Chapter Thirty-Seven: Princess? In My Eyes, Only a Maid!

After washing up, Louis lay down on his bed and got to work. That night, he became a nightmare, wandering through the dreams of those people, constantly experiencing their fears and understanding the power of nightmares.

Their dreams shifted with their thoughts, and since Mindbender could alter thoughts, its combination with the Nightmare Curse produced remarkable effects. After experimenting with various spells, the ravens were left with deep mental imprints without even realizing it.

This world relied heavily on magic, not knowledge. Such shifts in thinking didn’t fall under the domain of magic and thus could not be detected. In fact, if someone later tried to use Mindbender or the Nightmare Curse on them, these imprints would allow them to free themselves from mental control. Hypnotic methods to uncover the root of their problems would fail as well.

After testing, Louis saw that these people indeed broke free from the nightmares, even those who had been ensnared by Stuart’s tricks were finally released. This night’s experiment gave Louis a deeper understanding of both the Nightmare Curse and Mindbender.

Now, these villainous raven drunkards had become his planted informants within the Voodoo Gang. All he needed to do in the future was make a call and say certain words, and they would remember who their true master was.

The next morning, Louis awoke to a scene that seemed half-dream, half-reality. Many pieces of furniture and knickknacks floated in midair, constantly shifting into strange shapes. In the shadows, tiny figures chattered noisily, while on the floor, pea-sized mushrooms in skirts scurried about on little feet.

Louis’s body lay on the bed, but his consciousness coiled near the ceiling like a snake with three heads.

Dream-Eater Serpent—the term flashed through Louis’s mind.

But his dream-serpent form had three heads, and its scales seemed odd—an unusual variant, perhaps.

He shook his heads, setting aside the matter for now. There were more urgent problems to solve. He couldn’t return to his body, and the magic in the room was behaving abnormally, risking unwanted attention.

Louis pondered calmly, recalling from a book that when a wizard’s magic reached a certain level, dreams could begin to interfere with or even distort reality.

Such wizards typically possessed unique talents, able to pull real objects into dreams like the Dream-Eater Serpent, or traverse other people’s dreams.

Louis knew this wasn’t an innate gift, but rather a ‘side effect’ of his repeated excursions through others’ dreams, growing familiar with the power of nightmares.

He reviewed what he’d learned, began to guide his mental energy, then opened his maw and inhaled. The noisy little people, living mushrooms, and animated furniture were all sucked into his mouth. At that moment, Louis slowly woke up.

When he opened his eyes, he was lying on his bed, and the room had returned to normal, as though everything before had been an illusion. Yet if one paid close attention, everything seemed somehow more vibrant than before.

He understood: this was the influence of dream magic upon his surroundings.

Checking his status in the ledger, Louis found his magic had increased by 1.63 after last night.

His total attributes now read: [Strength: 8.28 | Dexterity: 5.1 | Magic: 16.56]

He had devoured the dreams of more than a dozen wizards in one night. Part of this magic increase came from digesting those dreams, another part was the stimulation of his own power by the dreamscapes of others.

This increase was already more than 10% of his own base magic—dangerous, as it risked transforming him into some strange, magical creature.

And, after all, last night he had captured four black wizards, whose power and dream-force far surpassed the common pub mages. So, for future physical training, he would need to be cautious and plan ahead, lest he overdo it.

Rubbing his eyes, Louis got out of bed and went to the living room.

Auxicris had gone out early, and Helen had snuck out with the young ladies. The washroom was piled high with unwashed clothes—just a matter of a few spells, but those two maids were remarkably lazy.

Seeing the heap of bright, colorful underwear in the basin, Louis shook his head. “They really don’t treat me as an outsider at all.”

He went to the little kitchen, sliced some bread, drank some tea, had his breakfast, and then stopped by the office in the morning. After treating a goblin from the Baileaf family with an appointment, he skipped work and went to his hideout.

He broke his body into pieces, inscribing many runes upon the dermis beneath his skin. These runes would help him restrain his dream wanderings and stabilize his magic. The effect was to make his body, as his magic increased, gradually become as resistant as a dragon’s to blade and spell alike.

There was another minor benefit: preventing magical leakage, making it hard for others to sense his true power.

