CHAPTER 841: AUDREY’S DREAM

"Who is it?" Audrey called out, even though she was already sure in her heart that it could only be Mr. Tower outside her bedroom. After all, no one else would knock at this hour.

"It’s me, Miss Audrey... May I come in?" Ebner’s deep voice came from outside.

Audrey was startled—she hadn’t expected him to answer so loudly... But after a dozen seconds passed without hearing any scolding from her servants or bodyguards, nor Susie’s barking, she understood that Mr. Tower must have used some method to keep their movements unnoticed.

Honestly, Mr. Tower’s abilities were truly frightening... Fortunately, even though his reputation wasn’t the best, he was still a fairly upright person. He never used his "invisibility" to stalk a lady, and even before entering my room at night, he courteously asked for permission...

That made sense. If he were really some kind of creep, Xio and Fors wouldn’t be so close to him.

While thinking this, Audrey straightened her clothes before standing up and saying toward the door, "Come in."

As soon as her voice fell, a figure phased through the wooden door and entered the bedroom.

"Mr. Tower, it seems like you’re quite experienced in knocking on a lady’s door in the middle of the night." Audrey’s eyes twinkled with humor as she teased, easing the awkwardness of meeting her "internet friend" in person.

"No, quite the opposite. Usually, it’s the ladies who come knocking on my window at night..." Ebner replied "sincerely."

It was, after all, the truth.

"Xio or Fors?" Audrey asked meaningfully, probing for Mr. Tower’s attitude toward her two friends and trying to find out which one he liked.

"Both," Ebner replied simply, offering no further explanation.

Even though Fors hadn’t knocked on his window, she had teleported onto his bed before...

Audrey discreetly activated her Telepathist ability but couldn’t glean any emotional leaning from Ebner. Realizing that he had methods to suppress the powers of the Spectator pathway, she stopped pursuing the question and instead asked, "Mr. Tower, when did you realize I was ’Justice’?"

I knew even before I transmigrated... Ebner smiled and said, "Miss Justice, you once asked Xio and Fors to investigate Vice Admiral Hurricane Qilangos; the Roselle Diaries you bought from Xio—some of those pages originally came from me; and when Qilangos tried to assassinate Duke Negan, I was also there, and noticed when you reported the matter to Earl Hall..."

He hadn’t even finished when Audrey already gave a polite smile and said self-deprecatingly, "So I left that many clues... And here I thought I was doing a great job hiding it..."

Without dwelling on it, she moved straight to the real topic of this "date." "Mr. Tower, can we begin exploring the Sea of Collective Subconscious now?

Also, have you completed the item or ritual you promised me for traveling through dreams?"

Ebner nodded slightly and handed her a dragon scale as he spoke. "I’ve developed a ritual well-suited to you.

From now on, I’ll take you through dream exploration while teaching you.

As for that scale, it’s a casting aid. It increases the success rate of the ritual."

Audrey studied the scale for a moment and saw that, unlike the ugly sub-dragon scales in her family’s collection, this one was crystalline and beautifully dreamlike—perfectly matching her aesthetic preferences for such items.

In fact, when Ebner crafted the item, he had deliberately refined its appearance based on the scales of the "Northern King," Ulyssan...

"Mr. Tower, what do I owe you for this item and the accompanying ritual?" Audrey thought for a moment. She preferred to settle payments up front rather than keep them lingering in her heart.

Ebner was well prepared and asked with a smile, "Are you familiar with Suhit Bank?"

"Yes... My father is the third-largest shareholder of that bank," Audrey replied after a moment’s thought, recognizing it as one of her family’s assets. She asked with some confusion, "Mr. Tower, why do you bring it up?"

"What I want as payment... is for you to replace the agent Earl Hall planted in Suhit Bank," Ebner stated plainly.

According to the intel provided by Cero, the agent placed by Earl Hall in Intis was too close to the Delien family and might, at a crucial moment, violate the earl’s neutral policy and act against the interests of the Surrey family...

