When Kallen entered the dream again, she found herself standing in the Golden Hour.
Now that she had thoroughly infected the dreamscape with Nihility, she no longer needed something like a dream pool to enter it.
Kallen glanced down at herself.
The Iris Family dress had automatically shifted into casual wear within the dream. A white short jacket rested on her shoulders, over a black inner shirt, with dark trousers below and a pair of shoes that looked outrageously expensive on her feet.
She let out a sigh.
"This outfit's a lot more comfortable than the dress."
Then she set off toward their agreed meeting place.
It was a café tucked away on the corner of Third Street in the Golden Hour, called The Nameless Tea Party.
The first time Kallen saw that name, she laughed for a full three minutes. Penacony really did know how to ride the trend.
And by the time she arrived, some of the Astral Express crew were already there.
"Kallen! Over here, over here! We're right here!"
March 7th was sitting by the window, half her body stretched out of the booth, waving her arm like a flag.
On the table in front of her were already three drinks.
One pink, one blue, and one that had no discernible color at all but was fizzing strangely.
Stelle sat beside her, her drink still untouched. She seemed more interested in the glowing ice cube at the bottom of the glass, poking at it with her straw.
"You two sure got here early," Kallen said as she walked over and took a seat across from them.
"Because Mr. Yang and Himeko said we shouldn't keep our guest waiting too long," March 7th replied.
"But the two of them seem to have run into that company guy, Mr. Aventurine, again. Looks like they had something to talk about, so they told us to come claim a table first."
Oh?
The Astral Express had run into Aventurine?
Kallen took a quick peek with her authority, then immediately lost interest in watching any further.
Because they really were just having a perfectly ordinary, friendly conversation.
At that moment, Stelle finally lifted her head, glanced at Kallen, then enthusiastically pushed the colorless fizzy drink in front of her.
"Kallen, I ordered this especially for you. It's the café's signature drink—Mikhail's Secret Recipe."
Kallen lowered her gaze to the glass.
It really was bubbling—but not with normal carbonation. It was full of tiny golden sparks, as though someone had crushed starlight and poured it in.
Still, that name…
Mikhail's Secret Recipe?
Looks like that old fox Gopher Wood was kind of a joke after all. Or maybe this was the handiwork of some scruffy old drunkard.
With that thought, Kallen picked up the drink and took a sip.
It was… average. Far too sweet, cloying enough to make her uncomfortable. She wasn't fond of this kind of taste.
"Pretty good," she said anyway.
"Right?!" March 7th lit up instantly. "I think it's super good too! But Stelle says it's too sweet. She likes the blue one better."
"That one's mint flavored," Stelle said flatly.
"When you drink mint stuff you look like you're taking medicine," March 7th mercilessly pointed out.
"By the way, Kallen…" March suddenly remembered something and changed the subject. "That thing you mentioned in the hotel earlier—the Watchmaker's legacy. You really found it?"
There was curiosity in her voice, carefully restrained, like she had a hundred questions but was afraid of coming across as too rude.
After all, one of the Astral Express crew's main goals in coming to Penacony was to investigate the clues left behind by those three Nameless predecessors.
But now, with the Watchmaker's legacy suddenly right in front of them, there was no way they could pretend not to care.
And yet they had only just checked in. It had barely been half a day, and someone was already saying they had nearly cleared the entire instance?
That was practically cheating the starting line.
Kallen was just about to answer when the café door opened.
Himeko walked in first, with Welt behind her. Both of them wore the look of people who had just managed to free themselves from work.
Himeko was even holding a cup of coffee, clearly picked up on the way over.
"Sorry we're late," Himeko said as she took the seat beside Kallen, glancing over the drinks on the table. "Looks like you've already started talking."
"Not really," Stelle answered first. "March has just been talking nonsense."
"I was saying serious things!"
"You were just arguing about whether mint-flavored drinks are an affront to humanity."
"That's a perfectly serious philosophical question!"
Welt pushed up his glasses and sat down beside Stelle.
He looked at Kallen, hesitated for a moment, then chose the direct approach.
"Miss Kallen, there were too many eyes on us back at the hotel, so some things weren't convenient to discuss. Could you explain in more detail what you meant about finding the Watchmaker's legacy?"
His tone was calm, but Kallen could hear the caution in it—the kind that came from someone seasoned.
Welt had seen too much to trust anyone too easily, even someone who had helped them.
