Ch.263[Episode 263] Aftermath of a Dream

“Huh…!”

“What? What’s the matter?”

Arkus suddenly sat up from where he had been slumped over the desk in his inn room.

Beneath him was a piece of parchment, soiled with saliva and ink, which he had purchased to record information about Gachaland.

“No, it’s nothing. Just had a rather peculiar dream…”

“Peculiar? People usually say unsettling or pleasant, not that word. Anyway, if you’re tired, why sleep at the desk instead of the bed?”

Ogreson brewed a cup of tea in a mug for Arkus who had just awakened.

These tea bags were less flavorful but incredibly convenient.

“Well… I saw Sir Dominic in my dream.”

“Sir Dominic? Congratulations. What kind of dream was it?”

Ogreson showed interest in Arkus’s words.

Finally, as the water in the coffee pot boiled and the mug filled with hot water, Ogreson placed the cup of tea in front of Arkus and sat down beside him.

In Feralant, there was a custom of congratulating someone who dreamed of a saint, considering it a good omen.

However, Ogreson’s curiosity about the dream’s content was purely due to his own inquisitiveness.

“Well, the saint descended from the sky, tearing demons to pieces- Ouch!”

Arkus was about to tell his dream when he suddenly felt pain in his finger.

“Isn’t it too hot? Perhaps I should have let it cool a bit.”

“It’s my fault for not being careful. But… this doesn’t seem like a burn from heat…?”

Ogreson glanced at the wound after Arkus’s complaint.

The area around the wound was stained black, as if poisoned.

Arkus was startled and purified it with holy power, watching as black smoke violently resisted and dissipated. This reminded him of the content of his dream.

Sir Dominic slaying demons. The flowing demon blood. Arkus touching that blood…

Putting it all together, Arkus could reach one conclusion.

“I need to write down what I saw in the dream right now!”

Arkus immediately picked up his quill and began writing down what he had seen in his dream.

Of course, within a few hours, he had forgotten most of the dream.

…

“Ah, slept well. Surprisingly refreshed, even though I slept in human form.”

v.a.l.l.o.c. woke up in the night duty room, scratching his belly as he changed clothes.

After boiling water in the coffee pot, v.a.l.l.o.c. ate the donuts he had left from yesterday with hazelnut coffee.

Since yesterday was his shift, tomorrow would be his day off.

“Just a few hours left. I’ll finally get a proper rest.”

Looking at the clock, v.a.l.l.o.c. imagined returning home and rolling around on the floor in his original form.

Having earned quite a bit of money, v.a.l.l.o.c. lived in a fairly large house where he could move around in his true form without any problems.

“Yesterday was really strange though.”

v.a.l.l.o.c. recalled the dream he had while dozing off in the night duty room.

It was definitely a dream about going home, eating something delicious, and sleeping.

But suddenly the dream was cut off, and he woke up drenched in cold sweat as if he’d had a nightmare.

“There was nothing scary, so why did that happen?”

v.a.l.l.o.c. tilted his head but soon forgot about it, deciding it wasn’t important.

Instead, his mind filled with thoughts of going home to relax and eat.

Of course, ten minutes later, a bug occurrence delayed his departure time, but that was another matter.

…

“I slept strangely well yesterday.”

“?”

Remi said to Dr. Banshee, who was running the vacuum cleaner.

“Usually, I can’t sleep well without strawberry milk because of that terrible nightmare.”

“Ah, right. Me too.”

“But yesterday I didn’t dream. That dream I have every day.”

Remi looked out the window.

She always had nightmares.

Her nightmares were always the same.

In a world full of cardboard, a cardboard clown would appear and show her past in a puppet show.

At first, the dreams were more explicit and cruel, but as her feelings about the dreams dulled, the intensity of the dreams decreased.

Dismembered bodies would appear as red paper, for instance.

Yet those representations were enough to remind Remi of her memories.

“As you know, drinking strawberry milk makes it a bit better, so I drink it every day, but yesterday strawberry milk was suddenly sold out.”

“Chocolate milk too.”

“So I was afraid to sleep, but strangely I fell asleep easily. I didn’t dream… no, that’s not right.”

Remi was about to say she didn’t dream but changed her words.

A memory suddenly came to her.

“In my dream, a cardboard knight sat in the chair instead of me.”

“And then?”

“That’s it. That was the end of the dream…”

Remi paused mid-sentence.

“See? I told you it comes back when you think about it.”

Dr. Banshee placed a cup of warm milk in front of Remi.

Dr. Banshee mentioned the incident where he found her favorite socks under the bed after she said she lost them, saying Remi always forgets things.

Regardless, after thinking for a moment, Remi said to Dr. Banshee:

“When I saw that knight, the clown said today would be lucky.”

“You heard words in a dream?”