Otherwise, if Auxicris and Helen, with whom he lived day and night, thought he’d become a ‘fully awakened’ archwizard, much of the fun would be lost.

The older one would stop provoking him for playful revenge, and the younger would stop challenging him to duels—life would become unbearably dull.

After playing with some magic at the hideout, Louis helped Stuart sew a wizard’s robe. By evening, he had finished both sleeves. Eagerly, he tried it on and discovered he could now break through his weight limit and transform into a thirty-foot serpent demon! That size matched a Welsh Green Dragon.

After testing a few spells, Louis found that even third-rank black fangs could not pierce his body.

“My lord, once the robe is finished, I guarantee you’ll be even larger—big enough to swallow a fire dragon! And your flesh will be tougher than ever,” Stuart exclaimed, standing atop Louis’s serpentine head. “You’ll be able to summon storms and petrify with a glance!”

As Stuart finished speaking, Louis saw a line of narration appear:

[It seems you’ve conceived a remarkable idea...]

[Quest: Swallow a fire dragon.
Completion reward:
1. +5 feet in length;
2. +2 Strength;
3. +3 Magic;
Description: Every dragon possesses extraordinary magic. Digesting one will undoubtedly aid your growth. But within the next two months, you’ll likely only manage one. Also, best not to let anyone see you do it...]

Louis’s eyes lit up. He decided that once the robe was finished, he would stroll through the dragon quarter. The summer patrols were notoriously lazy—a perfect time for a midnight snack.

When he returned that night, Louis found Auxicris reading in the living room. Seeing him come home so late, she shot him a glare.

Louis raised his brow, sensing trouble. Sure enough, after dinner, Auxicris announced that from today onward, she would be tutoring the two of them.

It seemed Auxicris had far too much free time.

And she seemed to consider Louis a bit of a fool, always teaching him lessons fit for kindergarteners—simple sums, repeated over and over, as if afraid he wouldn’t understand. As for Helen, she received elementary school material, and took endless delight in mocking Louis.

Watching that girl snicker behind her hand, Louis fell into deep thought.

He had planned to play the fool and amuse himself with the two of them, but now realized the young ladies genuinely thought him an idiot. This was becoming intolerable.

Considering the matter, he thought perhaps he should use the tutoring sessions to display a hint of talent, to prepare them in advance. Being taken for a fool all the time was simply too annoying.

But to his surprise, when Louis began to show his gifts, Auxicris would occasionally turn her head to stifle a laugh, while Helen slapped the table in gales of laughter.

“You two are the ones who lack common sense! You're teaching it wrong! What I said is correct!” Louis pounded the table.

The stars in the sky don’t revolve around the earth—surely that’s right!

Even a Muggle would know that!

If you use geocentrism to predict the stars or cast prophecies, no wonder divination and astrology are so difficult and inaccurate!

Such predictions are pure guesswork!

Even fortune-telling swindlers should know a bit of real science!

As an exchange student and former Muggle, Louis used science to prove his point to the two mischievous girls.

The two young witches straightened their backs and nodded along for a while, but perhaps because Louis looked so serious, Auxicris and Helen finally burst into laughter.

What a funny bookworm.

“All right, enough joking—Helen, stop teasing Louis, you know he’s a bit... ahem.” Auxicris shifted in her seat, straightening up with a stern face. “Let’s get to the lesson. Today, we’ll learn how to turn a stone into a stone apple—Louis, pay attention! Stop reading those Muggle books, they know nothing!”

She even shot Louis another glare.

Louis rubbed his face.

And as the next few days of lessons followed, similar incidents became ever more frequent. Louis tried to hold back, but eventually, he couldn’t help but correct them and explain the real facts.

In the end, Auxicris herself joined Helen’s side, laughing openly, and by the last day she didn’t even bother turning away—she and Helen simply put on a whole show of exaggerated expressions right in front of him!

“You little rascals, you started this, so don’t blame me for playing rough these next few days.”

Watching the two girls clutching their stomachs with laughter, Louis sipped his tea with a contented smile.

“So you insist on treating me like a fool? Well then, I’ll play along and have some fun with you!”

Clearly, these two maidens were in need of a little discipline.