Chapter 26: Sacred Forest (3)

Selena blinked, her mouth hanging open.

“Then are you saying this isn't a forest?”

“It's a forest. Plants and animals live here together, and there are thick stands of trees. A lake, too.”

“But you just said it was a dream.”

“Well, it is a dream brought into reality.”

Magic brought phenomena into being. In that sense, this forest was a kind of magic, too.

That was why people who weren't mages sometimes misunderstood magic as mere trickery. Once a spell was canceled, the roaring flames vanished, as did a sheet of ice that had frozen over in an instant.

But the burns and frostbite remained. The same applied to this forest.

The plants and animals within this forest already formed an ecosystem of their own. Of course, the entire cycle ran on mana, but most people would scarcely notice any difference from reality.

A dream so close to reality that most people couldn't even tell them apart. And there was the evidence of decades of people talking about it as the Sacred Forest.

It had existed openly for far too long to dismiss it as mere trickery.

“Can an ordinary person do something like that?”

“No. Merlin is an archmage.”

“B-but even so. Creating a world this intricate, even if it is a dream... A person's mana has to have a limit, and he's kept this up for decades...”

Selena's question was reasonable. In fact, I hadn't thought something like this could be sustained for decades, either. As she said, there was simply a limit to how much mana a human had.

I did have an idea about that, but I kept it to myself for now.

“Anyway, let's hurry. We wasted time because you suddenly started bawling.”

“... Do you have to put it like that?”

Ignoring her dwindling murmur, I urged the Cassian onward again.

After we'd ridden for a while, something occurred to me.

“But aren't assassins used to torture? You must get training for it.”

“We are. To the agony and the pain. And the terror that pierces all five senses. So we're trained not to divulge information, even if we cry and beg.”

“Not to endure the pain?”

“That's the lie they tell you at first. That it's training to endure pain. But it wasn't. They do things to you that hurt more than you can bear.

“It doesn't stop if you cry, beg, or scream. But if you leak information, it gets even worse. Then that pain beyond your limits gets burned into your mind. After that, no matter how agonizing the torture is, even if you end up sobbing and pleading, you won't give up any information. Because you remember that terror.”

... That was horrifying.

With nothing more to say, I simply looked ahead in silence.

After a brief silence, Selena said, “Wait.”

“How did you know, though? That I'm an assassin. I only told you I was a bodyguard.”

“Because you act like an assassin.”

I had no idea about that, actually. I'd seen it with the Analysis skill.

“What about you? Is it all right to tell me things like that? How you were trained under torture and all. Won't your superior, Hagley, be angry?”

“It doesn't matter. The Ten Thousand Capes is an ugly place. Everyone there knows it themselves. So there's no need to hide the ugly things we do. We only have to hide what truly needs to stay hidden.”

“...”

I gave no further reply.

The Ten Thousand Capes was a wretched place. It was something like a refuge for people abandoned by their country, but it was also a place where anger and hatred accumulated, destined to one day erupt in karmic fire.

And it was exactly that: karmic fire. The continent had committed the sins, and the Ten Thousand Capes was their flame.

Of course, from a gamer's perspective, putting aside all those conflicting interests and tangled emotions, dealing with the monsters was already hard enough. Having the Ten Thousand Capes raising hell on top of that was enough to drive me up the wall.

That was why I didn't want to fight them. It was a matter of clearing the game. While humanity in this world wasted its time on the wrong battles, it would die for nothing.

Could the Ten Thousand Capes and the continent make peace? Of all the many things I'd failed at in this game, that was one I considered among the most impossible.

“... By the way, this path has just kept going all this time,” Selena said, sounding puzzled.

“Will following it really take us to that lake?”

“No. If we just follow it, we'll wander forever.”

This forest was Merlin's dream. Even this seemingly straight path would twist strangely at his whim, keeping us from reaching the lake.

That was also why Merlin had retreated without hesitation when he saw Mjolnir in my hand. He'd decided he had a better chance of keeping me from reaching the lake than fighting me and risking injury.

“Then what do we do? Why are we still following this path?”

“Because I know the way.”

This forest was actually a trial Aster would eventually reach. Most players knew how to get through it.

But that was really only because Aster's caliber had earned Merlin's recognition, and Merlin had given him an appropriately difficult challenge.

But as always, I was Frondier. There was no way Merlin would grant access to the lake to some nobody like me who'd appeared out of nowhere.

'But...'

I could see it. The illusion underlying this dream.

Part of that was the Analysis skill, but my intuition had responded even before it did. Perhaps because I possessed Weaving, a skill closer to illusion than anything else, this dream world had a strangely familiar scent.

“Cassian. Follow my directions from here on.”

As I spoke, I took a light grip on the reins. The Cassian slowed slightly, as though it understood. It was such a clever horse that it scared me sometimes.

'... Phew.'

I took in the scenery in full. For now, this straight stretch of path was the same as when I'd played as Aster.

As a player, I'd received various hints from Merlin while walking along it, but now I had to figure things out for myself.

