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It was like a virus, a sort of infectious illness that would spread. The Dream Disease was benign, though. There were no other symptoms than harmless dreams. Symptoms lasted for 11 days, precisely, and every night, there was a different dream. So, 11 wildly different dreams. No one would have batted an eye at it. Dreams happened, why worry about dreams? They weren’t real. But precisely what was different with this virus was that... the dreamer remembered them so vividly it was like they had lived that moment. Like it was real. After waking up from a regular dream, so many things that made complete sense in the dream would start to feel off: why was I doing this? why was I here? I wouldn’t have done that! so many hints that, looking back, these had been dreams.
But not with this virus. Some dreamers weren’t sure they had dreamed a dream or… experienced a different reality, like a snippet of a whole different life they had or could have had. The scenes in the dreams were usually simple, not even that complicated, intense or epic. Some dreamers recalled just walking down a street in the capital but could tell after waking up their profession, the names of their friends, what their goals were, if they had a family… it was a whole life the dreamers were experiencing in these dreams and they all said it was hard to differentiate between the dreams and the reality. It was disorienting and while some people took it as a strange but benign experience, others saw lives they longed for but could never get and sank into despair.
As it was starting to become a health and safety issue for the kingdom, the Wizard King took the matter into his own hands and handed out a few mission orders: research (Clover archives, of course, but a team was also sent in the Heart and Spade kingdoms in hope they knew anything, as well as to the Witches’ Forest– where they only found a closed door), investigation (cause of the disease, where it all started; unfortunately, the Knights only got some vague recalls from the first village to have suffered the effects of the Dream Disease) and magical research (Makusa North, Sally, Dorothy Unsworth and Owen were working hard to learn the source of the Dream Disease, if there was any way to cure it, or at least to explain it).
Charmy was the first Bull to be infected, which was perfect because she was about as unfazed about it as she could be. She said her dreams always had food in them, and that she was always happy with her food, no matter what, so she was satisfied because she could see more food in her dreams and she could taste the meals as if she was really tasting them. The Bulls weren’t that worried about Charmy getting the Dream Disease… until Vanessa sobered up enough to ominously drop that Charmy’s dreams felt like they might have something to do with Fate or something otherworldly.
Vanessa, of course, was dragged away from her bottles and sent to help research the Dream Disease.
Noelle had asked Vanessa about updates. Vanessa’s theory was that these dreams might show what could be. Different paths that one could take. A small glimpse at what Fate could put on the Dreamer’s way. She got that from what she called “Fate Vibes” (it was as vague as vague could be; but Vanessa didn’t seem able to put it in other, more intelligible words). Captain Dorothy was adamant that the dreams felt like they were from another world, but unlike Glamour World, that world couldn’t be accessed from this reality. Shouldn’t, Dorothy had said ominously before pouring herself more tea. And that’s when the rest of the research team came up with a wobbly explanation.
The theory of alternate universes came into play: universes that had, would be, or were happening at the same time, containing the same people with a few divergences, a moment in time when realities branched and then merged again. In this theory, these universes were was the dreamers could see.
It subsided. The Dream Disease died out as suddenly as it had emerged. No one could explain it, but no one was complaining.
There were consequences, though. The Dream Disease left some Bulls in a perpetual lethargic state. They were quieter. And Noelle was starting to get worried over one uncharacteristically quiet Bull: Asta.
Asta had been quiet for a week now (since his own Dreaming Episode ended), which meant that he was… thinking. As strange as it could appear, it was something Asta would sometimes be doing lately. He would sit by the lake in silence (an artificial lake by the Black Bulls base; it used to be a small pond but Noelle may or may not have made it worse by training around the area). He would just sit for hours, staring at the still water before him until it was time for dinner or for training and then he would be the normal Asta.
After a few days, Noelle found the courage to go talk to him and sat next to him in silence. Asta didn’t say anything.
“It’s about the dreams, isn’t it?” Noelle asked.
Asta shrugged, “Yeah.”
“Ok, what about them? They’re not real.”
Asta shrugged again, “They felt real.”
