Laplace was not stupid and immediately spoke out the implication behind Angel’s words. "Because of Sweet Dream?"
Angel nodded. "Since using Sweet Dream allows one to dream, that shows the link hasn’t been completely severed."
Laplace: "But Sweet Dream is a Mysterious Object. Can that really count as evidence?"
"I don’t know whether it can be counted as evidence either." After Angel finished speaking, he added meaningfully, "But, I do find it rather strange that a Mysterious Object like Sweet Dream was born in the Mirror World."
Clearly the two Special Worlds show signs of decoupling, yet on this side a Sweet Dream related to the Dream Realm is born. Isn’t that quite interesting?
Angel looked at Laplace. "The Sage told me that Lady Laplace witnessed the birth of the Sweet Dream. Do you still remember whether the Sweet Dream was born before you stopped dreaming, or after you stopped dreaming?"
Laplace: "After I stopped dreaming."
Angel gave a small smile and said nothing.
Laplace, however, looked at Angel. "You think the Sweet Dream is also a product of the World Will’s gambling?"
Angel: "I wouldn’t dare put it that way. But since the Mirror World has already begun to decouple, I’m wondering: could it be that the Dream Realm hasn’t made any moves of its own?"
Laplace pondered for a moment, then shook her head. "You’re anthropomorphizing the World Will far too much. The World Will doesn’t have human emotions like that."
Angel: "That’s true as far as it goes, but the World Will should still possess some underlying logic—or, say, rules and systems by which it operates, shouldn’t it?"
Angel had the experience of wielding the Authority of the Wilderness of Dreams, so he could vaguely perceive that wills indeed lacked intellect and emotion, yet they possessed a layer of their own operational logic.
Just like the Authority of ’Celestial Alternation’: if Frode had seized it back then, it might not have run so smoothly. Instead, entrusting the Authority to the Wilderness of Dreams itself allowed ’Celestial Alternation’ to exert its power to the fullest.
And this, in fact, could be counted as the underlying operational logic of the Wilderness of Dreams. Even without wisdom, there would still be mechanisms to compensate.
However, Laplace was not persuaded by Angel. She still shook her head. "Things that are too far removed from us—let’s just treat them as speculation."
Angel: "Perhaps there’s a way to shorten that distance?"
Laplace only felt that Angel was being stubborn. She did not refute him, merely withdrew her gaze and remained silent.
Angel once again conjured the mural illusion. While leisurely simulating the shifting of light and shadow, he muttered to himself, "The Sweet Dream was born under Lady Laplace’s witness. For me, that is a kind of luck as well."
Laplace narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"
Angel: "Nothing much. I just think that if Lady Laplace hadn’t discovered the Sweet Dream, I might never have had the chance to study it."
After speaking, Angel fell silent and focused on carefully simulating the changes of light and shadow in the illusion.
Laplace quietly watched Angel. After a long time, she lowered her brows, and some strange notions arose in her heart.
As for Angel, although he seemed to be earnestly modelling the play of light and shade, inwardly he was also pondering several questions: Is there really a gap between World Wills? Is the Sweet Dream truly an echo given by the Dream Realm? And... did the Sweet Dream appear before Laplace purely by coincidence?
Even if others knew all of this, they probably wouldn’t think so much about it.
But Angel was different. Along the way, he had repeatedly appeared inside pre-arranged "games." Some of that might be coincidence, but a greater portion had already been confirmed not to be coincidence at all, but the influence of the Book of Kael.
Precisely because he had experienced too much, he had, almost reflexively, begun to adopt a conspiratorial line of thought.
That said, deep down, Angel still did not believe this time to be another "game." After all, if things were really as he speculated, it would touch upon the level of the World Will; if this truly were a "game," it would be exceedingly hard to arrange.
Angel temporarily set aside these cumbersome thoughts and put all of his attention into deciphering the mural.
The analysis of the third mural took somewhat longer, because the shadow-constructed portion was extremely large. To find the logic of the shifting light and shadow would require more time.
Even so, within ten minutes, Angel still managed to present the fully analyzed image.
"What is this?" Laplace frowned as she looked at the painting floating before her eyes.
Compared with the first two paintings, which contained only a throne and a person, the composition of this one was quite complex, filled with a large number of elements that needed to be identified.
Laplace was not the analyst, so it was difficult for her to immediately discern the underlying logic. However, as Angel explained, she roughly grasped the general content of the painting.
If Angel had to give this painting a name, it would probably be: The Road of Glory.
On a long road, a humanoid being was slowly walking forward. He was clad in armor and held a lance in his hand—precisely the "New King" who was about to Ascend the Throne!
On both sides of the long road stood cheering crowds—or rather, a group of humanoid beings cheering and cavorting.
These humanoid beings seemed to be the subjects witnessing the "New King’s enthronement." They cried out in excitement for the emergence of this New King.
"The New King’s enthronement, the Road of Glory." Under Angel’s Guiding, Laplace also perceived that "familiar face" in armor.
Angel’s introduction was detailed, and Laplace understood it clearly. Yet, while looking at this "familiar New King," Laplace could not help but feel that something was subtly off. But when she tried to think it through carefully, she could not say what exactly was wrong.
Angel: "This is all we can see in the third painting for now. Shall we go look at the fourth?"
Although Laplace still felt some lingering hesitation, she did not voice her doubts. She instead led Angel toward the hall where the fourth painting was located.
Perhaps that strange feeling in her heart could be answered in the fourth painting?
They went in silence. With the Bird Lamp opening the way, they smoothly arrived at the fourth hall.
The layout was no different from before: still the framed mural and the irregularly arranged Bird Lamps.
This time, Angel did not pause. He directly projected the illusion from the mural and began decoding it at high speed.
Roughly five minutes later, Angel had successfully deciphered the fourth painting.
When Angel and Laplace saw the fourth painting, both of their expressions momentarily froze.
Laplace: "This is... a steel cable, and... a person?"
If he were to name this painting, what came to Angel’s mind was undoubtedly "The Tightrope Walker."
Because the composition of the image was simply a humanoid being walking alone on a steel cable suspended in midair.
And this humanoid being was exactly the same New King they had seen earlier.
This painting had a simple composition, and the meaning it conveyed—whether in extended sense or literal sense—was not difficult to understand. The reason Angel and Laplace were both stunned lay in certain details on this "person"——
The armor and the lance!
He had taken off that bulky, cumbersome armor.
He had also discarded that spear which seemed capable of piercing the Sky Dome.
As he walked along the steel cable, he directly threw both armor and lance down into the boundless Abyss.
This was the scene that truly shocked Angel and Laplace.
To cast away armor and weaponry, and to throw them into the hard-to-trace Abyssal Depth—this represented his absolute resolve toward the road ahead. At the same time, it also implied one thing...
It meant that from the very beginning, their conjectures had been wrong!