Greya walked around Witch’s Town and slowly understood what “carnival for your nightmare” meant.
She could not see where she was going while covered by the mist. Instead, it seemed the strange mist was intelligent, which intentionally led her toward different buildings.
She did not find a single soul from these places. However, from each item and object she saw, she could imagine a nightmarish story.
For example, she visited a butcher house just now and saw a bloody machete that told her how the townsfolk suffered from a violent murderer.
While reading a religious tome inside a dark church, Greya felt as if she were a condemned witch tied to a stake, while the irrational residents watched her burn.
A tattered coat with an arm missing, scattered files in the governmental hall, hazy gardens… Each sight presented her with a “nightmare”, while the entire town was a thriller theme park full of such nightmares.
Compared to Angor’s “feather earring” illusions, the nightmares here were alive. They allowed Greya to enter the stories and experience them.
“Ah, I guess the boy sincerely listened to my request.”
She mentioned two things when telling Angor about the item she wanted. One was that it had to show her the ambiance of the Nightmare Realm, and secondly, it had to be creative.
The particular feeling of the Nightmare Realm was authentic enough.
And Greya had grown a liking to the style of reading stories through nightmares, which was surely creative.
Ever since she became a wizard, she never had many nightmares during her sleep. Angor’s nightmares did not scare her, but he left something in the illusion that manipulated her emotions and forced her heart to beat harder.
She had not seen the entire Witch’s Town yet, but she would like to check the other sections now.
However, she realized she could no longer find a “bus stop”.
She thought about the first bus stop, which was a stone stump and bronze bells, and the iron road sign with a raccoon waiting nearby.
Perhaps the stations all had different designs?
After looking around Witch’s Town to no avail, Greya considered and canceled the illusion.
She took a moment to calm her heartbeat in her hut. It was usually impossible for an apprentice to disturb her mental condition like this, but she had to open up the vulnerable part of her mind just so that Angor’s illusion could affect her.
When she felt good enough, she activated Twinning Wings again.
She did so so that she might start over from the smooth path in front of the blocked cave. However, she entered the illusion only to find herself at Witch’s Town again.
“Angor recorded my progress in the illusion?” Greya muttered in confusion. “You can do that?”
As a wizard, Greya knew a lot about illusions. Yet she had never witnessed a continuous illusion like this one.
Since she could not cheat her way out, she simply moved on and kept looking. As she believed, bus stops should be easy to find.
She was wrong.
Two hours later, she entered a lone house that was built away from other buildings. She had not checked this house yet because nobody in their sane mind would hide a “bus stop” in such a place.
She almost cursed out loud when she noticed that an oil painting hanging on the wall of a room showed a bus stop in it.
“Don’t you tell me this is used for summoning that cat!” Her lips twitched.
She put a hand on the painting, and in the next second, she was drawn inside and was standing right next to the bus stop.
Soon, she heard familiar running noises coming toward her. Across thick mist, she saw two shining “headlights” getting bigger.
Do you think this is funny, Angor?! Greya rubbed her temples when she saw the giant ginger cat showing up in her view.
“Cat Bus at your service, beautify lady.”
Greya wondered what to tell the creature.
But she noticed that a little girl with a pair of braided horns was looking around curiously inside the bus.
Oh, it already has a passenger?
“Where is the next stop?” she asked.
“Next stop is the Tree Hotel.”
“Good. I’m going there too.”
Cat Bus nodded and opened its door, allowing Greya to take a seat across the girl.
Greya looked at the girl and noticed that she looked very similar to Shan, just a bit shorter.
Shan was an adult woman despite her young look, which could be easily told when one looked at her eyes. The little girl in front of Greya, however, looked as innocuous and naive as ordinary teenage girls.
“Man. Why would Angor put such an adorable cutie in his illusion? Does he perhaps… have strange tastes?” Greya gazed at the girl to check her.
The girl did not respond to her inspective looks.
As Cat Bus ran at full speed, the girl neglected Greya’s presence and kept looking through the “window”. She had to boost herself by standing on tiptoe and pulling on the window frame because of her inadequate body height.
The wind that assaulted her face did not look very pleasant, but the girl kept calling happily toward the outside of the bus as if she was not bothered at all.
Greya smoothed her hair, which was messed up a little by the wind, and looked at the mist outside. What was there to see?
Her attempts to talk to the girl all received no response.
“She’s like a phantom generated by an illusion…” Greya muttered.
But on second thought, wasn’t she a non-existent phantom in the girl’s view?
“Maybe Angor gave the girl a story as well? But why is he showing me the story of a mortal?” Greya sensed no supernatural signatures from the girl. “And where should I tell the bus to go when we arrive at the Tree Hotel? Ugh, never mind. I’ll just pick somewhere random.”
The Cat Bus finally left the mist-covered area.
Meanwhile, the little girl was yelling louder and louder as if a kid was brought to an amusement park for the first time.
Greya felt a bit annoyed at the noise but did not wish to waste time worrying about an illusionary kid, so she returned her attention to the moon above.
There were plain ground and farm fields along the path. Without mountains to obstruct her view, Greya could see pretty far using the moonlight.
“Is ‘Tree Hotel’ a mortal village?” she wondered.
She suddenly heard gentle melodies coming from a distance.
She didn’t recognize the music, but she found it to be quite pleasant, which sounded extremely soothing at night.
With so many fairytale-style elements around, the journey reminded her of her childhood.
Greya began to understand the purpose of Angor’s illusion.
As Cat Bus came to a halt, the little girl hopped out and ran off to another girl who was waiting for her.
Without getting off the bus, Greya told it to keep going.
Behind her, the two girls ran toward a large tree, hand in hand. There was a strange-looking monster floating above the tree and waiting for them.
Greya saw everything and composed a story in her mind, which involved these characters.
But for now, she wasn’t going to prove her story for real.
By showing her Witch’s Town, Angor was probably telling her to “respect her fear”, while the journey along the giant tree meant to remind her of her initial dreams.
And she needed it. After struggling on the path of wizardry for so many years, she almost forgot about her adolescent ambitions.
She decided to generally check through all the different sections in the illusion before exploring everything on free will.
Next, Cat Bus traveled through the Mermaid Sea, which housed abundant nightmare energy beneath.
Then it was Sky Island and piles of broken metal ruins on it, which seemed to be holding more secrets.
Greya did not tell Cat Bus to stop.
Along her way, she saw many passengers with different looks and styles joining her. Some were cheerful like that little girl, while some of them were trembling in fear… They all had their unique stories waiting to be discovered.
The last stop of Cat Bus was “Mysterious Mountain”—a barren ridge with nothing growing on it.
As she wondered what to do next, she stood up from her seat with a start when more wind traveled through the bus window.
How… What was that?!
