The Blue Dream Crumbles Away Without a Trace (1)
"About when do you expect to check out?"
"In three or four days, I think."
"Understood."
After roughly settling the date of my departure from the lodging, I left a brief note in the room.
Jennis. I've been well, thanks to you. Thank you for everything… That should do it.
He had survived, but once a man has spent time in a cell, he is unlikely to try anything foolish again.
That alone was a relief.
Watching someone with whom I had formed even a modest connection die would not have been a pleasant experience.
This morning, I woke at Lady Serpina's side.
We had not gone through with the act itself, but we had spent the night together all the same.
She had told me that I was the first outsider ever to enter her bedchamber.
The feeling of being the first to trespass upon someone's private domain stirred a subtle, hard-to-name emotion in me.
What was that dream I had this morning?
Dreams are said to be the expression of the unconscious, are they not?
Lady Serpina clinging to me, begging me not to leave. Lady Luna calling for me to come to her.
There was a chance it was nothing more than self-importance on my part—but if I assumed it reflected my true state of mind—
It means my heart is wavering.
After leaving the Lunarien Army—whether under the Brans Army or the Asius Army—I had never once fretted over whom I ought to serve.
Perhaps it was because the flaws of every lord I had served stood out so clearly to me. Or perhaps it was because I had formed bonds with people other than my lords—Lady Irene, Reika, and the rest. Either way, this was the first real conflict I had ever faced.
If my predictions held, the sovereign destined to unify the continent was Lady Luna—so long as Lady Serpina still occupied that seat.
In that case, there was nothing to deliberate. I was bound to serve the unifier of the continent.
And yet… why did she keep catching on my thoughts?
Why had she appeared in my dream at all?
Why, in situations that would have left me uneasy or uncomfortable with anyone else, did I feel an inexplicable sense of ease and warmth simply because the other person was her?
I remembered the way she had looked, staring down at her wine cup with a bitter smile.
That lonely, fragile figure—as if the slightest touch might bring everything crashing down—kept flickering before my eyes.
The Lunarien Army's unification of the continent would mean the destruction of the Serpina Army.
That much was nearly a given. Two suns could not rise beneath the same sky.
If the Serpina Army fell… what would become of Lady Serpina?
I could not easily picture someone of Aingart blood kneeling beneath another.
Even in the game, she never surrendered so long as her nation still stood—and even after her nation was destroyed, surrender was never guaranteed.
Then… would she be killed?
Would Lady Serpina close her eyes by Lady Luna's hand?
Lady Luna was a generous sovereign, but she had lost her only blood relative—her elder sister—to Serpina. She would not forgive her easily.
So what was I supposed to do?
Was the correct answer to aid Lady Luna… and end Lady Serpina's life?
Haa.
I never thought I, of all people, would entertain thoughts like these.
Honestly—from the moment I possessed a character in the game, I had not immediately grasped that this was one hundred percent real.
With the game systems applying so vividly—including the rule that anything spoken by a general with Intelligence 100 is always correct—it would not have been an exaggeration to say I was half playing a game.
But then.
From the day I met James, the soldier who had vowed to treasure the Lunarien banner, my thinking began to change.
I met Lady Irene.
I faced the soldiers who followed her.
Lin and Yuuri, who moved not by profit but by emotion, and all the others with their own circumstances.
Reika, who longed for freedom—and now, in this very moment, Lady Serpina, who felt the weight of her own throne.
This world was vivid, living reality.
And so… it became difficult to simply choose the option that was "always the most advantageous."
Could I easily decide that Lady Luna is the correct answer, so I will cut Lady Serpina loose?
If I could have made that decision so lightly—I would have left Serpina to die from the start, served whatever new sovereign succeeded her, and coasted along without ever waiting for Lady Luna to raise her banner.
Just as I had been unable to abandon Lady Luna back then, and had chosen the long way around—
Now I found myself unable to easily abandon Lady Serpina, who had chosen to keep believing in me even as that belief was betrayed again and again.
This is hard.
Lady Luna had not yet raised her army, so there was no need to agonize over it this early—
But thinking ahead about what I ought to do would still lead to better choices than stumbling into the moment with no plan at all.
With that thought, I flung myself onto the bed.
Right now, I simply wanted to see Lady Irene.
When I was with her, these tangled thoughts fell away, and just being at her side felt like it would be enough.
Perhaps half the reason I had been able to deflect Lady Serpina's aggressive courtship was that I valued my own life too much to risk it by getting involved with her—
But there had also been a clear conviction that I could not do anything with another woman before Lady Irene.
…I should rest for a bit.
I had only just woken, so there was no real need to sleep—
And yet I closed my eyes and tried to drift off anyway.
If I could have, I would have pulled my brain out and scrubbed it clean.
"You've been working hard, Lord Rem."
"Ah, Lady Strategist. You've come."
