Valentine designated, to the left of the house. Although they couldn't see anything in the distance because of the thick fog, they had a feeling that they would find something there.

The wet grass was felt soft underneath their shoes, and the faint crunching sound accompanied them in their search. Wet marks filled the soles of the identical brown loafers that they were wearing while the fresh fragrant of the grass penetrated their noses.

"You are better at finding directions, so are you sure we're still going the right way, Val?" asked Graham. The sensation that he was getting felt like they were coming from every direction the farther they walked. The thick fog that surrounded them wasn't helping either. It was just as if they were walking in absolute darkness.

"Based on the way we walk, we are supposed to be walking in a straight line, so it should be the correct way," replied Valentine. Although he sounded confident, there was a hint of doubt in his tone. He was also feeling the sensation from all around him and was only relying on his instinct to walk in a straight line, "Why don't you use divination to find out, just in case?" he added.

Graham shook his head with a frown.

"I still cannot use any of my abilities here and I guess that's the same for you," he said without a doubt.

Valentine nodded heavily. It felt rather frustrating that the power he had got through hard work was suddenly unavailable to him.

The two of them walked some more and after a while, a silhouette slowly appeared in front of them. It looked like a massive building with many stories surrounded by a tall gate. There was a large courtyard between the gate and the building itself that would probably take minutes to cross.

Graham and Valentine increased their pace and the large building then revealed itself. It was a classic building with brownish brick walls and arches at the entrance. The gate was made of metal with the color black and there was a carving of a scale and a sword on each section.

"Val, this is our university!" exclaimed Graham.

"You're right," replied Valentine calmly. However, his face also showed as much astonishment as Graham's.

"To be precise, this is the Faculty of Law of the University of Bredevoort. This place being here means we can find something related to our past there. But I still remember perfectly our university years, don't you, Val?" added Graham.

"Me too, and I still think it's the best years of our lives, although we attended uni later than we should have because of the war. At least, a few of the other students were in the same situation, so we weren't the oldest in our year," replied Valentine with a rather nostalgic tone.

"True. But precisely because of the war we got a different view of life that helped us achieve better grades, so I'd call it a blessing in disguise," said Graham. His tone was slightly filled with self-mockery.

"If you say so," replied Valentine shortly.

The two men then looked at the black metal gate and opened it with both hands. If the faculty was exactly the same as the one in real life, the gate should be very heavy and it would sometimes get stuck. It was because the university was very old and the management refused to renovate the place for the sole reason of keeping the building 'pure' and 'original'. The most that they would do was repainting, but even that also required a special kind of paint that looked exactly the same color as the original.

Thud!

"Yup, it's stuck again, Val,"

The heavy black gate had been pushed only a little, revealing a gap that was not enough for an adult to pass through, before it stopped midway. The hinges seemed to have failed and it couldn't be pushed further without breaking it. Even then, it would take tremendous strength to force it open; something the two of them didn't possess in that world.

"Remember back then when we would gather random students to push it open? It would only move slightly without breaking, but it took more than eight people to get it there. With only the two of us here, it's impossible, Val," said Graham.

Valentine looked up and smiled meaningfully.

"Then we climb. In this world, I don't think that crazy security guard is present," he said while pointing up.

"Fat Aldershof? Yes. He would start yelling on top of his lung if someone even dared to think about climbing over, despite this junk being impossible to open. And even worse, he always refused to help open this gate. Let's do it then since he is not here," replied Graham. There was a mischievous smile on his face.

Graham and Valentine held on to the carvings and used them as both gripping points and footholds. Valentine skillfully made his way up while Graham had to do so slowly. With a single jump over the gate, Valentine landed on the other side while looking at Graham who was still making his way up. Graham crossed over the gate while holding tight to it and then climbed down carefully, successfully making his way across.

"It seems that I am back to being a normal human in this world," he said heavily.

"You could always try to go through the gap, but I don't think your fatass would fit," replied Valentine casually.

"We're literally the same weight, Val," responded Graham.

The two of them then walked across the large courtyard that was decorated with various trees and plants. The leaves on the trees were still green although it was autumn in the real world. There were only very few fallen leaves on the paved ground as well.

"This place definitely runs on a different time from the real world, Val, as we can see from the leaves," said Graham as he looked right and left while analyzing everything.

They kept on walking until they finally reached the arches at the entrance of the majestic faculty building. On top of the arches, there was the logo of the faculty of law which was a measuring scale made of a sword placed on top of a shield. Under the logo, there was the writing 'University of Bredevoort Faculty of Law'.

The moment they took a step on the staircase leading to the inside of the building, their ears picked up sounds of activities from there. Graham and Valentine instantly looked at each other with a curious expression on their faces.

"Val, there are other people here!"