Clearly, as an Intellitron, he should have been better at all kinds of theories and calculations, but Tiriandes's way of doing things gave off a kind of simple and brutal beauty.
But it didn't matter. As Nero often said, "Black cats or white cats, a cat that can catch mice is a good cat."
So, whether they were straightforward or not, a knight who could clear the way and pass the trial was a good knight.
In short, because Tiriandes had cleared the way by going easy on them, everyone could continue forward.
Before leaving, Noe even specially apologized to the Hound, "Sniff... Sorry. Anders is just like this. I hope you won't hold it against him. We're really in a hurry. Ah, right, we're looking for Mr. Gallagher. Since you work here, do you know where he is now?"
Looking at the beauty before him with tears streaming down her face, he was just a little Hound. What else could he say besides blushing?
'Come to think of it, why did this knight lady love crying so much?'
One wouldn't say a word when they could just take action, while the other kept crying. Were there no normal people among you Knights of Beauty?
Compromise and confusion appeared in the Hound's heart at the same time. Then, in the next moment, he frowned as he noticed something else, and looked very seriously at the knight lady before him.
"By the way, who exactly is this Gallagher you're talking about? Several people have already mentioned this name to me. That gray-haired girl said the same thing to me last time."
March had already hopped up the stairs when she heard what the Hound said. She froze, then poked her head down from above again. "Huh? Wasn't he the one who sent you here?"
Looking at the silly girl, the Hound blinked, and his expression became equally silly. "It was the security officer who sent us here. I can't say anything else."
March scratched her head, then her eyes lit up. She clearly hadn't noticed the problem. "Well, there you go! He's exactly who we're looking for!"
The Hound shook his head. "Really can't. The boss said that this concerns the family's reputation. No one can be allowed through."
Although he said that, the Hound had absolutely no intention of stepping forward again to block everyone. After all, that little act of going easy on them had nearly scared him out of the dream. Who knew whether that Intellitron would actually squeeze him to death next time?
Tiriandes and Noe, who had been listening nearby, exchanged a glance, and their expressions instantly turned serious (Tiriandes's eyes flickered at a higher frequency and dimmed slightly).
Things had taken another turn, and the focus seemed to have shifted toward the very Mr. Gallagher they were looking for.
But this didn't make either knight feel troubled or frustrated. This Mr. Gallagher seemed mysterious, while Nero's disappearance was equally mysterious. This situation instead increased the possibility of finding Nero.
Since the Hound had only been shouting verbally but had honestly not stopped them with his body, everyone went inside together. It wasn't long before Stelle picked Gallagher out from among the crowd.
This security officer seemed to be very sharp. He appeared to have noticed them as soon as they approached. He turned around, his gaze sweeping over everyone one after another before finally stopping on Stelle.
"I was wondering why it was so noisy... So it's you. Welcome. You've made it all the way here. What brings you here?"
"Mr. Gallagher, hello. From the way you're speaking, you knew we'd come here?" Himeko, acting as the group's parent, stepped forward and took on the job of negotiating.
"Hahaha... Miss Himeko, you're too polite. You don't have to be so formal with me," Gallagher said with a laugh.
"...Mr. Gallagher even knows my name?"
"Of course I do. How could I not? You're the famous Astral Express, the Clockmaker's honored guests," Gallagher said. Then his gaze fell on Tiriandes and Noe behind her.
"Hmm... There are also two friends here from the Knights of Beauty. The Family has already issued orders concerning your business. If you want to search the Dream's Edge, go ahead."
"Thank you for your accommodation," Tiriandes said.
The Intellitron knight turned his head slightly and looked toward the depths of the Dream's Edge. Several conspicuous markers appeared in his visual processor. After several rounds of magnification, several handsome men and women could be seen walking through the boundary.
"Although I don't know which entrance was taken, our brothers and sisters in the same knight order have already begun exploring this boundary."
Tiriandes said to Gallagher, "Also, our goals overlap with those of the Astral Express in some areas. Since our brothers and sisters are already exploring this boundary, God and I will stay here and act together with the Nameless."
