"Oh, talking about me?"
Aurore walked up to the dining table with her thick golden hair hanging loose and addressed the two men before her.
"Yes, Lumian has a few things to tell you." Nimrod took the opportunity to pick up his plate of pasta with meat sauce and twirl a little onto the fork beside it.
Unlike Intis-style pasta with meat sauce, which still retained plenty of local ingenuity despite Huang Tao's improvements, Lumian's meat sauce followed Aurore's recipe and tasted more like the version Nimrod had eaten in China before transmigrating.
"Yes, Aurore." Lumian spread his arms with an utterly innocent expression and said to her:
"Mr. Nimrod and I found some clues in the village..."
As early as yesterday, while investigating Cordu Village-actually gathering evidence to corroborate the ending he already knew-Nimrod had exchanged some information with Lumian, giving him a degree of understanding of the grave situation in the village.
"...You're right. It looks like, besides the Father of the Parish, the shadow of something we don't know about really is looming over the entire village."
Aurore listened to Lumian's brilliant "deductions," which even helped Nimrod, the Mystery Pryer who had actually reached those conclusions, digest a portion of his potion:
"I think we can't keep waiting here. We need to leave right now. Otherwise, when things erupt at Lent tomorrow, this place will probably become even more dangerous..."
At this point, Aurore frowned. "But if that's the case..."
"If that's the case, we should have told you when I reached that conclusion yesterday and left with you." Nimrod picked up where Aurore's speculation had left off:
"I've already done some reconnaissance around your village. Unfortunately, we really can't leave by normal means now."
"-What do you mean?" At Nimrod's words, Lumian felt his blood run cold and asked anxiously.
"I already told you once before: the whole of Cordu Village is now enveloped in a vast 'ritual.'" Nimrod reached out, brought over the plate of pasta from which he had eaten two bites, and set it in front of Lumian and Aurore:
"Based on the information currently available, Cordu Village is like this plate. The 'chef' has already carried it over and placed it beside the great being waiting to receive the offerings. Everyone in the village is pasta on this plate, while the more special ones are the meat sauce."
"...So we're the meat sauce?" Lumian fell quiet for a moment:
"I think I understand what you mean... Why would a hungry diner sit and watch the food in front of them slip away right under their nose? Unless..."
No, you're actually the plate... Nimrod silently quipped to himself, but he still nodded and continued along Lumian's line of reasoning:
"Unless the pasta and meat sauce slip away from their mouth as they lift the pasta with their fork. Right now, Lent is that 'fork,' the process by which the great being receives the offerings."
"So tomorrow's Lent... is the most crucial moment in the entire ritual. Our hope of escape lies within it."
-Nimrod was conducting his "mystery prying" with a perfectly straight face.
However, since they had yet to experience a "restart" or a "loop," Nimrod should have had no way of knowing the dream's true nature. Thus, what his "mystery prying" uncovered at this point was not the truth of Cordu Village.
But "mystery prying" was not divination either. It could not produce conclusions out of thin air that he should not have been able to reach.
And with Lumian completely unaware of his own condition, Nimrod had no intention of telling him the truth about the dream.
After all, the current dream was effectively Lumian's means of protecting himself. If that layer of protection were torn away now without any preparation, all it would expose was a raw, bloody wound.
If he did that, there was a very high chance Lumian would lose control on the spot.
After hearing Nimrod's words, both Aurore and Lumian sank into thought, and silence fell over the dining table. Nimrod did not mind the rather deathly atmosphere. He picked up his still-warm pasta and enjoyed the delicious food within the dream.
...Come to think of it, does stealing food from someone else's dream count as being a "Dream Stealer"?
Once I become a Dream Stealer, I'll go steal some of Klein's.
Nimrod sank into thought as well.
Soon, Lumian gritted his teeth, gathered his words, and spoke to Aurore:
"Aurore!"
"I... I'm actually already a Beyonder!"
At Lumian's words, Aurore abruptly raised her head, looking remarkably like the "huh" cat:
"...Huh?"
Hadn't this brat still been clamoring to become a Beyonder just the day before yesterday?
So had he been pretending all along, or had he found a Beyonder characteristic and a potion formula and become a Beyonder in just half a day?
"I provided a little help, Ms. Lee," Nimrod told Aurore with a smile, coming to his dear godson's rescue:
"I'm sure you can understand your brother's thinking. You're his only family, and he genuinely wants to protect you."
"Lumian's Beyonder powers came from that special dream of his. Perhaps those powers belonged to him in the first place. I merely provided a little harmless assistance."
Aurore stared speechlessly at Lumian for a while, then sighed:
"All right, all right-my little brother's grown bold enough to keep secrets from his big sister!"
Lumian immediately grew embarrassed. "I just hadn't found a chance to tell you yet..."
Before he had finished speaking, he saw a hint of acceptance appear in Aurore's eyes. She sighed and said:
"Never mind. I won't lecture you any further. Whatever else, you were thinking of your sister. It's just that the path of a Beyonder is far too full of madness and suffering. That's why I never wanted you to come into contact with Beyonder powers..."
"But under the current circumstances, becoming a Beyonder really does do you more good than harm... So, are we planning to escape during tomorrow's Lent celebration, or... to sabotage the celebration while it's underway?"
A somewhat resolute gleam flashed through Aurore's eyes.
Before you continue