After the conversation with Ram ended, Roswaal and the maid exited the carriage and into a second dome that the clown created inside the one Omega had already made, just as they had done the night before.

While they were in the smaller dome, Roswaal fed mana into Ram's forehead, where her horn had been broken off. As it turns out, this wasn't healing magic, which made sense since Roswaal didn't have an affinity for it, and instead, he gave Ram the mana that she needed to survive.

According to Echidna, an oni's body requires an incredible amount of mana to live, and they usually absorb the mana from their horns. This meant that, since Ram's horn had been cut off, she needed somebody to manually give her the mana. 

This explained a lot of things from season 1, specifically the weird cuddling scene, and it gave you an answer for why Ram might not be affected by the miasma as much as everybody else.

You weren't given an explanation as to why they had to go into a separate dome, but you didn't question it. If it was between you seeing the two getting all close together and having them completely out of sight, you'd gladly take the second option.

Now, since you didn't have to drive for the rest of the night, you fed Patrasche and made yourself comfortable inside the carriage, which had seats that were much more padded than the one outside. 

As you sat back, relishing the comfort of the seat, Meili scooted closer to your left side, since Omega was on the right. "Umm..." she muttered uneasily, "I know that you two kind of talked about it earlier, but how exactly are we gonna get to the tower if we can't get closer to it?"

"Well," you told her, "I don't think we need to try and do the same thing we did today, since just trying to go forward the normal way doesn't seem to work. There were a few ideas I had, but I really don't like what they mean for us up there in the driver's seats..."

Meili looked confused at your hanging answer, so Omega finished the thought. "The most prominent theory I have devised suggests that we must travel toward the Pleiades Watchtower during Sand Time, as there must be a warp in space between us and our destination, and during the sandstorm, I believe that there will be a moment in which the space collapses, allowing us to move into the domain of the Tower."

The child didn't look any less lost, so you did her a favor and simplified what Omega just said. "So basically, we have to move during Sand Time to actually get closer - or so we think."

"But why?" Meili asked, running her fingers through her dark blue hair as she tried to understand the theory.

You heard Echidna chuckle with anticipation in your head, but it seemed like she decided to hold back on the explanation since it actually came out as a short version of it.

"It is elementary, my dear! Sand Time is the only unusual phenomenon here in conjunction with the space distortion, so they have a high probability of being related to one another!"

"Oh..." Meili sighed, as if she was a little disappointed with the odd simplicity of the answer.

You got up from your seat and toward the center of the carriage, where a compartment beneath the flooring held the food. As you did so, you said, "Hey, be glad that we're trying the simple one first."

Meili shrugged. "Whatever you do, I'll just keep the animal-chan's away." Shrinking back down, away from her confident stature, she added, "I just wanted to get there fast so I don't fall asleep again and cause more trouble for everyone."

Before putting a piece of jerky that you found into your mouth, you shook your head at the remorseful Meili. "Don't be sorry. You can ask Omega here if you don't believe me, but all of those mabeasts were light work. We didn't slow down, and the carriage never took any damage, so no worries there."

The mabeast user shifted in the padded seat. "But keeping them away is the only thing I'm good for, and even though I took a nap earlier, I got sleepy again. I just had one job, and I didn't do it."

"At the very least, you are the most pleasant and resourceful member of this party to travel with besides (Y/N) and myself." This time, it was actually Omega who stepped up to console her, and you weren't sure how it would turn out. "You have performed many services other than this primary task you have mentioned, so do not be crestfallen at this insignificant event, as it is a natural thing to succumb to fatigue."

You bit down on your jerky with a grin of approval for Omega. Her way of making Meili feel better was unique, as she always was, but it definitely wasn't bad.

In fact, Meili brightened up significantly after this, her expression seeming to ask Omega, 'do you really think so?' 

With that, the child's confidence came back. "Hey (Y/N), since you're focused on munching on our food, can you bring some over here? You want some too, right Omega?"

