Chapter 999: Overwmerfect Balance
Eivass felt his consciousness slowly sinking into a warm sea.
Something like a thermal spring was pushing and rocking his body.
The sensation was similar to, yet different from, the Full Moon Ritual. The strange, enveloping warmth was clearer, making him drowsy. The depth of his consciousness “descending” wasn’t that great either—he simply lost consciousness for a short while before quickly regaining it.
When Eivass woke up, he looked around.
He immediately realized the biggest difference between this ordinary dream and the dream realm’s Ascension Ritual—
This seemed to be a junior high school, and theoretically, it should have been a girls’ school.
The students were all wearing black school uniforms—black skirts that resembled nun habits but were designed to be more aesthetically pleasing. Eivass looked at this modified version of a nun habit and felt it was somewhat like a black and white maid outfit.
These students, judging by their physiques, were mostly only thirteen or fourteen years old.
The reason for saying “mostly”… was because there were clearly some who looked older, around seventeen or eighteen. And a few looked over twenty, like college students, their builds significantly taller than others. This was likely because the dream’s owner’s impression of them was fixed at different age groups.
Yes, “they”—although the school uniforms and campus looked like a girls’ school, there were inexplicably some male students mixed in.
Some students’ faces were entirely blurred, as if the faces of many people had merged together. They gave off a general impression of “low image quality,” with their features constantly changing. If you didn’t look closely, it was as if they had no faces at all.
—It was like some people’s clarity was 4K, while others’ was less than 1080P.
The dream’s owner, Mia, had surprisingly low clarity herself—almost the lowest among the crowd, aside from the stitched-together individuals. Her age seemed to be around twenty, completely different from her classmates here. Her face was as if covered by a layer of fog, her features constantly undergoing subtle shifts and changes… it gave off an eerie sense of horror.
The desks here were arranged for two people per table.
Beside Mia, Arsen, who was much younger, was sitting.
This “Arsen” looked about a dozen years old, at most in his early twenties, and seemed even younger than Mia. His face, with a touch of childishness, was handsome and confident.
He was unlike everyone else; he wasn’t wearing a school uniform at all. Instead, he was dressed in a tailcoat, like a band conductor. It was as if he was about to attend a banquet, his pupils shimmering with starlight.
This “young Arsen” was completely different from the composed and elegant demeanor of the Arsen from outside.
He gazed intently at Mia, an obvious look of infatuation on his face—or, to put it more elegantly, a “smirk.” He even reached his hand under Mia’s skirt. Mia blushed and gently pushed his hand away, but it felt less like resistance and more like anticipation.
The teacher on the stage was giving a rather soporific lecture, seemingly on some modern literary theory. But the nun teacher, who looked about thirty or forty, wearing heavily reflective round-rimmed glasses and exuding a scholarly aura, acted as if she were blind, completely ignoring their little tryst.
And only about half of the students in the classroom were listening to the lecture.
Others were whispering to their deskmates, some were sleeping soundly, one girl with very high clarity was intently drawing in a notebook. And a couple of girls with equally high clarity, exuding a strong romantic vibe, sat by the window. Golden sunlight streamed onto them, and the short-haired girl reached her hand from her friend’s sleeve into her embrace, while the long-haired girl lay directly in her friend’s arms.
It was clear that these high-clarity students were Mia’s familiar friends or classmates who left a deep impression on her.
—As for the teacher on stage, she still hadn’t noticed any of this, still standing stiffly, reading from the textbook.
“…How nostalgic,”
Eivass suddenly heard his deskmate speak. “I didn’t expect to see myself in my youth again someday.”
He turned his head and looked at Arsen beside him, who was in his forties, yet wearing a junior high school uniform.
Eivass suddenly felt a bit overwhelmed—when Arsen wore that formal attire, he looked like an elegant, dangerous suit master. But now, dressed in a black skirt like a junior high student… it made him seem like a pervert.
…Wait?
He paused upon this thought. He looked down at himself.
—Haha, so I’m wearing it too. Never mind.
“When you were young?”
Eivass tried not to look at the forty-something Arsen in the black skirt. Instead, he turned to the aesthetically pleasing young couple by the window and casually asked, “Weren’t you a sailor and a stevedore when you were young?”
“That was after,”
Arsen said with a nostalgic tone. “When I was a sailor, the ship I was on encountered a shipwreck and collided with a giant sea monster.
“Including me, only three people survived on the entire ship. And before the captain died, he gave me his personal belongings… it was a Grimoire called ‘Stealing the Heavens Grimoire.’
“It was from that book that I embarked on the Path of the Extraordinary.”
“…You’re an Inheritor?”
Eivass was somewhat surprised. “That’s quite rare.”
Although Professionals could also read Grimoires and learn skills, and Inheritors could become Professionals by learning extraordinary skills at lower levels, it was clear that Arsen had no “mentor.”