Gallagher raised his eyebrows as he looked at the two knights who seemed very amiable but whose strength he couldn't see through at all. After remaining silent for a moment, he nodded.
To be honest, he hadn't expected things to develop like this. Or rather, he hadn't even expected the Knights of Beauty to come.
In his estimation, it would already have been an amazing thing if even one Knight of Beauty came to Penacony for the banquet. He hadn't expected this force, which had been fragmented for many years, to suddenly reorganize.
Even more surprising was the Knights of Beauty's frightening mobility. They had actually infiltrated all over Penacony without almost any of the Hounds noticing...
At this moment, a rather inexplicable thought even arose in Gallagher's mind.
Could these knights of unknown strength turn Penacony upside down because they couldn't find the person?
He also didn't know why that missing boy was valued so highly by the forces of Beauty.
Wasn't he a member of the Nameless?
There were many doubts in Gallagher's heart. In fact, he was also very puzzled by Nero's disappearance, because not long ago, someone had beaten his pet to tears, and that person was the missing Nero.
So it was hard for him to imagine what kind of person was pulling strings behind the scenes to make someone like this disappear.
That was a good question.
At present, everyone who knew that Nero had gone missing seemed to be wondering who had secretly done something.
Perhaps because Nero, although carefree, was actually quite measured in what he did normally, they had completely failed to imagine what had really happened...
Nero had disappeared because he had been too careless and accidentally smashed straight through the Memoria Zone himself...
After a brief silence, Gallagher turned his attention back to the Express crew before him. He looked at Stelle and said to everyone,
"I met this young lady once in the Golden Hour. I remember that the silver-haired little girl was there too..."
At this point, Gallagher stopped.
That silver-haired little girl seemed to have already seen through Penacony's secret, yet his own pet had failed to pick her up twice.
The first time, her face had been slapped swollen. The second time, she had almost been rammed into vomiting...
Because the coincidence was too great, he had even thought that the missing boy and the silver-haired girl had teamed up to bait him into law enforcement.
The Express crew didn't seem to notice the strange stiffness that had appeared on Gallagher's face. Himeko got straight to the point.
"I believe Mr. Gallagher already knows that one of our children has gone missing. At the same time, Miss Robin was tragically murdered. There may be some connection between the two."
"The Astral Express cannot possibly stand by and do nothing. We are currently assisting the Family in investigating the truth. That is also why we've come to find you."
Gallagher, "..."
'Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Those two things have jack shit to do with each other! I was the one who did something to Robin's side. Don't I know that? My Noe sent her to another part of this dream. And your kid's disappearance has nothing to do with me either.'
'Of course, Gallagher obviously couldn't expose himself right now. The time wasn't right. It definitely wasn't because there were two knights standing beside him, eyeing him like tigers, with countless knights hidden in the dream behind them, and he was afraid of getting beaten up.'
Fine, it was because he was afraid of getting beaten up. Although by normal logic, knights should all be easygoing and reasonable people, who knew? What if they were anxious and had no patience left?
No matter what, he couldn't die before even accomplishing anything. Everyone had reasons they couldn't compromise on, and he was no exception.
He carefully observed the two knights standing not far away. Only then did Gallagher let out a long sigh and say as if lamenting, "Even the Nameless have gotten mixed up with the Family... Fate really plays tricks on people."
At the same time, the two knights standing behind and listening to their conversation were also speaking quietly.
"Anders... why does that security officer keep looking at us?"
"Maybe he's got something to hide."
"Something to hide? Aren't you a firm materialist who believes there are no ghosts in the world?"
"The 'ghost' I mean isn't that kind of ghost..."
"Then what other kind of ghost could there be?"
"...Quiet and listen."
"Oh, okay."
Hearing Gallagher's words, March was very puzzled. "The FaDAmily... how*@#$ did*S they?"
