Chapter 89 - Lucid Dream

Arthur ignored the absurd thing he just witnessed and bade his parents goodbye, after promising to visit Kenia before she left Hell with Sean again, he departed for Kreiz.

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The teachers of the academy had a meeting amongst themselves, one where they unanimously decided to make the questions for the mid semester tests the most difficult in the past decade.

The second year teachers put in twice the effort with over 80% of them hoping for a certain silver haired prince to finally fail.

As for the other students who shed tears at the sudden spike in difficulty, the teachers paid them no mind.

Eventually, the tests were completed and the results were released on the same day. Weirdly enough, the second year rankings were the most anticipated in the entire school.

The top 1000 were posted online on the school forum as usual and many rushed to check them out barely seconds after they were released.

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"What is the meaning of this?!"

The sudden shout quieted down all the students currently in the Second year class A, they all turned over to see the one who raised their voice and were met with a scene of a visibly dumbstruck Layla and an Arthur who could barely hold his laughter.

"Ohh...Haha, she-hahaha, g-hahahaha."

Translating Arthur words into an actual speakable language, one would understand the reason for Layla's shock.

The second year top 5 academic rankings have always been this way.

1 – Arthur Vaughn 

2- Layla Eryrth 

3- Nicole Harper 

4 – Edward Castillo 

5- Jack Nox 

However, this time there was a change in the rankings.

1 – Arthur Vaughn, Layla Eryrth 

3- Nicole Harper 

4 – Edward Castillo 

5- Jack Nox 

"It doesn't make sense, I didn't read, so why??!"

Layla, who was on a one week ban from touching books of any kind, did not revise at all for the tests, as such she had expected a lower grade than usual.

However, it was this time she did not read, that she successfully attained first position, though she did draw with Arthur.

"Maybe I'm smarter when I don't read, yes, that's it, i won't read ever ag-"

"Lady Layla!? Come back to us!"

Layla, who was about to go down an obviously dark path, was luckily pulled back to reality by one of her friends who happened to hear her mutters.

◇　◇　◇

Arthur had a dream.

'I realized I'm dreaming but I still haven't woke up.'

It was a lucid dream, one where the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming.

He saw himself lying on a field of grass, he watched the leaves away softly from the corner of his eye.

Looking up, he saw a beautiful night sky, various constellations everywhere, ones he recognized and ones he didn't.

'That's centuri, then the next is proxima, followed by lankea.

The one beside lankea is unfamiliar, the one above centuri looks familiar but I don't know where I saw it.

As for that....'

The 'that' he was referring to was none other than the two giant stars in the sky.

It was simply impossible to not notice them. They were just too large.

'Feels like I'm looking at a moon up close, but it's so far away.'

The two stars had a little gap between them, it looked like they were close enough to collide, but he knew fully well they actually weren't, they were a great distance apart from each other.

'Two stars close enough to touch would have spiralled inward due to gravitational radiation and collided, in that case I'd be looking at a black hole and not two stars.'

The two gigantic stars were blue and red respectively, they glowed brighter than any stars he had seen yet barely gave of any heat.

'They probably do but I'm too far away to feel it, in that case just how big are those things?'

He was chuckling to himself inwardly when he heard a voice, it seemed he was with someone else in this dream.

"Lord Arthur, why do you keep watching those shells."

'Shells? Is she talking about the stars?'

It was then he realised he had no control over his words or his body, as he began speaking even if he did not want to.

'So much for a lucid dream.'

"They calm me whenever I look at them, brightly shining up in the sky, illuminating the nights."

"I see."

The voice sounded like a female voice, one you would expect to hear from a girl in her late teens, however, 

'I can't see who it is, all I can tell is they have black hair.' 

He could only catch a glimpse of her long hair from the corner of his eye.

"Master!!"

A bright cheerful voice called out, Arthur sensed another person warp into the area.

Like the one beside him, this one was also female.

"Huh? You're looking at the shells again today?"

'Why are they calling stars shells?'

Arthur was trying to under stand who they kept calling the two stars in the sky, shells. These thoughts were interrupted by the second girl's next words.

"Is it because they are the same colour as your eyes?"

'My eyes? My eyes are black though, so it's not the stars they are talking about? Then what?'

"Shut up you noisy piece of iron."

"Master!! Big sis is bullying me." 

The black haired girl spoke to the other who was chattering happily, however, her words were filled with thorns, lots of them.

'Why call her a noisy piece of iron?'

His body in the dream stretched out his hand and pulled the second girl down onto the ground, and into his embrace, much to the black haired girl's displeasure.

"Lord Arthur, why are you hugging that piece of scrap metal, just throw it away, the two shells in the sky are perfect bins for it.

I personally recommend the red one, she'd melt in a few seconds."

The black haired girl, who seemed reserved at first, suddenly fired a barrage of words, her obvious dislike for the other, evident in them.

However, the one she was speaking of, seemed to be not even listening to her and was snickering to herself while holding up both hers and Arthur's hair.

"Master! Look! We match!"

She held up her blonde hair that had hints of silver in it on one hand, and Arthur's silver hair on the other.

"Lord Arthur's hair isn't a dirty colour such as silver, do not degrade his beautiful platinum blonde hair to such a lowly colour."

"It's silver!"

"Platinum Blonde!"

"Master's hair is silver."

"Lord Arthur's hair is platinum blonde!"

'Are they really arguing about this? If I were in control I'd have hand chopped them by now.'

And that was exactly what his dream self did. Grabbing the two arguing girl's hands, he formed them into knife hands and used them to chop their heads.

'Good to know I'm still me even in a lucid dream I can't control.'

Arthur chuckled inwardly, his real body was probably nodding in affirmation.

He then studied the two hands his dream body held carefully, they had symbols on the back of their palms.

The black haired one on the left had a blurred out Crest, however there was a notable Roman figure 'I' on it.

The blonde and silver haired one on the right had the same blurred out Crest, but instead of the 'I' like the other, hers was an image of a sword.

'What do they mean?'

While he was thinking that, his dream body pulled the two into his embrace and began petting their heads. 

'Hah! The stick before the carrot.'

They both quieted down and snuggled closer to him, the trio remained like that for about ten minutes, just silently watching the stars.

He then felt a finger tracing along his face, his dream body turned its head slightly to the right and spoke.

"What are you doing?"

"Just tracing the rune on master's face."

"Don't soil Lord Arthur's face with your filthy hands you piece of scrap metal!"

The black haired girl suddenly spoke up, her annoyance evident in her tone.

'This one is quite harsh.'

"Tsk...I was trying to avoid this but can you shut up for a bit and stop interrupting my quality time with Master."

The cheerful blonde suddenly clicked her tongue and spat out words filled with thorns.

"Oh, the while lotus has finally revealed her true nature.

As you can see Lord Arthur, this waste of space is nothing more than a bitch so would you kindly consider throwing it away into the bin like you would other pieces or trash, I suggest incinerating it."

"Oh please Master, would you really listen to the words of this plebeian. 

You're just the end result of a failed experiment, what gave you the right to act so high and mighty, Master only took you in because be felt sorry for you, if anything is to be thrown in the trash it should be you."