Waking the Sleeping Princess
A steady, lazy breathing. A small, warm sensation brought an indescribable sense of comfort. I was awake, but I didn't want to open my eyes. I wanted to indulge in this soft warmth a little longer and lose myself in a sweet slumber. I curled inward and pulled my arms closer. The warmth nestled in my embrace drew even nearer. My half-awake consciousness was quickly swallowed by drowsiness. Slowly, I drifted back into the world of dreams. I grinned sleepily, enjoying the soft, squishy sensation.
...Wait.
What exactly am I holding right now?
The sudden question forced open my eyelids, which had felt glued shut. Looking down with bleary eyes, I saw a girl with deep navy-blue hair sleeping peacefully.
"Aris?"
Hehe, so cute. What I was touching was Aris's cheek. Squishy. Plump. I felt like I could poke it all day and never get tired of it.
No, wait, that's not the point...
Why is Aris sleeping next to me?
I furrowed my brow and racked my brain, but I couldn't figure it out. What happened before I fell asleep? Huh? Why can't I remember?
I remembered being discharged from the hospital and returning to the dormitory, but everything after that was a hazy fog. I felt like I had met someone... Was it a dream? Ugh, I don't know. I can't remember at all.
Aris slept without a peep, breathing softly. Her hair tickled the tip of my nose, shimmering in the sunlight filtering through the open window.
She was a girl who suited the word "cute" far better than "beautiful." Without thinking, I gently poked her cheek. Hehe, so soft. Seriously, who gave her permission to be this cute? I can totally see why Yujin falls head over heels for her.
They haven't interacted much yet, but eventually, they'll become a lovey-dovey couple dripping with sweetness. Of course they will. They're the protagonist and the main heroine, after all.
"Huh?"
My sleepiness had completely vanished. As I grinned and rubbed my hand against Aris's soft cheek, my eyes suddenly drifted to the corners of her eyes. They were slightly swollen.
...Huh? Aris, did you cry? Why? Did someone bully you? No, if that happened, there's no way Frey would've stayed quiet. Instead of worrying about Aris, I'd have to worry about the other person.
Aside from her raw firepower, Aris couldn't really be called strong. Her instantaneous destructive power was monstrously high, but she failed in almost every other category. But Frey was different. Not only did she have perfect control over her heat ray, but her combat instincts were innate. Furthermore, the heat ray was Aris's supernatural ability. Frey possessed a completely separate supernatural ability.
Unlike Aris, who could only handle one supernatural ability at a time, Frey could freely use two. There was a reason she was considered the strongest among the first-years, second only to Yujin. If Yujin was a powerhouse who achieved his strength through sheer effort, Frey was simply a natural-born monster.
If anyone dared to lay a finger on Aris with malicious intent... they would have to face the wrath of a terrifying little demon.
I gently brushed my finger over Aris's eyelids. Looking closer, her face seemed somewhat gaunt. ...And what's with her hands? They were wrapped tightly in bandages.
"What on earth happened..."
I felt like Aris had appeared in my dreams. She was crying in them too, wasn't she? Honestly, I couldn't remember clearly.
I should probably get up. I was wide awake now, and I couldn't just lie here forever. It was still early morning. My stomach let out a loud growl. Let's prepare some breakfast first. Once Aris wakes up, we can eat tog—huh?
"Ugh..."
As I carefully tried to untangle myself so as not to wake her, Aris tossed and turned, letting out a soft groan. She had been sleeping so quietly just a moment ago; was she suddenly having a nightmare?
Hesitating in an awkward, half-risen posture, I eventually lay back down, gently patting her back and hugging her tight. As I did, Aris's painful groans subsided as if they had never happened.
I'll have to ask her what happened in detail once she wakes up.
Thirty minutes later.
"Frey...?"
"That's right. I'm not Aris. I know it's hard to believe when I suddenly say this, but please believe me. I'm Frey. Not Aris, but Frey."
Aris—no, Frey—said with an incredibly serious expression. Her eyes wavered with anxiety, as if she was terrified I wouldn't believe her.
Her sudden confession put me in a bit of a spot. Well, yeah. Normally, people wouldn't believe it. If someone suddenly started babbling about having an alternate personality, they'd just be looked at like a crazy person. But not me. I already knew Aris's hidden secret. The fact that she had two personalities was something I had known even before I met her.
Even though I knew beforehand, it was still hard to hide my awkwardness. It wasn't because of what Frey's confession contained. The very situation of her revealing her identity was what was so baffling.
She hated the idea of revealing her existence to the outside world. Dissociative identity disorder could easily be viewed as a mental illness, and above all, Frey herself did not consider herself an equal personality to Aris.
A personality derived from Aris, subordinate to Aris. That was how Frey viewed herself. She believed she was merely a temporary persona meant to protect and care for Aris, and that once Aris no longer needed her, she should quietly fade away.
She didn't want Aris to be treated as a lunatic because of a temporary existence like herself, who might disappear at any moment. That was why she had never planned on revealing her existence to anyone. Even when she held control of the body, Frey would thoroughly hide herself by acting like Aris. For her to reveal her identity on her own... this was an extremely rare occurrence.
"I know it sounds crazy. I know it's hard to believe. Just... please listen to me first."
Frey roughly explained the current situation. She skipped the trivial details as much as possible and summarized the key points. What she wanted to say was simple: Aris was gone. Not knowing what on earth to do, she had come to find me, the person most likely connected to Aris's disappearance.
Was the disaster on the bus really that shocking? Well... it was shocking. My head had been chopped off and went rolling around, after all.
