Artoria the Big Liar

"Aside from waking up from this dream within a dream, what chance is there?" A voice exactly like mine came from my ear.I looked towards the source of the voice and saw someone exactly like me, except that her eyes were magical purple, and the smile on the corner of her mouth was ironic and mocking. This expression would never appear on my body.

"I didn't expect the Court of Frustration to be quite powerful. You thought that your past experience was too painful, and you would wake up from the pain as soon as you recalled it. But you forgot about movies, and in the end, even yourself was deceived—— No, it really is still a lot of heat. You need to grow up for another eight years, and it is too early for you now."

Listening to her nagging, a question blurted out from my mouth: "Who are you?"

However, the moment I asked this question, I regretted it—it was very clear who she was.

"Who am I? Ha! That's a stupid question for you to ask." She looked at me contemptuously, and said the answer I already knew: "Who am I but yourself?"

"So, you're my alter ego?" I asked.

"It's not a personality, it's just a reverberation that has lost even its basic functions." After speaking, she sat down and seemed to have a lot to say to me. "The opportunity is really rare. Originally, I could talk to you a lot, but your dream is directly connected to the outside world, and I can't talk if I want to. At most, I can let you talk to yourself."

"So you want to talk a lot this time?"

"Of course. Didn't I say it? The opportunity is rare, and I'm afraid there will be no such opportunity in the future."

"Why? Is something going to happen?" I felt vaguely uneasy when I asked this question.

"A lot of things are going to happen. It has a lot to do with you. But your memory is lost. I said it is useless. Who made you do this? It is said that you want to reach that height, but who do you think you are? ? You have only experienced a few years of life? If even you can reach that height, doesn't that mean that climbing is too easy?"

"I don't understand what you mean, what exactly are you trying to say?"

The other I raised my eyebrows, looking out at the night sky with my magical purple pupils.

Because of the light pollution in the city, the sky is gray and completely devoid of stars, which is not pretty at all.

I didn't rush to ask - I was in a weird state and I couldn't seem to fully control myself.

"Did I just say it? You dreamed again in a dream, and your consciousness entered your subconscious."

"Yes, you did. But what does that have to do with what you said earlier?"

"...Sure enough, if you enter a dream within a dream, people will become stupid." The other me sighed, suppressed my smile, and stared at me seriously: "Think carefully, what do you have to do? Who is waiting for you. It doesn't matter if you can't figure it out, try to recall your father's face—if you can't recall this, then I'm done."

Following another me's instructions, I started recalling.

However, my mind was empty, and there was nothing.

No matter how I recall, I can't recall my father's face, or even his voice.

Just like the movie I watched in the afternoon, no matter how I searched, I couldn't find the movie ticket.

"Hey, really, you really can't remember?"

"I have no idea."

"That's okay." She shrugged, looking disappointed. "Wait. Wait for that person to wake you up. If she can't wake up, you can sleep like this forever. Anyway, no matter how long you sleep, you won't die—maybe. The situation outside is quite troublesome. If you wait too long, you may really die."

I couldn't understand what she was saying.She said a lot, but it felt like a riddle to me.

Then, the next moment, I looked to where she was, and there was nothing there.

I touched the other side of the small sofa, it was cool, the surface was smooth, and there was no trace of anyone sitting on it.

"So that's it. I'm hallucinating... It's strange, why do I have hallucinations?"

Can't figure it out.Simply don't want to.I turned off the TV, closed the door and windows, and lay down on the bed.

But I can't sleep... My heart is inexplicably irritable, it seems to be suppressing the flames, and it will explode at any time.

Time passed very slowly, and the irritability in my heart continued to intensify. When it finally dawned outside, I got up.

The routine went to the bathroom, and I started to clean up my personal hygiene.But when I brushed my teeth, rinsed my mouth, and looked in the mirror, my eyes in the mirror suddenly turned purple.She was still smiling at me with a look of disdain and a haughty look that no one would look down on, and she really deserved a beating.

"Do you want to guess, how long have you experienced the reality outside this night?"

I didn't answer. After wiping my hands with a towel, I turned on the phone and looked at the numbers on the lock screen.

It's six o'clock in the morning, and it's not long before dawn.Calculated by time, I should have passed ten hours last night.

But... no, it shouldn't be like this.It was indeed a long night last night, but it couldn't have been ten hours anyway.Lying in bed and doing nothing for a full ten hours, the irritability in my heart is definitely not at this level...

