Chapter 91 : In the Dream Where the Flower of the Other Shore Blooms

“…”

I was momentarily dazed as I looked at the skeleton sitting awkwardly in front of the raft in a strange posture, continuously drinking alcohol. Its feet were precisely in contact with the ground, stably supporting its whole body, and its bony arms were carelessly placed on its knee bones.

Gulp

The transparent bottle the skeleton was holding was endlessly filled with alcohol, and every time it poured it into its neck bone, it disappeared with a swallowing sound.

The skeleton, which had been quietly drinking alcohol, looked at me in that same posture and blurted out:

“Shit, what are you looking at? First time seeing a patient drink? Get lost.”

“…What?”

For a moment, I thought something was wrong with the translation and took out the translator that Kang Dorim had repeatedly improved from my ear.

The skeleton saw my action and spat out one more word:

“Сука блять.”

“…It’s definitely cursing.”

Cho Yeonseo said with an embarrassed expression that this skeleton, which seemed possessed by a wild Russian, was the only way to cross this river. She had tried various methods to bypass it, but all were blocked. She added that in the dream world, you must unconditionally follow the rules recognized by the unconscious of the subject.

“The dream world mostly operates on completely different rules from the real world.”

Cho Yeonseo, who had changed into her magical girl outfit upon entering the dream world, was wearing a purple dress with ample room. The impression given by the outfit, which was neat but somehow precarious in form, was like…

‘It looks like… hospital clothes.’

In the real world, because she mainly used mental body avatars, she was drawn in casual clothes in the light novel illustrations. Therefore, it was the first time seeing the bloomed magical girl outfit of [Dream], and it was sad to know where that outfit originated from.

“Then how can we get that skeleton to move us?”

“We need to give the skeleton the most precious thing we have right now. The more it’s a gift from someone, the higher value it gives.”

As soon as I heard that, I instinctively gripped the smartphone in my coat pocket.

This is absolutely not an option.

“That’s a bit difficult.”

“This is the dream world, so the existing objects are just copies of what we had right before falling asleep.”

“…”

I stood for a moment, recalling Yuki’s high school uniform that she had shown me with a smile last week. Even her father, Ryota, had been looking at me suspiciously since hearing her declare that she would show me first after locking the door.

‘I’m sorry, Yuki.’

Although it pained me to use the smartphone Yuki, who follows and cherishes me so much, gave me as a mere pass even if it was in the dream world, I approached the skeleton with large strides and thrust out the smartphone to forget about it.

“It hurts my heart, so just take it quickly.”

“Ah! Wait a moment! If you give it with your hand like that…!”

Splash

As soon as the skeleton received the smartphone, it threw it into the river. The brightly colored smartphone gradually sank into the dark, deep river water and soon completely disappeared into the darkness.

For a moment, seeing that, I felt a surge of anger and summoned a silver sword to attack the skeleton.

The sword strike that extended with a brilliant silver flash cut the skeleton in two like a silver crescent moon, but the skeleton scattered like mist and slowly reattached itself.

The sight of the skeleton regenerating in the silver light felt beautifully like moonlight floating over a misty lake on a dark night, which made me even more angry.

“What the hell, you crazy skullhead?!”

“…It always throws away the first item given by hand. You have to give it by holding it in your mouth from the start for it to accept.”

Yeonseo demonstrated by holding a high-denomination banknote in her mouth and giving it to the skeleton. The skeleton carefully received it, put down its bottle, and gestured towards the raft.

“…”

Since I had already given the first item by hand, I threw a few candies I received as gifts in Elysion at the skeleton’s head. Then I sat down next to Yeonseo, who was already sitting on the raft.

Creak

With a feeble sound, the raft began to guide us across the vast river, cutting through the eerie fog.

The river width, which seemed to be several kilometers, was flowing at a fierce speed, and below the precarious raft, only darkness of unfathomable depth could be seen. Maybe it was just my imagination, but it seemed like strange sounds could be heard whispering from the fog that had filled the surroundings for a while.

‘It looked like a narrow river from afar, but sitting on the raft, it feels as massive as the Han River.’

How dark of an imagination must one have to recreate such a gloomy space in a dream?

“It’s really unpleasant, isn’t it? To have a dream that’s dark, gloomy, and damp at night after all that effort.”

Suddenly, as if reading my thoughts, Yeonseo muttered, and I couldn’t help but look at her in surprise that this kind person would engage in such backbiting. Yeonseo looked at the faint light visible beyond the raft and spoke:

“When I first bloomed as a magical girl, I recreated my parents alive in a dream and invited my grandfather. The sight of him screaming in terror then is still vivid.”