Such an unstable factor naturally needed to be removed.

Audrey hadn’t expected Mr. Tower to request something like this. After thinking it over for a while, she asked, "May I ask why?"

"Because he may have already been bought off and could obstruct my plans..." Ebner didn’t hide the truth from her and explained the entire situation with Suhit Bank in detail.

The Surrey family... So Mr. Tower is doing this for Miss Fanny Surrey? Audrey nodded thoughtfully, then smiled, lifted her skirt, and gave a formal curtsy. "I’ll do my best to help you achieve this goal."

This was both for Mr. Tower and for her father. After all, if that manager really got involved in the power struggles of the Intis noble families, her father’s side could end up at a disadvantage... Such a parasite ought to be eliminated as soon as possible! Audrey thought.

With the matter settled, Ebner didn’t linger and, with a gentle smile, said, "Miss Audrey, may I have the honor of inviting you on a dream adventure?"

With that, he made a formal gesture of invitation as if asking for a dance.

Audrey pressed her lips together, took the blue cloak from the coat rack beside her, draped it over her shoulders, and reached out to place her hand in Ebner’s.

Immediately, the surrounding scenery changed. The familiar dressing table and bed disappeared, replaced by a grassy field, where several hounds were sprinting full speed across the terrain, chasing a fox.

Leading the pack was a large golden retriever, far ahead of the others...

This isn’t the real world... This is... Susie’s dream? Audrey instantly made the judgment and was surprised to find she had remained lucid without using any special technique.

"The first lesson in dream exploration is how to remain lucid in the dream..." Ebner’s voice sounded in her ear as he began to patiently explain the principles and methods of lucid dreaming.

Audrey nodded along as she listened, glancing at Susie—who was racking up "victories" on the grass—and mused: Looks like Susie still minds being eliminated from the fox hunt training... Hmm, as a psychiatrist, and as Susie’s good friend, I really need to talk her through this when we get back.

—Susie was never really a qualified hunting dog, which is why she ended up as a freebie when Earl Hall bought the foxhounds.

Ebner paid no mind to Audrey’s thoughts. After finishing his explanation of this part of the knowledge, he walked to the edge of the grassland and arrived before a "door" — the entrance and exit of this dream.

Ebner took Audrey’s hand with one hand and reached out with the other to grasp the handle, gently twisting and pulling it open.

The corridor of the Hall family castle immediately appeared before their eyes.

The main building of this castle was already hundreds of years old, and many parts retained their original features. Especially the corridors — there were no gas wall lamps; instead, on the walls were mounted one candleholder after another, made of either silver or copper, holding varying numbers of candles that emitted a dim, yellowish light. The entire corridor was thus faintly illuminated, giving a feeling as if it could be haunted at any moment.

The dream even replicated this... which meant this place was actually constructed from the collective subconscious of everyone in the manor... hmm, including Susie and all others? Each room represented a separate dream? Audrey glanced around, forming some guesses, and asked Ebner for confirmation, to which he responded affirmatively.

Then, while explaining the ritual model to enter the Sea of Collective Subconscious, Ebner led Audrey walking along the carpet that extended at their feet. Soon they arrived in front of several doors that strongly sparked Audrey’s curiosity.

This was her father and mother’s bedroom, this was Hibert’s room, this was Annie’s room...

Each classical door, decorated with reliefs and bathed in the dim candlelight, looked especially mysterious, making one want to know what secrets lay beyond.

Her thoughts racing, Audrey felt eager to explore the inner worlds behind each door.

But faintly, she also felt uneasy and resistant to such actions.

At that moment, Ebner’s voice rang out again:

"In dreams, you must learn restraint and respect for others.

"Greedily probing into others’ hearts, digging out their secrets and privacy, will ultimately backfire on yourself!

"This is a simple truth: everyone harbors some darkness, some bad thoughts, but most keep them well-controlled so as not to affect their behavior. In such cases, if you persist in digging out these thoughts and the ugly parts beneath the masks, you will become deeply disappointed in human nature and be immersed in all sorts of negative consciousness...

