Some time later, on a forest road, in the middle of the night…

The drivers, Lily, Cycelia and Lian have returned to their mats, and only Alicia and Will remain near Greaves.

「…So I woke up because I realized that it's a dream?」

Greaves asks, staring at Will with brows furrowed in confusion, and occasionally taking quick glances aside deep in thought.

「Tsk. No. I'm saying the opposite. How many times do I need to reword the explanation?… Greaves, I'm saying this for the last time. Listen closely.」

Will clicks his tongue, shifts his glasses away to rub the bridge of his nose in frustration, and commands Greaves with his index finger extended.

「Okay! I'm listening! I'll get it now!」

Greaves replies with a powerful nod, and leans in towards Will as the three sit cross-legged facing each other.

「Okay… You. Have done something. That you felt might have been hard. I don't know what it was, but something you've done in the dream made you wake up. Are you following?」

Will asks after just a few words.

「…Yeah, I think I am.」

「You think? Good grief…」

Greaves nods, and Will shakes his head adjusting his glasses in response, muttering under his breath.

「Okay. Have you done anything in the dream that you were averse to? Like read a book? Plan things ahead? Have you learned anything in the dream?」

Will starts shooting Greaves questions, and he rubs his chin as he thinks about his dream.

「Hmmm… Not really?… I've spent most of it looking at all the weird stuff…」

Greaves looks aside, deep in thought.

「…Have you thought about others' wishes? Apologized? Listened to someone smarter for once?…」

Will continues asking, and his mouth starts scrunching to the side.

「No, not rea- Hey, why does that sound?…」

Greaves narrows his eyes in suspicion at Will as he continues his chain of questions.

「…Admitted your fault? Promised to do better? Grew as a person?-」

「Hey! Are you accusing me of something!?」

Greaves interrupts Will's trail of grievances with a shout, crossing his arms. Alicia looks at Will with her brows gently furrowed, unsure herself if the questions were genuine, or intentional insults.

Will looks at them both, lowers his head, adjusts his glasses, then crosses his arms himself.

「…Apologies. My personal feelings might have mixed in there a little… So, you're sure you don't know what it might have been, that made you wake up?」

Will apologizes, then sighs. He lifts his head up

「Not really. I just helped some sad loser with his book…」

Greaves shrugs, looking up at the night sky.

「…He reminded me of you, actually.」

Then points at Will with a grin. His head recoils back as it starts twisting in anger.

「Wha-? Are you calling me a sad loser!?」

Will clenches his fist, as well as his teeth.

「Weeeeell, in your defense, you're not as pathetic as the dream guy was…」

Looking aside, Greaves shrugs with his hands and shoulders bearing a massive snide grin on his face.

「Now, now… Calm down…」

Alicia lightly wiggles her hands at Will as he's irately shaking his fist, awkwardly smiling at him. It works, and Will crosses his arms with a scrunched mouth, even if only for Alicia's sake. A bush rustles off to the side in the treeline.

「Son of a-! Found you, piece of shit!」

Straf exclaims, jumping to his feet. He runs a few steps towards the source of the noise.

「Wait!」

Will calls out, and Straf stops in his tracks. He looks over his shoulder at Will, with an expression appearing almost as if he just said something stupid.

「…This little toad-looking purple piece of shit almost killed me and Carrothead with cringe, and you're telling me to wait?」

Straf asks with a look of contempt mixed with disbelief.

「It's a waste of time.」

Will bluntly declares, not moving from his spot.

「Buddy, you're supposedly an adventurer, and you're going to let something like this go?-」

「No, I'm saying it's too dangerous, a waste of time for a petty revenge. It'll likely die on its own.」

Will interrupts Straf as he's pointing his palm towards the dark treeline in outrage.

「Huh? What the fuck do you mean, die on its own? Don't we all?」

Straf turns around to face Will, and puts his hand in his pocket.

「I mean that dream-eaters expend large amounts of mana to attack. It was hidden for so long, too. It's possible that it thought the risk to reward ratio was in its favor, and it probably attacked us out of desperation. It'll starve to death in the wilderness, most likely.」

Will adjusts his glasses as he calmly explains.

「The odds might have been in its favor, but the house always wins. Thanks for playing. That reminds me, I should probably open a casino…」

Straf scoffs with a smug smirk, and shrugs his shoulders. He then brings his hand to his chin for a good rub, as he thinks about another business plan.

「Well, whatever. You're right, twerp… Hup…」

Straf says, returning to his sleeping mat, and he starts to lay down with a grunt.