“Yes, I am an Inheritor,”
Arsen stated calmly.
“Path of Devotion and Adaptation?”
Eivass asked.
“No,” Arsen denied. “I have no connection with the Path of Adaptation. The paths I walk are Devotion, Balance, and Beauty.”
“…A Three-Path Grimoire?!”
Eivass was startled.
A Three-Path inheritance—this meant extreme danger.
A dual-path inheritance was already at the limit for a person, because adding even one more path would result in extremely severe path deviations.
The reason was simple—it was like “three points determine a circle.” If two points were designated as two paths, it essentially meant both points had to lie on this circle. Then, the circle could be above or below, left or right, large or small; it was still quite flexible.
But if three paths were determined, it meant there was absolutely no turning back.
From then on, any wavering regarding one’s own path would lead to the collapse of the “ring,” causing the loss of Extraordinary Power, or even a loss of control and transformation into a distorted Phantom Demon.
“It’s actually not that bad,” Arsen comforted Eivass instead. “The Sacred Number for the Path of Devotion is three, and a triangle is extremely stable, which happens to be three paths. Both the Path of Balance and the Path of Beauty emphasize mirrors and balance. These three paths are basically the ones with the highest compatibility and stability. You see, I’m still balancing my Path Power, aren’t I?”
“…So you became a Phantom Thief from that time?”
Eivass asked in a low voice. “Did you show your face? I remember you had the ability to disguise yourself… hadn’t you learned that yet back then?”
“I knew from the very beginning,”
Arsen shook his head, stating calmly. “It’s just that I believed that since I thought I was right, I shouldn’t hide my identity. Just like if the reason for killing is revenge for a friend, one shouldn’t hide evidence or conceal the crime. The spoils of my theft were all given to the poor, so I am proud of it—why should I hide my identity?”
This weathered middle-aged man, calmly wearing a skirt, was undoubtedly a respectable pervert.
He said seriously, “Moreover, I believe… when anyone embarks on the path of crime for any reason, no matter how they explain or quibble, they cannot deny that they are embracing sin itself. Doing what is right and walking the path of sin are not mutually exclusive. A righteous revenge is still revenge, but it is also sinful murder in itself. I walk between the two, just as I balance the ‘hourglass’ and the ‘twin mirrors.’
“And based on this philosophy, any alteration to my appearance, any disguise, would mean ‘I am evading sin,’ meaning my cowardice. It might even lead to transferring sin onto innocent people. Therefore, the first time I worked as a Phantom Thief, I had already abandoned my original identity and life—I conducted my theft using my true face and true name.
“But even so, they couldn’t catch me. I could disguise myself as others to evade pursuit—but I wouldn’t become someone else to steal, or rather… I would reveal my true face after completing the theft to shoulder the sin myself, rather than the person I transformed into.”
Saying this, Arsen looked over there. “Many newspapers at the time featured my true face because I gave interviews. The Iris Flower police were extremely enraged by this provocative act and didn’t believe I would distribute the money to ordinary people as promised. The name ‘Phantom Thief’ became known around that time… She becoming one of my lovers was probably because she saw that newspaper when she was young.
“But… a thief is still a thief. No matter how bright a reason is used to package it, it cannot hide the fact that I am a thief. So I never considered myself a ‘Savior of the poor’ or a ‘righteous punisher.’ In the end, I still hurt others, even if they deserved to die—so even if one day I am arrested or killed, it will be what I deserve.”
“…Admirable resolve.”
Eivass turned back to gaze at Arsen.
His tone held a bit more admiration. “I think I understand why you became Sherlock’s friend.”
“To receive such praise from His Majesty the Pope is a great honor,”
Arsen nodded gently. “But Your Majesty—now that you have entered the Dream Realm, won’t you remove your disguise?”
“Why do you think I transformed into the Child of the Moon?”
Eivass stopped acting and spoke frankly.
“I think it’s probably to save face for others. If I appeared in Iris Flower as the Pope, no matter what I did, it would seem like I was using my influence to bully others… Even if no one dared to exploit this power, you might feel it was unsightly?”
It was clear… as fellow Devotion followers, Arsen understood Eivass. Just as Eivass understood Arsen.
“It’s part of the reason,”
Eivass nodded. “And the other part is because this body was a mask granted by the Twin. It does possess the power of the Child of the Moon… which allows us to handle more situations. After all, in the Dream Realm, anything can happen…
“—Speaking of which, do you know how to enter the Dream Realm?”
“…I know a little,”
Arsen said hesitantly. “In the dream, sailing on a ‘wretched boat without a soul’ by the sea… but Mia didn’t dream of the sea. Another method is to jump off a cliff. But I’m not sure if that would work… after all, we entered with our physical bodies. If we accidentally die from the fall or fall into the Void, it would be bad. Do you have a way?”
“Of course,” Eivass nodded. “Follow me.”
(End of Chapter)
