Sylvia thought it over as she said, "I was on the Luofu yesterday, so I wasn't paying much attention to Penacony. But if it's intel in that area, it's most likely about that."
After turning it over in her head, that did seem like the only thing it could be. She just couldn't tell whether it'd been done on purpose or by accident. Still, Sylvia had already contacted Jing Yuan and Topaz, so next came the trip to Dreamflux Reef to study.
She still had to figure out how to simulate an accretion disk inside her Herrscher Core too.
"Speaking of which, Himeko, when are you all planning to go to Penacony? There isn't much time left before the Charmony Festival."
"Hmm..." Himeko herself didn't mind either way. But she glanced back at March 7th, who was still locked in a battle of wits with the little creatures, then at Welt, who had managed to relax for once. "Let's rest here for a few days. We'll stay for a full week before setting off. Things have been a bit too busy lately."
Ever since Herta Space Station, they'd been running from one incident to the next with no real pause.
Himeko had held up well enough, but the three younger ones had been through a lot. Taking a short break here didn't sound bad.
Sylvia nodded. "Then Mei and I will head to Penacony first."
"Of course." Himeko was the navigator, but she'd never demanded that Sylvia move at the same pace as the rest of them. "By the way, Little March keeps saying she wants to bring a few dragonkin onto the Express. What do you think?"
"As long as March 7th can talk them into it, I don't see why not. Besides... thanks to Ruan Mei, these little ones are strong and smart. It'd be nice for them to keep the conductor company on the Express."
It'd already been several days, yet Ruan Mei was still making more dragonkin. Sylvia was starting to wonder how many she planned to create.
Her research had already reached a clear stage of success, hadn't it? So why was she still making new dragonkin?
If this kept going at the same pace, Sylvia would have to consider hiring someone to look after the whole pack. These little creatures were bursting with energy and curious about everything in the world. If March 7th could take a few with her, that'd be perfect.
--+--
Sylvia teleported to Robin's house with Mei. Just like last time, they entered the dream from the guest room and reached Dreamflux Reef without trouble.
What Sylvia hadn't expected was to run into Sparkle.
"Oh, hey there, little white-hair. You're here?"
Sparkle was crouched by the edge of the rooftop, clutching a Dream Bubble in her hands and kneading it over and over. Sylvia had no idea what she was doing.
"...What are you doing?"
Sylvia watched Sparkle torment the Dream Bubble with a puzzled look. Who knew what this woman had come up with today?
"I'm kneading a meme."
Sparkle giggled and lifted the Dream Bubble, which she'd squeezed into a warped mess.
Then she said to Sylvia, "I only found out today that Sleepie was made by that black dog with his bare hands. Well, then I'm making pets too! I'll make a little white dove, a little white dragon, a little black swan..."
Sparkle counted them off one by one on her fingers. It was easy to tell who each animal was supposed to point to. But when Sylvia looked at the Dream Bubble in Sparkle's hands, she didn't feel that hopeful.
No matter how she looked at it, it didn't seem like something that could be kneaded into a Memory Zone Meme.
Also, could you really make a Memory Zone Meme just by kneading a Dream Bubble like this?
"How's the mask coming along?"
"Oh, that? The prep work was too boring, so I handed it off to Sampo."
Sparkle had lost all interest. She already looked tired of it.
When Sylvia heard Sampo's name, she didn't doubt that he could get it done. What she did doubt was whether the mask would end up turning into some knockoff made by that guy.
Hmm... well, what did it matter?
It'd be the Masked Fools' fault either way. After thinking about it, Sylvia made peace with that.
"Then take your time kneading. I've got things to do."
"Little white-hair, you're not going to keep me company? How heartless."
"..."
Sylvia glanced at Sparkle, who was kneading the Dream Bubble like she was digging through mud, then waved her off and started to leave with Mei.
"Fine, fine, I'm heartless. I'm a heartless study machine."
"Mm-hmm. Then why don't you come learn from me how to knead memes?"
Sparkle hummed with a grin and stared into Sylvia's eyes.
"Are you serious...?"
"Oh, come on. When has little Sparkle ever lied to you? Come here, come here. I've worked for you for soooo long, so shouldn't you spend some time with poor, lonely little Sparkle?"
Sparkle ignored Sylvia's jab, bounced over, grabbed Sylvia's wrist with both hands, and dragged her toward the edge of the rooftop. Mei didn't make any extra moves at all.
Sylvia had thought Mei would help her break free from Sparkle, so she stumbled along and turned to look at her.
