After saying their goodbyes, Vivian left the preparation room. Only Haida remained, sitting alone on the sofa, unhurriedly hanging weapons like firearms and magazines back into the cabinet.
As for the power sword "Nirvana", she usually maintained it and then placed it on the sword rack in her bedroom, keeping it almost on her person.
Wearing this sword gave her a very strange feeling, how to describe it...
It was like raising a cat or a dog. Once it left her side for an extended period, the hum of the blade when swung again would become much more grating and sharp, similar to symptoms of separation anxiety.
Finding no answer through contemplation, Haida ultimately decided to set aside Fran's reminder for the time being.
Inspiration and enlightenment were not things that could be forced; proper sleep could calm excited thoughts. She would consider it carefully later.
"...Time for a bath." Haida lifted her arm and sniffed the sleeve of her nun's habit.
Having assisted the Adeptus Medicae's logistics troops in moving survivors, she had stayed in the sewers and the Birth-Feast Hall for a long time. Now her whole body carried the scent of plasma and filth... urgently needing cleaning.
Haida then returned to her room's bathroom to wash up.
She was accustomed to gradually lowering the water temperature during bathing: hot water, warm water, cold water, alternating in sequence. This helped her keep her thoughts clear... though people with weak immune systems were not advised to imitate, as it was easy to catch a cold.
Haida lay back on her soft bed, drowsiness washing over her like the evening tide, growing deeper and stronger.
"Naa."
In the daze of her thoughts drifting like falling clouds, Haida faintly heard an animal's cry. Tender, clear, carrying a hint of curiosity.
...A deer?
Her grey-chestnut eyes snapped open. The caution and vigilance passed down through the Burial Attendant lineage dispelled Haida's sleepiness, and she immediately reached for the power sword "Nirvana" placed on the sword rack.
She knew the layout of her bedroom inside out and would never mistake the sword rack's location. But her outstretched hand did not find the hilt of "Nirvana"; instead, it touched something else.
The feeling under her hand was soft and smooth, with the distinctive downy texture of neck fur.
Haida narrowed her eyes and saw a white deer with a glazed, translucent luster timidly crouching in the shadows by the bed. Its body was small, seemingly not yet an adult.
"Naa!" The deer's cry carried a note of panic and shyness.
Luyala buried her head beneath the edge of the bed but soon peeked up bit by bit. Then, the woman and the deer locked eyes.
Haida gazed silently at the little deer by her bedside, her lips parting slightly as if she wanted to say something... but ultimately fell silent.
This was the Secrets-Hunter Cult's Norlington headquarters, the Unblemished Land blessed by the God-Hunting God's gaze. The fact that Doctor Fran could come and go at will through the Mist Within the Door was one thing, but how could even a deer silently sneak into her room...
But she soon noticed something was wrong.
Although familiar, this was not her room.
The sword rack by the bed for the power sword "Nirvana" was missing, and there was no sense of being enveloped by the [Unblemished Land] ritual. However, apart from that, all the other furnishings in the room were identical.
Sensing the subtle changes on the spiritual level, Haida finally realized the nature of this anomaly.
"A dream."
"A mythical creature capable of initiating dream invasion... are you the 'patient' Doctor Fran mentioned?"
Haida then remembered Fran mentioning she had a patient who existed within dreams, and whose characteristic was "cute."
The little deer before her seemed to fit this description perfectly.
"Naa!" Luyala nodded quite emphatically.
"Then, did she send you?" With a hint of curiosity, Haida inquired of Luyala.
Luyala shook her head in a very human-like manner, indicating this matter had nothing to do with Fran. Then she opened her mouth, bit the hem of Haida's clothes, and tugged outward. It seemed she wanted Haida to follow her.
Considering this little deer was Fran's patient and showed no signs of corruption or malice... Haida decided to trust her for now.
The moment she stepped off the bed, her thin nightclothes had already transformed back into the fully-armed black nun's habit. Even the power sword "Nirvana" had somehow found its way into the sheath on her back.
Dreams are the interlacing and flashbacks of reality's fragments, naturally possessing qualities of illusion and enlightenment.
Haida had also attempted deep dream immersion more than once during the Secrets-Hunter Cult's spiritual awareness courses, but such a stable dream... this was her first time experiencing it. It was practically indistinguishable from reality, astonishingly real.
