Chapter 139: Whose Dream? |
"Anyway, please calm down first, you two."
Standing in the ruined wedding hall, Levi looked at Lavinia and Joe before him, raising his hands soothingly while feeling a massive headache coming on. He naturally could not let Lavinia stab Joe to death, so the moment she had drawn her blade, Levi had shot it out of her hand. Now, he was trying to sort out this mess.
"So, Mr. Levi, what are we trying to do now?"
Watching Joe whimpering behind Levi and Lavinia glaring from across the room, Annie asked.
"In short, we need to figure out whose nightmare this actually is."
Levi glanced at the two of them and sighed softly. The guests were still standing in their places as if everything around them was perfectly normal. To them, this was not a ruined building with its walls smashed through by a battleship, but a real church where a wedding was taking place.
"Isn't it Mr. Joe's? He was almost killed, so this should count as a nightmare for him."
"That depends on your perspective," Levi explained to Annie. "From Joe's perspective, it certainly is. But if you look at it from Miss Godine's perspective, having the groom try to run away during the wedding ceremony is also a nightmare in itself."
"Perhaps, but she still shouldn't try to kill someone over it."
"Exactly."
Levi realized that Annie's materialistic logical thinking was very much like an NPC's. He was starting to suspect she might not even be a real person, but a character fabricated by his own dream. "You can do whatever you want in a dream. Forget pulling out a knife; it wouldn't even be surprising if she summoned a Mecha and screamed about blowing Joe to pieces."
"...?"
"Alright, I was just joking."
Seeing Annie's confused expression, Levi decided not to linger on the subject and looked back at the two of them. He felt like Sun Wukong facing the Six-Eared Macaque in Journey to the West; it was impossible to tell who was the real deal.
He would have to question them first. Levi approached Joe to ask about his situation.
"You're asking me what's going on? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. At first, I was in a room, and then someone came in and said I was getting married. I was still completely dazed, thinking I was a bachelor, so why was I getting married? Then I walked out and saw that Miss Godine was actually my bride, so I..."
"Do you like her?"
"To be frank? I do like her quite a bit. After all, Miss Godine is cheerful and enthusiastic, gets along with everyone, and everyone likes her. I used to think it would be great to find a wife like her."
"Hmm..."
Hearing Joe's answer, Levi recalled what he knew. Neither he nor Annie knew the members of this archaeology team very well, but Levi's impression of Miss Godine matched Joe's description. Perhaps because she hiked frequently, Miss Godine had been very cheerful and enthusiastic throughout the journey, and she had shown a lot of care for Annie, who had just joined the team.
"So I thought, marrying Miss Godine wouldn't be so bad."
"Then why did you scream for help when you saw me?" Levi looked at Joe in confusion. From his words, he seemed quite satisfied with the marriage.
"Because right after we swore to love each other deeply, she stared at me and started making a bunch of demands I had never even dreamed of!" Joe's face turned pale at the memory. "She said that I would be the head of the household from now on and had to earn money to support the family. I wouldn't be allowed to go to bars to drink or go to the gym to work out. She also said archaeological work has no future, so I must find a job with an annual salary of at least twenty pounds and hand over my wages every week. On top of that, I can't smile at other girls or talk to them..."
"Uh..."
"I was almost scared out of my mind, you know?"
"I can understand."
For a man, that truly was a nightmare. Compared to this, being chased by a Tyrannosaurus rex was nothing.
"I didn't even know what to say at the time. I wanted to refuse! But then you guys just... crashed in." Joe glanced at the battleship. "Please take me with you. I absolutely do not want to get married!"
"Even if the other person is Miss Godine? Didn't you say you liked her?"
"I do like her, but how could I know she was this kind of person? She's clearly so cheerful and generous, and she didn't seem like the type to bicker over money. Why did it feel like she wanted to put a bit in my mouth and hitch me up like a mule?"
"Well... love and daily life are different after all."
Levi had some experience in life, so he could naturally understand Joe's thoughts. The romance and passion before marriage were entirely separate from the mundane realities after marriage. If they had gone through a passionate dating phase, it might have been manageable. But being dragged to a wedding hall without warning or any emotional foundation, only to hear Miss Godine lay down a list of rules...
