Ophelia's voice was calm, but it was strangely warm.
An faint smile lingered on her lips, and her gaze stayed on his face for a moment before she looked away.
Klein was stunned, his throat feeling as though it were blocked by something.
He opened his mouth, finding that he couldn't remember how to respond to such a simple sentence for a moment.
Only after several seconds did he find his voice.
"Goodnight."
A mere two words, yet they seemed to take all his strength.
The arc of Ophelia's lips deepened slightly, and the mirth in her eyes was nearly overflowing, shimmering like molten gold.
She said nothing more, offering only a very slight nod before turning and pushing the door open.
The wooden door clicked shut behind her.
"Click."
The sound of the lock falling was incredibly clear in the deathly silent room.
Outside, her footsteps sounded at a steady pace, echoing down the corridor and slowly fading until even the faint resonance dissolved into the night.
Klein stood in place, staring at the door for several seconds.
The candlelight danced before his eyes, casting his shadow against the wall like a stiff, motionless statue.
Then he let out a long breath and pressed his hand against his chest.
His heart was still beating at a ridiculous speed.
He could feel the organ beneath his palm pounding frantically, as if trying to burst through his ribs.
It was an unfamiliar sensation.
Klein shook his head with a bitter smile, walked to the table, and leaned down to blow out the candle.
The moment the flame vanished, the room plunged into darkness.
But his heart felt bright, as if something were burning within his chest, dispelling the gloom that had loomed deep inside him for so long.
He felt his way to the bed and lay down.
The ceiling was hidden in the darkness, rendering it invisible, yet Klein kept his eyes open and stared upward, his fingers unconsciously tapping a rhythm against his chest.
Those two dreams from a month ago.
The first was the deep sea, with surging currents and a song from an unknown source.
Like the merfolk or sirens from remembered stories, the song was melodious yet carried a bewitching power that made one want to sink to the bottom of the water and never wake again.
The second was also the deep sea, but the creature that appeared was entirely different.
A strange fish with the head of a goat swam slowly through the water, making a sound like a mournful flute, each note seemingly telling some ancient and tragic tale.
At the time, he thought it was just a side effect of his alchemy experiments; strange materials often brought such repercussions, and chaotic dreams were among the mildest.
So he had ignored it for the time being, assuming it would resolve itself naturally after a while.
But thinking back now, the timing of those two dreams coincided exactly with when Ophelia had first married into the house.
A coincidence?
Klein knew all too well that this was no coincidence.
He had spent years immersed in the field of alchemy, and he knew one thing most clearly—in this world, there are no true coincidences.
Behind every seemingly accidental event, there is a certain inevitable connection; it is just that most people cannot see the clues hidden beneath the surface.
The evil god of the west coast, the pollution of the sea monsters, the blue blood on Ophelia's left hand, her nightly nightmares, and the strange dreams he had been having repeatedly for the past month...
When these clues were strung together, the answer was already obvious.
How was he targeted?
And why was he targeted?
Klein took a deep breath, and his fingers stopped their tapping.
Researching an evil god was something only a madman would do under normal circumstances.
Even he had kept his distance before, no matter how much he craved a breakthrough in alchemy; touching such a forbidden field was a last resort.
After all, there were too many cautionary tales in every profession—scholars who went mad, knights who mutated, nobles who turned into monsters...
Those stories were countless, each warning those who followed: some things are not to be touched.
But things were different now.
Klein rolled over, propping himself up with his elbow and widening his eyes in the darkness.
If he could find the source of the evil god's pollution, he might be able to solve the problem with Ophelia's left hand.
By finding the root of the problem, it was possible to find a solution.
Then she wouldn't have to suffer through nightmares every night, wouldn't have to endure that pain, and wouldn't have to carry so much alone while maintaining her elegant and composed facade before everyone.
And... the corners of his mouth quirked up, revealing a smile in the darkness that even he didn't notice.
