Bailu stared at Sylvia with her huge eyes.
"You can really take Sleepie with us? Teacher Sylvia, you really can do anything! Hehe, watch me talk it into coming along!"
"Don't put it like that."
Sylvia reached out and ruffled Bailu's hair.
"Hehe~ Leave it to me, leave it to me!"
Bailu giggled and hurried over to persuade Sleepie. After peeking into its heart, the terrifying-looking memetic entity seemed almost like someone her own age in Bailu's eyes. She just couldn't feel at ease without doing something for it.
Fortunately, whether Sylvia's promise had worked or Bailu really was that persuasive, Sleepie thought it over for a while and eventually agreed.
Gallagher was gone, and it truly had no idea where else it should go. Sylvia had also made a Light Cone of Gallagher right in front of it, giving it something to remember him by, while the other two had helped ease the feelings that had been weighing on its heart.
With all that considered, leaving with Sylvia didn't seem so bad. Besides, Gallagher had vanished from Penacony, and no one knew whether he'd died or simply left. The existence known as "Gallagher" was certainly gone, but no one knew who the person playing that role had really been or where he'd gone.
So if Sleepie left Penacony and searched the cosmos, maybe it could even find the person who'd once played Gallagher.
Bailu used that argument to thoroughly bamboozle poor Sleepie, who'd never been particularly bright to begin with. She nearly tied its thoughts into knots, but at least the result was good. Sleepie accepted Sylvia's invitation.
"..."
It let out two quiet calls, then silently sank into Sylvia's shadow. Only the upper part of its head remained visible as it cautiously peeked at the outside world.
Sylvia casually patted its rock-hard head.
"If I ever meet any other History Fictionologists, I'll ask around for you."
"..."
Stelle watched from the side, practically itching to try it herself. She remembered the strange hands Black Swan could summon from bizarre spaces whenever she appeared.
They were so cool!
And Sylvia having a monster hidden inside her shadow was just as cool!
As the mighty Galactic Baseballer, shouldn't she have an equally cool hidden summon of her own?
Stelle immediately darted in front of Sylvia. Her normally handsome face twisted into the most pitiful expression she could manage.
"Wifey! I want one too! Can I tame a Memory Zone Meme?"
"...Hey! Bailu's still here! Rein it in!"
March 7th finally lost patience with Stelle's nonsense and bonked her squarely on the forehead.
Thump!
The solid hit cut Stelle's ridiculous rambling short.
"Hehe..."
Stelle rubbed her head and gave them a dopey grin, but her eyes were still sparkling as she stared hopefully at Sylvia.
At this point, Sylvia couldn't even be bothered correcting the way Stelle addressed her anymore. It was only a joke anyway. Stelle herself was basically a giant kid.
There wasn't anything deeper behind it.
As for Stelle's request, Sylvia could only turn her down.
"Probably not. If you want a Memory Zone Meme to stay with you, you need abilities related to Memokeepers. I can only do this because of Aha."
Sylvia's expression turned complicated when she mentioned Aha.
If that mask hadn't taken a bite out of the Memoria back then, Sylvia really wouldn't have been able to use abilities like these.
Aside from being unable to turn herself into a memetic entity, she could now manipulate Memoria, create and carry memetic entities, make Light Cones, and extract Memory Bubbles.
Calling her half a Memokeeper really wasn't much of a stretch.
"Aha really can do everything! I wish I could become a Masked Fool too!"
After hearing Sylvia's explanation, March 7th couldn't help feeling that the Elation was an absurdly versatile Path. Sure, most Memory Zone Memes looked bizarre, but some of them were pretty cute. If she could carry a few around with her, maybe being a Masked Fool wouldn't be so bad.
"Uh... Maybe don't."
Stelle put a hand on March's shoulder with an unusually grave expression.
Sylvia nodded along from beside her.
Neither of them said anything else.
They didn't need to.
March understood instantly, and her face went bright red.
"Oh, I get it! You two think I'm too dumb to be one, don't you?!"
Stelle immediately grabbed March by the arms to stop her from charging at Sylvia, while Sylvia hurried to smooth things over.
"Of course not! I meant the Masked Fools are crafty and always scheming! Our March shouldn't stoop to their level."
"...R-Really?"
March looked suspicious. She stopped struggling, but after thinking about it for a few seconds, realization suddenly struck again.
"You're still calling me dumb!!"
This time, Stelle stepped in.
"She means you're pure-hearted, so you shouldn't associate with the Masked Fools."
