After passing through the doorway torn open within the memoria, Stelle's consciousness sank into darkness.
She had no idea how much time passed.
When her mind gradually became clear and she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a delicate oval-shaped face.
After a brief moment of thought, Stelle recognized it.
The mysterious woman dressed in purple was the one she had met earlier in the memoria.
At the same time, out of the corner of her eye, Stelle noticed her surroundings.
The ceiling belonged to a guest room.
She could hear the gentle sound of liquid flowing beside her.
She seemed to have already returned to the real world, to her own guest room.
"You're awake, sleepyhead. Looks like you had a pleasant dream." Black Swan looked at Stelle. "Well? Did you dream about me?"
Stelle frowned and stood up from the dream pool.
"I'm already back in reality?"
Black Swan nodded.
"Mm. Welcome back to reality, the Reverie Hotel, the place you're most familiar with, and the safest place."
The mysterious lady narrowed her eyes slightly as she observed Stelle.
A moment later, she said with certainty, "I'm glad your mental state seems fairly normal. It doesn't look like you've been affected by that primordial dream. You were fortunate."
Although Black Swan's words contained many things worth paying attention to, such as the "primordial dream," and the claim that reality was the safest place, Stelle ignored all of them.
"Where's Firefly? We went through that door together... Did she return to the real world too?"
The little Stellaron vessel immediately asked about someone else's safety.
Black Swan didn't seem surprised that Stelle would ask such a question.
She smiled softly.
"Hehe. You care about that young lady quite a bit. That's understandable. Even in the face of 'death,' she still did everything she could to protect you... Even I was a little moved."
The teasing from the mature, mysterious older sister type had no effect on Stelle.
She simply looked at Black Swan and continued waiting for an answer.
Black Swan merely shrugged.
"Instead of asking me, why not ask her yourself the next time you see her? For now, shouldn't you let your friends know you're safe first?"
Stelle blinked.
She felt Black Swan had a point.
The two of them then left the room together.
They walked down the hallway toward the lobby of the residential area.
Before they even reached the stairs, they could already hear March muttering, "Too suspicious... There's no way something like that could happen by coincidence. That woman definitely has something going on."
Who "that woman" referred to was obvious.
After so many Trailblazing journeys, March finally seemed to have learned her lesson and understood that she should be a little suspicious of strangers.
Himeko comforted her.
"But she really did find Stelle. For now, let's at least hear what she has to say..."
While everyone was discussing Black Swan, the person being discussed arrived together with Stelle.
At this moment, aside from Nero, every member of the Astral Express who had landed on Penacony was present.
The others Nero had brought along weren't gathered here.
Everyone was still happily wandering around and having fun.
The secretary had changed this into an easter egg. If players ignored the mission and simply wandered around Penacony, they would run into these characters.
For example, if they went to Aideen Park, they might find Qingque playing Celestial Jade.
At this moment, Black Swan wore a faint, confident smile.
She didn't mind everyone discussing her in the slightest.
After bringing Stelle over, she said to Himeko, the current navigator of the Astral Express, "Miss Himeko, as promised, I've brought this child back safely."
"As for the other young man, please don't worry. He said he still had something to do. Before I returned, I confirmed that he had already left the dangerous area."
March hurried over and circled around Stelle worriedly.
"Are you okay? We couldn't find you or Nero in either reality or the dream. Where exactly did you two go? I was worried sick... Right, how's Nero? He still hasn't contacted us."
March's words made Stelle think.
Neither reality nor the dream had any trace of them.
Yet she had clearly been sent away by Sparkle while inside the dream.
But that only proved even more that the strange dream had truly been extraordinary.
So Stelle focused on March's other question.
It wasn't easy to explain everything that had happened.
But she could at least assure March that Nero was perfectly fine.
After all, that kid had slapped that giant monster until it cried.
Even if he hadn't left in the end, there probably wasn't anything in that strange dream capable of stopping him.
And with Argenti, Yanqing, and Mr. Tail with him, it didn't seem impossible for the four of them to fight their way through the place over and over again.
Stelle's explanation quickly won unanimous agreement from everyone on the Express.
Even Black Swan beside them completely agreed.
People might worry about Nero in many situations.
But no one worried much when it came to fighting.
Unless the opponent happened to be an Emanator, an Aeon, or some strange Mirror Holder.
Fortunately, it wasn't easy to encounter beings like that.
Even the easiest one to run into, the Mirror Holder, had recently suffered a setback in Penacony.
"It's good that you're all safe." Himeko smiled. "Let me introduce her. This is Miss Black Swan, a Memokeeper from the Garden of Recollection."
