Houren hummed the tune to himself as he walked down the pristine streets of Era, a place, in this moment, that seemed so reminiscent of the Paradise that was so often written about in religious scriptures. Seriously. He knew that it was uncommon, unprecedented really, to compare any city in any nation in this world to what was essentially Heaven, but there was a certain charm about Era that made the Fairy Tail mage think of exactly that. It wasn't the traditional description of Heaven, the paradise in the sky that Houren was thinking about, no, rather, he was thinking about some obscure fiction book that he had read a long time ago as a kid where the unsuspecting young protagonist found himself in some limbo like world where everything was still. The world itself was contained within a reasonably side village, where everything was still and while not devoid of color, definitely wasn't a vibrant place. He remembered explicitly that the place had color, but the colors seemed so pale, so faint that it was as though the entire setting was a fresco painting. The story was in the first person, it had to be noted, and the protagonist was, as Houren had pointed out, incredibly young and as such, it was clear that the story's author was also making good use of the ''unreliable narrator'' trope. In other words, because the narrator of the story was actually the protagonist, who was a child to boot, his viewpoint could not actually be considered reliable as to the true events in the story because more often than not, the protagonist was just as clueless as the reader; even more so really when you thought about it as he was a kid who wasn't able to pick up any of the hints or implications given to him. At first, he had thought he was in some normal village as he seemed to vaguely recall the structure of the place (implied heavily to have been in a dream given to him by an angel of some sort), so he started by trying to find people and might have spent a whole two or three chapters doing exactly that until an angel felt sorry for him and went to explain to him the truth. As the reader, even a young Houren was pretty sure that the protagonist was in heaven or at the very least, he was aware and believed that the village was representative of some afterlife place. For the protagonist in the story though, he didn't pick up on that at all despite actually being in the setting and having all these clues in front of him. In the end, he had to be explicitly told before he realized he was in Heaven, and even then, because he seemed to be a follower of ''that religion in particular,'', he was under the impression he was in limbo and awaiting entry into true paradise.
In the distinct canon of that fictional world though, such things as Heaven and Hell did not actually exist, and one's deeds in life did not matter at all so instead, everyone went to the same place. In that sense, although Houren compared Era to that Paradise, he did not explicitly mean Heaven, but rather you could not call it Heaven because that was the only afterlife in that particular world. In real life, that may not be so, and as such, you could guess that Houren's mind was currently fairly messy in regards to everything and anything. At the end of the story, the Fairy Tail mage remembered that the conclusion was incredibly profound but could not remember exactly what happened. He did remember, however, that the boy was incredibly shocked at the revelation that his teachings had been wrong, that the religious figures of his town when he was alive had been lying to him, not intentionally, but they had been wrong after all. There was no ''paradise'' for those of good disposition, nor was there ''damnation'' for those who sinned without regard for anyone's welfare. Houren was pretty sure it was another few chapters before the boy ultimately accepted his fate, that paradise, the afterlife rather, depended on the individual; the bad side was that he would never ever see his loved ones again, but that was fine because sooner or later, he would completely forget them anyway. The protagonist was roughly 15 or something, so more or less, that was 15 years with all the loved ones that he knew from the very beginning of his life, but since he probably retained no knowledge of his early childhood, he could probably only remember 9 or 10 year worth of memories with his family and loved ones. He had an eternity in this new reality, so it probably wouldn't be 30 or so years before the faces of his parents began to fade away, and in another 50 or so, his memories would probably become incredibly vague to the point that he would not remember their faces at all. His times with them would probably become blurred too, and he would not remember exactly how old he was when he was recalling certain memories. Of course, it went without saying that by this time, special occasions like their birthdays and anniversaries would be forgotten to the protagonist; this was the cruel, fatalistic logic that the ''angel'' had used when explaining to the protagonist the futility of wanting to remember his past life. The story ended with the angel granting the young boy protagonist his final wish of seeing his parents one last time in their world, before ultimately accepting his fate. Once he did so, the world that he now inhabited became much brighter, at least in his eyes, and Houren could remember a short epilogue that takes place perhaps a thousand or so years later where the protagonist is finally joined by another human like himself.
Or was that an ending that Houren had scribbled in himself, as he could also recall being somewhat dissatisfied with the canon material.
Dragon Slayer Secret Art: The Fire of Saint Elmo: 1029/2000