"It seems that you are aware of it." I said with a sneer in the mirror, her eyes glowed with a dark purple light, and she was extremely seductive—yes, it was the feeling of seductiveness. "Ah, I seem to remember it too. You didn't eat anything last night, right? Are you hungry? Do you want to go out and eat something?"

It seems that there is a feeling of being very hungry.I really should have some breakfast.

With that in mind, I went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.There is a box of bento sold in convenience stores.

I took out the bento and put it in the microwave to heat it up.The shell of the microwave oven is made of metal, reflecting my appearance—but those purple eyes are enough to show that she is another me.

This time she didn't speak.It took 2 minutes for the bento to heat up, and I looked around boredly, trying to fast forward time.

However, my eyes were attracted by one thing—it was a Moka pot, made of aluminum alloy, which seemed to be a well-known brand.However, I never drink coffee, and I don't have coffee beans in my kitchen cupboard.This moka pot looks particularly abrupt, and if you count the burnt marks on its bottom, it is even more abrupt...

"Ding--"

When the heating is complete, the microwave oven will beep.

Then my eyes were attracted, I turned on the microwave oven, and took out yesterday's bento.

Before I left, I glanced and found that the moka pot had disappeared, as if it had never been there.

It's like, it's just an illusion... just like another me, an ordinary illusion【{

Chapter Five: The Entangled Past

◆Mordred◆

I came to the living room with a bento, sat at the dining table, opened it, and tasted it with chopsticks. I felt something was wrong.

Because it is a bento sold in a convenience store, the taste should naturally be average.Although a bit milder than my taste, it is certainly not completely tasteless like sushi.But this box of bento has no taste at all, not even the most basic salty taste, and the rice tastes like old rice that has been stored for five or six years.

At this point, even if I don't want to believe it, I can only admit that this is a dream.

And it's another one I said, it's a dream within a dream, and it's hard to break free from it.

I looked aside.As I expected, another me with strange purple eyes sat beside me.

"Well, believe it now? When a person is dreaming, the tongue is completely dormant. Unless there is a foreign object in the mouth, no matter how simulated the brain is, no matter how real the hallucination is, it is impossible to wake up the tongue."

"What's up with that moka pot?"

"The Moka pot... That Moka pot is used by my father."

I try to remember the past.But there is no memory related to his father at all in his mind.

His face, his voice, everything about him, I can't remember at all.

It's like a laptop with a faulty internal wiring. Although the system hard drive is normal, the warehouse hard drive has lost its connection.No matter how hard you search, the structures you get are pure blanks.

"In that case, how do I wake up from here?"

"When you want to wake up, you wake up naturally."

"What do you mean?"

"It's all about your own will. Your current will doesn't want to wake up."

Hearing the other me say that, I frowned slightly.

This is very strange.This is not always a beautiful dream, but very boring and boring [(

Only good dreams can make people immerse themselves in it, boring dreams will be very depressing, and it won't be long before they wake up.

But here...

"What does a dream in a dream mean? Are there any characteristics?" I put down my chopsticks and looked at my other self.

"I don't know. I'm another you and not my father, how could I know?" The other me laughed at my stupidity. "My personality was shaped by you, and my knowledge is connected to you. You entered the dream within a dream, and I followed suit. Only because I have an independent system, can I say something you don't know now. "

very strange.I can understand every word of what she said, but I can't understand the whole combination.

It's not that her words are so profound, but that the brain is resisting to process the information, just like after eating something wrong, the stomach will wriggle and then vomit.Even shortly after she finished speaking, I forgot exactly what she said, just like a dream before a deep sleep, which is completely forgotten within a few minutes after waking up.

I sighed in disappointment, picked up my chopsticks again, and finished the bento.

Afterwards, I walked out of the room and wandered the streets in midsummer.

It's summer vacation now, I'm a transfer student, and I don't have homework, so I can only do this because I'm bored.

The other me is like a ghost, flashing from time to time in every corner of the perspective and in the reflection of the glass.

I don't remember the name of the city.But the street gave me the feeling that it was both familiar and strange.It seems that two cities are spliced ​​together, and there is a sense of discord and familiarity everywhere.

