novelraw Chapter 172 : Chapter 172
Chapter 172 : Chapter 172
Chapter 172: Dreamlike Place (4)
“Why would I hold a man’s hand?”
Harad naturally ignored Elaine’s hand.
“Man? Who?”
Elaine tilted her head and soon thrust out her chest. Her long, jet-black hair fluttered before it.
Right, Elaine was a woman.
She revealed it a short while ago when she ascended to the throne of Grand Duke.
But Harad had known that fact for quite a long time.
“……Ah.”
“Are you still half asleep?”
“It seems so.”
SLAP! Elaine grabbed both of Harad’s cheeks as if slapping them and laughed briefly.
“How about now?”
“I am awake.”
“Then let’s go.”
Elaine took Harad’s hand and led him.
“But where are we going?”
“We are going to play.”
“What about work?”
Just last night, it was piled up like a mountain.
“I handed it over to Ocellin.”
“Indeed.”
Ocellin was accepted for that very purpose.
As a former Count of the Empire, she was proficient in administrative work.
“Let’s eat breakfast first.”
The place Elaine brought Harad to was Kubel’s annex.
Even before opening the door, a delicious smell wafted out.
“Kubel, are you there?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Kubel welcomed them wearing an apron.
That simple mage, despite being a 5th Rank, preferred the kitchen over the battlefield.
“Breakfast.”
“It is prepared.”
The table was packed with food.
Elaine smiled brightly and sat in front. She seated Harad next to her.
Elaine ate like someone who had starved for days.
She did not look vulgar. She was beautiful no matter what she did.
“What.”
As Harad stared intently, Elaine asked while chewing meat.
“Please maintain some dignity. Are you not a Grand Duke now?”
“Who says anything?”
“I am saying this because someone might say something.”
“What nonsense, I am the Grand Duke. If anyone says anything, bring them before me. I will personally instill dignity into them.”
Elaine acted nonchalantly.
Come to think of it, she had always been like this. That Grand Duke was arrogant even before becoming Grand Duke.
It was when the food ran out. Thumping sounds echoed from upstairs. The sound traveled down the stairs.
“Grand Duke unni!”
It was Shura.
Ten-year-old Shura ran down the stairs and suddenly hugged Elaine.
“I told you to just call me unni.”
“But you are the Grand Duke.”
“Shura, to you, I am unni. Have you had breakfast?”
“I wanted to eat with unni.”
Elaine smiled and seated Shura to her left.
Kubel brought out new dishes just in time.
The food filling the table disappeared again in an instant.
It was so fast that Harad could not perceive it.
“Let’s go now.”
Elaine took Harad’s hand again and led him.
“Where are we going?”
“There is no destination. A walk is just like that.”
Elaine walked through the Inner Fortress holding Harad’s hand.
There were many people inside the Inner Fortress. Not only knights and servants, but the empty annexes were also full.
“To think you were really a woman.”
“Is it important? His Highness is His Highness.”
“I know. I am just saying it out of surprise.”
Knights whispered from behind.
Harad quietly watched those knights.
They were familiar faces. They had to be. He was close with all the knights of Serzila.
“Do you feel left out?”
“About what?”
“My secret. Now everyone knows. Originally, only you monopolized it.”
Elaine grinned.
Right. Elaine had been active as a man.
It was only a few months ago that the secret was revealed.
When she ascended to the throne of Grand Duke, Elaine revealed her gender and sat on the throne.
“What is there to feel left out about? It was a natural procedure.”
“You are sulking.”
“I am not sulking.”
Elaine smiled brightly.
“Do not sulk too much. You are the only one I show my smiling face to.”
“Didn’t you smile at Shura earlier?”
“Are you jealous of a child now?”
“It is not jealousy.”
“Oh my. I must use the precious day of the Grand Duke for you.”
While originally intending to do so.
Harad pretended to be defeated and was dragged away by Elaine.
After circling the Inner Fortress once, Elaine stepped out onto the street.
It was a lively North as always.
Drinking alcohol, conveying warmth with each other’s fists, someone buying and selling goods, and mages in the square selling their magic.
“That bastard is…….”
“Tsk.”
“That guy, what is he doing.”
Harad clicked his tongue upon discovering a long-haired knight with his shirt off in the sand pit.
He is not just a knight.
He is Gullen, the one and only Great Warrior of the North.
