Chapter 995: Artoria's Winter Dream
"Hmm..."
Eiji fell into deep thought.
The first scene seemed to be about her receiving excessively high expectations from the villagers, for now.
Dreams, at best, only allowed him to observe others' dreams from a third-person perspective; he couldn't immerse himself in them to experience that person's feelings.
What exactly was going through six-year-old Artoria's mind when she faced this scene? Eiji had no way of knowing.
However.
Her shift from enthusiasm to indifference bothered him a little.
After some consideration, Eiji deliberately intensified the dream's vividness, striving to restore the scene from the depths of Artoria's memory to the greatest extent possible!
"You must train quickly, so diligently that you won't even spare time for sleep. After all, the fairies in the village are all too weak, so you need to grow stronger as soon as possible—at least enough to look like the Child of Prophecy."
Before leaving, Mother muttered sorrowfully.
Her words made the smile return to Artoria's face.
"I understand, Mother."
What a hollow smile it was.
Just like during dinner earlier, it was a deliberately feigned smile.
And this was merely the smile of a six-year-old child!
This scene left Eiji feeling somewhat displeased.
But before he could ponder further, the dream transitioned into the second scene.
"Artoria!"
"Sharon!"
In the golden fields, facing the young fairy girl approaching her, Artoria ran over with an equally bright smile.
A friend?
Eiji temporarily pushed aside the slight sense of incongruity in his heart and made this guess.
"Artoria, has your fairy crest been growing?"
The young fairy named Sharon asked cheerfully, clicking her tongue in amazement as she examined her.
"You do seem to have grown a bit taller compared to last year. Honestly, it's a little creepy! Oh, I spoke without thinking—don't mind me. You know, fairies in the Fairy Kingdom don't have the concept of growth. Most of us stay exactly as we were when we were born!"
"It's fine, I know."
Artoria showed an understanding smile.
"Everyone in the village thinks that if you keep growing like this, you'll definitely become the true Child of Prophecy. They're all a bit afraid of you now. But I don't see what the big deal is. Whether it's a lowly creature or a noble one, our attitude should remain the same. That's what it means to be a cultivated fairy, right?"
Sharon seemed to have been lectured by many people, chattering away with complaints in front of her.
"After all, sla—"
The second scene abruptly ended.
The setting changed once again.
Eiji raised an eyebrow.
"Why did it end so abruptly?"
Could it be that Artoria's heart was refusing to continue this dream?
If so, what was she resisting?
What connection did it have with that last unfinished sentence from her childhood friend?
What exactly was that final, unspoken sentence?
The third scene began.
It was a winter night.
Outside the window, everything was blanketed in thick snowflakes. The endless coastline was draped in a silver-white coat of snow.
Eiji frowned deeply.
If the previous two scenes had only made him feel slightly uneasy, this scene made him completely understand where the sense of dissonance was coming from!
Little Artoria held food in her hands that looked as unappetizing as chaff, eating it bite by bite without complaint, chewing and swallowing mechanically.
Her lifeless appearance was utterly unlike that of a six-year-old child!
After finishing what could barely be called dinner, Artoria lay down among the hay, covering herself with it as if it were a blanket.
A hole in the corner of the room let in a bone-chilling cold, causing the small Artoria to shiver uncontrollably.
Her tiny toes, exposed to the air, were red and swollen from the cold.
Eiji's expression darkened.
Without a word, he zoomed out the perspective of the dream, displaying the entire village of Tintagel like a flat map before him.
Hundreds of households were tucked away in tightly built tiled houses, completely impervious to the cold. Inside, firewood burned in stoves, warming the entire dwellings.
Only this wooden shack stood a kilometer away from the village.
It looked exactly like a stable.
There was no stove, no firewood, no blankets, no bedding.
Only damp hay and walls full of holes.
This was the world in Artoria's dream.
Though it might differ slightly from the actual circumstances of the time, it was more than enough for Eiji to understand what kind of environment she had lived in.
"Is this the treatment of the Child of Prophecy???"
Eiji angrily typed out several question marks in his mind.
"Even raising livestock is treated better than this! Do these fairies really see her as the Child of Prophecy, or as a slave?!"
She was, after all, the True King destined to defeat the Queen in the future!
Instead of giving her good food and drink, teaching her proper knowledge and principles, you treat her like you're raising pigs or horses? Never mind whether you're afraid she'll take revenge on you in the future—with this kind of attitude and treatment, how dare you expect her to help you in return?
Have your brains been eaten by pigs?
No, wait.
Slaves?
Suddenly, Eiji understood the meaning behind the last words of her childhood friend in the second scene.
"Everyone in the village is a bit afraid of you now, but I won't change. I'll treat you the same as always—"
"After all, a slave is just a slave!"
No wonder the scene skipped over as soon as it reached that point!
A childhood friend like that wasn't worth keeping!
The soul-crushing words were unbearable!
Damn it, I can't watch this anymore!
Snap!
Eiji snapped his fingers.
In the dream.
The narrow stable and hay suddenly vanished.
In their place stood a massive castle and a soft bed. Air conditioning, seemingly operating on its own, blew warm air from every corner, filling the spacious bedroom with warmth.
As little Artoria stared in shock, servants filed in, dressing her in a beautiful gown embroidered with lace and placing a brilliant golden crown on her head.
Countless dishes, so lavish she couldn't even name them, appeared before her. Jewelry rained down from above as if it were free.
"Hah..."
Eiji opened his eyes and let out a short, heavy sigh.
Under the night sky, everyone was still asleep.
Gudao and Mash slept facing each other, though for some reason, their faces were flushed, and they occasionally trembled.
Artoria's stiff sleeping posture gradually relaxed, with a suspicious glistening fluid trickling from the corner of her mouth.
"Hehe~"
A lewd chuckle emerged from the darkness.
Eiji turned to look and spotted Grim, who was keeping night watch.
He winked suggestively at Eiji, his gaze repeatedly shifting between Gudao and Mashu.
After all, the God of Wisdom lived up to his name—he already knew what Eiji was up to.
"Piss off!"
Eiji gave him a friendly smile before crawling into his sleeping bag.
Though he had become the Lord of Dreams, he remained human at his core and still needed sleep. It was no issue—as long as he entered deep sleep, two hours would suffice to soothe his mental fatigue.
In the darkness, a pair of azure eyes opened, their pupils vertically slit like a cat's, sending chills down one's spine.
After hesitating for a long while, those eyes ultimately faded slowly away.