This was Zeiland Castle.
A small domain that appeared after passing through several fortresses west of Anel Castle—currently under the rule of the Brans Army.
Taking Anel Castle, the heart of the central continent, as a reference point, it was fair to say that from roughly this area onward one had entered the "western continent."
Castle Lord Aneka Rem bowed her head toward Parfalle.
"And our lord…?"
"…She is currently resting in the annex."
"I see…"
"It seems she will remain here a while longer. She is only resting, so please continue your duties as castle lord as usual."
"Understood."
After exchanging a brief greeting with Rem, Parfalle left the main keep of Zeiland Castle.
Since the alliance with the Serpina Army had been concluded, things had gone much as Parfalle had anticipated. By pulling every force that had been defending the northern continent and concentrating them in the south-central region, they had been able to repel the Hesna Army's offensive without great difficulty.
The Roland Army, positioned beside the Hesna Army, had also seemed poised to invade—but the lack of any further word suggested they had assessed the shifting situation and chosen to delay their assault.
In the end, the humiliation they had endured had at least produced results worth the cost.
The problem was Lin.
From that day onward, Lin had issued no orders at all—as if she had become a wax doll.
Because Parfalle, as strategist, had already been managing state affairs from the moment Lin first began to spiral, the nation's systems had not ground to a halt. But where Lin had once at least listened, however faintly, to Parfalle's counsel and shown signs of recovering her senses, the Lin of now—
…
After finishing her conversation, Parfalle made her way to the annex on the outskirts of Zeiland Castle.
It had originally been a warehouse, converted into a villa so that Lin could stay there.
Zeiland Castle had never been developed enough to warrant a separate villa in the first place. It was nothing more and nothing less than a thoroughfare into the western continent—worthless land with no reason to build an annex at all.
Instead of returning to Anel Castle, Lin spent most of her time here.
When Parfalle arrived at the annex, a priest came out to receive her.
In a world where religion had become a joke, an old man in priestly robes was an exceptional sight.
"You have come, Lady Parfalle."
"How is our lord?"
"She is resting… but."
The priest closed his eyes in silence and slowly shook his head.
Parfalle offered no reply. She simply bowed and carefully knocked on the door of the room where Lin waited.
"…My lord. It is Parfalle. I am coming in."
No voice answered from beyond the door, but Parfalle gently opened it and stepped inside.
Within, Lin sat at a desk, beaming as she welcomed her.
"Oh? Parfalle, you're here?"
"Yes, my lord."
"Hey. Any word from the search party?"
"The search party… you mean."
"Yes! The search party! Well? Any news?"
Watching Lin speak like a child, Parfalle bit her lip and answered in a voice that nearly vanished.
"Yes… not yet…"
"Really? I'm sorry, but I'd like you to keep a closer eye on it. I guarantee it! Swen is still hiding somewhere in this city! He didn't have nearly enough time to escape, and our soldiers have the whole area surrounded—there's no way he got away. Did I tell you? He once spoke so sharply and clearly right in front of me. You remember, don't you?"
"…Yes."
"Right. So go talk to the search party again. White hair, very young, and quite handsome. Parfalle, you'll be shocked when you meet him too. You'll definitely wonder why a man like that was serving such a worthless woman!"
Lin said this with a bright, childlike smile.
Parfalle… could only slowly lower her head at the sight, unable to form any reply.
Several minutes passed.
Then Lin began to complain, chewing on her nails in irritation.
"I put my brother and that annoying woman on the search too, so I don't understand why it's taking so long. I need to recruit that man and get back to Anel Castle already. Right?"
"…"
The reason she clung so desperately to Zeiland Castle.
This place had once been the base of the insignificant Lunarien Army—and the place where she had met the white-haired strategist who served that army: Swen.
"I don't think he just talks well. I think he has real insight too. I may not look it, but I have an eye for people. You know that, Parfalle. I'm better at finding talent than my brothers, aren't I?"
"Yes, my lord. I know that as well…"
"He's all tucked away and hiding right now, but we've sent out the search party, so we'll find him soon! Good. I'm not that bad a person either. If that annoying woman just finds Swen quickly, I'll specially put her in an important post. She's the type who hangs on my every word, so she'll definitely be so moved she'll cry her eyes out. That's how generous I am."
She spoke with sparkling blue eyes, thoroughly enjoying herself.
Judging by appearance alone, she was no different from the charismatic Lin of those powerful days when she had pacified the central continent and prepared her advance into the north—
"Hehe… Swen, what kind of face will you make when you come under me? You might feel some resistance at first, but in the end you and I will share the same dream… right? The nation that unifies the continent will be our Brans Army! Ufufu…♡"
My lord…
—The Lin of now, her mind broken by deep trauma, had her consciousness fixed at the moment just before she first met Swen. And from Zeiland Castle, she was obsessively ordering the search for a Swen who had already long since left.