Chapter 179 - A Sweet Dream (2/2)
A lantern that showed the way… Lantern?!
Gawain suddenly realized where the biggest blind spot of his thinking had been.
And upon becoming aware of this blind spot, an off-the-wall, unbelievable truth swiftly took shape in his guesses. This truth was so against reason, so unimaginable, but it was probably what had truly happened in this castle!
Gawain suddenly stood up and set the water glass in his hand on the table. Sir Philip who stood by the door was startled. “Lord?”
“We got it wrong!” Gawain swiftly strode towards the door. “We got it completely wrong from the very beginning!”
Sir Philip was confused by Gawain’s disjointed exclamation. “Got it wrong? What have we gotten wrong?”
Gawain pressed his hand on the door handle, turned back, and focused on the young Knight’s eyes with a frown. “This isn’t Viscount Kant’s dream! Quickly come with me!”
The two left the room, and in the course of hurrying down the entire corridor, Gawain rapidly conveyed his guesses and discoveries to the Knight beside him.
Philip’s eyes grew wider and wider. By the end, his entire being was already thoroughly stunned. “The—there would actually be something like that?”
Then he promptly came back to his senses. “Then wouldn’t Amber really be in danger?!”
“No, according to my assessment, she will not yet encounter danger at this stage because the dream creator has yet to awaken,” Gawain spoke fast. “Only, we have to split up now… Philip, I have a task for you.”
“At your service, Lord!”
“Go to the back of the castle, find an abandoned stable, and use your evil-detection ability to search…”
Sir Philip left on orders while Gawain rushed through the corridor, up the staircase, and arrived at Victor Kant’s study.
The study was shrouded in a strange, dull, and gloomy atmosphere as before. Viscount Victor Kant sat quietly behind that heavy desk, unmoving like a sculpture.
This old viscount’s gaze was on the few sheets of papers before him. Only when Gawain stepped in front of him did he slowly lift his head and said in an indifferent tone. “You’re here, Duke.”
Gawain silently stared at the Viscount’s eyes. In the other party’s gaze, he saw a trace of grief and a trace of relief, but there was no fear.
“You seemed… to know I was coming.”
“Just had some premonition.” Viscount Kant revealed a stiff smile. “You can do what you want to do now.”
“I came here merely to tell you a story.” Gawain brought himself a chair from the corner and sat across Viscount Kant. Watching the person’s aged face, his tone was gentle and warm. “This story began on a night of drenching rain, more than thirty years ago…
“On that night, the Kant territory’s young Viscount, which is you, was in a carriage speeding on a rainy night. Your wife and son were on board.
“Due to a slippery block of mud or rock, the carriage slid into the mountain creek, and very unfortunately, you were flung out of the carriage.
“Mr. Victor Kant, you died on the spot —— along with your son.
“While your even more unfortunate wife, Madam Lilith Kant, clearly couldn’t endure such a blow and the pressure…
“So she chose to have herself ‘die’, while her husband and son ‘survived’. —— At least in a dream realm, this was how things developed.
“That is all, Mr. Viscount.”
Victor Kant sat quietly in the chair. Abruptly letting out a sigh, his voice was so wispy as if it was coming from another world. “Literally a nightmare, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is literally a nightmare.”
[1] Photophobia – intolerance of light