In the forest shrouded in dusk light, Lucrecia followed the elf woman holding a strange long-handled weapon and trudged into the depths of the dense forest.

The other party walked very fast, even in the rugged, vine-covered, and roadless forest, his footsteps seemed as if he was running on a flat and wide road - this extreme adaptability to the forest and the special steps even made people think of the "classical skills" mentioned in some ancient legends of the elves. In those descriptions, the elves once lived in a vast country full of "forests", and they could leap through the woods like the breeze, unlike modern elves, who had long forgotten many skills to coordinate with nature in the city-states full of high-rise buildings.

Of course Lucrecia couldn't keep up with that pace—she knew that without even trying.

The witch lady always refused outdoor activities. Even when she had to go out, she used various spells to travel. So after being left behind by the elf woman for the first time, she decisively activated the Phantom Wind, and from time to time transformed herself into flying pieces of paper and passed through the woods to keep up with the other party's speed - anyway, her father was not here.

Her only worry was how the strange elf that appeared in this "dream" would react after seeing this scene, but it turned out that the other party had no reaction at all when seeing her strange spells. Just like at the beginning, the elf did not realize that the "uninvited guest" in front of it was a human being, but wanted to take her to the place called "Wall of Silence" as if inviting its own kind.

Seeing this situation, Lucrecia had some vague guesses in her mind, so she deliberately did some more obvious and incongruous things to verify her guesses - she simply stopped from time to time and used magic to create some bigger movements, such as suddenly summoning huge flower vines, or creating some explosions in the air.

The elf still showed no unusual behavior—at most she stopped when Lucrecia wasted time and waited patiently for her to catch up.

Lucrecia temporarily stopped her "test" and began to follow the other party with peace of mind. At the same time, she controlled the "puppet medium" in the distance in her mind and described her situation to Duncan:

"After my tests, this elf is indeed not the 'dreamer' of this dream. She should be the 'product' of the dream, or a component of it... Her cognition and behavior patterns have obvious limitations... It seems that there is a layer of 'normalization filter'. The abnormal behavior of outsiders is 'normalized' in her eyes. This normalization may be to maintain the stability of the dream.

"I haven't conducted more intensive 'tests', so I don't know what the upper limit of this 'normalization' is. But theoretically, if my behavior is too extreme, it may cause the cognition of this 'elf' to be reset, and it may also lead to more intense 'rejection' from the dream world... Now I need to continue investigating and cannot take this risk...

"Ah, you have entered the block where the 'mutation' occurred? Great, then I hope you can find the 'dreamer' from the real world. If you can identify the source of the dream, you should be able to intervene here directly as usual..."

"By the way, what's your name?"

A voice suddenly came from the front, interrupting the communication between Lucrecia's mind and the distance. The witch stopped immediately and looked forward.

The elf girl holding a long-handled axe and with strange blue threads woven into her golden hair turned her head and looked over here curiously.

"You can call me Lucrecia," Lucrecia said frankly, "Why did you suddenly think of asking my name?"

"If one more person knows my name, one more person may remember me," the elf not far away said seriously, "My name is Shilin, you have to remember it."

Lucrecia noticed the worry and tension in the other person's eyes.

Along the way, she noticed more than once the sense of anxiety emanating from this strange elf - the tense atmosphere always permeated the entire forest, just like the "background color" of the dream itself.

After a brief hesitation, Lucrecia asked, "What happened?"

The elf named Shilin opened her mouth but said nothing. She seemed to not know where to start. She also seemed to think that some things should not be disclosed to "ordinary people" at will. So in the end, she just shook her head and said, "Don't worry. Silantis will protect us. Everything will be fine... Let's go quickly. It's no longer safe outside the Silence Wall. Erosion may appear outside the wall at any time. You are lucky to meet a ranger like me."

Erosion—Lucretia immediately noticed this special word, then silently memorized it in her heart, and then followed Shireen's wind-like footsteps again, trudging into the depths of the seemingly endless dense forest.

※※※

"Agou, did you hear anything?"

In the endless lush and dark forest, Shirley frowned suddenly. Then she bent down and hid behind a bush while vigilantly observing the movements around her, while carefully asking Agou who was hiding in the shadows.