"Hehe. I'm borrowing little white-hair for a bit."
"..."
Mei didn't pick up Sparkle's line. Instead, she looked at Sylvia and asked with her eyes.
Sylvia glanced at Sparkle. She had the strange feeling that unless she played in the mud with her today, this hurdle wasn't going to go away.
"I'll go find Robin later. You can head over first? Speaking of which, I'd also like to meet Black Swan, but I've no idea where she is."
"Want me to help you look for her?"
Sylvia didn't react at first. "Huh?"
Mei shrugged. "I don't have much to do anyway, so I can help you find her."
But Sylvia shook her head. "I appreciate it, but Black Swan's a Memokeeper. I doubt someone like that can be found just by searching."
"...Maybe. Maybe not."
Mei blinked, as if she had an idea. But she didn't seem ready to tell Sylvia about it. Seeing that, Sylvia could only let her do as she pleased.
"All right, all right. Come on, I'll teach you how to play with mud!"
Sparkle crouched beside Sylvia, pulled out another unknown thing from somewhere, and shoved it into Sylvia's hands.
"...You just called it mud yourself, and you're still saying you're not playing with mud."
Sylvia sighed. The Masked Fools really were free spirits.
"Oh, stop talking. Come on, I'll teach you how to knead it. This is really fun!"
Sparkle was full of energy, and Sylvia had no idea where she'd learned this technique. At first, Sylvia didn't take it seriously. But as she kept learning, she actually got pulled in.
She had to admit it.
Kneading Dream Bubbles was pretty fun.
The only pity was that even after the two of them studied it for half the day, they still couldn't figure out how to shape a Memory Zone Meme by hand. If Sparkle hadn't reminded her and made Sylvia remember why she'd come here, she might really have spent the whole day playing around with Sparkle.
--+--
Sylvia gave Sparkle a rushed goodbye and found Robin in the usual place. Mei hadn't come back yet, and Sylvia had no idea where she'd gone.
Only Sylvia and Robin sat together, ready to begin the lesson.
"Where did Miss Acheron go?"
"She said she wanted to help look for Black Swan."
"Oh..."
Robin nodded, then spread all the materials she'd organized in front of Sylvia. "These are the notes I put together over the past two days. Take a look."
"Got it."
--+--
Meanwhile, Mei left Dreamflux Reef and entered the gaps between dreams.
The feeling of being watched grew clearer. So Mei eased her blade a little from its sheath, her eyes showing a faint hint of red as her pressure locked onto an empty stretch of space.
"Come out."
"..."
The empty stretch of space gave no response. Seeing that, Mei raised her sheathed blade and slashed.
Boom!
The flowing Memoria almost shattered and fell into "death," to the point that the dream here nearly collapsed. But another force smoothed out the riot in the Memoria.
Dense Memoria gathered from every direction and covered the hollow that Mei had cut open, filling the dream just before it fell apart. An elegant figure had no choice but to emerge from the void and stand before Acheron.
"What a rough invitation, Miss Acheron."
"You've been watching us from the shadows since we came to Penacony today, haven't you?"
Acheron sheathed her blade and withdrew her pressure, as if she hadn't been the one to strike that blow.
"Because Sylvia wanted to meet me, didn't she? So I came to her on my own."
Black Swan stepped closer to Acheron with graceful, measured steps. "Oh? Or are you angry because I got close to her? Just like last time?"
"..."
Acheron glanced at Black Swan. She didn't answer, and she didn't deny it. Instead, she asked another question.
"What are you trying to do by approaching Sylvia again and again?"
For some reason, Sylvia always held a certain amount of trust toward Black Swan. Sylvia was often like that, and it could be counted as one of her strengths. Even so, Acheron couldn't just let a suspicious person move around unchecked.
It hadn't been convenient to act last time in the Blue Hour.
This time was different.
"Hehe. Don't be so hostile."
Black Swan, of course, knew she couldn't beat the person in front of her. But there was no need for them to clash, was there?
--+--
Sylvia didn't know that Mei had left on her own because she'd noticed Black Swan watching them. Right now, Sylvia was comparing the materials and thinking about finding a time today to get close to the accretion disk and investigate it.
After all, seeing something for yourself was better than hearing about it a hundred times. This thing was called an accretion disk, yes, but it existed inside the Synesthesia Dreamscape. What kind of thing it truly was still had to be checked in person.
As for Black Swan... she'd leave that to chance. A Memokeeper wasn't someone she could find just because she wanted to.
