NOVEL WEB Chapter 33: The Rule
"As you can see, we are now in the illustrious Boulder Town! This also happens to be where I tend to conduct most of my respectable business practices…"
Sunny did not think that he believed that Sampo was a person that conducted respectable business of any kind. He chose not to speak on it, and decided to look around Boulder Town instead. The first thing he noticed was that the area was much more well off than the area in which they first came in, as he didn't see anyone that looked like they hadn't eaten for days…
Boulder Town's appearance was reminiscent of the rest of the Underworld, yet the buildings seemed to be relatively well-taken care of. There weren't any malnourished children — at least, none that Sunny could see — and the people here were noticeably less gloomy. Sunny wouldn't go as far as to say that they were living well, but it seemed to be much better than the situation outside of Boulder Town.
Sunny and Sampo drew some eyes, which was to be expected considering the fact that they were carrying around unconscious teens in their arms. Not only that, but some of the wounds that March and Dan Heng sustained were quite gruesome. If a normal person was injured in the same way, Sunny doubted that they would see another day.
At the thought of his injured companions, Sunny sighed.
"Where is this doctor you talked about?"
Honestly, Sunny was surprised that there was a doctor down here. Due to this, he was expecting an unsavory individual that would ask him for a lot of money in exchange for helping out Dan Heng and March.
…Those two were going to owe him. Sunny charges interest.
At his question, Sampo simply said:
"Don't be in such a rush, my friend. We're already here!"
Blinking, Sunny looked up at the building in front of them. It seemed larger than most of the houses around, which made some sense. After all, this was supposed to be a place that can hold multiple patients, while also having the space for medical equipment without giving people difficulties when it came to moving around.
Without even offering the basic courtesy of knocking, Sampo simply barged through the double doors that lead into the clinic.
"Natasha, it's me! Sampo Koski has graciously brought you more patients!"
Sunny hesitantly entered the clinic, hoping that the doctor here wouldn't mind the sudden intrusion. Sampo truly had no manners…
Stepping into the clinic that gave off the scent of sterilized air, Sunny glanced around. Finding the room completely empty… his shadow sense couldn't pick up on anything either.
'Is this Natasha person not here?'
"Sampo… what trouble did you get into this time?"
Sunny almost jumped, startled by the sudden voice he heard. Looking around, he found the source of the voice before them.
The doctor sent Sampo a scathing glare for a moment, before her eyes widened at the sight of the unconscious Nameless. Ignoring the sleazy man for a moment, she ordered:
"Place those two on the beds over there."
Sampo let out a nervous laugh as he carried the two over to a couple of unoccupied beds. The doctor redirected her gaze to Sunny himself — or rather, Bronya, who was being carried in his arms.
"Is she…?"
Sunny was confused for a second, before realizing what she had wanted to ask.
"Oh, no. She's not injured or anything. Just unconscious."
She shook her head.
"That wasn't exactly what I meant, but that can wait until after I'm done patching those two up."
Although Sunny wasn't quite sure what she had wanted to ask, he agreed that healing the other two was much more important.
Placing Bronya on another bed, Sunny took a seat on a wooden chair. The doctor put on some gloves as she walked over to where March and Dan Heng were. She paused and turned towards Sunny, seemingly about to say something before Sampo interrupted.
"You don't have to worry about him watching. He's an Awakened too, so you don't have to hide your Aspect."
Her eyes widened slightly, before silently nodding at his words. She turned back to the injured patients before her as white sparks danced within her palms.
She was summoning a Memory.
Sunny blinked in confusion. Why would anyone need to hide that they were an Awakened? He turned towards Sampo, who lowered his tone to answer his unspoken question, seemingly not wanting to disturb the doctor.
"That's Natasha. She's probably the only doctor in the Underworld, and one of the only three Awakened here — one of them is me. As you can see, yours truly is the only Master…"
Sunny's eye twitched.
"Just get to the point."
Sampo let out an exaggerated sigh.
"…You see, the Supreme Guardian banned any talk of Awakened with normal people in the Underworld."
Sunny thought about Sampo's words for a second… before realizing that this didn't make any sense at all.
"Why would she do that? How would she even keep track of that?"
Sampo crossed his arms, donning a serious expression for the first time since Sunny had met him.
"I'm not too sure about the first question, but as for the second…"
He paused for a second.
"In the Dream Realm, Citadels tend to have a few components that can be used by the Saint that controls it. Basically… Belobog can be considered a giant Citadel, and Cocolia can be considered as the Saint that controls it."
Sunny frowned. Belobog was a city that had the blessing of an Aeon itself, so it was bound to have some mystical properties. However, being aware of everything people say to each other…
"Does that mean she can hear any conversation?"
Unless that authority didn't extend to the Fragmentum, she must have heard that Sunny planned to kill her. Cocolia might be wary of him now…
Sampo shook his head.
"Not exactly. Instead, she can impose a single, permanent rule on Belobog. None of the previous Supreme Guardians used it in case there was an emergency, but Cocolia decided to change that."
He chuckled for a second, having found something funny.
"The Overworlders don't know about it, and there are very few Underworlders that do. Me, Natasha, the third Awakened, and a few of the older people know anything about the Nightmare Spell. I don't know why she would waste the single rule on something that seems so useless, but I could take a guess."
Sunny stared at Sampo for a second, before asking:
"Well? What is it?"
Sampo just shook his head with a humorous grin on his face.
"It's just a worst case scenario. I don't think Cocolia is that crazy. I'm sure that the Supreme Guardian must have some good reason as to why she would do such a thing."
Sampo didn't sound very convinced of that — especially after calling the Supreme Guardian crazy. Chances are, the purpose of the rule wasn't very benevolent…
"…Wait. What even happens to people that break that rule?"
Sampo shrugged.
"From what I know, even though the rule is permanent, the consequence of breaking it can be freely changed. The thing is… I only know of a single violation of the rule."
Sampo's grin disappeared off his face.
"The guy woke up from his First Nightmare, and started showing people the powers he had gotten from it. He had a heart attack a couple seconds later."
Sunny narrowed his eyes. Wasn't this just tyranny at this point? He didn't like it one bit.
Seeing his gaze, Sampo just patted Sunny on the back like they were old friends.
"Hey now, it's not all bad! It only applies to people that reveal the existence of the Nightmare Spell directly. If somebody stumbled on an Awakened killing a Nightmare Creature by accident, nothing would happen."
Sunny tilted his head.
"How do you know that?"
Sampo's smile twitched, seemingly annoyed by something.
"This girl, the third Awakened down here, just goes around doing whatever she pleases. Always swinging that scythe I gave her around like there aren't any consequences… what if I get in trouble due to association?!"
He sighed.
"Honestly… it's a good thing that it's only related to the usage of Aspects. You won't break the rule if you summon a Memory. Otherwise, you would have died when you gave that kid some water. It's a pretty convenient loophole."
Sunny blanched. He realized that he was much closer to death than he thought. However, something didn't really make sense to him.
"Wouldn't summoning a Memory be the same as revealing the existence of Awakened? How come that doesn't count?"
Sampo shot him a look that screamed: "I don't know."
"There's no point in testing it, since the moment you cross the line, you die. If I had to guess, maybe it's because Aspects are what characterize an Awakened, while Memories aren't. Or maybe it's fine as long as people don't consider you to be the source of strange abilities, but the Memory instead."
Sampo shook his head.
"Anyways, you'll be fine as long as nobody actually perceives your Aspect. If it's something that isn't noticeable, you could still use it in front of others."
He looked in the direction of where Natasha was treating March and Dan Heng.
"Of course, magically healing people isn't very low key…"