Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 133: Divine Revelation?
Perhaps the rat’s brain was affecting him, because the Dragon Fae’s head buzzed for a while. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that his theory might be plausible.
Admittedly, physical pregnancy would provide a better reference than mental pregnancy. But physical pregnancy required an emotional foundation and enough time. A single night was clearly insufficient.
That left only one possibility: “mental pregnancy.”
The consciousnesses of two people could be drawn into a dream realm, where time could be stretched out for years.
Within the dream, they would possess bodies modeled after reality. As long as the one behind it had enough magic and made the dream sufficiently realistic, it could reproduce the process of a real pregnancy with a high degree of accuracy.
That had to be it. Given Myss and Salaar’s personalities, there was no chance they had simply “fallen asleep the moment they entered.”
But if they could never conceive, wouldn’t they be trapped in the dream forever, never able to awaken?
Even setting that aside, who knew how quickly time flowed inside the dream? If their minds spent tens of thousands of years there, would they still be sane when they finally woke?
He had to find a way to warn them.
The Dragon Fae anxiously twitched his whiskers.
Kalen couldn’t use magic, and Tass himself was not skilled in mental magic. There was also an unknown and immensely powerful presence inside the room, one very likely connected to the Blind God. They had to think of something quickly.
He decisively turned around and scurried away along the wall.
Ten minutes later.
“What?”
After listening to Tass’s explanation, which was heavily interspersed with squeaks, Father Kalen looked utterly bewildered.
The possibility that the sacrifices were pulled into a dream world on the night of prayer was still within Kalen’s understanding. Hermit had once told him that every religion was fascinated with the spiritual realm to varying degrees.
But the theory that they would be unable to escape unless someone became pregnant in the dream was so shocking that his thoughts stopped entirely for five full seconds.
“…Are you certain the unknown being intends to, uh, trap people in a dream and make them have a child?” Kalen asked, struggling to process the information.
“That thing is terrifyingly powerful. It might even be the Blind God itself. I’m telling you, I know that kind of atmosphere too well. It definitely wants to be born, using Myss and Salaar’s power to do it.”
Tass rubbed his whiskers anxiously.
“Of course, the pregnancy and childbirth part is only my guess. Do you have a more reasonable explanation? Like those two simply being tired?”
Kalen made several awkward sounds. “Perhaps It only wants to admire the love between the sacrifices…”
Tass raised his black, bead-like rat eyes.
His left eye said, Are you serious?
His right eye said, How old are you?
His pupils were practically turning into question marks.
“…There’s no point in guessing here. You’re right. Our immediate priority is contacting Salaar and Myss,” Father Kalen continued. “How good is your mental magic?”
Tass shook his head. “That stuff is only popular with clergy and deranged criminals. Ordinary mages rarely use it.”
Kalen said, “There probably isn’t enough time to contact Archmage Gentry, and finding a criminal of that level is even less realistic. Clergy… clergy…”
The two suddenly looked at each other.
Not long ago, they had interacted with a young priest.
Since that little priest had been allowed to join the procession welcoming the sacrifices, he had to possess considerable talent.
Even if his magic wasn’t yet practiced, they could exploit it. As a magical creature, Tass might not be skilled in mental magic, but he was very good at hiding inside other spells and smuggling himself along.
Kalen immediately set off and returned to the room of the priest named Egan. The Dragon Fae expertly squeezed through the gap beneath the door and discovered Egan sleeping peacefully in the darkness. The boy faced the wall, sleeping soundly.
After confirming that everything was normal, Kalen concealed himself again and crept back inside. He placed a hand over his chest and spent more than a dozen seconds offering a penitent prayer. Then he took out a fire-starting magical tool and relit the extinguished candle.
Kalen cleared his throat and spoke in an ethereal voice. “Good child, awaken…”
Between the light and the voice, Egan woke almost immediately. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the candle in surprise.
“My God?” the boy murmured, his eyes filled with delight and devotion.
Father Kalen had never been so grateful that the Lord of Shadows had granted him the power of concealment. At that moment, not even Tass standing at his feet could see how red his face had become from embarrassment.
“I need you to enter the sacrifices’ dream.”
Kalen tried to sound as gentle as possible. His hand returned to his chest as he apologized frantically in his heart. Egan lowered his head, his face briefly sinking into shadow. A few seconds of silence felt as long as several years.
Kalen’s heart nearly leapt from his throat. What if Egan hadn’t learned mental magic yet? What if this request was forbidden? Worst of all, what if he told the other priests and caused a disturbance?
Fortunately, after the brief silence, Egan spoke somewhat shyly. “Of course I am willing to obey Your will, my God. But my abilities are limited. I don’t know whether I can satisfy You…”
“That’s no concern.”
Only then did Kalen remember how to breathe. He nearly blew out the candle in front of him.
He had intended to add something like, “Don’t tell anyone,” but Tass interrupted by biting him.
“Don’t,” Tass whispered. “The more you say, the more mistakes you’ll make. Let it happen naturally.”
Meanwhile, Egan nodded solemnly. He put on his shoes and left the room.
He paused briefly before the barred gate and placed one hand against the layers of relief carvings. With a rough grinding sound, the gate opened again.
Kalen rejoiced inwardly and hurried after Egan through the gate and into the preparation room.
The preparation room door opened openly. Garnet spun around.
“Egan? Why are you here? You were clearly supposed to…”
“I received a divine revelation,” Egan said with absolute seriousness. “Our God wishes me to be here.”
Garnet frowned and was about to speak, but the High Priest stopped him.
“Egan is talented and still young. There’s no harm in allowing him to remain,” the old man said softly. “This is Lord Blind God’s sacred night. We must not quarrel before the god.”
“Understood.” Priest Garnet immediately lowered his head.
