Deuce’s Dream

Malleus sends all of Sage’s Island to sleep in Book 7 so that they might enjoy “unending happiness,” and for Deuce this seems to manifest as a dream world where “Night Raven College’s seven dorms are locked in a nonstop battle over turf. Disputes between dorms happen on the daily. If you wanna learn something or use a certain facility, you gotta challenge the dorm posse that controls it and win the right to access it.”

Deuce explains that Heartslabyul’s turf is the library, the botanical gardens belongs to Savanaclaw, the school store belongs to Octavinelle, Scarabia owns the cafeteria, windmill and chicken coop, Pomefiore owns the alchemy workshop and courtyard, Ignihyde presides over the lecture hall and nurse’s office and Diasomnia’s main turf is the coliseum and stables.

Sebek describes the environment as “like a feudal free-for-all of small powers scraping for control over the entire continent,” but Idia and Ortho says it reminds them of stories from manga with “young punks banding into groups and fighting each other.”

Sebek says that he has always suspected that Deuce “wasn’t entirely upstanding” despite how he presents himself and the violent dream has confirmed his assumption, but Ortho observes, “what’s at stake in these fights isn’t money or physical objects. It’s mainly access to school facilities and classes, right? That seems at odds with what a real delinquent would want.” 

Leona comments, “It’s hard to tell if he wants to be an honor student or a punk in this dream.”

As fights are an everyday occurrence Silver suspects that additional violence may not be enough to awaken Deuce.

Octavinelle invades the Heartslabyul territory of the library, and dream-Cater sends the first-year students to handle the disruption.

In the library the members of the two dorms physically fight one another with books, and it is discovered that the pages are blank or filled with nonsensical text: as Deuce has not read the books, his imagination cannot reproduce them.

Enraged by Deuce’s treatment of the books despite claiming that he wishes to be an honor student Sebek attacks Deuce. Sebek asks, “In what way are you an honor student?,” which nearly awakens Deuce.

Dream-Ace reassures Deuce that his dream makes perfect sense and Grim points out to Deuce that Ace is never that nice to him, successfully awakening Deuce: “The REAL Ace is way more inconsiderate and annoying than you!”