After a long, blank stare, Alice finally dismissed the idea.
Well, she was grateful he hadn't had any more outrageous dreams, otherwise she really wouldn't want to enter that dream, let alone try to embody his imagined self.
In this situation, she could only suppress her disgust and whip him a few more times to get into the scene.
Just think of it as giving the horses a few lashes while driving a carriage, making them run faster… Damn it, she'd never driven a carriage before!
With rather complicated feelings, Alice sank into this dream belonging to Triss, her consciousness gradually reviving in another body dressed in a magnificent gown.
Before she could even react to her own actions, Alice, following the momentum of her body and wrist, lashed out at the person at her feet with the barbed whip.
"Ugh…"
The "Triss" in the dream, appearing as a man, bit her lip, her low moan containing shame and indignation, as well as a hint of unspoken ambiguity.
After muttering a curse under her breath about being a pervert, Alice forced herself to get into character, giving the round-faced boy at her feet, whose eyes were glazed over, a contemptuous sneer.
"What a lowly thing, dreaming of being treated like this by me, practically like livestock… no, you're not even livestock. Chickens and ducks at least lay eggs and offer themselves as human food; cattle, sheep, and horses are even more valuable. And you? What use are you in this world besides wasting food and producing filth?"
If Klein had the chance to hear her sarcasm, he would probably have "thoughtfully" added that this kind of person only knows how to make bread and rice expensive.
"I…" Seemingly jolted awake by the words of the person in her dream, the glaze in Tris's eyes faded slightly, a flash of shame and resentment crossed his face, finally settling on a gloomy expression tinged with fear.
"I don't want this either… but, but only when I'm near you! Only when I'm near you will those maddening cries and delirious babbling stop!"
Alice hadn't expected this answer at all.
"Calling and babbling?"
"I don't know... I don't know anything..."
As if he hadn't heard her question at all, Triss muttered blankly, his expression pained as he reached up and gripped his own neck tightly, struggling to breathe while letting out a beast-like howl.
This person is really not normal...
Suppressing the urge to move away from him, Alice looked down at the whip in her hand, tentatively moving her wrist, wanting to lash the person at her feet.
Perhaps unfamiliar with this awkward "weapon," she struck his round face directly. Instantly, a bloody gash appeared on his delicate facial skin, looking gruesome and miserable.
However, seemingly because of this excruciating pain, Triss became more lucid, his grip on his own neck loosened, and he coughed weakly.
"Alright, consider it torture…"
Alice muttered to herself, glancing at the wounded dream's owner on the ground. She noticed at least the other person was still wearing pants, preventing further humiliation…
"Come, let's have a pleasant chat about those calls and babbling."
Having found the right way to communicate with "Triss," Alice quickly extracted the information she wanted from him.
Since she now held half the control of the dream, the scenes shifted intermittently as "Triss" narrated, recreating the situations from his memories.
Strange missions, a "mourning lady" whose face and features were indistinct, eerie altars and rituals, and…
a prayer.
Alice now understood that in the mystical knowledge of this world, descriptions of similar phonetic rhythms
usually pointed to a being of a very high status, and were ritual incantations to invoke His power. For example, the prayer incantations circulated within the orthodox churches.
At this moment, Triss seemed oblivious to everything around her, instinctively kneeling and curling up before the altar in her dream, muttering repeated sounds of an ancient language.
Alice instinctively wanted to activate the guiding gesture, granting herself the effect of "language comprehension." But she quickly realized that she was in a dream and couldn't perform this simple spell.
Intuition told her that letting Triss continue reciting the words might cause unforeseen problems.
So she forced herself to memorize the sounds, intending to investigate them after leaving the dream—although it was a language she had never heard before, given her mastery of the many language rules she had learned, memorizing it wasn't a big challenge. Just
before Triss was about to begin her third recitation, she flicked her wrist, letting the whip strike her bloodied back, interrupting the prayer.
"Who are you praying to?"
Triss's expression twisted with pain, a deep fear flashing in his eyes.
"No…I, I don't know…I still expect you to tell me the answer…"
After repeated confirmation, Alice finally had to admit that "Triss" was just a pawn being used, carrying clues but knowing very little about them.
The value of this dream was almost gone; it was time to leave.
She gradually withdrew her consciousness from her Claire-like self and dismantled the form, finally returning control of the dream to "Triss."
Everything that followed was no longer her concern.
…
And under the same sky, under the same crimson moon, two extraordinary individuals, passing through the realm of sleepless nights, strolled through a woodland that had once belonged to a manor.
They wore black trench coats and tight trousers, their pockets filled with various spiritual amulets engraved with the goddess's emblem, appearing no different from many other night watchmen with similar habits.
The only difference was perhaps that they both wore red gloves.
"How many days has it been since Captain Kreste said they were looking for the 'Mirror Witch'?" one of them asked casually during their walk.
"Three…four days?" the other replied uncertainly.
"I feel like it's been at least a week…" the red-gloved night watchman snorted, "and all we can do is wander around this forest like two sleepless fools, hoping to find something…"
"We don't have sleepless nights, we don't have to sleep at night," his teammate kindly corrected him, but for some reason didn't refute the word "foolish."
Perhaps because it really was quite stupid.
But the two red-gloved men understood that the Church and Captain Kreste Cecima had their reasons for this arrangement.
After walking a short distance in silence, the red-gloved men stopped simultaneously, no longer moving forward.
They reached the edge of the forest—though "edge" wasn't quite accurate.
Before them lay a sea of trees, a landscape almost impossible to exist in Dishi's climate.
