Chapter 15

Roonie, the clockwork doll, looked at Duncan, who had suddenly drifted off, with a hint of worry. After a few seconds, she couldn't help but turn to Alice next to her, "What's wrong with the old master?"

Alice, however, wore a "this is normal" expression, comforting her new friend, "It's okay, he's just daydreaming. The captain often daydreams..."

Roonie was taken aback. "Is that so?"

The conversation between the two dolls reached Duncan's ears. He finally blinked, gradually returning to reality from his memories.

After a moment of silence, Duncan raised his hand, slowly pinching his brow with his fingers, using his lowered eyelids to conceal the emotions surging in his eyes. Complex and chaotic thoughts still swirled in his mind. He was still recalling the past, even wishing he could dig out every day he could remember, starting from the most distant childhood moment, and lay them out before him.

He finally realized his dreamless past, and noticed the corner of his subconscious that he had always overlooked. However, he had to break free from this tangled mess of memories and thoughts, focusing his attention on the "reality" before him.

He raised his head, looking at Alice, who was staring straight at him, and the clockwork doll next to her, who still looked a little nervous.

"I'm fine," Duncan said softly, "I just suddenly remembered something..."

He paused, looking into Alice's eyes and asking, "Where were we?"

"We were just talking about how Roonie and I might have been left on the 'inside' of the Dream of the Notables because 'dolls don't dream'," Alice replied immediately, "and then you were discussing why you were also left there..."

Duncan raised his head, his silver hair blown by the wind. The wind, damp and mixed with sand, swept across the land incessantly, causing him to narrow his eyes slightly.

And as she stepped into the night, Vanna began to carefully communicate with the temporary marks she had left over the years on the "other side" of the dream, attempting to call her superiors.

A bizarre, dark red fissure covered the sky, its ominous red edges filled with swirling, hazy mist. Above the sky, as far as the eye could see, was nothing but yellow sand and giant rocks.

This indicated that the "rules" of the Dream of the Notables were changing. Over time, its scope and influence were expanding, while a set of dream entry mechanisms for "filtering" had been established, like some kind of self-protection.

"I understand," Duncan said as he stepped forward, continuing to walk ahead, "What about the others?"

"They have no way of knowing," Duncan said to Alice and Roonie, nodding.

Of course, she wasn't walking aimlessly. Her goal was the distant, flat shadow, those things that looked like jagged rocks, but also like city ruins.

No matter how the Dream of the Notables continued to grow, Vanna had to find a way around its "self-protection mechanism" in order to intervene further in this vast dream. And her intuition told her that the eerie Ghost Ship sailing in the fog was the most likely point of breakthrough for the Dream of the Notables' "self-protection mechanism."

A few seconds later, the Storm Saint sighed.

She subconsciously stopped, concentrating on listening to the voice that suddenly appeared in the depths of her consciousness. After a moment, she heard the voice become clearer—it was the captain.

Under the chaotic night sky woven by the "sunlight" and the creation of the world, the streets of the city-state were as strangely noisy as ever. Vanna and the two dolls left the now silent sorceress's mansion and walked into the night where the city and forest intertwined.

"Sand, stone, a way of knowing, a way of knowing weather—it seems like everyone's 'location' for entering the Dreamless Dream hasn't changed much. I'm still in this desert. Honestly, I don't like this place very much..."

"We're going to find another Ghost Ship," Vanna slowed down and said, glancing back slightly.

"Little Sister Lucrezia found that strange rabbit? Our 'landing point' is together? The 'combinations' of the others are the same as last time?" Duncan's footsteps paused for a moment, as if he had thought of something. "It seems... there really are rules to how we enter this dream..."

"Can you?" Duncan immediately replied in his mind, unconsciously relieved. "That's great, it seems your arrangement worked."

"Yes, it seems that their positions for entering the forest are almost the same as last time," Vanna said, inquiring about Duncan's situation. "How is it on your end?"

She had once again come to this desert—this boundless, already dead, withered land.

"Being 'unable to dream' might just be one factor. The mechanism of the Dream of the Notables can't be so easily understood, and it's likely in a state of flux..."

Drawing coolness from the greatsword, Duncan stepped into the wind and sand, heading in a certain direction.

