Bab 33: Threshold of Dreams and Reality
"Phoenix," Ru muttered.
"What do you mean by Phoenix?" asked the bumpkin.
"Phoenix, the answer to the riddle," Ru said.
The bumpkin exclaimed excitedly, "Doctor! Doctor! Rui's consciousness has returned!"
"I can't come back yet, I haven't received my reward," Ru murmured.
The bumpkin kept shouting, "Doctor! Nurse!"
"Go scream outside, you're disturbing my meditation right now," Ru said, opening one eye.
"Alright," said the bumpkin, also known as Vaelan, and practically hurled himself out of the room.
Ru closed his eyes again and tried to picture the Golden Palace. Then he worked to place himself in the vision.
"You must still be around here somewhere," he thought and imagined the bucket and the scoop. In his imagination, he was looking at the water and seeing the reflection. He was even arguing with the reflection.
"Phoenix, the answer to that riddle. Besides, you can't have banished me from the dimension. Because I didn't drink water yet."
Someone grabbed Ru's eye with their fingers and pried it open.
"Get the fuck out of my face," he growled.
When the light aimed at his iris, he didn't hesitate to snap at whom he assumed was a doctor: "I told you, I'm not going back to this shitty world of yours! Get away from me, you sons of bitches!"
Then he closed one of his eyes and placed himself in the imaginary scene.
"I'm talking to you, Reflection. At least show me the djinn's seal, so that when the masked maniac attacks, I have something to give him."
That's how he was speaking nonsense. Sometimes he furiously slapped the air and screamed, "Leave me alone, fuck you!"
Suddenly he felt pain in his arm.
"Oh, dang it! I got shot again," he grumbled. Then he cheered, "But thanks to the meds, I'm off to the palace, tra-la-la-la!"
"I administered some sedatives, don't fret, he'll be alright," the doctor assured Vaelan.
"Thank you, doctor," Vaelan said, feeling genuinely relieved. He had been waiting for Rui to wake up for exactly sixteen months, two weeks, and three days. Everything had been harder for Vaelan in Rui's absence. Since the death of his stepfather, he had felt like he was sinking into a swamp.
Mr. Thargata had died from a lightning strike while playing golf in the backyard of the mansion. Following this unexpected disaster, all known and unknown heirs had descended upon Mrs. First Thargata like vultures.
Vaelan was fond of his stepmother and loved her, even though he couldn't see her as a mother figure. He felt happy and at peace when he was with her. But the poor woman, who had been deeply saddened by her husband's death, couldn't seem to pull herself together. Lately, she had become quite clumsy. That's why her death had been as sudden as Mr. Thargata's. She stepped on a banana peel on the stairs, slipped, rolled, and crashed onto the ground floor.
This death was especially horrifying to Vaelan, who hadn't been able to shake the taste of bananas off his tongue since the day it happened. Vaelan believed that he had caused Elena Thargata's death, even though he was not in the habit of throwing banana peels on the ground.
"You know, Rui. I've become like you. I confuse reality with fantasy. In a way, I need you because you understand crazy people. You understand me best, bro."
Vaelan had been saying sentences like that in his hospital room for a long time. Until an unexpected visitor approached his doctor to inquire about Rui's condition.
"I'm Claude Leblanc, a psychiatrist."
Vaelan stared at Claude's face for a long time. Claude said he was a psychiatrist, but he looked too young to be one.
"Did you study medicine as a child? Or did you have plastic surgery to look younger?" Vaelan asked, trying to figure out how old Claude was.
"I'd say my IQ is pretty high," Claude replied shyly.
"Okay, you're the noob doctor Rui was talking about," Vaelan said.
"Yes, I'm that noob," Claude said.
"You are exactly what I need. I'm Vaelan, Rui's brother, but half-brother. My stepfather, Mr. Thargata, disowned Rui the day before he died. He wanted to send him back to the orphanage. I think that's why he was struck by lightning, but my mother had nothing to do with it. She always loved Rui, or maybe I thought she did, I don't know," Vaelan said. He had haphazardly engaged in a conversation with Claude.
He was really worried because it was uncertain who would pay for Rui's medical expenses. Dr. Claude Leblanc had promised to take care of this situation.
It soon became clear that Claude Leblanc had been true to his word and had closely monitored both Ru's health and the official procedures. Furthermore, Claude volunteered to cure Vaelan's depression.
On the day that the comatose Ru woke up and began to babble, Vaelan had turned seventeen years old. The recovery of the person he considered his brother was the best birthday present he could have received. He had already shared this happy news and his feelings with Dr. Claude Leblanc.
