I had a dream after a long time. It was a peaceful dream without any hardships or crises.
In a floating, dazed feeling, I sprawled out and enjoyed the peace. The sound of the wind rustling through the leaves and the warm sunlight was quite pleasant.
…Were there trees nearby, though?
Thinking back, I’m not so sure. I lifted my eyelids, which felt like they wouldn’t budge, and looked around, but miraculously, I couldn’t perceive anything.
Well, it’s a dream, so maybe it doesn’t matter.
I felt like I might be forgetting something important, but no matter how hard I thought about it, nothing came to mind. If I can’t recall it, it probably isn’t that significant.
Since even thinking was a bother, I surrendered my body to laziness and closed my eyes. I couldn’t fight off the drowsiness that kept washing over me.
How much time had passed like that? Suddenly, some noise crawled through the peaceful white noise.
‘…Are you… what’s… going…?’
‘…It’s all… the same…’
‘Already… it’s time…?’
Voices came in fragmented pieces. I couldn’t quite understand what they were saying, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that those voices were familiar.
The voices quieted for a moment but returned at intervals just when I was about to forget.
Something felt uneasy. At this point, I was starting to feel that being at ease was actually uncomfortable, prompting me to wonder with a rare serious mind.
What was that nostalgic voice I kept hearing?
What was my name again?
And why hasn’t the dream broken yet?
It was when my thoughts seemed to stop that the gears started turning slowly, dredging up memories from the sea of forgetfulness.
Memories replayed like a movie starting from the oldest and moving to the most recent.
However, I regretted questioning the voices at the very first scene I remembered.
It hurts. It’s painful.
The more I recalled about myself, the more unbearable the pain became.
The powerlessness and despair of my past life, the memories of betrayal in a stinking basement where I was tortured—I felt like an unseen beast was gnawing at my body the more I remembered.
I should have just let those memories be. I had finally obtained the peace I so longed for.
I curled up tightly, covered my ears, and closed my eyes.
But regardless of my will, the memories continued to play on in my mind.
Martini, who saved me from the Imperial Army, meeting Eleonora, living in the Mist Labyrinth, Plona, who had severed ties with the Church to save me, and Stella, who volunteered to be my guide.
Three years had passed, and war broke out with the humans. My determination to protect my people, Selin’s death, the birth of the Scarlet Unified Kingdom, and the rather tense coronation ceremony.
Only then did I realize that I was no longer trembling.
Something still invisible was painfully afflicting my flesh, and along with the recovery of memories, a terrible feeling of exhaustion washed over me, making it hard to breathe, but when I thought of those I vowed to protect, the pain seemed easily bearable.
Finally, I reached the last scene of the past memories.
The battle with Luminous, who had stolen Jeref Parvian’s body. Just as I was certain I had reached him, my view sparkled, and without a moment to resist, I was plunged into darkness.
…Is this not a dream, but rather the afterlife?
No, that can’t be. There was a nagging feeling that if I wished hard enough to return, I would escape from this place, so I dismissed that possibility.
I forced my heavy body to rise from my spot.
The pleasant white noise disappeared, and the sunlight that was just warm collapsed.
Before I knew it, only a narrow, crooked path remained in this space. And at the end of it, I could hear the familiar voices once more.
“Plona, Eleonora, Lavina.”
They were calling me.
Dragging my heavy body, I walked down the path. Each step was incredibly tough, as if invisible chains were binding my limbs, but I silently endured the pain and moved toward the end.
At one point, an old, worn-out wooden door appeared in front of me. It looked like it would crumble if I just tapped it.
If I turned that shabby doorknob, I was sure I could return to the reality where they were.
I took a step forward and extended my arm.
–I’m tired now. I’d rather everything just end here.
The moment my hand rested on the doorknob, I flinched and stopped at the sound I heard.
That voice definitely came from behind me, not beyond the door.
I didn’t look back but turned the doorknob and stepped through the door.
The last voice I heard was surely mistaken, so there was no need to verify it.
After all, I, who had the obligation to meet the expectations of those left behind, wouldn’t wish to abandon everything and now longed for rest.
*
“—Sister!”
“Aria, are you coming to your senses?!”
As soon as I opened my eyes amidst the bustling noise, the first thing I saw was three people almost pressing their faces against mine.
Plona, halfway in tears, Lavina, who looked like she hadn’t slept, with dark shadows under her eyes, and Eleonora, who was shaking her tail vigorously, with her mouth covered.
Lowering my gaze while still lying down, I saw the large, ample pair of breasts still in view.
‘There should have been a hole here, right?’
Reflecting on how I survived that situation leaves me puzzled, yet the fact that I survived is more important, isn’t it?
I opened my mouth to reassure the three people who were watching me with worried eyes.
“I’m fine— cough, I’m okay.”
A surprisingly dry and raspy voice came out, so I hurriedly cleared my throat and continued speaking, yet their expressions didn’t change for the better.
