Vil’s Dream

Malleus sends all of Sage’s Island to sleep in Book 7 so that they might enjoy “unending happiness,” and for Vil this seems to manifest as a dream world where he is a beloved celebrity and accomplished actor, with the motivation to win over Neige being an integral part of his character.

Neige exists in the dream as Vil’s assistant, whom he berates so fervently that Silver takes issue with the way that Vil speaks to him.

Vil decides that the group are paparazzi disguised as students who are looking to ruin his beautiful reputation and threatens to force-feed them poison apples if they dare reveal what they have seen and heard.

Neige is revealed to actually be a character made of darkness who is ensuring that Vil stays asleep.

The group discovers that, in the world of the dream, Vil has been cast in the lead role of plays and films since he was a child, while in reality it was Neige who was always cast as the lead. (Insert Tapis Rouge Eric boasting conversation).

In the dream world Vil is on the brink of receiving a best actor award that, in the real world, was won by Neige at the age of 14.

Epel wonders why it is that Neige, a source of stress for Vil, is at Vil’s side in what is supposed to be a dream to make Vil happy, and Ortho and Rook suggest that Neige is too much a part of who Vil is as a person to remove him from Vil’s life without the dream collapsing from a paradox, so Neige has been retained but redefined as someone who cannot possibly rival Vil.

Vil receives the Best Actor award within his dream and Rook takes over as the announcer, revealing the projects where Vil was not actually cast as the protagonist as in the dream but as the antagonist, as in reality.

Rook reminds Vil of his home, of NRC, of the Film Research Club, of the VDC where he came in second place and of his responsibility as Housewarden of Pomefiore, nearly awakening him.

Dream-Neige provides Vil with his Best Actor trophy and assures him that he can be the best in the world forever without having to put in any work, without training or skincare routines, and Vil is taken into a deeper sleep.

The deeper level of the dream seems to be an alternate timeline where Vil successfully got Neige to drink the poisoned apple juice on the day of the VDC.

In the dream NRC’s team wins first place under Vil’s leadership. Vil is joined by dream-versions of Rook and Epel, but the real Rook reminds Vil of how he said he could never forgive himself for what he did in reality, and what happened at the Island of Woe when he declared himself the fairest one of all, successfully awaking Vil.

Vil is then swallowed into an abyss.

Inside the abyss Vil is met with the overblotted version of himself, bemoaning Neige’s status as the most beautiful of all. 

Vil is shocked by his own ugliness and the dream-version of himself blames Neige. Vil says it was no one’s fault but his own, unimpressed by his own envy and resentment. Vil decides that he will no longer turn away from this nauseatingly ugly part of himself, but will accept it as the real him. 

The dream-version of Vil turns into an old woman who says he is better off crushed beneath a boulder with her and Vil declares that they will climb their way out, together, taking on his overblotted form in order to do battle with himself. Vil declares himself the fairest one of all and returns to his earlier dream, which has reset at the point that he was awarded Best Actor. 

But now Vil is awake, and he poisons the audience that cheers for him as well as the dream-Neige, saying that he will be the one to decide who is the fairest in the land.