"Mmm..."
Inside the bar of the Reverie Hotel.
Within a small, secluded booth, Sylvia held a low-alcohol cocktail, taking slow, deliberate sips. Beside her, Sparkle sat perched on her chair, lightheartedly swinging her feet, which didn't quite reach the floor.
After a fruitless investigation into Misha at the service desk, Sylvia found herself hitting a temporary dead end.
With the pile of mysteries growing ever taller, she had decided to come to the bar for a drink—partly to cool her head, and partly to just catch her breath and untangle her thoughts.
At Sylvia's side, Sparkle's hands were busy at the table, tinkering with a chaotic assortment of components.
Having been dragged into a "joint assembly session" by Sparkle before, Sylvia recognized them immediately: it was another one of Sparkle's custom-made bombs. In fact, Sylvia could see the core of the small, terrifyingly powerful explosive sitting right there in front of her.
Sylvia couldn't quite wrap her head around it.
It was one thing for Sparkle to build bombs in the Dreamscape. The Stellaron's influence was indeed rooted there.
Finding the Stellaron didn't necessarily require pinpointing an exact physical location; as Sparkle had said, the Penacony Grand Theater was the very heart of the dream.
With the right yield, one could use the Dreamscape itself as a lever to pry the Stellaron loose.
Sparkle had targeted that location without a moment's hesitation, leading Sylvia to suspect that the Stellaron might actually be hidden right inside the Grand Theater. Regardless, the Dreamscape had boundaries, and there were clues to follow.
But here in reality...
The planet of Penacony was vast, and the Stellaron wasn't exactly radiating power in the physical world.
How was anyone supposed to find where it was hidden?
Sylvia took another sip of her refreshing drink and tossed the question to Sparkle.
She had assumed Sparkle knew something specific, hence the bomb-making. To her surprise, Sparkle let out a giggling chirp and shook her head with total honesty.
"I haven't a clue! I only heard about the Stellaron being in the dream because I was following you. How would I know anything about what's happening in reality?"
"..."
Hearing such a blatant lack of responsibility, Sylvia looked down at the nearly finished "Sparkle Special" bomb. She didn't say a word, but her expression spoke volumes.
Sparkle merely smirked, her lips curling upward. "The bombs we made in the dream are enough for the Stellaron—even if they aren't quite finished yet."
"Then what is this one for? I don't take you for the type to blow up a hotel for no reason."
Sylvia felt that if there were enough "amusement" involved, Sparkle wouldn't hesitate to level the building. But currently, there wasn't much fun to be had here.
All the interesting things—Misha, the Origami Birds—were tucked away in the Dreamscape. Sparkle was clearly fascinated by those two things she couldn't see.
"Do you really want to know? Really, really?"
Sparkle propped her head up on her hand, leaning her face close to Sylvia's. She looked like she was definitely up to no good. Sylvia reached out, pinched Sparkle's cheek, and pushed her away.
"Never mind. I can tell you're plotting something malicious."
"What a thing to say! How could you! After everything we've been through, am I really that kind of person?" Sparkle slapped the table with her eyes narrowed and her cheeks puffed out, looking utterly offended.
"That's what you get for being a Masked Fool."
"Ugh... my heart is breaking. Here we are, partners, and you don't trust me at all. And yet, as your partner, I trust my little Snowy so much~" Sparkle raised both hands, rubbing her eyes in a laughably fake gesture of crying.
Then, staring back with mock-red eyes, she continued: "My little bomb here... it's designed to stir up the Memoria of Penacony~"
"...You're dreaming."
The moment Sparkle spoke, Sylvia's first instinct was that she was talking nonsense. Stirring the Memoria of Penacony? Did this girl have any idea how staggering the scale of the Memoria here actually was?
Sylvia had recently taken the time to look up some data on the Asdana system. The concentration of Memoria throughout the system was absurd.
To put it in plain terms: it was a massive ocean covering an entire star system. That wasn't something a normal person could shake.
An Emanator... an Emanator might be able to do it, though it was hard to say if every path's representative could; everyone has their specialty, after all.
In Sylvia's mind, unless an Emanator stepped in—or perhaps that weapon belonging to a certain genius trapped in the dream—it was impossible.
"No, no, no, where has that imagination of yours wandered off to? Even I couldn't trigger a Memoria upheaval across the whole system." Even Sparkle was moved to laughter by Sylvia's wild assumptions.
"I'm talking about Penacony! More specifically, just the area around the Reverie!" Sparkle emphasized the terms with mock seriousness.
Even narrowed down, it still sounded ridiculous to Sylvia's ears.
"Phew... fine, I'm done trying to explain things to this blockhead Snowy." After grumbling a few complaints with a pout, Sparkle suddenly shifted gears back to the Origami Birds.
"Let's talk about the birds instead. Is there any way for me to see those little guys too?"
Since Sparkle had nothing better to do, she had become obsessed with the invisible birds Sylvia kept mentioning. If this had been during the opening act of the Penacony festival, she probably wouldn't have cared, but boredom does strange things to a person.
"No!"
"I don't believe you!"
Sylvia's refusal was stern, but Sparkle's disbelief was just as adamant.
"You couldn't see them last time either, so you must have snuck off and done something fun without telling me. Admit it!" Sparkle slid her chair closer, leaning in with an intimidating amount of momentum.
She stared straight into Sylvia's eyes, trying to overwhelm her.
Sylvia remained silent.
Sparkle grinned mischievously. "Could it be because of the Trailblaze? That's it! I'm going to go join the Astral Express right now!"
"Get back here."
Sylvia grabbed Sparkle by the collar. Even though Sparkle's declaration was clearly a joke, she looked like she might just go cause trouble for the crew.
"Waaaaah~ Snowy has a new flame and doesn't want her old love anymore~ We promised to be Masked Fools together for life, to wear the masks together!"
"Who's being a Masked Fool with you for life?"
Sylvia reached out and pinched Sparkle's cheek again. The girl's skin felt remarkably soft and youthful; she wondered if Sparkle really was just a young brat who lived for the chaos.
Sparkle didn't mind the pinching. Instead, her eyes suddenly sparkled with an idea. "Hey, Snowy, why don't we go find an Astral Express of our own!"
"...Are you actually sick? Do you think there are just dozens of Astral Expresses lying around?"
"Oho~ Does little Snowy not know?" Sparkle looked as if she had discovered a rare artifact—it was the first time she'd found something Sylvia didn't know, especially regarding the Express.
"Know what?"
"In the past, the Astral Express wasn't just one train—it was an entire interstellar fleet!"
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.