Chapter 84: A Sleepless Night and Fading Dreams

The moonlight barely made its way into the dormitory room through the window.

Even though I had suddenly woken up in the middle of the night, my mind felt sharp, as if I had just opened my eyes after deep thought.

“What kind of weird dream was that?”

I couldn’t remember the exact details, but I could clearly sense that I had had an unpleasant dream.

It wasn’t quite a nightmare, but rather one of those vague, frustrating dreams.

However, I couldn’t ignore it because, despite not remembering any of the content, the dream felt strangely familiar and even seemed incredibly important.

Haven’t you ever had that kind of experience? You wake up from a dream, but you can’t remember any of the details, just the overall feeling of it.

The feeling of the dream stays with you, even if the details escape your memory.

That was exactly how I felt right now.

“Ugh…”

While I lay there, still groggy and confused, a small sigh escaped my lips, and a slight shift in my body weight pressed down on me.

When I lifted my head slightly to see what it was, I found two legs on top of my stomach, pinning me down.

Well, judging by the fact that these legs belonged to someone with a bad habit of sleep-tossing, I didn’t need to look closely to know whose they were, but I turned to see anyway.

She had climbed into someone else’s bed and was lying not horizontally, but completely vertically, with her head hanging off the side of the bed.

Because of the position, her head was twisted backward so far that I almost felt pain in my neck just looking at her.

“No wonder I had a weird dream.”

Being pressed down by Anne’s legs probably made me feel suffocated, and that’s why I had such a strange dream.

I pushed Anne’s legs off my stomach and gently turned her to lie down properly.

Originally, Anne’s spot was on the opposite side of the bed on the top bunk.

If she heard me say this, she’d probably be angry, but she had chosen that spot because she liked the upper bunk, as if she were a child.

It wasn’t impossible to move her, but it was too much of a hassle, so I just let her lie down in my bed.

I briefly thought about going to sleep in Anne’s empty bed, but that too seemed like another hassle, so I decided against it.

By the way, my bed was on the first floor, the same as Anne’s, and right above it was Yuri’s spot.

On the opposite side of the room, the first floor was Celian’s, and Anne’s spot was above hers.

Between the top bunks was a hammock bed where Linne, a ghost, was sleeping soundly.

Since the layout was like this, Yuri and Anne sometimes, like tonight, would go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and, unable to make it back up to the top bunk because of sleepiness, would crawl into my bed on the first floor. Celian, in her half-awake state, would often mistake her bed for mine and crawl into it as well.

At least once a week, each of them would sneak into my bed, and at first, I’d be surprised and wake up. But after getting used to it, I just woke up in the morning and thought nothing of it.

I laid Anne down beside me and tried to go back to sleep, but whether it was due to the strange dream or because moving Anne had taken some effort, sleep wouldn’t come.

After a while, I lay there with my eyes closed, counting sheep in an attempt to fall asleep, but it didn’t work. So, I just got up from bed.

I quietly slid off the bed to avoid disturbing Anne and took a seat by the window at the small table.

I also grabbed the Holy Sword, which I had leaned against the side of my bed.

The time was late, and the moonlight shining through the window made me feel quite emotional.

I had blamed Anne for pinning me down earlier, but recently, I had been having more dreams like this—those vague, unsettling dreams.

As usual, I couldn’t remember any details of the dreams.

Even though my instincts deep down were urging me to recall the dreams, there was an opposing warning telling me not to.

What kind of contradiction was this?

It was because of this confusion that I treated the dreams as nonsense.

The Holy Sword, as though worried for me while I sat there staring at the moon in a pitiful state, emitted a faint hum, as if trying to comfort me.

“Hmm… El…? What are you doing up? Why aren’t you sleeping?”

However, even the slight humming sound from the Holy Sword caused Celian to wake up, reacting sensitively to the sound.

Normally, she would have just fallen back to sleep due to exhaustion, but upon briefly waking up and seeing me sitting there bathed in moonlight, she spoke to me.

“It’s nothing. I just couldn’t sleep, so I was sitting here. Don’t worry about it, just go back to sleep.”

