43. A Midsummer Night's Dream
43. A Midsummer Night's Dream
Yuriel's days and nights are out of balance.
Because she has a body that forces her to sleep for more than about 18 hours a day, she habitually nods off by herself not only in the dormitory but also at the academy.
Once, out of pure curiosity, I asked her a question. Did I say something like, "Then you must dream for a really long time when you sleep?" Anyway, thinking that someone with such an absurdly long sleeping time would naturally spend a lot of time dreaming, I asked her that, and she replied like this:
'Nope? I don't dream stuff like that?' she said.
Yuriel does not dream. The moment she starts sleeping, she collapses with a pik, just like an electronic device whose power has been shut off, so Yuriel has no idea what happens during the 18 hours while she is asleep. If she slept lightly enough to dream in the first place, she would have woken up the moment I grabbed her breasts. I would have died three years ago when I first tried to men-kan her.
But today, I will infuse a new 18 hours into her day that used to be a mere 6 hours.
Unlike those other morons I've seen countless times in the past, who get consumed by anger and hatred, cross lines they should protect, and end up ruining everything,
even though my instincts are burning so hot that I want to wake Yuriel up right now, fuck her out of her mind while she's fully conscious, cut ties with that bug-like bitch Seolhwa, and cast a suggestion on her to look only at me, the reason controlling my actions has instead grown cold.
Times like this call for being cool and calm.
This is simply re-executing a plan I had previously scrapped due to a pathetic bit of sympathy for Yuriel and complacency in believing she would always stay by my side.
During the 18 hours ahead when Yuriel falls asleep drenched in fatigue, she will dream a certain dream.
She will dream a shitty, senseless nightmare that only exists to be provocative without a shred of plausibility—one where she encounters me discovered as a cold corpse the day after getting into a petty argument with her just like always.
While she sleeps, dozens, no, hundreds of times.
Time in dreams always flows slower than in reality. In other words, if you just set up a certain mechanism, a day in reality can become a week or a month inside a dream.
Yuriel will drift through that span of time.
She will have to watch my death repeating in continuously different forms—my death that is already predetermined no matter what kind of bullshit she pulls to try and stop it—dozens and hundreds of times with her eyes wide open, making her feel her own helplessness for the first time.
For your information, the entity generating her dreams is not me. Once the nightmares repeat a few times, her already thoroughly eroded mental system will compel her to dream nightmares on its own, aligned with my will. In the end, whenever Yuriel sleeps, she will unconsciously and by her own will repeat the very moments she least wants to experience.
Of course, it's not impossible to break this repetition of nightmares forever. The method is simple.
By simply falling asleep by my side, Yuriel can escape the eternal nightmares that wear down her mind hundreds of times. Rather, she will enjoy an ecstatic, deep sleep like she has never experienced before. It's a simple method, but this simple method is also a massive shackle for the human named Yuriel.
At first, upon realizing that fact, since we already hung out together and she's slept by my side once or twice, she'd probably display an indifferent attitude about sleeping next to me, but as time passes and she happens to fall asleep during the few moments I'm not around, suffering hellish nightmares, her body and mind will eventually become bound to me, leaving her completely helpless.
Thinking of Yuriel dying to cling to me using all sorts of pathetic excuses—even when simply going to the bathroom, changing clothes upon entering the dormitory, or even when washing up—already gets me excited.
Unaware of the fact that while she is plunged in a deep sleep she's never experienced before while I'm by her side, her body is actually being tossed around by me and lasciviously trained.
What kind of face will Yuriel make when she realizes that falling asleep with me is the only way to escape the nightmares, and speaks to me? Will she be wearing her usual haughty and serene mask, or will she have an earnest expression I've never seen before? I'm going crazy with curiosity.
I placed my right hand on her saegeun-saegeun sleeping head.
If I carve this magic into her, her 18 hours will undoubtedly be wrapped in inescapable nightmares.
"Sweet dreams, Yuriel."
I engraved a magic circle onto the sleeping Yuriel, along with an incomprehensible, sticky trap mixed with pity and ecstasy.
Of course, there won't be much change yet since I'm still by her side, but the moment I step away even a few steps, she will immediately writhe in agony within hellish nightmares.
Sorry, Yuriel. It's a method I'd rather not use, but it can't be helped.
Yuriel, at your single word, I agonized thousands of times: could she have made friends other than that bug Seolhwa? Were there any boys among the friends she made previously behind my back? Does she show the smile she only showed me to them as well? Shouldn't Yuriel experience that process too to be true friends? Sorrow is meant to be shared, after all.
I don't want to see Yuriel looking sad, but if it makes the love between me and Yuriel stronger, well. I can endure it along with a painful heart.
