In a blink of an eye, truly, it was in but a blink, Auguste and Henrietta found themselves back at the ranch. By this time, they were already used to it.

Pushing open the door into Elaine's house without so much as a knock, they found Elaine in the living room by her lonesome self, sitting by the fireplace.

"Welcome back," Elaine greeted them with a smile.

"Hey, Elaine," Auguste spoke up. "Do you know where this is?"

"Huh? What do you mean? This is my house, right?" Elaine tilted her head, looking as if she had truly no idea what Auguste was talking about.

"Where did you even get the money for this place anyway?" Auguste pressed on with his questioning.

"Money? Well, it's simple. I just to save up from what we earned during our dungeoneering days."

"Must have taken a while, huh?"

"It sure did. Sometimes, I wonder how I even did it. Not that it matters now that-"

"Elaine," Auguste cut her off, his stern tone nearly froze the air in the room stiff. An audible gulp could be heard from Henrietta nearby. "Do you remember the last Dungeon we ever explored?"

"Our last Dungeon? That's a while back. Where was it again?"

"At best, the most recent one I can remember was Hidden Haven."

"Oh, that's right wasn't it, Hidden Haven. Back then, we visited the Orcus village and even entered the nearby ruin. Gladiolus said that it was a ship, but I don't think it looked anything like one."

"Have you seen a ship before?"

"Not in person, but my father had seen one. He said that they were made of wood and had massive cloths hung on tall poles to catch the winds and uses it to sail forward. He used to be a traveling bard you see, until he met my mother."

"That's great, but, what happened after Hidden Haven? Can you tell me?"

"What happened? Well, we... Wait...... What did we do after that again?"

"I don't know, Elaine, I can't think of anything that happened afterward."

He tried to make it sound as if he was troubled, but his voice came out flat, uncaring even.

"I know, it's so strange isn't it?" Elaine furrowed her brows, her mind troubled as she cast her eyes upon the ground. "It's like I've forgotten everything in-between then and now."

"Maybe that's because we never left."

"Never left?" Elaine raised her face to meet Auguste's sharp, narrow eyes. "What... do you mean?"

"I don't think we ever left Hidden Haven. I don't think we left the ruin."

"That can't be!" Elaine stood up and slowly approached Auguste. "In that case, what is this? What is this place? What is this life?"

"Try to remember, Elaine," Auguste brushed off Elaine's confusion, cutting straight to the point as if going for the kill. "What's the last thing you remember from Hidden Haven?"

"The last thing?"

She remembered setting up camp in a room where the beds were built into the walls. She remembered talking with Auguste during her shift of the nightwatch. Even though his shift was already over, Auguste stayed on so that Henrietta could sleep a little longer. In the end, Henrietta never woke up and Auguste eventually reached his limit and left Elaine to watch the night on her own. What happened after that, Elaine tried her hardest to remember, but grasped at it she might, the memories seemed to slip past her fingers. It was as if a dream, forgotten as soon as she has woken up. Even so, she had indeed noticed it, that she had no memory of leaving that ruin, of leave Hidden Haven.

Casting her gaze upon Auguste and Henrietta once more, she realized that they were wearing their dungeoneering gear. It was odd that she hadn't noticed it before, as if something was keeping her mind from recognizing it, the fact that Auguste and Henrietta did not look a single day older from 'back then'.

"Auguste, Henri... Are we... Are we still in the Dungeon? Where are the others?"

"Unless we've all got our collective memory wiped of the last however many years and have also developed the ability to travel long distances in a short time, I'd say with confidence that, yes, I think we are still in the Dungeon. As for the other, I think they're stuck in the same predicament as you are."

"Everyone else is... I see. So all this, this dream, is a product of the Dungeon then?"

"Probably?" Auguste answered with a shrug.

"Oi, what do yer mean 'probably'? Yer sounded pretty damn sure of it a little while back, didn't you?" Henrietta chimed in.

"Yeah, well, it was about fifty-fifty. I wouldn't be surprised if I were waaay off the mark."

"Seriously!? I thought yer knew what yer were doing this whole time!"

"That's on you."

