City of Dreamers (6)
Oscar swept his gaze across the unfocused stares fixed on him, thinking to himself.
Come to think of it, the butler at the Vince manor did say so. No shop would be open for business on Christmas.
And yet here, on this street inside the dream, a handful of stores were operating normally. This high-end restaurant was one of them.
Which means the people working in the shops currently open…
Every last one of them was a Corrupted Entity, created by the Nightmare Baron — the same as Veronica's parents. The moment that realization struck him, a waiter who had quietly slipped up behind Oscar swung a wine bottle down at his head.
Wind Bullet
Without even turning around, the shot punched a hole clean through the man's skull. With a hissing crackle, the dead waiter dissolved into black smoke, and the customers who witnessed it began to murmur.
"Th-the man's dead…?"
"Murder! It's murder!"
"Run!"
The customers, having no idea the waiter was never human, fled shrieking out into the street.
Well, that works out nicely.
Only once they cleared the room could he fight without holding back. He looked over at Veronica and said, "Now you understand, right? That they aren't human."
"……"
No answer came from her. She looked utterly stunned.
"Hey, you—"
The moment Oscar tried to say more, enemies began surging in from every direction.
"Tch."
Dozens at a time came charging at him, brandishing steak knives, cellos, and frying pans. Oscar scrambled across the tables, putting a wind-bored hole through one head after another as he went.
Thirty or so? At this number I could manage on my own—
Just as that optimistic thought formed — BOOM! — more blank-eyed creatures smashed through both the front and back doors of the restaurant, flooding in en masse.
"…You've got to be kidding me. How many of them are there?"
Even at a glance, the line of them stretched beyond the edge of sight. It seemed every Corrupted Entity in the shopping district had come swarming.
This might be a bit much for me alone.
The numbers were bad enough, but the cramped interior of the building was the more serious problem.
Air Explosion
Oscar retreated up to the second floor, blasting back the enemies climbing the stairs with wide-area magic, all the while shouting down, "Veronica! Snap out of it!"
"……"
Despite his repeated shouts, she didn't so much as twitch.
Because right now, no one in this place was more confused than she was.
What is this?
Veronica's pupils trembled violently as she watched the battle rage through the restaurant.
We really came inside a dream? And my parents… they're false existences?
She shook her head as if such a thing were impossible. Even now, countless happy moments spent with her mother and father were surging through her mind.
Then all these memories — they're fabricated memories that bastard, the Nightmare Baron, made up?
The corners of her eyes quivered. A cold dread seized her. Because if it were true — then who exactly was the person standing here?
She had been a girl from a poor family, but aside from that, nothing about her life had ever been particularly special. And now, in an instant, she was becoming a girl with no family at all.
"Veronica."
At that moment, her mother and father approached and spoke up.
"Let's slip out while we have the chance."
"This place looks far too dangerous. It would be best to return home and watch how things unfold."
"…Home?"
In that instant, a familiar scene painted itself across her mind. Pretty white flowers blooming in full splendor across a green meadow. A picturesque little cottage built atop the hill that overlooked them. There she hung laundry with her mother every day, while her father split firewood at their side. Even worn down by their exhausting work, whenever they caught each other's eye, they always smiled. And for some reason, the moment that memory surfaced, transparent tears slid down her cheeks.
"We should go. Quickly."
Her mother, her face twisted with fear, gently took hold of her arm and pulled. But Veronica didn't budge an inch.
"Veronica?"
At the sound of her own name, she asked in a voice gone eerily calm, "The white flowers that bloomed in front of our house. What were their names?"
"Their names…? Well… they were just… flowers. Flowers."
"They were daffodils. And as I recall, it was Mom who taught me that."
"I'm sorry, Mom's memory hasn't been good lately. But let's go outside first, and we can talk."
"Becky, listen to your mother right now. Who knows when we'll be caught up in the fighting too—"
"…Mom. Dad."
She slowly turned her head and faced the two of them squarely.
"What were their names?"
"……"
"……"
No answer came back. Their faces went rigid, as if they had broken down, and then they heaved a long, deep sigh.
"What kind of question is that? Don't tell me you believe that strange thing that boy said? I am your mother."
"Veronica. No matter what anyone says, I am your father. We are family. That's all that matters right now."
"……"
Veronica turned her head and looked at Oscar. He was barricading the second-floor stairwell against more than a hundred of them, and he seemed to be slowly reaching his limit — the Corrupted Entities had begun making ladders of their own bodies to climb up.
"Goddammit…!"
The man, driven into a corner in the blink of an eye, fought with everything he had. A cook seized him by the ankle while a baker from the bread shop across the street latched onto his sleeve, dragging at him. And still he refused to give up, straining with all his strength to tear the enemies off himself.
"……"
For some reason, she found herself remembering when he had lain collapsed like a wreck at the Mana Power Plant. The touch of his hand as he'd patted her head and told her she'd be all right.
Veronica abruptly spoke up. "…Pat my head."
"What? Out of nowhere? In the middle of all this, why on earth—"
"Now!"
At her shout, her mother hesitantly, carefully, stroked her hair. Veronica let the touch linger for a moment, then burst into a bitter laugh and muttered, "…What a joke. Everyone always said nothing beat Mom's touch. What a load of crap."
Because the warmest touch she had ever felt in her entire life had been Oscar's.
Veronica said quietly, "Sorry, but I don't think I can go with you."
"Becky! If… if you come with us, you can be happy."