The old man smiled at Egan. “As you can see, child, we are keeping vigil for Lord Blind God. You say you received divine revelation. What did Lord Blind God tell you?”
Father Kalen’s toes immediately tensed, while Tass’s tail stiffened beside his feet.
The next instant, Tass’s eyes rolled. He dashed outward and knocked over the silver candlestick in the corner.
The candlestick fell onto a tablecloth, instantly igniting a patch of flame. The High Priest had no time to continue questioning him. He murmured an incantation, and a sphere of water formed over the fire, extinguishing the flames before they could spread.
While both priests’ attention was diverted, Kalen strode to Egan’s side and gently pushed him toward the confession chamber.
Egan was indeed quick-witted.
Facing the tightly closed door, he silently recited something. A ripple of magic spread outward. Tass shuddered, immediately ran to the door, and worked to merge part of himself into the spell.
The little rat collapsed beside the door. At the same time, a wavering, illusion-like Tass flew through the door alongside the spell and vanished into thin air.
Tass had prepared himself to be severely injured. He didn’t know what conditions were like inside the dream. The magic there might be just as chaotic as it was outside.
Under such terrible circumstances, this “portion” of him might survive only a few seconds, or even less.
That was why he had separated out only part of his power. If that portion were completely destroyed, he would have to cling to life using what remained inside the mouse’s fleshy shell.
When the time came, Father Kalen could pay for the gemstones needed to heal him! Tass thought heroically.
……
Myss held a slice of bread toasted crisp without being burnt, dipped it into the soup, and happily brought it to his mouth.
Crunch!
The rich flavor instantly filled his mouth, and Myss gave a satisfied hum. Now he finally understood where Salaar had learned all these skills. As expected of a Hero who had inherited the memories of countless humans. He was extremely useful.
Sogné stared wide-eyed at Myss. He obediently took a sip of soup and then a bite of bread, apparently never having considered combining the food that way.
In a good mood, Myss looked at him twice and waved the slice of bread. “Want some?”
Sogné blinked in delight and opened his mouth wide. “Ahh…”
Myss: “…You can dip your own.”
Then he ate the rest of the soup-soaked bread in one bite, his cheeks stuffed full.
Sogné closed his mouth in disappointment, the corners drooping slightly.
“How cruel. As expected of you.” Salaar chuckled. He dipped his own bread into the soup and fed it to Sogné.
“Good that you understand,” Myss said indifferently.
Salaar seemed rather fond of this place, and Myss was no longer in a hurry to get out. Since they were on the same team, Salaar could handle the task of winning the child’s affection. Myss had no idea how to care for children anyway.
“Your mommy really is cruel.” Salaar fed Sogné another piece of bread, completely untroubled by the distorted face. A faint smile rested on his lips, while his peripheral gaze remained fixed on Myss.
“I originally thought Daddy and Mommy weren’t truly in love,” Sogné said while chewing. “But now it seems Daddy really likes Mommy.”
Myss gave a smug hum.
“That’s right.”
Salaar didn’t shy away from the admission. “Is it that obvious?”
Sogné nodded and sighed with his fragmented face. “I’m going to take an afternoon nap. Daddy and Mommy can keep eating.”
Then he gave Salaar a look that clearly meant good luck and trotted back to his room. Although the surroundings had changed somewhat, his bedroom door remained firmly shut.
The moment the nuisance left the table, Myss sprang up and attacked Sogné’s bread basket. “These are all mine now.”
“Eat as much as you like. I’ll bake more if it isn’t enough.”
“Hey, Salaar, aren’t you worried at all about… What the hell is that?!” Myss’s voice suddenly shot upward.
In his bowl of cream soup, the half-dead face of the Dragon Fae appeared in reflection.
“My… ss, Myss? Is that you? Can you… hear me?”
Tass’s face was mostly obscured by a floating mushroom. His voice was distorted, sometimes near and sometimes distant. Myss yanked Salaar in front of the bowl even faster than he had seized the bread basket.
“Speak quickly.”
“To make a long story short, you’re trapped in… a dream. Some powerful being, very likely the Blind God, wants to use your… power to be born.”
The Dragon Fae’s image grew more stable as he spoke rapidly. “Wait… why aren’t either of you surprised?”
Because Sogné had already told them about being “born.”
And given the strange environment, it was obviously either an illusion or a dream. Considering the unusual difference in time, a dream had already seemed more likely.
“Anything else?” Salaar urged. “You don’t look well, so stop worrying about us.”
The Dragon Fae nodded, causing ripples to spread across the soup’s surface.
“The magic outside is… complicated and chaotic, exactly like my birthplace.”
“I suspect they want Myss to become pregnant inside the dream, allowing that being to observe an infant forming from nothing and learn how to acquire a body.”
Salaar: “…”
Myss: “…………”
“In any case, your dream bodies are modeled after reality. The two of you can’t produce a child.” At last, the Dragon Fae saw the shocked expressions he had expected. “The Eye-Opening Ceremony has gone wrong. No one knows what will happen. You need to find a way to es… cape…”
The tiny face on the surface of the soup wavered and dissolved away.
Silence.
Silence spread through the dim room. Myss turned his head and stared soundlessly at Salaar.
After a long pause, Salaar said, “Uh, Tass has always had a vivid imagination. There may be another explanation.”
Myss continued staring at him without a word.
Salaar continued with some difficulty. “We should investigate based on objective evidence…”
“I think,” Myss said slowly, “the Dragon Fae’s theory makes some sense.”
“I have an idea. Should we try it?”
The author has something to say:
Egan (?): Hehe.
Egan (?): I wonder what expression Kalen will make when he learns the truth. [Let me see]
Our great genius Myss is about to have another brilliant idea! [okay]
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