Chapter 198 - Encroachment (3)

3

A land newly reached by sea.

Naturally, the so-called new continent had native inhabitants.

Their race, however, was extraordinary.

“Dream demons?”

Extremely extraordinary, in fact.

“Yes, Death King... That is correct...”

Immediately after taking exactly fifty-nine fucking blows from me, the dream demon meekly raised both hands. Incubi. Succubi. The dream demons, whose names commonly ended in “-bus,” were the new continent’s longstanding residents.

I flexed my fists from side to side.

“Well, well. I’m asking you a question, and you sound awfully listless. Does answering my questions drain you? Leave you weak and exhausted? Shall I perk you up?”

“No, Death King! We have energy to spare!”

“From now on, politely answer only what I ask. If your manners aren’t pretty, I’ll pretty up that mug of yours instead.”

“Yes, Death King!”

“Good.”

I nodded in satisfaction.

The attendant spirit looked deeply moved.

“Kim Zombie, you little rascal... You’ve really learned how to fuck people up!”

When you stare into the abyss, the abyss glares right back. After being trained by the attendant spirit and drilled by Master, I had unwittingly become a specialist in beating people up.

“Every sailor aboard this ship is fast asleep. Was that your doing?”

“Yes! That was us!”

“How?”

“Our race naturally lives as parasites in other animals’ dreams!”

The dream demon confessed.

“Actually, to us, dreams are reality. What you call reality is a dream to us. Until now, we thought we were the only creatures to have developed intelligence. Ever since you crossed the sea, it’s been one shock after another...”

“Oh?”

A race whose waking life was in dreams.

“You don’t have physical bodies?”

“If you mean what you call a body... No, we don’t. Our basic understanding of things is so different from yours that ordinarily, even conversing is difficult.”

“We’re communicating awfully well, considering.”

“Ah, that’s because we currently occupy this animal’s mind.”

The animal the dream demon referred to was this ship’s Mountain Snailfolk captain. Its habit of calling people animals gave me some idea of the dream demons’ insular mindset.

“Once we devour another animal’s dream, we share its memories. Thanks to that, we’ve learned a great deal about you. Over the past twenty-four years, we’ve gradually drawn up a plan while coming to terms with the shock of meeting you.”

“A plan?”

“We’d never seen animals overflowing with memories like you. From our perspective, you’re something like a great restaurant. Or a banquet hall... In any case, it was an enormous shock.”

Hmm.

“My children didn’t know anything about you.”

“Well, we live exclusively as parasites in dreams... We have no true form. We choose a suitable person from your memories. You’ve never seen us, you can’t see us, and even if you do, you dismiss it as a dream.”

For the record, the dream demon currently wore the Flame Emperor’s appearance.

I had ordered it to.

Even if it was a fake, I couldn’t hit Raviel’s face. Quite apart from being my love, Raviel’s beauty alone made her a treasure of cosmic proportions. As a cultured citizen, how could I mistreat such a jewel?

“Um... You’re the first person to remain unaffected after having your dream devoured, Death King.”

The dream demon confessed quietly.

“So this is really fascinating. How did you recognize it as a dream at a glance? How did you enter our dream in the first place?”

“Wouldn’t reading my memories tell you?”

“That’s the strange thing. Your memories are difficult to read, Death King. I suppose you could say we can only skim fragments of them. You’re truly unusual in all sorts of ways.”

The dream demon kept glancing at me with curiosity in its eyes.

I had a rough idea of what had happened.

'It must be because I used the [Appear in a Dream] item.'

This wasn’t my dream. It was the Mountain Snailfolk captain’s consciousness.

I had merely used an item to enter someone else’s mental world.

That was why the dream demon could read only fragments of my consciousness.

'A race that lives only in the world of dreams.'

How mysterious.

“Well, I suppose my willpower is so strong that illusions don’t work on me.”

“How peculiar. That shouldn’t be the issue...”

