"Who ordered you?" Merida repeated, the curse already blooming at her fingertips.

Seeing it, Mird let out a choked sound and struggled against invisible bonds.

"I-I really don’t know!"

"Answer."

"Are you t-torturing me right now? In the middle of the Ivory Tower’s territory? Are you insane?" she shrieked, forcing the words out. "If the Tower Master finds out about this, it’ll be war—!"

Merida cast her spell again, cutting Mird off mid-sentence. She watched the girl writhe in her cursed sleep, her expression as placid as if she were watching a bug crawl across the floor.

With a snap of her fingers, she broke the spell. Mird’s convulsions ceased, and she fell back to the floor with a thud, her breath coming in ragged gasps.

"Speak." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Go to he—!"

Mird’s body shot up as if electrocuted.

"Wait, Merida!" Simon finally cut in, his voice sharp.

"Isn’t this going too far?"

"We," Merida said, raising her head to meet his gaze.

"almost died back there."

Simon had an ace up his sleeve, but he knew Merida must have felt the genuine, chilling terror of death as that train bore down on them. She had said she couldn’t proceed with the mission like this, that with her life on the line, she had to uncover the mastermind. She continued her cruel cycle, casting and releasing the curse on Mird.

A muffled cry. A ’thud’. "Stop!" Another ’thud’. "This is—!" And another.

It looked as if Mird’s mind was about to shatter. Unable to watch any longer, Simon grabbed Merida’s shoulder.

"That’s enough. That’s an order from the Student Council President."

Her fingers stilled. She simply stared at Simon, her eyes asking, ’Why are you stopping me?’

"What kind of horrible nightmare are you showing her, anyway?"

"It’s not horrible," Merida said, lowering her hand.

"Phantastus-style Sleep can’t create nightmares."

"Then what?"

"Her own reflection." Merida’s voice was chillingly calm.

"She dreams of falling asleep and then waking up right here, in front of us. Over and over."

Reality confusion. Mird knew she was under a ’Sleep’ curse. She might have been able to endure any nightmare by reminding herself it was just an illusion. But Merida’s method was far more insidious. She was forcing Mird to dream of waking from this very dream, over and over. Each awakening was a fresh wave of hope, a desperate belief that the nightmare was over, only for it to be crushed as she realized she was still trapped. Hope, despair, hope, despair, an endless cycle in a hell from which she might never awaken. She must have felt as though she had slept and woken thousands, tens of thousands of times, screaming at a dream-Merida who would never stop.

"If she tattles to the Tower Master and we get caught," Merida said coolly, "I’ll simply testify that I cast and released a Sleep curse seven times on the person who tried to kill me." She raised her hand. "Because that’s the truth."

With a final snap of her fingers, Merida released the spell. Mird’s back hit the floor.

"@#%^’&! Stooooop! Please, for the love of—stooooop!" Random words tumbled from her lips in her panic. She squeezed her eyes shut, expecting to fall back into the dream, but this time, it was real. Overcome with relief, she burst into tears and scrambled forward like a madwoman, collapsing at Merida’s feet and clutching the hem of her dress.

"Stop! Please, just stop! ’Sob!’ Anything! I’ll tell you anything!"

Merida nodded, a flicker of satisfaction in her eyes, and patted Mird’s head.

"Who ordered you?"

"I-It’s true! No one ordered me, it was all me! But the Tower Master!"

At the mention of his name, Simon and Merida stiffened.

"He told us Gildon was coming!" Mird blurted out. "The Tower Master said the man held a grudge against Kizen and wouldn’t leave any Kizen students alone! When I heard that, I... I came up with the plan!"

When Merida remained silent, Mird grew frantic, words spilling from her in a desperate torrent.

"It’s true! But! But the Tower Master was always comparing us to Kizen! ’We spend five times as much, so why can’t you surpass them?! You’re useless!’ He always said things like that! So when the Kizen students came for their dispatch, and he made me their guide, I just saw red... I-I must have been out of my mind!"

"So you tried to kill us?" Merida asked.

"No! No! I swear I didn’t! I was just trying to mess with you! I had no idea he’d use black magic right in the middle of the banquet hall! I swear!" She wailed, tears and snot streaming down her face.

Merida nodded slowly.

"I see. This will be our little secret."

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Mird nodded frantically.

"I’ll never tell! I’ll take it to my grave! I swear!"

"I planted a trigger in your dream." Merida brought the tip of her index finger to Mird’s forehead as if aiming a gun. Mird trembled violently.

"You were afraid of the moment you’d open your eyes, weren’t you?"

How many days had passed? Months? Years? What state would she be in when she finally woke? Would she ever wake at all? That fear had consumed her in the dream.

"If I die," Merida warned, her voice a calm, hypnotic monotone.

"...you will never wake up."

From that day on, every time Mird tried to sleep, she would hear those words echo in her mind.

---

After sending Mird away, Simon and Merida entered their assigned room. In the Tower of Time, a ’lodging’—a space untouched by the dungeon’s influence—was a rare sanctuary. There was only one on the fiftieth floor, meaning two or three strangers were often crammed into a single small room.

