Oh, why is this happening?
What was even stranger was the extremely slow afterimage of the cigarette butt as it weakly fell from Roilnia’s lips.
It was bizarre that the moment the cigarette, which should have dropped to the floor in less than a second, spun and burned while tracing a path of murky smoke, was visible in such meticulous detail.
Why is Roilnia standing still like a statue?
“Ben.”
Shouldn’t she have started doing something to fix her arm?
Ah, did someone just call me?
Penka’s voice, calling from right beside him, sounded as if she were speaking from a great distance.
His thigh hurt, yes, but the pain felt dulled, as if wrapped in a layer of skin.
It was like watching a TV screen, peering through a barrier, completely lacking the vividness of a real-life event.
“Ben!”
His body was weak, like an invertebrate, and his limbs felt flaccid.
Penka struggled to gently adjust the position of Ben, who had nearly collapsed and was practically sprawled on the floor.
She then scurried away and stomped on the cigarette butt, which hadn’t been fully extinguished.
‘Damn it, there’s something in that smoke.’
Watching Penka hastily put out the cigarette and return, Ben realized the reason for this phenomenon.
Looking back, something had felt off ever since the woman blew the smoke right into his face.
It was more than just rude behavior; it was a cunning ploy directed at Ben.
Whatever her goal was, if he lost consciousness like this, there was no telling what might happen.
Ben desperately stuck out his tongue, which was one of the few things he could still move, intending to bite it to regain his senses.
“Ben, you’ll hurt yourself. Don’t!”
He could hear Penka saying something beside him, but there was no time to delay.
He vaguely tasted blood in his mouth, but his jaw muscles wouldn’t clench properly, so he couldn’t feel the pain fully.
Ben stuck his tongue out further, determined to bite down hard.
This was an act of self-harm that could potentially be life-threatening, but he was so frantic to regain consciousness that he didn’t have time to consider it.
His mind, stiffened by the suspicious cigarette smoke, interfered with flexible thinking.
Penka’s obstructing fingers felt only like an annoyance.
—A sharp throb!!
“Ugh!”
In that instant, his left ankle started to hurt terribly.
The sudden pain, which came without warning before he could bite his tongue, snapped him back to his senses.
Even the wound on his thigh, cut by the knife, felt like a faint ache, but the pain in his uninjured ankle was indescribable.
The lightning-like pain, which felt intent on shattering his left ankle, lingered like an afterimage, throbbing numbly.
Thanks to it, his consciousness, which had been slowly drifting away, was just barely salvaged.
“Ben! Are you awake? I was about to just put you to sleep, but thankfully it didn’t come to that.”
“…I almost did something truly reckless. Thank you.”
Starting with the pain in his ankle, his senses gradually began to return, and the metallic taste of blood from his wounded tongue circulated.
He could now properly feel the pain in his thigh, too.
He never thought his sometimes-aching ankle would be helpful in a situation like this.
He didn’t know if he should be happy about it, but in any case, he would have been in serious trouble without this pain.
On the one hand, he felt both worry and wonder.
He couldn’t figure out the source of this mysterious ankle pain that would suddenly appear and then vanish.
There was no specific reason that triggered the pain; it truly came and went randomly.
The symptom of strong pain that appeared and disappeared, strong enough to awaken his mind even in the midst of this suspicious smoke that rapidly stole his consciousness, was utterly mysterious.
In any case, let’s look on the bright side for now.
The priority was overcoming the current situation; worrying about other things as well would only make his head explode.
“That cigarette smoke earlier seems like some kind of temporary psychoactive drug. It’s okay for Penka, but it’s dangerous for Ben. Don’t inhale it as much as possible until the smoke completely disappears.”
Ben, determined to head straight to the infirmary if they survived this ordeal, quietly pulled up the sleeve of his jacket to cover his mouth.
Since he was already suffering multiple injuries and didn’t have the ability to filter out only oxygen, he had to protect himself in this way.
With his other arm, Ben waved at the air to disperse the faint residual smoke and then noticed how silent Roilnia was.
“But why is that woman suddenly so quiet?”
“When Penka pushed her earlier, I forcibly trapped her in a nightmare. But Penka’s power alone has a limit on how long I can keep her caught in the nightmare. Her rank is high, so I don’t know when she will wake up.”
I see. This must have been the way Penka planned to buy time.
Just as Penka said, Roilnia, standing rigidly, had a very blurry focus in her eyes, indicating her consciousness was trapped somewhere.
