The Banquet and the Beginning of the Wind (5)
Dreaming inside a dream. What a bizarre experience. And it wasn’t even an ordinary dream, either. It had been so vivid I couldn’t just brush it off as some random nonsense. I’m a multi-player with the heart of a liberal arts major and the brain of a STEM student, but today was the first time I’d ever had a dream like that. On top of that, turning into a woman! I don’t have any gender dysphoria, yet my subconscious decided to cook up something like that? Fuck, I don’t even want to think about it. Therefore, that was no ordinary dream. I tied up my hypothesis neatly like that.
“You slept for quite a while. Did you have a good dream?”
“No, it was a dream where I became some insane wizard.”
“Hehe. Are you not already an insane wizard?”
Bicorn laughed, saying something ridiculous as if my words were hilarious. I have no idea how many perfectly normal people there are in the world for her to call me that. After laughing for a bit, Bicorn spoke again.
“I shall prepare a seat. Come inside.”
─Snap!
The Bicorn with sheep horns snapped her fingers.
─Rumble!
A small stone hut suddenly appeared on the meadow. Holy shit, that’s insane. She really is some kind of alchemist with a horse’s head.
“How the hell did someone who can do something like this get caught by a circus troupe?”
“Is this not a dream? I came prepared to interfere with your dream tonight, so this much is easy.”
“Oh, really?”
This is awesome. I should try it too. It was a golden opportunity to eat the beloved jjapaguri I missed so much. I struck a dramatic pose like I was casting Magic Bullet Barrage and focused my mind.
“Lucid Dream ON!”
But nothing happened.
“What the hell? Why isn’t it working?”
“Did I not just say I came with magical preparations? You came without any countermeasures, so of course it wouldn’t work.”
“It’s my dream, but someone else gets to control it however they want? That feels kinda unfair.”
“Do not think of it that way. If you reject it, even the things I temporarily created will disappear. You are the master of this dream after all, and I am merely a visitor.”
“I see.”
In other words, this Bicorn girl had gone to sleep after setting up countermeasures because she thought she might get dragged into someone else’s dream? I had heard of magic that could block or repel intruders like incubi who invade dreams. I nodded and immediately erased the modest dress Bicorn was wearing.
“Kyaaah?!”
Suddenly naked, Bicorn crouched down just like last time. Her dignified attitude from just seconds ago felt like a lie.
“Whoa.”
Wow, it actually worked. I’d only thought about it in my head, but I never expected it to vanish instantly without any process. I’d just wondered if it would disappear if I rejected it, and bam—cast off with zero time lag.
“Ugh… uuuugh…”
Bicorn glared at me from her crouched position. The teary eyes that triggered guilt made me want to slam my head into a wall.
“Sorry. I’ll be careful. But aren’t you completely naked twenty-four seven when you’re in pony mode anyway? Why are you suddenly acting all shy about it now?”
“There are far too many words after your apology! Are you apologizing or mocking me?!”
“Ah, no, um. I’m really sorry. Put your clothes on, quick.”
“Khh… How humiliating. To think the difference in initiative would be this vast…”
─Whoosh!
Bicorn activated rune magic to restore her white dress. My head was too fuzzy to identify exactly which rune it was, but it was probably one meant to protect dreams or consciousness.
Oh, now that I think about it, I’m wearing clothes too.
When I looked down at myself, I was also dressed in white. The clothes both Bicorn and I wore somehow resembled traditional Romania attire. Maybe it would be easier to understand if I said they looked like what Greek philosophers wore?
“Those clothes are called a toga. It serves as both formal and everyday wear. Men’s clothing is a toga, and women’s is a stola.”
“Ah, I see.”
Professor Brammaton kindly explained. As expected, he really was a good professor. A toga, huh. I was pretty sure I’d heard of it a long time ago. It was traditional clothing that citizens wore on ceremonial days, right?
“You there. Stop talking to some unknown person and come inside already. I have grown tired of waiting.”
Bicorn, who had already entered the stone hut, urged me. She must have been waiting for me to wake up, so it made sense that she was exhausted.
“Professor, I’ll take my leave first. Oh, but I haven’t been able to exercise much lately. I think I’ve gotten too strong.”
“Hehe. You impudent fellow.”
After bidding farewell to Professor Brammaton, I followed Bicorn into the hut. Inside the modest stone hut, two steaming teacups had been prepared. I sat on a chair and gestured to Bicorn.
“Here, come sit over here too. Let’s talk.”
“Why are you acting like the master…?”
