"For now, we are not ready to face them," Wyntor said. "We have to get stronger first."
"But we also can't just do nothing about the spy. If we just ignore them, they might do something bad, like freeing the Dreamer."
"Because of that, I will start hiring guards."
Nick furrowed his brows. "Why guards? I don't think guards can fight a Zephyx Extractor."
"That's not the primary reason," Wyntor answered. "A guard only needs to survive for long enough to alert any person of Dark Dream."
"While the spy might plan to do something like free the Dreamer, they won't dare to openly start a war with Dark Dream yet."
"You don't know how Manufacturers interact with each other, but directly attacking someone openly is frowned upon. Officially, attacking another Manufacturer is seen as attacking humanity since Manufacturers are responsible for containing Specters."
"Of course, in secret, all the Manufacturers are battling each other, and if a skirmish breaks out, the detectives either act like both Manufacturers are at fault in the conflict or don't even comment on it as long as it's not absolutely obvious what happened."
"If the spy gets found out and captured, the forces of Crimson Fungus City will side with us, and Ardum will have to either abandon his pawn or pay a hefty fine."
"Because of that, Ardum won't dare to send his forces in to mess with us as long as we have a couple of guards."
Nick listened intently. "When will you get the guards?"
"Today," Wyntor said. "With the increased output of Zephyx, thanks to the Screaming Coffin, I can afford to hire a couple of guards. It will cost us barely a thousand credits per day."
Nick nodded.
Then, Nick took a deep breath, but he didn't say anything.
Wyntor raised an eyebrow.
Nick looked like he wanted to say something.
"Yes?" Wyntor just asked with an expectant tone.
Nick closed his eyes and took another deep breath.
"I don't think I can take care of Horua anymore," Nick said. "It has become so difficult, and I noticed that it has started to interfere with my duties."
"I know that I am the one responsible and that Horua has become like this entirely due to my mistake, but I can't just continue like this."
"I need someone who can take care of him," Nick said with a tone filled with shame.
Nick felt like he had given up.
He felt like he had run away from his responsibility.
"It's good that you made the choice," Wyntor said. "To be honest, I would rather have someone else take care of the boy than you."
"I need you fully focused for your position."
Nick released a sigh, but he wasn't happy.
He just felt ashamed.
"Nick," Wyntor added, making Nick look up at him again. "But I think you are still not considering the entire picture."
Nick furrowed his brows.
"How old is the boy?" Wyntor asked.
"He will be twelve soon," Nick said.
Wyntor nodded. "And he has been in this state for how long?"
"Three months, give or take," Nick said.
"Three months," Wyntor repeated. "And he was eleven when he became like this."
"Nick, three months for an eleven-year-old is a significant amount of time."
"He has probably grown a couple of centimeters in that time, and his muscles have also atrophied by quite a bit."
"Just to recover from these three months would take another couple of months."
"In total, he already lost half of a year to this."
Nick became nervous. "What are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying that the time for being passive is over, Nick," Wyntor said. "How long will you let the boy continue being in this state? A year? Two years? Three years?"
"How long until the boy doesn't even recognize who he is anymore when he looks into the mirror?"
"Will you let him spend his entire childhood in this state?" Wyntor asked.
Nick narrowed his eyes. "I would help him if I could!" he shouted. "Don't act like I refuse to help him!"
"Nick," Wyntor said. "It's been three months. Doing nothing won't help him. Do you want him to spend the rest of his life like this?"
"What do you want me to do?" Nick asked with fear and annoyance.
But in truth, Nick already knew what Wyntor wanted.
He just didn't want to accept doing that.
"The Dreamer was the one that put him into this state," Wyntor said. "Maybe the Dreamer can help him get out of it."
"The Dreamer will kill him!" Nick shouted. "Specters have no empathy, and if the Dreamer sees an opportunity to kill Horua, it will do so!"
"Then, why did the Dreamer retreat before the boy started to have a seizure?" Wyntor asked. "You told me that the Dreamer stepped away before things were going badly."
"It seems like the Dreamer didn't want to kill him."
"Nick, while it is true that Specters don't have Empathy, it is also true that they are intelligent and do what is best for them."
"If the Dreamer knows that awakening the boy is the best thing to do, it will do so."
"It has worked with us for three months now, and it wouldn't want to ruin our trust in it by killing some random kid."
"It's going to try its best. Even if the only reason is that we trust it more, and it might gain an opportunity to break out of its Containment Unit one day."
Nick gritted his teeth.
The Dreamer had caused Horua to enter this state.
Sending Horua to the Dreamer again could only be bad.
Nothing good could come of this.
However, Nick also couldn't deny Wyntor's words.
Horua couldn't live his life like this.
'If Horua could talk, what would he choose?' Nick thought.
Silence.
Wyntor just looked at Nick, while Nick just looked at the table with an absentminded expression.
Some seconds later, Nick put his head in his hands.
He knew what Horua would choose.