Stelle nodded.
This wasn't her first time meeting a Memokeeper.
But Black Swan gave her a very different impression from the one living aboard the Express.
Perhaps it was because their clothing and the way they spoke were so different.
The group chatted for a while afterward.
Although Black Swan had accepted Himeko's request to help find someone, the two had actually only just met.
Black Swan also showed an unusually strong interest in everyone aboard the Astral Express.
Stelle didn't find that strange.
After all, the Express traveled across the universe every day.
Every passenger aboard carried extraordinary memories.
Every Trailblazing journey was an exciting adventure.
Stories like those were irresistibly attractive to a Memokeeper.
Later, at the request of the Express's family head, Stelle carefully recounted everything that had happened.
She especially emphasized the part where Sparkle disguised herself as a fake Sampo and tricked everyone.
Black Swan seemed familiar with quite a few people in the Land of Dreams.
She added details to Stelle's story and introduced everyone to the Fool known as Sparkle.
The abilities of a Memokeeper really were incredibly convenient.
One could even call them unfair.
Thanks to memories, Black Swan could confidently claim that she understood everyone in Penacony.
Of course, there were some memories that absolutely couldn't be touched.
For example, a certain "Galaxy Ranger."
Even now, the horrifying experience of peering into that person's memories remained unforgettable.
Every time she recalled it, a chill crept into her heart.
To her, simply surviving that encounter had already been something worth celebrating.
That experience had felt as though she were surrounded by a sea of blood, tossed helplessly among monstrous waves, unable to resist as she was dragged into a crimson abyss.
She was absolutely certain that "Ranger" wasn't an ordinary Galaxy Ranger.
It was very likely something else entirely.
Black Swan naturally didn't bring that up here.
If she had, Stelle would definitely have made the connection.
Not long ago, she'd met that Ranger in the Golden Hour, learned Clockie's Clockwork trick, and used it to turn a gang boss into a complete lunatic.
As Stelle had guessed, interesting memories possessed an almost fatal attraction for a Memokeeper.
Even after suffering such a major setback, Black Swan hadn't learned her lesson at all.
Now she had set her sights on the crew of the Astral Express.
Perhaps she'd already proudly lifted her swan-like neck, convinced that the Express crew wouldn't be nearly as troublesome as that Ranger.
After all, people at that Ranger's level were extremely rare.
And even among those of equal or greater strength, those whose memories possessed such terrifying qualities were rarer still.
How could she possibly be that unlucky?
Surely not every person she took an interest in would end up making her suffer.
What were the chances of something like that happening?
Black Swan naturally didn't reveal her ambitions to the crew.
She soon stated that although Sparkle's tricks could trap people in illusions, they had nothing to do with that strange and terrifying dream.
That dream originated from Penacony itself.
"I can vouch for that. Sparkle isn't capable of something like this."
While everyone was talking, Nero's voice came from nearby.
Everyone looked toward the sound.
Nero was walking down the stairs.
Following behind him was a familiar figure.
Argenti.
The crew wasn't surprised at all.
When Nero had mentioned in the group chat that he was with Argenti, everyone had already guessed that this knight devoted to Beauty would stick close behind him.
And that was exactly what had happened.
Nero and Argenti had only recently awakened from the dream as well.
Everyone had happily listened to Kokona sing, and Nero had even made an agreement with her to hear her sing again someday.
Afterward, Yanqing and Huohuo left to continue exploring the dream.
Nero, however, returned to reality because Himeko had asked everyone to gather in the group chat.
Argenti followed Nero without the slightest hesitation.
Their arrival didn't interrupt the discussion.
March had a question about what Black Swan had said.
She didn't understand why that strange dream was said to originate from Penacony itself.
Black Swan explained, "...The so-called Land of Dreams is actually something the Family carefully maintains through unknown means. It's a carefully designed beautiful dream."
"But the memoria they entered... that is what dreams originally looked like. Chaotic, dangerous, mysterious. Within that ever-changing labyrinth dwell beasts of memory, Memetic Entities..."
Standing nearby, Nero blinked.
He honestly hadn't felt that place was particularly dangerous.
But after thinking about it, he realized that for ordinary people, it probably really was.
So he stayed quiet.
"She's right," Himeko said to the Express crew. "Everyone, do you remember what you saw when you entered the dream?"
Welt (frowning slightly): "A clock."
March (looking somewhat frightened): "The deep sea."
Stelle (thoughtfully): "...Schools of fish."
Nero (blurting it out): "Seafood!"
Everyone: "?"