The Deceitful One

Thursday, 10th March 1581.

Winter had almost passed and spring was already on its way. It hadn't snowed for days, weeks even, and the days were also starting to get longer and warmer.

It was early in the morning and Bryan was walking towards the Silver Owls HQ as Benny sat on his shoulders looking around at the scenery as well as the people passing by in wonder.

​ It had been a month since Benny was born. And surprisingly enough, he was almost as big as a regular cat!

Bryan thought that this growth spurt must be related to Benny being a Transcendent creature. He had no prior knowledge regarding transcendent creatures, hence, this was just his mere speculation.

As the days passed, Bryan had come to realize a lot of things about Benny. First and foremost, Benny hated taking baths!

Second, his favorite food was raw tenderloin steak and fresh milk. Third, Bryan could communicate with him telepathically.

Bryan had a theory regarding this. And it was that this communication was most likely possible because of the strange runes on his forearm which was a result of Benny biting him.

Lastly and most importantly, he had come to know one of Benny's abilities. It was that Benny could enter his dreams! And he was greatly shocked to learn this, to say the least.

Initially, when Benny appeared in his dreams, he thought that it must've been a random coincidence. However, the frequency of Benny entering his dreams increased as time went by.

Bryan was finally able to deduce that it was definitely one of Benny's abilities.

In the dream, the little bugger would always sit on a throne made of clouds and have Bryan feed him raw steak and milk. It was almost as if Benny could weave whatever dreams he wished!

As Bryan was wondering about Benny's unique ability of weaving dreams, he had already reached Sophia Public Library.

After entering, he was greeted by Hailey's bubbly voice, "Good morning, Bryan! How have you been?"

Ever since that night in the slums two months back, Bryan and Hailey had gotten on friendlier terms. The duo spent more time together than they did before.

Of course, it was mostly Hailey spending time with Bryan trying to get to learn more about Andrew through him. Bryan didn't mind it at all. If anything, he found it really amusing.

After all, he treated Hailey only as a friend. He would never try to sleep with someone from the workplace! This was where he drew the line.

"I'm great! How are you?" Bryan smiled back at Hailey who was sitting behind the reception desk and reading a book. The duo made some small talk and then Bryan headed to the underground HQ.

It was five minutes to 9:30 am so he directly went to the conference room where the Strike Team held their daily morning briefings.

As he entered the room, Bryan found that he was the last one to arrive. He greeted everyone in the room and then went and took his seat beside Elijah.

"Since everyone is already here. We might as well start." Sitting at the head of the table, Robert announced.

The briefing began with everyone reporting about their patrols the previous night and the incidents they had come across. Soon everyone began to discuss the places they found to be very suspicious.

Earlier, the morning briefings used to be a weekly thing. However, ever since the activities of the members of the Inferno Order and the Holy Blood Sect had increased, it had become a necessity to make it a daily thing.

The conference continued for almost an hour as everyone discussed their goals for the week and Robert handed out everyone their daily or weekly missions.

Right when Robert was about to conclude the end of the meeting, Emma raised her hand with an awkward look.

"What is it, Emma?" Robert asked expressionlessly as he stared at Emma.

"Uhm… Captain, I don't know if this is a serious thing…" Emma hesitated to speak.

Robert gestured, "Go on. Speak your mind."

"Okay!" Emma nodded, "You see, Captain, I overheard some of the families living in my apartment building talking to each other about how the children in their homes had the same nightmare."

The idea of having a collective nightmare piqued everyone's interest.

"Oh? What nightmare?" Livia asked, her eyes shining with a curious light.

"Their kids complained that a strange-looking black cat with four tails and four yellow eyes visited them in their dreams and tried to eat them," Emma replied with a dry chuckle.

"So you're saying all these kids had the same nightmare?" Henry inquired as he raised his eyebrows.

Emma nodded, "That's right. Almost all the children in my apartment building had the same nightmare."

Sitting in a room full of Transcendents, Bryan tried his best to refrain from looking at Benny. Who else could a cat with four tails and four eyes entering other people's dreams be?

'What the hell did this little rascal do this time?' Bryan cursed in his heart.

Benny, on the other hand, slowly lowered his head as he covered his face with his tiny paws.

After listening to Emma's report, Robert instructed, "Emma, along with the mission you've already been given, I want you to investigate this Nightmare Cat as well. Although we don't know if this is a potentially harmful incident or not, it does not hurt to be careful."

Emma solemnly nodded her head, "I understand, Captain."

And with that, the morning briefing had come to an end as everyone made their way out.

After Bryan walked a distance away from the rest of the people, he glared at Benny and communicated mentally, 'Benny! Don't you think you owe me an explanation?'

Benny looked up at Bryan and stared at him innocently, 'Bryan, I was only trying to learn the general knowledge of the land by entering their dreams, I promise. It's the little humans who are simply too weak and afraid!'

Bryan rolled his eyes after listening to Benny. However, it did make sense thinking about it since the latter had already learned to speak the common language—Vendurish—in a matter of weeks.

But all of a sudden, Bryan's eyes widened as he asked, 'Wait! You can glean information through other people's dreams!?'