Chapter 276
Chapter: 276
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 276
>Chapter Title: In the Dream Path (5)
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>It happened over a dozen years ago now.
That day, one of Regina's taverns was still being cleaned late into the night. A band of mercenaries from out of town had celebrated a successful mission with a drinking party that dragged on.
The owner and staff were exhausted, but they weren't entirely displeased.
The Astros Mercenary Corps, that day's patrons, were rough around the edges but well-disciplined. On top of that, they'd guzzled down all the low-quality leftover beer in stock.
Thanks to them, the owner's pockets were nicely lined, and the staff were due for a hefty bonus for the extra hours.
"Was that young man earlier a mercenary too? He seemed so different from the others. Maybe a knight from some famous noble house...?"
A girl serving in the hall asked while vigorously wiping tables, her face slightly flushed from all the rushing around.
Even without specifics, the owner knew exactly whom she meant.
He was certainly a young man who would stand out anywhere.
"He had a licensed mercenary badge, didn't he? Looks young, but he's got plenty of experience. From the rank on it, he's no newbie with just a year or two under his belt."
"How could you tell?"
"We collected their badges before they started drinking."
Regina had plenty of taverns that demanded mercenaries hand over their badges as collateral. Too many incidents happened when drunk mercenaries got rowdy.
"I see."
The girl nodded, then broke into a beaming smile as some thought crossed her mind.
"He sat so properly, I thought for sure he was a knight. But a capable mercenary suits him pretty well too."
The owner clicked his tongue.
"Don't be daft. You shouldn't go giving your heart to guys like that. Do you know how many women in Regina have been left widowed after shacking up with young mercenaries who never settle down?"
Regina was a major city that nearly every mercenary band heading north passed through. Countless mercenaries had made promises to lovers before going north, only to vanish in the Ortona civil war.
At that moment, a boy carrying a sack of onions entered from the kitchen and snapped gruffly at the girl.
"They're drifters who'll never settle down anyway. Don't waste your glances on them and just do your job properly."
"Give glances? And when have I ever not done my job right?"
The girl glared sharply and shouted back, and Benjamin's voice rose in turn.
"Ask everyone how you were acting today! It was obvious you were smitten with that guy at first sight!"
"Smitten? Why are you picking on me all of a sudden?"
The girl huffed, clutched her rag, and stormed into the kitchen. Benjamin roughly dropped his sack and stomped out of the tavern.
Only the owner, who knew of Benjamin's feelings for the girl, clicked his tongue inwardly.
What a pathetic kid.
*I know. You're just taking it out on Anna for no reason.*
Meanwhile, Benjamin's heart wasn't at ease after yelling at the girl he secretly loved.
Even so, he couldn't hold back his anger. He understood all too well the thrill she must have felt toward that strange mercenary.
He himself hadn't been able to tear his eyes away from the mercenary at first. It was like the hero from a storybook—the kind everyone admired—had stepped right out into reality.
"...This is driving me crazy. How am I supposed to face Anna tomorrow?"
Benjamin sensed the failure of his first love. As he hung his head in self-loathing, defeat, and gloom, something caught his eye.
*Sparkle.*
Something on the ground gleamed, drawing his gaze.
"Huh?"
In the dark night without moonlight, something on the ground was oddly glowing on its own.
Benjamin approached without a second thought. What he found was a small crimson pendant.
"This is..."
Come to think of it, hadn't that mercenary youth dropped something on the floor as he left the tavern?
*Discarded because it's broken? But it still looks valuable...*
It was split clean in half and ruined, yet the gem still emitted a brilliant luster.
As he reached out, mesmerized by the pendant—
[Be careful.]
A strange voice suddenly echoed in his mind.
He jolted and looked up to find a woman staring down at him, though he hadn't noticed her approach.
"...Who?"
Benjamin recoiled in surprise. The woman was shrouded entirely in ominous black.
A black dress, black hair, and a black veil.
The dark veil especially covered her face completely, draping down to her chin in an eerie fashion.
Yet the silhouette faintly visible through the veil was delicate, and the fitted black dress was elegant and beautiful.
*She's no human!*
Terrifying yet beautiful—like the fairies from old tales that heralded death!
As Benjamin sweated coldly and plotted to snatch the pendant and flee—
[I warned you. Once entangled even slightly in an immense karma beyond your capacity to bear, there will be no turning back.]
For a split second, a chilling glint flashed from beneath the black veil.
*I have to run!*
His instincts screamed to turn and bolt. But Benjamin couldn't easily let go of his attachment to the pendant on the ground.
It was broken, sure, but that beautiful gem still seemed useful. Could he ever afford to touch something like it in his lifetime, even if he saved every penny?
[.......]
Benjamin hesitated, glancing at her, but the woman stood motionless. Unlike her heavy warning, she showed no sign of physically stopping him.
*Gulp.*
Steeling himself, Benjamin lunged forward and snatched the pendant from the ground.
But in that instant—
*Whoosh!*
Like an illusion, a massive crimson flame erupted before his eyes.
"......!"
Suddenly, Benjamin stood on a vast plain engulfed in flames.
Stars fell from a darkened sky, and on the scorched earth below, countless blackened humans writhed in agony—a hellish landscape.
The acrid stench of burning flesh assaulted his nose.
And the screams. Soul-wrenching, desperate wails.
"Arrrgh! Hell! The end of the world!"
Benjamin screamed in terror, driven mad.
"What is it! What's wrong, Benjamin?"
"Why are you freaking out all of a sudden?"
The commotion drew the owner and Anna rushing out of the tavern.
And moments later.
When Benjamin finally calmed down, sweating profusely and looking back, the woman—and the pendant—had vanished without a trace.
* * *
"Yes... how could I have forgotten all this until now?"
