47 Nostalgic Dream (1/2)
”They promised us that dreams can come true, without mentioning that nightmares are dreams too.”
-Oscar Wilde
━━━━━━━━┓ ✠ ┏━━━━━━━━
Decadence yet ruled again on that darkest hour.
Dismally, almost half of the participants are now dead even before the warfare's commencement. As they chose to eternally secure their deaths to the hands of Hades. And they're not even sure if such a haven for them exists in the afterlife nor do they have an assurance of Hades' provision.
It never did occur to me, that in the frailty of logical ability, they were able to find the strength to leave the warfare just by persuading others to do it with them. It's the concept of Herd Mentality at work. ”If others do it, then it MUST be ok”, probably that's what was running on their minds when they did it, without thinking twice.
Petty riddance. It may be that they made the right decision, but the merit of disappearing is not just worth the risk.
With dead bodies everywhere, and with local authorities nowhere to be seen...I trended the grim road myself while carrying Shiro and the recently obtained food for dinner. I made sure that she will not see anything, neither does she hear of the cries of those that are left.
After that, I and Shiro found a peaceful place where we can eat and probably take a little nap. A hotel is nearby and there's no one on the front desk. The facility is yet empty again. And to authenticate that nothing weird will suddenly come up out of nowhere, I tried to sense if any dark charisma or ill intent is around, but so far so good. There are people on the upper floors, but it looks like they are normal. No signs of bleak aura. Good...
I'll just leave my payment on the cashier and get a vacant room's key.
With that done, we took the weirdly working elevator towards the third floor where a room is supposedly listed as 'vacant'. walked through the lobbies and then opened the fancy-looking door. What awaited us inside is this mediocre, yet a surprisingly neat place to spend the night.
Shiro and I then finished eating our 'hard-earned' kiddy meal with a little 'Itadakimasu' on the start as per the kid's culture. I then placed her in the bed as it's becoming more apparent, the drowsiness that she's in, and put a blanket on her.
I checked my clock and it's now 12 AM. Three hours to go before the city's ephemeral lockdown. Three more hours before we will have to experience what this NÆthervale really is and the whole concept of the Ethereal Paradigm. I just hope that the denizens of this realm are far more acceptable than those weirdos.
”Oni-chama, What happened? You suddenly covered my eyes and I heard many horrible things.” Shiro suddenly initiated a conversation with a very exhausted face, second to mine.
”Oh, you should not worry about it, Shiro,” I answered
” Why don't you get some sleep? We might be able to see another pegasus tomorrow you know? Or even more.”
”Hontoni?” (English: Really?)
”Yes”, so I said, even feeling unsure of the fact of what we are gonna meet outside this city's perimeters. Will we see more creatures from children's fairy tales? Or something else entirely. I just hope that it's none like that Cheshire Cat which is both from a fairy tale and whose face is 'something else entirely', sarcastically thinking.