2.09.1 Game is set.

Looking at that familiar book written by a good old friend of mine, I felt relieved.

The third piece of the puzzle was in place. The fool has bit the bait and foolishly held the book that was the start of everything. A book that I helped that friend of mine…

"*cough."

Seems like this is no time to narrate the story. The damage to my spirit manipulating the dream has been extensive.

That woman who stole the control of the dream from me didn't like the fact that I had done something inconsiderate towards her, helping Maxim and making him see a glimpse of her.

And her punishment was heavy as well.

Barely 40% of my body remains intact and I can still feel that if I remained in the world of the living any longer, my spiritual body would deteriorate faster. And before long I would be weak enough to not even possess any thoughts of my own.

Guess, this is the price to meddle in the affairs of a false god. She found out I was doing things out of the boundations of the contract.

"Who?"

Heh, even Remira, without the rousing of her blood, can notice me in this state. How pitiful, this is the limit of I who proudly calls himself the Rat King.

Though knowing one's limit is half the battle and knowing when to back down is the other half. So before Remira turns suspicious of me. I left her alone.

The confused and worried face of her that intended to go toward the gargoyle for more questions told me enough about what was going on in her mind.

As for what she was going to ask? I was unaware of it and even weaker. I can't stay in this place. I need to find an escape route from here.

So without delay, I started to look around. Looking for people sleeping at this hour of the day.

But considering this was a place filled with scholars, there was barely anyone sleeping. Most were busy with their thesis or school work. Others practice spells.

Though after looking for a while, I found my escape route, a girl that I saw not so long ago. A vile girl that tormented a boy to death and now she slept peacefully. She was probably tired after the heavy-handed interrogation and the worry of being found out by the Marshall should have made her even more tired.

This may also be the only peaceful sleep she would ever get after this interrogation, as the fear of the Marshall will keep her awake all night. Waiting for the time when a father takes revenge for his fallen son.

So sleep little Thalia, and become my gate to the world of dreaming, and in turn, feed me for a bit as well.

*****

With the absence of Jester, for the first time since coming to this city, Remira felt light for some reason, as if a weight on her shoulder was taken off and she can breathe better now.

Why did this happen? She didn't know. But what she knew was the cause might be the book in her hand. Because the moment she held this book in her hand, whatever entity that was watching her gave away its position and soon ran away.

'Something is really keeping a watch on us… something that can bypass the defensive circle of Lucien Academy.'

Either that or the defensive circle was willfully acting ignorant of this existence and choosing to ignore it.

What was the truth? Remira didn't know. But she was well aware of an individual that was incapable of lying.

"Keeper of the library, I wonder if you felt someone else besides me?" She asked, curious if the gargoyle was able to pick up on it as well as she did or not. But to her dejection, the Gargoyle just shook its head. "I only see the young lady and no one besides the young lady." It said as if to coax Remira. But She was not someone that gets won over with such simple words.

"Don't lie demon." She warned, as her finger started to burn with a white flame, that she used to warn the Gargoyle. "Answer correctly, your master has given me full reign to do what I wish for the demonic constructs, exorcizing one of them won't be a big deal."

The threat in Remira's voice was real, she knew that the demon was trying to fool her. Because in no way did what she felt false. There was something and she had felt it.

"Beautiful lady, I cannot lie. I only see you." the demon said, fearing the white flame. It was only now that I learned who this woman was.

'A descendant of that monster.' The demon recalled the past in which there was a man who enslaved all the curses and created a unique bloodline by sacrificing them together. Blood that was borne out of neither a god nor a demon. Blood capable of purging all that was deemed filthy by its wielder. A blood with no limit of its own.

A blood that became the sworn enemy of demons.

The blood of Radiance.

"Yes, you only see me. But I asked if you felt someone else here besides me, not whether you saw someone else." She asked, bringing that fire closer to the stone gargoyle and touching its shoulder with it.

Causing the Gargoyle to cry in pain, and cried out loud, which caused the candles to start to flicker in and out, due to the spiritual disturbance in the area.

"Please… mercy… Mercyy!!" It cried. The farce of an honorable gatekeeper started to shed before it said.

"I… I can't. it would curse me with a bad dream…" The Gargoyle explained and this was the most it could say of this entity.

"Curse with bad dreams?" With Gargoyle's words, Remira was sure that what she felt was not an illusion and that something truly was following her all this time.

And this being capable of giving out bad dreams to people.

"Why would a demon care about dreams?" She asked, taking her finger off the Gargoyle's shoulder. Which broke into pieces soon after, showing the damage the small flame has done to its body.

But the demon was not worried about its loss. It just felt relieved that the pain was gone and in reply to Remira's question, it just said. "Even demons dream of heaven."

*****

"You say locomotion? I heard they are trying something similar in Pulgasiri, who knows they might bring it here as well."

A man that was once just a small-time librarian had now become a big man among the magi circle. His own name was spread far and wide and his open attitude when he shared his knowledge with others, caused many young and inexperienced magi to flock to him.

And after those that followed him long ago grew up, they were strong enough to rule a country, with this librarian at the center of it all.

Many people considered him a hero, a man that will change the world of Magi with his liberal views of teaching and the spread of knowledge.

But only a few knew that this Archmage reached such a level, not on his own alone, there was a being always on his side.

Its form was ever-changing, but most of the time, this being lived inside a puppet that wore the clothes of a Jester.

A very special being that chose to enslave itself to the young Librarian long ago.

"They might, or they might not. Depending on the goodwill of others would be a stupid thing to do." The puppet, although unable to move, still opened its mouth."I thought you should have learned this after coming this far."

This was the Jester, he was a lot calmer and more reasonable than how he is in the current day.

He met this librarian long ago in a small town and befriended him in an attempt to steal the knowledge from the books. But the language barrier stopped him from achieving anything. And with the constant hunt by the people with shining blood, Jester was forced to sign a contract with this man.

He would provide this man with knowledge and suggestion, while this man would fill in Jester's lack of understanding of this new world.

And this contract has gone on for a long, they both have even fought off the men from Radiance multiple times, achieving their current level where a country was soon to be born out of their hard work.

"Stop nagging me like I am a child, I am old enough to have grandkids at this point." Even though this librarian still looked like a young man in his twenties, he was long past sixty years of age. A common thing that happens to most transcenders.

"Then act like an adult, start building railway tracks, I have seen how advantageous they can be during wartime." The Jester explained, recalling the Great war from his own world.

"If we did that, then our neighbors would take off their masks and then you know what will happen."

"Cynark is not happy with a small nation being born on their border, all they need is an excuse." Ikuras Yethel sighed, worried about the future of the nation he founded.

There were too many things to consider before he could take any drastic steps of that nature and his life as a mage has taught him to always be careful.

Which was a bit boring to Jester, it was why he desired Yethel to take drastic actions which might add flavor to this boring life of his. So it started to push Yethel, in an attempt to change his mind. "An excuse they would find any… hmm!"

The world came to a halt, Yethel stopped moving and the puppet that was incapable of standing up, stood up from its place while looking around the scene with nostalgia.

"So foolish of me, it's been long since I lost into a dream of my own."

It would seem that the state of my spiritual body was a bit worse than I had presumed. It was weak enough to fall into a dream of my own, showing you gods a boring side of my life.

But don't worry, it won't happen again. It was an accident borne out of my earlier mistake.

And besides.

"The pieces are in place already." With those words said, the dream surrounding Jester burst apart and collapsed on its own.