As if invaded by a giant forest from a fairytale world, towering trees filled their entire field of vision, their dense foliage obscuring the sky and the glow of the crimson moon. The summer night insects that had accompanied them throughout their journey had fallen silent, replaced by a pervasive stillness and darkness.
Even though both Red Gloves were Sleepless Transcendences with darkvision, the sight of this eerily strange sea of trees sent a chill down their spines.
"...Has the number of steps from the entrance to the Green Fields and Lake Maidens Manor to the edge of the Sea of Trees changed?"
"No, it's still 1,975 steps for me. What about you?"
"I think it's about the same...I forgot exactly how many steps I counted. Probably, about the same number."
"Okay, I knew it."
After taking a silent breath, the first red-gloved person suggested, "Want to go in for a stroll tonight? The area of the Sea of Trees seems to have been fixed; it hasn't expanded outwards these past few days..."
The other red-gloved person shook their head steadily.
"No, I advise you to abandon this plan. This forest is too abnormal. Have you forgotten that adventurous Mechanical Heart team? They only explored it for less than five minutes before they all ran back... because someone grew an extra thumb on their left hand, someone found their legs covered in growths, and someone was almost scared to death by a fleshy growth with a face on their neck...
It's been several weeks since that battle, but this forest affected by the extraordinary item hasn't recovered to its original state, and has even expanded several times... Captain Krestai said that a bishop has determined that the witch possesses an extremely dangerous high-sequence item, and it most likely belongs to the Life Domain... the Cultivator Path."
"Do you think the Church of the Earth Mother might be involved in this?"
"I don't know, but I personally think it's unlikely."
"Then... the Life School?"
"I think you should go back to the database and review your notes. The Life School and the Cultivator Path, which controls life, are not related."
"Then why do they call themselves the 'Life' School!" one of the Red Gloves exclaimed in surprise.
But this wasn't something that could be decided by a few shouts…
The other Red Glove sighed helplessly, unable to find any rebuttal, so he turned back to the main topic, reminding his teammate to focus on their night patrol.
Just then, both of them changed their expressions and simultaneously activated their spiritual vision.
In the Red Gloves' spiritual vision, a strangely shaped spirit creature suddenly emerged from a tree trunk beside them, raised an arm-like body part, and handed them a letter.
"A message from Captain Krestai…"
The Red Gloves exchanged glances, and the slightly more composed one took the letter and quickly opened it to read.
Just a few seconds later, he looked up with some surprise.
"It's good news! Captain Krestai has tracked down the witch!"
"Where?" The other Red Glove perked up upon hearing this, no longer worrying about the other organization's naming.
"Central region of Ahova County, near the outskirts of Tingen! The captain's natural senses detected similar magical traces here—the frost magic used by that witch!"
"Tinggen City, Tingen City… It seems the Mirror Witch escaped midway on the transport ship bound for Winter County. Come to think of it, she didn't go very far." Clicking his tongue a few times, one of the Red Gloves members perked up slightly, dramatically pumping his fist. "Then it seems the boring night patrols are about to end. Did Captain Kresta mention the time and place for the team to rendezvous in his letter?" When
asked this question, the Red Gloves member, flipping through the letter, showed a subtle expression, then slowly lowered his arm holding the letter and shook his head.
"The captain's pursuit continues, and he seems to have decided on a strategy, saying that not many executors are needed… We… we still have to continue our night patrols."
"…Continue our night patrols?"
"Yes. Good job, buddy."
The Red Gloves patted his young teammate on the shoulder, encouraging him in a comforting tone, seemingly speaking to him as well as himself.
...
As the moon set and the sun rose, a new day quietly dawned, and most citizens of Tingen welcomed a bright and beautiful Sunday while still asleep.
However, the luxury of sleeping in was out of the question for Klein.
Unlike Benson and Melissa, who had gotten their days off, his day off was tomorrow, Monday, and he still had to get up early and head to the company.
But the thought of his new job, with his weekly salary doubled to £6, filled Klein with renewed motivation, making the minor inconvenience of not being able to slack off seem insignificant.
After a good night's sleep and rest, he had regained his composure and stopped thinking about unrealistic things. After breakfast, he put on his coat, picked up his cane, and headed out the door.
But in a fleeting glance, Klein suddenly stopped, staring blankly at the mailbox in front of his door as if he'd seen a ghost.
After a moment, he gritted his teeth, grabbed the familiar yet eerie black letter, turned, and ran upstairs to the second floor, knocking on the guest room door.Fortunately, the commotion didn't disturb Benson and Melissa, who were still asleep. As Klein waited anxiously, the door creaked open, and Alice's still slightly sleepy face appeared through the crack.
"Is something wrong...?"
she asked, looking half-asleep and speaking incoherently. Klein, however, couldn't care less and quickly explained that there was an emergency. He asked her to open the door a little wider and hurried inside.
Just as he was about to raise the envelope in his hand to explain, he saw Alice's appearance and instantly forgot what he was going to say. Even the letter in his hand unconsciously floated to the floor.
"This letter..."
Alice's attention was drawn to the dark letter that had fallen to the floor. She knelt down to pick it up, her eyes gradually regaining some of their light.
During this time, her right hand remained clenched against her chest, gripping the edges of the thin blanket covering her shoulders to prevent it from slipping down and revealing large expanses of delicate skin beneath.
But, but, it was just a thin blanket after all, it couldn't block much of the view at all, not to mention, he was looking down at her...
Klein didn't know how long he had been out of sorts before his thoughts finally started to return to normal.
He silently took a breath and was about to look away from the blanket when his gaze met hers.
Alice tilted her head back and blinked a few times, then suddenly realized what was happening and looked down at herself.
"Ah."