Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: The Saint's Inner Thoughts Are Heard
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"Well, I hope you have happy dreams too, Lord Astal. Forever!"
Immediately after, Bellamora's voice echoed, and my vision went dark. A floating sensation, as if my body were drifting and swaying in water, washed over me like a wave.
How much time passed like that? As I slowly walked toward a space where warm light seeped through, a very familiar place began to come into view.
A cool breeze brushing past through the open window, the warm warmth felt on my skin, children playing in the golden wheat fields.
"This is impossible..."
I couldn't help but bite my lower lip at the scene unfolding before my eyes. Because no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't believe the current situation.
I remember this scenery more clearly than anyone.
No, I miss this memory more painfully than anyone.
This was my hometown. The village of Mavilos, which has now even disappeared from maps due to the attack of the Demon King's army.
"Bellamora, you damn bitch..."
I couldn't help but curse as I thought of the black-haired dream succubus. She had created such a vivid illusion based on my memories.
"Are you trying to test me or something? I should shatter this illusion right now..."
I immediately raised my hand to my neck and tried to use magic to blow my own head off.
Among the simplest ways to wake from such a nightmare was to commit suicide and wake from the dream with the shock.
To do this, one first had to realize the discrepancy from reality. Because there were often cases where people were made to mistake reality for a dream and take their own lives.
But,
'...Was I this short back then?'
My breath hitched momentarily as I saw my lowered line of sight, my childlike small stature, and my tiny hands and feet.
As if I had really returned to the past, my reflection in the mirror before me looked exactly like my childhood self.
'The discrepancy from reality... It doesn't feel excessively apparent in this dream.'
Just in case, I pinched my cheek, and a stinging pain was felt. Even when I bent my finger back, it didn't break completely.
Even though I realized this place was a dream, my senses and memories kept getting jumbled as if it were reality.
It was different from the dream Bellamora had shown me before.
Back then, it was just Victoria suddenly confessing her love to me.
'Actually, the fact that time has turned back to the past...'
For a moment, this thought swirled in my head.
Everything I had just experienced until a moment ago was just a bad dream, and in fact, I had just woken up on my hometown bed.
The pleasant, warm scent of sunshine wafted gently from the blanket and pillow, and a cool wind blew through the swaying grassy field.
The illusion that maybe this life in the movie wasn't my real life—that very delusion was creeping up my body.
"...That can't be."
I strongly bit my tongue, denying everything before my eyes. The metallic, fishy taste and the warm sensation barely stirred a sense of reality.
"My parents were killed long ago by Dullahan, one of the Four Heavenly Kings."
With trembling hands, I grabbed my neck and overlaid a magic circle on it. Whether my intellect or emotions had also reverted to my childhood, I kept hesitating to go through with the suicide. In that moment,
"...Oh my, you're truly a man of remarkable resolve? I even gave you a double hint that you've become younger, but I didn't expect you to resist this much."
A chilling voice began to sound from behind me.
"Bellamora...!!"
"No need to be disappointed, Lord Astal. Soon, you'll forget all the painful memories and sad events, and live here with me forever."
Bellamora, who appeared in the form of a girl slightly taller than me, collided a magic circle identical to the one I created, and
Clack, clack-clack, crack!
A cheerful sound of gears meshing rang out, and the explosion magic I had prepared for suicide was dispelled.
"Because I'll make it so. Astal, from now on, the setting is that I'm your childhood friend and lover... so it's okay to speak casually, right?"
Bellamora, imitating an ordinary human girl while hiding all the characteristics of a Succubus Queen—red eyes, fangs, and pointed ears.
Her smile was beautiful, but it began to feel alien, like a bug standing on two legs and speaking human words.
"That will never happen...!!"
Provoked by Bellamora, I immediately placed my hand on my chest, trying to forcibly overload my mana core to draw out my sword again, but
"Hah, don't make such a scary face! Astal! What would Uncle and Auntie think if they saw you?"
"......?!"
Nothing happened.
Not even blood flowed from my eyes, nose, or mouth. As if I didn't have the strength now to stimulate my heart.
"Did you have a bad dream or something? I came specially today to wake you, your childhood friend big sister?"
"You damn bitch... Talking nonsense..."
I spat out profanities while looking at Bellamora clinging to my arm and maintaining an affectionate attitude.
Since this was an illusion based on my childhood memories, it implied that my current physical state had also reverted to that time.
Originally, the best way would be to commit suicide now and return to reality, but Bellamora kept blinking her eyes and casting illusions on me.
"Swearing again. If you really do that, I'll tell Uncle and Auntie everything?"
"Ugh... Fuck..."
Resisting the succubus's tricks as she approached with a voice sweet enough to melt ears and a scent that seemed to paralyze reason, I held my breath and closed my eyes.
At that moment,
"Astal, what was that sound just now? I came because I heard a loud noise..."
"Did you fight with Bellamora or something?"
The sound of someone entering the room through the firmly closed door being creaked open was heard.
It was a voice I could never forget.
Something I thought I could never regain even if I yearned for it my whole life,
Something that, on days when I emerged from a dream, I would wake up crying.
"Father... Mother...?"
My throat was choked, and my voice wouldn't come out properly.
