Nahida's hints were too obscure. The readers only understood them after finishing the story—Lumine naturally couldn't comprehend them.
Itto, also a reader, completely didn't understand. His brain was starting to smoke from frustration. What was all this? What what what?
He couldn't understand at all—why were they stuck looping this day? Because of what? Maybe, like in the last Chasm story, they should try punching it?
Unlike the enthusiastic reading attitude of smart people like Alhaitham, Lisa, Mona, and Albedo, Itto was now seeing stars.
"Shinobu… can you explain it to me?" Itto asked.
The other members of the Arataki Gang also looked over—obviously, none of them understood either.
Kuki Shinobu sighed and explained: "I haven't finished reading yet, so I don't know the exact reason, but I estimate that it's probably not a time loop, and maybe not even in reality."
"Why?" Itto asked, puzzled.
"Very simple." Kuki Shinobu held up three fingers.
She lowered one: "First: supplies. According to the story, the loop has already happened at least forty or fifty times. The supply consumption for a city over forty or fifty days is terrifyingly enormous."
"Second: randomness. Every time the Traveler experiences the loop, everyone says and does the exact same things, but even a memory-deletion loop would find it hard to perfectly replicate every single time."
"And people might repeat—but what about the things influenced by people?"
Kuki Shinobu lowered the last finger: "Third: Dunyarzad. How could there be two 'selves' in reality, especially when one of them can't be seen by others?"
There were actually other minor doubts, like Dehya's injuries. Memories could be deleted, but surely the injuries received couldn't be erased by the next day, right?
But saying more would just confuse Itto further, so Kuki Shinobu didn't elaborate.
"In summary, the possibility of the loop occurring in reality is very low. Considering the Dendro Archon's authority, I speculate it's in a 'dream.'"
What Kuki Shinobu hadn't figured out yet was whose dream everyone in the current story was in.
Yes, Kuki Shinobu had already guessed that this was a 'shared dream,' and she had ruled out the possibility of the Traveler being the dream's subject.
Because when people encounter something unknown to them, they easily wake from dreams—the fact that the Traveler hadn't woken meant it wasn't her own dream.
Itto and Kuki Gang members clapped: So amazing! Though I didn't really understand, it feels like I did! As expected of Shinobu!
In fact, this scene wasn't unique to the Arataki Gang. Several people with external brains unanimously asked their own 'super brains.'
For example, Ei, Lumine, Tartaglia, Furina, and others.
It had to be said that among these people's 'super brains,' there were some extraordinarily formidable ones—even more so than Kuki Shinobu.
That would be the 'think tank' around Ei: Makoto, Yae Miko, and Kitsune Saiguu. With the four of them reading together, guess who didn't have a brain?
Aside from Ei, the other three had even guessed who the dream's subject was.
After realizing it was a dream, they carefully examined all the illustrations and finally spotted something wrong in the 'first loop' when meeting Nilou—an object that shouldn't appear was in the illustration.
But they didn't say anything—they just loved watching Ei's bewildered expression, her little head tilting left one moment and right the next.
Ei would tilt her head in a new direction with every confusion, without even noticing it herself.
The two fox ladies naturally noticed and giggled secretly.
Fortunately, big sister was still here—it made things much more harmonious. Makoto was quite happy about her sister's thirst for knowledge and patiently explained everything to Ei without annoyance.
Ei wasn't good at thinking, but she was very smart. She quickly understood the meaning and then had an idea.
Time in the dream seemed to pass much slower, yet the 'training' done was genuinely effective—wasn't this an excellent place for practicing martial arts and meditation?
No wonder Morax wanted to take Buer away—it was for this reason! As expected of you, Morax!
Raiden Makoto shook her head: Martial fanatic, martial fanatic. Keep reading—the Lumine in the story planned to investigate with Dehya again, since the turning point last time was with her.
[The Traveler got straight to the point: "We've been through many Sabbaths of the King of Flowers in a row, but every night our memories of that day are erased."]
[Dehya puzzled: "…What happened to you while I was away? Did some weird cult preach to you?"]
What to do? The Pope of the Cult of Species personally preaching, and Dehya wasn't buying it!
[Paimon: "Hey, don't worry about that—just pretend it's true."]
With her saying that, what else could Dehya do? She could only indulge them.
She truly indulged—Dehya immediately accepted this hypothetical view and even offered her own considerations.
[Dehya: "Then I'll have to refute it, okay? This situation is absolutely impossible."]
She really—I'm crying to death. Even when refuting, she first asked to make sure it wouldn't hurt little Paimon.
Only after getting Paimon's 'I want to hear it' response did Dehya state her thoughts.
["If there have been many consecutive days of the Sabbath of the King of Flowers, and we just don't remember, then what about all the supplies consumed, the money spent, the food eaten?"]
["Logically, my wallet should have been empty long ago—I couldn't possibly not notice, right?"]
All that could be said was that although Dehya hadn't read many books and seemed like a 'Tartaglia,' she was actually incredibly smart.
Compared to pure brawlers, Dehya truly used her brain to think about problems—and her brain worked very well.
The Traveler had also considered the supply consumption issue. This could be explained—if the Akasha Terminal integrated all data, it might not be impossible to refresh everything daily.
But just looking at this method, forget supplies—the manpower required would be exaggerated, with an overwhelmingly huge workload.
Dehya directly rejected this possibility—she even had evidence: the training dummies she used for sword practice.
Dehya practiced swordsmanship here every day—the dummies were covered in sword marks. The Grand Sage and others couldn't possibly replace them with identical ones every day.
Dehya had absolute confidence in her control over sword techniques—she could clearly judge whether the sword marks on the dummy were left by her.
Even if the marks were replicated exquisitely, there would still be subtle differences, and Dehya could spot them all the same.
In fact, from Dehya's perspective, the Traveler and Paimon had either joined some strange cult or were playing brain teasers or house with her.
But no matter which, Dehya was willing to patiently explain everything to the Traveler—she indulged them too much.
Through Dehya's efforts, the Traveler eliminated another wrong answer—'memory deletion' was also incorrect.
===✧✦✧===
Character Voice Lines · Raiden Ei: About the 'Training Room'
"After discussing with Buer, it seems my idea can actually be realized."