"Didn't you sleep well?"
Evelyn looked like the very embodiment of "mentally drained."
"It's driving me crazy. I've been having nightmares these past few days..."
"Nightmares?"
Annan was quick to pick up on that—or perhaps just sensitive to it. After all, most people hadn't spent a month plagued by nightmares from a Demon Lord.
"In the dream, there's a pair of leering eyes watching you the whole time, but you can't find where they are..."
Usually, Evelyn was the one watching her interview subjects like that. Now the tables had turned. If only she could find the culprit, she would make the anonymous Barr write ten hit pieces about them!
Evelyn's condition was already affecting her work, so Annan led her to the Garden to see whether sleeping beneath the Otherworld Tree would help.
Evelyn lay down in a recliner and, not yet sleepy, made conversation. "I ran into Rat on my way here. Why does he look about as miserable as I do?"
"I saw him too. He's probably worried about money."
Such a simple worry. Annan had always thought only civilians fretted over being broke.
"You didn't give him any money?"
"He didn't ask me for any. Besides, this might be for the best. The more he gets out and experiences Free City, the more he'll become one of us."
Wasn't that part of the purpose of Magic Films and Magic Newspapers, beyond making money? Once people learned to accept Free City's ideas, the day would eventually come when they acted on them too.
Sleepiness crept over Evelyn, and she gradually drifted off. Her breathing steadied, and the tension left her brow.
It seemed the "leering gaze" troubling her had vanished. That raised a question... Did the Otherworld Tree work against all mental interference, or only against demons?