The bewildered Miss March 7th was lost in the dream.
"Making me dream while I'm in a dream? But why..."
March 7th's head was spinning. She couldn't figure out why Penacony would do such a thing.
Noldrei grabbed two teacups, placed a spoon in one of them, and said, "You dunce! Come here! I'll explain it to you."
March 7th's gaze fell on the teacups on the table.
Inside one of them was a small coffee-stirring spoon.
"This little silver spoon is your main self in the dream, which is the 'you' right now."
"Then, Cup A is your current dream world, the world of The Reverie Hotel that we entered directly upon dreaming."
"Cup B is the second-layer dream, the so-called dream-within-a-dream. But you need to understand one important thing: the two dreams are not in a nested relationship, but a parallel one."
"Under the influence of Memoria, a person's mental and physical form feels dazed. In other words, your mind loses its basic perception of time and space. At this point, a third party appears—my hand."
As he spoke, Noldrei moved the small spoon from Cup A to Cup B. "I will create a guide for you in Cup A, making you 'enter a dream' through a real 'sleeping experience' here. This will make you think you've entered a dream, and then I'll switch you over to Cup B."
"That way, you will believe you are in a dream-within-a-dream."
"Got it? In other words, this body I'm in right now is not Stelle's 'silver spoon' in the dream. The real 'silver spoon' has already been moved to Cup B by someone using Memoria and other powers. I'm just borrowing this shell sculpted from Memoria. In fact, I used Stelle's 'ID card' in her pool to enter the dream and find you. Do you understand now?"
Noldrei's explanation was more than thorough enough. Even a brain as... challenged... as March 7th's could grasp the current situation.
She pointed at the dreampool in shock. "You mean to say, that thing isn't a tool for entering dreams at all? We already experienced the real tool for entering the dream back in reality. This thing is a teleportation device within the dream, like an anchor point! Is that what you mean?"
For once, Noldrei gave her brain a thumbs-up. He nodded. "Correct. See? You're not that dumb."
"Then what about Stelle? Where was she teleported to?"
March 7th was now extremely worried about Stelle's condition. According to Noldrei, the current Stelle wasn't in The Reverie Hotel at all but had been teleported to some unknown location.
She never would have imagined that one's perception could be manipulated like this within a dream. If March 7th had experienced this herself, she definitely wouldn't have been able to tell if the dream was real or fake.
"She's been isolated by a Memoriascape constructed from Memoria. In other words, the entity thinking in Stelle's place right now is not her body, but her own consciousness, which has reverse-penetrated into this Memoria-rich Asdana star system."
"That's why everyone is able to have the same, interconnected dream world in this state."
Noldrei's explanation, instead of clarifying things for March 7th, only made her more confused.
"What does that mean?" she asked, baffled. "What do you mean it's not Stelle herself dreaming? Is it possible to dream without using your own body?"
Noldrei shook his head. He hadn't expected this situation to arise either.
Under normal circumstances, he would have been able to link with Stelle's perception and will, sharing a single dream and body. But in reality, the Memoria-constructed Penacony had clearly distinguished between the two consciousnesses, even in cases of split personalities or dual-consciousness states like that of a Herrscher.
Thus, Penacony had very clearly separated the two consciousnesses and had them enter the dreamscape individually.
That was the current situation. This dreamscape of Penacony had singled out Stelle's consciousness and constructed a separate "Cup B" dream for her.
Stelle's conscious structure was completely different from Noldrei's. Noldrei's was a purely material-based consciousness; he could only obtain information from Stelle's physical perception. This was why the Herrscher of Sentience couldn't find Noldrei's consciousness.
But the people of this world were different. Consciousness was a special existence, independent of the body. Even without a material structure, consciousness was still consciousness.
Noldrei found it hard to comment on such absurd cosmic laws, but in this world, those were the rules.
Noldrei had indeed delved into the dream state of the physical body and had also smuggled himself into this Penacony dream world with Stelle.
But upon entering the Memoria-based dream world, they had been separated and isolated from each other.
"I can't easily find Stelle's location right now," Noldrei said. "So I decided to just wake up and check out the situation in this dream's Reverie Hotel. I'll leave this place to you to enter the dream for now. Stelle will eventually return to this shell."
March 7th found the whole thing a bit ridiculous. She asked, full of doubt and uncertainty, "If Stelle comes back, where will she appear? Or will something else happen? She's not going to possess me, is she?"
"What are you thinking?" Noldrei felt March 7th was overthinking things.
He smiled and asked, "Do you think when we sleep in a dream, people might sleepwalk? You can think of my current state as Stelle's body sleepwalking. From Penacony's perspective, their detection would show..."
"Stelle has fallen asleep and entered a deeper dream. But her body has shared or linked with a consciousness-like activity, resulting in a special form of sleepwalking. So, what do you think that room key is? It's a tool for identification. If you don't believe me, you can try swapping Stelle's room key with yours and see if it produces any special effects."
March 7th frantically shook her head. "No, no, no, forget it! I don't want to deal with that. I wouldn't dare do that kind of experiment. It would be bad if something went wrong."
She crossed her hands in an 'X' in front of her chest, not wanting any such accidents to happen to her.
"Besides," Noldrei continued, "it will take time for Stelle to wake up, and she won't necessarily wake up in the pool. She's already set off to find the Clockmaker's Legacy. I've given her more than enough knowledge about dreams and the like."
"It's just the Clockmaker's Legacy. It's no match for the current Stelle."
March 7th hadn't expected Noldrei to have so much faith in Stelle.
Given Stelle's fluctuating intelligence, even she, March 7th, found it hard to muster that level of trust.
'*From the looks of it, he doesn't seem like a bad guy.*'