“Understand him. There is no work right now, is there?”
It was true.
Great Warrior Gullen was the vanguard, and that role ended a few months ago.
Now that the Boundary and the Otherworld were conquered, the knights guarding the wall were no different from being unemployed.
“Gullen must be bored too.”
“He told me he was lonely.”
He said that a few days ago.
Saying isn’t it about time for him to get married too.
“Really? Then do you want to play together?”
“Do as you please, Your Highness.”
“Then I don’t want to. Since it’s a rare occasion, let’s be just the two of us.”
Rare occasion, my foot.
Harad smiled slightly. He was always with Elaine.
“Where are we going?”
“To the church.”
“Suddenly?”
“Today is an important…… surely you haven’t forgotten.”
Elaine had a look of ‘surely not’.
“Ah.”
Only then did Harad remember.
Today was the day Shura was getting married.
The location was the church, and Wimar, the Bishop of the Northern Diocese, was to officiate.
The church was crowded from the entrance, but when Elaine appeared, they made way on their own.
Shura in a dress was incredibly beautiful. The man standing next to her was ordinary.
“It’s a waste for Shura.”
Elaine muttered from the side.
Harad nodded as well. Kubel, who handed Shura’s hand to the ordinary man, was shedding tears profusely.
It seemed Harad and Elaine were not the only ones who thought it was a waste. Suddenly, the main gate of the church burst open and someone intruded. It was Duke.
“Shura is my woman!”
The young man Duke shouted like a child.
Then he was caught and dragged out by the ice guy who followed belatedly.
As fellow ice users, those two got along well.
“A younger sister going before her older sister. It feels strange.”
“It would be good for Your Highness to see an heir soon too.”
Though she would have to find a partner before that.
“Son? Daughter?”
“Yes?”
“I asked which you prefer.”
“Why do you ask me that?”
“Idiot.”
“……?”
The ceremony ended in an instant.
It meant he was that immersed.
“You devil, have you been well?”
Wimar, who finished officiating, spoke to him.
“Wimar, have you been well?”
“Oh my, it is our beautiful Grand Duke.”
“Becoming Grand Duke is partly thanks to Wimar, isn’t it?”
“You have grown a lot. I am proud.”
Wimar smiled and clasped hands with Elaine.
Then he glared at Harad again.
“Devil. Right, the priest you proselytized.”
“There is Seria.”
“Besides her, you devil!”
“There are more if you look.”
It was as he said.
Otherwise, why would a church be established in the North?
Wimar was picking a fight that didn't make sense.
This was also an expression of affection.
“Do not call him a devil, Wimar.”
Suddenly, Elaine frowned.
“But he is a devil?”
“This child too?”
Elaine asked while stroking her belly.
Wimar’s eyes widened.
“Really?”
“It is a joke.”
It was a chilling joke.
Elaine giggled.
Now it was time to throw the bouquet.
Instead of throwing it, Shura moved her steps. It was in front of Elaine.
“Unni!”
“Yes.”
“It’s yours, Unni.”
Shura held out the bouquet to Elaine.
Elaine was flustered for a moment, then glared at the ordinary man who was Shura’s partner.
“If you make her cry, I will kill you. The entire North will step up.”
“Unni!”
“I mean it.”
Elaine soon smiled and accepted the bouquet.
That smiling eye turned to Harad. Along with the bouquet.
“What do you think?”
“I think it is something to celebrate.”
“Not that, you idiot. If I give this to you.”
Today’s protagonist was Shura.
Elaine was trying to do something she shouldn't do to Shura.
“Then what do you think?”
Elaine was a person who could do that.
Arrogant, beautiful, and the ruler of the North.
“I think it is undeserved.”
“Not something obvious like that.”
Something not obvious.
Harad’s inner thoughts that Elaine did not know.
“……How do you think it would feel if I accepted it?”
Instead of confessing, Harad asked back.
Why?
“You are cowardly.”
“I am sorry.”
“Hmph.”
Elaine snorted but opened her mouth.
“If you accept it. Yes, then I think it would be dreamlike.”
At those words, Harad’s hand stopped abruptly.
……Dream?
* * *
“Oops.”
The witch took her hand off Harad’s head.
She had to be careful. The dream almost broke.
‘Such resistance.’
He is a special mage in many ways.
The witch’s eyes looking down at the sleeping Harad shone unusually.
Dreams are called manifestations of the unconscious.
