The Illusion Shatters
I returned to the dream where the Emperor waited and laid out everything I had uncovered. The symptoms had begun a month earlier. The prince was suffering from nightmares. The so-called magical side effects had nothing to do with it. And there was someone inside the palace actively trying to kill him. I told him all of it.
Even after hearing the full story, the Emperor remained eerily composed.
Correction—he only looked calm. Beneath the surface, he was swallowing a great deal of fury. To outsiders he might seem like a heartless father who didn’t care what happened to his offspring, but he was, in his own way, a father who cared.
Then again, the same man deliberately let me beat the crap out of his son. That still feels like insanity.
At least the experience had hammered some proper manners into the prince. Maybe the Emperor’s decision hadn’t been so crazy after all.
Anyway.
“What do you intend to do?”
I had told the prince I would handle it, but I wanted to hear the Emperor’s opinion first. If he believed this was a trial his children needed to overcome on their own, I would step back. If he said he couldn’t stand by and watch, I would intervene without hesitation.
The Emperor’s answer was completely unexpected.
His expression grew chillingly cold—an expression I rarely saw on him.
The Emperor was competent. Across the entire history of the empire, few rulers had maintained such stability and strength while still caring for the people. That was why he understood better than anyone.
“Then the matter’s settled, isn’t it?”
Capturing the culprit and dragging them before the Emperor. That was my job.
“Since this has grown bigger than expected, could you spare a little extra budget? I already have more than enough, so for the sake of my conscience I’ll only take a modest amount.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Now that the budget was secured, I couldn’t afford to slack off. Seeing how furious the Emperor was, this clearly wasn’t a matter to treat lightly.
Well, not my problem.
I would simply do what I came to do and earn the Magic Tower’s funding.
That night.
As always, the Second Prince Elios fell asleep, and without fail a woman appeared in his dream. Golden hair fluttered like sunlight. A dress clung to her skin, revealing its soft curves.
“Your Highness.”
A voice as enchanting as a siren’s spread through the dream.
“Ermel…”
Elios called out the name he had once longed for.
Again. It was the same dream again. For an entire month now, this vision had repeated. Here, Ermel always looked at him. She always whispered words of love.
But Elios knew the truth. This was nothing more than a dream.
His brothers and the heirs of prestigious families already adored her. She had been raised like a precious flower in a greenhouse—pure, gentle to everyone, kind to everyone.
Yet now he could no longer feel what he once felt for her. Only a faint trace of longing remained. Nothing more bloomed. It was as if the emotions had been forcibly sealed away.
“Your Highness. It’s me—Ermel. The one Your Highness loves.”
“…”
Her soft hand brushed his cheek. Warmth lingered in her touch.
“Will you let me feel Your Highness’s love again today?”
The thin dress slipped from her shoulder, revealing more of her skin in a seductive display. Her warmth pressed close enough to feel her breath. The faint scent of flowers drifted around them. Every point of contact was bewitching, alluring.
But.
“Your Highness?”
“I’m sorry, Ermel.”
Elios no longer pulled her into his arms or shared his warmth as he once had. Or rather, he found he could no longer do so. Until now he had known on some level that this was a dream yet chosen to ignore it, simply because being with the one he loved had brought him joy.
The Elios of now was different. He no longer turned away. He faced the dream clearly, and the feelings he once held for her had already faded. He simply looked at her with a smile that tasted of bitterness.
Perhaps she sensed something in that smile. The Ermel in the dream pressed herself even more tightly against him.
“Your Highness… have you stopped loving me? Do you intend never to share your warmth with me again? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden? Have I done something wrong?”
Tears gathered in her clear, transparent eyes.
“I love you, Your Highness. More than anyone else in this world… So why won’t you share your warmth with me? I miss it so much… your warmth…”
She looked delicate and lovable. In the past he would have given in and offered her that warmth. He might not have even realized it was a dream.
But the prince no longer felt love for her. The desire to share warmth never even arose. Above all, knowing she was draining his life force gave him the restraint he needed.
“I’m sorry, Ermel. I truly am… but I don’t like you anymore.”
