The God of Jesters
Chapter 477 - 7.22.5 A small tradeoff.

Chapter 477: 7.22.5 A small tradeoff.

The hole in the dream world was much larger than the one I could create. A sign that my old benefactor was becoming stronger with time, and it wouldn’t be long before he sent something stronger than I could handle.

But ignoring that benefactor, I had to give this old monster another look.

’Devouring.’ The giant centipede that was dragged out by the Duke turned smaller as it got closer to the Duke’s mouth. Which was an insight into the Duke Domain in my eyes.

’Compression, devouring, assimilation.’ With four heads, among which three were working wonderfully at this moment, I assessed the strength of my odd opponent and his strengths.

Which finally forced me to come to a single conclusion. ’He can fight Totems easily.’ And considering how young I was as a Totem, the Duke can annihilate me without sweating. ’The best choice now would be to leave this place, and let these two monsters fight with each other.’

But I didn’t do it, I just smiled as I found something interesting at this point.

The Centipede was not alone, other insects were crawling out of the hole each aiming towards me at this moment, but their feet had come to a stop the moment they entered reality. Instead, they just waited as the Duke ate each of them one by one.

Which were dealt with by him easily as they ended up turning into nourishment for the Duke. And when he was done, the hole that the nightmares appeared from disappeared, leaving me alone along with the Duke who seemed surprised that I didn’t run away at this moment.

"It would seem that these things are not your support?" He was no fool. Duke Wortham had long noticed the oddities and the aggression that was directed toward me from these nightmare creatures.

And I nodded, before turning to look over my fallen body and possessing it back again. "Duke, I wonder if you hold an interest in the world of dreams?"

In that desire, I can somewhat understand why the Duke might be after me.

’Nightmare.’ He seemed to hold an interest in this subject. And with me being a partial nightmare myself, he chose to approach me. ’There might be other reasons, but his primary is the nightmares.’

This somewhat confused me, why would a Knight like Duke bother with the path of Nightmare?

Is he not aware of what happened to all those who dared to dabble with the world of Nightmares? Does he wish to end up the same?

No, The Duke can be many things, but he was neither foolish nor arrogant. He was a monster who did things thoroughly. ’An enigma, truly.’ Which is why I hated him.

But hate is a big word, and in the real world, there are no eternal rivalries. "That I do, and I presume you are capable of showing me the way?"

I like smart people. He understood that he had no way to retain me if I wanted to run, but he could have still caused a bit of damage on me if he wanted, though, at the end of it all, none of us would gain anything. It would only cause a loss on both sides, which would be the best-case scenario for people like Remira, who are driven by ideals.

And why wouldn’t she do this? Causing harm to me is the same as causing issues with the information network of Yethel, which might actually give an advantage to Cynark in the ongoing war.

But the Duke thought differently, he just gave me a deep look while he directly asked for what I had to offer.

"I have many enemies, just like the one you witnessed not too long ago. As long as I create any strong disturbance in the world of dreams, that fellow would come after my skin, trying to end me as soon as possible." I explained my circumstances, including this annoying fellow who never listens to reasons or even bothers to have a dialog. His main goal is to end me.

"Are you intending to pit us against each other? Do you treat me for a fool?" The Duke hearing my words appeared a bit angered, feeling as if I had wasted his time.

In general, the Duke was not incapable of keeping his personal dealings separate from his responsibilities as a Duke who was the one responsible for this war.

It’s such nature of the Duke that made him an Enemy of the Royal Family due to his odd nature of suppressing everyone under him, but due to his responsibility over this nation, he still followed the will of his Nephew, the current emperor.

And he had hoped this odd existence that fascinated him deeply would do the same, they can be enemies as well as partners in a certain sense. Which was his initial reason to approach Jester to begin with.

But that was only possible if it was done in goodwill.

It was only possible if Jester made an equal offer, not a shameful one like this. Which angered him a bit, causing the surrounding reality to collapse. But seeing that Jester didn’t budge from his place, he asked. "Clarify. Otherwise, I will stop holding back."

"I never asked you to fight him since the start, you are still an insect compared to him, just a bigger insect than me, but an insect nonetheless." These were some harsh words for people on Duke’s status. But the old guy who appeared as a boy didn’t mind these words.

For he was aware of this fact himself, from the size of that hole itself, he understood the opponent he was facing was at least a high-class Daemon. Even reaching the level of Prime Daemon.

So he didn’t mind these words, instead, something else cropped up in his mind. "Does this Giant hate you?"

"Considering he is after my life, then she sure does... he had even followed me multiple times before. But then he was not strong enough to send his army anywhere he wanted. He had turned stronger."

"Then why would I choose to work with you? We are enemies from different nations, while the giant who is after you has no conflict with me. Instead, it would seem the best choice for me would be to hand you over to him and ask him for his help instead." The Duke spoke his mind clearly. This was the base-level reasoning that anyone would come in his position.

Why work with an insect to fight a Giant, when he can sacrifice this insect to that giant to get in his good graces?

Wasn’t this the best and most perfect choice?

Well, that would have happened if the Duke was stupid or looked down on his opponent. Which he did neither of.

Jester, he alone had caused so much damage to Cynark that even if the Duke didn’t like to admit it, this weird being was smart, much smarter than anyone under him.

He believes that such a smart existence wouldn’t make such a stupid request without any reason.

Which was correct.

"Well, the answer is simple. The moment Duke starts to dabble with the Dreamworld, or specifically the nightmares. That existence will come for you, and unlike me, you can’t run away."

This magical land had a longer history than the world I come from, and oddly enough, even with the existence of Forbidden Text, most of the history and world events have been passed down for thousands of years.

Including the mentions of fallen gods, demons from beyond the skies, and even curses that devastated the land long ago.

But if there is one thing that has no history or mention of. It would be the Nightmares.

The research on the world of Nightmares was done at a minuscule level in the current world, and for some reason, none of the mages or churches hold any interest in it.

Instead, from the looks of it, the mention of the nightmare world was outright suppressed. This can be seen in how long it took for the Churches to learn what I was. In their attempt to suppress the information, they had lost information on what the Nightmares used to be or how to deal with them.

Which had been the reason why I had been so slippery all these years, always using the dreams of others to escape.

It can be said that I was lucky enough to obtain such forbidden knowledge that doesn’t even exist on this land anymore.

But not everyone can be so lucky.

Like the Duke in front of me.

"Haven’t you ever wondered why you never found any relevant information on the world of nightmares?"

My words caused the Duke to fall into contemplation. He mixed the two and two together, before shaking his head. "A single individual can’t be blamed for this, all the churches have banned the study, including the Mage towers. No one dares to touch the subject even hiding from the eyes."

"Partially is true... The churches have banned the study. But do you know why?"

"Why the churches that are always in conflict with each other, suddenly agree with a particular ban all of a sudden?’

"What caused them to be so fearful of the Nightmares?"

"Who are they so fearful of?"

It was a history the world had forgotten, a history that changed my life forever.

A hidden history, that should have been hidden forever.

But I guess, the Duke needs to learn some truth if he were to forget about what happened today and give me some leeway in my actions.