It was just like a man meeting a woman on a blind date for the first time, only for her to immediately demand a house, a car, and a bride price. It would be a wonder if the man didn't turn around and run.
In any case, Levi now understood Joe's perspective. Next was Miss Godine.
"When I opened my eyes and found myself standing in the hall wearing a wedding dress, I was very happy," Lavinia said, her expression still calm. "I knew I was getting married, but I didn't know who the groom was. I thought it might be someone I knew. But can you imagine the surprise and horror when the doors opened and I saw a bear wearing a suit appearing before me?"
Yes, that was understandable.
For a girl, a dream wedding was supposed to be romantic and perfect, and her groom should be handsome and dashing—even if he wasn't a hundredth as handsome as Levi, he should at least be a thousandth as handsome. He shouldn't be a plain-looking man built like an orc. From Miss Godine's perspective, this was indeed a nightmare.
"And then? What did you do?"
"I thought... actually, it wasn't completely unacceptable," Miss Godine said after a moment of silence, her teeth gritting. "Even though Joe isn't the Prince Charming of my dreams and he's a bit too large, he's still a warm and brave person. I remember several times when he helped fend off men who tried to be disrespectful to me. I still had some good feelings toward him."
"Oh..."
That made sense. Joe had mentioned earlier that they had gone on multiple archaeological expeditions, and they naturally encountered many dangers along the way. Miss Godine was a lively and beautiful young woman, and any man who wasn't blind would find her attractive. Joe's massive physique clearly helped her solve those problems.
"So I felt it wasn't completely unacceptable. But... marriage is a very serious matter." Miss Godine's face turned solemn. "See, to start a family, we need our own house. I actually already planned to become a full-time housewife after graduating from the university."
"Oh?"
"After all, it's very hard to find a job in the Archaeology Department." Miss Godine sighed softly.
"Then why did you choose this major in the first place?"
"Because of internal department reassignment."
That was incredibly realistic.
"Of course, from an academic standpoint, archaeology is very interesting. But taking it as a job is exhausting, and there's no stable income. Many people spend their whole lives without achieving anything. Right now I'm still young, so I can run around with the Professor, but what about the future? So I thought, since I have to get married anyway, and Joe seems like a very honest man who won't cause trouble..."
"So you made those demands?"
"I admit they might have been a bit much, but he could have bargained with me." Miss Godine blushed. "Instead, he looked like he had seen a ghost. What is that supposed to mean? Even if I was a bit demanding, I think I'm still very beautiful. We were about to get married, so couldn't I make a few slightly excessive demands? The more I thought about it, the angrier I got... and then I wanted to pull out a knife and stab him to death."
Yes, perfectly reasonable. The logic held up.
After listening to both stories, Levi called Annie to the side.
"What do you think?"
"I think Miss Godine's demands are perfectly reasonable," Annie replied calmly. "In nature, males must pay a price to win the favor of females. For example, when a bowerbird chooses a mate, she looks at whether the male bowerbird can build a refined, beautiful, and aesthetically pleasing nest. This is a very natural instinctive need that should be satisfied."
"By that logic, lions don't need to hunt or build dens; they only need to focus on external threats, and the lionesses handle the rest," Levi countered immediately. If men had to worry about houses even in another world, life would be truly unlivable.
"..."
Annie remained silent, merely staring at Levi.
"...What?"
"When I was at the school, I once conducted an experiment."
"Oh?"
"We ran tests on a flock of chickens to investigate whether animals possess a social nature similar to humans. Later, we discovered that within the flock of chickens, a rooster with beautiful feathers and a high comb was surrounded and killed by several other roosters. At that time, food and water were abundant in the coop, so there was no survival pressure. Therefore, we believe that even among animals, social emotions and hierarchical conflicts exist. That slaughtered rooster was clearly killed because it made the others feel threatened."
"...Why are you telling me this?"
"Nothing. I just wanted to illustrate that animals also possess symbolic social traits."
"That only proves animals aren't social enough," Levi muttered a quiet retort, then decisively changed the subject. There was never any conclusion to be reached when discussing gender issues with women; Levi was well aware of this fact.
"None of that matters. The question now is, between Mr. Joe and Miss Godine, who is the true owner of this dream?"