Bad Dream

Atsuo’s eyes widened. He stared at Lord Kaiser’s disturbed expression. For him to seem bothered by it of all people raised some concerns in Atsuo.

“…What?” Atsuo asked nervously.

“I had a nightmare…” Lord Kaiser said, staring at the ground.

“Are you sure… it was a nightmare?” Atsuo asked hesitantly, “…I mean… you were sleeping so soundly back there…”

“Would you see yourself getting dismembered in a normal dream?” Lord Kaiser asked rhetorically.

Atsuo’s mouth dropped open. The comment left him speechless for a couple of solid seconds.

“What happened in your dream…?” Atsuo asked uneasily.

“I don’t remember it entirely…” Lord Kaiser began, “but it started with me running for my life.”

“A world of red. A world of blood. A world of suffering…” he said grimly, turning to Atsuo.

“I was being chased by something through a red forest with bloodied trees and undergrowth. I eventually ended up at the end of a cliff, at the bottom of which I saw hundreds of corpses, all skinned and mutilated.”

The last part was hard to say as he barely resisted the urge to puke.

“After a moment of hesitation, whatever was following me caught up and pushed me down there…”

“I woke up a little while later, sitting in front of some Dreig in Red.”

“And, on its command… I was… torn apart…” Lord Kaiser remembered gravely, clasping his hands.

Atsuo flinched from the all-too familiar experience he had to endure not too long ago. However, there was one thing that stood out to him, the ‘Dreig in Red’.

The matter was more serious than Atsuo thought. He thought it best to share his similar experience back at the dining hall.

“I also saw something…” Atsuo said concernedly, “you probably remember…”

“At the dinner” he added, seeing Lord Kaiser’s blank expression.

Lord Kaiser nodded.

“It seemed like another blackout in the same day, but I returned shortly after…” Atsuo said, “…not without some bullshit happening, of course.”

Lord Kaiser continued listening intently as Atsuo expressed his worries.

“I saw all of us back at the tea party, at night,” he said with emphasis, “we sat back at my table. You guys were unresponsive, just staring off somewhere.”

“Was it just us five?” Lord Kaiser asked anxiously to which Atsuo nodded.

“Then, out of nowhere…” Atsuo said, hesitating, “…I don’t even want to talk about it…”

“Come on, sleeper… this is important” Lord Kaiser said seriously.

“…Winds started blowing violently, and I caught a ‘familiar scent’ I bet you too would recognize…” Atsuo said, “can you guess where this is going?”

Lord Kaiser thought for a few seconds, when his expression darkened.

“What… but… we’re in Taigoren” Lord Kaiser said in disbelief, to which Atsuo nodded his head dramatically.

“Next thing I knew, I’m sitting in front of the entrance…” Atsuo said with his eyes widened.

“WHAT?” Lord Kaiser exclaimed, outraged, to which Atsuo continued nodding.

“And then, I see these red things crawling from everywhere and I find myself back at the tea party table…” Atsuo said, heatedly.

“Finally, all of you started bleeding out of nowhere and stared at me like I was at fault…” Atsuo added.

“Are you sure that’s not like a prophecy or something?” Lord Kaiser asked, concerned.

“I don’t know,” Atsuo shrugged, “what I do know is that I’ve never had that before. The curse might be evolving…”

That is not something Lord Kaiser wanted to hear from Atsuo. Whatever it was, even if not the case, likely just came into fruition.

“I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news…” Lord Kaiser said hesitantly, “but we may need to get out of here…”

“May–”

“NO... DON’T SAY ANYTHING” Lord Kaiser quickly interrupted, successfully preventing Atsuo from summoning another misfortune into existence.

“Be more aware of your… curse” Lord Kaiser said, gesturing irritably with his hands.

Suddenly, Lord Kaiser lit up.

“Can you like… use your curse to cancel ‘whatever it is’ we might have envisioned in the future?” he asked hopefully, “Like a bad dream or something?”

“I don’t know how it operates…” Atsuo said truthfully.

“But I can try” he quickly added, seeing Lord Kaiser’s discontent expression.

He cleared his throat before using his curse.

“What if it was just a bad dream?” Atsuo said looking at the ceiling.

He turned to Lord Kaiser.

“You feel anything?”

Lord Kaiser shook his head.

“Hmm…” Atsuo uttered, “well, I can’t do more than that. We’ll have to pray that it worked…”

Lord Kaiser, though unsatisfied, did not argue.

He sighed and got into his bed, ready to sleep.

Atsuo took one of Ronna’s pills, turned off the lights, and laid down as well.

“…good night…” Atsuo muttered across the infirmary.

“Yeah…” Lord Kaiser grumbled.

***

Atsuo dreamt.

He was drifting through dark, quiet, nothingness.

He couldn’t see anything, not even himself.

It was a weird dream.

Suddenly, pain, sorrow, and heartache washed over him as he squeezed his chest.

He started hearing faint weeping.

“hhn… hhn…”

Someone was crying.

“hhn… hhn…”

It was getting louder.

It appeared he was moving towards it.

“hhn… hhn…”

The pain in his chest grew stronger as he got closer and closer.

“HHN… HHNnnn….”

“why…”

Atsuo’s eyes shot open.

He was awake.

He sat up on his bed, wiping his eyes and glancing around.

Outside, a storm was brewing as violent winds rattled a branch from a nearby tree against the infirmary windows.

It was still early in the morning, and Lord Kaiser was deep asleep.

Atsuo jerked on the spot as he remembered his weightless drift through the nothingness in the weird dream.

Whatever that was, put him in a gloomy mood right from the start of his morning.

He turned to the side of the bed, ready to get up, when he suddenly froze in place.

Atsuo twitched as he saw some girl standing at the door of the infirmary, grinning from ear to ear.

Something about her was very unsettling as Atsuo stared at her creepy smile.

Suddenly, she was pushed aside as another girl walked in.

She had the same uniform, dark blue hair, and light blue eyes.

Atsuo instantly remembered who matched that description.

Another Minae student who got limitless potential and who happened to be in the same group as him during the tea party, Ivia.

‘But what could she need so early in the morning?’ Atsuo thought as he stared at her.

She looked exhausted, with bags under her eyes as she leaned against the door frame.

“…I need your help…” she muttered, staring back at Atsuo.

“…how can I help…?” Atsuo asked perplexed.

“ARE YOU OKAY IVIA?” the creepy girl yelled, startling Atsuo.

Her voice was so disruptive to the quiet sanctuary that was the infirmary, that even Lord Kaiser woke up.

“WHAT… IS GOING ON?” he exclaimed, squinting his eyes.

“HUH?” the girl uttered loudly, “OH WE WERE JUST–”

“SOMEONE SHUT HER UP…” Lord Kaiser yelled, glaring at her.

She flinched and went quiet as if on command.

Ivia muttered something under her breath as she crawled on one of the beds.

Lord Kaiser and Atsuo watched her lie down on her back, clasping her hands and staring at the ceiling.

“What are you doing?” Lord Kaiser asked confused.

“I couldn’t fall asleep, so I came here…” she grumbled, “I was hoping to quietly rest here, but I have insomnia now.”

They stared at her, when her eyes suddenly widened. She lifted herself back up a little, turning to Atsuo.

“Can you use your innate ability?”