“Asya’s parents… you mean he screamed upon seeing his own daughter?”

“Yes, ever since I developed narcolepsy at a very young age, I kept dreaming of eating meals with my parents right before the gas explosion accident.”

The last happy moment of an unforgettable day in her life.

In that dream, countless versions of Yeonseo’s father and mother were sitting at countless tables, eating meals with countless versions of Yeonseo. Thousands of people with the same faces uttering the same words, raising their spoons at the same timing.

Yeonseo’s grandfather, who was invited into the dream, had to repeat the same actions thousands of times with them, and Yeonseo, who invited him into the dream, repeated it with an excited expression next to her grandfather.

-Please… please don’t show me this again.

-…

After waking from the dream, her grandfather confirmed his granddaughter’s rotten, crumbling heart and wept, overcome with sadness.

“…”

“For me, it was a memory I thought was very beautiful and nostalgic… but for my grandfather, it seems it was like a nightmare of dreaming the same dream thousands of times.”

“Th-that’s…”

Yeonseo pressed my nose gently and laughed.

“It’s okay. Thinking about it now, I don’t know why I thought that scene was beautiful either.”

“It’s a memory with your parents. That’s natural.”

“Maybe.”

As if cutting off my light consolation, Yeonseo looked at the light across the river with a still distant expression.

It was just light scattered and diffused in the mist in the darkness.

“Maybe during that time when I had narcolepsy and kept having the same dream repeatedly, I was dead. Trapped in my own world, twisted and withering to the point where I couldn’t accept even my closest family…”

Death.

She discovered death in her own life, slowly rotting away, captivated by memories. She lived among people to break down the wall of memories cast over her life. And she said she boldly came all the way to Russia, her grandfather’s homeland, to see things she hadn’t seen before.

“So… so it doesn’t feel like someone else’s story. Because this dark and gloomy scene might be the most beautiful memory holding onto Alisa’s tomorrow.”

“I see.”

After that, we crossed the river on the raft in silence for a while.

Creak

The skeleton kept pretending its arm was sore and tried to subtly pass the long oar it was holding to me in the middle of the conversation. But I ignored it to the end because I didn’t want to listen to the request of the damned skeleton that had thrown away my precious smartphone.

As we were crossing the river towards the faintly glowing space, three bears wearing black hats and holding vodka bottles blocked our path.

We tried to ignore them and walk past, but the three bears moved as if they were one body, like soldiers who had received formal training, blocking our path forward. Yeonseo said she was seeing the bears for the first time, as she had failed after figuring out how to break through the river.

“Why does everyone in this neighborhood hold a bottle of alcohol?”

“Hehe…”

Yeonseo evaded answering with an awkward laugh.

“I wonder if giving them something will solve it.”

Thinking it might be resolved by giving something like with the unpleasant skeleton earlier, I threw a wad of dollars at the bears, which was the most valuable item left in my pocket besides the Glass Star. The boldly thrown bills scattered in the air, falling to the ground in curves.

Grooowl!!

The bears abandoned the precise movements they had maintained until now and frantically tried to pick up the bills, attacking each other with vodka bottles.

“Let’s move forward in this gap.”

“…”

Yeonseo, who was already running towards the light visible ahead, quietly said to me:

“Those bears might be the hospital security guards.”

“What?”

“Those hats. They’re the hats worn by the security guards at the hospital where Alisa is hospitalized.”

She said that because the hospital rarely paid proper wages, given how it was run, the three security guards privately accepted money and allowed patients to run errands for alcohol or go out. And the curses uttered by the skeleton ferryman were exactly the same as the words spoken by an old man drinking alcohol in a corner of the hospital.

Maybe.

“Maybe Alisa isn’t really asleep now…”

She might have learned about the world through the sounds coming from the hospital room while trapped in her sleeping body.

“…”

“…”

Because we imagined that to be such a terrible thing, we increased our running speed and entered Alisa’s deepest consciousness.

* * *

Alisa, Dad hopes you’re playing to your heart’s content in dreamland.

Alisa, your name comes from the name of a beautiful girl in a fairy tale.

Alisa, if you ever wake up, let’s go see something wonderful in Murmansk together with Dad.

Alisa, we’ve finally found a doctor who treated a patient with the same symptoms as you.

Alisa, Mom and Dad will be going to Europe for a while. Don’t worry. We’ve hired a guide who says he knows Europe very well.

Alisa, I love you.

You must wake up and tell us what happened in dreamland.

[…]

[Yes.]

[I love you too.]