As the most celebrated land of dreams in the entire Galaxy, Penacony's Dreamscape never failed to overwhelm and delight any visitor who set foot in its domain for the first time.
Surprises came from every direction.
Scale, without question, was one of the most immediate shocks.
Each of the twelve hourly dreamscapes covered a surface area rivaling that of a standard planet in the real world.
The Golden Hour alone probably spanned a stretch of land no smaller than Earth.
In this vast expanse of dreams, somewhere in another corner—
"My friend, how does it feel?"
At the edge of a pavilion structure over three hundred meters tall, a figure swung her legs idly. Her signature twin ponytails swayed with the motion of her head, hair flowing like a river.
Small wooden clogs hung half-slipped from her feet, revealing a pair of jade-smooth soles made even more luminous by the neon glow.
Like the finest porcelain in the world, her toenails were tinted a faint cherry-blossom hue from crushed garden balsam, pale blue veins faintly visible along the tops of her feet, like a spring brook seeping beneath crackle-glazed porcelain.
Her toes curled slightly, adding a touch of playfulness.
Sparkle propped her chin on one hand and turned back with a smile.
"Honestly, this is fun," she said.
The one who answered leaned against the carved railing.
Her shoulder-length black hair stirred in the brisk night wind, swaying smoothly, one slightly curled strand falling just in front of the elegant monocle over her right eye.
Behind the lens, a pair of deep eyes pierced through both hair and glass, gazing down with keen interest at the dazzling amusement park below.
"It resembles the abilities of Sequence 7 Nightmare of the Darkness Pathway, yet it's fundamentally different."
A voice as crisp as wind chimes came from the girl's lips.
"The root of this dream isn't simply an aggregation of the subconscious. It's more like... a mixture of Aether and the Spirit Realm, yet neither quite matches — the rules constructed here are unique and remarkably stable."
"Ohh~?"
Sparkle stood, stretched, and bounced over to Amon's side, draping an arm over her companion's slender shoulder without the slightest hesitation.
"Ehehe~ hearing you describe that world makes my curiosity itch something fierce!"
She leaned in close, her cherry-blossom eyes curving into crescents, her breath carrying a hint of sweetness.
"If you ever really find your way home, you have to tell me the very first moment, okay?"
"As your first — and best — friend in this world, if I came to visit, you'd give me a warm welcome, wouldn't you~?"
"Like... sending me a few fun, high-Sequence sealed items as a souvenir~?"
Sparkle's smile was radiant, anticipation shining unabashedly in her cherry-blossom eyes.
"Sure~"
The corner of Amon's mouth curved upward, carrying pure delight.
"Yay~!"
Sparkle immediately cheered like a kid who'd just been handed candy, her twin ponytails flying, her clogs tapping out a bright, happy rhythm on the floor.
Watching her bounce around, one might mistake her for an innocent, cheerful girl from next door, thrilled to visit a dear friend's home.
Amon laughed along with her.
In the light of her mirth, something elusive seemed to flicker across the crystal lens of her monocle.
"Oh~ right, by the way."
Sparkle suddenly stopped bouncing, hands clasped behind her back, and bent her petite frame sideways at a near-ninety-degree angle with astonishing flexibility.
Her cherry-blossom eyes gleamed with curiosity, fixed on the crystal-carved, elegantly chained monocle over Amon's right eye.
"You really don't know the God of Games?"
"I don't."
Amon raised a hand and elegantly adjusted the monocle over her right eye.
"But everyone else wears masks, and you're the only one with a monocle. So unique~ It's hard not to suspect you have some special connection to that God of Games~?"
Sparkle tapped her cherry lips with a slender finger, blinking her big eyes on purpose, putting on a show of curiosity.
This remarkable new friend of hers had, a few days ago, somehow found her way to the tavern all on her own — and even stolen someone's mask...
Now that was truly amusing!
Aside from those the Fools had lured in themselves, this seemed to be the first case of someone showing up uninvited and stealing straight from a Fool's face. It had everyone at the tavern in stitches.
"I wasn't lying to you."
Amon touched her chin, smiling with undisguised interest. "After all, I'm quite interested in this God of Games you speak of myself."
Aha, the Aeon of Elation — likely the very culprit responsible for sending this fragment of hers into this world.
