Chapter 2229: Childhood Dreams

Chapter 2229: Chapter 2229: Childhood Dreams

As Shard and Emilia ran hand in hand through the snowy forest, the Dream surprisingly became more stable. Shard was puzzled; he had no idea what he had done:

"But this is good... So Emilia really likes running."

Yet the Relic’s awakening effect on Emilia continued to subtly influence the Dream’s evolution, because it wasn’t long before the two saw a large lake ahead that couldn’t be bypassed. Emilia slowed her pace, and at that moment, the surrounding scenery became blurred again:

"No, no way, I can’t go into the water!"

The Elf Girl intuitively felt that their run had reached its end, but Shard resolutely pulled Emilia forward:

"Trust me, as long as you are willing to hold my hand and move forward, the path beneath our feet will keep extending."

With shallow Dream knowledge learned from Dr. Schneider, Shard used his much stronger spiritual power to try to induce her to imagine there was indeed a road across the lake. He thought it wouldn’t be easy, yet the running girl smiled at his words:

"Yes! I am willing."

"Shouldn’t the answer be: Yes, is there a road ahead?"

Shard thought in puzzlement, and when he and Emilia reached the lakeside, a giant yellow biscuit path with holes unexpectedly rose from beneath the calm lake surface.

"Look, the road really appeared!"

Emilia exclaimed in surprise, and the Dream stabilized once again as they ran forward on the biscuit path over the lake.

Emilia seemed even more excited; the golden hair of the Elf Girl under the Moonlight dragged light spots behind her, and her beautiful emerald-green eyes sparkled with Glimmer. Her soft little hand slightly squeezed Shard’s large hand; the Dream was so stable at the moment that Shard suspected even if he told Emilia it was a dream, she wouldn’t want to wake up.

"We’re doing so well here, let’s hope Miss Belindel in reality hasn’t encountered any trouble."

The lake was much smaller than initially observed, and beyond the lake was another forest. As Shard lingered longer in this Dream, which almost didn’t guard against him, the large abnormal silver Moon above began to cast more Moonlight into Emilia’s Dream.

Moonlight wasn’t like the Sun, illuminating everything around but rather granting the wind more gentleness, the land more solid Power, and the woodland a more tranquil atmosphere. Meanwhile, the Moonlight endowed the Elf’s Dream with stronger spiritual power; Emilia was simply enjoying the moment, but Shard noticed more and more unusual things happening once they left the lake and entered the woodland.

For instance, he saw pine cones on the surrounding trees transform into chocolate materials, and the snow on the ground and trees turned into frosting. Moreover, those originally oddly shaped trees began to take on regular shapes, with the actual wood material slowly turning into biscuits.

"What’s happening now? Wait, could this be because..."

[The blessing of Childhood Dream, Emilia Xenode’s spiritual World has no defenses against you; that blessing is taking effect.]

The two dashed through the woodland with increasing speed, as if merging into the wind or transforming into gas. The blessing from the Deity grew stronger, molding the Dream into a more fantastical form according to the dream owner’s memories and subconscious.

This indirectly stabilized the Dream, even giving physical form to the unknown entity chasing them from behind. Shard took a moment to glance back while running and saw a "Lava Giant," the size of a small mountain, roughly composed of chocolate syrup, hot cocoa, frosting, and milk.

"Look, there’s a cliff ahead!"

Emilia suddenly said, her expression devoid of surprise. Without needing Shard’s guidance, she joyfully added:

"Will you take me flying?"

Shard could indeed transform into a Dragon to take her flying, and in the Dream, the transformation didn’t carry the risk of being unable to revert. But before fully assimilating the Dragon Strength, he hoped to avoid using it as much as possible:

"It’s not me. Little Liana is already waiting for us ahead... Oh, Emilia!"

The Elf Girl pulled Shard into a grand leap at the edge of the cliff, laughing as they plummeted towards the woodland covered in Snow White below. But in the next moment, a flock of white Unicorns took them soaring into the sky.

They weren’t real Unicorns, nor were they juvenile Unicorns like Little Liana; they were Unicorn toys. Some even appeared pudgy because they were stuffed with too much cotton. If Shard were fortunate enough to visit Emilia’s dorm at the Academy, he would find their designs identical to the one on her bed.

