Chapter 153: Turbulence (2)

When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by darkness.

Black wisps of light scattered and crumbled, creating a space of endless darkness.

I was the only one standing in that space, looking into the deep darkness.

Even as I stared blankly at the darkness, I felt a dull sensation throughout my body.

I tried to recall what had happened.

What was it?

As I searched my memory, the events of today at work flashed through my mind.

“Ah, today was tough.”

Today was more exhausting than usual.

I had a lot of work, a lot of nagging, and my body was drained when I got home.

And then, as soon as I got home, I dropped my stuff and collapsed on the bed.

The next thing I knew, I was facing this darkness.

I reached out slowly to the darkness that was swaying in front of me.

“Is this just a dream?”

The wisps of light moved along with my hand, leaving clear traces.

It felt like I was carving the darkness with my will.

It was an interesting sight.

The world that had nothing but darkness was moving with my touch.

“I feel like a god.”

It felt like I was the god of this whole space.

I was swinging the darkness in front of me alone for a while.

Then, suddenly, I felt a sensation of tilting.

The ground that I thought was there in the empty darkness collapsed.

As the world tilted, I felt a huge force of gravity pulling me from the side of my body.

“Are you having fun?”

At the same time as the black hair fluttered in front of my eyes, a familiar female voice echoed in my ears.

It was a very familiar voice.

It was the voice of the person who always met me at this time.

I slowly lifted my head and looked at the owner of the voice.

What I saw in the direction of my gaze was Estelle, wearing a black dress and looking down at me.

She stared at me with a blank expression.

“Estelle…?”

“Yeah. Long time no see.”

The fact that Estelle appeared meant one thing.

It was the same lucid dream as usual.

Except for one thing that was different from usual.

“What? Was it that kind of dream again?”

“That was the setting. Probably.”

“Then, why am I lying down like this?”

Estelle’s eyes met mine over my head.

I felt a soft sensation from the head that was resting on something.

It was not hard to figure out my posture from the direction of gravity.

I was lying on Estelle’s lap.

She looked at me calmly as I faced her.

“I’m thinking of letting you rest a bit. You looked tired today.”

“You said I looked tired?”

“Yeah. Weren’t you tired?”

Estelle’s slender finger stroked my forehead.

Beyond the split hair, I saw her intense black eyes.

My reflection was in her black eyes, lying on the bed.

Except for the fact that my body was weary and drowsy, I looked just like usual.

I didn’t look tired at all in the dream.

“Well, I am tired.”

“Then that’s good.”

“Yeah. It’s just a dream anyway, so if I’m tired, you must be tired too.”

That was my conclusion.

Estelle was a creation of my subconscious, wasn’t she?

It wasn’t strange that she could read my current state.

It seemed that my subconscious wanted some comfort from someone.

That’s why I was having this conversation with Estelle in the dream.

Instead of playing games as usual, I was talking to her like this.

“Well, not really…”

Of course, Estelle shook her head and denied what I said.

It looked like I was the only one who was tired.

It was funny when I thought about it. I was tired even in the dream because of my exhausted body.

My worn-out body couldn’t relax even in the dream.

“What if you’re not tired? It wouldn’t be bad to rest like this instead of playing games today.”

“Do you like talking?”

“I don’t hate it. As long as the other person is not a dream entity.”

Maybe it was because she heard me deny her existence.

Estelle twisted my bangs slowly and asked me why.

“Why? Do you hate talking to a dream entity?”

“It’s weird, isn’t it? If I’m talking to my subconscious, it’s the same as talking to myself, right?”

That’s true.

Talking to the latent consciousness inside me was no different from answering my own questions.

Not that I never talked to myself before.

Estelle pondered for a moment, then stretched her finger toward my sideburns and said.

“What if I’m not a dream entity?”

“What?”

“What if I’m not a dream entity, would you still think this is all useless talk?”

What if Estelle was not a dream entity?

How would I treat her then?

That was the question that Estelle posed to me.

Of course, if that was the case, I wouldn’t be able to look at her so calmly like this.

But this was ultimately a pointless question.

Who would believe that a dream entity was not a dream?

“Usually, fools say they are not fools.”

Thump.

Estelle’s finger tapped my forehead lightly.

Even though her finger had some force behind it, it didn’t hurt at all.

Rather, only a cold sensation remained faintly on my forehead.

Estelle, who tapped my forehead, looked down at me and asked.

“What about you? Are you a fool or not?”

“I’m… not a fool, but rather a genius who lost his potential.”

“Really?”

“If I had studied properly, I would have surpassed Einstein. Instead of you, Pythagoras would be sitting here and doing this.”

As I muttered nonsense while looking at her, Estelle raised one hand and covered her mouth.

Pfft.

She let out a short laugh and pushed back my bangs again.

The parting that was skewed to the left was now neatly split in half.

“Do you prefer having a world-renowned scholar doing this instead of me?”

“No. You’re better than those people.”

“That’s good then. Because you can beat those people.”

It felt like giving my bangs to the world-renowned scholars.

It was a chilling imagination just to think about it.

I quickly shook my head and blew away that thought from my mind.

And then, instead of that, I told her what I wanted to say when I met her.

“I actually had something to tell you.”

“What is it?”

“The first prize lottery number that I asked you last time. You told me the winning number for the last draw.”

“Really? Too bad you didn’t win the first prize.”