Sitting on a park bench, eating "Strawberry Haagen-Dazs" without any sweetness and sourness, I started to be in a daze.I stared at this bowl of Haagen-Dazs in a daze.Now that it's in my dream within a dream, it's important.But like that moka pot, I can't think of why it is so important, what it means.

I didn't answer the other one, but took another bowl of Haagen-Dazs and ate it with relish.

"So, why Haagen-Dazs?" In this dream within a dream, if I had any doubts in my mind, I asked directly.

The other I raised my eyebrows and asked in disbelief: "Isn't it? You forgot even this?"

-【(

"Is it important?"

"Very important."

"How important is it?"

"After that incident, when you buy ice cream, you will only buy strawberry-flavored Haagen-Dazs."

"That thing? What do you mean? Is it a very important thing?"

The other one I didn't answer.She just sneered and looked at me contemptuously.

I won't make fun of myself, so I didn't ask.After eating this bowl of Haagen-Dazs, I began to observe it, identify its shape, and try to imagine why I could remember this thing so clearly in my dream. The words, numbers and even the formula on it were clearly remembered. As if it is not an industrial product.

But I can't even imagine, I can only be in a daze here.While in a daze, the flow of time will be extremely fast.

It was still noon when I was eating, and when I woke up a little, the sun had already sunk below the horizon, and only a little afterglow dyed the sunset glow in the sky red.The other me next to the bench disappeared, and I exhaled and returned home with this bowl of Haagen-Dazs box.

I didn't finish my meal because I didn't feel hungry at all.I turned on the TV, and various variety shows were still playing on the TV, trying to make the audience laugh, but I couldn't laugh at all.When the TV was turned off, I couldn't remember what those TV programs actually played, as if the memory hadn't been preserved.

Closing my eyes, I try to sleep.Of course, sleep was impossible, I was just in a daze.

It is useful to be in a daze. Open your eyes again, the sky is blue and the sun is high above it.

Once again I wandered the streets, once again I sat down on a park bench, and again I looked at things in my hands.

This time it's no longer Haagen-Dazs, but a bowl of mushroom and mutton soup.I took a sip, and my eyes widened immediately—it was delicious, beyond my expectation, with the spiciness of pepper, the saltiness of salt, the aroma of mushroom and lamb all integrated together.As long as you take a sip, there is a feeling that you can't stop, and you don't want to stop when your stomach is full.

I look to my side.Sure enough, I was watching the other one, also holding a bowl of mushroom and mutton soup.

"Is this... true?"

"Didn't you just say that? This is a very important thing."

"Just now...? But the last time we met, wasn't it yesterday?"

The other me smiled and didn't speak.

My mind started to become confused, and I couldn't tell if the feeling I had just spent the night was a hallucination.

Or, dreams within dreams are hallucinations that are more chaotic and uncontrollable than dreams.

I stood up and put this bowl of mushroom and mutton soup on the bench in the park, and I continued to walk around at noon.

The other me keeps flashing as before.But as I walked, she flashed more and more frequently.By the time I reached the edge of the city, she had almost fully maintained her presence.It was already dark at this time, and we stood together under the street lights, surrounded by unfinished blocks that had not been completed.

This time, I knew without asking that this place was also very important.

There was a pungent smell in the air, not unlike burnt plastic.

"Oh, it's this place." The other me took the initiative to explain. "This is where father and mother first met. It wasn't pleasant at first, but soon they fell in love. You've been there from start to finish. So, this place from the beginning is very important to you. Even if you Indulging in a dream in a dream, you will not forget this place, try to restore what it should be like.”

"I... witnessed the whole process? It means that one of them is the successor?"

"Almost." The other me said casually. "Anyway, since this place is an important place, it means that our biological mother is not important at all, at least the relationship is very bad. And the new mother treats you very well, she is the best relative besides father."

"Then my family relationship is really bad enough. Even my biological mother doesn't like me."

"It's more than bad. A long time ago, the meaning of your life was to serve your father and do what your father appointed you. It's a matter of course if you finish well, and it's a serious dereliction of duty if you don't finish well. Until now, the family relationship is very poor. It's a matter of course."

I sighed—at least the things and places that appeared in the hallucination were related to my father.

This is enough to prove that my life exists because of my father.Even if I want to forget everything in the past in this dream, but those things just can't be forgotten.

"I don't know why it became like this..."

"Because of fear. What else could it be but fear?"

The other one's pupils are full of mockery, he looks down on me and thinks I'm useless.