I tried to prove I was okay by pushing off the floor with my hands to raise my upper body. However, before I could even rise halfway, my strength gave out, and I fell back onto the bed.
As Eleonora had rapidly closed the distance, she gently caught the back of my head and cautiously placed it back on the pillow.
“Master, you shouldn’t push yourself yet.”
Right. I nearly died.
Feeling like a waterlogged cotton ball, I simply lay back and asked about what happened while I was out.
Instead of blocking my sides, Plona and Eleonora clung to me, while Lavina explained what had happened since I collapsed.
The unconscious residents of Ruscher we had seen on our way to the Luminous Kingdom Palace were all the doing of Luminous, and they had turned into mere tools carrying and detonating holy magic at Luminous’s command.
After barely escaping from there, they conducted surgery on me to restore my regenerative abilities.
I felt grateful and guilty knowing how much effort they had put in. I couldn’t even begin to fathom the extent of effort it would take to save me in a situation where surviving seemed impossible.
Then I heard the date, and my heart sank.
“…It’s already been 11 days since that day?”
“Yes. Your body has certainly recovered, but since you didn’t wake up for so long, you can’t imagine how anxious everyone has been.”
I recalled the urgent situation right before I lost consciousness.
The strength of Luminous, an unexpected variable, was truly overwhelming, and even hearing about it now, I couldn’t believe what I had witnessed was all of it.
A feeling of nausea washed over me.
Every single minute had been critical, and yet the queen had been lying down for almost two weeks.
While I was leisurely wandering in a dream, how many soldiers had died?
With Plona and Eleonora’s support, I staggered to the window and glanced down.
“…?”
It was quiet.
I should have suspected something since I could hear everything without interruption, but the city under the moonlight was solemnly quiet.
For a moment, I thought maybe we had fled to a faraway place, but even though it felt a bit off from what I remembered, this was certainly Randell.
How strange. If Luminous’s base was in Ruscher, then Randell was the front line, so is it even possible to withstand that nature-disaster-like Spirit of Light without faltering at all?
Hope sprouted weakly.
Could it be that after I collapsed the people who stayed behind managed to subdue Luminous and brought peace to this place?
However, that fleeting hope vanished within moments.
‘They said they barely escaped.’
If they had managed to defeat Luminous, there wouldn’t be any talk of barely escaping.
So Luminous was still alive. But then how could it be that Randell, being the forefront, hadn’t fallen yet?
“What about Luminous?”
“Still in Ruscher. Since that day, Luminous and those manipulated by them haven’t ventured outside of Ruscher.”
I felt relief that there hadn’t been any additional casualties since that operation, but I furrowed my brows in confusion.
Why? The answer was provided by Plona.
“Sister, at the conclusion of the Luminous Church’s papal succession ceremony, there’s this. The newly elected pope must spend 28 days in solitary prayer in the highest prayer room before formally assuming the papal seat.”
According to Plona’s words, no one could enter that prayer room during that period.
It was a rite to purify body and mind and to become a faithful servant of the divine before sitting on the papal throne.
In other words, Luminous had ensured that during each succession, there would be a secured time of 28 days in the safest place in the Luminous Kingdom.
“It’s just a guess, but maybe that’s how long Luminous needs to adapt to a new vessel. In fact, after launching an attack on you, Luminous’s strength weakened noticeably.”
Considering this made sense. If there were no restrictions on cramming that much strength into a mere human body, it wouldn’t add up.
And if that hypothesis were true, it meant we had at least 17 days secured. If what Plona said was correct and Luminous had overexerted themselves, it might take even longer.
Honestly, recalling Luminous at that time, it seemed utterly hopeless and impossible to handle, but that didn’t mean I could give up.
It wasn’t a matter of possibility or impossibility. I had no right to give up.
I had to protect them. I had a duty to repay the expectations of those who believed in me, those who followed me.
“What did Martini and Jeil say?”
I inquired about the opinions of the Grand Dukes, who were undeniably wiser than I was.
Seeing that they weren’t present, it seemed they were incredibly busy, and thinking they were trying to clean up the aftermath while I lay unconscious made me feel guilty.
“…Sister.”
But the atmosphere was strange.
Plona, Eleonora, and Lavina’s expressions darkened suddenly, and they couldn’t meet my gaze.
A moment of ominous premonition washed over me.
No way. That can’t be.
I tried to shake off that negative thought from my mind.
There’s no way those strong, clever people, who were incomparably more capable than me, could be in danger.
Perhaps having narrowly escaped death had made me a bit more sensitive.
I forced a smile, attempting to create a semblance of cheerfulness, and looked for another figure who wasn’t present.
“Speaking of which, Stella isn’t here either. She must be very busy—”
“Sister.”
Plona interrupted me with a face that looked like she was about to cry.
No. Don’t do that. This is just an unfunny joke, right? There’s no way—
“The three of them haven’t returned.”
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