Chapter 88
Chapter 88
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 88
Chapter Title: Dream Illuminated by Moonlight
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“Hmm hmm~”
“…….”
A woman leaning back against her throne, humming a little tune.
In her hand… she held a single white mask.
And at her feet, the corrupted Spirit King in the form of a dragon, Bahamut, quietly caught his breath.
“A mask… It feels strangely familiar….”
Just a plain white mask.
No decorations, no patterns—just an ordinary one.
And yet…
The more she stared at it, the more her heart trembled.
…Fear.
This wasn’t Bellamir’s own emotion.
It was the instinct of the “Calamity” she embodied… feeling “fear.”
And… she wasn’t the only one gazing at the mask.
“What… did you do to Adel?”
A sword brimming with light.
Klaus stood holding its radiant glow, grinding his teeth as his eyes, redder than blood, met hers.
“What did I do? That’s the wrong question.”
“…….”
“I merely… granted their ‘dreams.’”
At that moment…
High in the sky, the blue moon eclipsed the sun.
The light of the heavens gradually… dyed crimson.
A reality red as blood, twisted like a dream… illuminated by that moonlight…
Quietly.
Shone upon the witch seated on her throne.
“And your dreams as well… I shall grant them.”
The crimson light did not leave her alone.
Like taking the hand of a lonely trembling girl… the moonlight lingered on her shoulders.
“A world where… no one ever suffers again.”
A world without discrimination for different races, without pointing fingers at demons.
Where all the oppressed and trampled beings…
Need not hate one another.
A world where everyone dreams.
The world everyone has dreamed of.
“It’s time… to make that dream reality.”
***
[Prostrate]
Slash.
The moment I pulled out the whiteboard…
Neru flattened herself before me without a single word, at true cat-like speed.
Normally, she’d perk up her tail and ears, slinking away while plotting her escape…
But now, she meekly tucked her tail between her legs, lowered her back flat, and pressed her head to the floor.
And beside her…
“Uh… Adel, go easy, please.”
[Uncle, you kneel too and put your hands up]
“Sigh… Got it. I got it.”
Uncle Beru turned to face the wall without protest.
He dropped to his knees, raised both hands above his head, and assumed the reflection pose.
His expression was complicated, subtle.
But in the end…
Even as he took the scolding, there wasn’t a hint of complaint—rather, his face showed something close to relief.
“Nya, nyang….”
Neru’s ears and tail hung limp.
Her shoulders hunched inward, her face slick with cold sweat.
She must have sensed it, even without seeing my face.
Right now…
I was.
Extremely.
Extremely angry.
“I-I’m reflecting… nya….”
[Right? You’re reflecting, aren’t you?]
Of course.
You’d better reflect.
Do you have any idea what I went through because of you?
Step.
I took one step forward, toward Neru…
Plop.
“Nyack…!”
And sat right on her back.
I casually planted myself on Neru’s back as she lay prostrate on the floor…
“L-Light…! You’re so light…!!”
I see.
My body is light, huh.
That was the first time I’d realized it.
“NyaAAAAH…!”
Her legs and arms stretched out straight, the cat struggling not to collapse from her prostrate position.
Silently, atop Neru’s sweetly trembling back, I continued my thoughts.
‘…So.’
Let me sort this out.
Uncle Beru had been living an ordinary life.
But Kamar whispered the devil’s temptation to him.
Financial hardship…
The helplessness of a father.
A lure that promised to solve all his problems at once.
‘…But Uncle wouldn’t fall for that.’
Uncle Beru refused the offer.
But… strangely, his body wouldn’t obey him, he said.
A feeling like he was bound somewhere, regardless of his will.
‘…Unique Skill.’
Not mere coercion…
Kamar’s Unique Skill 【Forced Contract】.
Kamar used that power to forcibly bind Uncle Beru…
And in the end, took his daughter Neru as well.
‘…….’
At first, it was simple orders.
Brighten someone’s shadow, steal an item, move like a ghost.
But…
Gradually, it escalated.
Orders to “deal with” someone.