"Rui's birthday is at the end of May. He'll be sixteen. We'll blow out the candles together," he said last to Claude on the other end of the phone.
As the sun was setting, he entered Ru's room again and found him grumbling again.
"Screw you, Reflection! You can't limit me to just one answer. My second guess is human, and my third one is a virus," Ru murmured.
Vaelan leaned in gently and whispered in his ear, "What riddle? Ask me, I may know the answer."
Ru opened one eye and asked, "Really?"
"Yes, ask me," Vaelan replied quietly.
"Who comes to life twice, who gets beautiful when ugly, who multiplies and dies, who rises from the earth to the sky," Ru murmured.
Inwardly, he prayed to his goddess that Vaelan would not know the answer. But how would Ru know if Vaelan's answer was correct or incorrect? "Hmm, I'll go online and find out," he thought.
"Simple," Vaelan said with a smile and answered: "A butterfly or butterflies."
"Fuck," said Ru, suddenly sitting up in bed.
"What happened? Why are you stuck on this riddle," Vaelan asked, still smiling.
"Because I said Phoenix. A fucking phoenix," Ru growled.
"Calm down, dude. You're not gonna die just because you got the answer to a riddle wrong, right? Look, it's over, whatever you dreamed," Vaelan said in a soothing voice.
"What if it's real and not a dream," Ru asked in panic.
Vaelan replied to this question with a question, "What if it is? What will change, Rui?"
"There's this big apocalyptic event or something, I was gonna attend it," Ru said softly. He was looking around, afraid someone was eavesdropping.
"I can't speak for the grand apocalypse, but the mini ones? They're a dime a dozen. Wars, deaths, diseases... it's all part of human stupidity, isn't it?" Vaelan said, with a theatrical air of disillusionment.
"So you're saying it's a dream, there is no apocalypse and no show," Ru said, looking him straight in the eye.
"No," Vaelan said nonchalantly. He was preparing to tell of the unexpected passing of their stepparents. That's why he was gazing out the window, the final beams of the setting sun casting a warm glow on his face.
Suddenly, Vaelan turned his eyes, red as the sun, to Ru. The expression on his face was evil, contrary to Vaelan's nature. "Three years until the great apocalypse of planet Earth," he said in a mischievous and shrill voice.
Ru went into shock. "Wh-what?" he could only stutter.
"The Phantasmagoria Show is real, and you have to get in the game, Dad," said the Clockmaker who had awakened inside Vaelan.
Ru put his index finger to his chest and stammered, "Me?"
"Yes, you. Have you forgotten? You're our king, and you're the one who created us. You've made a decision: you'll join the game to save the world."
"I disagree with Great Ru's decision," Ru stated firmly.
"But, Dad, if you don't do this, the world will be destroyed," said Clockmaker, her voice filled with emotion.
"Well, I don't care," Ru said, with a hint of disinterest.
"That's why Almighty Ru created you. And my sisters died for this cause," Clockmaker said sadly.
"Not my circus, not my monkeys," Ru said.
Vaelan slowly rose to his feet. Clockmaker said, looking away from Ru, "You know, you're not that different from the original. You're just as selfish."
Ru muttered after watching Clockmaker in the Vaelan's body for a while, “It's been a while since I've heard little girls calling me 'daddy,' and I haven't seen any demons recently. I thought I was over that feeling… until this vampire with a pink cat mask and a red hood showed up.”
Vaelan turned to face Ru, and the Watchmaker asked, "Vampire?"
"Don't tell me you don't know about vampires," Ru said, frowning.
"I know, but I don't know the vampire you're talking about," the girl purred.
"Interesting. My hallucination is unaware of my other delusions, huh," Ru said skeptically.
As Vaelan's red eyes rolled, Clockmaker said "Puf!"
"That crazy vampire wants the djinn's seal from me," Ru said, clenching his fists.
"Dad, never! Never look for it! That djinn is dreadful. Don't do it," Clockmaker said. At the same time, Vaelan's body was overcome with exaggerated panic.
"Hey, relax!" said Ru, lounging comfortably on the bed. "Why are you afraid of the djinn?"
"Daddy, you must hurry. You will need an invitation to join the game. You should find it. These invitations are given to especially people," Clockmaker said anxiously.
"How can I find such a special invitation? Nonsense," Ru said, crossing his arms over his chest and turning his head away. "I haven't even found the Djinn's seal."
Clockmaker suddenly snapped, "Just shut up!"
"But there was a palace in the sky, a reflection dressed like an Easterner, and..." Ru stopped mid-sentence because he had seen what was seeping from under the door.
That was the pool of blood in motion!
Hadiah
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