“I understand that you’re a fascinating race.”

I changed the subject.

“So why did you seize these innocent sailors and put them to sleep? You’ve turned this ship into a ghost ship. They’ll die of dehydration at this rate.”

“...”

The dream demon hesitated cautiously.

Seeing something with the Flame Emperor’s face act that way made me feel as though my stomach acid would come surging up to synchronize with my phlegm.

It was an incubus for a reason, apparently: its muscles had even received a buff compared to the original Flame Emperor. Its shoulders were broader, its chest firmer. Perhaps I was imagining it, but even its face seemed to radiate a sparkling halo.

What a prick.

“Gah!”

“Ah.”

By the time I came to my senses, my palm had already gotten into a minor collision with the dream demon’s cheek.

“Why are you hitting me again?!”

“It’s just such a punchable face...”

“You ordered me to take this animal’s face, Death King!”

“Sorry. Anyway, why did you capture a perfectly innocent ship?”

The dream demon stopped protesting and began to fidget.

“Um... I’m not sure I’m permitted to tell you this. This probably qualifies as a secret of our race.”

“Probably?”

“Yes, we’d never even imagined there were animals living across the sea. Much less such delicious ones. So... after twenty-four years of agonizing over what to do and deliberating in meetings, we only reached a conclusion very recently.”

The dream demon spoke.

“We have decided to invade the land where you live.”

An invasion.

“This isn’t the only ship whose dreams we’ve devoured. All thirty-three ships crossing the ocean are under our control.”

“...”

“We also put all the animals that trespassed in our territory to sleep. The advance force set sail ten days ago. We’re part of the following force.”

Only then did I realize something was strange.

'Quest window.'

A hologram appeared before my eyes.

It displayed the mission I had to resolve on the thirty-fifth floor.

I focused on the passage in its lower paragraphs.

+

... The new continent is a new world only to the seven races.

Others have already made their homes and livelihoods on that land. Conflict between the adventurers and the native inhabitants is on the verge of erupting! A one-sided massacre may occur.

Invasion? Coexistence? Or expulsion?

The seven races are in danger of annihilation. Guide them!

※ However, if you fail to guide them, one or more races may be wiped out.

+

'So that’s it.'

I understood.

'It’s not the [native inhabitants] of the new continent who are in danger.'

The quest window explicitly stated, [The seven races are in danger of annihilation].

'My children are the ones who might be massacred!'

The natives’ counterattack.

That was the crisis of this age.

4

As soon as I woke up, I told my companions the truth.

The longer I spoke, the graver the Black Dragon leader’s and Uburka’s expressions became.

“... I see. It’s the exact opposite of our world’s history.”

The Black Dragon leader murmured.

“I let my preconceptions blind me. I assumed the new continent would be invaded, and the natives would be massacred... Of course. If the natives are stronger, the direction of the invasion would be reversed.”

“It is not a question of strength, Uger.”

Uburka frowned.

“There is something in this world that even the strongest warrior cannot resist. [Sleep]. Everyone must sleep. Dream demons, you called them...? A difficult race to contend with...”

“Death King, you said the invasion has already begun?”

“Yes, Senior.”

I nodded.

“They said they’re parasitizing the sailors on ships that set sail ten days ago.”

“Is there no way to wake up from the dream of your own accord?”

“Apparently, the dream demons decide that.”

I recalled what I had just heard.

“They deliberately give people the happiest possible dreams to keep them from waking. Conversely, they can give them nightmares to wake them early. Um, in my case, the dream demon appeared as Raviel.”

“... That’s dangerous.”

The waves swelled with a long, rushing hiss. The ship rose and fell with them.

In the middle of the vast, deep ocean.

Not one of the dozens of sailors opened their eyes.

“Even people who rebel against unhappiness find it hard to resist happiness. If they fall into a dream that literally fulfills their [dreams]... they won’t try to escape until their bodies die.”

“Yes. It’ll be the quietest massacre in history.”

