#069 Dream Illusion
#069 Dream Illusion
This is a brief record of a vulgar and dreadful story that takes place within Rosemas's dream.
One that did not happen in reality.
But one that might happen in reality.
A story that, for me, Demon King Belphegor, must never come to pass—and should it ever come to pass, I would immediately abandon this body, possess a cockroach, and dye the world with cockroaches.
-Dream-
I now wish to speak of the gloomy and base dream of Rosemas Tervation.
* * *
The hero, the Holy Sword Hero Arthur Lucius, defeated the Demon King.
And in the process of defeating the Demon King, he married the hero who had sincerely helped her—the High Elf 'Rosemas Tervation'—and founded a great empire.
The Elven Kingdom.
Originally, humans had been mixed in as well, but the princes and princesses born to Lucius and Rosemas—half-elf royals—shared love with many humans and bore countless children.
Thus, elves came to occupy an immense portion of the kingdom's populace, and all the empire's subjects became a race mixing human and elf—'Ganf.'
However.
Still retaining her identity as a High Elf, Rosemas governs the empire together with the Holy Sword Hero.
The High Elf Rosemas, by virtue of the elven race's long lifespan.
The Hero Arthur Lucius extended his lifespan through the power of the Wind Holy Sword.
Even after tens, hundreds of years passed, the man and woman maintained their youth.
With the same appearances they had in their traveling days, Lucius and Rosemas always lived on as the empire's emperor and empress, deeply in love.
Behold the proof.
The scene of Lucius and Rosemas, the empire's emperor and empress, whispering their love to one another.
Having shared their fill of love in the garden, the two walked hand in hand through the rose-filled garden with tender eyes, their bodies still brimming with pleasure.
"Rosemas."
Lucius reached out his hand toward Rosemas.
"My lovely flower. You are so beautiful again today."
Rosemas slowly closed her eyes at Lucius's touch.
Lucius's hand swept beneath Rosemas's chin, and Rosemas quietly rose onto her tiptoes.
Rustle.
Lucius placed his index finger atop Rosemas's lips.
At the unexpected action, Rosemas furrowed her brow, but Lucius fiddled with her cheek and grinned.
"Kisses only three times a day."
"Honestly, who ever heard of such a thing?"
"We promised."
"Wasn't what we did earlier a kiss?"
"That wasn't a kiss, it was...a tendon."
At Lucius's words, Rosemas's face flushed red.
As had always been the case since they were wed, Rosemas could never get the better of Lucius at times like this.
Because she already had everything.
"Lucius."
"What is it?"
"Is 'she' still in your heart?"
"Rosemas."
Lucius hardened his expression and knelt before Rosemas.
"Are you still doubting my love?"
"I'm not doubting it. But..."
Rosemas turned her head away, her eyes reddening.
"When I see the red roses in this garden, I can't help but think of her...!"
"No, no. I didn't put roses in this garden because of that, Rosemas."
Lucius took both of Rosemas's hands and kissed the backs of them.
"I planted these roses for you. Out of love for you. I never chose red because I was thinking of her. This is..."
Lucius took something from his breast.
"For you, Rosemas."
"Ah...!"
A white rose tinged with silver.
The faint violet hue at the tips of the petals seemed to symbolize Rosemas herself.
"Every rose in the world is red. But from now on, that will change. This rose is the truly beautiful one."
"I never knew a rose like this existed."
"Of course not. It's a gift I secretly prepared for you. Here."
Lucius handed over the bouquet bearing Rosemas's colors.
At the color—so beautiful it seemed to capture Rosemas herself—Rosemas's eyes reddened with emotion.
"I'm sorry. I'm not doubting your love, but I keep..."
"It's all right. You have every reason to. It's my fault."
Lucius rose and drew Rosemas into his arms.
"Master is just Master. I never harbored romantic feelings or fondness for that person. There was only gratitude for making me a hero."
"Really...?"
"Of course."
"Then why did you keep me at arm's length back then...?"
"That was..."
Lucius scratched his cheek.
"...because I was embarrassed?"
"Pardon?"
"...I didn't know how to act around a woman I'd fallen for at first sight. As you know, I was an ordinary man who'd never even held a woman's hand before."
Lucius leaned his upper body toward Rosemas and buried his face in her shoulder.
"But then suddenly she was telling us to lie in bed together, telling us to go eat together. Master pushed us together in all sorts of ways, but I was too embarrassed to properly express my feelings to you."
"So it was because you were embarrassed...?"
"Of course. Did you really think it was because I disliked you?"
"...No."
Tears streamed down from Rosemas's eyes.