Just like at the Reverie Hotel earlier, the beautiful girl's voice once again became distorted and overlapped, and this time it was even more severe than before.
But the people around them still seemed not to notice anything unusual. Only Gallagher glanced over.
He keenly noticed that something was wrong with the girl.
Gallagher stared at March, seemingly hoping to find the source of the problem on her.
The problem...
Because of March's question, Gallagher realized that there was something wrong with what he had just said. Both the content and his tone seemed rather suspicious. He shook his head.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it. In Penacony, everyone loves the Family.
"No matter how much someone resists the sweet dream, when the time comes, they'll become reluctant to leave. Who would be willing to leave a warm nest? Only fools, children... and drunkards who aren't thinking straight."
Himeko raised an eyebrow. "...Mr. Gallagher, you seem to be implying something?"
"You misunderstand. I'm not," Gallagher said with an innocent smile. "You want to discuss the case? Suspicious. Come with me. This isn't a good place to talk. Let's move somewhere else."
Gallagher suggested moving somewhere else to talk, and no one refused, including the two Knights of Beauty.
———
[Reverie Hotel, Accommodation Area Lobby]
"Is that so? This really is good news, like the dawn of daybreak and a spring flowing into a parched land, filling one with strength. Please wait a moment. Allow me to tell the other brothers and sisters this wonderful news."
As he spoke with the swaying Black Cutter beside him, Argenti used his phone to share the good news he had just heard with his other compatriots.
Black Cutter was not an ordinary sword. What it said was, of course, quite trustworthy.
Beside him, Black Cutter watched Argenti's actions and gently swayed its blade, as if nodding.
It had of course also noticed Nero's disappearance. After all, it had entered the Dreamscape with Nero.
As a treasured sword forged from a fusion of a Stellaron and hope, and possessing its own consciousness, it wasn't particularly surprising that Black Cutter could enter Penacony's sweet dreams. After all, Mr. Yang's cane, Himeko's toolbox, and even the floating satellite could be brought in.
Black Cutter quickly realized that Nero had gone missing in the dream, but it could still sense the connection between itself and its little master.
However, although it could confirm that its little master's condition was fine, it couldn't determine his exact location, as if there were some inexplicable barrier between them.
Even so, this news could confirm Nero's safety, which counted as important information.
As a mature sword, Black Cutter naturally knew that it should hurry and tell the others this news.
Thus, it hurried off to find its little master's friends. However, only after it began transmitting the message did Black Cutter belatedly remember that, as a sword, the sounds it made when it spoke seemed to be nothing but incomprehensible sword cries to everyone else.
Aside from showing that it possessed a spirit, they couldn't convey any information at all.
Even if the other party was a genius boy from the Xianzhou Luofu, it was no different.
When Black Cutter twisted its body and tried to convey the message, everyone from the Xianzhou, including Yanqing, was completely unable to understand what it meant.
However, from listening to the conversations among several of its little master's friends, it seemed that they had already contacted the Xianzhou, either willingly or unwillingly.
The Xianzhou Alliance was enormous. If they came over, they might be able to break through that faint layer of separation and successfully find its little master. But it couldn't place all its hopes on "waiting."
Thinking this, Black Cutter suddenly thought of someone...the cosmic street bum who had grabbed it while shouting things like "Beauty!" and "trials!"
Argenti. Although it had once been defeated by this guy's inexplicable burst of power, it had also reunited with its little master because of him. This Knight of Beauty was different from the others. Although it didn't know why, he could understand what it said.
After thinking for a moment, Black Cutter remembered the task its little master had previously given this knight, and the sword immediately returned to reality.
When it woke from the Dream Pool, it didn't find its little master in the pool.
Why would someone who disappeared in the dream also disappear in reality?
This made Black Cutter curious, but like everyone else, it didn't think deeply about the matter. It simply felt that if someone had gone missing, it was normal not to be able to find them anywhere.
Thus, Black Cutter quickly left the Dream Pool and the room, found Argenti in the accommodation area's lobby, and told him the news it had obtained.