A pitch-black space.
Only the succubus outsider and I were walking, making soft sounds with our footsteps.
It was a sudden thought, but since this outsider didn’t have an official nickname, I was at a loss for what to call her.
If I suddenly called her ‘succubus,’ she would probably have a hard time understanding what I meant.
Since she’s an outsider who deals with people’s dreams within a limited range, she might have heard a name or two, right?
“Hey.”
“Why?”
“Can I ask for your name?”
Perhaps because of what happened earlier, I heard a slightly irritable response from the succubus outsider, but I pressed on with my question.
“…This is getting really strange. Now you’re even asking for my name?”
“Well, I can’t keep calling you ‘hey’ or ‘you,’ can I?”
Perhaps thinking my words made sense, she rested her chin on her finger and made a thoughtful sound.
After a moment, she nodded her head a few times, as if she reached a decision.
“Okay, well. It’s not like it’ll hurt. My name is ‘Nutricha Perite.’ I wonder if you’ll even be able to understand it.”
Contrary to the succubus outsider’s concerns—it sounded heavily glitched, but—I clearly heard the name.
Nutricha Perite, huh.
“Then can I just call you Nutricha?”
Hearing that, she looked somewhat astonished, twitching her eyebrows as if something had caught her off guard.
What’s up with that?
“…You don’t know what calling an outsider by their name means, do you?”
“Uh? What does it mean?”
Wait, is there some symbolic meaning behind this?
I was curious and asked her back, but Nutricha just shook her head.
“…No, never mind. Just call me whatever you want.”
No.
Why are you stopping yourself from convincing me?
Don’t give up!
Fight back!
Even with my wishes, Nutricha didn’t mention it any further.
It was a bit frustrating, but if she didn’t want to talk about it, then what could I do?
I’ll just have to ask once I reconnect with the elite outsiders later.
Anyway, while walking, I started to hear about Nutricha’s psychological disintegration mechanism.
If consciousness is the tip of an iceberg, we normally refer to the 90% of the ice mass hidden beneath the surface as the ‘realm of the unconscious.’
The unconscious is a crucial area governing human behavioral patterns, habits, mindsets, and instincts.
Therefore, normally, we can’t manipulate it directly like consciousness, and changing it is extremely difficult.
So saying that one’s unconscious has been taken away means that something like 90% of the human mind has been taken away.
“So, even if it looks like a lifeless body, it actually just means the unconscious has been taken. So if you release it, it can start moving again right away, right?”
“You’re understanding it well.”
My confirmation came with a nod from Nutricha, who seemed pleased that I grasped it correctly.
However, even after hearing this explanation, there was still something I couldn’t quite understand.
“But why do you have to put everyone to sleep? Couldn’t just some of them sleep?”
“Well, it is possible.”
Nutricha replied in a tone that seemed to have a hint of amusement mixed in.
“But that’s quite unrealistic. Look, if you’re trying to find a building, you should at least know which area of which domain it is in, right? If I don’t tell you that in detail and just say, ‘There’s a building in this domain!’ what would happen?”
“Uh… It would take some time, right?”
“Exactly. If your pace is slow and not delicate, it would take at least a few weeks. But the unconscious has no sense of time. So humans need to fall asleep so that the unconscious can expand, allowing me to locate where I’ve left those minds. Otherwise, I’d have to dive even deeper than the unconscious to find them, and, well…”
Nutricha shrugged and let out a hollow laugh.
“By the time I find it and come back, wouldn’t you be in a coffin?”
…That’s quite a grim analogy, but perhaps she meant it to hit home.
What really struck me was that this wasn’t the part that bewildered me.
How should I put this?
Just a moment ago, I thought she was a crumpled, sobbing character after I ‘truly educated’ her, but having a conversation brought her image to one of great erudition.
Or maybe she was always like this, but I just gave her a mental shock that was a bit too much.
Hmm.
I couldn’t tell.
For now, I decided to move past that part.
“So according to you, this place is the unconscious, right?”
“Right?”
“Then does that mean everyone’s unconscious is all connected?”
In response, Nutricha shook her head.
“To say yes would be correct, and to say no would also be correct. From a ‘spatial’ perspective, being in one place makes sense, but from a ‘connection’ perspective, it feels different?”
As she spoke, Nutricha lightly tugged at my arm.
When I looked at her with curiosity at her sudden action, she pointed at a place we were avoiding.
“Over there, do you see that particularly dark circle?”
“Oh, that one.”
“That’s each human’s mind. So if we enter there, we can invade the place humans call the ‘dream world.’ That’s the ‘spatial’ concept I mentioned. It means things like that are connected like fruit growing in the ‘unconscious’ space.”
So this is how one enters another person’s dream.
I think I also managed to escape from my own dream using this mechanism back then.
However, it felt strange.
From everything I’ve heard so far, it seemed that Nutricha was different from the outsider representing the very concept of this ‘unconscious.’
No, the more I thought about it, the more I realized there were several areas where she fell short of what I’d expect from an elite outsider.
Destroying the opponent’s dream or dying from mental contamination upon confrontation—such concepts seemed entirely absent.
Instead, there was this feeling of being tied down and an obsession with what she called ‘contracts,’ resembling more of a low-tier outsider.
“You feel different from Fiore and Paura.”
As I casually mentioned the names of elite outsiders, Nutricha looked surprised.
“What? You can recite the names of ‘those’ people?”
“Huh? Well… because we’re close?”
I was merely stating the fact, but Nutricha shook her head in disbelief.
