Noelle Gray

【To the great Deputy of the Mage Tower, my lovely Noelle, I hope this letter finds you well.】

【I imagine that as you read this, you are sprawled out in some highly inappropriate place, in a posture that is undoubtedly giving Chief Wald a massive headache. Rest assured, I have no intention of disrupting your precious sleep, so I shall keep this brief.】

【I have a small favor to ask of you.】

【You may have already heard through various channels that humanity has recently appointed a new Hero—a young girl named Esper.】

【She has black hair, a bit of a temper, and is said to be incredibly stubborn. In that regard, she is quite like your former colleague. She is currently traveling with the Saintess toward the City of Holy Radiance.】

【I have a friend on my end whose identity I cannot openly disclose. But you are clever enough to have guessed by now that she harbors a deep concern for this Hero's safety—a concern she would absolutely never admit to.】

【Constrained by her position and the current political climate, she cannot openly look past the borders of the Plains of Holy Remains. And while I am skilled at walking through dreams, the waking world of the human realm is ultimately beyond my reach.】

【Thus, my request: if possible, please keep an eye on this young Hero. You do not need to do anything drastic. Just watch over her. She lacks someone by her side who is calm enough, strong enough, and not easily manipulated by the Church.】

【Looking across the entire continent, you are the only candidate I could think of who fits all three criteria, happens to be free, and is someone I can actually ask.】

【In return, I have in my collection three incredibly fascinating dreams.】

【One comes from a deceased poet; it is said that the sensation he spent his entire life trying to put into words is felt directly in this dream. The other two involve the subjects of your research, which I think you will find interesting.】

【Of course, if you refuse, I completely understand. After all, a demon worrying about the survival of a human Hero is, by any metric, a thankless and absurd endeavor.】

【But we both know that some absurd things are precisely the ones most worth doing.】

【I look forward to your reply.】

【Your friend,】

【Tia】

【P.S. That scene from your last dream—the one where thousands of people chanted Thun's name—might not have been just an ordinary dream.】

Tia put down her pen, blew on the ink, and folded the letter with a satisfied smile. She then pulled a palm-sized dream butterfly from her drawer.

Its wings, formed from solidified fragments of dreams, glowed with a translucent purple hue.

It could slip into dreams using those very fragments, traveling quickly and safely to its destination by weaving through the dreams of others.

Tia slipped the letter between the butterfly's wings and blew on it gently.

“Go on. Find the one who is sleeping where she shouldn't be.”

The dream butterfly fluttered its wings and vanished through the wall.

She placed the pipe she had set aside back between her lips. She still didn't light it, merely holding it there as she smiled.

“Rest easy, Rafina. That idiot of yours won't be defeated so easily.”

...

The Mage Tower, seventeenth-floor public lounge.

A purple butterfly fluttered out from Noelle Gray's forehead and settled on the tip of her nose.

She was asleep.

Her silver-and-black striped hair was sprawled across the table, and a small, dried patch of drool stained the corner of her mouth.

Her deep blue mage robe was as wrinkled as a rag that had been crumpled up, stuffed into a drawer, and yanked back out. One of her plush slippers, which she seemingly never changed, had fallen off and lay under the table.

The dream butterfly's wings fluttered rhythmically, carrying a faint, sweet fragrance.

“...Mmh.”

Noelle's nose twitched. Her brow furrowed slightly, and her pale gray eyes struggled to crack open.

She stared blankly for a good while before she could focus on the blurry purple shape in front of her.

“...Ah, it's Tia's dream butterfly.”

She slowly lifted her head, let out a yawn, and pinched the dream butterfly off her nose. She slid the letter out and read through it.

Then, she flipped the paper over to check the back.

“...Hmm. The Hero... Come to think of it, Wald did ask me to help out before... Hmm...”

She muttered to herself, rubbing the edge of the letter with her fingertip.

Her gaze lingered for a moment on the line: calm enough, strong enough, and not easily manipulated by the Church.

“Still as sweet-tongued as ever... though being free enough and just happening to have the right connections is the real point here, isn't it...”

Noelle stuffed the letter into her robe pocket and slumped back onto the table. She pulled a blank sheet of paper from beneath a messy pile, then rummaged through her pen holder for a good while before finding a pen that could still write.

The nib was overloaded with ink. Her first stroke splattered a dark blotch onto the paper.

“Wow... messy.”

She glanced around out of the corner of her eye.

“...Whatever. I'll just make do.”

She began to write, starting right from that ink blotch.

Unlike Tia's elegant handwriting, Noelle's script was wild and chaotic, looking like an old lady dancing a square dance after drinking counterfeit alcohol.

【Tia:】

【Received.】

【Your wording is far too flowery; it gave me goosebumps. Offering three dreams as payment also seems way too generous. It makes me suspect that the difficulty of this task is several orders of magnitude higher than what you claimed in your letter.】

【But whatever, I'll do my best.】

【Speaking of which, a while back, Master Wald called me into his office and lectured me for two hours. It was longer than any lecture he's ever given me before.】

【The gist of it was that, by tradition, the Mage Tower cannot simply stand by and watch the Hero grow. We need to send a representative to join the Hero's party.】

【I told him he should just join them himself, and he got so angry his glasses fell off. Though I'm not entirely sure if he was actually mad, his expression was pretty scary. Then again, it didn't look much different from his usual face. Haha.】

【In short, I have been “volunteered” to join the Hero's party.】

【When I first got the news, I was still researching that space-related topic. In fact, I still haven't finished it. Overworking my brain has made me incredibly sleepy these past few days, which also got me scolded by Master Wald several more times. But it should be about time anyway.】

【In a few days, I'll go find the Hero and join her party. So your letter arrived at the perfect time. Or rather, at a very inconvenient time.】

【Even if you hadn't written to me, I still would have gone to help, but you still have to give me those dreams. Especially the poet's. Just think of it as a favor. After all, I am that Noelle, so making this kind of trade with the second-in-command of the Mage Tower is definitely a win for you.】

【Also, you'd better stop stuffing weird things into my dreams. Last time, you made me dream that I was taking an exam. What were you thinking? Do you actually enjoy exams?】

【Oh, by the way. Also a few days ago, Master Wald suddenly told me it would be best to keep my true body inside the tower for the time being. While I don't feel like there's much out there that can threaten my true body, I think I'll take his advice.】

【I'll still join the Hero's party, of course, but I might use a different method to get in. If you happen to meet the Hero and don't see me right away, don't be confused.】

【Your friend,】

【Noelle】

【P.S. The ink blotch is not an artistic expression. It's the pen's fault.】

After writing the last word, Noelle folded the paper twice and slipped it back between the dream butterfly's wings. The butterfly fluttered its wings and flew off through the wall once more.

She buried her face back into the pile of papers and closed her eyes.

Three seconds later, she opened them again, fished her fallen slipper out from under the table, and slid her foot back into it.

Then, she fell back asleep.