Amelia, who had been clutching the old pendant and shedding endless tears, soon turned to Sungjin with a gentle smile.
"I'm sorry, sister. I never even considered how you felt..."
Sungjin bowed his head guiltily.
He knew full well what she'd gone through in the Sigismund Territory as a child, yet he'd been so insensitive.
"No. If anything, I should be grateful, Mores."
But Amelia shook her head and caressed the pendant fondly.
"How to explain it... While in the Sigismund Territory, I had many dreams. For some reason, whenever I fell asleep holding this pendant, happy dreams always came to me."
Yes, happy dreams.
So vivid that young Amelia believed them to be reality.
So much so that she mistook the strange Holy Emperor who came to her for the man from her dreams and followed him without hesitation.
Soon, her life in the lavish imperial palace began, and the hazy dreams of her childhood faded from her mind.
Yet those dreams had undoubtedly left their mark on her in some way.
She effortlessly learned Bretons, a language no one had taught her, and already knew many tales from the continent she'd never studied.
Above all—
What was it that had ultimately captured Amelia's heart for Leonard?
-Please become my cherished, one and only family, the one I shall love with my soul.
Overwhelmed by joy at that simple proposal, Amelia had nodded without a second thought.
Because deep in her subconscious, she already vaguely knew what it felt like to have that "cherished one and only family."
"Perhaps back then, I was under the grand delusion that a happy life like those childhood dreams would return."
Meanwhile, as Sungjin listened to Amelia, he suddenly recalled what the Holy Emperor had said in the Rift not long ago.
-I blessed not her body, but her soul. So that even amid excruciating pain, she could occasionally dream.
The dream blessing bestowed upon the former Countess of Sigismund.
At the time, he'd wondered why it was done that way, but now he understood a little.
A sort of mercy, granting her as much respite as permitted. Perhaps that was how he balanced the karma.
"Back then, I called it the 'dream necklace.'"
Amelia wiped the dirty pendant with the lace trim of her sleeve. Watching her, Sungjin felt an ominous premonition creeping up.
*What if that pendant is...?*
"And it hit the mark."
Emerging from the lace, cleansed of grime, was something Sungjin knew well.
"The signpost..."
A crimson gem split in half.
It was undoubtedly the crimson signpost left by his grandmother.
* * *
That night.
Back in his room for the first time in ages, Sungjin sat lost in thought, forgetting even to meditate.
-How did I come by it? It was so long ago in my childhood that I don't remember the details.
When Sungjin had asked about the signpost's origin, Amelia had hesitated slightly before answering.
-It was probably right after my mother passed, when I was left alone in that freezing annex. Some strange woman came to see me.
She didn't remember her face well because it was hidden by a black veil.
The woman, dressed head to toe in black, had handed the broken pendant to Amelia and asked her to treasure it.
*'She must know what a signpost is—and its value.'*
Then, was she an Oracle?
A woman, so not the Holy Emperor. Perhaps a former Oracle.
*...But it couldn't have been Grandmother, right?*
He'd heard that Empress Besheva was poisoned before the Holy Emperor left the palace in his childhood. So she couldn't have been alive then.
Sungjin pulled out the other signpost he possessed and examined it closely.
Just the half he'd given to Dexter, yet even its cut surface emitted multifaceted lights like a meticulously crafted gem.
Dexter had called it a kind of terminal reflecting the Oracle's mind.
So vast in data that attempting to analyze it with a source editor had caused the machine to explode.
-Broken and shattered, it serves to remind that this is not prophecy, but reality.
That was how the Holy Emperor had described the signpost.
A sudden thought struck him.
*'If the Oracle chooses a future as directed by the signpost, what happens to the prophecy she saw before that choice?'*
What becomes of a future left unchosen, lingering as mere possibility?
If the signpost reflects the Oracle's mind, could fragments of it remain embedded in the signpost as data?
Sungjin pondered, then clutched the signpost and lay sideways on the bed. He figured the only way was to investigate directly.
[...What are you doing?]
The Demon King asked incredulously, but Sungjin ignored him and steadfastly closed his eyes. He planned to test the method Amelia had described first.
-The way to dream was simple. Just hold the gem and fall asleep.
Alright, clutch this and sleep.
*Not like I'm a kid hiding a toy. Never thought I'd be doing this at my age.*
But it was worth trying. Enduring the gem's repelling sensation against his chest, Sungjin tried hard to sleep.
[Guest ID connection confirmed.]
How much time passed?
In his half-sleep, Sungjin faintly heard something like an electronic tone.
[We have waited long for you. □□□ □□.......]
* * *
He opened his eyes to murmurs from people nearby. Clear conversation formed of thoughts.
[It's a Guest ID after such a long time.]
[But his connection is unstable somehow? The graphics are glitching.]
[It happens sometimes. But it's fine. Functionality intact.]
What are they on about?
If it's about me, explain it so I can understand first.
Sungjin addressed the vague, shadowy figures without proper form.
"What are you saying? Who are you? And where is this place now?"
One of them flinched and froze.
Then, as if delighted, it cried out toward Sungjin.
"That speech just now! That's definitely imperial tongue. Are you from Delcross by any chance?"
"......?"
Before Sungjin could reply, the figure strode forward.
*Zzzt, crackle.* Occasional noise disrupted the view, but even vaguely, his tall stature and sturdy build were discernible.
"Wow, first Guest ID I've seen connecting from the Delcross home world! Can't tell you how happy I am!"
As Sungjin looked up with wide eyes, a refreshing laugh came from him.
"Haha. I know it's confusing right now, but don't worry. I'll help you out."
*Zzzt, crackle.*
Through the noise, faintly curving lips appeared.
"Pleasure, newbie. Shall we introduce ourselves? Name's Owen. Owen Lockwood."