Noelle couldn’t help but look down. They did feel real. All of her dreams… they had felt terribly real. On some nights, it was nice. Noelle could see a happy, flourishing version of herself navigate her life. In some dreams she was still a Magic Knight, in others she had resigned. In some she was still a Silva, in one of these dreams she had left her royal House. In some dreams she was married, in others she had 2, 3, 4, 5 children, sometimes she was still single, but never alone. Never alone. And that was what Noelle was holding onto: if Vanessa and the research team was right, if it was what Fate had in store for her (Noelle didn’t believe in this at all, but still)… even the dreams Noelle liked less were still better than the nightmare she had lived growing up. So it couldn’t be that bad. Most of all… Asta had been in all of her dreams. He was always in every dream she had anyway, disease or not. Asta was her best friend, he was the person she was the closest to, (he was the boy she absolutely didn’t have the fattest crush on). It was normal that he was here. But to know that he stuck with her in all of these different realities… it made her think some kind of way. It made her feel special. And good. It was also incredibly reassuring.
“And you were in… every dream I’ve had,” Asta said.
Noelle’s eyes widened. Noelle knew why Asta was in every of her dreams. But… she? was in his dreams?
“But… you died in one.”
Noelle hadn’t seen that one. Maybe because even if the dreams were special… she couldn’t see herself die in a dream. So, that meant she had seen one more universe than Asta did, that meant… there are more than 11 of those?
“I… it was hard when you died,” Asta said.
Noelle stared at his hand, struggling to convince herself to take it. She decided against it and simply said, “I’m alive, idiot.”
Asta chuckled, “I know.”
Noelle couldn’t smile. Asta’s voice was too deep, too sad. She didn’t know what to make of it.
“It’s weird,” Asta said, tapping his chin. He was looking away, blushing ever so slightly. Noelle couldn’t help but take advantage of it. Of the fact that he was looking away. She could stare at his face. She wouldn’t be caught. It would be alright. But… it was strange to see Asta look away. He never did. He was straightforward, always going straight to the point, always looking people in the eye and maybe even farther than that. He saw in people what no one else could see.
“What’s weird?” Noelle asked. “Besides this whole… dream situation. These dreams were weird.”
Asta shrugged, “Whether you and I end up married in these dreams, or we had children too, but no matter what, whether we do get married or we don’t, if you live, we’re just… always together.”
Noelle couldn’t say a thing. She was beet red by now and wanted to send Asta flying so she could escape this conversation. He talked about marriage and children so casually, as if he didn’t know the current implications of his words.
“And I was glad? Relieved?” Asta continued. He looked down, staring at his lap. “I think I liked that we were together.”
He paused. Noelle tried very hard to still the beating of her heart, but it was hard when Asta was being so serious and saying all these things…
“You know… what Vanessa said?” Asta said suddenly. “I asked her about the Dream Disease, if they had any news on what it was about…”
Noelle pretended she didn’t know.
“She said that Captain Dorothy and her figured out it might be glimpses of other worlds…”
“Alternate universes,” Noelle corrected.
Asta blinked. Noelle felt herself blushing hard. This is not how you pretend you don’t know. But after all, Noelle was curious about her own dreams. Some of them… looked like everything she had always wanted. She was a powerful mage. A captain and then a vice captain, because she wanted to take care of her family. Her siblings didn’t hate her anymore. She had a good relationship with them, having dinner with them and their own families once in a while. Noelle still shuddered at her siblings’ choice of spouses but that… didn’t really matter. They were happy, everyone was happy. It was all that mattered.
“Other worlds and alternate universes are not the same,” Noelle explained. “Going to another world is like going to Captain Dorothy’s Glamour World. But other worlds exist in alternate universes too. Alternate universes are just… different realities that exist independently from each other, and…—”
Noelle stopped. Asta’s brain visibly couldn’t follow the explanations; she was starting to lose him. Asta kept quiet, visibly thinking hard about it.
Noelle chuckled and nudged him, “Idiot.”
“That didn’t change either,” Asta said, his voice strangely nostalgic as he set his eyes on the lake before them.
“What didn’t?”
“You call me an idiot in every universe. And it was your last word to me in the one you died in.”
Noelle stared at him. She could tell his gaze was different. Sadder. From having lost her. She remembered how he was one morning after a dream. Sad. Grieving. He hadn’t left her all day, he hadn’t dared let her leave his sight. Now, she knew why. He had dreamed of her dying.
