"The separated consciousnesses are all in the collective dream of the Sabzeruz Festival. And those empty, ownerless dreams will be harvested by the Akasha."
"Without knowing anything, the dream day ends and a new loop begins."
"People wake up to another Sabzeruz Festival, and their own dreams are once again harvested by the Akasha, over and over again."
Paimon was very excited. "So this place is like a dream factory, and the Akasha is the dream harvester. Is that analogy right?"
Nahida nodded. "Yes, you're absolutely right. Using metaphors is also a very good habit, Paimon."
[Nahida: I just remembered that the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata only used the looping dream ability on enemies. In the endless loops of the dream, the enemy would exhaust all their means. By the final battle, the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata could anticipate their attacks and defeat them.]
[Paimon: Standing undefeated. That's amazing.]
[Lumine: And now, an ability that was used only against enemies is being used against one's own people.]
[Paimon: You could say they're harvesting their own people instead.]
[Furina: This just adds to their crimes.]
[Neuvillette: Under Fontaine's law, they should be sentenced to twenty years of imprisonment.]
[Wriothesley: Twenty years. That's quite a long time. I'll probably be retired by then.]
[Paimon: Given the Grand Sage's age, he won't live to see his release day.]
[Wriothesley: There are doctors inside the Fortress of Meropide. But if you don't work there, you won't have any Mora, so you'll have to survive on awful relief meals.]
Paimon said, "So the Akasha notification sound we heard is actually from the Akasha Terminal in reality. Removing it in the dream is useless."
Nahida continued asking, "Then, one last question. Who am I?"
Lumine said, "You are the Lesser Lord Kusanali."
Nahida smiled. "So you noticed."
"My, my, I thought this was such an easy question that I purposely left it for last."
Paimon spread her hands. "That wasn't hard at all. Even I could guess it, since you have so many special qualities. Lumine and I just didn't call you out on it."
"Now that I think about it, Nahida has been giving us hints from the very beginning."
"I remember we went around asking about the Lesser Lord Kusanali before. I never thought we'd meet her like this."
[Nahida: In the livestream, my identity was revealed much earlier.]
[Paimon: If you hadn't asked back then, we wouldn't have thought that this child was Sumeru's deity. After all, all the other deities are adults.]
[Nahida: So it was I who slipped up.]
Lumine said, "I have many questions I wanted to ask you, but it seems now is not the time."
Nahida said, "Yes. It's better to wait until we return to reality."
"But if you have any other questions about the current situation, I'd be happy to answer them."
Lumine asked directly without holding back, "Why couldn't you just tell us the truth directly?"
Nahida said, "You've asked this question before, and my answer was that it could cause a tremendous shock to your mind. Now that you know the truth about the dreams, it might be easier to understand. Have you heard the saying 'Don't wake a sleepwalker'? If the truth is suddenly told by an outsider rather than realized by oneself, there could be irreversible consciousness disorder between reality and the dream. I couldn't let you take that risk."