Omega really didn't have to eat at the moment, but in order to keep Meili's morale high, she nodded her head, while she conveyed to you to bring her the smallest piece you could find.

You did just that, and as you closed the compartment, you brought Meili a decently sized piece, and as you handed Omega's small piece to her, you heard the sand shuffle as Roswaal brought his dome down.

As you sat down and finished chewing on your jerky, the flicker of the magically lit lanterns inside the carriage made the clown look like a shadow as he entered. 

Behind him was Ram, and you couldn't tell what kind of expression she was making since Roswaal's actual shadow was covering her face.

Sighing, you leaned your head back and closed your eyes. "So now that we're all back, I have a question for you, Roswaal."

He waited until he sat down to respond. "Hmmmmmm~ Is that so?"

"Yeah. How did you guess that we weren't getting any closer to the tower? Did you know too, by any chance?"

You couldn't see this, but you could tell that everybody's head turned toward Roswaal to see what answer he would give.

"Ahhhhh, that!" Roswaal replied. "Why do you suspect me of hiding such a thing? Will you not believe me when I say thaaaaat if we were as close to our destination as we shoooouuuld have been, either you or Omega would have announced this?"

You didn't give any reaction. "Yeah, I was just making sure. After all, like Ram said, we should be making the most of what we have here, so spill the beans whenever you think you know something."

"Ooookay!" Roswaal said too enthusiastically. He crossed his legs, and this time, he asked, "But while we are on this topic, whaaaat do you plan on doing tomorrow?"

"As we have already explained to Meili," Omega answered, "we will attempt to travel during Sand Time, as I believe that there is a space distortion keeping our target at a constant distance from us, and we should exploit the strange phenomenon in this desert to produce a solution."

"I see~ In thaaaat case, I shall maintain this dome from any attacks as youuuuu sleep first, Omega." 

Each night, Roswaal and Omega took turns making sure that no mabeasts broke through the dome. Both mages possessed insane reflexes, so at any disturbance, they would be able to either kill the outside threat or strengthen the earthen dome. 

Luckily, very few mabeasts came toward the dome since it wasn't moving like the carriage was during the day, but the night before, there had been something that hit the bottom of the dome, and none of you wanted to risk a sand earthworm or other mabeasts breaking through while everybody slept. 

Of course, Omega could just sleep while Echidna did surveillance using her senses, but since Ram didn't know about her true identity, Omega agreed to trading shifts with Roswaal.

Omega said nothing as she followed your motions and closed her eyes.

The sandstorm outside acted as ambient noise, and both of you were able to fall asleep rather quickly.

Time Skip

You woke up to Omega gently shaking your shoulder. 

At this point, she had probably been awake for about two or three hours, and since she had the second shift, she was already awake when the night's Sand Time - which was actually the longest one - ended.

'Our true ordeal will not begin until the morning Sand Time begins, but as you know, we need to begin moving within the hour so we will be "warmed up", if you will, when we travel straight into a violent sandstorm.'

'Yeah, makes sense.'

You stretched your back as you yawned, and when your eyes focused on the dim lighting, you saw that everyone else was still asleep.

In this now-quiet dome, Meili was curled up next to you, and in the seats across from you, Roswaal sat rigid with his hands straight on his lap, even while sleeping. Maybe he was actually awake, but that would be even creepier. 

Next to him was Ram, who was hunched over, her head laying on her arms that rested on the handles of Rem's wheelchair.

Hopefully, by the end of this mission, you would be able to wake up one morning and see Rem already up, just like she said to Subaru.

However, it didn't seem like Shaula would have any idea how to help Rem, much less actually being able to free her from Gluttony's Authority.

So, at the very worst, it seemed like you would just have to wait until you could find Gluttony, more specifically Ley Batenkaitos, since he's the one who ate Rem's name and memories, and kill him.

But since this was the Pleiades Watchtower you were going to, maybe you could find another way of helping her.

