A Happy Dream
"...The young lady has coughed up blood."
"What...?!"
The news struck like a bolt from a clear sky, and my heart began to hammer violently in my chest.
"It happened this morning, while she was trying to eat..."
"Damn it!"
I spat a thick curse and sprinted for Hera's room.
The moment I threw open her door, her frail figure filled my sight.
Her deadened eyes, stripped of every last spark of light, were fixed on the world beyond the window. Her lips had turned a bloodless blue and were cracked dry.
Her body had always been slender, but now, unable to keep food down, she had wasted away until she looked truly ill.
Vivid red handprints still marked her throat. Had she tried to take her own life again in the middle of the night?
She looked so precarious that calling her a corpse would not have felt like an exaggeration.
And yet, cruelly, Hera's innate beauty had not faded. If anything, it now cast an even more decadent, sensual atmosphere around her than before.
"...Hera..."
I called her name with care.
Startled by the unexpected voice, she flinched—then her eyes flew wide, those jewel-like crimson irises locking onto me.
Perhaps because I had not seen her in a full week, she looked even more beautiful today.
".....Get out."
What left that lovely face was a voice so cold it was glacial.
My chest throbbed at her words.
Still I ignored them and walked toward her.
"Hera. They said you coughed blood—"
"I said get out!! Leave right now!!!!"
Hera screamed and began hurling whatever lay within reach, one object after another.
Yet every single thing that flew at me was soft—pillows, cushions, nothing that could truly hurt. Perhaps her kind nature simply would not allow her to injure me.
I almost wished she wanted me hurt.
If that were enough to vent her rage, I would carve the flesh from my own bones this instant and offer it to her.
But Hera would never wish for such a thing.
She was so damnably, unbearably kind.
"Get out...! I said get out..!! Hic...hng..."
Hera clutched at her chest and began to cry.
Yet no tears came—perhaps she had none left. Only her scarlet rims burned red, and the only sound that escaped her was a desolate, broken wail.
".......I'll go."
In the end I could offer her nothing. With heavy steps I returned to my office.
"Haa..."
I dragged both hands hard down my face.
Never in my life had I felt this frantic. Not once.
I had expected time to smooth things over on its own. The situation was far more serious than I had imagined.
Hera was dying.
Not as a figure of speech. Her life was guttering out like a candle flame.
Perhaps that was only natural.
The only "nourishment" entering her body was the sedative Mari had made—laced with narcotic components—and water.
Night after sleepless night, her body wasted away at terrifying speed.
"Hera...please..."
I had no idea what to do.
Everything had changed.
Before, I had wanted to make love to her again.
I had wanted her to smile at me once more.
I had wanted to share those sweet kisses with her again.
But now—
All I desperately wished for was that she regain her health.
And damn it all—
There was nothing I could do for her.
A few days ago I had summoned a high priest from the temple.
The goddess's power, he said, could mend external wounds and internal injuries—but it could do nothing for wounds of the mind.
So I, who could give her nothing, could only beg Alina and Mari to look after her well.
If anything happened to Hera—
If she left my side forever—
Bang—!
My fist smashed down on the desk. The wood shattered to splinters and the entire room shuddered.
I could not even bear to imagine it.
Never.
Such a thing must never come to pass.
A world without Hera—
was a world without meaning.
For the past several days—
Mom had started having seizures.
There was no clear pattern. Sometimes, without warning, the fits would seize her and she would clutch her chest in agony.
Just like now.
"Haah...hak...hng..."
"Mom..!"
Watching her gasp for breath left me frantic, not knowing what to do.
"Ma..Mari...the medicine....medicine..."
Mom panted the plea at me.
"I...I can't... You just took some a little while ago..."
The special medicine I had made.
It was a blend of my own mana and a flower called Pernian.
Pernian stimulated a part of the brain, calming the mind and granting a gentle sense of ease.
Aside from a mild addictive quality, it contained nothing harmful whatsoever.
That was why I could give it to Mom. If it had held even a single harmful component, I would have thrown it away on the spot.
Ordinarily, Pernian alone would have been useless against symptoms as severe as Mom's.
But mixed with my mana, its effects were greatly amplified.
Thanks to that, it had been a real help to her.
Even so—no matter how harmless the medicine was—
it was addictive, so she must not take it too often.
"Mari...please....."
