A Fleeting Spring Dream
Sudden anomalous phenomenon. The imperial princess sought out the shrine maiden. The Imperial Palace contained everything in this world, including the Pantheon where one could offer sacrifices to the gods.
"I've been waiting for you, Your Highness."
"You knew I was coming...?"
"Yes. I received a prophecy that you would visit."
The shrine maiden who served the gods of wisdom and dreams. Dreams had long been a source of inspiration and a gateway to ascension, revealing futures beyond human wisdom.
They were called prophetic dreams, and the church of wisdom and dreams boasted the most prophets. Though after the future had been sealed shut, their influence had waned, making them the second-smallest among the six major churches in the Pantheon.
Still, they could glimpse nearby futures untouched by doom.
"Then I don't need to explain... Dreamcatcher it is."
A divine artifact that turns nightmares into good dreams. With the imperial princess's power to turn reality into dreams, it was effectively an item that reshaped reality itself.
The six pillars of the imperial family, meant to avert the empire's downfall. Garnet, the Pomegranate Stone Princess, was the "pillar that can rebuild other pillars."
"You can't."
"Why nooot...?"
"A revelation came down. Dreamcatcher use is forbidden for the time being."
"Damn dream god... I can cut back on offerings, y'know...?"
"It's fine. The Nosferatu Duke has been donating generously to the Pantheon lately, so our budget is flush."
"That foul-tempered old man's got some nerve... "
"Ah. His son recently inherited the title. He even completed a new oath at the Temple of Scales and Contracts."
"Aha. Got himself a sucker, huh... "
The empire's infamous assassin noble house. Nosferatu Ducal Residence. Even the princess knew their reputation. One of the empire's three great ducal families, and she'd crossed paths with the previous duke a few times during his audiences at the palace. A thoroughly nasty piece of work, all around.
But the new duke seemed different from the Nosferatu mold. Generous enough to the Pantheon for the shrine maiden to mention it herself.
"Ugh... "
"If you're having nightmares, how about a light stroll? It might help clear your head."
"... "
At the shrine maiden's advice, the princess recoiled, staring into empty space. More precisely, at the musclebound man who'd given her the exact same suggestion.
-
"Brat. Don't waste your time. Hard work, hard training. Do something for yourself. Shake off that sleep. Weather's nice—how about a walk?"
...Did the god of wisdom and dreams do something?
The god of wisdom and dreams. The source of the princess's innate pillar power. The six imperial heirs were no different from the Pantheon's six pillar gods.
The emperor: "the pillar that erects pillars."
The empress: "the pillar that plants pillars."
The crown prince: "the pillar that supports pillars."
The illegitimate child: "the pillar that repairs pillars."
The imperial prince: "the pillar that topples pillars."
The princess: "the pillar that rebuilds pillars."
The empire stood on these six pillars, decreed by the Pantheon's six pillar gods from the day of its founding.
"I guess I have been slacking on exercise lately... "
The princess murmured in her soft, languid voice. Her energy was so low it trailed off to a whisper by the end. Frail. Her half-lidded eyes, heavy with sleep, made her look as ephemeral as spring snow.
-
"Good grab. Feeling motivated to work out?"
"Probably better to just croak in bed... "
-
"Fuck-!"
"Ahaha... "
Watching Gigachad bellow, the princess found the hallucination pretty amusing. Exaggerated speech, exaggerated body, exaggerated personality. As bizarre and peculiar as a dream without logic.
In other words, familiar.
"So what's the deal with this hallucination anywayyy...?"
-
"Brat. I'm Gigachad. Your inner self. Your potential."
"So it's all just my dream in the end, huh...?"
-
"You Fucking Idiot. It's not a dream. It's reality."
"From now on, you're Dreamy."
-
"What the Fuck. Gigachad means alpha—"
"Dreamy's cuter than Gigachad... Puhehe."
After pondering the princess's nonsense for a moment, Gigachad—no, Dreamy—nodded.
