Northern Conquest Sea, Navaha. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂 Late at night in the inn, Dorothy had just finished her bath and was sitting in her pajamas beside the brazier, drying her hair. Moments ago, the faint murmurs of prayer that had been lingering in her ears suddenly went silent amidst some intermittent breaks. This anomaly caused Dorothy to furrow her brows, a trace of confusion rising in her heart. As someone raised with a religious education, Vania possessed an exceptional level of spiritual discipline. Whenever she had time, she would perform her daily worship rituals according to the traditions of the Radiance Church—especially morning and evening prayers, which she always conducted punctually and consistently. In the past, Vania’s prayers were directed to the Radiant Trinity. However, ever since her encounter with Aka and receiving divine revelation from Them, a subtle shift had occurred in her daily prayers. Deep down, the object of her faith had shifted, and the “Lord” she now invoked during prayer was no longer the Radiant Trinity. Though the content and form of her prayers remained unchanged, the one being praised was now Aka—the one who had granted her divine insight and saved her life. This transformation was so subtle that even Vania herself hadn’t clearly realized it. Where she once named specific members of the Trinity during prayer, she now simply said “Lord” in a more general sense. Dorothy, however, understood this subconscious shift even better than Vania herself. After all, Aka was, in essence, Dorothy herself—through her system—so she could hear all of Vania’s prayers. Dorothy could’ve muted these frequent prayers if she found them annoying. But she never did, because toggling the mute switch every day felt too troublesome. Worse, if she forgot to turn it back on, she might miss an important prayer—especially in emergencies. Besides, Dorothy actually found Vania’s prayer voice rather pleasant. Though the words were repetitive, her voice—infused with emotion and focus—sounded almost melodic, like a song, possibly influenced by the liturgical music of the church. Dorothy didn’t mind listening, and even found the sound useful as a daily timekeeper. Vania prayed once in the morning and once in the evening, nearly at the same times every day. Dorothy had grown very familiar with this routine over the past few months. But tonight’s sudden disruption was the first time anything like this had happened. “Hmm… Vania’s prayer today… why did it just cut off like that? And before that, it kept breaking up… she even sounded noticeably drowsy… Did she fall asleep while praying?” Sitting by the brazier, Dorothy placed the towel beside her and pondered. She guessed Vania might have dozed off from fatigue—but on further reflection, she realized Vania hadn’t been particularly busy recently. “She’s technically on pilgrimage right now—in other words, enjoying a state-funded vacation. She has no active assignments. During the clash between the Sacrament Knights and Costa at the harbor, there were minimal casualties, and they handled healing themselves without Vania’s help. I haven’t given her any tasks either. Would she really be so exhausted she’d fall asleep mid-prayer?” Dorothy kept thinking. Although she was surprised, she wasn’t quite suspicious yet. It was late at night after all—nodding off during prayer could simply be natural. “Still… it’s late winter turning to early spring, and the weather’s still cold. If Vania fell asleep like that, she could catch a cold. Not to mention, if she’s praying in a public place like a church, falling asleep there isn’t safe. Her belongings could be stolen, or worse, she could be taken advantage of…” Thinking thus, Dorothy decided to gently wake Vania. Sleeping was best done in a proper bed, after all. Dorothy lightly activated the marionette mark placed on Vania in an attempt to rouse her. But to her surprise, it had no effect. After trying a few more times with no result, Dorothy began to sense something was wrong. “Huh? That’s odd… is she just sleeping too deeply? Is Vania really out cold?” Dorothy frowned and decided to try more direct methods. She used the marionette mark to take partial control of Vania’s body—opened her eyes, glanced around the church through her vision, and raised a hand to pinch her own cheek. Still, Vania did not awaken. Dorothy could clearly feel that Vania’s consciousness remained completely dormant. Alarm bells immediately went off in her mind as she recalled a specific situation. “This is… deep sleep? Vania’s fallen into a deep sleep?!” Dorothy murmured in disbelief. She recognized this state. Just a few months ago, Gregor had experienced the same thing on the train to Tivian. Back then, agents of the Eight-Spired Nest had drugged him into a deep sleep—like death—completely unrousable. Now, Vania was exhibiting the same signs: a total, undisturbed slumber. Dorothy’s expression turned grim. She knew this kind of “deep sleep” wasn’t natural—it was induced through mystical means. Vania had clearly come under some kind of mystical interference. “Why did Vania suddenly fall into deep sleep? Who’s targeting her? The Eight-Spired Nest? Could it be that they want to replace her the same way they tried to replace Gregor? To infiltrate the Church from within?” “No… that doesn’t add up. The Eight-Spired Nest only carries out replacements in private settings like train compartments. Right now, Vania is in a church, surrounded by people performing evening prayers. There’s no way they could operate in that kind of environment… This probably isn’t the work of the Eight-Spired Nest…” “But if it’s not them, then who is targeting Vania? And why put her into deep sleep?” Faced with the current situation, Dorothy pondered solemnly. She needed to figure out exactly what kind of trouble Vania had gotten herself into—had she offended someone earlier in the day? Why was she being targeted? “To get to the bottom of this… I need to speak to Vania directly. But she’s currently trapped in deep sleep and can’t respond… Tch… this is a bit troublesome…” Dorothy scratched her head in frustration, but after a brief moment of thought, a few ideas came to her. “Maybe… just like when I helped Gregor, I can communicate with Vania through her dream… But