“You said I’m the owner and you’re the invited guest, didn’t you?”
“You make the guest prepare the reception and then speak so boldly.”
She had a point. As I chuckled in admiration, Bicorn sat down as if tired of arguing. I didn’t touch the teacup and simply clasped my hands together.
“So what were we talking about? Something about why an exhibitionist pony is only embarrassed about being naked when she’s in human form?”
“I have never!! Agreed to!! Nor brought up!! Such a topic!!”
Bicorn trembled as she protested.
“Besides, when I am in horse form I at least have a coat! There is no such thing as a horse that wears clothes, so there is no shame in it!!”
“Really? So when you’re human you don’t have any hair?”
I lifted the table into the air and erased the lower half of Bicorn’s dress. Hmm. Complete hairlessness. Just as you were born. Same as our Franc.
“Kyaaaaaaaah!!”
Bicorn shrieked at the sudden 140% lower-body-vanishing ambush. She frantically pulled down her top to cover her smooth lower half, but that only caused the ties on her top to come undone.
“Hii?! Hngh?!”
Now looking like a hotel guest who had been kicked out into the hallway with only a single towel, Bicorn cried out with a tearful face.
“This is the worst!! You in this dream are truly peerlessly awful!! In my entire life, you are the only one who has ever made me suffer such humiliating experiences!!”
“Is that so? But it’s just a dream, so isn’t it fine???”
I didn’t think you could sue someone for sexual harassment that happened in a dream. Though since both parties had their own consciousness here, maybe it could still count as harassment. But if that’s the case, then the perverts who do cybersex on Twitter could all start calling themselves succubi. This was a profoundly deep philosophical issue. It had a real sci-fi vibe.
“The worst. Utterly, indescribably the worst. What honor could I possibly gain from enduring this kind of treatment…”
Bicorn muttered tearfully. She seemed to have suffered serious mental shock, so I restored the hut’s interior to its original state and waited quietly until she could collect herself. Once I stayed silent and waited, Bicorn restored her clothes and suddenly spoke.
“You there. Do not think, do not speak—first drink the tea that is placed here.”
─Clink.
Bicorn held out the steaming cup toward me.
“Understood? Drink it without thinking. Whatever you want to ask or do, let us do that afterward.”
“Okay.”
When I dreamed, I had almost never protested against the characters inside the dream. It felt like I had been under hypnosis—doing whatever I was told and running when told to run. Perhaps because of that, I obediently downed the hot tea just as the kindly speaking Bicorn instructed.
“Gulp, gulp, gulp.”
I chugged the steaming tea in one go. Logically it should have burned me, but this was the world of a dream. Strangely, the tea tasted exactly like the incredibly awful drink Dana had fed me when she saw me off, yet I managed to drink every last drop without spitting it out. Only then did Bicorn visibly relax, as if she had just shot a tranquilizer dart into a rampaging elephant.
“How do you feel?”
“Feel, shmeel—the taste is stable… huh?”
After finishing the tea, I felt like my sanity had returned a little. Thanks to that, I could coldly reflect on all the atrocities I had committed earlier. Even the part where I grabbed Bicorn’s head in the last dream and started babbling about paizuri and whatever.
“It seems to have worked. I am relieved.”
Bicorn finished her own cup and spoke.
“That tea is an arrangement I prepared by my bedside before the real me fell asleep. I tried to implement a spell that restores a bit of reason without waking you from the dream, in a way that feels natural.”
“Ah, I, I see. Anyway, um… about what happened earlier──”
“Enough.”
With a bright red face, Bicorn cut me off. The atmosphere suggested she would sew my tongue shut if I said one more word.
“Do not speak of it any further. Let us treat both tonight and last time as if nothing happened.”
“…Sorry.”
“It is fine. However, if you ever commit the same acts while fully conscious instead of when your reason has evaporated, I will retaliate in kind. Keep that in mind.”
─Glare.
She shot me a fierce look, so I nodded. Shit. I really need to be careful. Even a moment of carelessness causes my thoughts to instantly reflect in the dream, so even now that I’ve regained my reason, I might still slip up.
“…Good. I will consider all your previous misdeeds as mistakes and let them slide.”
Bicorn seemed to have read sincerity in me and softened her attitude a little. Maybe it was because I had helped her before. Even though our genders were reversed, it would have been hard to forgive, yet this was an incredibly merciful verdict.
“When we parted, I told you. The next time we meet, I would repay this favor and reveal my name.”
