Agatha can travel through shadows and mirrors in an instant. At the first moment when the Nameless Man's dream ends, she can return to the Lost Homeland in the real world and observe the changes in the reflection boundary - Duncan has no doubt about her ability.

"As long as one of Silantis and Goat-Head wakes up, the Nameless One's Dream will end..." Duncan frowned slightly, thinking carefully about the conjecture Agatha just put forward, "That means, the Nameless One's Dream is actually 'maintained' by Silantis and Goat-Head together?"

"Or rather, it's their shared dream," Agatha said seriously, "This can also explain why the 'Reflection Lost Homeland' is sailing on the edge of Silantis' dream."

Duncan didn't say anything for a while, just quietly organizing his thoughts.

After a long while, he suddenly broke the silence: "So, as you said, the reason why the Nameless Man's Dream ended prematurely this time was that my first mate was 'awakened' - then what caused it to be 'awakened'?"

Agatha thought about it and said uncertainly: "Maybe...it has something to do with your last steering?"

Duncan frowned slightly: "At the helm?"

"You carefully controlled your flame this time, and you also reserved a safe fire on the 'Dream Ship' by implanting the flame into the reflection of the Lost Homeland in advance. This did avoid 'scaring' Silandis, but to the Dream Ship, you are still an 'outsider'," Agatha said her guess, "Do you remember? You touched the vine in the Breeze Harbor in the real world and forcibly intervened in the dark foggy space from the 'outside world'..."

Agatha was talking and Duncan was listening. The goat-head kept turning his head from side to side, looking at the captain and then at Agatha. As the person most directly involved in the whole incident, he was the most confused one at the scene. But now he finally understood what Agatha meant. He reacted immediately and looked at Duncan quickly: "Captain, my loyalty is unquestionable! You are the real master of the Lost Homeland, even if I really dream..."

"I know, but the problem is not with you," Duncan waved his hand before the goat-head could finish his rant. "It's the inherent property of dreams - they reject 'invasion'."

He paused for a moment, then continued while thinking, "It seems that unless you are directly dragged into the dream like Vanna and the others and become a part of the Nameless One's dream, any attempt to connect to the Nameless One's dream from the outside will lead to this kind of 'rejection', either waking up Silandis or waking up you..."

The goat head raised its head, and its hard wooden face revealed a human-like entanglement: "What should I do? Captain, you know, I don't even know I'm dreaming, and I can't control this..."

"You can't control it, but this thing itself may not be difficult," Duncan said thoughtfully, "I already have an idea... Maybe I can verify it tonight."

※※※

Lucrecia frowned, looking at Taran El who was busy in the pile of "clutter" in the laboratory. After a long time, she finally couldn't help but speak: "You sent an apprentice to my house early in the morning to call me here, just to let me see how messy your laboratory is? You have been "digging" in this mess of machines and papers for half an hour... Did I tell you that I am busy?"

"It's almost done, it's almost done. There's a lot of automatically recorded data here that needs to be sorted out..." Taran El raised his head from behind a machine with a black shell, and his messy hair was stained with oil from somewhere. "The equipment here is improved by me. Now it seems that there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of convenience... Oh, I finally took down this paper box, this is the last one..."

The elf scholar muttered to himself as he finally emerged from the dazzling pile of machinery and equipment, returning to Lucrecia with a pile of printouts, paper tapes, and films. He placed the pile of things on the table and continued without raising his head, "Yes, I know you are very busy, because Breeze Harbor is shrouded in a huge vision, and you and your father are working hard for this matter. Thank you for your hard work, but we 'locals' should also do something, even if we haven't found a way to fight against that 'dream' yet..."

Lucrecia's expression finally became a little more serious. She temporarily forgot about the unhappiness of being interrupted from work and being urged to go out early in the morning. She came to the scholar's desk and looked at the various records on it: "So, this is your effort to fight against that 'dream'?"

"I'm not the only one working hard. Many departments, many colleagues, and other institutions in the city, including the knowledge guards and sheriffs, are also trying to find a solution. We may not be as powerful as your father, but a stupid solution is also a solution... Yes, this is partly my achievement."

As Taran El spoke, he pulled out a long paper strip from the pile of records and placed it in front of Lucrecia.

"Here are my vital signs and sleep log from last night."

