Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 437 - 5 A Midsummer Night’s Dream_1

Chapter 437: Chapter 5 A Midsummer Night’s Dream_1

Catherine felt she had a dream, a very short dream. In the dream, she was lying on a green lawn, with nothing but the delicate, elegant scent of deer tail flowers in her nostrils, and the cool night wind washing away her exhaustion and pain. In the dream, her once strong self seemed filled with unexpressed grievance and resentment, weakly leaning in a man’s arms crying, allowing the man to soothe her to sleep. In the haze, the man seemed to keep whispering something special in her ear. It’s strange, what is it? It seems to be the experience of many predecessors during their ascension.

"Who is this man? Such a killjoy. Is this the time to talk about these things in such an environment, in such a scene?" Catherine complained in her dream: "After all, I am a woman. At times like this, shouldn’t he be saying romantic things to comfort me? How could he think to talk about these messy things?"

"These things must be important. Each one is valuable experience that most people won’t share casually in their lifetime. If I were awake, I should be listening very attentively, right?" Catherine thought dazedly: "However, I have fallen asleep. This is just a dream. Life is too exhausting like this, my shoulders are heavy, and I really want to lay everything down and rest well, but I can’t. Only by standing upright every moment can I provide them with this shelter for their souls. If I can’t keep up, the road to redemption for Lina, Vivian, Pannis, would be more difficult, wouldn’t it? I don’t have a chance to rest."

"Whose eyes are these? They seem familiar."In Catherine’s dream, a pair of eyes seemed to appear in the night sky in front of her, very familiar, as if she could see them every day. The gaze in the eyes was very gentle, like a summer night’s breeze, carrying the power to calm the heart, making her feel serene.

"Sleep, sleep." Catherine heard a vague voice echoing in her ears, the voice warm and soft, a familiar and affectionate voice: "Put down all the burdens on your shoulders, rest well. After you rest, when you wake up, you are still the knight carrying the destiny of friends, moving forward. You are still Catherine."

"I don’t have the opportunity to rest." Catherine silently answered in her heart: "However, this is a dream, isn’t it? A little bit of rest in my dreams should be alright, shouldn’t it... just... a little while."

So, the relieved Catherine slept deeper, to the extent that she felt in her dream that she had another dream. In this dream within a dream, she seemed to have returned to her childhood, swinging a wooden sword in her hand, being held by her mother, taking walks in the courtyard. Her young father was by her mother’s side, his face full of happiness and satisfaction.

"Ah, ya." Young Catherine who just started talking waved her wooden sword, pointed to the three oak trees in the courtyard, two tall, one short, and said in a childish voice: "Daddy, mommy, I, haha, ya."

"Our darling is so clever." Her mother smiled brilliantly, kissing her forehead: "These represent our oak trees, we should be like them, always together."

Her strong father gently held her mother and daughter close in his arms, the three of them looking up at the lush crown of the oak trees.

The dream within a dream continued, Catherine returned to that rainy summer night, a night that she would remember for the rest of her life. After a day of rigorous combat training, the young Catherine was exhausted, but she still had to hold a thick book over her head at night, sitting in an elegant posture in a chair, listening carefully to the family tutor’s evening class. The class went on until an urgent knock on the door brought the news of her parents’ death. Catherine still remembers, she didn’t cry at that time, she completed the remaining course with the most aristocratic poise, politely sent off the tutor with a complicated expression on his face, as for what happened after, she could never remember, even in her dreams, it’s just a pitch-black despair.

In the dream within a dream, the young Catherine finally joined a temporary adventure team, the first mission was just to clear the low-rank magical beasts around the nearby villages and retrieve the lost goods of the merchants. The adventure team consisting of eight close young boys and girls completed the mission very smoothly, retrieving all the goods on the list, but someone was tempted by a ring in the lost goods. It’s common for goods on the list to have minor losses within the range acceptable by the client, but Catherine firmly stopped such behavior. The disdainful and disgusting looks from her teammates made her feel a deep sting in her heart, but even if these friends never interacted with her again, even if this kind of insistence caused her to lose more friends and partners, she would not bow her head, she would not let go of her persistence and belief.

In the dream within a dream, the young Catherine saw that thin body again, the dry hand tightly gripping a magic staff, staggering along the road, falling down again and again. In a daze, Catherine heard that low, weird voice, uttered syllable by syllable again: "Go away, I don’t need help, I am a genius, I can do this little thing by myself."

"I won’t help you, but I want to stay by your side, when you fall down I will pull you up."

In the dream within a dream, Catherine saw the silver-haired girl again, saw those eyes shining out of the darkness again, eyes filled with endless doubt and fear, fear of strangeness and light.

