### Chapter 452 – Day Off – ‘Dream Kingdom’ (2)
—
– Kim Ahri
“Hey, Kain! Time to head upstairs for the shoot!”
“Wait, what?”
Elena casually announces the start of filming even with Han Kain appearing in the dream.
It didn’t take long for me to grasp the meaning behind it.
Kain must’ve had dreams about Elena often, but alone!
“Whoa! E-Elena is real!”
“What? What’s happening?”
“Get over here!”
I quickly shoved Kain aside and approached Elena.
She looked a bit dazed.
“Huh? Oh? Ahri? Right now—”
— Whack!
I grabbed her shoulders and shook her.
“Get your act together! This isn’t just a dream—it’s—”
I was about to say it wasn’t a dream, but wait, it actually is a dream?
This is definitely Elena’s dream that we barged into.
As I stumbled over my words, Elena seemed to react strangely.
Instead of being angry or confused, she looked like she was having some fun thoughts!
Is this some sort of crisis?
— Boom!
A moment later, the view before Kain and me left us totally stunned.
The broadcasting station vanished like a ghost, replaced by a giant building rising out of an empty plain.
In an instant, a vibrant scene unfolded with dozens, if not hundreds, of people bustling everywhere.
Seeing the world transform with just a thought felt like witnessing a creator at work.
Of course, in their dreams, everyone becomes a god.
“Wh-where exactly are we?”
“It’s a college town?”
When I turned around, there was Kain, suddenly in a K-University jacket.
“I’ve been here a few times, and it’s just like a college town. This must be the place Elena saw when she came to Korea—whoa!”
— Thump!
Kain and I both fell silent because Elena’s behavior was out of the ordinary.
She looked a bit older and had a playful vibe going on.
Most importantly…
“Hey, Kain! What are you doing being so dumb?”
“Uh, Elena.”
The cautious tone of “Kain!” was totally gone.
“Get going! If you’re late, the waiting line will be crazy.”
“Wh-what?”
The air felt relaxed as if they were old friends.
Seeing that scene stirred some complicated feelings within me.
Even after spending so much time in the hotel together, did I secretly dislike the cautious atmosphere that lingered?
“Hey! A-Ahri! Help me out here!”
Kain was flustered by Elena’s sudden change and it looked a bit funny.
Anyway, this awkward vibe needed to end—
— Woof! Woof!
?
— Grrr…! Woof!
???
“Ahriii!”
“Kain, we’re gonna be late! Let’s go.”
Suddenly, Seungyub, looking like a golden retriever, lunged at me and pulled me back by my clothes?
This can’t be a coincidence, right?
A 100% guess that this is the guardian summoned by Elena in her dream, right?
“Don’t worry about that weird kid; the cops will handle it!”
Elena said that and even stuck her tongue out at me.
What should I say? I do feel like I got punked, but the situation was so silly it made me want to laugh.
Kain seemed to finally understand the situation.
“E-Elena! Let’s head to the cafe first! There’s one nearby, right?”
“Uh, there is—”
“And chase off that dog too!”
“…”
“I have a fear of dogs, you know!”
“…”
Elena paid no attention to my request to chase off the dog but reacted to my ridiculous claim of having a fear of dogs.
— Yip!
The golden retriever that seemed ready to eat me suddenly turned into a tiny puppy.
I lifted the puppy with one hand and thought to myself.
I must have lived long enough to have this bizarre experience!
*
After arriving at the cafe, Kain and I quickly realized something.
“… Kain.”
“Yes, Ahri?”
“It seems like waking Elena up isn’t going to be easy.”
“I agree, Ahri.”
Just like before in the Gate Room during the Perfect Life, Elena tends to not wake up well in dreams like this.
“Ahri, but was that way of speaking a bit funny?”
“… Don’t look at me. Elena ‘might’ feel uncomfortable if she sees me as her ‘servant’. I’m just a cafe part-timer.”
“Ah, um. Elena, I have something to say—”
The dream version of Elena wasn’t happy to see Kain and I chatting so comfortably.
Thanks to that, before we could get swallowed by the giant golden retriever again, we had to return to that eccentric dialogue.
“Ahem! ‘Kain’, I don’t know if you think this is fun, but shouldn’t we quickly tell ‘Elena’ what we needed to say?”
“Uh, Elena, let me introduce you to Ahri.”
“Who?”
“… A psychiatrist?”
“A doctor? There’s no way a kid like you is—wait, do I know you?”
I quickly shook Elena’s shoulders to convince her.
“Don’t discriminate!”
“Uh? Huh?”
“Only old people can be doctors is discrimination!”
“Ah, but that’s not it; at your age, you shouldn’t have graduated med school yet—”
“Having to graduate med school to be a doctor is discrimination!”
Ah, did I push it too far this time?
Kain sighed and covered his face with his hands—
— Bang!
Suddenly, he slammed the table!
“Hey! Elena! Just listen up already!”
“… Uh, uh-huh.”
Wow! That was effective?
Should I have done this from the start?
And then Kain slowly explained.
How he heard Elena’s prayer in Room 206, and how the Sacred Sun deemed Elena a ‘follower’.
Including the fact that the Sacred Sun essentially feeds on its followers.
I worried whether a dream-theme like Elena could grasp a conversation that felt fit for a horror movie.
