194 – Behind the Scenes (10)
When the villagers saw the paladins, they got out of the way as if they sensed danger.
The Paladin convoy took the lead, and Silverine followed behind. Although it had only been two days since Demon Sword Scholar Robert Pace advanced toward Chengdu, he looked exhausted.
Silverine furrowed her brows when she saw his face as he rode side by side.
It wasn’t just fatigue. My complexion turns pale and I break out into a cold sweat. They get startled and react sensitively even to trivial things.
It was a sign that he was suffering from black magic. I knew something like this was coming, but black magic appeared a little early. Perhaps the warlock had anticipated that he would be called by the saints and set the trigger.
Silverine said while looking at him.
“How much can you endure?”
“I don’t know. Dream… “I can’t sleep at all because of the dreams.”
“If it’s okay, can you tell me what you dreamed about?”
Robert Pace pursed his lips as if he couldn’t make up his mind. He was afraid.
“That… that.”
“We need to know what difficulties you are going through.”
He thought for a while and finally opened his mouth.
“I understand. I had a family. “I met my family in a dream last night.”
“Hmm, I didn’t know you had a family.”
“Not at the moment. The wife was human and her children were all adopted. “Everyone has been dead for more than a dozen years.”
“But?”
“My family appeared in my dream as vividly as if I was seeing them right before my eyes. That soft skin, voice, eyes. It was like we all went back in time and met again. It was such a nostalgic and warm sight that I didn’t want to wake up. “I would give everything to experience that happy moment again.”
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“….”
“Then suddenly an unidentified man appeared in my dream. The man broke into my house, grabbed my family members by their hair, and dragged them into the living room. The young man with blue hair dragged my family members out and hacked them one by one with a knife. First, I plucked out my wife’s eyes and tongue… “He cut open the stomach and took out all the internal organs.”
Robert Pies pursed his lips, his chin trembled, and spoke again.
“My wife was calling my name and screaming for help. And even my children… I screamed at the top of my lungs, but I couldn’t do anything. My body stiffened as if I had been pressed down by scissors. That… that….”
“It’s okay to say that much. “I can kind of predict what it is.”
He suddenly burst into tears before speaking. He was completely mentally exhausted.
“Da, do you know what this is?”
It was one of the ways the warlock played with intelligent life.
“If there were no other signs, it might be the ‘Dreamwalker.'”
“Is that a warlock too?”
“No, they are a group closer to unusual wizards than warlocks. “He may have approached you under the instigation of a warlock.”
‘The dream walker’ was also a type of wizard.
Some of those who are full of magical talent, but have not been able to manifest that talent because they have lived their entire lives as a vegetable, develop special abilities that other wizards do not have. It was the ability to enter people’s dreams.
These people were called succubi or dream demons by people who were ignorant of magic.
“Those who are ‘dream walkers’ may be fortunate. “Because I can’t harm you directly.”
“But…” That terrible dream….”
“I guess your fear reaction was self-inflicted. ‘Dreamwalkers’ only guide you to retrieve memories, but they cannot control them all. “Are there any other signs other than that?”
He hesitated for a moment and then opened his mouth.
“For the last time in the dream, the man approached me and thrust the screaming sword into my stomach.”
“… However?”
“But… When I saw it in the morning….”
With trembling hands, he untied the knot of his robe, opened it, and lifted his shirt, exposing the bare skin of his abdomen.
There was a vertical blue scar from the solar plexus to the danjeon.
Silverin’s expression became serious after seeing this.
“Did it suddenly appear in the morning?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s just pretend the story of ‘The Dreamwalker’ never happened.”
“….”
Research on black magic is active, but little proper data remains in the world. To be precise, it would be more correct to say that it was lost.
So there was no properly established way to deal with black magic.
There is very little black magic material preserved in this world. What remained was sleeping in an unknown area beyond the Northern Land of Death.
What Robert Pies was carrying was also a type of curse that Silverine had never seen before.
It was a situation where it was impossible to guarantee that one would be able to preserve one’s life until reaching Chengdu.
After completing her calculations, she let go of the reins and took out her parchment from within her arms. Then, after blowing on her fingertips, she began writing letters quickly with her fingernails.
She quickly wrote down Robert Bass’ symptoms and sent him up to her sky with his stitches.
Robert Pace looked up at Stitch and said.
“Are you sent to Chengdu?”
“No.”
I didn’t expect to find a proper solution, but they were the group with the most potential in the world.
A land of death where no living thing can live. And there was only one group in the world exploring there.
It was Eternia’s most elite unit, the Unknown Knights.
***
I was walking in the fog. A flat gravel road with no curves. Every time I took a breath, I felt a faint, fishy smell.
In it, I was being guided by something unknown.
I didn’t know where this was, and I didn’t know where I was heading.
I didn’t even know what was in front of me.
Soon, we arrived at the lakeside, which was colored black and gray as if ashes had been sprinkled.