-
"Fine. Names don't matter. If you wanna call me some Fucking Pussy name like Dreamy, I'll respect that choice. My Daughter."
"Good boy, my Dreamy... "
-
"But just 'cause you think I'm fake and this world's a dream doesn't mean you can ignore the now. If this life's just a long midday nap, you gotta give it your all inside the dream. You're here right now. Not in bed."
"Dreamy. When I was little, I had a dog named Jindori...?"
The princess ignored Gigachad's words. This world was just her dream anyway. Screaming "this isn't a dream" inside one rang hollow. She wasn't childish enough to obsess over dreams.
"And that dog bit my hand, y'know? Not hard or anything... Probably playing. Just a little scrape... "
Instead, she chattered away to this bizarre dream like a bamboo grove audience. She must've needed someone to talk to. The palace was too quiet for venting.
If she just wanted to spill her pent-up stories, dream or reality didn't matter. She rather liked this noisy hallucination.
"Know what happened to Jindori that day?"
-
"Not a happy ending, I take it?"
"Probably ended up in a stew... I stopped eating soup after that... "
The princess furrowed her brow like someone deep in thought. Was she making it up, or remembering? Maybe both. She lived in illusions.
"But... turns out it was all just a dream. Woke up and there was Jindori, grinning at me with that dumb face... Puhehe."
-
"Relieved?"
"It was a dream, but... I still can't eat soup. Every time I try, feels like I'll puke up everything I've ever eaten. Dreams fade the second you wake, but... nightmares get sharper the harder you try to forget. Ain't that unfair...?"
-
"You Idiot. Brat. That's when you focus on the present, not the past, and Hard Work—"
"Most dreams you remember are nightmares anyway. Better to sleep forever without dreaming... "
The princess beamed. Her smile seemed ready to shatter into wistful fragments. Maybe the sleepiness weighing her eyelids made it feel that way.
"Not a bad start. The princess is opening up to Gigachad more than expected?"
"Indeed, she's reacting quite positively."
This world is a nightmare. An endless nightmare. One you can't wake from. No matter how you struggle to escape, it just creeps closer like some foul, grotesque monster.
But.
The princess can wake from this world. She can shatter it. Turn it to foam like a fleeting dream.
This world exists only as long as it suits her.
"So like always, we make sure she doesn't see this world as a nightmare—"
Mid-sentence, something felt off. I glanced at Canaria.
"Hold on. What did I just say?"
"That you'd make sure the princess doesn't think of this world as a nightmare."
"Before that."
"Hm. 'Like always'?"
"Yeah. That part."
Like always.
"When's 'always'?"
"Pardon? When we tackled the other doomsday buttons, no?"
"... "
Right. Even if I'd meant it that way, it wasn't weird. The plan's direction hadn't changed much. Use Gigachad to persuade and rehabilitate the doomsday buttons. That was it.
But.
Still, something was wrong.
"...Why does it feel like I've said this before?"
Déjà vu. The sense I'd lived this scene dozens, hundreds of times.
I was gripped by it.
"Pardon? Oh. The princess's power, maybe? Feels like we've looped today a few times already. You're reading her thoughts and tweaking Gigachad's lines on the fly, Your Grace."
"No. No, it's way more than that... Like I've said it a ton... "
"Pardon?"
A nagging unease settled in. The kind from grabbing the wrong thread from the start, past the point of no return. Then, the worst possibility I'd been avoiding flashed up.
"...Yeah. Must be."
But.
I had to keep the plan going anyway. If this was the worst-case I'd feared— even if it failed, sticking to it without changing was right.
I had to stick to it no matter what.
The world hadn't ended yet.
If this world was just a fleeting spring dream, my job was to keep spring from ending.
Until the princess marched toward winter herself.
This was one failure... but not doom.
If anything, a bug. The worst kind of setback, but that meant a chance to push forward.
This was a game where the player loses.
"Your Grace?"
"Nah. Stick to the plan."
In the end, the princess had to move forward herself.
Like always.
Stopping doom was the doomsday button's own role, not mine.