To be honest, a research topic involving evil gods, pollution, and dreams happened to hit his sweet spot.
In the laboratory, he had always loved studying the very things others avoided.
Materials and theories labeled as 'dangerous', 'forbidden', or 'untouchable' were the ones that piqued his interest the most.
Dangerous? Of course it was dangerous.
But because it was dangerous, it might allow his alchemy to progress further, bringing him one step closer to becoming a 'sage'.
That realm, which nearly all alchemists spent their entire lives failing to reach, might be hidden behind this forbidden knowledge.
He had been hesitant before, as the price was too great and the risk too high.
But now...
Klein's fingers lightly brushed against the bedsheets as he remembered Ophelia's backward glance before she left, the candlelight reflected in her golden eyes, and her gentle smile when she said "Goodnight."
Now, he had even more motivation.
Klein sat up, got out of bed, and walked to the study.
Various alchemical instruments were arranged on the workbench, their bottles and jars reflecting a dim luster under the moonlight.
Klein pulled open a drawer and took out several sheets of parchment covered in runes, his movements quick and precise, showing he knew exactly where everything was.
He crouched down and began to arrange arrays on the bedroom floor.
The first array was drawn beside the bed, its hexagram pattern extending into fine branches with every node marked with silver powder.
This was for warning; once an abnormal fluctuation appeared in his dream, the array would automatically activate and light the incense to forcibly wake him.
The second array was more complex, encircling the entire bed like a protective barrier.
Klein poured a pale blue powder from a small vial, carefully scattering it along the pre-drawn lines.
The moment the powder hit the floor, it glowed faintly before dimming and merging into the grain of the wood.
There was also an array for recording.
This was the most troublesome part, requiring a specially treated crystal to be placed beneath his pillow and connected to a recording device in the corner with fine silver wire.
The crystal would capture images and perceptions from the dream, converting them into footage that could be reviewed later.
Klein stood up and checked all the arrangements once.
The candlelight flickered, making those runes seem to come alive as they crawled across the floor in the shifting light and shadow.
He nodded in satisfaction and lay back down on the bed.
Outside the window, the wind continued to blow, and leaves rustled.
The cry of a nocturnal bird came from the distance, sharp and short, sounding somewhat ghastly in the quiet night.
Klein stared at the ceiling and adjusted his breathing.
Inhale, exhale, slow down, and slow down further.
The tension in his shoulders gradually vanished, his arms felt heavy against the bed, and his entire body seemed to melt into the soft bedding.
His consciousness began to grow hazy.
The darkness before his eyes was no longer pure nothingness; instead, blurred patches of color began to emerge.
Blue, green, and other indefinable colors drifted at the edges of his vision.
The sound of flowing water reached his ears.
It was very faint, like a distant echo, but it was certainly there.
Klein did not resist.
He allowed his consciousness to sink, sink, and submerge into that deepening shade of dark blue that was becoming clearer.
This time, he was going to see exactly what those things were.
He had to find the source.
He had to find the answer.
...
Indeed, the dream had found him.
It was as if it had been waiting for him to step in voluntarily.
Klein's consciousness was exceptionally clear, perhaps even clearer than when he stood in the alchemy laboratory during the day.
He still felt that he was dreaming, that all of this was illusory, yet at the same time, he could perceive every detail—the temperature of the water, the saltiness of the sea, the pressure of the water against his skin, and even the rise and fall of his lungs as he breathed were all distinct.
This was very wrong.
Normal dreams shouldn't be like this.
Even a nightmare should have a sense of vagueness, a chaotic floating quality as if looking at the world through a thick mist.
But the current sensation was more like... his entire self had been dragged into another world, a real world that followed some abnormal rules.
Klein forced himself to calm down and began to observe his surroundings.
The deep sea—it was still the deep sea.
Just like the previous two times, he drifted in the dark waters, with an endless deep blue above and a darkness that swallowed all light below.
