Chapter 70: Chapter 52: "Tier 10
Once the truth of a dream is revealed, it is time for it to shatter.
Koni could no longer tell whose dream it was, not that it mattered anymore. Either way, it was impossible for her to find the memories of Sean’s past life. She lacked the ability and didn’t dare to continue, lest she be dragged down into it herself!
The only thing she could do now was to desperately escape this terrifying dream!
Inside the church.
Koni jolted awake.
Sean woke up with her.
It was now the dead of night, silent and still. The only sound was the nearly inaudible footsteps of a Nun carrying a lantern on her patrol through the church.
Tear stains still streaked Koni’s face. This session of Entering the Dream had affected her physical body, further proving her suspicions were correct. She didn’t even bother to wipe away the tears at the corners of her eyes. She scrambled to her feet, bowed to Sean, and stammered, "I-I’m sorry, Mr. Sean! I didn’t know your identity before! I won’t dare to do it again!"
Sean: "Wait a minute..."
"I can’t wait! You should get some rest... I-I’m leaving now!"
With that, before Sean could say another word, Koni fled the room as if escaping for her life.
Sean: "..."
The bottle from the Magic Potion he had taken earlier was still on the table, marked with a circular label indicating it was for a natural dream. Koni hadn’t made a mistake. To Sean, the dream had been bizarre and unsettling, but certainly not terrifying.
But for Koni, it was more frightening than a real nightmare.
’A mere Tier Four Wizard in her Juvenile Stage, without even a title to her name, and she’d just tried to peer into the past of a Tier Ten Grand Mage...’
’If Sean had harbored the slightest ill will, if he’d been angered by her ignorant recklessness, she would have gone to sleep tonight and never seen the morning sun.’
’SOB... This is all my teacher’s fault!’
Koni ran out of the church with tear-filled eyes and happened to bump into the Nun on patrol.
The Nun was startled.
"Miss Koni, why are you crying?"
’Did someone bully her?’
She looked back in the direction Koni had come from, remembered that Koni had arrived with a man tonight, and her expression changed drastically. She immediately rushed into the room and angrily questioned Sean, "Bastard, what did you do to Miss Koni?!"
Sean: "Huh?"
’I didn’t do anything, though?’
The Nun’s gaze swept over the bed, as if searching for evidence of Sean’s crime. She said sternly, "Do you have any idea that Miss Koni is Mr. Sopea’s student? You’re dead for daring to bully her!"
Sean: "..."
’I think this lady has misunderstood something.’
He explained, "It’s not what you think. I just asked Miss Koni to help me build a dream."
The Nun had a moment of realization, and then became even more furious. "No wonder there’s no trace! So you bullied Miss Koni in the dream!"
"Does bullying in a dream not count as bullying?"
Sean: "..."
’Great. Now I’ll never be able to clear my name.’
"Fine." Sean couldn’t be bothered to explain further. After all, judging by the result, it seemed he really had scared the girl. He simply said to the Nun, "Go tell Mr. Sopea that I bullied Miss Koni and made her cry. But rest assured, I won’t run. I’ll be waiting right here in Alola Town for him to come and settle the score."
"And tell him to hurry. My time is precious."
Nun: "???"
’Is he that eager to die?’
In all her years in Alola Town, she’d seen arrogant people, but never someone *this* arrogant. He bullied Miss Koni, and now he was daring to challenge Mr. Sopea? ’Does he really think he can do as he pleases just because he has a pretty face?’
"Fine. You’d better keep your word and not go anywhere."
’Entering and exiting Alola Town requires an identity check. I’ll go report this to the Lie Breaker who presides over the town right now. I’ll ask him to confine Sean so the guy can’t run even if he wants to!’
The Nun left the room indignantly.
She didn’t try to detain Sean by force, because a Nun had no authority to hold people.
Even if she did, Sean wouldn’t have cared.
Besides, it was the middle of the night, and there was nothing to do but sleep. To him, sleeping here was about the same as sleeping in a hospital ward. There wasn’t much of a difference.
Of course, if he had a choice, Sean would still prefer to go back to the hospital.
The church was some distance from the hospital. The night was quiet, perfect for a walk while he pondered what exactly had happened in that dream.
Sean didn’t know what Koni had gone through mentally and was still wondering why the girl had suddenly started using honorifics with him.
He also hadn’t seen the version of himself in the sky. He just felt the dream was very strange. It was supposed to help him find his memories, but in the end, it turned into Koni’s life story—her current life story, at that. No matter how you looked at it, this session of Entering the Dream was a complete failure.
’Maybe Koni’s skills aren’t up to par yet, and she lost control?’
’Or maybe the dream wasn’t deep enough to find the more ancient memory fragments in my mind?’
’I should just have Sopea do it instead.’
’A Dream Builder approaching Tier Six should have no problem keeping the dream from getting stuck in this lifetime.’
...
Meanwhile, just as Sean was thinking about Sopea, Koni had already returned to her inn, entered the Void Technique Space, and found Sopea.
Although she couldn’t go up to the 3rd Floor of the Holy Hall, she had a special way to contact her teacher.
Sopea came down from upstairs. When he saw Koni’s pitiful, teary-eyed appearance, his brows knitted together.
"What happened?"
"Who bullied you?"
Koni said aggrievedly, "Mr. Sean."
Sopea: "?"
"He’s just a Tier Two. How could he bully you?"
"It was in a dream."
"In a dream?"
Sopea was an expert in Dream Science and knew full well that the master of a dream was omnipotent within it. Seeing Koni’s state, he immediately realized something was wrong.
"Did he kill you?"
Sopea’s way of thinking was very different from the Nun’s.
Koni: "..."
’That’s not entirely wrong.’
’If Sean had wanted me dead, I probably wouldn’t have survived.’
Koni said Sean had bullied her, but she was actually complaining to Sopea in a roundabout way: "Teacher, I can’t handle him."
Sopea’s expression hardened. "Don’t tell me you failed at Entering the Dream."
He didn’t ask for specifics, as that would touch upon Sean’s privacy. He only cared whether Koni had completed the "homework" he had assigned. Sopea was always strict with her in this regard; a Tier Four Dream Wizard failing to build a dream for a mere Tier Two was a disgrace.
But Koni’s answer was even more serious than a simple failure.
"He seized control of the dream from me..."
Sopea: "?"
"What do you mean?"
"I didn’t find the memories from his previous life. Instead, he saw the trajectory of my life in this one..." Koni said, ashamed. It was normal to be unable to see the secrets of a Grand Mage, so she wouldn’t be too hard on herself for that. What she was ashamed of was being frightened by the dream and that Sean now knew her past.
Koni had always felt her unhappy childhood was something difficult to talk about. She didn’t want to be pitied for it—she didn’t need pity. Nor did she want to be mocked for it with words like "unwanted child," "jinx," "little mute," and so on. She had heard those words more than enough.
They were master and student, after all. After hearing Koni’s account, Sopea understood instantly and narrowed his eyes.
"Well, well. So he was a Tier Ten. I underestimated him."
As Grand Mages, Tier Seven and Tier Ten were two completely different concepts.
During the Era of Polymath, the former could at most support a family—and not even a first-rate one. The latter, however, could support an entire kingdom. Even at its peak, there were no more than twenty Tier Ten individuals on the entire continent. To think that Sean’s past life was one of them.
But as it happened.
So was he.
"Go get some rest. Don’t overthink it. Leave the rest to your teacher."
Sopea’s gaze was sharp. "I’d like to see which Tier Ten is so capable that they’d dare bully my student!"
...