The intermittent twitching of her hands and eyes made it look like she could wake up at any moment.
Seeing with his own eyes that the time Penka had bought was not infinite, Ben forced his aching leg to move, trying to stand up.
“Then let’s find a way to escape as quickly as possible. If we search thoroughly, something is bound to turn up, right?”
“How will Ben walk around with that leg?”
“…I’ll overcome it with sheer willpower.”
Ben scratched his neck awkwardly, embarrassed by his own words.
Logically, Ben knew he shouldn’t move carelessly in the heart of enemy territory.
The reasons were numerous.
They didn’t know what was inside the building, and there was no guarantee they could find a means of communication.
The iron door behind Roilnia seemed to beckon Ben and Penka as the only way out, but it was obviously wrapped in layers of locks and wouldn’t easily grant passage.
If they were to fall into a trap, that would also be a big problem.
But what other option was there?
“Don’t do that, Ben. Listen closely.”
Penka grabbed Ben, stopping him from getting up, and calmly continued speaking.
“Let’s have a lucid dream.”
Lucid dream.
The state of dreaming while being aware that one is dreaming.
It was a type of ability that the Rea Blam twins, Espers who freely traveled through dreams, could use.
However, although Ben knew the meaning of ‘lucid dream,’ he couldn’t precisely grasp Penka’s intention from that single phrase.
“Please elaborate.”
“I’ll use Ben as a medium to try and connect to Haimar’s subconscious as much as possible. Simply put, Ben will go into Haimar’s mind and call for an S.O.S.”
To summarize: Penka would guide Ben to enter the dream and access Haimar’s subconscious.
Ben, upon reaching Haimar, would inform him of the current situation and request help.
In the present circumstances, where mobility was difficult and there was no proper means to call for rescue, Penka’s clever idea seemed quite plausible.
However, there were a few major problems.
“Is that even possible? You said it doesn’t work well on Haimar.”
The twins’ specialty was traveling through dreams for fun or connecting dreams for exploration.
A prerequisite for this was minimal physical contact, like holding hands.
While Ben was right next to her, Haimar, who was not present, would need to have his subconscious accessed remotely without that prerequisite.
That was an obstacle in itself, but he was also the man the twins couldn’t successfully enter even when they seriously set their minds to it.
The Dream Esper readily admitted the possibility of failure.
“That’s right, I honestly can’t guarantee success. It’s very difficult for Penka alone to connect Ben’s dream and keep Roilnia trapped in the nightmare without Pinca. Even if we do access it, there’s a high probability it’ll be jumbled up with the nightmare.”
“What about Penka entering Pinca’s subconscious instead? That would have a much higher chance of success.”
Two yet one, one yet two.
They were Irregular twins who could instinctively feel each other’s safety even when separated.
Ben wondered why he, with a much higher chance of failure, had to enter the dream instead of Penka, especially since the two of them, having imprinted, would likely have a much closer connection between their subconscious minds than Ben and Haimar.
Despite Ben’s reasonable hypothesis, Penka firmly shook her head.
“Because Penka and Pinca must be one to be complete, the further the physical distance between us, the more restrictions there are on our abilities. One of those restrictions is that we can’t meet in a dream. And right now, I also have to keep Roilnia held, which makes it even harder.”
I see.
This was a problem he hadn’t even considered.
Then, the extremely faint nature of the message Penka sent him telepathically earlier was indeed due to them not being together.
Perhaps because they were Irregulars, the twins had many mysterious and difficult aspects that wouldn’t occur between ordinary Espers and Guides.
Since there was no comparative group, no one could know if this was normal or not, and Ben just had to accept it because Penka said so.
“Anyway, since Penka can’t enter the dream directly, Ben has to go in.”
“And I’ll be the medium.”
“Yes. It absolutely has to be Ben. Then I believe we can somehow access Haimar’s subconscious.”
Penka was focused on the unique specificity of Ben as an individual.
She could confidently say that no one else could easily access Haimar’s subconscious.
Ben was the sole exception.
As everyone knew, Haimar, who was a top-tier physical and mental Esper, had extremely strong defense mechanisms.
Nevertheless, she hoped that the high hurdle would be lowered just a little for the man he called his one-of-a-kind Guide and lover.
Even when lowered, it was still a high mountain, but Penka believed that Ben, having earned Haimar’s trust, could do it.
Therefore, Penka decided to go all-in on this slight possibility, believing in the sliver of hope, even if it was a long-shot gamble.
