Chapter 794: Good Dreams
When Roland opened his eyes, he felt the weight on his arm.
Gently turning his head, Anna's peaceful and serene sleeping face came into view—she was lying on her side, her head resting in the crook of his arm, the corners of her mouth slightly upturned, as if she were having a sweet dream.
Fortunately... he could still escape the dream world in this way.
Roland carefully extracted his arm, turned over, and got up. After covering Anna with the quilt, he tiptoed out of the room.
Descending the stairs, the soldiers stationed at the entrance hastily stood up and saluted him.
He waved his hand, indicating that they didn't need to mind, and walked step by step to the first-floor hall.
Then Roland saw Phyllis.
The latter stood in the center of the hall, a trace of loss on her face. She lowered her head, repeatedly examining her clenched hands, as if still savoring the moment when her limbs regained sensation.
It seemed the former was the answer.
The dream world was still under the control of his consciousness.
When he woke up, the world would freeze, and outsiders who entered it would be forcibly expelled.
"Your Majesty, I..." Seeing Roland, she pursed her lips, trying to squeeze out a smile, "My dream is over."
It was evident that, for a moment, the God's Punishment Witch would rather be trapped in the dream forever—originally, because there was no choice, in order to continue fighting the devils, she had to transform into an immortal, but the price paid became increasingly high as time went by. Now, facing the temptation of a brand-new world, it was not surprising that she wavered.
However, in the end, she suppressed this emotion. Perhaps it was for the sake of her compatriots in Taqila, perhaps it was out of obsession with the devils, or perhaps both. But whatever it was, this powerful self-discipline impressed Roland.
"Not necessarily yet," he smiled. "The test is only half completed. We need to confirm the second half before we can know whether this is an accident or an inevitable occurrence after the light columns overlap... Let's continue here."
Phyllis was slightly stunned. "Aren't you going back to the bedroom?"
"To avoid waking Anna," Roland shook his head. "Anyway, the castle has heating. Sleeping in the drawing room is the same." He beckoned to a guard and gave a few instructions. The latter widened his eyes in surprise, but still faithfully carried out his order.
Half an hour later, a layer of soft padding and bedding was laid on the long table in the drawing room.
Thus, a group of completely bewildered soldiers guarded the drawing room tightly, leaving only Roland inside. Phyllis stayed with everyone in the hall, waiting for the appearance of the light column.
It must be said that falling asleep a second time was indeed more difficult, especially when the answer to the puzzle was about to be revealed.
Roland tossed and turned for a long time until the sky was faintly white before he fell asleep.
The new world instantly resumed operation.
To his surprise, this time the time in the dream was not forcibly moved to the next morning. The scene outside the window was still the colorful neon night scene, the ladder was still placed at the head of the bed, and Phyllis's eyes were gradually regaining their brilliance, then, as if suddenly awakening from a daze, she looked down at Roland in disbelief.
"Your Majesty, is... is this real? Am I not dreaming?"
He couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth.
The answer was self-evident.
What was a dream and what was reality might no longer be important to the God's Punishment Witch.
What mattered was that, after bearing hundreds of years of suffering and responsibility, she had finally received her reward.
……
This time, the two only stayed in the dream world for a very short time.
Roland originally thought that she would eagerly go out for another walk, but he didn't expect that the first thing she did was to bend down on one knee and beg him to allow her to tell this news to her other companions, that the Taqila survivors would forever remember his kindness and do their best to serve him.
Faced with this request, Roland rarely gave an immediate response.
It wasn't that he had any objections to the witches of Taqila, but he didn't know how to support so many people. More importantly, Phyllis alone could make Zero highly suspicious. He couldn't possibly say that the more than a hundred extra witches were all distant relatives.
As the second creator of the dream world, Roland was absolutely unwilling to involve the little girl in these matters. If she noticed something wrong with this world, the changes that would occur were unpredictable. In order to be on the safe side, the witches of Taqila must not stay at home.
Then he needed a place to house many witches, such as an entire apartment building, plus daily expenses for food and clothing. This expense was obviously not a small amount.
After thinking for a while, Roland finally decided to let the witches solve this problem themselves.
The momentary silence probably made Phyllis misunderstand his meaning. She bit her lip, folded her other leg as well, knelt down on both knees, and begged again. This posture had exceeded the limits of Taqila witch etiquette and was only used when ordinary people met the highest-ranking members of the Union. Roland tried to pull her up, but she insisted on doing so, only asking him not to refuse those companions entry to the new world.
Only then did he notice her misunderstanding. With a wry smile, he slowly explained his plans. Phyllis breathed a long sigh of relief.
In fact, for Roland, accepting the Taqila survivors was not as difficult a question to decide as she thought.
In the dream world, they were not a group of God's Punishment Army with only brute force, but witches with various divine abilities who were not restricted by the God's Stone of Retribution.
With such a group of people as helpers, not to mention that the methods and efficiency of exploring the dream world could be greatly improved, just having someone to help memorize and transcribe knowledge would benefit him immensely. In the long run, they might also be able to study various fields of knowledge and use modern equipment to study the essence of magic. Of course, the most important thing was that even after the end of the Battle of Divine Will, the Taqila witches could find a foothold in the new world.
After leaving the dream, Phyllis couldn't even wait for the sky to fully brighten before taking her leave from Roland in a hurry, heading excitedly towards the Third Border City.
The latter, yawning, returned to the bedroom.
Crawling into the warm bed and holding Anna in his arms again, the girl also opened her sleepy eyes at this time, muttering vaguely, "You woke up so early today?"
"Yeah, took a stroll in the dream world," he kissed her forehead. "Then I encountered some unexpected things and couldn't fall back asleep."
"Oh?" The girl's breath was like soft feathers, gently brushing against his neck. "Was it a good dream?"
"Of course," Roland changed into a comfortable position, letting her rest her head in the crook of his arm again. "For everyone, it will be a good dream."