Estelle gave me a brief and formal answer with a calm expression.

Too bad?

It sounded like she was mocking me.

But I didn’t feel too bad since I won the third prize.

I also tried to edit and translate your text into English as a web novel editor. Here is my result:

“Next time, tell me the first prize number for this draw.”

“There won’t be a next time. That was our deal, remember?”

“You still remember that, huh?”

“Some people can remember all the lottery numbers.”

I chuckled at Estelle’s retort.

I thought anyone would memorize the lottery numbers.

It could change your life with one number, who would forget that?

Of course, Estelle seemed to have a different opinion than me.

“I had something I wanted to say too. Do you want to hear it?”

As we were exchanging jokes, Estelle suddenly became serious and spoke to me.

I looked at her with curiosity, seeing her changed expression.

Estelle, who told me something without any conditions.

That was unlike the Estelle I knew.

“You had something to say? Didn’t you usually ask me to win a game first?”

“I have some time left today, so I’ll just tell you something special.”

“If you say so… I’m lucky today. I get to hear your story for free.”

Estelle usually demanded a game for even a trivial talk.

And now I was listening to her story without playing a game.

It was a trivial thing, but it felt like a huge gain.

I nodded and accepted her offer, and Estelle came close to my ear and whispered.

“A storm is coming. You have to be careful.”

A storm is coming.

That one sentence made me shiver.

***

Above the sanctuary that was flying over the church.

There, Perin looked at Pluto who was polishing his magic.

Fairies and vampires.

They were different races that were almost opposite, but Perin didn’t have a bad relationship with Pluto.

Rather, they were two apostles who could say they got along better than the others.

Maybe it was because Perin was not human, Pluto treated her comfortably.

“Pluto. I think we have to go north this time.”

Perin was quite close to Pluto anyway.

She even delivered the mission that the church gave to Pluto through her.

Perin handed Pluto a fresh apple along with his mission, and Pluto put down her apple and asked her.

“Me? Personally? To the Alterias region?”

Alterias.

It was the first region that came to mind when thinking of the northern part of the empire.

Pluto shivered slightly as if he felt the cold already, after hearing Perin’s words.

Perin didn’t like the cold of the Alterias region either.

She had moved there a few times to carry the apostles, but fairies and cold weather were not compatible beings.

Seeing Pluto’s reluctant expression, Perin tilted her head and asked him.

“Do vampires have trouble with the cold?”

“Not really, but…”

“Then it’s fine!”

“…”

Nod. Nod.

Perin nodded up and down, affirming him, and Pluto looked at her with a darkened face.

He had a complicated face that showed many emotions.

Maybe he was upset by something she did wrong.

That thought crossed Perin’s mind for a moment.

“Did I make any mistakes?

“No, it’s nothing. I’ll go to Alterias.”

“That’s good!”

Thankfully, Pluto agreed willingly.

Perin cheered and picked up an apple to give him again.

Of course, Pluto put the apple down again.

And then he waved his hand at Perin, who was handing him the apple, and said.

“It’s okay. Vampires can live on blood alone.”

“Is that so? But you drank alcohol last time, didn’t you?”

“That was just… a preference.”

Pluto picked up the cloth that he had put on the ground with one word.

Deathscythe. His magic weapon that had a bluish aura was always a beautiful sight.

Pluto carefully wiped off the dirt from his magic weapon with the cloth.

“Perin.”

“Yes!”

“Why do I have to go to Alterias?”

Pluto asked her about the purpose of this mission while polishing his magic weapon.

He seemed curious about why she was sent to Alterias.

I also tried to edit and translate your text into English as a web novel editor. Here is my result:

Perin remembered the conversation that Archbishop Roan and Elbon had.

This mission started from the story that Elbon brought up.

They needed the blood of the dragonkin to create the flesh of the great being, and according to the documents, there might be some dragonkin left in the northern part of the empire.

“There was a rumor that there might be some dragonkin living in Alterias. Our goal for this operation is to find and bring them back.”

“Dragonkin… You mean those old lizards?”

Usually, they looked like reptiles as Pluto said.

But nature had its exceptions.

Some of the old dragonkin could change their appearance from their natural form.

The dragonkin used the expression of gaining spirituality to honor those kin.

“Dragons with spirituality can disguise themselves as humans. It’s an information I found from an old document, so maybe they blended in with people!”

That was the story that some of the old dragonkin might have mingled with people.

Of course, they wouldn’t give up their lair easily, as they called it.

Pluto pondered over Perin’s story and asked.

“You mean they might look like humans?”

“That’s right.”

“Are those lizards strong?”

“They must be very strong if they have spirituality. After all, even the dragons in the legends look very powerful!”

The story of the dragons’ strength caught Pluto’s interest.

He snapped his fingers and tapped the blade of his Deathscythe.

Clang.

A clear sound came from the blade of his Deathscythe.

A blue aura swirled around his Deathscythe and revealed itself.

He had polished his magic weapon completely and got up from his seat. He slung his magic weapon over his shoulder and said.

“A fight with dragons… That sounds fun.”

Whoosh.

A cold wind blew towards them from beyond the sanctuary where the barrier was lifted.

The wind was full of chill as winter was approaching.

Brrr. Brrr.

Pluto shivered slightly as the cold wind wrapped around him.

“If only the weather was nice…”