Chapter 581

Chapter 581: Before the Dreamwalking

After leaving Sara Mell’s residence, Lucretia did not return at once to her own place in the city. Instead, she went back to the Radiant Star, which was moored in the harbor.

A swirl of colorful paper scraps spun over the deck, along the corridor, and across the bridge, then flew into the captain’s cabin. Lucretia’s figure stepped out of the Phantom Wind. She casually set the bottle of spiced wine on a low cabinet beside her, then walked toward the dressing table where the scrying crystal sat.

In one corner of the room, the large stuffed rabbit doll lying on the bed suddenly moved. It jumped off the bed and hopped this way, calling out: “Mistress! You finally came back, Rabby was so bored on the ship…”

“I just came back for a bit. I still have to return to the city later,” Lucretia glanced at the rather creepy stuffed rabbit doll and asked casually: “Any anomaly on the ship?”

“There’s no anomaly on the ship, everything is~ just~ fine!” a playful girl’s voice came from inside the rabbit, full of pride. “Rabby took good care of everything here, just like when Mistress is on board!”

“What about last night?” Lucretia asked again. “While we were docked in the harbor, did you see anything strange on shore?”

“On shore?” Rabby froze for a moment. It finally seemed to notice the serious look on its mistress’s face, and its playful pride quickly faded. “On shore… nothing seemed wrong, but Rabby didn’t pay much attention to what was happening there…”

Lucretia slowly frowned. After asking the stuffed rabbit doll a few more simple questions, she waved her hand and said: “That’s all for now. Go wait to the side first—later you and Lunie will come into the city with me.”

“Into the city?!” Rabby let out a short gasp, full of both surprise and joy. “You’re taking Rabby into the city? Are we going to play?”

Lucretia reached toward the scrying crystal in front of her. After hearing the stuffed rabbit doll’s words, she stayed silent for a second or two. Then, as her fingers touched the crystal, she said calmly: “For you, it might be fun.”

Rabby instantly jumped up in place with joy, then hopped back onto the bed. With a soft thump, it lay down exactly where it had been and began to wait patiently.

The scrying crystal slowly gave off light and a faint hum. After a while, a response finally came from within that glow. Tyrian’s figure hurriedly appeared in the light and grew clear.

“Lucy?” A voice came from the crystal. “Ah, I was just meeting several merchant delegates and didn’t notice the crystal—how are things on your side?”

“I’m fine.” Lucretia looked at her elder brother in the crystal. When she noticed the weariness on his face, she quietly put away the impatience she had felt from waiting so long. “It looks busy over there. You haven’t been resting much lately?”

“Honestly, things are already much better than before. At least I have a chance to finish my lunch at the table now,” Tyrian shrugged. Then he could not help glancing at the scene behind Lucretia, as if checking whether a certain person was in the picture. After a brief pause, he hesitated and asked: “Is Father… there with you?”

“Not right now. He’s busy with something else,” Lucretia answered, then added: “Stop being so nervous, Dad is very busy these days.”

“Oh.” Tyrian answered, then hesitated again and asked carefully: “These two days… how have you been getting along with him? Nothing happened, right? Do you need my help with anything?”

“Everything is fine,” Lucretia said casually. Then she thought for a moment and subtly turned her head so that the silver-white sea waves and feathered hair clip came into view. “He finally gave me this hair clip that’s a hundred years late. Somehow, it still looks brand new.”

Tyrian in the crystal froze. The worried look on his face stiffened. He stared blankly for a long moment before the corner of his mouth finally twitched: “…Huh?”

“He didn’t bring you a gift?” Lucretia turned her face back and asked very seriously.

Tyrian thought for a moment, pressed one hand to his forehead, and spoke in a tone of utter despair: “Sixteen shots of twenty?four pounders, three shots of thirty?two pounders, and I didn’t count the twelve pounders…”

Lucretia looked at him in silence for a long time before speaking softly: “You fired first.”

“…You called me just to say that?”

“Of course not.” Lucretia shook her head and finally spoke in a more serious tone: “I want you to pay attention to a few things in the near future. If anything happens, contact me at once.”

Tyrian became serious at once: “Pay attention to what?”