Besides, it's a problem that would be completely solved if Yuriel just stuck by my side all day long. No, isn't it even better? Once she endures the repetitive nightmares in the beginning, the moment she learns that sleeping by my side is the solution, Yuriel gets to sleep a much happier, deeper sleep during her sleeping hours, and I get to comfortably men-kan her while she peacefully dozes off. What is this, it's a win-win. I worried for nothing.
In fact, given her personality, I don't think she'll change overnight. She'll probably just think it's a stupid nightmare at first and shrug it off without much thought, but if she has nightmares repeating dozens of times every time she sleeps, a crack will eventually form in Yuriel's ironclad personality.
I raised myself up and looked at Yuriel sleeping saegeun-saegeun. When I listened closely, small saek-saek breathing sounds could be heard. No matter how I look at it, isn't the once-in-a-millennium greatest genius of the empire referring not to her ability to handle mana, but to her looks?
It's such a regrettable fact that I won't be able to stroke her soft and addictive body for today. Instead, I'll train her tomorrow until I get sick of it. Prepare yourself, Yuriel.
With a smug smile, I placed a trivial suggestion on Yuriel—something like, "When held in Siwoo's arms, the anxiety wrapping around your head mysteriously vanishes and you become happy"—and walked toward the door.
.......
......Ah.......
......No.......
......No way...!
"No way!!!"
I opened my eyes with a scream I let out without realizing it. How urgent the situation must have been—my body, which had never once experienced any exertion since possessing Yuriel, was gasping heavily for breath. My entire body was covered in jureuk-jureuk flowing cold sweat, and due to nausea repeatedly filling my stomach acid up to the back of my throat dozens of times before subsiding, the voice when I screamed was already completely hoarse, emitting a harsh, chalkboard-scratching sound along with my breathing.
The inside of the room was already a mess reminiscent of a battlefield, with traces of pure mana slashing up the walls left here and there. Around my neck, it was already swollen and marked with several layers of red lines, and my neat fingernails bore traces of having been bitten off dozens of times. Tear stains had already dried up around my eyes, and my badly chewed lips were stained with blood.
The inside of my mouth is crazily itchy and dry. My long hair, which always gave off a flowing and elegant vibe, has long since turned dry and brittle. My eyes, which had always boasted peace and languor, have long since been bloodshot red, and my slender hands tremble involuntarily unless I grip them tightly. Between my fingers, I can feel the texture of light pink hair that I had torn out in crazed fear.
Normally, I would have definitely, surely questioned the reason for this state and tried to find the culprit, or at least normalized my half-broken body with Cleanse and healing magic, but right now I didn't even have the leisure for that, no, I couldn't even think like that. Grasping my trembling legs with difficulty, I took a step toward the door.
"...L-Lies, S-Siwoo...!"
A cracked voice was cast into the empty air. Along with hurried footsteps, anxiety deepened in the voice. Just in, in case. In case those horrific nightmares were actually reality. In case I opened Siwoo's door, and Siwoo, who should be lying on his bed reading a book like usual, had vanished without a trace.
Just as I forced myself to swallow already dried-up saliva and tried to reach my arm out toward the doorknob of my door, with a ttiriring sound, the front door opened, and—
"...Why, Yuri...uh?"
Siwoo, who had apparently entered through my door because of the scream, came into my view. Although his face distorted in dismay as soon as he saw my pathetic appearance, the man who had just flashed a sly smile shortly before was definitely Siwoo.
"No, what on earth are you...?"
"R-Real Siwoo..., are you real Siwoo......?"
Tears welled up in my dried-up eyes. At the fact that Siwoo—whom I wanted to see so badly, whom I would have risked my life to protect if I could make a contract with a devil—that such Siwoo was right in front of me, I threw away all my pride, hurried over, and hugged Siwoo's body.
"......Wait a second, I didn't expect this... eek."
"Huu..., huu......, S-Huu......Siwooo-ya....... I missed you so, so much......."
For 16 years, had I ever run up to Siwoo and hugged him of my own accord? Probably not. I hadn't even thought of doing such a thing in the first place, and frankly, I never imagined I would crave a man's embrace even once until the day I died, but the moment I saw the real Siwoo after a long time, my body rushed over and hugged Siwoo before I even realized it.
"Huu..., huu...... I really thought you died......, heu-eong......."
"......I'm sorry."
"Why are you apologizing....... Hue-eng......."
"No, I'm really sorry."
"What are you saying......."
"Let's blow your nose first. Go heung. Heung."
"I won't do it... I'm not a baby...... heung."
The emotion of loss that I hadn't experienced for a while since possessing Yuriel. I hugged Siwoo tightly for a while, and Siwoo silently patted and comforted me.
"......Um, Yuriel. Could you possibly let go of me for just a second?"
"No, I won't let go."
"No, that's not it. Uh, bodily functions......."
"......Ah."
"......."
Until I snapped fully awake at that something belonging to that bastard Siwoo, soaring high and poking persistently against my stomach.