Light filtered down from above, but it could only illuminate a very shallow layer of the water; anything deeper was absolute darkness, like the entrance to an abyss.
The water flowed slowly with a certain rhythm, like the breathing of a giant beast.
Every surge of the current followed a pattern, as if this patch of ocean itself were part of a massive living organism.
But this dream was entirely different from the first two.
The first two times, there had only been him and those eerie creatures.
And this time...
Klein felt it.
Something was approaching.
No, it wasn't approaching.
It had been there all along, in the deeper waters, and only now was it rising to the surface.
A new creature appeared.
It rose from the darkness below, its massive body stirring up huge currents as it moved, forming one vortex after another.
Those vortexes spun around Klein, but strangely, he was not sucked in, as if some invisible force were protecting him.
Klein held his breath—though the action was meaningless in a dream—and stared wide-eyed at the scene before him.
When the creature fully emerged in front of him, his brain stopped functioning for a moment.
Horns like a stag, a head like a camel, eyes like a rabbit, a neck like a snake, a belly like a sea-serpent, scales like a fish, claws like an eagle, paws like a tiger, and ears like an ox.
A dragon.
And specifically... a Huaxia dragon?
Klein's mind stalled at that moment.
It wasn't the winged, fire-breathing lizard of western legends, nor was it the greedy beast described in knightly tales.
It was the mythological creature from his awakened memories that rode the clouds and commanded the rain, the totem carved on palace pillars and embroidered on imperial robes.
Its slender body meandered through the water, every segment of its spine clearly visible, and its scales shimmered with a dark blue luster, each one the size of a palm.
As it swam, its body twisted in elegant arcs, and every movement brought massive currents that formed spiral trails behind it, as if it were writing some ancient script in the water.
The dragon's mane drifted in the sea, its long whiskers swayed with the current, and its claws were as sharp as if they could tear through space itself.
What was going on?
Klein felt his worldview being violently dismantled and reconstructed.
In the previous two dreams, he had seen sirens and a goat-headed fish, which he could barely explain as the 'manifestation of an evil god's pollution' since similar creatures existed in this world's folklore.
But what was the deal with this dragon?
This was clearly something from the Huaxia mythological system, and it had nothing to do with the sea monster legends of the west coast.
Could it be that the sea monsters of the west coast were actually from the Huaxia mythological system?
Or perhaps the essence of the evil god had some connection to the world of his past life?
No, stay calm.
Klein forced his thoughts back onto the right track.
He took a deep breath—again, meaningless in a dream, but it helped him focus.
He was an alchemist, a researcher, not an ordinary person paralyzed by fear.
Since this dream was related to Ophelia's pollution, then the dragon before him... should also be related to the essence of the sea monsters.
Perhaps this wasn't a real dragon, but just the polluting power borrowing an image from his memories?
Or maybe the evil god of this world inherently possessed the ability to cross different mythological systems?
He observed the dragon carefully, trying to find more clues.
It swam through the water with slow, elegant movements, as if patrolling its own territory.
Every scale flickered with a faint light, a glow that wasn't a natural reflection but seemed to emanate from within, carrying a strange vitality.
The color of that light was familiar—it was the same color as the blue blood on Ophelia's left hand.
This discovery made Klein's heart race.
There was a connection after all.
The dragon also noticed him.
Its massive head turned, and those eyes—those 'rabbit-like' eyes—stared directly at him.
The dragon's eyes were large and oval, with vertical pupils like those of a reptile.
Yet, there was an emotion in its gaze that was almost human.
The dragon swam over, its massive body carving a graceful arc through the water, the resulting current causing Klein's body to sway slightly.
It circled him, inspecting him with a gaze filled with human-like curiosity, as if it were observing an interesting toy.
Klein forced himself to remain calm, even though every nerve was screaming at him to run.
But he knew that running in a dream was pointless.
And besides...
Hadn't he come here precisely to find the truth?
Rate on N.U.