Its status was, at minimum, on par with a Pillar-tier Great Old One, possibly even higher.
Even beings like the God and the Lord of Mysteries seemed incapable of hurling living creatures directly into an entirely different multiverse... Perhaps only the Original Creator possessed such power?
And yet, according to the Aeon intelligence Amon had gathered in this world, most Aeons, despite the vastness of the power they displayed, still fell largely within the range of Outer God-level.
Did that have something to do with the so-called breadth of a Path?
Regardless, Amon owed that Aeon her thanks.
"Waitress~"
Sparkle's voice interrupted Amon's train of thought.
She had already bounced back to the carved round table, calling out in the most adorably obedient tone imaginable: "Could I trouble you for a Peach Cherry Aether Extract? With ice, please~ Thanks so much!"
Before long, a waitress emerged from the shop carrying a strangely shaped iced drink, gradient from deep red to pink.
The waitress set the drink down on the table in front of Sparkle.
"Thirty Alfalfa Credits, miss."
"...Eh, and here I thought it'd be free!"
Sparkle stared at the monocle over the waitress's right eye and muttered a small, aggrieved complaint.
Her gaze flicked between the waitress's monocle and Amon's, as if silently protesting something.
In the end, she reluctantly reached down, fishing around in the barely-there cleavage beneath her kimono collar, and pulled out a few coins stamped with a clover-leaf pattern, setting them on the table with a clink.
"Thank you for your patronage. May you enjoy a beautiful dream here."
The monocled waitress, wearing a professionally pleasant smile, collected the payment and turned to leave.
"Hey, you there..."
Sparkle stirred the dreamlike liquid in her cup with a delicate silver spoon, not bothering to look up, and addressed the neighboring table abruptly, her tone irritable.
"Is staring straight at a girl your idea of getting her attention? It's been nearly half a System-hour now."
"To be precise, it's been forty-five minutes."
At that, Sparkle finally lifted her eyes lazily, the corner of her mouth curling into a mocking smile.
"Heh, little peacock... you've got a fine pair of eyes on you."
She plucked a small pastry from Amon's plate, spun it deftly between her fingers, and tossed it precisely into her mouth.
"Homeland... Sigonia's?"
"Care for another hint?"
Aventurine turned around slowly, that signature flippant smile spread across his face. "Want more clues? Like, say, that I'm one of the Avgin honey folk?"
"Mm-hm~"
Sparkle hummed dismissively, legs crossed, her posture as languid as a cat basking in the sun.
"My eyes might not be as fine as yours, but I'm not blind either~"
Then her tone shifted, sweetness laced with frost. "Who in the whole universe doesn't know about you Sigonians? Born liars, born thieves... oh, sorry!"
As if suddenly remembering something, Sparkle clapped a hand over her mouth, turned to Amon with an apologetic smile, blinking her big eyes.
"I wasn't talking about you, dear, I promise~"
Amon pushed up the monocle over her right eye, her eyes curving behind the lens in a noncommittal smile, turning her gaze toward Aventurine with interest.
Born liars and thieves?
Aventurine's smile didn't so much as twitch, as if he hadn't heard the barbed label at all.
But Sparkle just kept talking, her tone light as if she were singing a nursery rhyme.
"So, save your sweet-talking little tricks, little peacock."
With supreme laziness, Sparkle propped one clog-clad foot up on the small round table in front of her, tilting her head to the side.
"Please leave. We're Fools, not fools, and we've got no interest in playing friendship games with the IPC's good little dog."
"Though~ maybe you could chat with my friend here instead."
"Ah~ sorry, sorry! I definitely wasn't calling you a fool, promise!"
Emphasizing this, Sparkle immediately switched to a coaxing, encouraging tone.
"It's just, well, you've come all this way to Penacony — you should go enjoy the sweet dreams, find something genuinely fun to get into, and really have a good time~"
Amon tilted her head, watching Sparkle's performance quietly, a smile slowly blooming at the corner of her lips.
"And what about you?"
"Me~"
Sparkle tapped her crimson lips with a slender finger, her bright pink eyes spinning as if she'd just thought of something impossibly sweet.
"I'm going to find my dar~ling~ of course!"
She drew out the words, her voice sickeningly sweet.