Commands to retrieve something from an imperial elite’s mansion.
Uncle Beru refused, saying he couldn’t handle it anymore.
Then Kamar…
- Zzzt… Zzzzzzt…
Abandoned him in a den teeming with magic beasts.
He thought he was done for.
But… by chance, others had fallen there too.
The Moonlight Traitors gathered here in this secret space.
With their help—especially Caramel’s—he survived.
‘And… to save such an Uncle Beru, Neru took action.’
Kamar, knowing Uncle Beru was dead, still pretended to hold him hostage.
He used that to manipulate Neru.
But… I showed up, and Kamar died.
…That’s the whole story.
- Zzzt… Zzt…!
Chin.
“……?”
Quietly…
I placed my hand on Neru’s head.
Fluffy, soft hair.
Between the strands, her two cat ears trembled faintly against my palm.
“…….”
Wordlessly, I slowly stroked her head.
Gently, carefully.
…As if she might shatter any moment, as if I’d never touch her again.
“……You’ve been through a lot.”
That one phrase.
It was enough.
…The moment Neru heard my voice, her body froze for an instant…
Then…
She began to tremble bit by bit.
“Hueeeeng……!!”
Thud!
Neru suddenly sprang up and hugged me tight.
…So tight with all her strength that I could barely breathe.
“I didn’t wanna do ittt…!! Hic…!”
Burying her face in my chest, the cat bawled, snot and tears streaming.
“I-if Adel didn’t come… Hic… Hiiing….”
She couldn’t finish, dissolving into sobs again.
As her cries grew louder, her body shrank smaller, her tail and ears twitching with every breath.
“Uuuu… He made me do it… I didn’t wanna….”
“…….”
“Couldn’t tell anyone… Ngh… Couldn’t tell even Adel… Sob….”
Silently, I patted her back.
All those pent-up emotions poured out over her small shoulders.
…Emotions too much for her to hold alone.
Fear, guilt, loneliness…
And finally, the bursting relief.
“Y-You idiot… Why’d you come so lateee…….”
“……Sorry.”
I answered briefly, simply… wrapping my arms around Neru’s trembling back.
I knew one word wasn’t enough.
But right now, any more explanation felt pointless.
Neru swallowed her sobs, nodding endlessly in my arms.
“……Yeah.”
That day.
I held the tears of one little cat.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ Neru ]
Favorability: 【Savior】
Status: 【Positive】
■■■■■■■■■■ (100/10)
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
To the tiny cat who’d held back her tears…
I could return at least a little warmth.
***
“Uh… Adel, sorry to ruin the mood, but.”
“What is it, Uncle.”
“…Can I take the mask off now?”
“……?”
Whoosh!
I shot to my feet, rushing to the mirror in the corner of the room.
“…….”
Only then did I realize.
…How had I not noticed?
- Zzt… Zzzzzzt…!
It was a familiar dissonance, unmistakably.
[ ! ]
[ Please equip 【Mask of Silence】. ]
…Just like last time.
I hadn’t noticed then either.
“…No way.”
The first place I’d removed the mask.
…No, a dream.
That bizarre dream stage…
I had stepped once more into the reverse world called 「Nightmare」.
“Then….”
I clamped my mouth shut, staring into the mirror.
Only now did the truth surface, like rising from the depths.
She…
Had already awakened.
“…….”
The 「Witch」 Bellamir.
The “Calamity of Lust” slumbering beyond the dream…
Had now crawled into reality.
“…Uncle.”
“…Yeah.”
Uncle Beru seemed to grasp the gravity too.
His face was stiff, lips pressed tight.
Chin.
I flung open the door and stepped outside.
Then… stopped immediately.
…No one was there.
Just moments ago, Caramel and Pergon…
And countless others had bustled about.
“…….”
But now…
Everyone except me, Uncle Beru, and Neru had vanished.
“…No.”
Not them vanishing…
Had we vanished?
“…Neru.”
I called her name, and Neru, curled in the corner hiding her embarrassment, shyly lifted her head.
“A-Adel…? The mask….”