Kallen understood that kind of caution.
She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she took another slow sip of Mikhail's Secret Recipe, then finally spoke.
"Mr. Welt, do you know who the Watchmaker was?"
"A legendary figure in Penacony," Welt replied. "He is widely regarded as the founder of the dreamscape. But there are also those who suspect he was nothing more than a fabricated figure invented by the Family."
This time Himeko joined in as well.
"Miss Kallen, since you're an Emanator and approached us voluntarily, I assume you also discovered the hidden message on the invitation, didn't you?"
See the impossible within the dream, find the legacy of Penacony's father, the Watchmaker, and answer why life slumbers.
But Kallen only waved her hand dismissively.
She was a speedrunner. She had no interest in solving philosophical riddles.
Still, the situation was already obvious.
It seemed Himeko had already told the others about the hidden wording on the invitation. Which was fine—saved Kallen the trouble of explaining it herself.
"How much have you all managed to investigate so far?" she asked.
Since she'd already left them half a day, they should at least have gathered some information by now.
But the people across from her only shook their heads.
Well. Maybe her expectations for them had been too high.
Kallen continued, "I've already uncovered the truth behind Penacony. And I also know the Watchmaker's real identity."
"Do you know why the Watchmaker left behind a legacy?"
The crew exchanged glances, then shook their heads again.
Kallen set her drink down on the table.
"Because he was the Watchmaker."
"…Mikhail was the Watchmaker?" Himeko reacted first.
Since entering the dream, she had naturally noticed that drink named after Mikhail.
Originally, she had even intended to use that clue to look into the three former Nameless.
Unfortunately, nobody here seemed to know why the drink bore that name.
Now Kallen took up the role of narrator.
"Mikhail was the Watchmaker's real name. Back then, he came to Penacony following the Astral Express, and in the end, he chose to remain here."
"Later, all his companions left, but he never forgot who he was, nor where he had come from."
"So he left behind a legacy. A legacy that only a Trailblazer could open."
She paused, letting her gaze sweep over each of them.
"And I found it."
The café fell silent for several seconds as the Astral Express crew digested that.
After all, no matter how you looked at it, this was only their first day in Penacony.
And yet, in the span of half a day, it seemed as though the two biggest objectives of their trip were already nearly completed.
Honestly, it felt like they hadn't even gotten to participate.
"Miss Kallen," Welt said first, breaking the silence, "when you say you found it… do you mean…"
"Exactly what it sounds like." Kallen pulled something from her pocket and set it on the table.
It was an emory bubble—the same one she had brought out of Dream's Edge.
Then she continued, "You've probably already heard some of the rumors yourselves, haven't you?"
"In Penacony, the Family treats the Watchmaker as a stain on Penacony's branch history—the source of every dream anomaly."
"But in truth, the Watchmaker never betrayed Penacony. He and his companions liberated this place when it was still a prison world, and they created the first beautiful dream."
"Later, he realized the Harmony-aligned Family was turning that beautiful dream into a cage that made people sink into complacent ruin. So he began resisting them from the shadows. That's why the Family came to regard him as a thorn in its side."
"And now, the invitation he has sent out in the name of the Watchmaker's legacy was never about leaving behind treasure. It was about inviting Trailblaze to break the Family's false dream and save the real Penacony."
After saying that, Kallen fell silent and waited for the crew's response.
Himeko was the first to spot the issue.
"Miss Kallen, we'll confirm everything you've said as soon as possible."
"But there is one thing I'm very curious about. Would you be willing to clarify it?"
Kallen had no objection. "Please, go ahead, Miss Himeko."
Himeko asked, "According to you, the Watchmaker's legacy can only be opened by a Nameless."
"If that's the case, then why is this memory bubble in your hands?"
"Based on what you demonstrated earlier, aren't you a follower of Preservation?"
Good question.
Kallen had been waiting for that one.
She had practically been afraid no one would ask about where the memory bubble had come from.
But now that Himeko had raised it, it was naturally time for her to put on a show.
She gave a light cough.
"Because I once shared a certain connection with Akivili."
"At that time, I could be said to have walked halfway down the path of Trailblaze."
"Akivili?!" March 7th burst out.
She had already heard that name more than once now.
"But if I remember right, wasn't the Trailblaze Aeon already gone long, long ago in the history of the Astral Express?"