'There is one thing that could give us a more definitive answer - if Flugel was able to create it, that is. My greatest hope is to find a library in that tower, one that can give us many answers.'

'A library? So, since Flugel was the actual Sage, did he make a library like the one you had Beatrice stay with?'

'No. This library is one far greater than the meager one I am accredited with. I shall demonstrate its nature if we are to come upon it.'

'Right... so what I'm hearing is that we're here to get Shaula and hope we can find some information in the library?'

'As much as it pains me to admit, I believe you will appreciate the library far more if I refrain from giving you an explanation beforehand. The mere shock you will experience when you first walk into it, if it exists, will leave you speechless.'

'I'm not sure if you're really playing too much into your Greed or if this library is worth all the hype, but I hope we see it when we get there.'

'Indeed. Now, as for actually getting there, let us wake the others so we can all prepare to move onward.'

Since Meili was the closest to you, you gently tapped on her shoulder. The mabeast user was quick to wake up, since she was well-rested enough to be in her light-sleeping stage.

While Meili was rubbing her eyes, Omega smacked the side of Roswaal's head.

The clown remained motionless except for his eyelids, which snapped open. "I doooo believe that this was a little unnecessary," he commented.

Omega shrugged her shoulders. "Nonsense. It is a very efficient method, as I only had to execute a single motion to awaken you."

"But haaavvve you considered that your hand hurt me deeeeppper than my skin?"

Omega scoffed. "You are quite the expert at jesting, I see. You play your part quite well."

"Ah, but can anybody realllly understand what role another plays until their act is complete?"

"Adversely," Omega countered, "how can one tell when their act is complete? Perhaps there will be an unexpected twist, or perhaps a second part to it that changes the meaning of the first."

Menacingly, Roswaal ended with, "Or perhaps the story can be cut off quitttte early."

'He should not give me such suggestions, if he cares for himself,' Echidna said to you mentally, not wanting to continue with the clown.

'I mean, if he tries some funny business somehow, I'm not entirely opposed to the idea. Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do, and since it's Roswaal we're talking about here, that decision isn't too hard to make.'

At this point, Ram was stirring awake, and Meili was already making sure that no mabeasts would approach the dome. 

"Anyway," you interjected, "we're going to move out soon to get ourselves ready to tackle Sand Time when it starts up again, so I know this is obvious, but we need to get ready ASAP."

Ram looked at you with her eyebrows furrowed. "What do you mean by that irritating word? Perhaps your education needs to be expanded beyond our alphabet, unless you are imitating Barusu in making words that nobody understands."

"Oh, that's actually my bad," you apologized, "ASAP stands for 'as soon as possible.' Where I'm from, we use a lot of shortened words that stand for different things."

Meili's ears perked up at your mention of a home. "(Y/N), where exactly are you from? I don't think you told me yet. Maybe I was in your town once with Elsa!" After thinking about it for a moment, she added, "Even though that would have been a bad thing for those people..."

Ram, who related to your fabricated story, respectfully remained silent, and her expression turned somber.

"Well," you explained, "I used to live in a small village that was right outside Lugnica's borders, but it was destroyed. It wasn't on any map I'd ever seen, so unless you've been somewhere that remote, I doubt you've ever been to it."

"Oh... I'm sorry," Meili said. Unable to conceal her curiosity, she asked, "But you said that you lived outside of Lugnica, right? Elsa came from Gusteko, so did you live in that county too?"

Somehow, you had never been presented with any questions that nitpicked the details of the imaginary village that you claimed to have lived in with Subaru.

Your very first instinct was to refute Meili's question and say that you lived in a different country, but you actually thought about the question before you answered.

Gusteko, the frozen country to the north of Lugnica, was the closest country to the capital. The other countries, Kararagi (the one Anastasia came from) and Vollachia (Priscilla's homeland) were both closer to Lugnica's other major cities, so if you claimed to be from either of them, somebody could start wondering why you chose to go to the capital instead of one of those cities.