Once Sylvia had the thought, she acted on it. After explaining her idea to Robin, she flew off from the rooftop under Robin's worried gaze and headed toward the distant accretion disk.
The scale of the thing was terrifying. From Dreamflux Reef, it didn't look that far away at a glance, but once Sylvia took flight, it was no different from chasing a mountain that never got closer.
Luckily, Sylvia didn't need to go deep in for now. Also, in the Synesthesia Dreamscape itself, spatial distance wasn't that clear to begin with. Sylvia flew fast.
After she neared the distorted dream buildings, she felt the pull from the hollow with perfect clarity. But the force wasn't intense, and it seemed to target Memoria more than anything.
At least to Sylvia's senses, once that force landed on her, it wasn't as strong as she'd expected.
"...That's good news."
Sylvia felt a little more hopeful about the situation and kept moving closer against the growing force. She began trying to use the method left behind by the Family to search for the hidden Stellaron.
This was delicate work. The Family had been able to place the Stellaron here without leaking even the slightest sign of it for two reasons.
First, they'd used the accretion disk's natural pull to suppress most of the power that leaked out, giving no one a chance to notice it.
Second, when the Family hid the Stellaron, they'd tuned the Stellaron to the accretion disk with great boldness and skill.
They'd brought the Stellaron's frequency close to the accretion disk's, perhaps even matched it without a gap. To use a metaphor that made sense, it was like they'd hidden the Stellaron inside its own shadow.
Unless someone went deep into the accretion disk and bypassed the main body to investigate that "shadow," no one would find the Stellaron hidden there. What Sylvia had to do was lock onto that "frequency" where the two had been joined together.
Thankfully, she only needed to find the frequency. She didn't have to be a Family member who could perform the "tuning" itself. Otherwise, this job could only be left to Robin.
The price was that finding this frequency wouldn't be easy. But for Sylvia, there was an upside too.
The search would deepen her understanding of the accretion disk's structure, which would help her build a miniature model of it inside her Herrscher Core.
"Hiss... The deeper I go, the clearer my sense of the frequency becomes. But that also means it'll get more dangerous."
Sylvia had moved into a distance that was already dangerous. The force tearing at her body grew stronger and stronger, and she now had to draw on the power of the Ambrosial Arbor to stabilize herself.
"There isn't much time left before the Charmony Festival. The Family won't set the auction after the festival, so I don't have that much time."
Sylvia gritted her teeth and kept going deeper. While maintaining her Herrscher of the Void form, all she had to do was loosen her resistance to the force, and she'd be accelerated in an instant, flying toward the deeper region.
Just then, a soft laugh sounded beside her.
"Hehe. Need some help, dear?"
"...?!"
Sylvia froze and forced herself to stop. She turned to look, but she didn't see Black Swan anywhere.
"Looking for me? I'm not there. You're flying too fast, and I can't keep up."
"Black Swan? Why are you here now?"
"Listen to you. Of course I heard that a certain little cutie was going on an adventure, so I came to lend you a hand."
"Then how are you going to help?"
Sylvia was curious about what Black Swan could do for her.
"Hehe. Don't worry, dear. Close your eyes and follow my guidance."
Black Swan's gentle voice sounded as if she were whispering right beside Sylvia's ear. It was almost as if Black Swan were pressed close against her.
Sylvia closed her eyes and decided to follow Black Swan's instructions for now.
"Good. Come, follow my finger. Can you feel it? My fingertip, dancing across your body."
Black Swan's voice surfaced in silence, and then a slender finger landed between Sylvia's lips. A faint, flowing light bloomed from the fingertip.
Then it slowly moved down, following some subtle rhythm as it tapped Sylvia's body.
"Mm... It tickles a bit."
"Bear with it for a moment, dear."
Black Swan's hand brushed over Sylvia's body bit by bit. She looked at Sylvia's faintly flushed cheeks and trembling lashes with a smile at the corner of her mouth, but her eyes stayed focused.
She wasn't trying to take advantage of Sylvia. Black Swan was trying to guide Sylvia into sensing the existence of Memoria.
For a Memokeeper, someone who had already been transformed into a memetic being, communicating with Memoria and controlling it came as naturally as instinct. They could begin at once without any guidance like this.
But Sylvia wasn't a Memokeeper, even though she did know a little about handling Dream Bubbles. For Black Swan, this was truly the first time she'd taught someone like this how to knead Memoria by hand.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL