A Harsh World for Men (5)
I'll think about Cardisha's downfall story later, when I meet her alone sometime. "So, what should we do? Senior Angelica, should we just leave her like this?"
"Uh, um?"
"If we give her just a bit more 'stimulation,' she might wake up."
At my words, everyone in the infirmary snapped back to attention.
"R-right. Angelica's dream, the angel clues... it was such a shock, I forgot for a moment."
"Personally, I'd like to think more about the conditions for becoming an angel, those clues, but we have to save the student first. Hm."
If Angelica couldn't wake up, that'd be one thing, but if we could wake her, the story changes.
"Phoenix. Any issues with waking her?"
"There are a few concerns, but borrowing Miss Unia's expression, it's about her realizing that her secret delusion notebook has been exposed to everyone here?"
"What."
"If she wants to wake from the dream she desires, she needs strong shock therapy."
When do people wake from dreams?
"If they have a nightmare and no longer want to stay in the dream, humans wake up immediately. Everyone's had that experience at least once."
Everyone nodded. Happy dreams are hard to remember, but when you wake from a shitty one, the memory and experience stick in your head.
"I'll use hypnosis to slowly make Senior Angelica 'aware' in her consciousness. I'll cast hypnosis to pull her out of the world where her desires are realized, back to reality."
"By keeping your hands on her head, massaging... and flowing mana?"
Esta the instructor got it right away. Having experienced the massage herself, she felt the subtle mana flow and understood the fundamental reason for it.
"Yes. But I don't know exactly what'll happen."
"You don't know?"
"I've woken people many times from the start by making them recognize 'this realized desire is a false illusion,' but forcing a wakeup without that recognition? First time."
This was demon realm stuff. Specifically, I let the dukes of hell, even the Demon King, experience the surface world through hypnosis magic.
Esdinas Academy. The dukes reveled in the 'dream world' recreated from Chang Yeom's and my memories.
And going further, the many environments I experienced on Earth.
"It's fine. No side effects. Even if it fails, her dream is so solid anyway, and failure just means Senior Angelica recognizes me and plays with me in her dream."
"Th-that sounds dangerous! Like getting trapped...!"
"Miss Unia. It's not my mind getting trapped. It's 'Senior Angelica thinks of me and forcibly controls me as she wants.'"
"Like being puppeted by someone else in the dream?"
"Something like that. Alright, let's start."
No one had complaints, so I reached out to Angelica's head.
And—
"Oh ho."
"Isn't that the palace from before...?"
Angelica was dreaming a new dream.
"Looks like even unconscious, she was listening to us with her head. Seeing 'battle' continue like this."
"This is... before the angel possession?"
"Yeah. She sees me or the people here as 'intruders,' and based on that, dreams of achieving what she couldn't."
If the leather-clad empress in the palace whipping and controlling everyone was Angelica's twisted core desire,
"This is a world line where she 'wins.'"
The dream image floating before us showed Angelica succeeding in the old school building raid, fulfilling her desires.
In other words,
A world line where we lost.
—Hohoho!
So these are the old school building students? Nothing special!!
Angelica unfolded her fan and cackled.
—Now I can give that arrogant bitch a proper lesson! She uses mana earned from Silverstar to buy mana pouches with money, and dares to scold me?!
Silverstar. I roughly understood why Angelica raided the old school building.
"Jealousy drove her to secure mana."
The desire to surpass someone led to the raid, and in her dream, she won.
—Kuhuk...!
—Gale is nothing special either!
Rydmila was subdued by the students.
A few students Angelica brought were beaten bloody by Rydmila, but Angelica ignored them, sneering only at the fallen Rydmila.
"Ha."
"Hold it together, Miss Rydmila."
Of course, real-world Rydmila was visibly disgusted seeing her 'utterly crushed delusion' firsthand, glancing anxiously between real me and dream me.
"Rydmila gets beaten like that... how bad do you get it?"
Intruder Gale suffered humiliating defeat. So Angelica's target, 'me'?
—Ah, no!
—Out of the way!
Unia blocked the front, but Angelica slapped Unia's mana pouch and shoved her aside.
"......."
Unia clutched her chest, but I continued Angelica's dream unfazed.
—Hey, special admit. That mana of yours so great?