Even though the emotions had been forcibly suppressed, once they vanished the reason that filled the void brought clarity. He realized how deeply he had been obsessed for his father to resort to such measures. He realized how foolish and ignorant he had been.
Love was certainly wonderful. But one should not drown in it alone.
All this time Elios had been consumed by that single emotion and had failed to see anything else. Now that he understood, he decided to offer a final farewell to the woman he had loved. Even if this was only a dream.
“Ermel. I loved you. There was not a single lie in that heart. But I have come to realize I am far too lacking to enter yours.”
He had loved her, but the real Ermel did not love him. He had clung desperately to that fact, yet now he knew it was time to let go.
“Even if this is a dream, even if it is mere delusion, it doesn’t matter. Since you loved me within this dream, I can answer you with even greater sincerity.”
The Second Prince Elios bowed his head toward the woman who had shifted in his heart from “loved” to “once loved.”
“Ermel Belasis. I truly loved you. Therefore, I will release you now. I hope you find happiness.”
“…”
The Ermel within the dream suddenly stopped moving. Like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The moment Elios lifted his head, sensing something wrong, the puppet’s hand shot out and seized his throat.
“Aaa— Aaa—”
Crack. Crack.
Every trace of emotion had been wiped from her face. Her hollow eyes fixed on him. Then her mouth opened.
The voice that emerged from the lips of the woman he had loved belonged to his familiar younger sister.
Even in a dream, it stole his breath.
“Reina…!”
Now that he understood her identity, Elios’s face twisted in disgust.
“You damn bitch…!”
She giggled. The sound was full of mockery.
“Are you really going to break the rules Father set down?!”
“Ha! You’re underestimating the Archmage way too much.”
Every chuckle was accompanied by a creaking sound, like a puppet’s joints.
“Ugh…”
The crushing pressure tightened. Elios’s face gradually turned blue. Even though it was a dream, the pain and suffocation felt vividly real. His vision began to blur.
So… this is where I die.
Probably. Yet he believed without doubt that his sister would eventually be caught.
You’re underestimating the Archmage far too much.
Because he had realized exactly how much his sister looked down on the Archmage. Humans tended to ignore danger until they experienced it firsthand. His sister was the perfect example.
“I hope you end up in the same situation as me someday.”
The puppet’s mouth twisted grotesquely as the grip tightened even further. The moment his eyes began to close—
“Tsk tsk. Wow, this is actually pretty entertaining. Is this what happens when people fight over the imperial throne? I’m hearing some hilarious stuff. Tsk tsk.”
The sudden voice made Elios’s eyes snap open. There, as if he had been there the entire time, stood the Archmage casually eating popcorn and watching the scene like it was a show. His relaxed attitude made him look exactly like a spectator who had come to enjoy a circus.
“Oh. It’s already over? Aww, how boring. Come on, raise the tension! Heighten the drama! We need more of that!”
“…”
Elios was momentarily speechless. Had this man really shown up just to watch?
As a chuckle escaped him, the puppet Ermel’s mouth opened once more.
“How? Through the front door, obviously.”
“Tsk tsk. Why do you assume there isn’t one?”
The Archmage tilted his head as if genuinely confused.
“If there isn’t a door, you just make one. As expected of a princess who openly tries to murder people inside the imperial palace—your head really is empty, huh? Tsk tsk. Was the Emperor bastard seriously telling me to form a marriage alliance with a girl like this? What a load of crap. Tsk tsk.”
“The one crossing the line is you, kid. I only say ‘Your Majesty~ Your Majesty~’ during official business. Why the hell would I do that in private? We’re in a symbiotic relationship, not a superior-subordinate one. Got it, you thick-skulled idiot? If you ever became emperor, you’d get beaten to death by me. Tsk… tsk tsk.”
The venomous, direct barrage of insults made the Ermel puppet tremble violently.
Suddenly iron chains rained down from the sky and bound the Archmage.
“This kid is seriously funny.”
The Archmage, who had been chuckling at the Second Princess’s words, suddenly wiped all expression from his face.
“Since I was told to bring her back alive, this should be fine.”
“Just remember that.”
The moment he finished speaking—
“Boom.”
A massive explosion swallowed the entire area.