"Don’t be afraid, I am here to protect you. As long as you are willing, you can hold my hand at any time, hold on forever."

In the dream within the dream, Catherine saw the years of her past, there was happiness, sweetness, warmth, and pain, whatever the taste was, it was so beautiful that it was unforgettable, unbearable to lose.

"Indeed, protecting this beauty is what I should do." Catherine smiled gently in her dream: "In order to guard this, I will keep going, never fearing."

With a groan, Catherine woke up from her dream.

"Where am I?" Catherine woke up in alternating states of confusion and wakefulness. Upon opening her eyes, she realized the world was different in an awakening instance. The dark sky was studded with brilliant stars, but now, each one shone so brightly in Catherine’s view, as though a layer of mist had been lifted from her eyes.

"Is it an illusion?" Catherine thought briefly but soon dismissed the idea, because she found that not only had the visual world changed, her every perception had shifted as well. The grass beneath her, in the wind lightly caressing her body, even through her clothes, she could discern precisely which blade touched her at what angle. The scent of deer tail flowers still displayed its usual elegance, yet she could easily differentiate the fragrance of the flowers from the scent of the grass. In her ears, the sounds of the world enriched, the sound of grass growing, of leaves falling, of insects crawling in the trees, every sound was acutely clear — clear to the point where she even doubted why she hadn’t noticed before.

The soft form beneath her head felt oddly familiar. What was it? Catherine turned her head in curiosity, only to meet Lina’s eyes, containing a comforting smile.

"You finally woke up, my dear sister." Lina gently stroked Catherine’s black hair and said softly, "You said I could hold your hand anytime. It’s too late for you to change your mind now."

"You can always hold it." Catherine held Lina’s fair hand with a genuine smile on her face. "Don’t worry, no matter what difficulties or setbacks we face, I will never revert to my recent state. Forgive my selfishness. I acted impulsively without considering your feelings. I am sorry, I made you all worry."

"I’m alright, I trusted that you would come around, my big sister. A minor setback won’t bring you down." Lina murmured with a smile, "But there is one idiot who was so worried that she secretly cried several times."

"Then she is truly an idiot." Catherine sat up to see the said fool.

Before Catherine fell asleep, she had been propped on Lina’s thighs, just as Lina would often sleep on her legs. But Vivian was now snuggled tightly against Catherine’s leg, sleeping by her side. Her paralyzed body didn’t move much in her sleep, so Vivian stayed in that position, even drooling onto Catherine’s clothes.

"Where are they?" Catherine poked Vivian playfully in the cheek and asked in a low voice: "Are they inside the house?"

"No, Pannis went out earlier to have a barbecue in the backyard with a group of kids." Lina comfortably leaning against the oak tree, categorizing the maid sisters as children idly said, "But now he’s probably being chased around by Freya. Also, Romance and Indulgence came by earlier to show their appreciation. Hah, I don’t think their purpose was quite so noble. Rachel and Nicole also arrived but went back to get some ingredients after seeing the situation in the backyard. Looks like tonight is going to be lively, hehe."

"Ah, how embarrassing." Catherine blushed, holding her face in hand said, "So everyone saw my disgraceful state?"

"My dear sister, you’ve been asleep for three days," Lina said teasingly, "None of them witnessed the incidents before that, only we four know about it. They have only seen is you sleeping for three days due to excessive fatigue. The justification was Pannis’s idea."

"Well, that’s a relief." Catherine finally felt reassured, "I should thank him then."

"You should." Lina sighed and said in a low voice, "If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have known how bad your state of mind was. You yourself didn’t realize how severe it could’ve been. If you didn’t come out of it, you might’ve never had the chance to become a Legendary knight again, and to live a shorter life because of lifelong depression."

"Was it that serious? I truly didn’t realize." Catherine froze for a long time before she exhaled a sigh of fear, "But there’s no need to thank him. There are many things between us that can’t be resolved with just gratitude."

"Hey, the first batch of meat is cooked. Come and join us. Oh, you’re awake? You look pretty good after three days of sleep." Pannis complimented, glancing at the newly awakened Catherine. His pupils shrank as he began to look more and more amused, "How does it feel to see the world anew? Quite amazing, isn’t it?"

"How did you know?" Catherine asked in surprise, "What’s happening?"

"You don’t know?" Pannis’s smile grew wider, and as if he found the situation highly amusing, he grinned at Catherine who even Lina found a bit intimidating, "It’s often the case that the more desperately you try to grasp something, the further it moves away. When you let go and stop chasing, it voluntarily reappears by your side and you can’t get rid of it. Do you understand what I’m saying, newly-ordained Legendary knight, my valkyrie?"(To be continued. If you like this book, please visit qidian.com to cast your votes, or subscribe for monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)