Dylan Vastocean woke up so suddenly. He did not know what had just happened.
"Huh?"
He was just talking with Dylan Ford within the space of the Cosmic God's Mansion a moment ago. Now, he was lying and looking at a view he had always woken up to, his room's ceiling. He blinked a couple of times and rubbed his eyes.
"Then, am I-" For the first time, he got emotional seeing his own ceiling.
This was because he genuinely thought that Dylan Ford had taken control over his body permanently. 'I seriously thought I wouldn't be able to use my body ever again...'
Before he could finish his words, he heard his sister's rattled voice, "Big Bro, I can't sleep..."
On the side of the bed, it was Scarlet who was hugging a pillow, staring at him with her big cute eyes. She looked so pitiful and scared.
He hugged his sister immediately as he uttered, "Hey, lil sis."
"Yes, big bro?" Scarlet who had just received a hug was puzzled by this sudden act of affection.
"Nothing, I just missed you." Dylan Vastocean said emotionally.
"Are you okay, big bro? We were together the whole day though?" Scarlet said in concern.
"..." Dylan was just silent as he immersed himself in the hug.
'Well, I did come for a hug.' Seeing this, Scarlet simply reciprocated and hugged his brother as that was her goal all along.
The two siblings hugged each other in silence for a few minutes before Scarlet eventually felt that she had to say something more.
"Seems like you needed this more than I do. You even started crying!" Scarlet joked.
"Hahaha, I was in a coma for five days. I just missed you, you little rascal. And! Who's crying?!" Dylan smiled as he wrestled Scarlet into the bed. Then, he started tickling her on the sides of her waist.
"AAAAH! HAHAHAHAHAH! STOP! Big bro! You cheater! HAHAHAHA!" Scarlet was caught in a trap of endless tickles. She had tears coming out of her eyes from all the tickles that Dylan was doing.
"Who's crying now?" Dylan said cheekily with a smirk while continuing the torture of laughter.
"Me! So HAHAHAHA! STOP IT!" Scarlet conceded immediately.
"Never! HAHA!"
Dylan kept doing it until Scarlet bit him. He could endure the pain easily but this was typically how he and Scarlet would hang out. So, he had to let go for the sake of her sister having a good sign.
"Oww!" Dylan said exaggeratingly as he acted.
Scarlet got a pillow and smashed it in Dylan's head, "Take that!"
"Oh, you're on!" Dylan looked pissed off at first after getting hit by a pillow on the face. Then, he smiled as he got his other pillow and started doing a pillow fight.
The two siblings had a fun and meaningful time together for an hour or so until Scarlet eventually became tired.
Her energetic giggles gradually dissolved into heavy-lidded yawns, her small hand clutching the corner of his blanket. Seeing her fight off sleep just to stay near him made Vastocean's chest swell with a quiet warmth.
Scarlet was brought to her room and Dylan also wiped her clean off the sweat she perspired.
Dylan took one last bath before going to the bed again. He laid there comfortably as he looked up to the ceiling, "So, I can also still use my body, huh."
He continued thinking, "This means that Dylan Ford is probably in my mind right now. He won't be able to communicate with me... So, I'm really going to be a cripple my whole life... A sect that commands the strong, huh..."
He once again thought of Dylan Ford's impassioned speech and his unfettered ambition. It was still making his blood boil. Meeting Dylan Ford had made him change his outlook in life and made him truly believe he can change.
"It seems I need to sleep in order to go back to the Cosmic God Mansion's Space..." Dylan Vastocean also had the same conclusion as Dylan Ford. But there was a hint of hesitation in his eyes.
'I could just try not to sleep and he could be trapped in that space... Things would return to as usual...' His thoughts spiraled with fear influencing his mind.
'But wouldn't I just be running away?' Dylan shook his head as he resolved, 'Here I am going back to my cowardly self... If things were to return to as usual, I would just be nobody and a cripple... I need to risk it in order to change. He definitely can help me change!'
With that resolution, he closed his eyes as his consciousness drifted into sleep
...
Once he opened his eyes, he once again appeared in that familiar dark space with the only source of light was the Cosmic God Mansion.
"I'm back..."
Dylan Ford was standing there, clapping. "Welcome back! You've made the correct choice!"
"What do you mean?" Dylan Vastocean asked.
"You could have chosen familiarity and comfort. Simply by staying awake you could have rejected the ambition that I proposed to you." Dylan Ford clarified with a smile.
Dylan Vastocean nodded, "I see. Doing that would not have been sustainable to begin with. I'm bound to fall asleep one way or the other. Additionally, I resent my incompetence... That's why I want to change and I believe that you can help me with that goal!"
"Well said!" Dylan Ford walked up to Dylan Vastocean and patted his shoulders.
"Yet, why are you smiling? I gave you my word and you even expected me to not to accept. Why is that?" Dylan Vastocean was puzzled by Dylan Ford's expression.