Though somehow, that didn't sound much better either.
"Really? Ahaha..."
Sylvia laughed at March's sulky expression, then glanced down at Bailu. The little Vidyadhara seemed fascinated by Dormancy's unusual form of life. This was her first chance to observe a memetic entity from such close range.
"What're you looking at?"
"I've never seen a life-form like this before. A special type of life that survives in the Memory Zone... I wonder how it differs from a Heliobus."
When it came to creatures without physical bodies, Heliobi were naturally the most familiar example to anyone from the Xianzhou. Compared with Memory Zone Memes, though, Heliobi were still somewhat more grounded in reality. At the very least, Heliobi could travel freely without being restricted by the concentration of Memoria around them.
"That I really don't know. If you're curious, you can research it yourself later."
Sylvia shook her head. That was probably something she'd need to ask Ruan Mei about.
Ruan Mei studied life-forms, so creatures such as Heliobi and Memory Zone Memes should theoretically fall within her field of research. Most of what she'd shown Sylvia so far had focused on carbon-based organisms, but considering her status as a genius, Sylvia doubted she'd neglected these stranger forms of life.
"For now, come with me and pack your things. We'll get a room ready for you on the Express."
"Oh—! Right! That's what I wanted to talk about too!"
Bailu shot to her feet.
There were, of course, other people staying at the Xianzhou delegation's residence, but Bailu wasn't particularly close with any of them. Staying there alone was boring, so she'd been thinking about visiting the Express anyway.
Jing Yuan had placed her in Sylvia's care, hadn't he?
That meant she finally had a perfectly legitimate excuse to travel aboard the Express for a while.
"Then let's go. We can let Sleepie get used to the Express while we're at it."
Sylvia waved to March and Stelle.
"I'm taking Bailu back to the Express. She'll be staying with us for a while. Where are you two planning to go next?"
"Now that I think about it, Bailu mentioned something like that earlier too." March suddenly looked startled. "Wait, aren't you the High Elder of the Vidyadhara? You're really coming aboard the Express?"
Wasn't Bailu the current High Elder of the Luofu Vidyadhara?
Dan Heng had gotten buried under a mountain of trouble just from being the previous High Elder. Could the current High Elder really wander off whenever she pleased?
Would those annoying Preceptors actually let her go?
"What? Am I not allowed on the Express?"
"No, no, that's not what I meant!" March hurriedly waved her hands. "I'm asking whether Dan Heng knows about this."
She certainly wasn't objecting. The Astral Express Crew happened to be rather short on doctors, after all.
Sylvia shook her head.
"I haven't told him yet. I kept forgetting about it before. We can explain everything when we get back."
"Then I'll head back too. Pom-Pom just told me the stuff I ordered has arrived, so I've gotta go sort through it."
With Sleepie's situation settled, March planned to return to the Express and get some rest while taking stock of everything she'd bought over the last few days. The delayed Charmony Festival was still several days away, so there was plenty of time left in their vacation.
Seeing everyone else heading back, Stelle planted one hand on her hip and pulled out her baseball bat with the other.
"Then I'm gonna go wander around and cause trouble!"
"..."
"..."
Everyone fell silent.
March covered her face. She really didn't want anyone to know she was acquainted with this woman.
"Such a shame. She'd be perfectly fine if she just never opened her mouth."
--+--
Meanwhile, at the Moment of Dusk.
This place was a paradise of fashion, luxury, and consumerism. The entire district was one enormous shopping metropolis where almost anything someone could imagine—and quite a few things they couldn't—could be bought.
Dangerous goods were another matter, of course.
Even after all the disasters Penacony had recently endured, the Moment of Dusk remained as glamorous and crowded as ever. Inside one brilliantly decorated hall, a gigantic prize wheel had appeared at some point.
An elegantly dressed woman from The Family stood before it, repeatedly advertising a new promotional campaign to passing visitors over the speakers.
It was an ordinary spend-and-earn rewards event.
What wasn't ordinary was the prize.
A red-and-white mask identical to the one the woman herself was wearing.
"Come one, come all! Spend enough at the Moment of Dusk, and you'll not only earn a chance to spin the prize wheel, but you'll also receive a mask absolutely free!"
When the woman displayed one of the masks, sealed inside a glass case, on the giant screen behind her, the crowd's first reaction was contempt.
What was this supposed to be?
They gave things like that away for free at the Moment of Blue Hour.
And now The Family was seriously using one as a prize?
Was this what passed for class around here?
