He opened the door to find a servant from the Hawkwood Manor, he was sent to give Herbert a letter. Although it was already considered late, Herbert didn't mind it that much.
"Sir Herbert, the lord has sent a summons for you to enter his study."
"Right now?"
"I'm afraid so."
Herbert guessed that this should be the reply from Lord Eric, he must have already decided whether or not he should accept the proposal to make a bet with the Ravenmoons. Judging from how quick his decision was, Herbert hypothesized that he must have surely agreed to it.
Herbert smiled after thinking this, everything was going as planned. He then proceeded to thank the messenger and asked him to lead the way.
As he exited his room, he looked at the window once again. The dark sky had already embraced the horizon, but Herbert knew that it was just the beginning of the bigger challenge that awaits him.
He smiled once more; he knew that he had made the right decision.
Soon, Herbert made his way to the study and saw Lord Eric's wide smile. It didn't take long for the two to know that their next topic of conversation would be in terms of their cooperation.
The two had talked a lot about what they planned to do; this also included the negotiations for the division of the loot in the future. Since the Ravenmoons would not be directly related to this matter, they couldn't be direct in giving them benefits as this would rouse the suspicions of others.
Although this made Lord Eric inwardly happy, he was also worried since this had given them a large debt to the Ravenmoon family. He didn't know in what form they would ask them to repay this in the future, but he knew that he needed to make use of this time as an opportunity to grow.
It was late when the two gentlemen had finished speaking. Since Herbert didn't mind, he soon went his way back to his room in a good mood. As he was returning, he happened to see Ingrid's room which was placed right next to his.
He didn't know if this was coincidental or if it was planned by the Hawkwood Baron, regardless, he was also at ease with this.
"It's already late at night, she should already be asleep and dreaming, right?"
As Herbert thought to himself, he soon had an evil glint in his eyes. Perhaps it was because of the fatigue from their long travel, but as a Transcendent, he could hear her calm breathing as if she was in a very deep sleep.
Killing his presence, Herbert made his way to her room and twisted the door knob. After knowing that it was unlocked, Herbert made his way unannounced and saw the appearance of Ingrid who was fast asleep.
As he slowly made his way toward her, he snickered at the thought that he could finally unlock some of her secrets. Ever since Herbert had gotten his new bloodline, he had always wondered about how he could use it.
One thing that always came to his mind was using his powers as a form of interrogation, but after trying it out on Davos, the tax collector, he realized that he still lacked control over it. This was why he had always hesitated to use it on Ingrid during their travels.
As an awakened, she had the capability of escaping his dreamscape which could potentially harm him from the backlash of using it against her.
But now that her consciousness was completely defenseless against him, he thought that this might as well be his chance.
As he leaned closer, he used his fingers to gently open her closed eyelids to make eye-to-eye contact with her.
At that moment he had once again entered a dream-like state where his surroundings had been changed as if they had morphed to become more illusory and fleeting.
In front of him, the environment shifted from a bedroom into a garden. The night had turned into day and everything felt warmer. The garden was small but was very well kept. On the side were two children, one was a boy while the other was a girl. They seem to be both reading books in the corner, lost in their world.
Focusing his gaze on the two of them, he soon felt something strange.
"This… Is this my… This isn't Ingrid's dream, is it?"
The boy in front of him looked strangely familiar. No, it wasn't only the boy, the position of the two children, the design of the garden, the face of the girl, all of it was the same as his memories.
It wasn't his memories as Albert who had lived as a Ravenmoon. Instead, these memories came from Albert that had transmigrated from Earth.
"This is impossible! Did she reflect my ability to me while she's asleep?"
Just as he was about to lose his focus, he once again remembered the girl who was with the young Albert. He recalled her name, Irene, she was his childhood friend that had influenced him a lot into becoming a bookworm.
Seeing her once again made him recall all of the memories that he had with her. Since she was very ambitious and daring, ever since she was young, she would always tell him about her dream, she believed that when she grows up, she could make a book that was so great, that even he would cry when reading it.
He could even remember their silly smile and the way that she always tried to mess with him. But in the end, they eventually drifted away when they suddenly moved one day.
This surreal experience had bewildered him to the point where he had snapped back to reality with sweat forming on his forehead. As he looked at the peacefully sleeping face that Ingrid made, he couldn't help but mentally curse at her.
He then thought that If the author was a god, then Ingrid must have been blessed a lot to be able to last long enough in this cruel world by having a great deal of plot armor to withstand until her final fight against the protagonist.