Dylan Ford replied smilingly, " I understand the fickleness of human nature. If you had chosen not to accept, I could have simply taken over your body by force once you succumb to fatigue and reinforce my ambition,"
"..." Hearing those words made Dylan Vastocean shudder as he saw the serious glint in Dylan Ford's eyes when he said those words.
It was a stark reminder of who he was dealing with. Ford wasn't just a companion; he was an ambitious force of nature that wouldn't let a minor obstacle like free will stand in his way.
Then, Dylan Ford continued, "Fortunately, you chose wisely. This ambition of mine will be much easier to execute with a partnership in mind. It is because you chose to change that this partnership has come to fruition."
Dylan Ford offered his hands as he said, "Looking forward to working with you, Mister Vastocean."
"Likewise, Sir Ford." Dylan Vastocean shook his hands with confidence.
"Perfect. Then, we must first do some housekeeping. First, it is much easier to refer to ourselves by our surnames since we have the same given names. Do you agree, Mister Vastocean?" Ford proposed.
"Agreed, Sir Ford." Vastocean assented.
Ford continued with the discussion, "Second, it seems that we are met with a predicament of sharing this body. To be perfectly candid, I formulated the entire plan earlier with me being the one in sole control of the body. So, we may have to adjust a few things regarding that since I do not want you to be isolated and to remain fair with the discussion of you allowing me to use your body."
"Thank you for being thoughtful. I was thinking something along the lines of interchanging who can use the body daily. For example, today, it would be me. The next day, it would be you. So on and so forth." Vastocean further added.
Ford nods to that condition while raising the concern, "Understood. That is a very reasonable proposal. I accept. I would like to raise the concern should we have an important deal or business regarding the company or sect. I think it may be best that I would handle it. Of course, this would only happen in extraordinary scenarios concerning business endeavors. However, if such circumstances were ever to arise during your allotted time period, would it be understandable that you switch with me?"
"Seems fair enough." Vastocean concurred as well.
"Great. Moving on to the third concern, I believe I understand the mechanism of who can control the body."
"Really? How?"
"I believe that it should be whoever invokes his will more or first before waking up would be the person who would be to control the body." Ford hypothesized.
"Now that I think about it, the first time that Scarlet woke up... Sir Ford was the one who expressed his will before the shaking happened. Earlier, I also declared that I will change before Scarlet woke us up.... That does make sense..." Vastocean connected the dots from the two instances that they woke up.
"It seems we are both on the same page. So, we can test this hypothesis later to see if it truly is the right method to determine who can control the body." Ford said as Vastocean nodded.
"Now, let us discuss the first steps we must do in establishing a business. First, the location. Ideally, it should be a location with great foot traffic and is easily visible to the passersby. However, we don't have the luxury for that for now. So, we will simply utilize the front yard of the house for the location. The work station will be of course the house's kitchen as well." Ford then proceeded to list out the necessary steps that they need to do for the establishment of the business.
"In terms of food gathering, I think I can handle that for now. I will just need to know how much meat I need to hunt and herbs or spices I need to forage as well. This will also save us money from getting it off the market." Vastocean volunteered to be the one to secure the supply.
"Great. In the first two weeks of the business, I think that would be doable. But we eventually need to scale up our supply and get a proper supply for meat, vegetables, spices, and other necessary ingredients as well. Thus, we need to consider other establishment to secure our ingredients from. We also need to avail Ice Crystal Stones to the storage room and create a better freezer room to preserve the meat." Dylan pointed out.
"Is that so? Then, I do have a few good people in mind. I know them quite well!" Vastocean suggested.
Ford continued, "Great! The next thing we need to do is renovation. Appearances and aesthetics is important in business. Currently, the house is dilapidated and is broken so we need to work hard to make it presentable to the general public."
"I can handle the heavy lifting for the physical repairs," Vastocean offered, feeling a surge of purpose. "I know where we can salvage decent wood and tools nearby without spending much."
"Wood, huh? We're also near the forest... A restaurant in the front yard... A garden... The house is also mainly wooden." Ford paced the dark space, gesturing with sharp, precise movements. "Aha! If we're salvaging timber and surrounded by nature, we shouldn't just build a restaurant in a garden! We need to make the restaurant feel like a living sanctuary. We can name the establishment The Garden Ford Tavern."
Vastocean tilted his head, thinking it over. "I like it... but where does my name fit into that?"
"A fair question," Ford replied smoothly, stepping closer. "We make The Garden Ford Tavern our official business title, but we name the outdoor dining courtyard The Vastocean Grove. Or better yet, we carve a tagline right beneath our wooden sign and our menu with something like, 'The Garden Ford: A Vast Ocean of Flavors.' It pays homage to both of us, sounds like an established high-end guild house, and promises our patrons a bountiful harvest."
"Great! We have a name for it then!" Vastocean agreed excitedly.