But it didn't take long before someone noticed something.
"Wait. That mask... Isn't that the one from the auction?!"
"What auction? Dude, this place has about eight hundred auctions a day. Which one are you talking about?"
"No! The one at the Grand Theater a few days ago! The auction for the Emanator's mask!"
"Hold on, lemme check... Holy crap, it really is!"
"Didn't The Family say the thing went missing? What's going on?"
Word quickly spread through the crowd.
The auction had been broadcast live across all of Penacony, and the internet was flooded with pictures of the mask. Anyone could pull up a high-resolution image with a quick search.
The mask on the screen wasn't merely similar.
It was identical.
"Heehee~"
The woman covered her mouth and giggled.
As more and more tourists crowded around the counter demanding answers, she raised her voice.
"Everyone, please listen! The Family didn't lose the auction item. Rather, during the chaos, a mistake made by the Masked Fools caused the original mask to turn into a huge number of identical copies!"
"What?!"
"So—The Family has decided to invite all of Penacony to join this all-or-nothing carnival!"
A feverish grin spread across the woman's face as she yanked on the curtain behind her.
Whoosh!
The towering red curtain collapsed.
Behind it stood a mountain.
A mountain formed from hundreds of millions of identical red-and-white masks.
"Starting one month ago, anyone whose spending meets the required amount can claim one mask here, with no limit on the total number distributed! Once every mask has been handed out, the organizer will announce the Ultimate Mask Challenge!"
"But please rest assured. This event won't involve combat or violence of any kind. Anyone who attempts to threaten another participant or forcibly steal their mask will face joint retaliation from the Masked Fools and The Family, and they'll immediately lose their eligibility."
"WHAT?!"
The tourists surrounding the booth were dumbfounded.
Even the Bloodhounds maintaining order nearby stared in shock.
Wait a second.
Since when had The Family approved an event this huge?
Why hadn't they received any notice?!
--+--
Not long afterward, aboard the Astral Express.
March 7th returned humming cheerfully to herself. The instant she stepped into the passenger car, she didn't even stop to greet the others before rushing straight to her room.
"Hehe~ My precious babies, your lady has returned to shower you with affection!"
Since she was alone, March happily let herself ramble as much nonsense as she pleased.
There were more than a dozen packages waiting for her, but one stood out at once: a bright red gift box decorated with cherry blossoms.
"Hm? Those colors... Did I buy this?"
March might not enjoy using her brain on an ordinary day, but she'd only bought these things over the past couple of days. She could at least remember that much. And if she'd visited a shop with packaging this bright red, there was no way she'd have forgotten something so eye-catching.
March picked up the box and noticed a small card attached to the ribbon.
It used the same red-and-white color scheme.
A single line had been written across its white side:
{Complimentary gift for meeting the spending requirement at the Moment of Dusk. Thank you for your trust in The Family. — The Masked Fools / Alfalfa Family}
"..."
March blinked.
For a few seconds, she fell completely silent.
Was she still half asleep and seeing things?
There was definitely something wrong with that signature.
"Hiss... With these colors, this is obviously Sparkle's Masked Fool aesthetic."
March had never spoken with Sparkle face-to-face, but she'd heard plenty about her from the others and had seen pictures of her. She hadn't made the connection at first, but the moment she saw the words "Masked Fools," everything clicked.
The colors and symbols were unmistakably Sparkle's.
"Do I open it or not...? But I'm so curious!"
March looked from the gift box to the little card, her curiosity immediately getting the better of her.
What kind of stunt was Sparkle pulling this time?
And somehow she was working together with The Family?
How did that make any sense?
March agonized over the decision for a long moment before suddenly spinning around and bolting out of her room.
"Ugh, forget it! I can't take it anymore! I'm getting Mr. Yang to protect me. Mr. Yang—! Mr. Yang, are you there?!"
"March? What's wrong?"
Welt happened to be relaxing in the parlor car today, reading comics while enjoying a drink. Hearing March shout for him, he leaned out from his seat.
"Mr. Yang, hurry! Protect me while I open this box!"
Welt stared at her.
"...?"
"Just look at this!"
March shoved the gift box and card in front of him.
Welt carefully read the card before looking up at her.
"You want to open it?"
"Yep, yep! But I'm scared something weird will happen, so I came to get you to protect me. Hehe~"
"..."
Welt pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and gave a helpless nod.
What else was he supposed to do?
Protecting the younger members of the Express was part of his job, after all.
"Hehe! Then I'm opening it!"
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL