What troubled Lucian even more now was deciding what cosplay outfit Greater Lord Rukkhadevata should wear. With so many clothes at home, which one would be best? He was overwhelmed by the choices.
Soon everyone would return, and he would still need to explain the existence of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata to them.
Rosalyne and Columbina arrived at just the right time. Leaving the matter of choosing clothes to them was perfect.
Rosalyne and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata discussed what to wear inside the room, while Columbina and Lucian talked in another room about how to arrange the Fontaine storyline.
How to arrange Fontaine was indeed something Lucian had pondered for a long time. Furina only needed to focus on her acting, but Lucian had many things to consider.
The story of Fontaine wasn't convenient to "spoil" in advance. Focalors' goal had to be achieved first, and only then could the secret be revealed publicly.
However, no one else knew this secret, so whether he wrote it early or late, it would still be a "spoiler"—and it could even stack an additional buff called "regret."
Lucian was still thinking about the specific arrangements and didn't give Columbina an immediate answer. He asked her to come back later.
In any case, a story like Focalors', filled with "love and hope," absolutely had to be experienced by everyone.
But that was for the future. For now, Lucian planned to write Nahida's Legend Quest and the Aranyaka as his next book.
How to describe these two stories? The words "regret" and "forgetting" were still exerting their power.
If Inazuma's theme was "parting," then Sumeru's stories stood out for their "regret"—it was everywhere.
Even Faruzan and Kaveh's Hangout Event was like that, full of "regret."
It was the kind of regret that felt within reach yet helplessly slipped away like falling petals.
Inazuma's stories contained the sorrow of parting as well as the beauty of meeting, and Sumeru was the same. Since there was hollow regret, there were naturally fulfilling fairy tales as well.
For example, the upcoming Aranyaka was a "hollow" fairy tale, while Yoimiya's story was a fulfilling one.
However, before writing the "fulfilling fairy tale," Lucian planned to write some more "soothing" stories first. He couldn't keep everyone's emotions tense the whole time.
Since he was thinking about preparing for Nahida's birthday, he decided to start with her Act I story.
"Sapientia Oromasdis Chapter · Act I · Afterwarmth"
This story could give everyone a buffer period for their emotions.
Because of Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's disappearance, she and the Dendro Archon had become "the same person"—at least in everyone's memories.
Lucian himself hadn't been able to censor the name "Greater Lord Rukkhadevata" in the movie, but after deleting her, the Irminsul automatically censored it.
Now, whether in memories or records, Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's existence had "disappeared."
Under these circumstances, the people of Sumeru's memories had changed to: after losing her power, the Dendro Archon was imprisoned by the Sages of the Akademiya for five hundred years.
The people of Sumeru carried deep guilt in their emotions. Releasing Nahida's story at this time could be said to be perfectly timed with current events.
The story begins with the Traveler encountering a salesperson who tries to sell her "A Moment to Taste Dreams."
It sounds like a drink or place name from Penacony, but this thing is actually an event.
Because the people of Sumeru had suddenly "learned" to dream, dreams had become a hot topic in Sumeru.
And this "A Moment to Taste Dreams" was everyone gathering to chat about the dreams they had.
They even wanted to invite the Traveler to play the role of the "Duke of Zhou" and interpret their dreams for them.
The people of Fontaine found it amusing—this was basically their "tea parties," right?
They sipped tea, while the people of Sumeru savored dreams. But in the end, it was pretty much the same: the theme was still casual conversation.
It was indeed quite leisurely. For example, at the "A Moment to Taste Dreams" event, someone asked the Traveler how they could dream of "turning into a slime."
He was too tired of life, so he didn't want to be human anymore. He wanted to be a carefree slime.
If slimes could read books, they would definitely retort: You think being a slime is carefree?
You clearly haven't met those adventurers who clock in every day to exterminate you, haven't met that strange floating creature that drools at the sight of you, and certainly haven't seen the chefs whose eyes light up with mora at you.
Life is hard—slimes sigh.
This person's request was a bit bizarre, but Paimon had actually dreamed of becoming a slime before and started sharing her "success" experience.
She said she had dreamed of being an Anemo Slime and getting popped, a Dendro Slime and having her grass pulled, a Cryo Slime and being turned into a drink, and a Geo Slime getting beaten by boars.
She had dreamed of it many times, but none had a good ending. The listeners immediately gave up on becoming slimes.
Speaking of slimes, Cyno got an idea. Everyone knows that when slimes die, they leave behind Slime Condensate, which is sticky.
Just then, someone else wanted to experience "slime life" by turning into a slime, so Cyno came up with a pun.
"Do you know why slimes are always unhappy?"
This made everyone think: Why unhappy? From the slime experiences in Paimon's dreams, there seemed to be plenty of reasons for unhappiness.
Are you seriously asking? This wouldn't be another bad pun, would it?
It was indeed a bad pun. Cyno explained: "Because they think life is too 'sticky.'"
Faruzan blinked. For some reason, she suddenly found this pun kind of interesting?
The double meaning of "sticky" was actually pretty good—it referred both to the physical stickiness of slimes and the emotional clinginess under the weight of life. Good joke!
A Vahumana scholar gave it a thumbs-up, but that wasn't what Cyno wanted, because she liked it not because it was funny…
He wanted it to be somewhat funny, not somewhat meaningful!
Liking a joke but not because it was funny—that in itself was pretty funny.
Cyno was eager to try again and tell another one, but thankfully Tighnari covered his mouth and signaled everyone to keep reading the book and ignore him.
Another person appeared in the book, asking how he could have "serial" dreams—he wanted to continue the dream from yesterday.
Yesterday, he had dreamed of his wife and, after a long time, finally spoke with her again.
The atmosphere suddenly grew heavy. Paimon and the Traveler seriously offered advice.
But dreams are uncontrollable. Aside from Nahida, perhaps only the Yumekui-baku had some methods.
Just as they were thinking that, Nahida really showed up—appearing as one of the questioners.
[Nahida asks the Traveler: "My question is, you came to such an interesting place—how could you not invite me?"]
She was, after all, a master of dreams. How could she miss an event like "A Moment to Taste Dreams"?
This question fully captured the playful feeling between friends, instantly making everyone feel as though they were old friends with Nahida.
Unfortunately, this sense of friendship was only felt by those who had been continuously reading the books. The people in the story didn't have it—they only felt nervous in the presence of a god.
This was the Great Auspicious and Wise Lord of Verdant Wisdom! Though in the Traveler's eyes, she was just a cute little grass.