"Alright, enough!" Elaine stepped in to put a stop to the two's shenanigans. "First and foremost, we should find a way to leave. Is there an exit to this place?"

"Well, we should be able to leave through the path on top of the hill."

"Then let's go. There's no point staying in this place."

"Are yer sure? Yer do have a nice house here."

"It's just a dream. Besides, this being the Dungeon, there's no telling what might happen if I stay here for too long. I might turn into a creature for all I know."

"She's got a point. Heck, I was thinking of taking a break after this. You know, get some sunlight and all that."

"Then what are we waiting for? Come on, lead the way."

For some reason, Elaine sounded rather impatient. Then again, Auguste figured that if he were in her position, he would be rather anxious to leave too. This dream, this world with everything she ever wanted, even if she knew it wasn't real, it remained alluring nevertheless. Better to leave before you get pulled back in for whatever reasons.

No matter what, this world was a 'dream', it was an incomplete world filled with foggy and incomplete people and incomplete histories that seemed to be made up on the spot. It was not a world the least bit alive and certainly not a world one would want to ultimately live in. If for any reason, someone decided to stay, they'll certainly regret it later. Unfortunately, the three had found themselves a little stuck.

"Oi, Gusty, yer sure this is the spot?"

"......"

"Auguste?"

"...... Yeah, this is the spot, I think."

"Then where's the exit!?"

"Maybe it closed?"

"Yer serious? H-how are we going to get back then?"

"No worries, the Administrator should still be outside, right? We can just wait for them to come get us."

"Oh, right!" Henrietta breathed a sigh of relief. "I was getting worried for nothing there."

"You were borderline panicking."

"Shuddap!"

"So, who's this Administrator?" Elaine asked.

"Oh yeah, we haven't told you the whole story yet, have we? Well, here the thing..."

Auguste and Henrietta told the story of how the others went missing when they woke up approximately four days ago. How they went about searching the ship and wound up getting stranded. How they got lucky and ran into the Administrator and eventually found out about where Elaine and the others were.

"So, you two were searching for us this entire time? Sorry to have made you worried," said Elaine.

"Don't worry about it. It's not even your fault in the first place. Can't say the same for the person who got us stranded though."

"H-hey, I already apologized about that, didn't I?"

Henrietta spoke with a trembling voice, sounding as if she's about to cry again. Hearing that, even Auguste felt bad. He meant to tease, but perhaps his words were too harsh.

"Look, I'm just saying that it happened, alright. I don't hold a grudge."

"Besides," Elaine added, "if you hadn't done that, I suppose I would still be trapped here in this dream. To be honest, it felt like my mind was covered in a fog until you two found me. Who knows what might happen if you waited a little longer."

"Okay, now that's going too far. It's great that we found you and all, but don't encourage her. She still did a stupid thing. The only reason it worked out was because we got lucky."

"Now now, you don't have to be so stern. She knows that she's done wrong, isn't that right, Henrietta?"

"Y-yeah, of course! It ain't going to happen again, promise."

"I'll hold you to those words. I'm not running after you if you pull that again."

The three waited on that hill as they chatted, but as moments go by and the chatter died down, they all began to wonder about a singular question.

"So, how long do you think this Administrator is going to take before they rescue us."

It was an answer neither Auguste nor Henrietta could answer.

"Yer don't think they left us here, do yer?"

"I don't think so," or at least, Auguste didn't want to think so, "but perhaps we should find our own way out of here just in case. Any ideas?"

"I've got nothin'," Henrietta immediately answered.

"You don't have to tell us what we already know, Henri." And Auguste was as quick to strike as ever.

"Oi!"

"Maybe if we know more about this 'dream', we might figure something out?" suggested Elaine.

"Well, do you know anything about it? It's your 'dream' right?"

"I guess it is. But I wonder, how did it come to be in the first place? I know Dungeons tend to alter its shape as it feeds off the minds of those near its vicinity, but this seems a bit much."

"Ain't that an understatement," commented Henrietta.

"I'm more curious as to why Finn got married and moved away," said Auguste, "I would have thought that you'd like him to be close by."