I was briefly struck by a strange sense of déjà vu. Suddenly, I stood at the edge of the lake and leaned down.
And then I looked at the image reflected in the water.
There was someone other than me there.
He was a young man with clear eyes and bluish hair.
When I saw him, I realized that this was all a dream.
This scene was something I had encountered in my dream a few days ago. Another thing is that the man in front of me looked like a corpse back then, but now he looked like a living person.
With a blank stare, the man reached out his hand and tried to touch my face. However, the water only slightly swayed and had no effect on the world I was in.
I didn’t take any action and stayed still. When the water calmed again, the man’s face appeared.
He looked at me and opened his mouth.
[Why haven’t you been caught… ]
And before I could finish the sentence, I woke up from my dream.
Thorn Garden Dormitory. The dark ceiling of my room comes into view. Pale moonlight scattered by the fog leaks through the gap in the curtains. It was still a long time before morning.
I had a headache and my body felt heavy, as if I had done hard work. And her right hand felt tight, as if blood was not flowing through it.
When she raised her hand, something came with it. It was someone else’s arm.
My hand was stuck in someone’s clasp.
I turned my head to the side and saw someone’s head lying on the edge of the bed. Long flowing silver hair. It was shining faintly in the pale moonlight.
Someone was lying on my bed with their head down.
Perhaps sensing my movement, the woman moved slightly and slowly lifted her head.
And then I looked at my face in the dark.
“Trisha… ?”
The woman shook her head and stood up as if she was surprised. She then ran out her door without another word.
When the woman left, she suddenly felt an extreme sense of fatigue that she couldn’t handle. I couldn’t even think about moving any further and fell asleep again.
***
Morning came and I woke up with a hazy mind. And then I replayed the events of last morning again. My memory of what I dreamed was blurry, and the image of someone lying next to my bed was also blurry.
Something steps on your foot. Now, I saw that the floor was littered with parchment, as if a thief had swept it up.
I picked up one and confirmed its identity. This was all a play script.
It seems Trisha did something in my room while I was asleep last night.
“….”
JuseomJuseom I picked up the script, put it in order, and headed to the kitchen. Judging by the fact that the second floor was still quiet, it seemed like Trisha hadn’t woken up yet.
I lit a fire in the oven and put water in the pot. I put yesterday’s leftover bread on a plate and put fruit and honey into a pot to make jam.
While preparing breakfast, Trisha entered the kitchen looking like Azelis, dragging her pillow.
“Damian….”
She rubbed her eyes, went up to the table where the food was to be served, laid down her pillow, and took a quick nap.
“Go down. “It will be ready soon.”
She put her knees into the skirt of her nightgown and curled her body into a ball.
“… Raise the steering wheel.”
“What did you and I do in my room at night?”
Then, Trisha’s eyes widened as if cold water had been poured on her. She rolled her eyes and spoke gibberish as if embarrassed.
“I, I, practiced the script for a while at night… !”
“Why are you practicing that in my room?”
“I can’t concentrate if I don’t have a counterpart!”
Trisha raised her body and added hesitantly.
“How…” “Was it noisy?”
Come to think of it, before she returned from Barbisia, she promised to help me practice reading the script. She had forgotten and couldn’t keep it. She fell asleep without knowing the world, and when she read the script in front of her, she couldn’t think of Trisha and didn’t faint.
“No, it’s okay, but next time, do it when I’m awake.” “I will help you, so don’t fall asleep in strange places.”
Trisha blinked her eyes a few times and responded as if she felt better.
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Okay! “I’ll get the script from my room first!”
Trisha ran out of her kitchen making a loud noise as if her energy was rising.
I stopped cooking and checked her back. And suddenly, the image of him running out of my room last night came to mind.
Is it because she changed her pajamas? Or is it because I’m so used to seeing Trisha in disguise?
The appearance last night felt somewhat different from the current Trisha.
At that time, my consciousness was so hazy that I couldn’t remember it properly. Maybe what happened when she briefly woke up was also a dream.
***
For my first class, I left the labyrinth before dawn and headed to the guardian tree.
Then, a whizzing sound was heard from somewhere.
Soon after, a stitch flew toward me from the sky in the vacant lot near Suhomok.
Stitch was carrying a pouch on his foot that looked quite heavy compared to his body size.
The unidentified Stitch dropped the pouch in front of me and flew into the sky with his lightened body.
“… ?”
I picked up my pocket and checked its contents. It was filled with gold coins, enough to fit a fist. And I found a letter enclosed within it.
I immediately picked it up and checked it. A name I have seen before in correspondence. It was the signature of Geshin Grigg, the sword master who reached the pinnacle of sword skills and the teacher of Sion.
“… !”
As I sensed something ominous, I immediately took out my dagger and threw it towards Stitch who was moving away.
But, as expected from a sword master, the stitch nimbly dodged the attack and leisurely walked away. The trajectory seemed to be waving a finger at me, as if a return was impossible.
“…… Ah.”