The originally planned half month was more than enough, and he could have proceeded exactly as he wished. But now that the situation had shifted abruptly, the preparation time was cut down to only one week.
With such severe compression, if he still wanted everything to proceed smoothly, he could no longer afford to keep even his subordinates in the dark.
After sending away the messenger and the defector from Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Aegor immediately convened an emergency meeting with Crown Town's core management. He publicly announced his sudden new decision and, after suppressing the differing opinions, held a serious discussion on the topic: "With only one week left, which non-essential tasks can be skipped or postponed?" Based on the conclusions, he assigned new work and schedules, and finally laid out the truly confirmed version of the South Expedition plan.
By the time the chain reaction caused by the early departure was roughly contained and the preparations for a smooth strategic launch were in place, it was already close to midnight.
The saying "sharpening the knife does not delay the woodcutter" was always true. Through long experience, Aegor had learned that a leader could not do everything himself. He had to delegate and trust.
Exhausted in both body and mind, he did not force himself to continue. He returned to his room, washed briefly, and lay in bed, preparing to restore his physical and mental energy with proper rest, so he could meet the next day in a better state and with higher efficiency.
---
Under a gray sky, fine snow fell as Hogwarts Town Inner Keep lay completely empty.
Aegor had barely taken two steps into the silent courtyard before he realized he was dreaming.
Ever since he was young, he had possessed a useless, not particularly rare, yet interesting ability: lucid dreaming.
As long as he dreamed, and the dream contained obvious differences from reality, he would quickly realize it and recognize it as a dream.
If that were all, the ability would not be worth mentioning. But what set him above ordinary lucid dreamers was this: through years of familiarity and self-training, he had raised his clarity rate to over ninety percent and unlocked extensive control over his dreams.
Aegor was a rare high-level dream controller among lucid dreamers.
A dream controller is not led around by the dream. He is omnipotent within it. He can mold the dream world at will, create any ability he can imagine for himself, summon any person he wants to see, make any event he desires unfold… and he can do whatever he pleases, indulging in foolish, wicked, or impossible deeds without consequences or guilt.
Of course, no matter how impressive it sounded, this skill was ultimately useless.
But since one cannot do anything else while asleep, why not enjoy it?
Still, although he could detect dreams and control them freely, he could not decide whether or not he would dream on any given night.
As he grew older, he dreamed less and less, and his lucid-dream escapades had become rarer. In fact, he had not dreamed at all for a long while.
Walking across the snow-covered courtyard of Hogwarts Town Inner Keep, Aegor considered what kind of entertainment he should create in this lucid dream. Then he noticed someone standing in front of the office building a dozen meters away.
More precisely, a silver-haired woman with her back toward him.
This was not the ordinary "whitish silver" that people sometimes called silver hair. Her hair was truly silver, gleaming like molten metal.
If not for the strands swaying slightly in the breeze, revealing that they were indeed hair, he would have suspected she was crowned with mercury or liquid metal.
Daenerys… or an enhanced version of her?
Aegor immediately understood the situation. He had not been intimate with a woman in some time, and his subconscious, nudged by physical need, had conjured a beautiful woman for him to release his desires upon.
In reality, he still kept himself restrained. His major plans were not yet complete, and he needed caution.
But dreams carried no consequences.
So there was no need for self-imposed restraint here.
Getting a preview of enjoying a Queen here was certainly acceptable.
This would be tonight's entertainment.
With this decision, a faint smile appeared on his lips as he walked toward the woman.
One step. Two steps. He approached leisurely. With countless experiences in lucid dreaming, he knew how to stabilize the dream and simulate all sensory details, never encountering the embarrassing problem of waking up right at the key moment.
The distance between them shrank.
When he was only a few meters away, the woman turned around.
But it was not Daenerys.
It was a young woman with an unfamiliar face, yet equally breathtaking.
Faces one has never seen before should not appear in dreams.
But if he had seen such a woman, he would never have forgotten her. How could she feel like a total stranger?
Aegor felt puzzled, yet more drawn by her features. A delicate nose, lips the color of early spring cherry blossoms, and a beauty with unmistakable East Asian traits. But the most striking were her eyes. Purple irises glowing like lamps in the unreal dream, sharp as blades, piercing like they could touch one's soul.