"That was still going too far, Merida," Simon sighed as he stepped inside. She had so confidently told him to leave finding the mastermind to her, but he never imagined she would resort to torture by curse.

"Being half-hearted is more dangerous," Merida replied coolly. Then her eyes lit up.

"Ah!" She scurried over and dived onto the bed with a soft ’poof’.

"Cozy," she murmured, curling into a tight ball, a perfect cat loaf.

"You’re making yourself right at home."

Still face down, Merida cupped her cheeks, her eyes sparkling.

It was hard to believe, but... was she trying to be cute?

"Alright, alright." Getting Merida to give up the bed seemed impossible, so Simon quickly relented. Curled up, her eyelids began to droop.

"You can’t sleep yet," Simon said sternly.

"We have to finish today’s quota first."

Merida pouted but sat up properly. Simon found a nearby chair. A quick check revealed no eavesdropping spells in the room; with so many powerful necromancers at the festival, such a clumsy trick would only cause trouble.

"About the mastermind," Merida began.

"Do you think the Tower Master tried to kill us?"

"It’s too ambiguous to say for sure." Simon crossed his arms. "There are signs he instigated the students, but that’s not enough. It was still Mird’s choice. More importantly, the Tower Master lacks a motive."

"A motive?"

"Yeah." Simon spread his arms.

"If we, from Kizen, had died or been injured at the banquet, the Festival of Time would have been completely ruined. He would have been digging his own grave. It’s the same now. He could have vaguely promised compensation for any victims of Gildon’s attack, but he went so far as to stake his own position on it."

In conclusion, the Tower Master had far more to lose than to gain if anything happened to them. They were, after all, his invited guests. If they were harmed within his tower, the conspiracy theories would be endless. It wouldn’t just be his position at stake; the full wrath of Kizen, backed by public opinion, would come crashing down, endangering the entire Ivory Tower. What reason would he have to take such a risk?

"So we... are you listening to me?"

Merida, who had been dozing, rolled her eyes toward him.

"Yeah."

"I can hear everything, even when I’m dozing."

Simon let out a hollow laugh and stood.

"For now, let’s refrain from hasty assumptions and just be careful. Time to get to work."

"Okay."

---

Simon and Merida changed out of their uncomfortable formalwear and into their Kizen uniforms, which were at least barrier-enchanted and suitable for combat. The moment they left the safe zone, the very air seemed to shift. The vibrant colors of the lodging bled away, leaving the tower walls looking gray and hazy, as if viewed through a film of dust. They moved forward with caution.

’The Tower of Time.’

The dungeon that had appeared here centuries ago had swallowed two thousand years of the Ivory Tower’s history. Just as the tower’s builders had been obsessed with records, the dungeon itself was heavily influenced by what it had consumed, giving rise to bizarre anomalies.

One such anomaly was playing out right in front of them.

"Incredible! This device is a revolution!"

"To think a voice can come from a stone!"

A group of middle-aged men in old-fashioned attire were gathered, excitedly holding a blue stone to their ears or shouting into it.

"With this technology, even mages who cannot use magic, and ordinary households, will be able to enjoy its benefits!" the presenter declared, holding the stone high.

"The name of this invention is...!"

It was the development of the ’communication crystal’, 330 years in the past. The figures were hazy, like images in a faded photograph, and their voices were laced with a faint, crackling static.

’So this is the dungeon’s reenactment of the past.’

Getting involved was out of the question. Simon caught Merida’s eye and gestured for them to move on.

"Let’s pass by quietly."

"Okay."

It was a historic moment, but they had no time to be distracted. They started to walk past quickly.

"But that man," Merida muttered.

"If he only knew that even now, communication crystals are so expensive that only high-ranking nobles can afford them..."

"You two over there!"

Simon and Merida froze. The mages from the historical scene were all glaring at them.

"The doctor is making a major announcement!"

"Where do you think you’re going at such an important moment?"

They were caught. Simon’s heart sank, but he forced a smile.

"Ah, haha! Our apologies for the disturbance!"

The two hurried over and pretended to sit among the scholars. With no chairs, they had to hold an awkward squat, their knees bent and bottoms hovering in the air.

’Ugh, this is tough.’

The dungeon had been conquered three hundred years ago, and the Ivory Tower had published its rules, which Simon and Merida had memorized. One of them was crucial now:

’If a being of time speaks to you, comply with their demands and act naturally. Act as if you belong there.’

The moment these anomalies realized their world was false, that they were echoes of the past, they would go berserk.

’I don’t have time for this,’ Simon thought, his expression tense as he watched the presentation. If someone asked about their affiliation, they were done for. He had no idea which families were prominent three hundred years ago.

"Merida, when I give the signal..." He glanced over and saw her head bobbing.

She was asleep.

’Ugh, she’s no help!’

A fresh wave of worry washed over Simon. Could they really complete this mission safely?