Chapter 131

Chapter 131 “Breaking free from the dream”

Duncan watched the nervous hound with a friendly smile. He could tell there was a misunderstanding between himself and the other party. In that case, it was better to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

But just before he was about to speak, he suddenly saw the flickering blood light in Dog’s eyes. Although he could not see any emotional changes from the bone skull, he seemed to be able to feel the fierce and turbulent mood of this dark hound.

In the next second, he heard Dog’s stammering voice come out: “You... You’re the ‘Mr. Duncan’ we’ve been dealing with these past two days?”

Duncan was taken aback by the comment since he didn’t introduce himself to the hound. Glancing down at Shirley and the chain connecting the pair, he’s sure they didn’t speak just now. So, that leaves only one answer: they’re able to communicate through some sort of information-sharing ability.

“It’s me,” Duncan said gently, “do you need me to explain anything? Or do you have something you want to know?”

“No!” Dog almost screamed, and his whole body was squirming, “We don’t need to know any ‘knowledge’ or ‘truth’. We have no intention of prying into your secrets!”

“...... I always feel that there is still some misunderstanding between us, but it appears to be getting more difficult to clear things up.” Duncan sighed, shaking his head in a helpless manner, “Forget it, let’s use time to build up some mutual trust between us. As for now, I have something I want to know.”

Dog hung his head down: “You... please speak.”

Duncan frowned. He was actually very curious as to why his main body, who was famous in the real world, had such a great influence among demons. In his impression, the deep sea was a “place” that’s very close to the subspace. If going by that logic, a shadow demon shouldn’t hold such intense fear towards him, the mobile natural disaster of the sea.

However, it now seems that the demons, who are themselves “dangerous existences” to humans, are just as afraid of losing their homeland as humans do, which puzzled him.

However, before he figures out this problem, he must first resolve this nightmare inside Shirley’s dream world.

“I want to know about this dream,” Duncan said, his gaze falling on Shirley, “I know it’s a painful memory for you, and if you don’t want to say it, you can refuse.”

“...... There’s nothing I don’t want to say,” Shirley just shook her head slightly, “I should thank you. If you hadn’t interrupted this nightmare, I would’ve kept suffering.... As you can see, that’s what I went through eleven years ago.”

“Fire eh...” Duncan nodded, then shifted his attention back to Dog, “What I saw was your first ‘encounter’ with Shirley, right?”

“Now, let’s go further than that. Looking at it from the above angle, there are too many suspicious points that we’ve overlooked. This includes the veiled curtain hanging over the ‘fire’ and the fact that the memory remained inside you and Nina’s mind. How can only a select few remember the weird phenomena in the sixth block.... We’ve always attributed the cause of all things to the sun fragment, but is that really true? Can you honestly believe the sun fragment is that omnipotent?”

Duncan expressed the doubts in his heart, and some of the doubts actually arose before today’s event. However, it was only after seeing the change in Dog from eleven years ago that he’s become firmer in his theory.

The fire eleven years ago may have been caused by the sun fragment, but there was definitely something else at play in the whole event!

Shirley still didn’t fully catch onto the whole theory. She was actually not very good at thinking about these complex things. In her stunned state, Dog’s voice rang rapidly: “Shirley, are you okay? Did he just touch your head to release a curse? Are you still sane? You...”

“I’m okay,” Shirley replied with a whine, “Dog, you’re too nervous~”

“Nonsense, how can I not be nervous! You had direct contact with a source of corruption that can turn any sane person mad!” Dog’s mental voice flew into dread, “How are you feeling?”

Shirley thought about it and touched the top of her head unsurely. From as far as she could remember, the last time someone stroked her hair like this was when she was still a child. Back then, her mom used to do this a lot before putting her to bed.

“It’s warm....” She spoke softly in a trance.

Dog was dumbfounded: “Shirley, something is really wrong with your brain now.”

“...... You shut up!”

Duncan didn’t know what Dog and Shirley were talking about in their internal link, but he had something else he wanted to check out. Glancing up at the dim window with the reddish hue, he asked: “What’s out there?”

“Huh?” Shirley didn’t react in time and blurted this out.

Duncan raised his hand and pointed to the window: “Outside the room, what’s out there?”

“I... I don’t know,” Shirley blinked, suddenly realizing that she’s never once stepped outside this room where the nightmare haunted her. “I never thought about it. Every time I dream, I am stuck in this room...”

“But now you’re free,” Duncan walked to the door and swung around. To the girl, his words were no different from a temptation, “Don’t you want to try, see what’s at the edge of your dream?”