“Elves,” Lucretia said calmly. “If I remember correctly, Frostholm also has many elves who live there long term. The collaborative monitoring system between the Church, the Adventurers’ Association, and the city-state was just set up, and it hasn’t reacted yet, so I’m contacting you directly…”

…

At 99 Crown Street, in the back garden wrapped in trees, greenery, and walls that gave it a rather gloomy air, a burst of fire suddenly spread into a blazing doorway. Duncan and Alice stepped out of the gate.

Shirley, who had been spacing out while basking in the Sun in the backyard, jumped up at once and turned to run into the house—but after only two steps Duncan called her back: “What are you running for?”

Shirley stopped at once and froze in place. She turned her head and scratched her hair: “Right, what am I running for… Sorry, Captain, it was just reflex…”

“Always jumping at shadows,” Duncan frowned at the young lady. “Has Lucretia come back yet?”

“Not yet,” Shirley shook her head. “But Vanna and the old gentleman are back. They’re in the sitting room.”

Duncan nodded: “Good. Come in with me and let’s see what they found.”

“I’ll put these in the kitchen first,” Alice said as she walked off, holding a big wooden basin full of ingredients she had brought from the Vanished. “We can have fish soup tonight!”

Duncan gave the Doll a strange look. It seemed that inside Alice’s head there was a steady little logic tree of her own. No matter how big things became around her, as long as the Vanished didn’t blow up on the spot, she could calmly follow her own rhythm—going back to the Vanished to fetch fish, heading to the kitchen to cook…

Duncan even suddenly suspected that even if the Vanished really did explode right there, as long as he was still standing in front of this Doll, she would, after reacting, still stare blankly and ask what he wanted for dinner that night.

But that was not a bad thing. In this restless world, Duncan felt it was actually nice to have a Doll at his side who always only cared about what kind of soup they would simmer that night.

A short while later, Duncan arrived in the sitting room. Vanna and Morris, who had just finished a day of work in the city, were reporting what they had learned.

“…As things look now, the whole city-state seems to have been affected last night. That includes the local elven residents and the other races living in the city—no one noticed the change. As for the people who work at night, there seems to be a certain degree of ‘cognitive confusion’…”

Vanna sat on the sofa and gave her report from the point of view of a professional inquisitor.

“In the morning I spoke with several artificers who had just come home from their shift at the steam pump house,” she continued. “During our talks, I found they didn’t remember the details of their night watch work last night, yet they still felt that everything had been normal and nothing had happened all night. Their minds were clear, but they had no awareness of the contradictions in their own words, as if…”

Vanna hesitated, as if searching for the right words, then went on: “As if they were still steeped in a ‘waking dream’.”

“So you’re saying that the people who were asleep at night all went through a dreamless night, while the people who worked at night ‘lost’ a piece of time out of nowhere and yet still felt everything was normal?” Duncan could not help asking as he listened to Vanna’s report. “Did you try to check the deeper layers of their mental state? Any signs of spiritual corruption?”

“I used some divine magic from the Deep Sea Church, but didn’t push it too far,” Vanna nodded. “After a first check, there are no signs of corruption on them. They just… ‘naturally formed wrong perceptions and memories’.”

Duncan rubbed his chin, thought for a moment, then raised his head and looked at Morris, who sat on the other sofa.

“I went to see a few old friends and told them about last night’s change. The academy has already begun its own investigation and is working on countermeasures. If Miss Lucretia’s side goes smoothly, the whole official response system of Lightwind Harbor will start moving,” Morris nodded. “But from what we know now, once the influence of the Nameless One’s dream grows stronger, everyone in the city-state will be affected. The only ones who can stay clear-headed and act inside or outside the dream will be you and those of us who follow you—and the academy and the city authorities won’t find it easy to move.

“Besides that, I also found several scholars who know elven traditional culture and legends well. I asked them for more details about the Great Demon God Saslokar, the world tree Atlantis, and the ‘Dream of Creation’. During that, I discovered something… rather interesting.”

Duncan grew curious at once: “Something interesting?”

“Yes,” Morris nodded. “In some narrative poems that few people know, there is a passage that goes like this—

‘Saslokar created the world’s first dream, yet He did not know what a dream was;

Mortals named it a dream, and so He became confused;

And then the Dreamless were born from His confusion…’”