the problem is, I don’t know where Vania’s dream cocoon is in the Dreamscape. Even if I did, I don’t have a Dream Anchor Sigil to reach it. And even if I could reach it, I’d need the abilities of a Dream Intruder to enter someone else’s cocoon. That little fox girl… I might not be able to find her in time.” After failing to wake Vania, Dorothy had considered reaching her through dreams, but without coordinates, without a Dream Anchor Sigil, and with her own dream mimicry unable to cross over, she’d need to find another method. “Wait… back when I helped Gregor, I successfully used the information channel to send messages into his dream and receive his responses. Maybe I can use that again to observe Vania’s dream and communicate with her.” “And come to think of it, Vania had been praying to me right before falling asleep. I can use the information channel to access her thoughts directly.” With that thought, Dorothy immediately sprang into action. She began activating the information channel that linked her to Vania and used it to tap into Vania’s thoughts while she was unconscious. Ordinarily, the information channel couldn’t be used to forcefully retrieve thoughts from someone’s mind. However, Vania’s prayers often included phrases like “I offer up everything I am,” which granted Dorothy the authority to access her thoughts—after all, “everything” naturally included her mind. Finally, after a bit of tinkering, Dorothy succeeded in accessing Vania’s mental state through the channel. She saw what Vania was dreaming of: a square in the Church District of Northern Tivian, filled with vague, indistinct figures. In that square, she saw Vania conversing with a shadowy figure standing before her. Dorothy’s brows furrowed even tighter when she saw that figure. … “Sister Vania, may I ask—who is the highest-ranking officer in your fleet?” Standing in the middle of the dream-square, the shadowy figure posed the question to the confused Vania, and she answered plainly. “It’s Sir Giorde Bianchi. He’s our fleet’s overall commander.” (Jord > Giorde) “Bianchi? Sounds like an Ivengardian… Where did your fleet set sail from? What’s your destination? And why are you headed there?” “Our fleet departed from Falano. We’re bound for Ivengard… The purpose of our journey is a pilgrimage…” The shadow, a blurry semblance of a person, fired off one question after another, and Vania—dazed and unaware—answered each one without hesitation. She held nothing back. Watching this unfold from her room at the inn, Dorothy’s heart jumped. “There’s someone else… someone else is in Vania’s dream? And he’s interrogating her… Is he the one who forced her into deep sleep?’” Seeing the scene in Vania’s dream, Dorothy was stunned. She had initially just wanted to contact Vania to ask who had targeted her—but she hadn’t expected someone else to already be inside Vania’s dream, extracting information from her! The sudden turn of events caught Dorothy off guard for a moment, but she quickly recovered and grasped the gravity of the situation. “This guy… he must have some ability to enter others’ dreams and extract information from them… It’s incredibly similar to the Dream Intruder’s power the little fox girl uses. Looks like Vania’s deep sleep was induced by his ability. From what I can tell, he’s trying to gather intel on the Church fleet from her…” “I don’t know what this guy wants with all that intel, but this situation is extremely bad for me. Right now, Vania is already under his control inside the dream and is answering everything without reservation. If this continues, he might end up asking questions that implicate me—and if Vania answers honestly, I’ll be exposed!” Dorothy’s expression was grim. Although the shadowy figure was currently focused on the Church fleet, Dorothy herself was deeply entangled with that fleet behind the scenes. If the questioning continued to its logical conclusion, Vania would inevitably reveal Dorothy’s involvement—something she absolutely could not allow to happen. “It’s because of me that the Church fleet came to this little coastal city. It’s because of me that Giorde and the others clashed directly with Costa. If this shadow keeps pressing Vania for answers, she’s definitely going to mention me—and that’s something I can’t let happen!” “This guy… he seems to be investigating the Church fleet’s reason for coming to Navaha. If he keeps digging, I’m going to be exposed… No! If this keeps going, Vania’s going to spill everything she shouldn’t! I don’t know which faction this guy belongs to, but I absolutely cannot let him get hold of information about me!” That was the thought burning in Dorothy’s mind. Her top priority now was to stop Vania from continuing to divulge information to the shadow. Dorothy had no desire to let someone so mysterious and dangerous uncover her secrets. “But… how am I supposed to stop him? He invaded Vania’s dream directly—I can’t even locate his real body. I can’t use dream mimicry to enter either, because I don’t have her dream coordinates or a dream anchor sigil to get in…” Dorothy grew more anxious by the second. Entering Vania’s dream cocoon via dream mimicry was out of the question, and finding the intruder in the waking world was completely unrealistic—by the time she found anything, the damage would be done. Time was of the essence. Meanwhile, inside the dream, Vania was still answering the shadow’s questions one by one. Dorothy had no idea at which question she might be exposed next, so she needed to act fast. At the moment, the only two tools Dorothy had to interfere with Vania’s state were the Marionette Mark and the information channel. After a brief moment of thought, she came up with a solution. “If I remember correctly… back then, I used the information channel to communicate with the Dream Intruder in Gregor’s dream. That means I should be able to use it to transmit messages into Vania’s dream as well.” “Hmph. If you’re so eager for intel,” Dorothy muttered coldly, “then I’ve got just the thing for you—plenty of forbidden knowledge from the mysticism world…” With that, Dorothy began channeling the secret teachings stored in her memory through the information channel, transmitting them directly into Vania’s dream. She was about to serve that audacious information thief a poisonous feast.