The Elf Girl giggled and sat with Shard atop the central Unicorn, wandering above the woodland. Suddenly, the Unicorn toys burst into pink smoke in the sky. But once the smoke faded, Shard and Emilia did not fall into the woods, because small white wings had grown on Emilia’s back.

She smiled and flew through the air, pulling Shard by the hand; Shard’s body didn’t descend because of gravity but instead was buoyed by an invisible force, closely following Emilia.

"This... truly is a good dream. I’m grateful my back didn’t sprout wings."

[Few can directly influence your conscious form in the Dream without your consent.]

"Her" voice became all the more tender under the moonlight, holding Emilia’s hand on the wind. Shard admitted it was a good dream; in fact, this dream might have been unusually good.

(Mia running...)

"Oh~"

With a reluctant groan, the blonde Elf Girl, forced into slumber by a strange potion and lying on the bed in the center of the dark basement, opened her eyes.

The dream was so glorious and beautiful that even when she opened her eyes to the unfamiliar dark ceiling, she remained immersed in the final moments of that delightful dream. It was only when she heard a voice that wasn’t her own that she gradually regained her conscious awareness.

"You’re awake? What happened to Emilia? The effects of the Sleep Potion should have been countered by the antidote. Here, can you see how many fingers this is?"

Miss Belindel said worriedly, waving three fingers in front of Emilia’s eyes, but Emilia, still somewhat dazed, didn’t respond immediately.

"How many fingers is this?"

Shard’s steady voice appeared, and Emilia instinctively focused on Shard’s hand in front of her:

"1."

"How many fingers is this?"

Next came two fingers.

"2."

"So what’s one plus one?"

Next came three fingers.

"3... oh, Shar... Mr. Watson!"

She suddenly became fully alert, almost calling out Shard’s real name in her flustered shyness, even surprising Shard beside her with how she managed to hold back.

The Witch beside them glanced suspiciously at Shard, fairly certain that the girl on the bed almost uttered a name quite unfamiliar to her. However, since Emilia only let out half a syllable, and it was in Delarion, the Witch still couldn’t decipher what the name was.

With a soft pop, the gas lamp on the wall was turned on, and Emilia squinted instinctively, then heard footsteps and a familiar voice—

"Ang~"

The Little Unicorn appeared by the bedside, looking quite happy to receive Emilia’s petting. Miss Maids also entered, helping to tidy up the basement that had been slightly damaged. The Whisper Elements that came with the footsteps had already vanished, and the basement looked like it had been through a small-scale battle, but the Countess remained calm, suggesting that after Shard entered the Dream, she managed things in reality quite smoothly.

"After you were steadily Sleeping, I found the source of that footsteps under the moonlight. Though I had seen what the Relic looked like in the records, I won’t bother describing that horrifying thing. Anyway, I became the third person in history to defeat Relic-[Midnight Footsteps]in a direct confrontation, banishing it completely, and at least for the next ten years, it won’t appear in the Material World."

Bella Belindel said with considerable pride.

"Well done, it’s thanks to you this time."

Shard also offered his thanks, then turned to Emilia on the bed and said:

"Get up quickly, go for a walk in the Sunshine outside, but don’t leave the manor. Bask in the Sun and forget about this matter."

Saying so, he reached out to pull her up from the bed, and Emilia, looking at her hand held by Shard’s, blushed instantaneously.

Almost as fast as she could, she flipped herself off the bed, put on her shoes, and dashed out of the basement as if escaping. The oblivious Little Unicorn called to Shard and then followed her out with its hooves clattering, making Miss Maids laugh. The little beast probably thought Emilia wanted to play chase with it again, a game the Elf Girl was very good at.

"I’m curious, what did you do in the Dream?"

The Witch asked slowly, her eyes filled with curiosity.

Shard thought for a moment, thinking there’s nothing much to it:

"At the start, we held hands running through a snowy Woodland, then crossed over a lake on a cookie road, and continued running through a Forest hung with chocolates and coated in frosting. We jumped off a cliff, borne into flight under the Moon by a pack of Snow White Unicorn toys, and grew wings to fly together toward the Starry Sky, only to Fall onto a rainbow. It was like sliding down a slide on the rainbow to the ground, where the rainbow’s source was a Pudding Lake with pink octopus toys inside that brought us to the shore..."