Luyala lightly tapped her hooves and stepped out the room's door first. The ground she tread upon rippled with a pure white light, forming a path that seemed forged entirely from radiance.
Haida followed beside Luyala, keeping close behind.
Though she tried to control it, her gaze was irresistibly drawn to that tuft of raised, constantly swaying white tail fur.
The inexplicable desire to touch it surged, but considering such a rather rude action might frighten her and showed a lack of respect... Haida ultimately did not act on it.
As the pure white radiance gradually dimmed, the surrounding scenery became clear.
Silver birch and calamus, a tree-lined avenue.
The morning sun filtered through gaps in the fallen leaves, scattering fragmented light across the blue brick pavement. Numerous students conversed as they passed by, some hurried, some leisurely.
...This was Norlington Central Academy.
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Chapter 75: Connected Dreams
The tree-lined avenue, people wearing academy attire, and the White Cup lapel pins worn by the professors...
Without a doubt, this was Norlington Central Academy.
Having dealings with both the White Cup and the Secrets-Hunter Cult, Haida had also visited the academy many times and was quite familiar with it.
However, her most recent visit to this place had shown her the ruined academy of future Norlington. That scene of desolation, ruin, and crumbling walls was indeed deeply impressive and hard to forget.
Influenced by that terrifying memory, several distorted, invisible waveforms rippled through the surroundings like waves.
The scents of dust, coagulated blood, and the rust of steel subtly permeated the air... The celestial body eternally fixed in the sky above was stained with a trace of bizarre, wanton crimson, blinking like an eye.
"Naa!"
Luyala lifted her head and nudged Haida's waist with a slightly reproachful air, as if scolding her for her wild thoughts.
As a pure, glazed light softly glowed, the anomalies that had just occurred instantly returned to normal, as if they had been "reset."
"...My apologies."
Considering that her earlier wandering thoughts might have brought unnecessary danger, she offered a rather sincere apology.
Hearing this, Luyala gently shook her head, the ear tufts beneath her translucent long antlers swaying with the motion of her neck.
The glazed light, like silk threads, approached Haida's face, slipping without hindrance into her eyes and ears... Though it carried a warm aura, its shape resembled something like a soft-bodied creature.
In the common knowledge of mysticism, both obscure light and murky darkness were equally dangerous. Whether something made one feel at ease or filled one with fear, one should not easily believe it.
Devils were cunning and malicious, but deities were equally elusive and unpredictable.
This scene made Haida instinctively want to draw her sword, but reason suppressed the impulse. She waited quietly for the light to fully permeate her body.
A moment later, the white radiance vanished.
Haida narrowed her eyes slightly, perceiving a subtle alteration in her memory.
The memory of future Norlington's destruction remained clearly visible, but the strong, impactful "impression" it carried had faded. It no longer held soul-shaking power.
A memory that affected me too deeply has been softened.
So, besides dream-related abilities, she can also perform a certain degree of mental interference... Is this her racial talent?
Though Haida could almost certainly determine that Luyala belonged to some category of mythical race, the Secrets-Hunter Cult's biological archives contained no descriptions matching her characteristics. Therefore, all conjectures ultimately remained just guesses.
After completing the mental soothing of Haida, Luyala began leading the way again with her hooves.
The woman and the deer moved through the shade of the ornamental silver birches and soon arrived beside a woman sitting on a bench by the roadside.
She was somewhat advanced in years, no longer young. However, she was quite well-maintained, with a plump figure exuding the charm of a mature woman.
She could be seen holding a book under her arm, ancient and thick, seemingly in the ancient language of some country.
Furthermore, her brows were tightly furrowed, as if she was worried about something...
— Mrs. Belinda.
Seeing Luyala stop before her, Haida carefully observed this woman dressed in teacher's attire.
She wore an academy lecturer-standard lapel pin on her chest, inscribed with "Belinda Lois."
A member of the Lois family, apparently a lecturer in Ancient Attilan... Was there something special about her?
Haida's question was soon answered. Countless illusionary, interlaced and scattered "paths" extended from beside Belinda, and she herself carried an extremely strong sense of presence, as if she were the center of this entire world.
Without a doubt, she was the master of this particular dream.
Through those hazy and blurry paths, Haida faintly glimpsed scenes of various forms... seemingly the dreams of others.
