The consultant was still confused, with no idea what had happened.
But when he heard that mocking laugh, Iver saw "Sherlock" instantly calm down. He rubbed his face and put on a weary expression, finding an excuse for his earlier lapse: "I was a little groggy from sleep... When I first woke up, I thought I was dreaming..."
...That was a pretty quick reaction.
The corners of Iver's lips lifted slightly as he praised him inwardly.
"It's just a pity," Iver said meaningfully, "that this isn't a dream, but reality."
--Unfortunately, this is a dream. You're merely someone in a dream, and you'll vanish like a bubble when I wake up.
The consultant mocked him inwardly.
After calming down a little, he realized what he had to do now.
The sounds of war rumbled outside. Even in the secluded White Queen District, one could hear cries of alarm and screams of pain--and this was Glass Island, Avalon's capital!
With something so serious happening, Oswald, the steward at Iver's home, hadn't appeared to take him away. In fact, only he and Iver had appeared here; everyone else had vanished without a trace... This could only mean one thing: they had all left Glass Island.
He had lost part of his memory, or perhaps something had gone wrong with the ritual... Either was possible.
The consultant had heard of special cases in which an Ascension Ritual was interfered with, or a dream was shaken by an intruder, causing an accident to befall the person undergoing ascension. That was also why people had to take Drunken Dream Tincture during ascension--if the time in the dream lasted too long, or if the ascender's body in reality was significantly affected, the dream of the Ascension Ritual could become blurred.
But the reason didn't matter.
The