“Seriously…” Noelle said. “Can you stop telling me I died?”
“Sorry.”
“I’m here, I’m alive. What you saw, we can avoid it or we can still have it.”
Noelle paused, suddenly remembering the implications of what she had just said. In most of her dreams, they had ended up together. In most of her dreams, they had had a whole flock of children too.
“Like!” Noelle added quickly. “When you were Wizard King!”
“Oh! We had the same dreams?” Asta asked.
“Idiot,” Noelle said. “If they are alternate universes that are true somewhere else, then yes, we saw the same things! I crossed-checked some of mine with Vanessa’s…”
Noelle shivered. She would never get used to what she saw in some of her dreams concerning Vanessa.
“There was one in which Zora was captain of the Bulls and your brother was the king!” Asta said. “And we had a family too… We had—”
“5 children,” Noelle said.
“Elsa, Nico,—”
“Nico?” Noelle repeated, frowning. “No, I don’t think so.”
“It wasn’t?”
They stared at each other, confused.
“I don’t think I would’ve named my son after my father, Asta,” Noelle said. “Did you hear the name right?
Asta blinked, then shrugged, mumbling, “I was sure it was Nico…”
“I thought it was Neo,” Noelle said. “But maybe it was a different universe? The next three were Vivi, Nellie and…”
“And Tino!” Asta completed. “They never listened to me…”
Noelle chuckled, “That’s what Neo would say about himself.”
Asta chuckled in turn.
“Elsa’s just like you,” Noelle said in a laugh.
“Vivi’s just like you,” Asta said back, grinning.
“Are you kidding? She’s you, through and through!”
“Nellie’s the most like you,” Asta pointed out.
Noelle sighed, “I wish she wasn’t sometimes…
Silence settled. Asta looked down. Noelle searched for something to say. The silence was awkward now.
“Hey, um…” Asta said. “In… most of my dreams, I was… a little oblivious to… I mean that the Noelles in these dreams had feelings for me and… for a long time, and I don’t mean you, the real Noelle, do. It’s about the dreams. But I wanted to ask you if you… had feelings? for me?”
Noelle’s breath caught. Normally, she would have Sea Dragon-ed him for implying that she, a royal, could have feelings for him. But there was no way she could lie now that Asta had seen her true feelings in almost eleven dreams. And maybe… maybe seeing herself be more honest with her feelings during the dreams had also pushed Noelle to… try a little harder. It wasn’t impossible. She could do it… and she wanted to.
Asta scratched his head, “I… I’ve been thinking. And I don’t know yet. But I’ll think some more.”
“About?”
“About what… I feel about… you. I don’t know yet! I’m not sure! It’s confusing and the dreams made it hard for me to know because we were happy in them, I was happy in them and I don’t know if… I just know I don’t want a world in which you’re dead. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I want to stay with you until the end, like that dream when we all lived at the base together but weren’t married.”
“This one was nice too…” Noelle said. In that universe, she had accepted that Asta would never feel the same for her as she did for him. Within the years, she had gotten used to it. She simply stayed with him and the few Bulls who stayed and didn’t get a family or a life of their own. And it had been enough. More than enough. She had been so happy too…
“But I don’t know if I want to get married to you yet!” Asta said.
“Who’s talking about marriage!?” Noelle erupted loudly. Asta flinched and visibly got ready to be yeeted by a spell. Noelle managed to hold back her spell at the last second. But honestly! No one could blame her for that? Why was he talking about marriage out of the blue? Noelle’s grimoire went back to her holder and the two knights fell silent. Noelle coughed awkwardly, clearing her throat.
“I mean… you know Vanessa said something about these dreams,” Noelle said.
Asta turned towards Noelle, waiting for the rest. Noelle hesitated, then sighed.
“She said that these were alternate universes. That we lived wildly different lives and were different people than the glimpses we got of all the versions of ourselves. She also said… don’t let this get you all worked up.”
Noelle paused, then said, “So… let’s just see where it goes.”
Asta didn’t reply. Instead, Noelle saw his hand slowly move towards hers. She closed her eyes and gasped when she finally felt Asta’s warm hand taking hers.
“Ok,” Asta said.