Under normal circumstances, each person's dream was independent; they could only interconnect through special means. Perhaps through the innate abilities of certain mythical creatures, or perhaps through spirit-infused potions like "Connected Dreams."
So, why did she bring me into Belinda's dream?
Thinking of this, Haida turned her gaze with some puzzlement towards Luyala, who was circling around Belinda.
The little deer's gaze was clear, not rushed. She just calmly pawed the ground with her hoof, as if waiting for something to arrive...
Scrape- scrape- scrape- scrape- scrape-
A harsh and grating grinding sound quietly arose, sinister and heavy.
It was as if someone was grinding their upper and lower jaws together with all their might, trying to crush all their teeth.
A humanoid monster covered in blood filth crawled out from a metal sewer trench. It slowly stood up, clumsily moving its body.
"Hmph, even if that vampire was utterly wretched, he wouldn't have ended up like this."
Haida watched calmly as the blood-filth monster continuously approached Belinda, not rushing to act.
Maintaining caution was very necessary towards things one didn't fully understand. This was a dream, not reality; reckless action might lead to undesirable consequences...
"Naa." Luyala stretched out a hoof, pointing at Haida, then at the monster, indicating she needn't worry.
"Alright."
Even without direct verbal communication, Haida understood her meaning very easily.
She assented and then drew the power sword "Nirvana," stepping forward with a powerful vertical slash.
In the flash of cold light, the tall blood-filth humanoid was split in two from head to toe. The sectional surfaces slid powerlessly to the ground along the body's midline, emitting a heavy, muffled thud.
As the nightmare's manifestation completely dissipated, the frown on Belinda's brow relaxed, and she even began reading her book leisurely.
Luyala then approached the corpse of the blood-filth monster, extended the tip of her hoof to lightly tap it, completely transforming it into white radiance before swallowing it into her mouth and beginning to chew.
This creature was merely a simple nightmare, not yet formed into a true dream nightmare. Left alone, it would have dissipated on its own after a while.
...But since it was delivered right to her mouth, not eating it felt somewhat wasteful.
Likely, the impression left on Mrs. Belinda by Fran's divination that day was too intense, causing her to frequently suffer from this kind of nightmare disturbance recently.
Chew, chew, chew.
Luyala, her cheeks puffed out, quickly swallowed the nourishment formed from the nightmare remnants. She then approached Haida with a hint of affection, extending her light pink tongue to lick Haida's palm.
Hmm... Did she call me here to act as her bodyguard during meals? Or perhaps, to help process the "ingredients"?
Although Luyala could understand human language and possessed normal spiritual intelligence, she couldn't speak after all, so communication still had some obstacles.
Only now did Haida roughly understand her behavioral logic.
Having finished her meal, Luyala extended a front hoof, pointing towards the numerous "paths" surrounding Belinda. The scenes within were blurry and chaotic, changing every moment, a dizzying sight.
A quiet, solemn classroom; a dark, deeply secluded ancient ruin; an office piled with discarded blueprints; a manufacturing workshop where powered mechanical hammers continuously fell...
Haida's grey-chestnut gaze fixed slightly, a sense of understanding arising in her heart.
These "paths" were the dreams of the students and professors within Norlington Central Academy.
This young deer-like mythical creature had used Belinda's dream as a "hub," causing nearly all the dreams in this area to become interconnected.
Why did she do this? For convenience in foraging? Or perhaps... for other reasons?
"Naa!"
Suddenly, Luyala alertly pricked up her ears, looking around left and right.
Something was approaching... powerful, and full of oppressive force.
Before Haida could ask, she invoked pure white radiance to disperse the entire dream.
The scenery of Norlington Academy instantly shattered and vanished. With a strong sense of falling, everything within Haida's sight returned to darkness.
Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing grey-chestnut eyes. Haida awoke, sitting up in her own bed.
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T/N: Hey readers~! New Translator here! Before I say anything, I'd first like to thank the original author for creating this wonderful story. Without them, I wouldn't have the chance to share this adventure with you. I hope my translation does justice to their work, and that together, we can enjoy this story.
With that said, I'm happy to let you know I'll be uploading daily chapters. And for those who wish to support my work and gain early access, I've set up a Patreon where advanced chapters will be available.
[email protected]/PeakTL