"Isn't it the family you've always wanted? Come with us, and you can live without a single worry."
"…Maybe I could."
Granted, this place was a dream, and they were false existences. Still, she couldn't deny that she had been happy here, if only for a little while. But no — going with them was simply impossible.
"My name is Veronica Frix. A mage of the White Magic Tower."
Her gaze shifted to one side. That idiot backed into the corner of the shop had taught her something.
"…A mage of the White Magic Tower never abandons her comrades."
Especially not for phantoms who weren't even her real family.
Crackle! Craaack! Sharp mana sparked off her body like electricity.
"W-wait a moment."
"Becky…!"
Hearing the two of them panic, she whispered her farewell. "…Goodbye."
Wind Press
BOOM!
As the two of them, crushed beneath compressed air, dissolved into black smoke, Veronica gave a bittersweet smile.
"Kgh!"
There was nowhere left to retreat. Driven all the way into a corner, Oscar bit his lip as he stared down the advancing enemies.
Even now he was thinning their numbers, but there were simply too many — no matter how many he killed, the horde never seemed to shrink.
Sound of the Wave
WHAAAAM!
Dozens of Corrupted Entities burst apart where they stood, dissolving into smoke. Normally, any soldier would feel terror watching an ally die horribly right beside them. But the Corrupted Entities didn't blink — they simply filled the gaps and kept coming.
"Ah, crap."
Damn it — he'd lost track of the one gripping the steak knife for just an instant. Oscar's eyes went wide as he watched the frying pan falling toward his own head. And in that moment—
KRRRSSH-BOOM!
Compressed wind came crashing down, flattening the Corrupted Entities beneath it, quite literally. Hisssss. As the black smoke that had filled his vision thinned, a familiar face greeted him with an awkward smile.
"Your big sis is here. You waited long?"
"…Yeah, my 'big sis' indeed."
Where in the world was there a big sister this high-maintenance? Meeting Oscar's dead-eyed glare, she averted her gaze and slapped him on the back, whack whack. "Hey, you made it, that's what counts! I mean, you got here before anything bad happened, right?"
"Before anything bad happened? I've got gashes here, a cut there, and a burn over on this side too."
"…Well then, since you made it before dying, let's call it a win."
Truly a woman who did whatever she pleased. Oscar's face twisted in exasperation — and then, quite suddenly, he burst out laughing. "Ha. You real menace."
"Ugh, I said I was sorry! Aren't we good? Anyway, more importantly than that…"
She turned her eyes to the creatures surrounding the two of them. "We've got to wipe these things out first, don't we?"
"Can't argue with that."
Shk! Shwaaak!
As Veronica's hands danced in a blinding flourish, threads of intricate design wove themselves between her fingers. Mana threads — mana drawn out and spun into silk.
"Is there really any reason to catch them one tedious bastard at a time?"
"What?"
"Then let's sweep them up… all at once!"
SHWAAAAAK!
The mana threads fanning out from her fingertips shredded the restaurant's ceiling into pieces. "This reckless, absurd—"
Oscar couldn't help voicing his complaint, even as he hurled the massive chunks of stone raining down over their heads straight at the enemies. CRASH! BOOM!
The enemies buried beneath the giant debris dissolved into smoke by the dozens.
"Well? Honestly, that felt pretty satisfying, didn't it?"
"…A little, maybe."
"Get some rest. I'll handle the rest of them."
Shwaaak!
Binding the stone fragments in threads of mana, she swung them around like slingstones. Each time she did, more than a dozen Corrupted Entities scattered into smoke.
"We've spotted Veronica and Oscar in the shopping district! Moving to join them!"
Then, through the gaping hole torn in the ceiling, the senior mages of the White Magic Tower descended. Only then did Oscar finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Hisssss.
The last of them dissolved into smoke. "So what happens now?" asked the senior mage who had dispatched it, walking over. Oscar told him everything he knew.
"As far as I know, once all the Corrupted Entities are dealt with, we wake up from the dream on our own."
"Really? Then why are we still—"
"Ah. It's starting."
Oscar murmured, glancing around. And just as he'd said — the mage who had been standing beside him moments ago had simply vanished. As if he had never been there at all.
"Huh. That's awfully anticlima—"
When Veronica, mid-sentence, vanished too, the senior mage let out a sigh of relief. "I see. So it truly is over. Then we simply wait. See you outside."
"Yes — see you in reality."
The senior vanished as well. Surveying the street, now silent in the span of a heartbeat, Oscar instinctively spread his mana outward.
…Everyone really is gone.
His mana detection picked up no human life signs at all — and he was just thinking that was a relief when—
Crash! Shatter!
Something glass-like began raining down from the sky and breaking apart. Startled, he looked up to find the world crumbling away bit by bit, as if an ancient wall were being peeled off.
"……"
He had dreamed countless dreams in his time, but he had never once watched the world inside a dream collapse like this. Is it because this was a grand subspace that held thousands of people?
And the instant the question formed—
Beyond the collapsing sky, he felt someone's gaze.
"……"
It was a stare that radiated a vicious, fundamental malice and contempt for humankind — and at the same time, an intense, burning curiosity directed at him. Oscar's expression hardened. He remembered demons with eyes like that.
The Nightmare Baron.
As the Baron gazed down at him, so too did Oscar gaze up at him. Then the demon's deep, weighty voice echoed in his ear.
-…Well, now. How very amusing.
With a low chuckle, as if he could hardly contain his delight, the world collapsed. -Until we meet again, mage.