“You’re really a strange human. So that’s how you were so organically connected. Well, to answer your question, of course. I’m on a different level from ‘those’ people.”
A different level.
That means she isn’t on the elite outsider level.
However, I couldn’t imagine an ordinary low-tier outsider being able to cut off the communication function of Party Whistle.
“In terms of your childish system, it would be right to call me a ‘low-tier outsider.’ But with them, there’s still a slight difference in hierarchy, I suppose.”
Without me even asking, Nutricha nodded and responded.
Oh, an automated response function, how nice.
“What does that mean?”
“What you call a ‘low-tier outsider’ has too broad a scope. It’s like grouping an average cat walking on the street with a human; they’re not the same, right? But you humans also think you’re on a different level from cats, right?”
I nodded, feeling her explanation hit home and seeing Nutricha seem satisfied.
“Exactly. So we tend to operate separately. However… these days, those who usually operate separately have been saying they’re busy and haven’t been entering this space much. So I ended up bothering you, which leads us to this conclusion?”
So that’s why she was whining about me not playing with her.
One of the top low-tier outsiders.
Even though it’s called low-tier, it might not be far-fetched to think that under the right conditions, she could reach the level of an elite outsider.
Especially since she oversees the unconscious—keeping her on my side might feel more comfortable.
And thinking about the time concept of outsiders, she must have been alone in this pitch-black space for a very long time.
Admittedly, her way of playing is quite crude, but she was, in some way, a rather pitiful creature.
“I see.”
“Right?”
“Then, once this is over, I’ll play with you.”
“Okay, once this is over… what?”
I thought she was responding well, but seeing Nutricha panic made me shrug my shoulders.
“Well, if you’re going to sleep, it means you’ll dream, and if you dream, it means we’ll meet, right?”
“That is true.”
“So why do I dislike it?”
She answered, sounding hesitant, so I jokingly questioned her, but Nutricha just tilted her head without replying.
What is this reaction about?
“You say such things after doing something like this?”
Ah, it’s about what happened earlier.
Cough.
Well, that’s true.
It would be an excuse if I said it wasn’t because I really hated it.
I pondered what to say, but suddenly Nutricha closed her eyes.
“…I used to help humans resolve their traumas in dreams to keep the unconscious functioning smoothly. But after hearing what you said, I realized I’ve been feeling a bit lonely too. I’ve been acting against everything I had done so far.”
Nutricha said that and smiled brightly.
“Can you handle it? I might come into your dreams and trouble you every time.”
“Well, if I have lucid dreams, it might be fun. I think it’s actually great.”
“You were the one who said it first?”
This girl.
She’s surprisingly magnanimous.
It was a significant moment as her unfavorable image transformed into a favorable one.
#
“That’s the last one, but there’s a mind blocking the way here. Hmm.”
As Nutricha pointed to a certain spot, I could indeed see a dark orb obstructing the path.
“What should we do?”
“Umm. We have no choice. Let’s go in and out. It might take a little time.”
Nutricha’s words made me nod, and I took her hand as we entered that space.
I felt like strange information was flowing into my head, and when I started experiencing a slight headache, I opened my eyes in a daze.
A little girl was crying.
She was holding onto a corpse with half her chest torn open, bleeding profusely like water.
Beside her were chunks of meat and debris, neatly prepared like food.
The girl was crying sorrowfully.
And thanks to the information that came to my mind, I knew.
The girl’s father had suffered at the hands of an outsider.
The tears of this girl were filled with an immense wrath that we couldn’t comprehend, not sadness.
These tears would rob this girl of all her emotions.
Oh, what a pitiful child this is.
“What are you doing?”
Nutricha called out to me.
But despite knowing it was a dream, I found it impossible to just walk past such a scene.
“Hey, little one.”
I approached the girl.
The little girl turned around with a contorted expression, looking at me with confusion.
As if she recognized me.
Well, there are many similar faces, so it could be a misunderstanding.
Could there be a resemblance to anyone with white hair?
Anyway.
I don’t know.
How to comfort this girl.
What kind of emotions she is feeling.
But my intentions didn’t change.
“…?”
“Feel free to cry.”
Even though she was a stranger, I embraced her more tightly than anything else.
“In this moment, I will carry all of your sorrow.”
Did my words reach the little girl?
She cried out, and the intense vengefulness gradually began to subside, even if just a little.
“Hey!”
While I comforted that girl, Nutricha grabbed the back of my neck and pulled me.
In an instant, we broke free from that mental space.
“Interfering is fine, but not right now!”
“…?”
“If that space disappears, it’ll be hard to find the unconscious! That mind almost woke up!”
Ah.
That’s true.
I felt a bit sheepish and scratched my head.
“Sorry.”
“Sigh… If a third party saw me, they’d think I’m human.”
Nutricha said that, reached into the wall of the unconscious, and pulled out the last contract, destroying it with her hands.
“Phew. It’s done.”
“You worked hard.”
“If you know, think about what to do next time.”
Having finished the last task.
“Well then, see you later.”
Nutricha smiled happily and waved her hand, snapping her fingers with the other hand.
“…”
I woke up.
Phew.
Finally, it’s over.
It seems I successfully prevented another potential catastrophe this time.
Hearing the commotion around me, I realized others were waking up as well.
I immediately headed to the Deputy Director’s office to report the situation and hand over responsibilities, but for some reason, the still-sleeping Deputy Director kept lingering in my mind.
Was he really that tired?
Well, considering how many papers he had to check and stamp, how could it be easy?
I thought I should go back, rest a bit, and organize my thoughts.
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