Chapter 35
I gnawed on my lip, trying hard to remember something more, and a sudden headache began to surge.
As I blinked once more from the pain that felt like my head was splitting open…
The location had changed again.
I scrunched one eye shut from the lingering pain and quickly turned my head to assess the situation. But even that slight movement made my vision swirl as if my vestibular system had malfunctioned, forcing me to squeeze my eyes shut tightly.
Just then, a voice came from the front.
“Oh dear, look back there. Our @@i and @@i are leaning on each other, asleep.”
“Hahaha. I knew they’d be too excited to sleep properly.”
At the sound of those familiar voices, my eyes, which had been shut, flew open. I immediately began to rapidly scan my surroundings.
Inside a car heading somewhere.
The faint glimpse of the ocean outside the window.
The familiar voices coming from the driver and passenger seats.
I knew this place.
In an instant, as I remembered something, I scrambled up from my seat and began to shout.
“…Stop. Pull the car over right now!!”
My resonant voice filled the space, but to them, it was nothing but an unreachable echo.
But I didn’t give up and shouted even louder.
“Stop, I said! Can’t you hear me? Pull over, quickly!!”
HOOONK
A sudden horn blast sounded like thunder.
Simultaneously, an intense headache slammed into my mind, and my whole body began to shake uncontrollably.
“Kkh… We have… to stop the car… now… Khuk…”
The very moment I clutched my head, which felt ready to burst, and screamed with difficulty,
A mysterious voice whispered in my mind.
‘Stop. This is far enough.’
As that utterly indifferent voice pierced my brain like a sharp dagger, the headache pressing on my mind vanished as if by magic.
“What? Who? Who on earth is speaking…?”
Just then, a system window appeared.
[<System> Blocking Lunatis’s ‘Dream Illusion Art’ to protect the player.]
As the window appeared, the space I was in, the world itself… began to shatter into pieces as if a pane of glass was breaking.
I stared blankly at the crumbling world. Soon, my mind grew distant, and my eyelids grew heavy as if weighted down with lead.
“…You.”
For a moment, I had the illusion of making eye contact with the girl who was sound asleep in the car, but I soon sank into a deep, dark unconsciousness.
[<System> Escaping the ‘Forgotten Space of the Unconscious’.]
“Dammit, why isn’t it working?”
Lunatis was deeply perplexed. No matter how many times she tried to peer into the foal’s dreams, the deeper she looked, the more blurred it became, as if obscured by fog.
“This is a first for me…”
Lunatis decided to try accessing the dream once more. She closed her eyes, placed a hand on the foal’s head, and just as the moon mark on her forehead shone brilliantly and the entrance to the dream began to slowly reveal itself…
‘If you peek any further, I will erase you.’
A threatening voice echoed in her mind. Startled by the voice, Lunatis hastily removed her hand from the foal’s head.
“W-what? Who’s there!”
But the voice was heard no more.
Lunatis’s entire body trembled involuntarily. It was an instinctive fear. For that brief moment when the voice echoed, she even had the illusion of an invisible shackle being clamped around her neck.
Lunatis had a premonition that the owner of that voice was an absolute being, powerful enough to annihilate her in an instant.
“T-this won’t do…”
Lunatis’s ability was ‘Dream Manipulation’. She had brought animals here to protect them from vile humans, but the pure and innocent animals soon missed their owners. Because of this, they often got hurt while trying to escape.
So, Lunatis began to manipulate the animals’ dreams. She stole their happy memories and covered them with painful ones. Since happy memories for animals were usually the times spent with their owners, she twisted those memories to make the animals feel as if they had been abandoned by them.
While some animals conformed to this, there were others who, despite feeling abandoned, still yearned for their owners.
Seeing this filled Lunatis with rage. It was like looking at her former self.
So, for those particular children, she specially showed them dreams of their happy memories with their owners and planted a suggestion.
‘If you stay here, I’ll let you have only happy dreams.’
After repeating this dream whisper for several days, the animals gradually became captivated by the ecstatic dreams.
“…If you live in a dream, you won’t be abandoned anymore.”
As the memories she wanted to forget surfaced, Lunatis’s eyes grew deeply sunken.
‘You damn filthy cat. Why don’t you just get lost? Ugh, you’re so unlucky…’
‘Oh my, look over there. It’s a black cat. Ugh, how ominous, how ominous…’
‘Heyah, take this! Ahaha! A direct hit! Bullseye!’
Lunatis hated humans. Her childhood was filled with memories of being tormented by them. Even just walking down the street normally, humans would call her an ominous black cat, throw stones, or set traps on paths she frequented, never hesitating to do such despicable things.
“Sophia… I thought you were different.”
Sophia was quite different from other humans. She tenderly cared for Lunatis when she was hurt and brought her food. Moreover, contrary to Lunatis’s expectation that she would only do it once or twice, Sophia consistently came to find her every time.
But even so, Lunatis never allowed herself to get close to Sophia. No, she hadn’t.
That day, just like usual, some humans were tormenting her. Lately, one human boy in particular had been persistently bullying her, so Lunatis was on high alert.
‘Haaaaah.’
‘Gerald, stop bothering the cat! Why do you keep picking on it?!’
‘Sophia, aren’t you going to move? If you don’t move, I’ll throw it at you! Here, take this!’
‘Ugh, kitty. I’ll protect you!’
Sophia willingly took the stone for her. A human like this was truly a first in her life.
Lunatis, staggering as if about to fall from the hit, was drawn to Sophia, who was reaching out her hand towards her.
One step, then another.
When she finally reached Sophia’s side, the girl carefully stroked Lunatis and gave her a bright smile.
‘Hehe, thank you for coming to me.’
In that moment, an indescribable warmth was felt deep in Lunatis’s heart. A blissful sensation of finally being complete. Feeling this, Lunatis thought.
She wished… Sophia would smile by her side forever.
After that day, Lunatis and Sophia met at the same spot every day.
In a place that was just for the two of them, where no other human could interfere.
‘Huh… Kitty, why are you turning white?’
‘Meow.’
As Lunatis thought about how she wanted to become a friend Sophia could be proud of, her black fur began to turn white. It was a phenomenon created by her earnest wish.
Lunatis finally felt she had gained the qualification to stand proudly by Sophia’s side.
Surely, that’s how it was.
“Just why…”
Lunatis, recalling the old memory, murmured pitifully.
“Why did you abandon me, Sophia?”
“Zoe, will you… accept this?”
What Lunatis shyly held out was a bouquet. Although it was a ‘carrot bouquet’, made by bundling carrots instead of flowers.
Anyway, the fact that she was on one knee, presenting the carrot bouquet with a reverent expression, created a lovey-dovey atmosphere as if it were a marriage proposal.
Haha, why this sudden dating-sim atmosphere…
Avoiding the beautiful heterochromatic eyes gleaming with different hues, I sank into thought.
Last time too, the game system showed movements to protect me immediately when I was in danger.
Just why is the system trying to protect me?
Because I’m the player of the game?
Or because this is a game aimed at the player’s ‘healing’?
Why did I fall into this game in the first place?
Even though I’m not normally a deep thinker, I let out a small sigh at the endless chain of questions.
‘…Dream Illusion Art, was it?’
The Dream Illusion Art I saw in the system message. It seems Lunatis has some ability related to dreams.
In that case, it means everything about me watching that strange girl was all just a dream.
Ha, what an incredible dream that was…
