I Made a Game Featuring Constellations

"Woof! Woof!"

Lick!

The moment the carriage door opened, the puppy lunged at [Temperance].

"Ugh!"

Warm, wet licks smeared across her face, and she instinctively scrunched up her nose in displeasure.

"You little—!"

Her attendant, startled, immediately moved to pull the dog away from her.

"Stop. Leave it be."

"…Understood."

[Temperance] restrained her assistant and held the puppy up, gripping its small belly with both hands as she examined it.

A scruffy little mutt.

On any other day, she would have never allowed something so filthy near her.

Keeping something weak and unsightly by her side would make her look vulnerable.

And vulnerability went against everything she had sworn never to be again.

"Master of the trade guild, this is a stray dog. It could be carrying diseases. It’s highly unsanitary."

"…I’m aware."

And yet…

She couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Something about its pitiful, abandoned state reminded her of herself—of her friends.

"This one. I’m taking it with me."

She couldn’t leave it behind.

***

Did I… just succeed?

I had lost count of how many times I had repeated this dream, waiting for her to notice me.

I could force her thoughts to shift, just as I did when crafting episodes in the [Akashic Archive].

But that would be wrong.

She had to make the choice naturally—that was the only way to get real results.

Thankfully, after repeating the dream over and over, I had figured out the trick.

I knew how to reset until I got the outcome I wanted.

If I perfected this, I might even be able to apply it to the real world.

Of course, if I could actually control reality like that, we’d be talking about something far beyond just dreams.