Bicorn spoke, setting the mood. Had I really made such a promise? The reunion in the dream had been so full of suspense that I had completely forgotten. Since it finally seemed like we could have a serious conversation, I decided to listen earnestly.
“I am Veronica Eclipse. A descendant of the Aesir.”
Aesir referred to the divine race of Germania. I was a little surprised by the grandiose self-introduction.
“A descendant of the divine race. So I hadn’t misheard you last time.”
I had heard it during our last meeting in the dream, but it was still shocking. In this other world, quite a few people claimed to be descendants of this or that god. Usually royalty or high-ranking members of religious orders. But to declare so boldly that she was a descendant of the gods! In the modern otherworld where the gods no longer reached out to the earth, those words carried considerable weight. Enough to surprise even a 21st-century Earthling like me.
“You’re saying you’re a descendant of the gods? Not just a Bicorn?”
Aesir was the Old Germania term for the gods. That phrase itself had been discovered in some ruins and was widely known even in archaeological circles. According to early records of ancient civilizations, they were gods friendly toward humans. In response to my question, Veronica shook her head.
“Bicorn is the name of our race. As descendants of the God of Play, the races that have continued their lineage to the modern era are only us Bicorns, the unicorns, and the ‘Grani,’ as far as I know.”
Veronica said while gently stroking her own horn.
“Perhaps it could be said that all of us survived because we lost our divinity and were cursed. Even I, who say this, have only heard stories from my mother and father. There is far more about the past that I do not know.”
Even though it was only the introduction, it was an incredibly interesting story. The topic was so tempting that I felt the urge to use it for a thesis.
Hold on. This isn’t research that can be done in a day or two.
The most important thing in a thesis was credibility. If I had the translation ability, why hadn’t I deciphered any undeciphered documents? Because I had no supporting evidence to prove that my interpretations were correct. The same applied to this story. Of course, if it was a secret tale from the Age of Myths and ancient civilizations, it would make for an excellent thesis topic—almost too good for a mere master’s student.
If only I could prove that I’m not a lunatic who thinks he can talk to a Bicorn.
Proving it would only complicate my future. The moment my translation ability is exposed, the ‘noble newlywed slave’ route will come knocking at my door. So this was research material I couldn’t use for the time being. Or perhaps I could conduct my own independent research based on Veronica’s story? The problem was that I had no idea how many years it would take just for me and Franc to do it together.
…For now, I’ll just store it in my head.
Finding evidence and turning it into a thesis would take more than a year or two. I could remember this story and research it later when I had the leisure. And above all else—the question I needed to ask was something else. I organized my thoughts and spoke.
“Veronica. Can I ask you something?”
“Of course. Ask me anything. I owe you a great deal.”
Veronica answered, placing a hand over her chest. Her generous response put me at ease. Therefore, I asked about the question I needed to resolve first and foremost.
“The Nine Gods or ‘deiwōm dyēus’—are those perhaps taboo names used to avoid directly naming the gods?”
Taboo names. It referred to the custom of respectfully referring to high-status beings in a roundabout way so as not to address them carelessly. Like how they called the goddess Pomona the “Goddess of Abundance” in Romania.
So that’s why Franc and Paragon had that brief argument over the term “Sky God.”
To think the conversation I overheard back then had struck right at the core. I frowned, feeling like I had taken the long way around even though I already had the answer.
“I have never heard of the term deiwōm dyēus, but if it is the Nine Gods (VIIII Óss), then I know it well.”
While I was thinking about the past, Veronica refilled my teacup and continued.
“The Thunder God, the God of Play, the God of Mystery, and so on—the nine gods who led the Age of Myths were called the Nine Gods by the worshippers of the old civilizations. The nine gods had different origins and appearances, but I have heard that many feared and followed their ferocity.”
─Clink.
Veronica, who had set down the teapot, declared firmly.
“If the Deiwōm Dyēus you spoke of refers to the same being as the Sky God, then there is only one being in all the heavens and earth who can be called by that name.”
I understood what Veronica was saying even without hearing the answer. The one-eyed goddess I had seen in the dream flickered before my eyes. I had never heard that the being was female, but records said the entity could change its appearance at will, so it made sense. If the Bicorn’s ancestor, the “God of Play,” was the god Loki (Óss Loki), then among the gods of Germania, the only one who could be called the Sky God was her.
The god of magic and wisdom, poetry and death, war and fury, sky and storm!
I spoke the name of Asgard’s highest god.
“The Sky God, Odin (Himinnoss Óðinn).”