"It's not like Aris has never hidden deep inside before, but this time is completely different. I can't feel her. It's not like she's hiding—it's like she's just... gone. No matter how much I call out to her, there's no answer, no reaction. I can't read her emotions, her thoughts... nothing at all."
The disappearance of Aris, who had always been with her, filled Frey with urgency and terror. So much so that she was willing to reveal her existence—which she had tried so desperately to hide—to a virtual stranger, even if that stranger was Aris's friend. During the few days I was hospitalized, Frey had been tormented by a horrific dread. The dread that Aris might have vanished forever, never to return. That she might never see her again.
"This has never happened before. Even when she hid deep inside, I could always feel her presence... but this time, I can't even do that."
Frey looked utterly desperate. She looked up at me as if clinging to a tiny sliver of hope.
"It might sound sudden. It might sound completely absurd. But... please help me. I can't do this alone. I can't bring Aris back. So, please... help me."
Tears welled up again in her already swollen eyes. But I couldn't even think to wipe them away. Though my eyes were fixed on her, my mind was spinning with a completely different thought.
...Wait, is this that event?
I knew what this situation was. Or rather, I knew of a very similar scenario. Because I had read it in the novel.
Winter break. On a snowy Christmas...
The day the white-blanketed world was dyed in blood. Yujin had stood against Astaroth.
Although Yujin had already awakened and boasted strength that ranked among the top heroes, challenging a Main was still far too premature. Yujin fought desperately to stop the massacre unleashed by Astaroth. Aris stood alongside Yujin, confronting Astaroth.
At the end of that brutal battle, Yujin threw his body forward to protect Aris. Blood sprayed everywhere. Yujin's right arm was severed. His neck was half-torn, exposing his spine, and his left eye burst. His heart was pierced by a parasol.
A fatal wound that would kill even one who was Close to God. Yujin had died protecting Aris. At least, that was what Aris believed.
Fortunately, Yujin survived, and his severed limbs were somehow restored, but Aris truly believed Yujin had died. He died protecting me. Because of me.
And then, Aris vanished. Her consciousness sank to the deepest depths of the dark ocean, plunging into an abyss of her mind that even Frey couldn't reach. Overwhelmed by despair, Aris fell into a death-like nightmare from which she would never wake.
Was it really that shocking to her...?
Aris, believing I had died, had vanished into the abyss of her mind. She was so grief-stricken that she couldn't accept reality. Sad enough to abandon everything and run away.
Honestly, I was a bit bewildered. The death of Yujin, with whom she shared a sweet, "more than friends, less than lovers" relationship, versus my death, when we had only known each other for a month. Those two shouldn't be on the same level at all, right? Yet her reaction was exactly the same?
Well... from a certain perspective, I guess it makes sense?
Come to think of it, Aris in the novel was at the point of winter break. She had gone through all kinds of incidents and matured mentally. But right now, we were only at the stage of field training. It had only been a month since we entered the Academy. For a still mentally fragile Aris... she could easily fall into a despair so deep she couldn't recover from a friend's death. Enough to choose to dump the unbearable reality onto Frey and go to sleep.
I knew the solution. I had read this in the "original work" too. If this situation was similar to the novel... couldn't I just do exactly what Yujin did?
Frey, having lost her composure to anxiety and panic, had clung to Yujin and begged for help. Just like she was doing to me now. Yujin had racked his brain for a long time before coming up with a clever trick. Yes, that method would definitely wake Aris up. Even if it wasn't a guarantee, the probability of success was incredibly high.
The problem was that it wasn't a method I could easily use. It was a plan only Yujin could dare to attempt. A taboo among taboos that only Yujin, who had built a bond bordering on lovers with Aris, could pull off.
I was left speechless. My head felt like it was about to explode trying to figure out what to do. I knew the solution. I definitely knew it, but...
"...You don't believe me."
Misinterpreting my expression, which had frozen in bewilderment, Frey spoke as she wiped her tears. Looking into Frey's eyes, which had gone dark and lifeless as her tiny sliver of hope extinguished, I reflexively grabbed her shoulders.
"I believe you."
"What...?"
"I believe you, Frey."
Right now, Frey was cornered. At the edge of a cliff. She was so fragile that a single nudge would send her plummeting into the abyss. For the stubborn, prideful Frey to shed tears in front of someone else was something that would normally be absolutely impossible.
Aris was her hope. Her dream. Her future. To Frey, Aris was her sole reason for living. Now, Frey had lost her drive to live. Her cute face was shrouded in dark clouds, having lost its light long ago.
That was why I wanted to help. Both Aris and Frey. They both looked so much better when they were smiling.
"I was just thinking. About how we can bring Aris back."
My contemplative face was reflected in Frey's trembling pupils. Staring back at her face, which was suddenly flushing bright red, I swallowed hard. Should I say it? Should I really try it? But I'm not Yujin. Maybe I should get Yujin... No, Aris and Yujin don't have any kind of bond yet. Even if I brought Yujin here, it would be meaningless. The only person Aris was close to right now was me. Aris's only friend. Aside from Frey, the person closest to her in the world. Yes, let's do it. It's all or nothing. Whether it works or not, I have to try.
I slid my hands down from Frey's shoulders. I traced down her arms until my fingers brushed against her fingertips. I slipped my fingers between hers, intertwining them. Her hand was trembling violently. Holding her hand in a tight, laced grip, I softly parted my lips.
"Frey."
"Y-yes...?"
"Do you want to kiss me?"
"Eh?"
After all, the only way to wake a sleeping princess is with a prince's kiss. Though I wasn't a prince, surely I could at least play the part?