“Think of it as a dream, and it’ll be easier.”
“Dream…?”
“Yeah. An alchemist uses magic to store wishes and manifest them.”
So Na-me used magic to realize dreams in the dream world?
Yuna’s head was still tilted in confusion.
Each step she took squished the dewy grass, and the cold air she breathed felt too real to doubt its existence.
“Then who are those people over there? Are they magic too?”
Haru was curious about the blonde siblings.
“Yep, if we’re talking magic, it’s definitely magic. On some level, they’re people I missed.”
“I still don’t get it…”
“Just think of them as people just like us.”
Looking far away, it felt like the sky and the grasslands blended into one, and there was tranquility as if time had stopped in this place.
The distance from where they were to the hill seemed long, but before they knew it, they had reached the spot where the mat was spread out after just a few steps.
Is this why they called it a dream? Haru murmured softly.
“Hello, kids.”
Na-me greeted first with a wistful look in her eyes.
The siblings, who had been trying to stabilize the mat blowing in the wind, paused their actions.
“You…? Princess?”
“Wow! Eshana Esha! Finally feeling like you can step outside? Who’s that next to you? Friends? Can’t I be introduced?”
Na-me casually advised the pouty-faced kids.
“Do you know how to play house? From now on, you’re Princess Yuna, and you’re Princess Haru.”
“Uh, play house? Out of nowhere?”
“Eep, Princess…!”
While Haru looked slightly disgusted, Yuna was filled with excitement.
Becoming a princess had been Yuna’s long-held wish. She never imagined Na-me shared such tastes.
“Let me formally introduce you. One by one, this is Yuna and this is Haru.”
“Ah, um… Hi, Yuna and Haru.”
“Hi, so nice to meet you! All your names are so pretty!”
Na-me introduced them, switching the order this time.
“This boy is Hiasen, and the younger one is Niobe. Those names aren’t too hard, right?”
“Ah… Hi, Hiasen oppa?”
“Niobe unni, hi.”
“Yep! Nice to meet you!”
The girls still felt a bit awkward around the two blond siblings.
Perhaps it was harder to hear them speaking in their own language than with Han Seori, who was in the same class.
Especially since they were both stunningly beautiful, it made them feel even more distant.
Hiasen’s long, fluttering eyelashes twitched slightly as he scanned the three girls.
“Estasha…?”
“Yup, Hiasen.”
“You’ve changed a lot.”
“A lot has happened.”
“You said you wouldn’t come back until everything was finished. Have you achieved all your dreams now?”
“… Yeah.”
“Was I there at the end?”
“You were there too.”
“Thank goodness… I didn’t leave you alone out there.”
Na-me’s words were half the truth.
The one who took Princess Estasha’s last life was none other than Emperor Hiasen.
But Na-me wanted to hide this simply because she didn’t want to ruin the mood.
“Oppa, seriously! Why bring the mood down with weird talk?”
“Niobe, you’re being so distracting; just sit still.”
“Okay, but what are you going to do about it? I’m just going to play with Esha!”
Niobe ran over and hooked her arm with Na-me.
“Come and sit down! I’ve prepared for a picnic! Yuna and Haru are all welcome!”
It suddenly felt cramped on the mat now that the gathering had grown from two to five.
But at least Hiasen and Na-me managed to sit half on the grass to secure some space.
“Um… Did you guys know Na-me before?”
Haru asked, and it was Niobe, always wearing a goofy smile, who answered.
“Of course! Esha is our forever little sister!”
It was the voice from the platinum-haired girl, covering her giggling mouth when the wind blew.
It was funny to call Na-me a little sister, but as Na-me had said earlier, she decided to just roll with it.
The boundary between common sense and nonsense had already crumbled in this world.
“I want to ask you in return. How did you guys get to know Estasha?”
“We’re classmates in the academy!”
In response to Hiasen’s question, Yuna confidently replied.
“And we’re best friends…!”
She didn’t forget to add that too.
“Academy? Esha, didn’t you drop out of the academy?”
“I re-enrolled.”
“Well, you’ve always wanted to make friends, haven’t you?”
“Me…?”
“Yup.”
“Hiasen, you’re still talking nonsense.”
“I’m always serious.”
“Even in that tone…”
Everything felt familiar, and that made her miss it.
Niobe’s teases, Hiasen’s sarcastic remarks.
Na-me’s expression darkened again at these ties she could never meet again.
“Esha, um…”
Spotting Na-me’s gloom, Niobe unceremoniously stuffed a cream-filled éclair into her mouth.
“Mmm-!”
“Hey, you can eat it! It won’t put on a pound! Hehe.”
With her front teeth, Na-me bit into it and barely managed to chew the bread pieces out of her mouth.
“I never knew. Na-me, you lived abroad?”
“Could be seen that way, or maybe not.”
If an alchemist’s magic was to manifest dreams, then based on their conversation, they must definitely be Na-me’s acquaintances.
Yuna found it fascinating that such beautiful people called themselves Na-me’s siblings.