"We are still at a low level now, so it’s not a big problem, but once we gain divinity, we’ll gradually go mad without realizing it.

"So unless necessary, don’t dig into the deepest secrets of others’ souls...

"The reason I chose Susie as the starting point for this ’journey’ is because her heart is relatively pure, without dark sides or secrets..."

While giving this warning, Ebner also explained the spell structure of the dream ritual about how to enter another’s soul island.

Having had similar insights before, Audrey nodded repeatedly, but when he finished, she said with a strange expression, "Mr. Tower, you seem to know a lot about Susie..."

There was an odd tone to that...

Ebner stopped walking, glanced at Audrey a few times, and as he resumed stepping forward, casually said, "Actually, I know quite a bit about you too."

"What do you know about me?" Audrey caught up to his pace and asked in surprise.

"For example, the story of ’The Beautiful Young Detective Audrey and Her Assistant Susie’..." Ebner replied "seriously."

Audrey’s face stiffened and she blurted out, "How do you know that?" As far as she remembered, she had only whispered it to Susie.

By then, Ebner had led Audrey, draped in her blue cloak, all the way to the end of the corridor.

Here was Audrey’s own room.

"Of course, I learned it from here..." Ebner said with a smile, pointing at the carved door.

"Why is my room here?" Audrey asked, puzzled.

"Because last time, your encounter with that lady in the crystal cave started from the edge of your own dream and entered the Sea of Collective Subconscious...

"This time, naturally, you have to repeat your previous route." Ebner answered with a smile.

"So... in reality, I was actually asleep?" Audrey suddenly realized that the part of her that entered the dream must have been just her spirit.

"Don’t worry, I put you back in bed and covered you with the quilt..." Ebner said "kindly." "Now, this door is for you to open, using the ritual I just taught you."

You don’t say that to make me feel better... Audrey pursed her lips, knowing this was just Mr. Tower’s little "pranks," so she didn’t really mind. What she cared about more was what she would dream about...

Hopefully, it wouldn’t be too childish, or else Mr. Tower would tease her again...

Taking a few deep breaths, Audrey followed the previous instructions, activating the ritual in her palm, then grasped the door handle.

As the wooden door opened, the scene inside gradually appeared.

Within the doorway, Audrey held a torch high, passionately delivering a speech to a crowd. Then, like a hero, she led the people through fierce battles, defeating invading demons, and rescuing two princesses kidnapped by the demons...

The faces of the invading demons bore a striking resemblance to Ebner.

Seeing this, Audrey couldn’t help but cover her face.

"So it was a ’hero’ dream... nothing to be ashamed of... but next time, maybe the ’villain’ should be played by someone else..." Ebner nodded and said "tactfully."

Audrey composed herself and analyzed seriously, "Maybe it’s because I’ve always envied your ’hero detective’ title, so subconsciously I wanted to surpass you, which led to this ’projection’ in the dream... Actually, I respect you a lot, Mr. Tower."

"Surpass me? Judging by this dream, you’re actually trying to stomp me underfoot, right? And those two ’princesses’—look closely, they resemble Xio and Fors..." Ebner glanced at the still "seriously" analyzing Audrey but didn’t expose her.

Next, the two of them arrived at the edge of this dream, atop a cliff.

Looking outward, a gray mist stretched endlessly, and below it was a bottomless abyss.

Last time, Audrey had used her manifested staircase to delve deep into the Sea of Collective Consciousness... This time, Ebner taught her the final structure of the ritual: manifesting the projection of the soul dragon!

Normally, without someone like Ebner—who was a demigo "Bone Dragon"—Audrey would have almost no chance to perform a ritual of such caliber on her own... That was why Ebner gave her that beautiful dragon scale as a medium.

And that dragon scale was kindly provided by Miss Closfia.

(End of Chapter)