Chapter 132: Chapter 136: An Ordinary Morning in the Antique Shop
A touch of morning light illuminated the Plunder City-State, which had slumbered through the night. The sun, locked by twin Rune Circles, rose slowly in the sky like a blazing wheel, and under the formidable might of anomaly 001, the night’s non-terrestrial beings began to fade away at last.
The shadows in the alleys, the whispers in deserted places, the murmurs amongst the coastal waves, the gaze of nothingness in the depths of the lanes, and the entangling Dreamscape.
Sherry opened her eyes.
She saw the unfamiliar ceiling, and through the nearby window, the sunlight fell upon the bedside cabinet and the adjacent desk. The room, clean and tidy, was a simple cottage, but still much nicer than where she lived.
She smelled the aroma of food and heard some noise coming from the kitchen direction. She saw Nina sprawled out, sound asleep on the bed. Today was a rest day, and the girl could indulge in a lazy morning because she had an “uncle” to depend on, ready to serve her breakfast when she woke up.
Sherry sat up somewhat dazedly and took a few seconds to fully recall why she was there and her experiences in her dream.
Then she nudged Nina beside her, “Nina, time to get up… It’s time to wash up and have breakfast.”
Nina responded groggily, “I’m so sleepy… let me sleep a little longer…”
Sherry was momentarily startled; she didn’t know what to do next.
It had been too long since she’d lived this kind of life, so long that there was a chasm of eleven full years—but she still vaguely remembered that she too had been like this once, that she too could do this.
Slowly she climbed out of bed, put on her own clothes, and while listening to the various sounds from outside, she reminded herself that this wasn’t some peaceful and tranquil safe haven—it was essentially a nest, one that a Subspace Shadow and his kin had whimsically dressed up in this guise…
But this nest somehow felt more like “home” than where she and the dog lived.
Sherry was a little distracted, but just then, Nina’s voice suddenly broke her train of thought, “Wow! Is it that time already?!”
Sherry turned around and saw Nina, her hair a mess, sitting on the bed with wide eyes. Nina looked up at the window, then noticed Sherry standing beside her, shook her head, and said, “Sherry? Why are you… Ah, right, you stayed over at my place last night…”
Then Nina promptly hopped off the bed while chattering away, “Ah, no time to talk, I need to make breakfast…”
Mid-chatter, she heard noises from the kitchen and smelled the food, paused for a moment before suddenly realizing, “Oh, uncle is making breakfast today… that’s right, uncle has been feeling better lately… Oh no! School! I’m going to be late for school!”
Before she finished speaking, Nina dashed towards her desk to gather her things but stopped short after two steps, looked up at the calendar on the bedside cabinet, “Wait, that’s wrong, today is a rest day…”
Then she spun around on the spot, and with another dive, her head hit the pillow again, “Then I’ll sleep for two more minutes…”
Throughout this, Sherry looked on, befuddled as she watched Nina jump out of bed and perform a rapid sequence of dizzying actions, only to end up back where she started as if nothing had happened, with Sherry finding no opportunity to get a word in. It wasn’t until Nina hit the bed again that Sherry hesitantly moved closer, but before she could speak, she saw Nina spring up once more, stretching widely, “Ah, I’m awake now.”
Sherry: “…?”
“What’s wrong with you, Sherry?” Nina turned around, looking spirited at Sherry, “What’s with that expression?”
Sherry: “Do you…wake up like this every morning?”
Nina, puzzled: “Ah? Like what?”
“Just…” Sherry gestured wildly, struggling to find a way to explain, “you jump up, then you do this, then that, and then this and that…”
“Oh, I tend to get confused when I wake up in the morning,” Nina actually deciphered the correct information from Sherry’s magical and abstract body language, nodding while beginning to change clothes, “But I’m completely awake now! By the way, Sherry, did you sleep well last night? I’m not very still when I sleep, I hope I didn’t bother you?”
“I…” Sherry was about to reply when a flood of memories hit her. She remembered the confined little cottage, that morning, the receding footsteps and the locked door, and the Abyssal Hound bursting in through the door…but after that was an incredible adventure, a bold exploration.
A little bizarre, a little scary, but… pretty impressive.
“I slept very well,” she smiled, “Actually, I’m quite restless when I sleep too. The dog always says that one day I’m going to dismantle my own bed in my sleep.”
“Uncle used to say the same about me,” Nina, now dressed, let out a final yawn, took Sherry’s hand, and headed for the door, “Let’s go now, I’m a bit hungry.”
Thus, Sherry was bewilderingly led out the door, and then she saw Duncan coming out of the kitchen, wiping his hands on his apron, having obviously just finished cooking.