Once Na-me gobbled down the éclair completely, she expressed her thoughts.
“How fascinating. The world I lived in was different, and my body changed entirely, yet the storage of the Raul-sist remains intact. Maybe because our star signs are the same?”
This was strong evidence that Na-me’s past life wasn’t just a fleeting dream.
Hiasen and Niobe were clearly real people, indicating that her past life was identical to Princess Estasha.
Na-me had used magic with the thought that she might as well try it.
The magic she had relied on during tough times, that had kept her away from the sweet temptation of suicide, was just like the things in her memory.
*
It wasn’t strange that the people of this world mistook the alchemist’s magic for just a way to see the stars.
When the magic was cast by chance, the vast universe was all they could encounter, making it hard to find the exact usage.
In fact, when Raul Luminos discovered magic in his past life or when Hiasen passed this magic to her, they all thought it was merely a way to see the stars.
The alchemist magic was an illusionary magic that reconstituted and manifested the happiest moments.
It showcased realistic and concrete illusions based on the waves of starlight that reached Earth.
Its significance lay in that it constructs the illusionary world based on the information of the world stored in starlight without relying on incomplete individual memories.
But at the same time, it was also a double-edged sword.
The caster could escape into sweet relaxation from a harsh reality, yet the disappointment upon returning to reality was indescribable.
The happiest memories meant that reality could always be more dismal than this.
I only used alchemist (Raul-sist) when I wanted to give up on all my given tasks.
The time when I used this drug-like magic the most was probably during the sloth subjugation.
Because the only ridiculous and nonsensical way to unleash the sloth seed implanted in my body was to avoid sleep altogether.
I had no choice but to stubbornly hold on and endure.
The magic would take the place of cerebrospinal fluid to forcibly remove toxins that had accumulated in the brain, including adenosine and amyloid beta, while repeatedly relaxing the muscles to lessen physical fatigue.
But all of this was merely an act of artificially replacing true restful sleep; I couldn’t wipe out the desire for sleep completely.
During a year of repeating the most horrific torture, the alchemist was an essential magic for me to maintain my sanity.
‘But I wonder if I’ve worried my friends for no reason since I kept murmuring this magic even while asleep.’
On the other hand, the fake Hiasen and fake Niobe here were curious about how my body had changed.
Of course, it was no surprise since I had cast the alchemist’s magic more than ten times.
Even if they were personas woven by magic, the memories I had visited would remain with them.
“Did you say your new name is Na-me? It’s too bad I can’t call you Shasha anymore.”
“What a dated nickname… And look how much I’ve changed.”
“I was a bit surprised. I thought maybe you swallowed a poisonous spider this time.”
Hiasen said with a smirk as his lips curled up.
“Seriously, I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve lived way more than four times my age now.”
As if there could be a spider that turns hair black in this world.
If there were, the composition of that poison would surely sell well to the elderly as hair dye.
During our walk, meaningless conversations occurred between Hiasen and me.
The story of finally defeating Feiran at swordsmanship, and how Josephine’s fiancé was exposed for cheating with a daughter of a baron from the outskirts, turning the family into ashes.
Even though they sounded as fresh as if they happened yesterday, they were actually tales that dated more than twenty years back.
He repeated the same lines every time I visited this place, and I always listened to his stories with great interest.
Due to magic, since Hiasen was stuck at the age of thirteen, he could only meet me as a child, but due to his exceptional maturity, it felt like we were real friends even when I chatted casually.
For the first time in a long time, it didn’t feel bad to be engulfed in a familiar feeling.
“It’s nice. Talking to you is the most comfortable, Hiasen. Although you do sound a bit cocky.”
“I’m still a kid now! You’ve lived several years longer outside, so of course that’s natural. But did you know? Talking to you was the hardest thing in the world for me.”
“What?! So you mean you were forcing yourself to hang out with me all this time?”
Suddenly, this confession hit me like a freight train.
Is this a bit like that? The person I thought was my friend actually just hung out with me because they had no one else?
“No, I didn’t mean that, Esha.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“… I’m never going to tell you.”
“Seriously, this is unbelievable.”
Hiasen stuck out his tongue.
“Ah!”
And as he bit his own tongue, I barely managed to hold back a chuckle at the ridiculousness of it.
The man who shook the social scene with the title of the best-looking man since the founding of Kaizen, was such a goofball deep down. I wondered if all the lovesick ladies knew this.
Would they actually like him even more for that twist? Anyway, I disapproved of this jerk’s looks-first mentality. He’d probably still charm them even if he messed up.
“You look so grumpy; it’s making you look ugly.”
I threw in a comment, and Hiasen flushed red and quickly turned his head to the side.
“Ah… I’m not ugly, you know?”
Apparently, he was aware of his looks, as every time I called him ugly, he’d get all riled up and demand I take it back.
Look at that narcissist, fiddling with his shiny curls over and over.
If he had a hand mirror, he’d probably be grooming himself all day long.
