During the process of meeting up with Himeko, Firefly tactfully withdrew from the group and went to look for Gallagher first.
Keeping an appropriate distance would make both sides more comfortable. In Firefly's view, the Astral Express crew would definitely need to discuss the current situation among themselves.
As for the other group of members who did not belong to the Astral Express, the knights did not leave and continued following them.
But they likewise had no intention of joining the Express crew's internal discussion, and the knights themselves also needed to consolidate and analyze the information they currently had.
It was worth mentioning that Misha had also appeared in the Dreamflux Reef.
As a server at the Family's hotel, yet having come to this place that the Family knew very little about, it was difficult not to pay attention to him.
And while talking with Misha... Mr. Yang inevitably glanced at a certain creature standing beside Misha...
"...Hmm... This is..."
Looking at that swaying body and huge face, for a moment, Mr. Yang had the urge to take off his glasses and wipe them, subconsciously thinking there was something dirty on the lenses.
"Tick-tock! Old friends and new friends, come give me a high five!"
Although Mr. Yang's expression froze for a moment, Clockie was quite enthusiastic.
"Oh! It's Clockie!" March 7th said with some surprise.
"But... Even in a place like this, do the Family's staff still need to play a role?" July 3rd looked at Misha with some confusion.
"So why did this guy add a 'tick-tock' catchphrase for himself?" Nero looked at Clockie.
What he cared about was clearly somewhat different, and he was more concerned about Clockie's "practicality." "And why does your Clockie face only have four marks? With so many details missing, isn't it inconvenient to tell the time?"
"Hmm, indeed." Argenti nodded. "Although he is a classic animated character from Penacony, from the perspective of the concept of a clock, lacking markings is unacceptable. It is not convenient for confirming the time."
"But... Nowadays, most planets with a certain level of technological development and connections with other forces in the universe probably don't use this kind of old-fashioned clock anymore, right?" Noe said.
"Thinking about it that way, the lack of markings is actually a design choice. After all, most of these old-fashioned clocks are now used as collectibles."
Stelle, on the other hand, looked very happy. She stared at Welt with surprise. "Mr. Welt still has a childlike heart!"
This was not the first time Stelle had met Clockie. However, the previous times they had met, none of the people around her, whether people she knew or people she didn't, could see this animated character from Penacony.
But apart from being happy, Stelle also felt a little strange. According to her previous thoughts, people who could see Clockie had to be full of childlike innocence.
So it made sense that March, July, and Nero could see him. As for Mr. Yang... judging from those models of his, it wasn't impossible. But how could the Pure Beauty knights see him too?
Although the knights' daily behavior and their fanatical ideals were also quite childlike in a certain sense, and this did not conflict with the knights' order, still... all of a sudden, everyone around her could see him, which made Stelle somewhat unable to adapt.
Listening to these outsiders discussing its design, Misha hesitated to speak.
In the end, it shook its head and muttered inwardly, "These organizations from outside are really too rude!"
After his brief surprise, Mr. Yang quickly recovered his expression. He then began guessing at Clockie's identity, or rather, the form of his existence.
Compared with July 3rd's suspicion that Clockie was being played by a Family employee, Mr. Yang felt that it was more likely that this thing was a Memory Zone Meme.
However, according to Misha's own introduction, this Clockie was his good partner, and he also said that his home was in the Dreamflux Reef.
Misha was very enthusiastic. After chatting for a while, he finally realized that something was wrong. During the conversation that followed, everyone learned that the Dreamflux Reef was a dreamscape that was not open to outsiders, at least that was how Misha saw it.
And when he wondered how everyone had come here, another name came out of Misha's mouth: "Mimi."
According to Misha, that Mimi had not been doing well lately. With transportation between the two sides of the dreamscape being inconvenient now, Mimi was the one taking people back and forth.
But over the past few days, it had encountered some guests who were not easy to deal with and seemed to have been beaten three times already.
As Misha described Mimi more and more, everyone gradually realized a shocking possibility... That Mimi seemed to be the Memory Zone Meme known as Something Unto Death.
As for such a monster, because of their involvement with Robin's case, everyone was not unfamiliar with it. If the culprit who had "killed" Robin was this Mimi, then it seemed to explain why the knights had seen Robin in this dreamscape.
However, when they thought about how that frightening-looking fellow actually had such a cute name... everyone's expressions became strange.
And also... speaking of which... how exactly had the knights gotten to the Dreamflux Reef?
Considering Argenti's strength and Noe's ease when confronting Aventurine, everyone did not think Mimi could have successfully brought the knights to the Dreamflux Reef.
Could it be that those few knights really had, as Argenti initially thought, bounced their way up here?
After all, having come all the way to this point, everyone still had not discovered a spaceship in the Dreamflux Reef like the one called the Celestial Jade.
Besides this, Misha's account once again provided a clue pointing toward Gallagher. He said that Gallagher had always been taking care of Mimi.
When he learned that everyone was looking for Gallagher because they had something to discuss with him, Misha said he was willing to lead the way.
However, the timing was inconvenient because Gallagher was currently receiving guests from the Oak Family.
So Nero suggested that they first go see Robin. He had always had a good impression of Robin, and since they had to solve the case anyway, they might as well go see how this supposedly dead person was doing. Perhaps they could even get some useful information.
Misha agreed to Nero's request.
On the way to find Robin while following Misha, everyone also saw the most spectacular sight in the Dreamflux Reef.
An accretion disk that looked much like a black hole, formed from the condensation of unstable memoria.
Nero had already seen this thing when he briefly wandered around the Dreamflux Reef earlier, but he knew nothing about memoria dynamics and did not know what this thing was. It was only after Mr. Yang recognized it and explained it now that he learned what this magnificent vortex was.
The process of finding Robin was also a process in which everyone gradually gained a deeper understanding of the Dreamflux Reef. With Misha introducing them, they also met quite a few people living here.
For example, the woman named Collei who was currently observing the memoria vortex. She kept muttering to herself, saying things like she had calculated that the beautiful dreams above would devour the dreams below. She gave people the feeling that she was a little out of her mind.
According to Collei, this huge hollow was continuously expanding, and the memoria on the Dreamflux Reef's side was slowly flowing toward the other side at a constant rate.
And according to her calculations, for some unknown reason, the flow rate of the memoria had somehow accelerated, as if something on the other side were sucking up the memoria.
Collei said that she had continuously improved Miss Lazurina's memoria measurement method and had finally obtained an accurate result, a horrifying piece of news. Ten system hours later, the Dreamflux Reef would collapse and merge with the dreamscape on the other side.
This left Misha with no choice but to explain to everyone that similar things had already happened many times, and that this Collei sometimes was just like this, rambling on about strange things.