Mom took both my hands and begged. Through our joined fingers I could feel her body trembling with terrible clarity.
"Ugh...uuu...but..."
"Haaah..hng....aaagh..!!!"
"M-Mom..!"
When her body finally convulsed into a full seizure, I had no choice. I pulled out the medicine and slipped it into her mouth.
Slowly her thrashing eased. At last she collapsed onto the bed as if her strings had been cut, closed her eyes, and drifted toward sleep.
She would wake again in about thirty minutes.
She always did—jerking awake with a scream around then.
I wiped every bead of sweat from her with a towel and drew the blanket over her so she could rest as comfortably as possible.
Then, careful not to wake her, I slipped quietly behind her and lay down.
"...Momma...."
Tears of fear slid down my cheeks.
Mom's condition was growing worse by the day.
I kept feeding her my mana, yet her body refused to accept it properly.
As if she no longer wanted to live at all.
What if she really left me?
I was terrified.
Before I met Mom, maybe it would not have mattered.
But now that I knew her, I could not imagine living without her warm love.
I was still crying silently behind her as she slept, soft and even—
when the air inside the room began to whirl.
The churning currents gathered as if sucked toward a single point—
and a small door-like opening appeared in midair.
From inside it, a woman popped out with a cheerful little bounce.
"Hehe!! Behold, this great one arrives!"
A woman with a pair of horns growing from a head of pink hair.
The succubus who had once tried—and failed spectacularly—to charm me.
"Hera. Did you miss m—.........huh?"
The succubus who had appeared in an instant.
The moment her eyes fell on Hera's ruined state, they began to shake violently.
"Hera..?"
.
.
.
How long had it been?
Since I last had a happy dream instead of a vicious nightmare.
When I woke in the morning, Sister Dania wrapped me in a warm hug and set out a fragrant breakfast.
Watching her face light up with quiet pleasure as I ate made a smile slip onto my own lips before I knew it.
We spent the meal chatting about nothing important, the atmosphere peaceful and full of warmth.
After that solid breakfast I headed out with Lily to hunt magical beasts.
Lily had grown so much stronger that she was taking down monsters almost as well as I could. She ran over to me with a proud little smile and asked me to praise her.
When I gave her a short kiss on the lips as a reward, she beamed and kissed me right back.
She really was an adorable girl.
At lunch I read books with Mari.
I still had no idea why she was studying methods for taming beasts with such fierce dedication, but she proudly announced that she could now tame any creature perfectly.
I wasn't sure whether that deserved praise, but learning was always a good thing, so I stroked her hair and told her she had done well.
Mari answered that she would definitely tame something properly later.
The feeling that she was looking straight at me when she said it... that had to be my imagination, right?
In the evening I cooked with Alina.
We made dinner while trading all sorts of idle talk.
Alina took one bite of my fried chicken, her eyes went wide, and she let out a genuine gasp of wonder.
She had never tasted anything so delicious in her life, she said, and she wanted to eat it every single day. Hearing that filled me with quiet pride.
Truly, the power of the Chicken Goddess was something else.
That night I ended up sharing a bed with Sepheer.
The unfamiliar situation felt a little off at first, but I shook the unease away soon enough.
Sepheer launched into a detailed lecture on just how magnificent a person she was.
I found her so cute that I giggled softly and let her voice lull me to sleep like a bedtime story.
I was happy.
So happy it almost felt wrong that someone like me got to live among people this wonderful.
And yet—
something felt empty.
Only after turning it over carefully did I realize what was missing.
Ah. Of course.
She wasn't here.
The one who had promised to stay by my side through every moment.
The one who had taught me what love felt like.
The one I was so endlessly grateful for.
Speak of the tiger and it appears, the old saying went.
The instant I thought of her, a woman appeared whose hair shone with the exact same color as the dazzling sun overhead.
I ran to her with a bright smile, and she stroked my hair.
I wanted to look at her face—
but the sun blazing in the sky was far too bright, and it hid her features from me.
But that was all right.
I knew she must be wearing that gentle smile of hers.
.....I should wake up soon.
Dreams this happy always left an equally deep hollow behind them.
Still, just a little longer—
I found myself greedy enough to want just a little more time here.
After all, the only thing waiting for me when I opened my eyes was that same crushing agony.
So I wished for the dream to stretch on just a little further—
and quietly closed my eyes.