“Hmm… I get what you’re saying, but why would that happen?”
Interestingly enough, Elena understood the conversation and gave an even more intriguing response.
“It’s true that I trust and rely on Kain, but!”
Elena blushed as she said that, and Kain also turned red, which made me feel awkward.
“I never thought of him as something like a god. I mean, it’s silly—why would such a divine being struggle in a hotel?”
“…”
“I felt incredible charisma when you descended, but…”
Elena trailed off, and the cafe fell silent for a moment.
All these complicated thoughts rushed through my mind as I recalled Elena’s current state.
Her behavior felt different, treating Kain like a friend.
As I treated Kain like a friend, a significant jealousy started to leak out from Elena.
The Elena in front of me was ‘overly’ honest.
In dreams, she had no need to hide anything.
Thus, saying she had never regarded Kain as a divine entity is ‘half’ the truth.
That’s what she thinks rationally.
Therefore, Elena’s problem is a matter of instincts, not rationality.
“Wh-why did you pray?”
“To kill Patrick? I didn’t think you’d hear that. It was just playful because it was funny that a teammate was pretending to be a ‘cult leader’…”
Kain hesitated, momentarily at a loss for words.
He was going to warn her about the dangers of faith, only to receive the reply that she never thought of him as such.
There was nothing more to say.
“Kain, or rather, Kain! Let’s head outside.”
“Yeah, let’s do that.”
We needed to talk outside again—
Suddenly, a chilling voice pierced our ears, and in a breath, the world turned black and white!
The dream genre shifted from romantic comedy to horror!
“Eek! M-Mon! Open up! Sesame! Sesame! Open already!”
“Why is it so slow!”
— Boom!
*
I woke up alone in Room 105.
Because of that, I promptly realized a few things about the Dream Kingdom.
Despite Kain and I entering Elena’s dream together, my position hadn’t changed.
‘Movement’ seems only possible by the one who initially used the painting in reality.
Moreover, if you pass through multiple dreams, you wake up next to the last person you were with.
So, the place where Kain woke up was probably…
— Click!
When I opened the door to Room 105, Kain was waiting outside with a bewildered expression.
“You woke up in Elena’s room, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Where’s Elena?”
“I quietly snuck out so she wouldn’t wake up. She probably doesn’t know.”
“Phew…”
The reality was already dawn.
Thankfully, since the hotel had arbitrarily declared a day off, there was no need to enter the cursed room today.
As we walked to the front desk, Kain muttered.
“Man, Elena’s dream was downright terrifying. At the end, the dog’s head got split into three—”
“Spare me the horror story.”
“Yeah.”
A moment of silence passed before Kain murmured again.
“About the Sacred Sun trying to swallow Elena.”
“I’m listening.”
“It feels like it operates more on instincts than on reason or emotions.”
Elena doesn’t rationally see Kain as a god, but her overwhelming experience with the Charisma of Descent is a problem.
Just when I was about to say I would talk to Elena when she was awake, Kain’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“I think we can use this phenomenon.”
“What?”
What are we gonna use?
“Don’t you get it? We’ve just realized something crucial concerning the Sacred Sun!”
“What are you on about—”
What exactly did we realize?
“The ‘follower’ judgment of the Sacred Sun is quite broad! You don’t have to go to Kain’s church every weekend or get baptized or constantly listen to my sermons!”
“…”
“That memory of being overwhelmed by the supernatural charisma created by the inheritance is enough!”
“…”
“Oh, but maybe I should at least pray? Elena did pray after all.”
Kain’s words clicked for me.
The conditions for the Sacred Sun to ‘consume’ humans are broader than expected.
Using this part, they could devour many people much easier and faster.
“…”
“Wow! That’s an unexpected profit. We can charge the inheritance much more efficiently next time!”
A complicated thought occurred to me in that moment.
Just like Elena, I also believe that this man is fundamentally a good presence.
At times, this belief really confuses my judgment.
“Yeah. That’s an insightful realization.”
It’s better to stop the thoughts that don’t lead anywhere.
“Kain, can I borrow your Dream Kingdom?”
“Um?”
“There’s a dream I want to see.”
“Huh? You? Can I ask who it is?”
“Miro.”
“Miro’s dream? I-I’m curious too—”
“Wow… aren’t you being a bit too shameless?”
I lightly teased the now flustered young man.
“What are you planning to do? To sneak into the heart of a little girl who has a crush on you, then play around in Miro’s dream and make her unable to resist?”
“Eek! I won’t go! I refuse!”
“If so, hand over the Dream Kingdom.”
“Okay, alright.”
“I’ll take good care of it and return it.”
“…”
Kain returned to his room looking slightly sulky.
This childish side of him and the somewhat eerie demeanor he showed when discussing the Sacred Sun leave me uncertain about what his true essence is.
…
“Chilling, huh…”
What a silly thought.
Was it shaking my heart?
His hyper-rational aspects, unbound by human morality?
A confused personality merging the traits of a saint and an evil person?
Certainly, there was a different entity of severe negativity that surpassed Kain in all these aspects.
The being crafted from my wish.
My creator and my source.
And…
“My love.”
I muttered the empty words, gripping the painting fiercely.
To see ‘her’ once more.
—
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