Analysis wasn't restricted in what it could target. Even this world itself could be analyzed, as long as I could identify it as a target.

Until now, Analysis had supplied me with supplementary explanations, like an item's description. But Merlin's Dream was clearly similar to Frondier's Weaving. Frondier should be able to uncover this dream's true nature.

At last, I said, “Got it.”

The analyzed dream world came into view. Just as weapons made through Weaving took shape like fine threads being woven together, this dream, too, was composed of countless strands.

I guided the Cassian into the world of illusion now laid bare.

“... This way.”

I pulled the reins to the left. There was no path there, only densely packed trees. But the Cassian wasn't afraid. Following my instructions, it thrust its head forward.

In an instant, those densely packed trees parted. The area transformed as though this had been the proper path all along.

As though correcting an error, hastily finishing an incomplete picture, or having the space behind the stage curtain exposed.

“Ugh, I'm getting dizzy,” Selena said.

It certainly was more than just bizarre—it was dizzying. It felt like watching a game glitch right before my eyes.

I kept guiding the Cassian forward. Every time I changed direction, the trees parted to reveal a path. We were definitely getting closer to the lake.

“By the way, my lord heir.”

“How many times do I have to tell you? Call me Frondier.”

“I was told you liked being called the heir.”

“Just assume everything the Ten Thousand Capes knows about me is tabloid trash.”

“Tabloid trash?”

“It's lousy information.”

Selena didn't reply. Instead, I felt her head against my back. She'd probably nodded.

“Then, Lord Frondier.”

“What?”

“If this is Merlin's dream, can't he move the lake wherever he likes, too? In that case, wouldn't it be hard to reach it even if we keep finding the right path like this...?”

That was a fairly plausible thought.

Had she thought that far ahead after realizing this was a dream? Selena was adapting faster than I'd expected.

But her guess was wrong.

“He can't move the lake.”

“Why not?”

“Because the lake is real.”

“... Oh.”

Everything we could see around us was Merlin's dream, but the lake alone was real.

Put another way, Merlin had designed this dream for the sake of that one lake.

RUMBLE

Just then, the trees began to change in strange ways.

The once-ordinary scenery warped, and the trees grew absurdly large, stretching out their branches. Their thick trunks twisted, and the gaps that opened in them looked like smiling mouths.

“Uh, um, Lord Frondier...?” Selena said uneasily.

“Merlin is certain now.”

“Of what?”

“That we know exactly where we're going. That he can't make us lose our way.”

So he intended to resort to force once again. Only this time, he would remain hidden and relatively safe.

The trees had already swollen into towering shadows. In the abruptly darkened forest, the enormous trees loomed over us with hunched backs.

“... Since this is a dream, won't we be all right even if we get hit?”

“What do you think? What do you think getting hit would feel like?”

“Like it would hurt a whole lot.”

I nodded.

“As long as you can't escape that thought, it'll hurt a whole lot.”

“Damn it,” Selena muttered, reaching inside her clothes to draw out her needles.

It was good that she was dropping the coy act, but it felt as though her manners were disappearing along with it.

* * *

Merlin stood before the lake.

He could sense everything within this forest, down to the faintest breath of a little bird.

Frondier was already drawing close. He'd tried to stop him with the trees, but it was only a matter of time before he arrived.

[“... What am I to do?”]

There was a certain resonance to his words. They weren't simply a mutter uttered to himself.

[“What troubles you so?”]

The water at the center of the lake Merlin was watching surged upward.

As it cascaded down again, a woman appeared in its place. Her entrance bore a striking resemblance to Merlin's emergence from the earth.

[“I can no longer protect the lake,”] Merlin said.

[“It is all right,”] the lady of the lake replied.

[“Whoever reaches this place will gain nothing.”]

The lady of the lake smiled.

[“Recklessness brings only death.”]

It happened then.

A rhythmic drumming drew closer, a sound familiar to both Merlin and the lady of the lake.

Hoofbeats.

RUSTLE!

As expected, it was Frondier who emerged through the undergrowth.

His clothes were torn and frayed in places, as though he'd fought quite fiercely on the way here. But he didn't appear to have any serious injuries.

“Hah, haah...”

The woman riding behind him, on the other hand, looked half-dead.

“Hey, why are you slumping like that? We're here,” Frondier chided the woman behind him.

“That's not fair. You barely take any damage, while I have to fight and dodge everything myself.”

“It's an illusion. If you understand that precisely, you won't get hurt.”

“I thought that, too, you know! It's an illusion, it's fake—I kept repeating it and believing it. So why did I still get hit?”

“I'm telling you, it's not about believing. It's about knowing.”

Merlin listened quietly to their exchange, then furrowed his brow.

An illusion? He didn't take damage?

Then was Frondier unharmed because he'd seen through the Dream?

... Impossible.

“Oh.”

Only then did Frondier notice Merlin. His gaze moved to the lady of the lake as well.

“We meet again, Sir Merlin. And...”

Frondier looked at the woman with a deep smile.

“I've been looking for you for quite some time. Witch of the Lake.”