—.......
—Wanna see how great? Let me check.
Angelica approached, lifting my chin.
—Strip.
Dream me just stood there at her command.
—Strip, I said. Ah, you want me to do it myself?
Irritation flashed in dream Angelica's eyes.
"W-wait. The image is...?"
"Her own dream not going her way, so it's starting to shake."
I reached forward. Dream Phoenix reached toward Angelica.
"Waking from a dream is simple."
—Y-you, what are you doing! Obey when you lose!
"Solve it the most primal, straightforward way."
—Y-you...!
"Senior Angelica!!"
Unia pointed at Angelica's body clinging to me, specifically her hand.
Wriggle, wriggle.
"......!"
"Cardisha!"
"Yeah, confirming physical response!"
As her fingers twitched faintly, the instructors moved, Rydmila and Evangeline drawing weapons toward the cased Angelica, ready to suppress if she rampaged.
—Y-you, where are you putting your hand?!
Confusion hit Angelica's eyes. The dream world image started glitching like noise, zzzt.
"M-magic...?!"
"Not the magic shaking—the world beyond the image."
"The dream...?"
"Yeah. Miss Unia. Uh, might be risky, so put up a shield in front of me?"
"A shield?"
"Yeah. Hm... face."
Just in case, but I couldn't let harm come to the face crafted by a hell duke.
"O-okay! One sec!"
Unia dragged a chair behind me, climbed on, and extended both hands over my face.
"Good?"
"Yeah."
I felt the massive mana pouch aura from behind, but Unia tried not to touch my body. A slight lean back would do it, but something else would hit first.
"Hey."
—Hey?!
"I'd rather bite my tongue and die than get raped by a bitch like you."
—Wha,
"What?!"
The moment Angelica's voice exploded.
Slap—!
I backhanded her cheek. In the dream, and reality.
Bzzzzt!!
The dream image shattered, scattering like a glass cage breaking.
"You fucking bastard!!"
Angelica's eyes flew open, mouth agape with curses.
"Pretty face and you act like a total dick! A fucker like you, I'd tie to the bed and drain your mana dry taking turns fu...!"
Furious Angelica screamed, but her voice trailed off.
"......Huh?"
Then, she realized.
"Wha...?"
"Unfamiliar ceiling. Old school infirmary."
"Wha, what...? This, what the hell...?"
Angelica had woken.
And she felt the stares.
"U-um. Why's everyone looking at me like that...?"
"Senior Angelica?"
"Uh, uh, ugh...?"
Only I gave her an 'I totally get it' look, so she scowled at me while glancing side to side.
"Listen calmly."
Two ways to say it. Kind lie, or cold truth.
"The angel sealed your mind, locking you in an eternal dream prison so you'd never wake."
I hadn't mentioned this to the others, but spilled the truth softly, like soothing her.
"I intervened to wake you. With hypnosis."
"Uh, ugh...."
"It's okay, Senior Angelica."
Her face paled. Quick on the uptake here—she got it.
"In the dream, tying a guy to bed and draining his mana dry—any woman wanting more mana thinks that, right?"
"Ah, aah...!"
"You woke from the dream, so we're good."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
Angelica thrashed wildly in the infirmary magic case.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"
If it were a blanket, it'd be shredded.
One hour later.
"Student Angelica will stay in the academy instructors' on-duty room during her suspension, for recovery."
Thankfully(?) she didn't pass out again, and left the old school under escort from main building instructors.
"Well done, Phoenix. Thanks to you... we can take down those angel-possessed ones for sure."
"No biggie."
Esta and Cardisha's faces brightened. They'd faced the unprecedented angel crisis, but a student they thought wouldn't wake did—so lucky break.
"But, Phoenix."
"Something on your mind, Miss Unia?"
"...Senior Angelica was about to do something super dangerous to you in her dream—doesn't that bother you?"
"Bother?"
I met everyone's eyes one by one and grinned.
"Whatever she does to me in a dream, it's a dream—what's to bother? Just a dream."
Yeah. A dream.
Heroines killing or murdering 'me' instead of the protagonist, or Cumming Dreams—I don't care.
"Saved a person."
That's it.
"Good enough."
I just guide them to cum more in reality.