She started counting on her fingers, then only ended up more confused.
"Kallen looks about the same age as us, so how could she possibly have met the Trailblaze Aeon?"
Kallen gave a faint smile.
"March, how long do you think a long-life species can live?"
That question stumped March instantly.
"Uh… a really long time?"
The longest-lived species she had seen were the Xianzhou people. But even the Xianzhou, on average, didn't seem to live that long, right?
She wasn't really sure. That sort of trivia had long since slipped out of her head.
Kallen smiled again.
"I've lived a very long time. So my age may be much greater than you imagine."
"That was when Akivili was still here. When Their train had not yet lost every route. When They had not yet fallen."
As she spoke, the lights in the café seemed to dim for a moment.
It was Kallen's presence that had changed.
The thick, weighty atmosphere of Preservation receded, replaced by something else—something strangely vast and open.
It was the aura of Trailblaze.
Very faint, so faint that one might not notice it unless one deliberately looked for it. But it was there.
And everyone present was a Nameless aboard the Astral Express. None of them could mistake that feeling.
Kallen had not lied.
She really had once walked partway down the path of Trailblaze.
Of course, what Kallen was actually doing was simply simulating that aura.
After all, this was a dreamscape, and she had usurped half its authority. Mimicking a little of that feeling wasn't difficult.
Besides, she did have a Trailblaze alt, after all.
Then Kallen continued, "Though rather than saying I had some connection with Akivili… the truth is, I never actually met Akivili."
"…Huh?"
That sudden reversal hit the crew like a second shockwave.
Just moments ago Kallen had spoken with absolute confidence about sharing some connection with Trailblaze, and they had almost believed her.
But now she was denying it?
Because Trailblaze was a special path. In this era, with Akivili already gone, there should be only one way to walk that path:
Join the Astral Express.
But Kallen was not one of the Nameless aboard the Express, nor had she ever received Akivili's personal blessing. So where had that Trailblaze aura come from?
Kallen promptly supplied the explanation.
"It was a blessing given to me by Durandal."
"Durandal?!" The familiar name jolted Welt's memory awake again.
But this time he did not react impulsively.
"Miss Kallen," Himeko asked in turn, "who exactly is this Durandal? And why would she be capable of granting you Trailblaze's blessing?"
"As far as I know, there has never been anyone named Durandal on the records of the Express."
"Because Durandal is not one of the Nameless," Kallen said, taking another sip of the overly sweet drink.
"She is Akivili's orphaned daughter."
That sentence exploded across the table like a bomb.
"An orphaned… daughter?" March 7th's voice cracked. "The Trailblaze Aeon had a daughter?!"
Since when could Aeons have children?!
"That's impossible." Welt refuted it almost instinctively. "Aeons do not have descendants. That is common knowledge."
"Common knowledge exists to be overturned, Mr. Welt," Kallen cut in.
"After all, didn't the Propagation Aeon have plenty of children?"
That's not the same thing!
Welt desperately wanted to say exactly that.
Propagation was different. But then again… Akivili had always been different too, hadn't They?
If Pam's words were to be believed, Akivili had been the most human of all the Aeons.
And beyond that, the aura of Trailblaze around Kallen was real. And she really had brought back Mikhail's legacy.
Could it be… Akivili really had left behind a daughter?
Himeko spoke again.
"Miss Kallen, would you be willing to tell us more?"
"…This matters a great deal to us."
That was true. If what Kallen said was indeed true, then from this point onward, the Express would have to pay much closer attention to clues along those lines.
Because this would be the daughter of the Trailblaze Aeon.
And in this era, when Trailblaze had only just begun moving forward again, if such a person really existed, wouldn't that imply that Trailblaze itself might one day produce a new Aeon?
Kallen answered, "The place where Durandal and I met is actually somewhere you should know very well."
She paused, lightly tapping the tabletop with her fingertips.
"Pier Point."
"The company headquarters?" March blurted out.
"Exactly." Kallen nodded.
"She didn't go by that name back then. The alias she used was… Bianca. Right, Bianca. A girl working as a dock laborer in the lower ports of Pier Point."
"A laborer?" March repeated in disbelief. "Akivili's daughter was working as a dock laborer?"
"She thought it was interesting." Kallen shrugged.
"She said she wanted to see what it felt like to live with her feet on the ground. A dockworker gets to meet all kinds of people and hear all kinds of stories, and she thought that, too, was a form of Trailblaze."