Agou's voice came directly into her mind: "The sound of the wind, the sound of the trees, the calls of unknown birds, on the surface, they are all normal sounds - but the atmosphere is very strange, and it has been getting weirder since just now. I don't know how to describe it. It's as if... the environment itself is changing. The trees around are no longer trees, but something that is gradually showing malicious intent..."

Shirley got goosebumps all of a sudden. She looked around nervously at the unknown towering trees. One of her arms was gradually transforming into the characteristics of a deep demon. "Agou, what you said is a bit scary. There are trees everywhere here..."

"You asked me to say it, so I'm telling you my 'feelings'," Agou responded sullenly, "I advise you to take it seriously. The perception of the Deep Hound has always been sharp - this forest is gradually becoming wrong."

"Even a fool knows something is wrong here..."

Shirley muttered to herself as she cautiously left the bushes where she had just been hiding. Although she didn't know what was happening here, her intuition told her that it would be best not to stay in one place for too long.

Plants were everywhere as far as the eye could see. The lush and eerie jungle was a scene that a girl like her, who was born and raised in a narrow and crowded slum, could never imagine. She had only heard of such a place from the conversations between the captain and others not long ago, but she had never expected that she would be brought here while she was just taking a nap - if she guessed correctly, this should be the "Dream of the Nameless" that both the captain and Lucrecia had mentioned.

Feeling the eerie atmosphere around her, Shirley suddenly showed a regretful expression on her face: "Should I not have taken a nap while doing my homework..."

"I think your entry into this strange 'other world' has nothing to do with whether you dozed off while doing your homework," Agou's figure gradually emerged from the shadows, condensing into shape in the drifting smoke and dust. It followed Shirley and kept an eye on the surroundings while muttering, "But this sentence itself is not wrong - you shouldn't dozed off while doing your homework."

"It's mainly because I get a headache when I do arithmetic," Shirley muttered, as if she wanted to talk about some daily topics to divert the tension brought by the gloomy atmosphere here, "and I already know a lot of basic words, why do I still need to learn arithmetic..."

Agou was listening silently at the side. It seemed that it wanted to remain quiet, but after a few seconds of silence, it started muttering as usual: "I still need to learn some arithmetic, even if it's for myself..."

Shirley pursed her lips and couldn't help muttering, "Agou, why do you want me to learn these things so much... I feel like you have more motivation than the captain..."

Agou didn't say anything for a while. After a long while, when Shirley was about to forget about the topic, he suddenly said, "Do you remember the seventy-two pesos?"

Shirley was stunned for a moment. After a while, she opened her eyes slightly, as if she finally remembered something from her faded childhood memories.

A slightly complicated expression appeared on her face, and she whispered awkwardly: "You... still remember it, it happened so long ago..."

"I will always remember that a damn bastard could cheat a child out of the money for cleaning chimneys in a factory for several days with a few scribbled pieces of paper. If I could read at that time, you wouldn't have to starve for those days. If you could read at that time, you wouldn't have to go into those dark and dangerous chimneys at all. It would be better to be an apprentice copying numbers in the pump room."

Shirley was silent.

After a long while, she whispered, "But now you can recognize words. Not only can you recognize words, but you can also learn at the same pace as Nina..."

"What if I can't always be with you?" Agou muttered.

Shirley was stunned for a moment, as if she didn't know what to say, and then she spoke subconsciously: "Then the captain..."

"The captain may not protect you forever - he is very good, he is taking good care of you now, but the warp is unpredictable after all," Agou shook his head, "Shirley, you have to rely on yourself."

Shirley lowered her head. After a few seconds, she gently shook the chain connected to her arm: "Agou, you just said you can't always be with me, what do you mean?"

"...Don't think too much, I'm just giving an example," Ah Gou sighed, "I'm not thinking of abandoning you, but I'm not sure about the future. After all...I have a 'heart', and there has never been a deep demon with a heart in this world. No one knows what changes will happen to me. Maybe 'human nature' will limit my lifespan like you humans, maybe my sanity will gradually diminish as I grow older, maybe one day, my 'heart' will disappear again..."

"Agou," Shirley suddenly interrupted him, staring at him and pulling the chain in her hand hard, "You... stop talking."

"Okay, I won't say any more."