The burden of Penka’s bold decision now fell on Ben.
“I understand what you intend to do. Assuming we succeed and access Haimar’s subconscious, how do we convey anything when we don’t even know where we are?”
A simple request for help could also be made by Pinca, who remained in the capital, Central.
What Ben needed to convey to ensure effective aid was this location.
A hundred pleas for help would be useless if the location was unknown.
Ben and Penka didn’t have a GPS tracker or a phone for location tracking, and it would be helpful if they could at least look at the weather outside to deduce the region, but the windowless space didn’t even allow for that.
“A dream is not a space for verbal communication. Just convey your true self, Ben.”
What kind of “What color is red?” nonsense is that?
“You’ll do it, Ben, won’t you? There’s no more time for explanation. It’s not easy to hold Roilnia.”
“…I have to. This is the most viable option we have, isn’t it?”
Alright, it’s all or nothing anyway.
There was no other plan besides the method Penka suggested.
If this was the plan with the highest likelihood of success among those available, he had to go for it without hesitation.
He decided to worry about Penka’s strange words after he met Haimar.
She must have meant that things would work out somehow.
The moment Ben agreed, Penka comfortably laid him down and covered his eyes with her hands.
Ben mentally prepared himself for her hands, which induced a dream without hesitation.
Penka leaned down and whispered into his ear.
“Ben, everything will come true in the dream.”
He certainly hoped that would be the case.
[Sleep well. See you later.]
Penka’s voice faded away into the distance.
With the exhaustion rushing in like a tidal wave, Ben closed his eyes.
…What is this?
Ben’s eyes flew open.
The process of connecting to the dream was extremely short.
He felt like he had just fallen asleep from sheer fatigue and then immediately woke up again.
For all the commotion he expected for entering a dream, it was surprisingly similar to reality.
Yet, it was still a dream; his faintly buoyant body and luminous, transparent form hinted that this was a different world from the reality just moments ago.
Crucially, the biggest difference was that the bruises from Central and the knife wound on his thigh no longer hurt.
So, he must have entered the dream correctly…
But shouldn’t something start to happen usually?
Since everything around him was pitch-black and he couldn’t see anything, he had no idea what to do.
The surroundings were endlessly black, and Ben was the only one glowing brightly like a lamp.
After leaping forward a few times, his body bounded lightly, as if gravity had lessened.
While flailing his arms and legs in the much lighter gravitational state, Ben decided to just walk forward, seizing the momentum.
As he jumped about one or two meters with each stride, a tiny ball of light suddenly appeared in his view, causing Ben to stop.
“…?”
The small orb of light, looking like a firefly, circled around Ben’s body.
Then, as if telling him to follow, it flew past Ben.
When Ben stood there, unsure whether to follow obediently, the light came back and buzzed distractingly near his face.
‘Could it be Penka?’
The thought of Penka suddenly crossed Ben’s mind.
Although this firefly couldn’t speak and didn’t have a proper physical form, he thought it might be the minimal assistance Penka had arranged to guide him to Haimar’s subconscious.
After a brief contemplation, Ben concluded the firefly was Penka and aimlessly followed the light that led the way again.
He kept walking and walking through the darkness, thankful that his stamina wasn’t depleted in the dream.
“…See you in hell, Roilnia Lanilgraph.”
Someone’s frail voice echoed from the deep abyss.
The moment Ben registered the voice, the utterly black surroundings abruptly shifted and began to take shape.
The continuous scenes passing by were like the film of a black and white movie.
Ben was plunged into the flood of countless memory reels, watching the sights flow through his transparent body.
People devoid of color appeared, and among them was a woman with uniquely red hair.
The woman, whose appearance Ben was familiar with, laughed maniacally, then got angry, threw away something attached to her ear, and stormed out of the room.
The people left behind shook their heads.
“Your compatibility with the control device seems to be getting worse by the day. It’s rare, but these cases do exist. We need to find a Guide soon, but none are appearing…”
He had figured it out already, but this was within Roilnia’s nightmare.
A source of memories compiling everything the woman resented.
The scene quickly rewound and stopped, as if the fast-forward button had been pressed.