Of course, you could make some other excuses, but the deeper you dug the hole of lies, the easier it would be for somebody like Roswaal to cause trouble in the future with this information.

'(Y/N), while I do appreciate your increasing application of overthinking, this is a situation that can be resolved with something quite simple: claim that you do not know the answer and provide a fake name for your fake hometown. No matter how much searching that anybody may do, they will not find this village, which would coincide with your story.'

You ended up doing just that, and the list of lies you told grew ever much longer.

Time Skip

A little while later, the dome was undone, and everybody was ready to start a new day of traveling. 

The next Sand Time wouldn't start until about two hours after sunrise, which translated to about an hour and a half later, so you would have Patrasche start relatively slow to conserve a little energy while still warming her up, and the real work would start when the violent sandstorm began.

In the time before it began, the passengers elected to leave the window open for now so that they could also verify that the watchtower really wasn't getting closer.

"Hey," you called back to Meili, "this might sound like a stupid question since we just woke up, but are you feeling sleepy? When we go through Sand Time, Patrasche and I will be pretty strained, and Omega will make a moving wall so that Patrasche won't get sand in her eyes and stuff, so it's going to be a lot harder to dodge mabeasts, so I just wanted to make sure."

Meili giggled from behind you. "You don't have to worry, (Y/N). That was a one-time thing, because I get sleepy at important times as much as Elsa-nee sits out of a fight."

The thought of Elsa happily letting such an opportunity pass by was an oddly disturbing thought, and it really put into perspective how professional Meili usually was. With this said, did she really just get exhausted, or was the miasma already taking a toll on her?

Echidna really wanted to make a comment on her opinion on that thought, but for the sake of not giving you another lecture and the pain that making a short summary would cause her, she refrained from saying anything about it.

Nah, just kidding. Of everything Echidna knew, passing an opportunity to educate you about something was a concept she still hadn't been able to grasp.

'I believe that it is a combination of those two factors, for the potency of the miasma, even as far as we still are from its source, could most definitely affect humans negatively. This, combined with the lengthy nature of traveling, could have caused yesterday's drowsiness.'

'Well, that really does make all of this a race against time... If some of us are already being affected by the miasma, then I really hope we can get to the tower in this first attempt.'

'You have set your expectations high, I see.'

'I mean, this is your Plan A, and you have a pretty decent track record when it comes to plans, so I believe in you and this plan. I mean, at the worst, we have a few backups, even though they're pretty complicated.'

'We shall have to wait for our trial to begin to test this faith of yours, as I have admittedly fallen into quite a streak of falling back onto secondary plans or revising my original plans based on new information.'

'Well, you know what they say... what's the point of having any faith if you don't have it tested every now and then?'

A Little Later

Patrasche had been moving at a moderate pace while Sand Time was inactive, but you could definitely tell that the unchanging silhouette of the Pleiades Watchtower was starting to get blocked out by a quickly approaching wall of sand.

You pulled your mask up and put your goggles on as you pulled the reins, signaling for the earth dragon to speed up in anticipation of the storm that was about to envelop the carriage.

The transition to a full running speed was swift, and during the smooth acceleration, Omega created a thick, moving ice wall with a Huma variant, which actually took her full focus to maintain.

Thankfully, the ice didn't melt quickly due to the fact that the desert was not that hot, but as soon as the first wave of sand barreled into it, holes were quick to form. As a result, Omega had to constantly repair it.

She could have used one of the Dona's to make the wall, but that would mean that, if you actually broke through Sand Time to enter the tower's domain, you would be unable to see anything ahead of you, which could be very dangerous.

Because of this factor, Omega chose to make the ice wall, and by what you could ascertain through all of the sand that began to fall from beside the carriage to your seat, it was working well to keep sand out of Patrasche's eyes. 

Once again, Patrasche's Divine Blessing of Wind Protection kept all of the wind from hitting and knocking the carriage over, but as soon as the full force of Sand Time arrived, the inertia from the sand was enough to make all of the small grains hurt as they propelled forward and battered your