Lucrecia's expression changed slightly. She took the paper tape handed to her and looked seriously at the jumping curves and a series of punch records on it. She noticed that this was automatic data output by some kind of punch recorder, and there was an extremely obvious "fault" in the data.

"I slept in this lab yesterday," Taran El pointed to a bed in the corner of the room. Next to the bed, there were several strange-looking devices. They seemed to have been moved here in a hurry, with cables and pipes tangled together. "I made these things before. I tried to use them to improve my sleep efficiency. The goal was to get a better rest with the shortest sleep time... Those electrodes can record my brain activity. The curved lines on the paper tape are them. The holes next to them are my breathing records. One round hole for each exhalation, and one square hole for each inhalation..."

"There are two obvious interruptions here," Lucrecia interrupted. "Judging from the timestamps on the edge of the tape, they occurred at nine o'clock last night and early this morning, which means..."

"That's when the Nameless Man's dream began and ended," Taran El took the paper tape from Lucrecia, found the two interruption points, and held the paper tape in front of him. "At these two time points, there was an obvious 'gap' in my brain, but this is not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is actually... between these two interruption points."

He held up the paper tape, and on the long record were continuous jumping curves and punch holes.

"There are still records," he pointed to the section between nine o'clock last night and this morning, "Do you find the problem? Lady Lucrecia..."

"I guess you recorded more than just these," Lucrecia said quickly, having realized what was happening. "Where are the others?"

"This is the most intuitive one." Taran El didn't keep the secret. He turned around and took another stack of things from the table - it was a stack of black and white pictures.

Lucrecia took the stack of things and took a look, and found that they were all photos - the target was the bed in the corner of the laboratory.

The first few photos showed Taran El lying on the bed, with the scholar waving a greeting to the camera, but the later photos showed only an empty bed - the electrodes that were originally fixed on the scholar's head fell on the pillow.

"I set up three cameras and connected them to timers and continuous film. Every fifteen minutes, they would take a picture of where I sleep from three angles," Taran El said. "Did you see? After nine o'clock, there was no one in the ** - because at that time the dream of the nameless appeared, and I had disappeared into the 'other side'..."

As the scholar spoke, he picked up the long piece of paper again, found its middle part, and placed it in front of the "Sea Witch".

"So here's the question, ma'am - between nine o'clock last night and five o'clock in the morning, during the time when I disappeared from the real world, whose brain activity was recorded by this machine...?"

Lucrecia took a deep breath and looked at the last photo in her hand.

In the corner of the laboratory, there was an empty sleeping bed with electrodes for reading brain activity lying vacantly on the pillow. The metal sheets of the electrodes glowed coldly in the camera lens, as if they were silently communicating with ghosts invisible to the naked eye in the silent night of the whole city.

"The problem goes beyond this. The dream of the nameless one has brought us a lot of confusion. The strange data recorded by the instrument is only part of it." Taran El's voice woke Lucrecia from her thoughts. The great scholar walked behind his desk, sat down and said slowly, "Another question is - where did we go after we fell asleep?"

"……you mean?"

"I just heard your description. When the Nameless Man's Dream occurred, you and your father's followers were drawn into a strange dream. There was a huge forest in that dream, which was very similar to what I saw when I was trapped in the dream. However... I have no memory of this last night.

“Ever since I was trapped in a dream last time and you rescued me, I have never seen that forest in my dreams again.

“Not only me, but also everyone in this city. When the dream of the nameless man came, everyone in the city disappeared in the night. But we did not wake up in the dream world like you did, nor did we move around in the mysterious forest. We closed our eyes, and when we opened them again, it was another normal day. If it weren’t for you and your father’s reminder, we wouldn’t even realize what happened last night.

"So, where did everyone in the city go when night fell?"

Lucrecia certainly didn't know the answer, and Taran El didn't expect to get any answers from the witch. He was just talking to himself, setting a goal for himself.

The sunlight passed through the clouds, through a big tree outside the laboratory, through its lush canopy and intertwined branches and leaves, casting mottled light, falling on the desk of the university scholar and on the data recorded by those automatic devices.

Lucrecia slowly raised her head, her eyes moving along the sunlight, looking at the mottled shadows of the trees outside the window, and then slowly opened her eyes.

"Master Taran El..."

"What is it, ma'am?"

"… Was there originally such a tree outside your laboratory?"