Chapter276: Sweet Dream 3 () Reality ()
He opened his eyes.
The warm afternoon sun, not harsh at all, gently brushed across his eyelids. `Flutter...` His gaze fell upon the gently swaying interior of a carriage.
Will took stock of his situation; he seed to be lying down inside it. So, when he looked up, he was looking directly out the carriage window.
With the carriage’s rhythmic up-and-down jolting, the scenery outside flowed past slowly—
`Such a familiar view.`
It was late autumn. The apple trees lining the riverbank were just showing tender new buds, their reflections dancing on the shimring surface of the water. The road seed quiet, deserted, far from the clamor of any marketplace.
`Is this... a ‘dream’?`
Just now... it felt like... just a second ago, he was still at Treya’s ‘wedding’. He almost, almost married Treya—no, almost signed a contract with the demons.
So where was he now? Dream? Or reality?
“Young Master, you seem very tired. We’re almost there, you can rest a little longer.”
Eir’s soft, gentle voice drifted down from above him. The sunlight stread past her profile, and in his hazy state, he could only make out half of Eir’s face; the rest was indistinct.
Everything around him felt too peaceful to be real.
The carriage, traveling this particular road—the road he’d first taken to the capital, the one he’d never returned to after leaving—didn’t feel real either.
Eir, sitting there, didn’t seem real. She looked more mature sohow, letting him rest his head on her lap. Her legs, though clearly well-trained and muscular, felt surprisingly soft.
“Young Master, you haven’t slept properly for a long, long, long ti.”
“So... you look very sleepy.”
“Don’t worry, Eir will take care of everything.”
“Sleep now, sleep, Eir’s dearest Young Master—”
...
............
He opened his eyes.
Before him was the place most familiar to him from the first fourteen years of his life in this world—the Hysterm family estate.
Even though he opened his eyes, signaling he was ‘awake’, he knew... `This has to be a dream, right?` Just like the last flash of lucidity before death. A sweet, personal dream before Treya’s dreamscape fully consud him.
“Because... how could I possibly be here...?”
He sat up in bed, his gaze sweeping around the room. This was indeed the room he’d lived in for over a decade. But the atmosphere... It was just like the previous ‘two dreams’, suffused with that distinct feeling of ‘this is inside a story’...
If, after finishing a ‘story’, you were suddenly asked to imagine a ‘forr residence’ last ntioned three years prior, this is probably what it would look like. The placent and position of everything were unchanged, but it all seed to have a layer of an old filter over it, making it appear slightly faded.
Just like before, this was the room of the cannon-fodder villain he was, only briefly ntioned in the original story. But... it was where he’d spent the most important first half—perhaps even the majority—of his life. The patterns on the bedsheets, the style of the quilt, even the tea set and decorations on the table—he had chosen them all according to his own preferences. The placent of the nightstand, the arrangent of the desk—he had set them up with his own hands.
He pushed open the door.
Silence. Utter silence.
This only further convinced him it was a dream. The real Hysterm estate, his old ho, how could it ever be this quiet, this empty? It was as if all the servants had been withdrawn, as if only one person had ever lived here.
`...This has to be the dream.`
Unless... unless Eir, the only one who knew the location of the estate, had rescued him, managed an incredible escape, and brought him back to his forr ho... Otherwise, how could he possibly wake up in this bed?
So, that other scene, the wedding, that was the ‘desperate’ reality, the reality he couldn’t escape—
`Eir didn’t make it in ti to save .`
`I didn’t win the gamble on whether Treya would spare .`
`My ‘personality’ and ‘free will’ were stripped away by the yandere girl I myself had created.`
`If I wake up from this dream...`
`Will I only be able to face Treya and her Demon Castle Zero?`
Will’s bare feet touched the floor. It was cold, chillingly so. Only then did he notice sothing slightly ‘off’ about the world he was seeing. He wasn’t wearing his glasses. The world before him... lacked a certain depth; he found it difficult to judge distances by sight alone.
`Splish... Splash...`
Then, he heard the sound of water.
Coming from the end of the hallway, from a place where the light was exceptionally bright.
“Water sounds?”
He walked forward, step by step. Perhaps his estimation of distance was indeed off, because when he reached the end, he saw...
The back of Eir, in her maid uniform.
She was squatting there, her upright wolf ears twitching, seemingly washing sothing with great concentration. She was so absorbed, she didn’t react even as he approached.
What was even stranger...
A faint, ethereal mist, sowhere between pink and purple, seed to cling to her. And this mist... only his left eye could see it.
And then—
Will heard her muttering to herself—
“Q-Question... twenty-one...”
“What are the most suitable ways to express love?”
“Give him a passionate kiss.”
“Whisper sweet nothings in his ear.”
“Give him a forceful embrace.”
“Give him your all...”
She... she was reciting the ‘300 Questions on Blackening’?
From that mont, Will suddenly felt sothing was deeply wrong. Because his mory actually wasn’t that good. The ‘300 Questions on Blackening’—he couldn’t rember the specific phrasing of every question, even though he’d written it himself. He figured rembering the questions and their order in the five-thousand-word Q&A was impressive enough.
But... Eir, before him, was reciting every question and all its answers, word for word.
“Q-Question... forty-one...”
“With him, after being separated for a long ti, how should you spend the following days?”
“Monopolize all all all of his ti.”
“Make him repeatedly regret the ti he spent away from you.”
“Make him cling to you for the next few days.”
`Dreams are the least capable of fabricating ‘reality’ with such precision...` `Could it be...`
Will slowly took another step forward.
“Question forty-two.”
“When is the most suitable ti to confess?”
“Anyti is fine!”
“As long as you feel it, boldly say ‘I love you’.”
“These are not words that are difficult to utter. Only by saying them enough will he feel it.”
“And, rember to maintain the correct smile.”
Since waking up, Will’s judgnt of distance had been strange. So, he accidentally stepped on a loose stone beside the water basin.
And then...
His foot slipped.
He was falling, a short, sharp fall, a split second of weightlessness—but he didn’t wake up because of it.
“Young Master?”
`—This isn’t a dream.`
Eir caught his hand, supported his waist, and helped Will, who had almost tumbled to the ground, back to his feet.
`—This is different from before!`
In his peripheral vision, he saw the dress Eir had been diligently washing. It was stained with blood, so much blood it was almost black.
`—This isn’t a dream AT ALL!!`
“Young Master, you’re awake. Did you sleep well? Eir...”
`—THIS IS REALITY!!!`
She clasped her hands together, tightly holding his own within hers. Will felt an unfamiliar, intense warmth.
He looked at Eir’s smile.
It was the smile he had dread of, years ago.
The corners of her mouth turned up just so, the corners of her eyes slightly lifted, her grey eyes seeming to have a reddish undertone, her entire expression naturally, perfectly composed.
“I love you very much~”
Yes.
Feeling Eir’s body temperature, the familiar scent of her beastkin-specific tail-grooming oil...
Will confird it once more.
His long ‘nightmare’ had ended.
But he had entered...
...a reality he couldn’t say for sure wouldn’t be even more terrifying than the nightmare.
tln : hahahaha good for you Will
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