The two men and women who couldn't hide their surprised expressions upon seeing me, in the tragedy that occurred on my 10th birthday—
They were reckless people who tried to fight the Demon King's army with farming tools, without weapons, to protect their child.
They, whose heads were brutally ripped off by the Demon King's army, whose necks were sliced, whose brown hair rolled in the mud—I had to witness that.
"...Are you alive?"
Claude Caisaros and Celine Caisaros.
They were my parents, who had lost their lives long ago.
They were the reason I could survive the village raid, and the reason I felt an indelible guilt.
The moment I had to place flowers on a tombstone with nothing buried, not even a body, came to mind.
The memory of searching through ashes and wildflowers in the completely burned village to find the cosmos my mother liked flashed by.
"Oh my, our son. Are you crying now?"
"...Did you have a bad dream?"
But now was different from then.
They are alive.
Breathing.
I could almost hear their faint heartbeats.
To the point where I momentarily forgot completely that this place was a dream, a hot sensation began to rise in both eyes.
"Yes..."
Both hands clenched tightly, and my teeth ground strongly.
To the point where I even thought, if this is a dream, I wish I would never wake up.
But I must not.
Because I have to save everyone from now on. Because I have to protect what I hold dear.
This is an illusion. Inside Bellamora's dream. Ultimately, the parents before my eyes are nothing but fakes.
I had to abandon and leave these people.
"...It feels like I had a very, very bad dream."
I said while wiping my heated eyelids with my hands.
Was it because my body had become younger, so my spirit had become fragile too?
It was strange—I didn't want to sob, I should show a cool appearance, but tears kept trying to fall.
"You must have been very startled..."
"You don't need to worry because we're here."
Hug—then, my parents gently hugged me and patted my back.
"......"
It was my parents' warm embrace, felt after so long. Not the stench of bloody scent or the chill of a cold corpse, but the warmth of truly living people.
For a moment, I slowly placed my hands on both their backs.
My hands now were small and young. Not the hands stained with the blood of monsters and demons I killed in the demon realm, hands calloused.
Feeling that sense of dissonance, I remained in my parents' embrace for a long time, and
"They say hope must exist for tragic events to be more dramatic. Astal. You understand now, right? How much convenience I've given you!"
Bellamora, who had been watching this situation from the side, grinned broadly as if this had all been her plan from the beginning.
"...If you also tasted the past where your parents and village were ravaged thousands of times, your thoughts would change."
Snap—!
With the cheerful sound of a finger snap, my vision changed again, and the burning village and bleeding people began to appear before my eyes.
"Struggle well. I'll pull you out after your mind collapses to the point where you can't distinguish dream from reality. If you still want to escape my movie, I'll forcibly prevent you from doing so."
Along with Bellamora's laughter that seemed to tear her ears apart, the past I never wanted to experience again began to repeat.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Victoria realized the gravity of the situation as she looked at Bellamora, who had suddenly vanished from the theater, and Astal, sleeping deeply beside her.
"Lord Astal...?!"
"Uuuuhhh..."
He, sweating profusely and letting out painful groans. Seeing him grimace and shake his head, it looked to anyone like he was having a torturous nightmare.
"Wake up! You've fallen into Bellamora's dream illusion...!"
Victoria grabbed both of Astal's shoulders and shook him, trying to wake him, but it seemed to have no effect.
She stamped her feet at the situation showing no improvement, and even began to think she should use a miracle to save Astal, clasping her hands together.
'What do I do...?! I was clearly told before not to use miracles...'
Victoria couldn't even guess how many body parts would turn into flowers to pull him out of Bellamora's dream illusion.
To prevent her from abusing it, Astal had earnestly told her never to use miracles and to save them.
Even if she removed one flower a day, Victoria's physical condition was so severe it would take several years.
- [My daughter, Victoria.]
At that moment, a familiar voice echoed in Victoria's head.
'Heavenly God...!!'
Whether Victoria's prayers reached the heavens, the Heavenly God had descended an oracle to contact her.
Moved, Victoria even felt like crying a little.
Last time in the forbidden library, you didn't say anything, but you appear at times like this.
- [If you wish to enter Bellamora's dream illusion, kiss Astal Caisaros.]
What that grateful Heavenly God told Victoria was an oracle with shocking content, no matter who heard it.
"What...? Wha-what kind of obscene talk is that?!"
Victoria was so dumbfounded she opened her closed eyes. Even though the current situation was a moment where the person she loved was suffering in a succubus's dream illusion.
"This is no time for jokes...!"
How could she joke about telling her to kiss? She regretted believing in the Heavenly God for the first time.
But,
- [It's no joke. Victoria. If you want to save him, this is the only way.]
Heavenly God Lumina spoke in a tone more serious and cautious than ever before.
- [When have I ever lied to you? I don't recall any such occasion.]
"Tha-that's true, but..."
No matter how much Victoria blushed and shouted, the Heavenly God's stance seemed unchanging, and
- [By the way, your tongue must go in. Not a light peck, but a deep kiss so you can make contact with the other's soul.]
As if sensing Victoria's trick of trying a brief peck first, the Heavenly God was recommending a deep kiss with tongue between Astal and her.