This time, he had to be very careful, learn from the lessons of the last time in that dark, misty space, and use the power of fire with caution to prevent... awakening Sylandis in the dream.

...

Vanna said slowly, while at the same time, she recalled the dream that Talan-Eil the scholar had fallen into—

Duncan temporarily put aside the messy thoughts in his mind. He breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time concentrated his spirit, sensing the "marks" he had left on the others—

The fire mark left in advance had worked—although it only strengthened the connection somewhat, Vanna could now indeed sense Duncan's state more clearly, and should even be able to establish communication with them.

As he walked, Duncan suddenly felt a movement in his heart.

"The others are gathered in the depths of this forest, and the personnel combinations are basically the same as last time. Sherry and Ah-Gou are together, and Nina and Morris are together," Vanna told Duncan about the current situation of the others. "Also, Lucy successfully found the rabbit Rabbi before entering the dream—they almost 'landed' in the same place."

Feeling the heavy weight of the greatsword, Duncan nodded in satisfaction.

"Yes, as expected," Vanna's voice continued, "I have to contact them carefully now, and can't rashly transmit too much power—based on what I learned last time, Sylandis, who is sleeping in the depths of the Dream of the Notables, doesn't seem to like my fire very much."

Heavy Wind Harbor had already quieted down. The world after entering the dream had replaced reality, just as Vanna had predicted. The hurried preparations of the city-state authorities and academy guardians had failed to work. Now, the only lucid ones left in this city were himself and Duncan.

The boundless desert in this dream was humid and cold. It wasn't a comfortable environment for a Storm God's follower, but fortunately, his power as a saint of the Deep Sea Church still worked here. Dreams couldn't block God-given power, which could at least make his trek a little easier.

That "spectacle" had once again appeared outside the window—as the influence of the Dream of the Notables invaded reality, lush forest plants once again covered the city-state. The towering canopies of continuous trees obscured the sky, and the districts beneath the giant trees were shadowy, a mix of reality and illusion.

What next? Would this vast "dream" continue to grow? Would its coverage expand again? How would its self-protection mechanism change?

Jumping flames passed through the border between reality and illusion, through the ancient, hidden curtain of dreams. In another distant dimension, at the intersection of time and space that reason could hardly describe, Vanna "saw" these dancing flames.

"We're going to the place where that vine appeared before," Vanna said lightly, turning to head toward the mansion's front door, "to see if it will still appear in the same place."

Looking at the distant, hazy silhouettes of the giant rocks, Duncan took a slight breath and reached out to gather the wind—a wisp of water vapor condensed from the damp wind and sand in a way that defied common sense, dissolving into a chilling greatsword in his hand.

Oh, and this time there was a clockwork doll.

Duncan stopped and looked up at the endless sand before him.

"Expedition?" Roonie subconsciously followed Alice and Vanna, but her head was clearly still a bit slow to catch up. "What are we going to do?"

The captain's calm and powerful voice echoed in her mind: "Duncan, can you hear me?"

Alice immediately breathed a sigh of relief. "Ah, that's good... so what do we do next?"

Vanna raised her head, her gaze passing through the window nearby, looking at the street shrouded in the chaotic night outside.

Because the "sea chart" on that ship showed that it was actually very likely sailing in the skies above the forest in the Dream of the Notables.

"Good!" Alice immediately agreed, then reached out to pull up the slightly dazed Roonie. "Let's go, let's go on an expedition with the captain!"

The Dream of the Notables had once again appeared in the real world, and Vanna was going to verify many of her assumptions this time—the "enhanced temporary marks" left on Duncan and Morris were just one of her many assumptions, only to strengthen the connection between herself and her superiors. What she was more concerned about was whether the Ghost Ship sailing in darkness and mist would reappear.

While pondering, Alice's voice suddenly came from the side, reaching Vanna's ears: "Captain, how are the others doing? Can you feel them on your end?"

Without a doubt, what Talan-Eil had fallen into back then was also the "Dream of the Notables", but that should have been the "shallow layer" of the entire dream, and the Dream of the Notables itself should have been in its early stages at that time. At that time, he could still enter the inside of the dream relatively clearly by relying on the mark he had left on Heidi, rather than being blocked on the real world side as he was now.