And… the moment our eyes met…
“Wha—wha-what… Wha…?”
The cat’s body froze solid.
From toes to the tips of her ears, she flushed bright red…
Her lips began to quiver.
“Wh-what’s…!”
“……?”
“H-Hmm, hngh… Wh-what’s going on, nya…!”
I eyed the glitching cat curiously, but soon opened my mouth as if nothing was wrong.
“Find us an exit.”
“……Exit?”
“Any door or passage back to the cradle, whatever.”
“…Y-Yeah! Got it, nya…!”
Neru bolted away like fleeing.
Her steps were desperately urgent.
Uncle Beru, seeing it, approached me and said.
“I’ll look too, though I won’t be much help.”
With a short sigh, he quietly headed in the opposite direction.
And… I sank back into thought.
‘…….’
Right now, I could speak without vomiting blood.
No pain.
That meant…
This world resembled the reverse world Bellamir had devoured last time.
No, less “resembled” and more…
Either more incomplete… or more complete.
One of the two.
‘…How the hell?’
I gritted my teeth.
Descending in her true body was impossible to begin with.
Without a medium, how…
“…….”
Medium.
Something infused with Bellamir’s power.
The core linking to the world…
And… I knew that “something” better than anyone.
“…Kamar.”
That place where moonlight poured down.
Kamar’s remains were still there.
“…The place I need to go.”
The way out of this world.
Defeat the 「Witch」 Bellamir.
“Ha….”
I raised my hand.
…Crack!
Mana rippled from my fingertips… violet fissures spreading along my skin.
My body began to disintegrate.
“Still….”
Better than last time.
Compared to then, the collapse was markedly slower.
I could maintain my form a bit longer.
“…Should I call this fortunate.”
Fortunate… it didn’t feel like it.
Just the lesser of two evils.
…That’s all.
“Whew….”
At least… the 「Witch」 here wasn’t her true body…
So I’d deal with her quickly, return to the real world, and fetch Klaus.
Scribble scribble.
I left a short note on some paper…
And without hesitation, turned toward where the moonlight pierced down.
***
Step.
“Oh my…?”
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
[ 「Witch」 Bellamir ]
Attribute
: 「Dreamlike」
Unique Skills
: 【Steal】
: 【Summon】
: 【…】
Unique Traits
: 【Fragment of Lust】
: 【…】
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Bellamir, who had been humming softly while demurely leaning against her throne, lifted her head.
Before her gaze could reach me…
Kwach!
I drew 【Leviathan】 and thrust it deep into the floor without hesitation.
─────!!
The floor split.
Endless abyssal darkness surged like waves…
And from its center, a single dragon rose.
“Pfft…!”
As if in recoil, my body’s disintegration accelerated wildly.
The violet fissures blooming from my fingertips… had already covered my wrist.
Blood pooled thick in my mouth.
“Whew… Let’s end this quick.”
I spat the blood from my mouth and reached for Bellamir, Leviathan at the fore.
But…
“Fufu… Such a cute child.”
Bellamir reached toward me as well.
At that instant…
Leviathan’s movement halted.
“…Levi?”
No response to my call.
Only…
Its eyes slowly…
Shifted from violet to crimson.
“Child… my child… Let us dream together.”
At the witch’s dream-whispering gesture…
Leviathan responded, turning its back to me.
“You too shall soon… accept this reality called a dream.”
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
【Steal】
That hand is not righteous.
: Forcibly seizes another’s spirit and converts it to one’s own contract.
It steals.
The name, the will, and the loyalty as well.
✦━━━━━━━━━━━━✦
Severed.
The chains of our bond.
Broken.
The vow forged in hope.
And…
Leviathan lost its will.
“Levi.”
I wished it would just look at me once more…
But that gaze turned from me forever.
“…….”
Eyes that always sought only me.
Eyes that gazed at me through hardship and despair.
Those eyes… no longer held me.
“Ha… You little….”
Those eyes… reflected only Bellamir.
I exhaled shortly… and ground my teeth.
“Get ready for a beating too….”
You won’t get off with just prostrating.