Who is she? What is happening?
He was shocked, yet satisfied with the extraordinary beauty his dream seemed to have produced.
He did not slow, reaching out to pull her closer.
Confusion flashed across the young woman's stunning face. Then she did something Aegor could never have predicted.
She stepped back to avoid his touch. Before her foot even landed, her body turned into a streak of light. The air rippled, and she "flashed" several meters away.
"What are you doing?" they asked in unison, both stunned.
He wondered why a dream construct would behave so rudely. She wondered how a lucid dream could contain something she could not control.
Aegor's astonishment lasted only a few seconds before defiance took over.
This was his dream. He was its master. How could he fail to handle a woman born from his subconscious?
With a thought, he performed an action even he himself could not fully understand. The air around the woman solidified, locking her in place.
At the same time, the doors of the surrounding buildings burst open. Several tall, black-clad figures with blurred faces, constructs created by his will, rushed toward her with predatory instinct, intent on capturing her, stripping her, and delivering her to his bed.
The woman froze for a moment and blinked.
It looked as if she might surrender… but the next instant, she unleashed another unbelievable feat.
Aegor felt it clearly: she opened some inner valve that had been suppressing a certain power.
Centered on her body, the snow rose into the air as if gravity had loosened its grip.
The next moment, that inner mechanism fully released.
A vast force surged outward.
An airwave shockwave, like a thermonuclear explosion, spread in every direction.
Aegor felt like a lone reef in a tidal wave, the overwhelming force crashing past him while he could do nothing.
Normally, being overwhelmed or injured in a dream would force him awake. But this time, he did not wake.
The muscular dream-guards he had conjured were shredded into nothingness. Buildings and walls identical to those of Hogwarts Town Inner Keep were blown apart. Roofs flew off. Stones and beams collapsed. Very soon, the ground itself cracked and disintegrated.
Finally, the entire dream world shattered and vanished into infinity.
All that remained was a boundless sea of flames, and the silver-haired woman floating above it.
"Now, can we talk properly?"
Hearing her irritated question, Aegor finally shut his gaping mouth, returning to his senses.
He had not woken because the power had never harmed him. It had destroyed the dream but not touched him.
He was now floating in mid-air, neither rising nor falling.
What kind of madness was this?
He only wanted to have some fun in a lucid dream!
At this point, Aegor vaguely realized something was wrong.
Yet the incompletely awakened rationality and the curiosity of a lucid dreamer kept him from calming down. If she could use such power, and he had seen it… then in a dream he should be able to replicate it.
With another thought, the sea of fire obeyed. The flames surged, then weakened and vanished.
In the pitch-black emptiness, like the void of space, light objects floated, heavy ones descended, and a sky and earth began to form again under Aegor's control.
The woman should have been furious. Yet faced with someone who dared to offend and ignore her, she found herself unable to feel anger.
She rubbed her forehead helplessly, like a mother dealing with a disobedient child.
Aegor had won.
This truly was his dream. If he insisted on playing, and she did not wake him, they could keep remaking the dream until dawn… which would delay the urgent matter.
She sighed and said, "Aegor, if you keep playing, you are going to wake up."
"Hm?" Aegor, who had forgotten even his original lust and was now simply enjoying shaping the world, stopped.
"You… you know this is a dream?"
"Of course I know this is a dream."
She crossed her arms and frowned. "So can you stop messing around and listen properly now?"
…
Instinctively, Aegor felt it absurd to speak seriously with something inside a dream. But rationally, after watching her repeatedly use impossible power and say impossible things, he began to understand.
This woman was not created by his mind.
If a real entity could appear inside his dream, he should be cautious, not defiant.
After a moment of thought, he dismissed his casual attitude, bowed slightly while floating in the forming dream world, and spoke solemnly.
"Please allow me to apologize for my offense. I mistakenly believed you were part of my dream. May I ask, Lady… who are you?"
"We have never met, but you should have heard many of my titles. But since you have relieved pressure for me and contributed greatly to the mortal world, I will show you honesty and courtesy."
She spoke calmly, without mystique or arrogance.
"I am the daughter of the True Dragon, R'hllor Foester."
(To be continued.)