"Speaking of which, after such a romantic proposal, we still haven't had our honeymoon~ And isn't Penacony just perfect for that?"
She stood, her skirt sweeping out in an arc of shimmering gold light.
"Well, that's that~"
Sparkle gave Amon a playful wave. "I won't interrupt you and little peacock playing your friendship game any longer! Bye-bye~"
Before the words had even fully left her mouth, she had already skipped a few light steps to the edge of the towering terrace, and without the slightest hesitation, spread her arms and tipped backward, falling — her figure instantly swallowed by the dazzling neon and dreamlight below.
The air fell into a brief silence.
"..."
After a moment, Aventurine's gaze settled on the short-haired girl with the monocle.
An unfamiliar face...
As a senior executive of the Interastral Peace Corporation, Aventurine wouldn't claim to know every major player on Penacony's stage, above or below the surface — but at the very least, his database usually had a file on them.
Yet this girl in front of him... a complete blank.
Aventurine didn't underestimate her for it. After all, anyone capable of chatting so intimately with that unhinged, dangerous Masked Fool just now couldn't possibly be an ordinary presence.
"Just as she said."
Amon's voice broke the silence. She withdrew her gaze from the direction Sparkle had fallen, turned her head slightly, and offered Aventurine a smile of flawless purity.
"I am indeed... quite interested in this place."
She paused, then added, her tone as light as if discussing a tea party, "If there's any kind of social gathering going on, please be sure to bring me along~"
The slender girl elegantly pinched the frame of the monocle over her right eye.
"Just call me Amon."
"...No problem, Miss Amon."
Aventurine's professional smile remained fixed in place.
With the Harmony Family circling like vultures these days, the more friends, the better, naturally.
He had already made contact with the Garden of Recollection and the Express. That bunch of lunatics from the Annihilation Gang was already done for. Whether the Knights of Beauty would even show up to the gathering remained to be seen.
He'd also just run into a woman claiming to be some sort of Galaxy Rangers, but something about her felt off to Aventurine.
The tavern crowd joining in would surely stir up trouble — but that was exactly what he needed. The muddier the water, the more opportunities.
Their conversation turned out remarkably pleasant, progressing more smoothly than expected.
Information flowed between them like a stream. Aventurine even proactively handed over, free of charge, a few pieces of intel that seemed important but wouldn't actually harm the IPC.
To him, it was nothing more than bait — planting a seed in the heart of a Fool like this was worth far more than the cost.
"That's a lovely monocle," Aventurine said as they parted, his gaze settling once more on the crystal-carved lens over Amon's right eye, his smile genuine. "It suits you perfectly, Miss Amon."
"Thanks~"
The corner of Amon's mouth curved upward.
Aventurine bowed gracefully and turned to leave the terrace venue perched high above the pavilion.
Stepping into the bustling street, the kaleidoscopic neon and cheerful jazz music enveloped him at once.
But the instant his foot touched the final step, a subtle sense of wrongness crept up his spine.
"An illusion?"
He stopped instinctively, his gaze sweeping across the crowd.
A woman in an ornate feathered gown, chatting and laughing with a companion, had a silver monocle set with tiny diamonds perched over her right eye, swaying faintly with her gestures.
A waiter pushing a mobile dessert cart, his white shirt collar impeccably neat, wore a simple tortoiseshell-framed monocle over his right eye, enthusiastically pitching Memoria bubblegum to customers.
A well-dressed middle-aged businessman, apparently in the middle of a negotiation, gently pushed up a gold-rimmed monocle over his right eye with a gem-ringed finger, his eyes behind the lens shrewd and worldly.
Aventurine stopped an elderly gentleman wearing a plain monocle, who was watching a street holographic performance, and asked, "Excuse my forwardness, sir, but is this monocle some new fashion trend in Penacony?"
The old gentleman turned his head, offering a kindly but somewhat hollow smile through the clear glass lens.
"Trend? Ah, you mean this?"
The old gentleman instinctively pushed up the frame of his monocle. "It's the Family's latest limited commemorative item. Quite practical, don't you think? Things look so much clearer now."
With that, he turned his attention back to the performance, as if the whole matter were a trivial thing not worth another thought.
Aventurine nodded and turned to walk away.
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