「Wow, you are starting to almost sound reasonable-」

「…It's just not my problem.」

He quickly adds when down on the mat, interrupting Will's backhanded praise. Will clicks his tongue, and shakes his head in disappointed disapproval with his arms crossed.

「Greaves, you said there were moving pictures?…」

Alicia tilts her head looking at Greaves, blinking curiously at him.

「Yeah! And they talked too! It's like there was a guy talking to me through a little window- No, wait! Multiple, same guys!」

「What?」

She tilts her head further at his confusing explanation, and glances at Will. Will looks on with incredulously furrowed brows and a squinting gaze.

「Yeah, I think it was a store selling these guys!」

Greaves throws his arms aside with a grinning look of pure wonder on his face.

「What were they saying?…」

「Huh?」

Will asks, side-glancing at Greaves with eyes still narrowed with suspicion. Greaves fails to understand the question.

「The people in the little windows. What were they saying? You said they talk.」

Will reiterates, and glances at Alicia.

「I dunno, they were speaking some gibberish. You never get dreams like that?」

Greaves dismissively shrugs his shoulders.

「No?…」

Will says, and sighs in exasperation.

「Okay, how would you describe the place from your dream, then? What stood out the most? The things that you thought were odd?」

Will asks, and Greaves starts rubbing his chin with a look of heavy thinking. His brows furrow, eyes close, his mouth jumps side to side, and he randomly opens his eyes again to look at nothing in particular off to the side.

「…Well?」

「I'm thinking!」

Greaves replies to his prodding. Will lets out a deep sigh.

「Okay, stop thinking. You're bad at that…」 「Hey.」

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Will says, eliciting a disgruntled look of protest from Greaves.

「…How about you tell us what you felt? What did the place feel like?」

Will adjusts his glasses as he asks a different question. Greaves starts rubbing his chin again, albeit with much less intensity this time, pausing momentarily to look at a different point.

「…It felt kind of amazing and unbelievable, but nothing seemed too weird to me? You know when in dreams you see something really stupid and-」

「Yes, I know… You just kind of go along with it…」

Will begrudgingly nods his head, interrupting Greaves before he can unnecessarily explain.

「Yeah! And everything there just… Made sense? Everything was made of this weird rock or glass, but the glass was there to let more light in. The roads were wide, but they were split into a part for people, and a part for those weird carriage things!」

Greaves points at Will, nodding energetically for a brief moment, before his hand returns back to his chin again.

「So those carriages didn't ride around the people?」

Alicia asks, inquisitively blinking with her head cocked to the side.

「No! They were crazy fast! It made sense that they had a part for themselves! Everything was weird, and kind of incomprehensible, but it kind of… Felt like Will's magic?」

Greaves says, and they both glance at Will.

「Huh? My magic isn't weird or incomprehensible. You just refuse to sit down and read.」

Will berates Greaves with a completely straight-faced expression.

Pat!

「No! I meant the feeling of the place! It was kind of…」

Greaves slaps his knee in frustration, speaking with his voice raised as he struggles to find the right words.

「…Magical?」

Will suggests one. Alicia and Greaves look at him, but Greaves appears somewhat stunned.

「…Yeah. It kind of felt like a magic kingdom. I bet if a magic twerp like you ran things, everything would look like that.」

Greaves nods once, speaking with very little to no discernible sarcasm in voice. A brief moment of silence begins.

「Pft. Yeah, right. What would I need tiny people speaking out of windows for?」

Grinning very slightly, Will breaks the silence with an amused scoff, and stands up.

「I don't know? I just think it's something you'd do to show off!」

Greaves replies as Will turns away and takes a step towards his sleeping mat near Lian. He takes a quick glance at Straf, who is wiggling his foot lazily on his knee, laying on his back with his eyes closed.

「Is that what you think I'm doing? Showing off?」

He asks Greaves over his shoulder.

「All the time!」

Greaves replies with palpable frustration in voice. Will sighs, and adjusts his glasses.

「Well, whatever. You're free to think whatever you want. I'm going to sleep, you should go too, Alicia.」

Still looking over his shoulder, Will turns his head to Alicia.

「I will, in just a moment. I want to talk with Greaves a little longer.」

She nods in reply with a smile.

「We're supposed to have fun tomorrow…」

Will reminds Alicia, and in extension, Greaves.

「I know, I won't be long.」

Alicia nods again, looking Will in the eyes. He glances at Greaves, who is eyeing him suspiciously with his arms crossed, and then looks back at Alicia. Will smiles, nods his head softly, and walks away to lay down on his mat…

…

A few hours later, well into the night, in the capital's dungeon…

Clunk!