However, despite my protest, Celian rubbed her eyes and got up from her bed, taking a seat across from me.

She covered her mouth with her hand as she let out a small yawn, but even that gesture was graceful.

“You must be sleepy. Why did you get up? I told you to just go back to sleep.”

“This much is nothing. More importantly, what about you, El? You don’t seem like you just randomly woke up for no reason.”

I thought I was sitting there expressionless, but it seemed my face had given me away.

“Well, it’s nothing much… I just had a bit of a restless dream.”

“A dream? What kind of dream?”

“To be honest, I don’t even know if it was because of the dream. I can’t remember anything about it, so I’m not even sure if I should call it a dream. But… it felt important somehow.”

“You’ve been busy running around lately, so you’re probably just exhausted. At times like this, you need to force yourself to rest.”

Well, that was true. The closer the Celestial Festival got, the more I was being dragged around here and there.

But still.

“No matter how busy I am, it’s nothing compared to you, Celian, being the Hero.”

No matter how much work I had during the Celestial Festival, it was nothing compared to what Celian had to go through.

Since the festival was in honor of the goddess, it was only natural that Celian, the Hero, would have to bear the brunt of the responsibilities.

However, despite my concern, Celian simply stared at me with a hardened expression.

She didn’t respond, nor did she show her usual bright smile. Her face was completely cold.

It was only then that I realized I had made a mistake.

“S-Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I must really be sleepy after all, making such a stupid mistake. I’m really sorry.”

I wasn’t trying to tease her, but I had just brought up the topic of her being the Hero to her of all people.

It was a ridiculous mistake.

Celian had lived her whole life as a Hero candidate, only to have the title taken away from her right before her eyes. It was only natural that she would react this way.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

She said not to worry, but there was no way I couldn’t.

In the stillness of the night, the silence that settled between us felt unbearably heavy.

Any remaining drowsiness I had disappeared completely, replaced by an overwhelming sense of discomfort.

I couldn’t understand why I had made such a foolish mistake. I even wondered for a moment if I had suddenly lost my mind.

“…You said earlier that the dream was bothering you, right?”

I didn’t know how much time had passed, but thankfully, Celian broke the awkward silence between us.

“Oh, yeah. I did.”

I quickly responded, not wanting to miss the opportunity she had given me.

I hadn’t actually said that it was a problem, but arguing over small details now would only risk cutting the conversation short.

If I let this chance slip away, I would have to endure that unbearable silence once again.

And it was obvious that things would remain awkward between Celian and me for quite some time.

“If you don’t remember it, then there’s no need to force yourself to recall it. If it was truly important, it would have stayed in your memory.”

Not all dreams faded upon waking. Some dreams were so vivid that they lingered in one’s mind for days.

If I was having these dreams frequently but never remembering them, then maybe they weren’t actually that important.

“Sometimes, not knowing is better.”

“…Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“So just let the dream stay as it is. What matters is the present we are living in.”

For something that had started as a simple conversation about a dream, her advice was surprisingly serious.

“But if, by any chance, you ever remember anything about that dream, you have to tell me first. Okay?”

“Alright. I’ll tell you first, Celie. But if it turns out to be a boring story, you’re not allowed to ignore me.”

“…That won’t happen.”

Well, that was true. Celian always listened to me, even if it was just some random thought I blurted out in passing, with an expression that showed she genuinely enjoyed it.

She probably really meant it when she said she wouldn’t ignore me.

“Then let’s end this conversation here. If we don’t want to be sleepy during class, we should get some rest now. Celie, you should lie down too.”

I stood up, not wanting to risk making another slip of the tongue if the conversation dragged on any longer.

“Shall we?”

Fortunately, Celian didn’t question it and simply got up, heading toward her bed.

I also returned to mine, rolling Anne over toward the wall so I could lie down next to her.

Unlike Celian, who was sensitive enough to wake up at the faint hum of the Holy Sword, Anne showed no signs of waking up even as I roughly moved her around. That was just like her.

Seeing how carefree Anne was, all the worries that had been weighing on me just moments ago suddenly felt insignificant, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.

And so, when I finally managed to fall asleep again, I didn’t have another strange dream.