"Fischer, the previous head of the Nightingale Family. An Origami Master, one of the Origami Five. He suffered a sudden illness in his office at Origami University and unfortunately passed away."
"Orla, one of the Origami Five. Her current whereabouts are unknown."
"Joy, one of the Origami Five. Encountered a Memetic Entity from the Memoria Zone while pioneering a new dreamscape. Died from his injuries."
"Vaughn, one of the Origami Five. Went missing during a dream-crafting research experiment. His fate is unknown."
"Barrow, one of the Origami Five. Arrested by the Hound Family and imprisoned in 'The Moment of Tranquility.'"
Robin reeled off their histories as if counting her own family heirlooms, each name sounding like a pronouncement of the Nightingale Family's inevitable doom.
Stelle listened, utterly stunned, her mind going numb.
'What is going on? Are the Nightingales cursed or something? And it sounds like not a single one of the "Origami Five" met a good end.'
[It's to be expected. Just like the craftsmen who built the ancient tombs. On my planet, before I implemented social reforms, many people in charge of similar large-scale construction projects met similar fates, whether due to corruption, poor quality, broken funding chains, or other issues.]
[Departments overseeing projects like these are usually hotbeds for disaster. The leadership is often the most affected. As for how many were framed, how many were caught being complicit, and how many bad debts could never be recovered...]
[Even I can't be bothered to look into all that mess. I just never thought that even after advancing to this stage of the universe, to the point of controlling a dream world, these things would still keep happening.]
[How absurd. Looking back at history... it's a bitter pill that people of the future must swallow.]
Noldrei sighed repeatedly in Stelle's mind. He couldn't believe the rot of humanity's old era was still chasing him even in the age of interstellar travel.
He really wanted to show Old Man Yang, who was living comfortably back home, which was more tenacious: the Honkai, or the decay of humanity's old ways.
Alas, he couldn't.
Those damn Stellaron Hunters had stolen his ride. That AI of his was so useless it had let someone else just waltz in and take the wheel.
"It's because all of this happened within the Family that my emotions and power have been thrown into disarray, to the point where I can no longer sing properly," Robin explained, her voice heavy. "Without my ability to sing, it's very difficult for me to exert my influence on the Family. That's why I had no choice but to come back and find the traitors to the Harmony within our ranks."
Robin emphasized the problems she had discovered, though she wasn't sure exactly how many traitors there were. She even had a faint suspicion about certain things the Family had done to people.
The power of the Harmony was likely being used by the Family to alter people's memories.
Robin didn't dare say this aloud. She was facing three people who genuinely wanted to destroy Penacony. They had even considered wiping out everyone in Penacony to solve the problem of this endless dream.
She couldn't be sure about the others, but this woman, Stelle, was definitely serious.
"So that's how it is. Your families really are just asking for it, aren't you? Hahaha..."
A mocking smile spread across Stelle's face. She didn't have a shred of pity for those architects.
In the past, she might have feigned some sympathy, maybe put on a show for Robin to display her attitude toward the various families.
But Stelle's brain had been upgraded since then.
Her first thought wasn't about how tragic the Dreamweavers' family had it, but that even after suffering so much, the family was still working hard to create a Penacony that could control even more people's dreams.
In that case, didn't they bring this all on themselves?
Stelle's overtly scornful attitude truly stung Robin. Now even an outsider thought the situation was laughable. No wonder so many factions had come to "mock" Penacony.
"I know the Family has made many mistakes, and I'm trying to find a way to save Penacony." Robin wanted to reclaim the beautiful dream town she once cherished.
But the reality was that her own brother, Sunday, was deeply involved, though she didn't know just how deep his involvement went.
Stelle was vaguely reminded of her own arrival in the Golden Hour. She instinctively looked up at the sky.
The sky was shrouded in a hazy fog, making it impossible to see anything clearly.
"By the way, Robin, do you know what the sky in the Golden Hour is like? Have the Dreamweavers ever considered putting an entrance to the dreamscape up there or something? When I entered the Golden Hour, I came out of the hotel. But I was told the hotel was under renovation. Yet, I noticed something strange in the Golden Hour..."
"The hotel is on the ground. Even if it was being renovated, they couldn't possibly renovate it all the way up into the sky. So... can I assume that a Dreamweaver was messing with me?"
Stelle didn't mention that she had been forcibly disconnected from her brother during that part of the dream. Her brother, Noldrei, was truly capable; he had even used that fact to deduce the existence of two different, separately controlled dreamscapes in Penacony.
Who else would even consider that the Family's control over the dream was incomplete at a time like this?
"Falling from the sky?"
Robin, Acheron, and Firefly all looked up as well.
None of them had ever considered the possibility of going "up." From the very beginning, the Dreamweavers shouldn't have designed another dreamscape territory in the "sky," right?
Stelle pointed at a wall, stating the obvious. "Look at that wall over there. I remember that you can create this kind of inverted state in a dreamscape, right? So walking on walls should be a matter of course for us, shouldn't it?"
Acheron suddenly recalled something. She vaguely remembered a dreamscape where that was possible. If that dreamscape could do it, there was no reason this one couldn't.
Stelle walked to the base of the wall and touched it. "So, we can technically create a dreamscape shaped like a round, hollow sphere, or one inside a cube. We could even make dreams in all sorts of regular or irregular shapes."
"But in reality, is that what we have?"
"Have you never had your own dreams? I have. In my dreams, I've not only been to places where I could play while submerged in water, but I've also floated freely through the air, and even walked upside down on the ceiling..."
"Planets, gravity, even the traditional laws of physics—none of them are key constraints in a dream. And yet, Penacony, hailed throughout the universe as a land of beautiful dreams, is built just like any other city out in space."
"A dream like this... would any true Dreamweaver really want to create it?"
"This dream of yours... is it even real?"
Stelle's gaze fell upon a burned-out Dreamweaver in a corner. All she could see in them was utter exhaustion and... the hollowed-out husk of a drone, completely devoid of the imagination a Dreamweaver should possess.