Chapter 250
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 250
“Do you think reality is important?”
Giovanni tilted his head at Saint Aram’s question.
“It sounds like you’re asking about the dungeon. Am I correct?”
“Yes. Watching the brothers and sisters of the Moon Cult research the ‘Dream Amusement Park’ got me thinking. I was curious to hear your opinion, Teacher.”
“I must say, I’m surprised to be hit with such a profound question the moment I arrive after so long.”
“…Ah.”
Only then did Aram seem to register their situation.
“Was it a bit much to ask something like that right after you arrived?”
“I packed my bags with the intention of staying for a while, so I don’t mind. But when you make other friends in the future, it might be best to let them at least unpack their bags first.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
Gio muttered “zero social skills” to himself as he unpacked his belongings. Aram, now fully recovered and able to move about freely, followed him around like a chick trailing its mother.
After finishing in his room, Gio turned to face her.
“Alright, now we can have a proper chat. Is there any place you’d recommend?”
“Suddenly speaking so formally… Hmm, a place to recommend.”
“I’m asking for a good place where we can casually exchange opinions.”
“What about the discussion hall you visited before?”
“The priests there were so intimidating it was hard to relax.”
“? They didn’t seem scary at all…”
Seeing his reluctance, Aram offered another option.
“How about my room?”
“Your room? The one filled with countless theoretical texts and research papers?”
“Maybe a quiet dining hall? There probably won’t be anyone there at this hour…?”
“Hmm? It’s already seven o’clock. Did you think I’d come all this way without having dinner?”
“…Ah, oh!”
Aram finally had an idea.
“Let’s go to the Garden Salon! The one we set up together last time is still being well-maintained. It will be the perfect place to chat over some light snacks or tea…!”
“I’m glad you’re finally starting to understand me.”
The two headed out into the star-studded garden. Aram gave an embarrassed smile.
“To be honest, Teacher, before you came, this garden was maintained almost purely out of obligation. Visiting guests would occasionally praise its beauty, but other than those outsiders, very few people in our order ever spent time here…”
“I knew the Eunwol Guild was helping with maintenance, but I heard that lately, priests from the Moon Cult have started tending to it as well. What’s the general feeling among them?”
“I think they said it’s a good place to clear their heads. That it’s perfect for cooling down when their minds are overloaded…”
“They really do love to study, don’t they?”
With that, Gio and Aram arrived at the salon. In the middle of the glass greenhouse-like space stood a tea table, placed there for casual conversation.
As they sat down, a caretaker approached.
“Shall I bring you something to drink?”
“And some snacks as well, please.”
“Right away.”
Warm tea and fresh fruit were served. As if to let them speak freely, the caretakers stepped outside the greenhouse. If needed, they could be summoned again with a small bell.
Finally, the stage was set for their conversation.
“So, about what we were discussing earlier…”
“You’re asking about the weight of dreams versus reality?”
“Hmm, I suppose so?”
Aram wrinkled the bridge of her nose.
“Lately, the atmosphere among the brothers and sisters has been strange. Their sleeping hours are the same as always, but they’re napping more and more frequently. If they can’t fall asleep because they’ve already slept too much, they’ve even started taking sleeping pills…”
“That sounds a bit dangerous.”
Gio’s expression clouded over.
“I’m aware of it. Similar rumors have reached the Collector. They say the number of people addicted to the ‘Dream Amusement Park’ has been rising. It may not be disrupting society since their total sleeping hours haven’t increased… but if this continues, it will eventually cause problems.”
“Ah, so these kinds of problems are happening outside as well. To be clear, it’s not yet at a level our order would call a crisis. We’ve experimented with various drugs in the past. But… how should I put it… chasing dreams instead of reality feels a bit…”
Aram hesitated before finishing her thought.
“…chilling.”
The Moon Cult, already a quiet place, had grown even quieter lately.
“Since I’ve never experienced it myself, I don’t really know what my brothers and sisters are thinking or feeling.”
“Has the Bishop still not granted you permission?”
It was another sudden shift to polite speech, but Aram had her own interpretation. He seemed to use informal speech when treating her as a ward and formal speech when treating her as his student.
She let out a sigh.
“No. She said that after what happened recently, there might be unforeseen side effects. There are even rumors that this dungeon wasn’t created by a normal monster, but is a trick of an Evil God… so the Bishop is being extremely cautious.”
“If it’s a dungeon made by a god rather than a monster, it’ll be a headache.”
“Dungeons created by divinity have far more ambiguous clear conditions, after all. At first, everyone thought it was just a lucid dream to resolve regrets from reality, but now it seems to be gradually turning into an escape.”