“Mr. Duncan…” Sherry became apprehensive subconsciously, even witnessing it firsthand made her feel peculiarly dissonant thinking about such an entity cooking in the kitchen. But she quickly suppressed this dissonance and respectfully lowered her head to greet him, “Good morning.”
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Just as the boss had instructed, treat this place like any ordinary place and make yourself at home like a normal person.
Although she herself had no idea what it was like to visit someone’s home normally, saying hello in the morning was never wrong.
“What’s for breakfast?” Nina had already headed toward the kitchen, craning her neck to look behind Duncan as she went, “It smells delicious!”
“I fried up some little sausages that I bought on my way home yesterday,” said Duncan offhandedly as he pressed down on Nina’s head, forcibly turning her toward the bathroom, “Go wash your hands first!”
Then he glanced at Sherry, hands on hips, “And you too, don’t just stand there. Go wash your hands, and while you’re at it, wash your face!”
Sherry was taken aback but hurried after Nina to wash her hands and face, and then she was the first to return to Duncan with her hands outstretched, “…All clean.”
After she finished speaking, she started to feel embarrassed, suddenly feeling a bit foolish: for someone nearly an adult, to show her hands to an adult after washing them was more the behavior of a seven-year-old child than a seventeen-year-old—she didn’t know why she had such a brain fart all of a sudden.
But Duncan didn’t seem to mind that, he just nodded and while turning to head back to the kitchen, asked casually, “How did you sleep?”
Sherry looked down, “Well, good…better than before.”
“Did the injury you received in the Dreamscape affect you in reality?” asked Duncan.
Sherry was startled, remembering that she indeed seemed to have been whipped by some eerie Assailant in her Dreamscape, she promptly raised her left arm and was shocked to see a faint scar!
Thanks to her robust Self-Healing Trait, the scar had almost healed by now, and it didn’t even feel sore, but there was no doubt that her body in reality had received the same injury when she got hurt in last night’s Dreamscape!
And at that time, she was as good as trapped in the Dreamscape, so even though her body in the real world was injured, she couldn’t wake up.
Duncan saw the mark on Sherry’s arm, and his gaze briefly stiffened, then he nodded lightly.
The abnormal phenomenon wasn’t beyond what had been foreseen.
That eerie Dreamscape… it couldn’t just be a simple dream.
“It seems that injuries sustained in that Dreamscape do affect reality in sync,” he said seriously to Sherry, “in the future, unless you’re with me, don’t explore that Dreamscape on your own. You’re a strong fighter, but that type of creature that can split, is not affected as much by it.”
Sherry quickly nodded, “Yes, I understand.”
Duncan thought for a moment and then added, “Also, if you get trapped in that nightmare again, you can call out directly to me.”
Sherry paused, seemingly a bit slow to catch on, “Call out to you?”
“Call my name, the complete one I told you in the Dreamscape,” said Duncan indifferently, “Or, call for Homeloss—preferably next to something like glass or a mirror that has reflective properties, so I can hear you more clearly.”
As Sherry listened, she suddenly realized something; at the same time, through her mental bond with her dog, she could feel a surge of anxious emotions from the other side.
“Are… are you asking me to become one of your wards?” she asked, looking up with a mix of nervousness and confusion.
“I don’t know exactly what ‘wards’ are, and I’m not asking for anything from you, but you’re a friend of Nina’s and now you’re acting with me—just a little extra care, that’s all.”
Sherry took a deep breath, yet she dared not reply rashly. Just then, Nina’s cheerful voice suddenly sounded from the kitchen doorway, “What are you guys talking about?”
“No need to answer me now,” Duncan whispered to Sherry, then looked up at Nina, “Why did it take you so long to wash your hands?”
“I couldn’t get the sleep out of the corners of my eyes,” Nina said, rubbing her eyes, “rubbed them so much it almost hurts…”
“Drink more water these days,” Duncan said, resigned, glancing at the girl before asking casually, “By the way, did you have that dream again last night? The one where you’re standing up high, looking down over a fire.”
“No,” Nina thought for a moment and shook her head, “Last night I dreamt that a horse and then a cow were lying on top of me. It was so heavy… Uncle, why are you suddenly asking this?”
“Nothing much, just remembered that the psychiatrist is visiting today,” Duncan shook his head, dispelling the contemplation from his face momentarily, “Let’s eat.”
(Time to recommend a book, and this time it’s ‘The End of Technology’ from Bucket of Pudding. It’s under the science fiction category, and as for its type… perhaps an everyday life story from the perspective of a super genius? In any case, I highly recommend everyone to check it out.)
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