The Black Dragon leader clicked her tongue.

“This won’t do. Let’s move quickly.”

“What about these sailors?”

“We can’t pretend we didn’t see them... What else can we do but save them?”

We tied all thirty-two sailors together with rope. From a distance, they looked like a string of dried yellow croakers.

Uburka stood at the end of the rope, and the Black Dragon leader clasped his hand firmly.

“...”

Uburka stared intently at the Black Dragon leader’s face.

“Hmm? What is it, my junior’s son?”

“Nothing, ugor.”

Uburka murmured softly and turned his head away.

Huh?

Could this guy be...?

“You’re no fun. Transfer!”

When the Black Dragon leader activated her skill, all thirty-five of us teleported simultaneously.

Normally, as spirit bodies, we couldn’t apply skills directly like this unless we possessed someone else’s body.

But Uburka, a constellation of this world, served as a bridge. The Black Dragon leader touched Uburka, and Uburka touched the sailors, allowing all of us to benefit from the skill.

“Good!”

When the Instant Teleportation succeeded, the Black Dragon leader’s expression brightened considerably.

A gust of sea breeze sent her deep black hair fluttering.

“I’ll keep taking us toward the new continent. Everyone, hold on tight so you don’t fall!”

“...”

Uburka kept stealing glances at her face. Busy using Instant Teleportation, the Black Dragon leader didn’t notice at all.

No, she probably couldn’t read a Hobgoblin’s expression anyway. It was difficult to infer the emotions of another race from their faces alone.

'Ohhh?'

But to my eyes, it was perfectly clear.

I could feel it.

The feelers I had developed through my romance of the century with Raviel were twitching ever so gently.

'Is he seriously...?'

While my romantic antenna eagerly picked up signals, we soon reached the coast. A port had been built there.

A frontier settlement.

A place every explorer, merchant, and soldier who crossed the ocean dreaming of the new continent passed through at least once.

We landed lightly in the town square and looked around.

“... It’s quiet.”

Far too quiet.

“I can’t feel any life here.”

Despite the town’s considerable size, there wasn’t a single human sound.

Not only was there no sound, there wasn’t even a shadow moving along the streets.

A cold stillness weighed down the air.

It was like a ghost town.

“Have the dream demons already gotten to them?”

Anxiety crossed the Black Dragon leader’s face.

“Probably. Let’s search first.”

I entered a nearby building.

Sure enough, people were asleep in the bedroom.

“It looks like they were invaded at night, while almost all the residents were sleeping.”

The other buildings were much the same.

Every resident had fallen—more than five hundred people in all.

“Most are lying in bed. Only a few are sprawled in taverns or on the streets. They must have targeted the hour when people are most vulnerable.”

“The other frontier settlements, too...”

“They probably aren’t much different. The dream demon said they’d launched a full-scale invasion. Unfortunately, quite a few people have already died of malnutrition.”

“...”

“If the dream demons cross to our continent aboard the sailors, the situation will spiral out of control.”

Like an epidemic spreading.

Overnight, the children of the continent would fall into an eternal sleep without ever knowing why.

“... Perhaps there are survivors the dream demons haven’t gotten to. I’ll take a quick look at the other settlements. Wait here.”

Without waiting for an answer, the Black Dragon leader vanished using Instant Teleportation.

Her ink-black aura lingered like a fading echo where she had stood.

Uburka and I were left alone in the square. Uburka stared blankly at the spot where the Black Dragon leader had been standing.

'Hmm.'

It really did look that way, didn’t it?

“Hey, Uburka.”

“Ugor. What is it, Father?”

I asked him point-blank.

“Have you fallen for the Black Dragon leader?”

“...”

Uburka closed his mouth.

The strongest warrior in Hobgoblin history, the child who had finally become a constellation, furrowed his brows, twitched his lips—and

“Father...”

Finally blushed.

“I think I’ve fallen in love for the first time.”