Aram looked up at Gio.
“That’s why I wanted to ask you, Teacher. About dreams and reality.”
“The wisest course is to maintain a proper balance between the two.”
“Maintain a balance?”
“They say too much of anything is a bad thing, don’t they?”
Giovanni wore his characteristic cheerful smile.
“Just as food is bland if it’s too plain but hard to stomach if it’s too salty, life is the same. Humans, who can never be perfect, need to rest, but they shouldn’t remain collapsed forever.”
Aram blinked.
“To think you’d use food even for this analogy.”
“Isn’t it the easiest to understand?”
“That’s true.”
“This feels like a serious, philosophical concern that doesn’t really suit me… I’m a very simple-minded person, you see.”
“Don’t worry, your appearance suits it perfectly, Teacher.”
“I’m glad to hear it. In that case, shall I show off a little more?”
Stroking his chin and rolling his eyes, Gio spoke again.
“…Throughout history, humanity has found countless ways to escape from reality. This includes not just sleep, but also play, food, and conversation. As technology advanced, the depth of that escape only intensified.”
It was the same now.
“Since the Great Catastrophe, mystery has become a part of our world. People can choose mental escape through magic, or even run away from their daily lives entirely. In chaotic times like these, it’s not so difficult to erase one’s identity and move to a new place.”
“So even seemingly trivial things can be a form of escape.”
“Running away from a hard, exhausting daily life isn’t some grand act. It’s just averting your eyes. If you stare at the moon constantly, your neck will get tired. But don’t you find yourself captivated by its beauty every time you take a brief moment to look up?”
Anyone could run away; that was only natural.
“But if you do nothing but stare at the moon all day, it becomes a problem.”
“……”
Aram hesitated before asking.
“…Are you saying this with the Master of our Moon Cult in mind…?”
“Would I ever utter such blasphemy in front of the Saintess of the Moon Cult? This is merely an analogy. If it brings something to your mind, then that is entirely your own realization, Saintess.”
“…I understand. Please continue.”
“An attitude that pleases your teacher.”
Giovanni went on.
“Saintess, you asked if reality is important. Yes, it is. The roots of our souls and our very lives are planted here. It’s an essential element that dreams can never replace.”
“You mean to say it’s precious, right?”
“What is precious and what is important are two very different things. Unfortunately, many people live their lives confusing the two. That is why so many people blame themselves for not treasuring what is important to them.”
“Ah, are they… that different?”
“Of course.”
It was only natural.
“We cannot love every single important foundation that makes up who we are. If humans had been created overflowing with love and patience, things might be different, but we always live for ourselves.”
“For ourselves?”
Gio smiled at the Saintess’s question.
“Of course, there are those who sacrifice themselves, like you, Saintess. But that, too, is your own greed. You could have chosen otherwise, yet you wanted to become a Saintess and benefit the world, did you not?”
“That… is also true.”
“A choice is one’s own opinion, an expression of will that the world will never fully agree with. Therefore, it is selfishness. It’s in the same vein as how no one can ever be a good person to absolutely everyone.”
A choice that perfectly pleases everyone could never exist.
“Shall we take an example? I do not like my blue eyes at all. I simply cannot bring myself to love them. But if I were to gouge them out, I would no longer be able to see.”
“…What if you used a dye to change your eye color? To a color you like, Teacher.”
“How long would that last?”
“No magic or medicine can be permanent, but it could maintain the color for nearly a lifetime. Wouldn’t that be enough?”
“Even so, the memory of me having blue eyes would not disappear. Many people besides myself would still remember it.”
“There must be magic to alter memories.”
“Very well. Let’s suppose I ultimately made that choice.”
Giovanni tilted his head.
“Could that still be called ‘me’?”
“…Ah…”
“It seems you understand.”
No matter how clever or cunning the method, the result was the same.
“The essence would change.”
That was why what is important and what is precious were different.
“Everything that makes up me, my surroundings, and this world is, without exception, important. But there may come a time when you want to discard them because they are not precious to you. In a world like today’s, where people exclude one another and individualism intensifies, that is bound to be even more true.”
“But there haven’t been any problems until now… Well, I suppose I can only say that because I’ve been treated well as the Saintess of the Moon Cult. Thinking back to when I was a street urchin in the slums, it would be hard to call this a world where people can live without worries.”
“The reason those countless ‘problems’ haven’t surfaced is simply because people had no other choice. If arrows are flying at your back, how can you not run? They ran because they would die if they didn’t. And now, they have found a single tree to shield them from the arrows.”
