To most, I remain unheard and unseeable. Living between the lines of reality and dreams. living in the walls and moving in the sewers.
Listening to people, watching their actions, and feeling their desires.
There is love, in those feelings and unprecedented greed as well. Though most of the time I find the denizens of my city a bit bored.
Well, who wouldn't be in their situation? The amount of people that actually get to live the way they want is very little, while most of the population just focuses on their own life and pursuing a better livelihood. Pretty mundane if I might say.
Though this didn't mean that my version of 'Mundane' was similar to the ones used by the people of this world. I only tagged an individual mundane if they didn't have much to offer and were just doing their job like they were expected to.
Though it doesn't mean that their life holds no meaning.
Even in the mundane, there are many things hidden away. Things that I like to dig out and learn about.
And I intended to do the same with Pierta. A woman that hasn't acted much besides giving some slight suggestions and acting as a lackey on the back.
But I am not foolish, I know there is a deep relationship between Pierta and Remira.
And as I can't enter Remira's dream due to her blood of Radiance. It doesn't mean I can't do the same for Pierta.
I wished to learn more about her, I wished to squeeze out her memories till she started showing me details about Remira. Who this Remira was and why she was here.
Because for a while, she had been giving me an ominous feeling and I can't put my finger on it. So to be safe, I did what anyone sane in my situation would have done. Try to find more details on the enemy.
Though as it seems, I failed.
She came back at the turning point of the dream and ruined my attack.
"Just what is this?"
Remira's hair flew in the air with a bright hue, while she held the head of lethargic Pierta who was still stuck in a shock.
"Who are you?"
Then she asked a question that I had expected her to ask. But I didn't get an answer.
It would seem that part of my plan has failed. Because for some reason, Remira chose to return early from her meeting with Kairut and didn't choose to do her own investigations.
Which made me wonder, was she aware of my existence and plans.
It was highly unlikely. Someone of her strength couldn't be able to do that.
Unless I am missing something, a single crucial part of my plan.
"I asked, who ARE YOU?" This time her voice was louder as white flames started to enter the dream world where I hid like a rat, causing my fur to burn and sending a jolt of pain in my head.
A familiar pain. The kind that I hated. Though I couldn't do much in this situation, for I was stuck in a dream of a catatonic woman, while surrounded by a cage made of flames.
"Didn't expect you to return so early," I said while my rat body slowly dissipated and in its place, a hand grew out of the dream.
A hand with a mouth on it.
"Did you kill the kid?" She asked in a furious voice. Probably thinking that I intended to kill her friend as well.
But for an ignorant being like her, this might as well be the truth. And no reasonable answer would satisfy her anyways.
So the lips of the hand moved and I said. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hunter Remira. I have been your fan since you came here." I said in a jovial voice, completely ignoring the painful flame that was slowly burning away at my soul.
"Don't play games, I can burn your soul to a crisp if I wish to. So kindly answer my question." A threat and a request all at once.
A child-like Remira grew up and changed her method of talking that suits my own. Truly a wonderful child. This would also mean that she knew that I had no method to escape and hence her threat was actually a certain threat against me.
In her mind, she was probably in control. Though it would be a big mistake if I thought of her as someone drunk over the control she had over me, as she might look like a foolish brat. But she was attentive toward me.
Her energy even seeped into Pierta's mind and slowly formed an angel-like silhouette that descended from heaven and then slowly approached the little hand that stuck out of the blurry world.
To her, I probably looked like a leech, a parasite with no spine of my own.
Instead of answering her question, I chose to fire an arrow in the dark. "Now looking at you from up close, you truly resemble her." A baseless claim even though I did not find anything about Remira from this dream.
But from her background and her being a hunter for Radiance, I can make some assumptions.
Among which was the thing about her mother.
I didn't know how their relationship was or whether she was alive or in her life.
I didn't know how she lived or grew up to be the woman she was today.
I didn't even know why she chose to become a member of the Radiance society.
But what I knew from her tomboy nature and rowdiness. She was an overconfident brat with some parental issues.
I can see this from the way she fought with Maxim earlier and how she acted in front of Kairut. She had a thing for talking in a condescending tone to people in authority. And even if she might not show it, I can sense it.
It was why I played this card.
"Wh… aht do you mean?" She asked, her defenses somewhat weakened.
Which meant that my assumption was right on point. She was someone with parental issues. And was barely able to cope with it.
Which would mean weakness.
I got what I wanted, even though the method to obtain it was a lot more simpler and boring than digging away at an individual's memories in their dream.
And if I was this close, I wonder if my other hand would work as well. As I see it, in this world everyone wants something that they can never obtain and it's what makes it easier for me to control these individuals.
Though, saying those things without concrete proof of Remira's past would be a bit dangerous. Her mind was currently in a hyperactive state and slight misconduct might erase me.
So I just said the words that I had in my mind for a while. WOrs that I wished to say to her a lot since a while ago.
"Let's ignore that part for now, and focus on what's important, little child." My words were enough to anger her, I can feel that the intensity of the fire around us has increased. But I just kept looking at her illusory figure that stared at me with wrathful eyes. Such beautiful eyes.
"Look into the sewer." With these words, my body which solely consisted of a hand then flew over and entered the fire before Remira could react.
And then I felt that familiar pain again.
*****
Feeling the pain of my loss, I know that my hand was no more.
It has turned to dust like I had expected it to. And with it, a certain part of my soul was also destroyed.
But that was to be expected when I divided that part of me for such a job. No one would have expected for Remira to make another foolish mistake so early, throwing my plan off.
So in the end, I can look from the side as Remira saved her friend from the mind demon that was invading her.
Truly a wonderful scene, with Remira smashing her hand on the table in frustration as her friend had started to wake up from her dark dream.
"What happened?" Her friend couldn't recall what happened, why she suddenly feel sleepy during work, or what happened in that dream of hers.
It was something that had happened before and so she was not that surprised. And the reason for that was her being tired from overwork.
Which became the chance for me to infiltrate her mind.
And now the same hands with which she once held her son after he killed his father, she was doing the same with Remira. Who was still a bit shocked at what she witnessed.
'I wonder if I succeeded.'
I didn't know what my hand did. With it dying, there will be no memory for me to retain and no knowledge of the conversation that would have happened between the two.
But I can feel it.
My hand did something outstanding when it died.
"A loach was in your mind. And it probably escaped." The disgust and anger in Remira's voice were very apparent. If looks can kill, my hand would have died another thousand times.
But death is only a one-time deal, it won't happen again and again.
Only a few lucky ones like me can survive that ordeal.
*****