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"…What will happen to Nana?"
Facing Mai's question, Kitahara Makoto remained silent.
After the dream ends, he and Mai will naturally return to real world, but their daughter is just an illusory existence in the dream. Once the dream ends… the outcome is obvious.
"Daddy, it's over."
The Beast Eared Girl Hana's voice echoed in his mind again.
This time, it finally wasn't three days and three days. As Hana's voice sounded, the lights in the bedroom quickly began to flicker, and fine cracks began to appear in the air. Clearly, the entire dream was about to collapse.
The little bean was quickly startled awake by the commotion and nervously hid in Sakurajima Mai's arms:
"Mommy, Nana is scared."
Sakurajima Mai hugged her daughter, biting her lower lip tightly, and gently stroked her daughter's small head:
"Nana, don't be afraid, Mommy is here."
Mai spoke while raising her eyes to look at Kitahara Makoto:
"What's the situation now…?"
"It's about to end." Kitahara Makoto exhaled softly. "Hana won, and the dream is collapsing."
"…"
Hearing this news, Sakurajima Mai immediately bit her lower lip tightly.
"Mommy, what's wrong with Nana's hand?"
The little bean raised her right hand in confusion.
Kitahara Makoto looked intently, only to see Nana's small hand had already begun to turn transparent.
Not just their daughter, everything around them, except for Kitahara Makoto and Sakurajima Mai, began to quietly fade and become transparent.
Although he clearly knew that the Nana in front of him was not real, but just a false daughter in the dream, humans are not plants; how can they be without feelings?
The life experienced in the dream is also life.
Watching his daughter slowly disappear bit by bit, Kitahara Makoto suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart.
"Nana, don't be afraid."
Sakurajima Mai parted her pink lips, hugging her daughter tightly, and a misty blur quickly welled up in her eyes.
She had just woken up, and the long dream memories existed in her mind, even making her real world memories somewhat blurry. To her, the Nana in front of her was her most important daughter.
As the dream began to collapse little by little, more and more parts of Nana's body became transparent.
Watching the toys in the bedroom disappear little by little, the little bean seemed to understand something and timidly looked up with her small face:
"Mommy, am I going to disappear too?"
"…"
Hearing this, Sakurajima Mai could no longer hold back, and crystal tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Mommy, don't cry." The little bean stretched out her chubby little hand, trying hard to wipe Mai's eyes. "Nana will feel heartache… As long as Mommy remembers Nana forever, it doesn't matter if Nana disappears…"
The little bean spoke while looking up at the silent Kitahara Makoto, her eyes brimming with tears:
"Daddy, Mommy is crying again, hurry and hug her."
"…"
Kitahara Makoto silently stepped forward, extended his arms, and embraced Mai and Nana together.
The dream continued to collapse.
The entire house had already disappeared, revealing the dream void outside.
The little bean's figure quickly dimmed to the extreme, as if it would scatter with a gust of wind. At the last moment, large tears finally fell from the little bean's eyes:
"Mommy, Daddy, you must not forget Nana…"
The next second.
The entire dream completely collapsed, and darkness swallowed everything.
When the dizziness disappeared, Kitahara Makoto opened his eyes, and what met his gaze was a bizarre sky like a Monet painting, where countless colors converged and flowed, making it impossible to distinguish between day and night.
"It's the Otherworld's sky…"
Kitahara Makoto exhaled softly.
"The dream has ended."
Finally escaping the dream, he should have been happy, but his heart felt an indescribable dullness and sadness.
Thump.
A Beast Eared Girl bumped into Kitahara Makoto's thigh, looking up with sparkling eyes:
"Cupcake!"
Kitahara Makoto subtly twitched the corner of his mouth, wanting to smile, but he couldn't manage to no matter what:
"Don't worry, your cupcake definitely won't be missing. I'll buy it for you when we get home."
He looked around.
Kitahara Makoto found himself in a valley, with a giant willow tree in front of him, looking somewhat like the Soul Mother Tree on Pandora. The entire tree had countless glowing branches hanging down, and two of them happened to be on Kitahara Makoto and Sakurajima Mai, clearly the Otherworld monsters that pulled him and Mai into the dream.
However, at this moment, the entire tree looked terrible, with messy branches and many gaps in its trunk, clearly Hana's masterpiece.
"Where is the phantom sky flower?"
Kitahara Makoto observed carefully but did not see the flower's existence.
"Flower?"
The Beast Eared Girl tilted her head in thought, then extended her small hand. A transparent flower the size of a lotus quickly floated in her palm, each petal as crystal clear and dreamlike as glass.
"Bad flower, ate it, got stronger."
So, the existences in the Otherworld can actually grow stronger by eating?
Kitahara Makoto temporarily had no interest in thinking, so he stroked the Beast Eared Girl's small head and said softly:
"Flower, keep it for now. Give it to me when we return to real world."
After speaking, Kitahara Makoto turned to look at Mai next to him, then silently exhaled softly.
Since returning from the dream, Mai hadn't said a word, only silently looking into the distance.
Unlike fragmented glimpses of the future, Sakurajima Mai experienced a complete life in the dream, ten years from falling in love with Kitahara Makoto, to getting married hand in hand, to their daughter's birth, and married life… The after-effects were too great.
Although she knew it was a dream, Having lived in the dream for so long, the boundary between real world and the dream had already become blurred.
Kitahara Makoto opened his backpack, took out the answer book, and softly asked:
"Has Mai's stay time in the Otherworld met the standard?"
The goal of entering the Otherworld had always been two-fold.
One was to find the phantom sky flower, which had been achieved.
The other was to satisfy Mai's stay time, so that Sakurajima Mai would no longer be troubled by various strange phenomena.
Rustle.
The answer book flipped pages rapidly without any wind.
"Met the standard."
Kitahara Makoto closed the book, walked to Sakurajima Mai's side, and softly said:
"Mai, your stay time in the Otherworld has met the standard. We can return to real world now."
At this time, any words of comfort were meaningless; only time could help Mai move past this.
Sakurajima Mai's eyelashes trembled slightly, and her gaze fell on the answer book in Kitahara Makoto's hand. She finally spoke:
"Is that the magical book you mentioned that can answer everything?"
Kitahara Makoto nodded:
"That's right."
Sakurajima Mai looked up with her pretty face and said:
"Can it help find Nana?"
"…"
Kitahara Makoto was silent for two seconds, then said in a low voice:
"Mai, that was just a dream after all…"
"Don't speak." Sakurajima Mai extended her right hand, her pretty face taut, and said, "Give me the book."
"…"
Kitahara Makoto silently handed over the book, while explaining how to use the answer book.
"Hoo…"
Sakurajima Mai took a deep breath, placed her hand on the cover of the answer book, and nervously asked:
"How can Nana return to my side as a human?"
Rustle.
The answer book flipped pages rapidly.
Under their gazes, a line of text quietly appeared on the blank page:
[Help Kitahara Makoto reach the other shore and achieve a harem ending]
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