The arrows were reality, and the tree was the escape into dreams.
“But how long can they hide there?”
Was the only reason they ran really the ‘arrows flying at their backs’?
“Every human has desires. Barring a few unusual exceptions, even you, Saintess, who wishes to devote yourself to the Moon God, have greed. Your desire for knowledge is a prime example.”
“Th-that is true.”
“Therefore, the reason people have run so hard all this time isn’t just because ‘they would die otherwise.’ It was to eat the food they wanted, to meet the person they loved, for the promotion that would come if they just held on a little longer…”
And so on.
“Hiding behind a narrow tree cannot satisfy any of those desires.”
“But I heard the ‘Dream Amusement Park’ is fulfilling people’s desires.”
“It has literally only filled their desires; it hasn’t actually resolved their needs. In the end, nothing tangible remains, does it?”
“But… knowledge remains.”
Even if it was a dream, as long as they remembered it, the knowledge gained in that amusement park could be brought back to reality.
“That is why the Moon Cult is in a state of unrest. Some are even suggesting that our order, if no one else, should actively utilize this dungeon. Since the Moon Cult is a temple of reason that gathers and cultivates knowledge… they say there is no place that can utilize it as well as we can.”
Giovanni smiled.
“And that is exactly how the current Association Research Institutes were born.”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
Aram knew what kind of horrific things some of the Association Research Institutes were committing. She could not bring herself to condone it. She was simply curious.
“Is it absolutely necessary for me to remain whole?”
“Is that your own thought?”
“No. I believe it is right to preserve myself. My will to make the world a better place is far stronger than my desire for mere personal peace and pleasure.”
“Then this must be the thought of your other brothers and sisters.”
“They want to become a part of the dream.”
From the very beginning, they had treated themselves not as humans, but as tools and parts. The priests of the Moon Cult, who had recklessly used their own bodies as test subjects, did not fear losing anything—neither what was ‘important’ nor what was ‘precious.’
To this, Gio said:
“And yet, they still returned to reality.”
“…But I feel like if this continues, everyone will become addicted to the dream before long…”
“It would be good if they could remember before they forget, wouldn’t it?”
“…Remember what?”
“The reason they gave up on the dream and returned to reality.”
“……”
“What could that be?”
The lesson was over.
“Think about it.”
It didn’t take long for her to find the answer.
And then, she went to see the Bishop.
* * *
“Something is happening to the Master as well…!”
Aram raised her voice.
“There are too many suspicious things about this dungeon. Ever since it appeared, the Master has fallen silent and won’t even show themselves to me. The fact that the Moon God does not respond, despite me being the Saintess, clearly indicates an anomaly!”
“That is still not a reason for the Saintess to participate in this research. Have you forgotten what a precious asset you are? You wished to warm the Moon God and benefit the world. If so, you must also remember your own importance.”
“I know my own importance! I am precious to myself as well! I don’t want to be hurt, I want to laugh rather than cry, and I’d rather be happy than lonely! And it is that very ‘me’ who is saying this right now…!”
Aram was furious.
“This is what I want to do!”
“Saintess, right now…”
“Don’t put it off! Answer me!”
What value was there in her being protected if she could do nothing?
“I am a living person! I have things I want and things I want to do! If my selfishness will cause no harm, then I have no obligation to refrain from it. Unless the Moon Cult raised me like livestock, then I am a human being! If I am not some beast waiting for slaughter, but a member of your family, a member of the Moon God’s family…!!”
If so.
“…Then my actions require no excuses or justifications.”
“It could be dangerous.”
“We can choose and execute anything.”
“But…!”
“That is what the Moon Cult is…!!”
“……”
Only then did the Bishop voice her true feelings.
“…I am afraid that I will ruin everything.”
A few days later, the Saintess joined the research on the ‘Dream Amusement Park.’
* * *
In the early stages of the research, even knowing the sweetness of the ‘Dream Amusement Park,’ the brothers and sisters had easily woken from their sleep.
But gradually, more and more of them were becoming addicted to the dream. And Aram’s teacher had said, ‘It would be good if they could remember before they forget.’
Aram knew what it was they were forgetting.
“……”
That we, too, are a family.
They were forgetting that this ordinary, unremarkable daily life was also a source of happiness.
“…I can do it, too.”
That was the reason Aram stepped forward. Though she had been chosen, it was her own will to become the Moon. Because she loved and cared for the Moon Cult more than anyone, she did not reject the position of Saintess.
She had both duties and rights.
“It’s my choice.”
She slipped a piece of paper with her wish written on it inside her pillow and fell asleep.
* * *
『Please help my family wake up.』