"I mean, maybe he just wanted to live by himself, ya know, be independent from his sister and whatnot. He's a man after all," said Henrietta, sounding uncharacteristically insightful.

"If that was the real Finn, then maybe, but there's no way that's him."

"What makes yer say so?"

"I mean, this is like a dream world, right? You can have your dreams come true here. In that case, why would he be running a toy store? If that was Finn's part of the dream, don't you think Finn would want something more, you know, heroic and adventurous?"

"Yeah, alright, I can see that. He does tend to go on and one about the Lightbringers and them heroes you hear in folktales after a mug of ale or two."

"That why this is undoubtedly Elaine's, and only Elaine's, dream." Auguste looked towards the ranch, remembering the conversation he and Elaine had while looking over the windmill-dotted fields of Iotas Tria on a hill much like this one. Then, he turned towards Elaine. "That was something you wanted for Finn, right?"

"I think that's it," Elaine nodded lightly. "Rather than going on some dangerous adventure, I'd much rather he just settle down on a simpler life. Besides, he might not look it, but he's very good with his hands."

"So you thought making toys would suit him?"

"It'd make him likable to children, right? Maybe even a hero of a sort."

"Well, that's one way to look at it."

It can't be said that Finn wouldn't be happy with it should his all too grand dream turned out to be too far out of reach. But, it's not their place to decide for him. The meaning of happiness is to each person their own. At times, perhaps not even happiness is desired.

"What about Morganna?" Auguste continued to his next line of questions.

"Morganna, huh... I get the feeling she wouldn't like living with someone else."

"And I suppose you think all witches live alone in the woods?"

"Is that bad?"

Auguste shrugged.

"No idea. Morganna is the only witch I've met and she's not even a proper one at that... Don't tell her I said that though."

"Ya know, I don't think Morgan would have minded it."

Collectively, the other two turned their heads towards Henrietta.

"What do you mean?" asked Elaine.

"I dunno. I just thought that maybe she don't hate being around people as much as ya think."

"Ah..." Elaine sounded as if she just realized something. "I suppose that just because she prefers to be by herself doesn't necessarily mean she wants to be alone."

Thinking back on that time Morganna got drunk for probably the first time in her life, when they had just gotten back from the Stone Circle Ruins, she was talking about how she's afraid of getting someone on the party killed. At the time Elaine thought that it's perhaps due to her pride in being a witch, however, perhaps Morganna was more attached to the members of the party than she would like to admit.

"Um, you're not making much sense here," said Auguste, not understanding at all what was said.

"Well, despite how it looks, Morganna does care about her party, is what I'm saying," Henrietta explained.

"Oh, okay, yeah..."

Auguste still doesn't get it. Is this what being Henrietta feels like? Perhaps this is what they call a woman's intuition.

"Speaking of which," Auguste proceeded to the next topic. "Where are Henrietta and I supposed to be in this 'dream'? When we just got here, you made it sound like we were working the ranch with you."

"Oh, you two? Um, well..." Elaine's eyes began to dart around. "You two, er, help out around, I guess."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're freeloaders is what I mean," Elaine blurted out, decided to just say it bluntly at this point. "I mean, at first you two were only staying while, saying you'll set off somewhere in a bit, but neither of you seemed to be leaving any time soon."

"Wait, wait, wait! Hold on a sec! Are yer forgetting that I was a traveling merchant before? Don't ya think I'd be traveling all over the place?"

"You also mentioned something about a butt load of debt, so I suppose I got the impression that you weren't any good at it."

"Putting myself aside, I'd say Henri would definitely become a freeloader."

"Oi! Don't just throw me under the cart. Yer in the same position as I am, ya traitor! What happened to never leavin' me behind!?"

"Oh, maybe that's why I'm freeloading along with you. Such a noble soul I am."

"Argh! Why yer little!"

Henrietta placed Auguste in a headlock. He had no chance of escaping. Left with no choice, he could only choose to placate the small lady's irritation.

More time passed as they fooled around. The Administrator still hadn't shown themselves and the three had gotten nowhere.

***

End of Chapter 80