“Since it was a dream, it appeared like subtitles.”

Remi quietly sipped the warm milk Dr. Banshee had given her.

“What a silly dream.”

“A silly dream indeed.”

Remi and Dr. Banshee looked at each other and chuckled.

For the two doctors with scientific mindsets, occult topics like dreams were nothing more than casual conversation.

…

Inside the Demon Lord’s castle, in the audience chamber where the Demon Lord’s throne was located.

Today, Hero Ppo Le had gone out because an administrator promised to buy him pork cutlets, so only Demon Lord Princess Teu Le Vante was in the audience chamber.

The Demon Lord was anxiously waiting for someone, pacing around in circles.

Just as the Demon Lord’s patience was running out…

“Demon Lord! Rejoice!”

The door burst open and the Chief of Staff entered.

“!”

“No, I meant rejoice after hearing what I have to say.”

“!”

“Uh, um? Demon Lord? This is for a little later-“

Unable to wait any longer, the Demon Lord jumped on the Chief of Staff and snatched the black envelope from his hands.

The three-foot-tall Demon Lord was physically weaker than the Chief of Staff, but her obsession with the black envelope temporarily enhanced her abilities.

“Demon Lord! That’s for after lunch-“

The Chief of Staff cried out, trying to take back the black envelope, but Demon Lord Teu Le Vante was very greedy and evil, and didn’t listen to those weaker than her.

The Demon Lord greedily took out the baumkuchen from inside with her soft hands.

The baumkuchen was specially ordered from the best pastry chef by the Chief of Staff, and it was as big as the Demon Lord herself.

“!”

The Demon Lord’s eyes sparkled as she took a bite of the baumkuchen.

She fell into ecstasy, munching on the baumkuchen voraciously.

Of course, only up to about seven bites.

After eating seven bites of baumkuchen, Demon Lord Teu Le Vante realized that the baumkuchen was so large that she was getting full.

Additionally, eating too much of one food made her a bit tired of it.

The Demon Lord carefully wrapped the remaining baumkuchen and put it back in the envelope.

She intended to eat it again later.

“Demon Lord…!”

The Demon Lord startled with a jolt.

However, being exceptionally skilled in social tactics, she immediately returned the envelope to the Chief of Staff.

The Chief of Staff looked angry at the Demon Lord’s arbitrary behavior, but soon sighed and uttered fatal words to the Demon Lord.

Truly fatal words.

“Today’s lunch is hamburger steak, but since you’ve eaten so much, you must be too full to eat it.”

“!”

The Demon Lord shook her head.

“I’ll have to cancel the hamburger steak we planned for lunch.”

The Demon Lord shook her head more vigorously.

“If only you had listened to me until the end, this wouldn’t have happened.”

The Demon Lord shook her head very vigorously but then became dejected at the Chief of Staff’s words.

Another peaceful day at the Demon Lord’s castle.

…

Sir Dominic had been out in the city since early morning.

Sir Dominic remembered giving Arkus an address and a location in his dream, so he decided to wait at that place.

Sir Dominic stood there waiting endlessly.

How much time had passed?

“Oh? Sir Dominic?”

Sir Dominic turned his head toward the voice.

Unryu Hime was there.

“Ah, Lady Hime. Those wounds…?”

For some reason, Hime was covered in wounds, mostly appearing to be sword cuts.

In Hime’s hand was a white bag with the label “Gacha Pharmacy,” apparently containing ointment and bandages.

“I was sparring with my father yesterday. Since he treats training like real combat and real combat like training…”

Hime trailed off slightly.

Being careful about speaking of her father, she couldn’t help but be cautious.

An awkward silence fell between Sir Dominic and Hime.

Thinking of something to talk about with Hime, Sir Dominic suddenly brought up the dream he had yesterday.

“Come to think of it, I had a strange dream yesterday.”

“A dream?”

“Yes. I dreamed many different things… but I can only remember a few.”

“Did I appear in it by any chance?”

Hime asked Sir Dominic playfully.

She thought it unlikely that she would appear in Sir Dominic’s dream.

However, Sir Dominic’s answer was unexpected.

“Of course.”

“What?”

“In yesterday’s dream, I woke up in bed, and the door opened as you came in. You told me to eat breakfast-“

Sir Dominic spoke calmly as if it were nothing special.

However, Hime couldn’t focus on his words because, eerily enough, she had dreamed the same dream.

Sir Dominic’s voice gradually faded in Hime’s ears.

This was a sign that Hime was entering her own mental world.

Becoming increasingly absorbed in herself, repeating the fact that Sir Dominic and she had dreamed the same dream, Hime reached one conclusion:

Could Sir Dominic and I be destined for each other? Is that why we had the same dream?

Of course, this was Hime’s delusion, but her love only grew deeper.

…It wasn’t summer, but it felt like summer.