"That was just a bad joke, actually. The real reason I can’t fulfill your request is because bringing you, my lord, into the dream outside the usual foggy periods exhausted all the Spiritual Power I’d recently accumulated..."

The Shepherdess bowed apologetically. "I’m terribly sorry."

Her reminder jogged Baron’s memory. It was true—every time he had entered the dream, it had been with the aid of the fog, without exception.

This time, he’d been in such a hurry while being pursued by the Undead Knight, Gawain, and the Silver Fiance that this was the only escape method he could think of on the fly.

So, it was actually his fault. "My apologies," Baron said. "I didn’t think it through..."

"Then please accept your punishment, Lord Constantine," the Shepherdess said suddenly.

Baron froze. Then the Shepherdess was pushing him down at a dining table that had appeared out of nowhere. She handed him a knife and fork as she served the main course: a steak.

Baron stared at the bizarre object before him. It was supposedly a steak, but no matter how he looked at it, it more closely resembled a "car," a "chimney," or perhaps even a "steamship." "Is this... really edible?" he asked, astonished.

The Shepherdess’s expression was unchanged. "I made it myself."

"No, no, no, that’s not the issue..."

"Does my lord want me to feed you...? Open wide..."

Baron was instantly speechless as his mouth was filled with a medley of bizarre flavors, like a taste bomb exploding on his palate.

Some of the flavors even made him wonder if they could truly be achieved through cooking.

’Wait a minute. The Shepherdess said she can’t create food if she doesn’t know what it tastes like. And nothing that happens in the dream can affect reality, with the exception of abstract things like knowledge and experience.’

’Logically, something like taste shouldn’t even exist in a dream.’

’Does this mean the Shepherdess has been to the real world before? And eaten all these weird things there?’

This thought, popping into Baron’s mind, sparked his first real sense of curiosity about the Shepherdess.

’The dream was created by the Dream Master, existing in the space between illusion and reality.’

’As he understood it, the Shepherdess should have been created along with this space. Logically, she shouldn’t possess something like a sense of taste.’

But the flavors in this dish made Baron feel that the Shepherdess hadn’t just visited the real world—she had lived there.

He glanced at the Shepherdess. She was holding her own knife and fork, thoughtfully cutting off the "engine" from the "hood" of the car-steak for him, watching him quietly.

A thought rose in his mind.

’What does the Shepherdess really know? As her colleague in this dream, couldn’t I get some information out of her?’

When he finally finished eating the punishment meal, Baron collapsed onto the ground, exhausted.

It wasn’t from being full, but simply from the exhaustion of experiencing so many flavors.

Everything in the dream existed between the illusory and the real; to gain one thing, you inevitably had to lose another.

Tasting flavors meant just that—tasting flavors. It would never fill your stomach.

Baron lay on the ground, gazing up at the starry sky. Comets of dark and light blue streaked across the celestial map. He asked the Shepherdess, "Have you ever been outside the dream?"

"What is my lord referring to?"

The Shepherdess gathered her skirts and knelt beside Baron. The posture outlined her lovely figure in exquisite detail. Even Baron found himself instinctively taking a second, and then a third, look.

Not until the Shepherdess said coolly, "As long as you can find the Dream Master’s internal organs, my lord can touch all he wants."

Baron reached out to touch... wait, no. Baron said, "I mean places like Prole’s Outer and Inner Sides. Have you been there?"

"I haven’t," the Shepherdess said.

"If you’ve never been, then how do you know about the outside world? And how does your cooking have all those bizarre flavors?"

For the first time, the Shepherdess’s expression changed. It was a minute shift, but Baron could clearly see a flicker of contemplation and confusion in her bright, emerald-like eyes.

After a long moment, the Shepherdess shook her head. "I don’t know. From the moment I was born, I have been here in the dream, accompanied by the black sheep. Everything I know, the black sheep told me."

’The black sheep... So that sheep isn’t just for eating grass, it’s one of the managers around here?’

Baron glanced at the black sheep, which was nonchalantly and placidly nibbling on grass nearby. He thought for a moment. ’I’m just a temp here,’ he figured. ’Why should I get so worked up about it?’

’No need to turn everything into a conspiracy theory. Who knows if the old Dream Master is even still alive? At the very least, they’ve saved me multiple times in a crisis. If things really go south... I’ll be the first one to bounce.’

Baron patted the grass from his clothes and stood up. "Perhaps I’ve said too much. The outside world isn’t necessarily better than this dream... After all, you can have anything you want to eat here."

"If it were me, I’d summon a PS5, some fried chicken, pizza, and Coke, and play until dawn..."

"What’s a PS5?" As Baron stood, the Shepherdess rose to her feet beside him.

"A kind of game console."

"What’s a game console?"

Baron blinked, then suddenly remembered it was still 1987 on the Outer Side. Things like game consoles weren’t widely known or accepted by the general public yet, so it was normal for the Shepherdess not to know.

So he explained, "It’s a really fun machine that lets you temporarily forget your troubles and pain. It can also help you escape reality."

"’Forget your troubles and pain, escape reality...’" the Shepherdess repeated. "Based on that description, drugs seem to have a similar effect."

’Geez, even in a dream, the term ’digital drug’ is still haunting me.’

Baron said, "Alright, miss, it’s about that time. You should probably send me on my way now."

To avoid suddenly fainting like he always did, this time he proactively lay down on the grass.

But to his surprise, the Shepherdess shook her head. "I can’t send you away."