Therefore, they contain many things. Through that dream, the witch identified the intruder.
Harad, mage, continent mages, church, priest, Serzila, Grand Duke…….
“This woman?”
The witch turned her gaze.
There, a woman lay collapsed. It was the one who intruded with the mage named Harad.
The woman’s face matched the face of Grand Duke Elaine seen in Harad’s dream.
“Serzila?”
The witch’s face crumpled.
This was another unexpected uninvited guest.
The witch’s hand flowed to Elaine’s head. If she made contact, the witch could read the dream.
“Elaine.”
The witch figured out the woman’s name.
Elaine Serzila. She was having a peculiar dream.
It was a space where only pitch-black darkness existed under a deep blue sky, and in the center stood a woman holding a sword.
That face was familiar.
It was Grand Duke Elaine who appeared in Harad’s dream.
Elaine moved slowly.
She was definitely turning her back, but at some point, she was looking straight ahead.
Their eyes met, the witch felt.
“Who is peeping?”
Elaine spoke.
It was a world of difference from what was heard in Harad’s dream.
There, she was infinitely gentle, but now it sounded like thunder rolling.
“How dare you.”
Looking at it now, it was not a dark space but aura.
Under the deep blue sky, Elaine’s aura dominating the space surged toward the witch.
“Gasp!”
The witch, who hurriedly took her hand off, retched.
Blood was mixed in the vomit.
The dream was shattered.
Was it only shattered? If she had taken her hand off a little later, she would have died.
The witch gasped for breath for a long time.
She had to give up on Elaine. If she wanted to understand these uninvited guests, she had to contact Harad.
The witch’s hand touched Harad’s head again.
“Haha.”
In the dream, Harad was laughing loudly.
In front of him, Grand Duke Elaine smiled silently.
“What did you find so funny?”
“Indeed. It is strangely different. This would be closer to a real dream.”
“What is?”
“So this was what a dog dream was, I wondered what it was.”
“What is?”
“It is good though. It is enjoyable. And nice to see.”
“What is!”
It was not a conversation.
The witch felt ominousness.
“But this is enough.”
The voice that had been excited all along suddenly turned cold.
The witch thought it was hot. Harad was staring at the sky, at her.
“I will keep my dog dream a secret.”
The voice became clear.
The witch realized then that the hand had fallen from Harad’s head.
It was not a dream but reality.
“Then let us try having a conversation.”
Harad, who opened his eyes, was holding the witch’s hand.
* * *
The sensation was awkward.
It felt like he was still floating in the air.
‘I had a dream.’
It is an impossible thing for a mage.
Escaping from it would be the same.
A mage experiencing it for the first time would have no choice but to go crazy.
If he had not regressed, if he had not experienced a dream beforehand through the efficacy of the stone, Harad would have gone crazy too.
He would have still been stuck in the dream.
No, perhaps he might have been floundering in joy without even knowing it was a dream.
‘So that is why it is the Dreamlike Place.’
It is a place where one dreams.
But the Otherworld has no choice but to express it as a dreamlike place.
Because mages have never had a real dream.
‘One dreams something dreamlike. If one knows that point in advance, one might be able to resist to some extent.’
Since this is not a bed but the Boundary.
Obvious anomalies should be guarded against. There must be such mages.
But even they would have no choice but to fall into it at the first moment, and for a while.
‘Because it is a dream.’
Would there be mages whose dream is dreaming for no reason?
Mages are incarnations of curiosity.
“If one injects something called a nightmare, it would be more terrible. One would not even guess it is a dream, mistake it for the environment of the Boundary, and only suffer.”
The Otherworld knows there is a Dreamlike Place.
But they do not know its location. To such Otherworld, a nightmare would be like hell.
“How did you do it? Did you use the alteration of this zone? No. You laid a hand on my head.”
Why did she lay a hand?
To kill? If so, she would have aimed a blade or magic, not bare hands.
“So you can peep into dreams.”
Harad placed his hand on the head of Elaine sleeping next to him.
Nothing was visible.
“It is not the environment of the Boundary. It is magic.”
“……I am called the Witch of Dreams.”
Dream.
That was that woman’s Origin.
“I am Harad, a 3rd Rank of the Red Tower.”
“…….”
“Ah. You saw everything. I am Harad of Serzila.”
At that moment, the witch realized.
She should not take that mage at his word.