「Hnnghhhh…」

Arthur groans heavily when the hammerhead impacts his leg in a wild horizontal swing. As soon as he's done groaning, he opens his mouth to breathe heavily. Strings of drool stretch from his mouth onto his sweat-coated, once pristine shirt.

「Hey, Arthur… Why are you like this? I won't tell anyone. You can go ahead and scream.」

Nona continues prodding the bloodied captain of Ossen guard, breathing almost as heavily as he does with a grin on her face.

「…Do you… Intend to kill me?…」

He weakly asks, pausing for breaths while his whole body trembles a little.

「No, I'm trying to not hit you in places that could kill you. Like the head. Or your chest.」

Nona shakes her head with a smile, looking down at the battered man. He looks up into her amber eyes to meet her gaze. The metal dragon spreading its wings ominously glitters on her hat, reflecting the dim candlelight at him.

「…I see. Then you better stop this soon.」

He cautions, trying his best to sound natural despite the shaky voice, before resuming his heavy breathing.

「I knew it… This is about the arrest…」

He lowers his head and lets out a physically pained sigh.

「Hm? No, I told you it isn't.」

Nona insists, but Arthur weakly, silently shakes his head in denial of her words.

「It is. But the funny thing is… I deserve it.」

He says, with his head hanging low.

「What?…」

Utterly perplexed, Nona tilts her head.

「There's this quote, have you heard of it?… There are no bad subordinates, only bad leaders… I might as well live and die by it.」

He asks, and quotes the quote.

「…What does that have to do with anything?」

Nona asks. Her shoulders slump and her hammer hangs low.

「…I stand firm on my claim, that my men are good people. But I was too lenient and permissive, and overlooked their failures too much. A failure to recognize a failure falls upon the leader. I failed to instill proper discipline…」

He says, and pauses for a moment to take a few breaths, then swallows his drying throat.

「…They didn't behave up to the standard I held members of the special team to. It's my own, personal failure. I was too lenient on the rank-and-file guardsmen. So… If you have any hate for them, take it out on me instead.」

Arthur weakly lifts his head, looking up at Nona with half-open eyes, struggling to keep his head up while his whole body faintly, visibly shakes.

「But… But that's not it at all, Arthur! I like you! I really like you! I don't hate those guards either! I was a little mad, and scared… But I don't think I hate them?」

Nona squats down and hugs her knees, looking up into Arthur's shadow-wrapped face as his head hangs down low again.

「He… Heheh… You like me, huh?…」

He chuckles weakly, and remarks with a grin. His heavy breathing continues.

「Yup! That's right!」

She nods her head with a smile.

「I see… I'm a little scared to think, what's it like for someone you hate, and for someone you love…」

Arthur says, grimly grinning.

「Ahaha… But I don't hate anyone.」

She says, tilting her head with her chin on her knees with a completely straight-faced expression.

「And I don't really have anyone-」

She adds, but pauses before she can finish the sentence, gaining a look of surprise on her face. She abruptly stands up to her feet.

「…Actually, I think I'm a little scared of that too.」

Nona says, sounding almost a little frustrated.

「Is that so? Heh-」

Arthur asks, grinning as he lifts his head to look at her again. His eyes open wide, and his grin disappears.

Nona's amber eyes are glaring down at him, with no impish smile or amused grin to be found anywhere on her face. The grinning skeleton glitters in the candlelight. A sensation of impending doom washes over Arthur.

「Say, Arthur… You're not going to sign the guilt admission form?」

She bluntly asks, with no smile or grin.

「I refuse.」

Arthur adamantly holds his ground, after hesitating to answer for a brief moment.

「I see… Since I like you, I have a deal for you…」

She nods her head, and leans forward, reaching for one of his hands.

「Hrggghnrgh-」

「How about you let out a pathetic scream for me, Arthur? Just one, and I'll let you go. How about it? It hurts, doesn't it? Don't you want to let it out? You've been keeping it in for so long, it must have been hard…」

Nona says, leaning into Arthur's face with a massive grin, squeezing his shattered hand.

「Nnghrghhhhh…」

「How about it? Hey, Arthur, how about it? Just one, but it has to be real. It's okay if you cry. Come on, Arthur. Just one scream and I'll let you go the next instant. Come on, Arthur. Scream for me. Ahaha!」

She continues, squeezing harder, causing Arthur to let out strained grunts through his clenched teeth. She straightens out, and rears the hammer behind her back with both of her hands.

「Come on Arthur, scream for me already!」

Clunk!

Grinning ear to ear, Nona shouts a twisted request at him and swings the hammer…