Flustered, Lucius wiped Rosemas's eyes with his sleeve, only to grow even more flustered when she smiled.
"What a relief... Back then, I truly thought you disliked me. I thought my charm as a woman was...less than that person's."
"Pfft."
Lucius let out a hollow laugh.
"...You're laughing?"
"No, no. I'm not laughing...Bwahaha!!"
Lucius clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.
Rosemas grew slightly displeased, but at Lucius's next action, her whole body went rigid.
"You're cute, my Rosemas."
"Eek...!"
Rub, rub.
Lucius fiddled with Rosemas's pointed ears with both hands and smiled tenderly.
"So you still think I pushed you away because I liked Master. Is that right?"
"Ah, ahn..."
"No? Tell me honestly. It's true, isn't it?"
"I-it's true..."
Rosemas could hardly stay still under Lucius's touch as he toyed with her sensitive ears.
For a High Elf, the ears were a truly important and sensitive place, and touching them meant...
"This won't do. I'll have to show you with my body just how much I love you."
"Ah, ahn...!!"
Rustle.
Lucius embraced Rosemas and disappeared into the depths of the garden.
* * *
Time flew by like an arrow.
Still youthful in appearance, Lucius and Rosemas gazed at each other with deeper, more seasoned eyes.
"Lucius."
"What is it, my wife?"
Now he had grown a beard, and as the eternal and immortal emperor of the everlasting Wind Empire, he ruled over humanity.
And Rosemas, as that emperor's sole consort, had lived her entire life gazing only at Lucius.
"Time truly does seem to pass quickly. It's already been...hundreds of years since the Great Demon King Belphegor completely died."
"My wife is still beautiful."
"Oh, you..."
Lucius took Rosemas's hand and led her.
There was nowhere particularly dangerous, but Rosemas walked through the forest with one hand in Lucius's as he escorted her and the other lightly holding up her dress.
STEP, STEP.
The man and woman stood before a tree that soared high into the sky.
Beneath the tree reminiscent of the World Tree, upon a root that protruded slightly above the ground, a single woman lay collapsed with her eyes closed.
What had once been a woman.
The red-haired woman, utterly devoid of any sign of life, wore a flower crown upon her head and held a bouquet in her arms.
"Master."
Lucius bowed his head before the woman.
"We have come to pay our respects again. Our...Rosemas is pregnant with another child."
He had lost count of how many times they had come.
After saving the world.
The Crimson Mage had exhausted all her power and vanished together with the Demon King.
Her soul had left her body and become a constellation in the night sky together with the Demon King, and only her body remained, preserved perfectly intact and laid to rest in the bosom of the World Tree.
"Since you entered eternal rest, Master, the world has regained peace. There are no longer any Demonfolk threatening humanity, and now humans and elves live in harmony, with a new race called the Ganf becoming the masters of the continent."
"...Thank you so much, Witch."
Rosemas knelt before the witch, shedding tears.
"This world you saved, this peace you saved with your life. We will surely carry it on. And..."
Rosemas placed the witch's hand upon her own belly.
"...Please watch over us again this time. Watch over our child, and over our child growing up healthy for the sake of peace in the world."
"If you are there, please grant your blessing to the new child we will raise..."
Lucius and Rosemas prayed.
Was it her imagination?
The witch's hand placed upon Rosemas's belly slid to the side, as if stroking her belly, as if blessing the birth of a new life.
"Witch. I'm truly sorry. Only now...do I think I understand."
Rosemas smiled brightly at the witch through her tears.
"That you truly intended to connect me with Lucius. To repay the love you wished upon us...we will surely live happily."
Rosemas rose from her place.
"Happiness upon our love...Eek?!"
Lucius scooped Rosemas up in an instant like a princess.
Then, with his back to the World Tree, he kissed Rosemas and departed from the World Tree.
Left alone, the witch simply watched the two depart with a faint smile.
* * *
"What a load of horseshit."
I felt nauseated by the relationship Rosemas imagined between me and Lucius.
"What a goddamn ridiculous dream."
I'd sat quietly watching to see how far it would go, and it nearly made me vomit, beyond mere disgust.
"Wow...she was thinking this kind of thing about me? That's harsh."
One shouldn't judge a person based on their dreams, but I felt I needed to reconsider my opinion of Rosemas a little.
"Hah."
But what could I do.
This was the desire of the unconscious, where no thread of reason existed at all.
"Be that happy, at least in your dreams."
Sssss.
I absorbed Rosemas's Libido and fervently prayed that the desires within her unconscious would be fulfilled.
"Though it's a pipe dream that can never come true in reality, anyway."