Then, it played a different scene. In this one, Roilnia was holding someone’s hand.
They were sitting across from each other for guiding.
The woman smiling warmly opposite her was a girl with a graceful look, her long straight hair braided into one.
“My name is Hwiren Legius. I’m so happy to be your Irregular Guide.”
The girl smiled shyly and started the guiding, but not long after, the woman pulled her hand away, rushed out of the room, and headed for the restroom.
The woman was soon seen gripping the toilet bowl, continuously retching. Hwiren, the girl who followed Roilnia in, was deeply distressed, her face full of worry.
“Ah, the guiding isn’t finished yet.”
“I don’t need it!”
“But you should do a little more—”
“I said I don’t need it! Are you daring to pity me?”
“No! Please don’t say that!”
“Why? What reason do I have to cater to your sensibilities? Because you’re a Guide? Do you think you’re someone important?”
At the harsh words, the girl left the restroom with a hurt expression.
The screen darkened again.
As Penka predicted, the dream was a messy video clip, awkwardly stitched together and mixed with the nightmare.
The navigation system toward Haimar’s subconscious seemed to have temporarily malfunctioned, as the guiding firefly was now just floating still beside Ben, unmoving.
Unable to tell where to go, Ben was stuck in this black-and-white footage until the firefly found the landmark again.
Frankly, Ben wasn’t curious about Roilnia’s nightmare, nor did he want to watch it.
The video, which played consistently regardless of Ben’s will, mainly showed scenes where Hwiren Legius, that is, Hoaphilen Legius’s daughter, and Roilnia argued in a similar manner repeatedly.
The two clawed at each other every time they met.
Whenever Hwiren tried to guide Roilnia, the woman fiercely rejected her and hurled insults.
“Don’t guide me. I will become perfect on my own, as an Esper.”
“I’ve never seen someone who claims to be perfect actually be perfect. A person can’t do everything alone!”
“Who are you to lecture me? A mere F-rank Guide acting so haughtily. Don’t meddle rudely!”
The woman and the girl were always like this. With every scene change, Hwiren Legius wilted further.
“You make me imperfect. If it weren’t for you, if you hadn’t appeared! I can become complete on my own! Don’t pollute me like filth!”
Roilnia Lanilgraph violently batted away the approaching hand.
The woman found the peaceful sensation of guiding unbearably repulsive.
It was more than unfamiliar—it was terrifyingly shudder-inducing.
An evil spirit seemed to settle inside her, whispering for her to trust her body.
It felt like mold was spreading from a corner of her mind, making her feel like she was ceasing to be herself.
It was a flaw that marred her, who always had to be perfect.
It was an intolerable defect that would not disappear unless the Guide named Hwiren Legius disappeared.
The girl’s existence made Roilnia herself incomplete, fueling her anger.
She always questioned why a mere Guide had to be above her.
Roilnia preferred shining alone much more than dividing her worth with a Guide.
She wanted to monopolize everything good.
She didn’t want help from others, not even for the weakness that Espers inevitably carried: guiding.
To achieve this, she had to become an Esper who didn’t need a Guide, no matter the cost.
She vowed to become a strong being who didn’t rely on weak humans, standing above the foolish Espers captured by Guides in the distant future, forcing them to look up to her.
“Someone like you should just die.”
Roilnia cursed with genuine sincerity.
The woman’s deep curse surrounded and echoed through Hwiren.
The girl was tainted by the witch’s condemnation, losing herself.
At this rate, it wouldn’t be surprising if she was killed by Roilnia.
It was clear that the woman would definitely erase Hwiren’s existence from the world for the sake of her own flawlessness.
The shadow of death constantly hid at the girl’s feet, targeting her life.
Eventually, Hwiren Legius came to genuinely despise the woman.
What the girl desired was nothing grand.
Hwiren merely dreamt of meeting a suitable Esper someday, settling down, and becoming a truly helpful Guide, given that she was an F-rank Guide with no assigned Esper.
If she was at fault for anything, it was only for being thrilled when she happened to meet Roilnia and heard that she was an Irregular.
The woman only refused and never looked directly at Hwiren.
She was only busy defaming and disparaging the girl, never giving her a chance to understand or share her heart.