"And how did the two of you meet?" Himeko asked.
"Someone tried to make trouble for me."
"Make trouble for you?" March tensed at once. "At the company's headquarters? For an Emanator of Preservation?"
"The company is very big, March." Kallen laughed softly.
"And besides, I do keep a low profile. Didn't that company man, Aventurine, fail to recognize my identity as an Emanator of Preservation at first today?"
At that point, however, Kallen had no intention of continuing down that topic.
Because according to her script, Durandal was supposed to be a character who would eventually come after Kallen and beat her down.
As long as Kallen's current villainous side hadn't been exposed, she could still speak a bit more freely about Durandal.
But if she talked too much, then on the day Kallen finally exposed herself, Durandal's bright and noble image might end up dragged down with her.
"All right, let's stop there when it comes to Durandal."
"If you'd like to know more, then after this Charmony Festival is over, perhaps we can find another time to talk?"
Seeing that Kallen had every intention of embracing the role of a proper enigma, Himeko found it difficult to press further.
After all, from the moment they met, Kallen had only been helping them.
"Then, Miss Kallen," Himeko said, "regarding the Charmony Festival and Mikhail's matter, would you be willing to discuss those in greater detail with us?"
"Because from what you said just now, it sounds as though the Family is hiding certain secrets it cannot afford to let out."
This time, however, Kallen seemed determined to carry the mysterious act all the way through.
She replied at an unhurried pace, "Miss Himeko, what comes next may have to depend on you."
"Some secrets are more interesting if you uncover them yourselves, aren't they?"
Himeko looked faintly surprised. She had not expected Kallen to be this committed to the role of a living riddle.
"So, you mean we have to investigate it ourselves?"
Kallen nodded promptly. "Exactly. Isn't the whole meaning of Trailblaze to discover for yourselves the things that were forgotten, buried, or left behind?"
March blinked. It sounded sort of profound, but at the same time, it also somehow felt like Kallen hadn't really said anything at all.
"Then does that mean telling us about Mikhail counts as a spoiler?"
"It does." Kallen nodded calmly. "That's why I'm only saying this much. The rest, you'll have to find on your own."
"Miss Himeko, I assume you understand what I mean?"
Himeko fell silent for a moment.
She did understand.
Kallen had already given them more than enough clues.
The Watchmaker was Mikhail. Mikhail had once been one of the Nameless. The Family was covering up some truth. And the Watchmaker's legacy could only be opened by a Trailblazer.
All of that was enough for them to continue their investigation.
If Kallen simply laid every answer out in front of them, then this entire trip to Penacony would truly become nothing more than a sightseeing tour.
"I understand," Himeko said at last. "But could you at least point us in a direction?"
Kallen thought for a moment, then gave them a name.
"Gallagher."
"Gallagher?" March repeated, trying hard to search her memory. "Who's that?"
"A member of the Hound Family," Kallen said.
"You can go talk to him. He's one of Penacony's old hands. He knows far more than the Family would ever be willing to admit."
"The Hound Family…" Himeko murmured thoughtfully. "The branch in charge of dream-security?"
"Exactly."
Kallen stood, then casually tossed the memory bubble from the table toward Himeko.
Himeko caught it on reflex.
"This…"
"Yeah, I'm giving it to you."
"It was left behind by Mikhail for the Trailblazers. I was only holding onto it for now."
"But didn't you say you once walked halfway down the path of Trailblaze?" March asked, confused.
"That was then." Kallen smiled, and there was something oddly hard to read in that smile.
"The path I walk now is a little complicated. Something left behind by a Trailblazer should still go to the true Nameless."
[Ding! Your lie has made March 7th, Stelle, Welt Yang, and Himeko more inclined to believe you. Trailblaze Authority has increased, and you have gained 20,000 Fabrication Points!]
[Remaining Fabrication Points: 72,909]
At the sound of the system prompt, Kallen finally breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
She had honestly begun worrying that the history she was fabricating had gotten too wild for anyone to buy.
But thankfully, with her identity as lofty and mysterious as it now was—and with some faint Trailblaze authority genuinely present—the Express crew really was willing to believe her.
So all the effort she had spent winning their trust from the start had not been wasted after all.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter105)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 30
I'm Definitely Not the King of 35
After Maxing Out Every Class 35
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