Knowledge irreversibly alters a person's understanding of things.
It's like someone who spends hundreds of hours mastering a game—they'll never again experience the novelty of opening it for the first time.
That's the curse of knowledge.
Dream Weaver had never quite grasped the full meaning of those words.
After all, wasn't it just about getting better through practice? Calling it an "irreversible change in perception" felt like an exaggeration.
But then, everyone thinks their everyday world is unshakeable—right up until the moment it shatters.
Often, it's only when they personally witness that breaking point that it dawns on them: the familiar world was never all that solid to begin with.
Sometimes, a single fragment of unknown knowledge is enough to crack it wide open.
And that's exactly what Dream Weaver experienced after leaving the library.
In that forum section called "The Withered Hollow in the Courtyard," Dream Weaver encountered stories so shocking they shattered her worldview.
Before seeing them, she'd never imagined that a trainer and a Uma Musume could be anything other than comrades-in-arms, or that relationships between Uma Musume themselves could extend beyond friendship.
All sorts of bizarre, twisted tales tinged with something dark completely overturned Dream Weaver's understanding.
There was no going back—she could no longer look at her friends the same way.
In the days after her library exploration, whenever Dream Weaver ran into those Uma Musume, those distorted little stories would involuntarily flash through her mind.
She'd unconsciously view them through the lens of the story protagonists, until her rational mind burned out and she'd flee under their confused stares.
This is just my own ego inflating, she told herself repeatedly over those days.
It's because I read those strange stories that I can't help wondering if the people around me are looking at me that way too.
No matter how many times she repeated that theory to herself, trying to believe it, she couldn't change the worldview that had already been flipped upside down.
Now, whenever someone looked her way or greeted her, Dream Weaver would instinctively wonder if they liked her—like some teenage girl whose romantic consciousness had just belatedly awakened.
Tangled up in these thoughts, Dream Weaver had been wandering around in a daze lately.
Even now, with someone approaching her, she could only stare blankly into space.
It wasn't until the Uma Musume beside her leaned in close, warm breath from her nose brushing Dream Weaver's ear, that she finally jolted awake and leapt up.
"Wh-wh-what are you doing?!"
Dream Weaver flushed red, covering her ear and instinctively leaning back.
In the past, such contact wouldn't have meant much to her.
Back when she and T.M. Opera O were exchanging challenges, their noses had practically touched.
A little breath near the ear? That was just mischief-level stuff.
But now it was different. She couldn't pinpoint exactly how, but even though Tracen was still Tracen and everyone was still themselves, Dream Weaver felt something had irreversibly changed.
Seeing Dream Weaver's flustered embarrassment, Sakura Bakushin O tilted her head in confusion.
"Huh? I was just trying to yell near your ear to see if it would wake you up, Dream Weaver. Didn't even get to shout before it worked!"
"Have I already reached a level where I can convey my spirit to others without even shouting 'Bakushin'?!"
She blinked, suddenly noticing the deep blush spreading across Dream Weaver's face.
"Dream Weaver, your face is so red! Could it be—"
Sakura Bakushin O clapped her hands, an expression of sudden understanding dawning.
Dream Weaver, feeling seen by this airhead, felt her blush burn even hotter.
"Do you have a fever?! Ah, that makes sense, that makes sense! No wonder you weren't responding—your brain must be overheating!"
By common sense, saying someone's "brain is overheating" right to their face is pretty insulting. But Sakura Bakushin O seemed utterly unaware.
She even planted her hands on her hips and nodded proudly, convinced by her own deduction.
"Well then, as your class representative, I'll take you to the infirmary in a Bakushin rush!"
Before Dream Weaver could get a word in, Sakura Bakushin O, feeling she'd figured it all out, reached out to take her hand.
"Wait, wait! Uma Musume shouldn't be so casual about touching each other!"
Seeing the hand reaching for her, Dream Weaver's expression changed drastically, and she instinctively shrank back again.
Holding hands—skin-to-skin contact, flesh meeting flesh with nothing in between.
Just a puff of breath near her ear had been almost too much. How could she accept something that, by rough approximation, felt like baring her soul?
But perhaps she was too shocked. Dream Weaver jerked back a bit too hard, completely forgetting where she was, and tumbled right off her chair.
Thump!
With a solid thud, Sakura Bakushin O vanished from Dream Weaver's view, replaced by a stretch of vaguely familiar ceiling.
The peace didn't last long. Amid gasps and hurried footsteps, the face of Sakura Bakushin O once again filled her vision.
"Whoa, whoa! Dream Weaver, you really must be burning up!"
Having made such a spectacle of herself in public, Dream Weaver expected to be mortified. But instead, a strange calm settled over her.
"Class Rep, there's something I want to ask you."
Dream Weaver spoke to the forehead that occupied about a third of her view.
"What is it, Dream Weaver? Any problem, you can always come to me, your class rep!"
"Class Rep… do you like me?"
"Of course I do!"
Sakura Bakushin O blinked, as if wondering why Dream Weaver would ask something so obvious. As class rep, liking everyone in the class was only natural, wasn't it?
"Not that kind of like… I mean, how do I put it… the kind of liking that goes beyond just classmates and friendship."
"There are that many types of 'liking'?!"
"It seems even as class rep, there are things I don't know! Please instruct me, Dream Weaver!"
As she spoke, Sakura Bakushin O mimicked the posture of someone seeking wisdom from a master, bowing sharply—completely forgetting their current positions.
Faced with the impending assault of a giant forehead, all Dream Weaver could do from the floor was cover her own forehead with her hands.
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.