Chapter 727: When the Princess Wakes
“Walk to the deepest part.”
The air was damp, and a thick fog lay over everything. Beyond it, she could see water faintly shimmering and shifting. At Sloth’s words, Mari stepped forward. Samir hurried after her.
Splash. The shallow, pooled water soaked her shoes and the mist wrapped around her whole body. Before long, the shallow dreams began to gather, little by little.
“Whoa, they’re really coming.”
Into the prepared Sleeping Sea, the most powerful manifestation of a dream stepped in. That alone was enough to start drawing in people’s dreams.
The shallow dreams blurred, shapeless, like fog. They clustered together, glowing in all kinds of colors. Red, yellow, green, blue, glittering dream blobs like cotton candy drifted around. They were so thin she could not even see what lay inside them. And between those faint dreams…
“Huh?”
A vivid pink light appeared. It was a small fairy dragon that clearly maintained its own form. The fairy dragon, bobbing among the other dreams, let out a tiny yawn.
“Are you maybe–”
– Mmmwoooong.
Hangyeol rubbed at his closed eyes with his little front paws. Because he was an illusion beast with a strong mental attribute, he could keep his form from blurring and mixing even inside a dream. His mouth opened wide again in another yawn. His sleepy eyes only half opened.
– …The person who almost married that one?
Golden eyes blinked slowly. Mari tilted her head.
“That one? You mean Mister Seong Hyunjae?”
– Yeah, that one, haaahm.
“Right, I’m Mari. And you are… Hangyeol?”
– I am Hangyeol. Hello.
Half asleep, Hangyeol bowed his head politely. His small body spun lazily in the air.
“So in Mister Han Yujin’s country, it’s night. Everyone’s going to make it home safely.”
– …Dad? He’s coming home?
“Yes, Mister Seong Hyunjae too.”
– I don’t need that. But… I don’t think they’ll hurt Dad. I hope they don’t…
His body grew hazier, as if his sleep were deepening or he were starting to wake instead.
– Star! No! You just ate earlier!
With that sleep–talk–like shout, Hangyeol’s figure vanished. Mari gave a small wave and kept walking. Samir moved ahead of her, as if to shield her. Mari shot a sideways, sulky look at his back.
“I still think I can go back if I want. You really don’t have to follow.”
“What kind of mess do you think I would be in if I left you alone, my lady?”
Samir shrugged, and Mari folded her arms, clearly displeased. She had not liked it from the moment he insisted on tagging along. In her mind, she no longer needed a guardian.
“Oh.”
Just then, Samir, who had been walking in front, came to a stop. He stared into the empty air, at his status window.
“The system, I think you called it. Its influence seems to be fading.”
“Oh, you’re right.”
Maybe because this was a dream, not the world where the system held sway, part of the status window was wiped out. The inventory did not work properly either. Samir stepped back a bit and tried to draw a weapon from it.
“I would really prefer if my stats and skills stayed as they were.”
“If you’re scared, go back.”
Strapping a variety of weapons, including a sword, all over his body, Samir looked down at her. Mari stared straight back up at him.
“Even if there is a contract, it can’t be anything that serious, right? And you really don’t have to worry about me.”
She hesitated, then went on.
“Because I really am a dream. I didn’t explain everything even to Hyunah unni. That I’m… someone’s, just one person’s dream.”
A fairy–tale princess born inside a dream. It sounded sweet and wonderful. But.
“There’s this guy named Park Hayul. I’m a dream he’s having. A princess from his imagination, turned into something real. Just some silly, out–of–touch person’s delusion.”
That was the truth. Mari was Park Hayul’s dream. Marisa had told her that when he fully woke up, Mari would disappear.
“…One person’s dream? Not Crescent Moon the Transcendent?”
“Right! I don’t think he’s normal or anything, but I don’t know the details. Anyway, he’s totally airheaded! He keeps saying he likes Mister Han Yujin and he’ll be the one to rescue him or whatever. …I was kind of similar back then too, though.”
Mari’s cheeks flushed red. Samir finished checking his equipment and started walking again. Mari also drew a sword and hugged it to her chest as she followed him.
“Until Park Hayul wakes up, I’m not going to die or anything. So you really can go back! You don’t have to worry. My mother knows I’m going to disappear, and I don’t have any more work left to do. I’m just a dream before waking up.”
She was nothing more than a scrap of one person’s dream.
The deeper they went into the sea, the more the system window blurred. The inventory would no longer open. Skills could not be used. Among the shallow dreams, deeper ones began to drift closer. Staring at the fog thinning even as the color of the water darkened, Samir spoke.
“Still, you are a princess.”
“I was always a princess in the first place. But–”
“And I am a prince dragged around on a leash.”
Samir laughed. Mari wrinkled her brows.
“What’s so funny?”
“When I first received the order to stay by your side, I could not help but be interested. The daughter of Marisa, the woman who kidnapped the Sesung guild leader to marry him, then called off the wedding and ran away. That is hardly ordinary.”
“Me asking Mister Seong Hyunjae to marry me is the single biggest stain on my life! Even if it wasn’t that long.”
“What I was most curious about was how long you would endure.”
“Endure what?”
“If you were willing to actively pursue a marriage to a man you barely knew just because your mother told you to, then you had to be someone with very little sense of independence. Even though you were S class awakened.”
An S class awakener could go anywhere alone and live just fine. Yet Mari had quietly followed everything Marisa said, even for such a major life decision. At his words, Mari pressed her lips together, then suddenly blurted out.
“I told you, that’s what I was born for.”
“Yes.”
“From the very beginning. That’s the only role I was given. So how was I supposed to say no? Besides, Mister Seong Hyunjae looked decent enough! I really thought that was my job.”
A princess born in a dream. A wedding meant to save the world.
“But you are here right now, my lady.”
She had walked out on her own, refused to go back, and stayed until the very end. Before Mari could answer…
– Grrr.
The nightmare appeared. Nightmares that would melt away the moment you woke up had taken concrete form here. A bright blue lump with six arms slithered in beneath the surface of the water.
– Kyaaak!
Somewhere, there was a scream like a crow’s cry. Surprisingly, the nightmares did not attack the other dreams. They rolled around and flew together with them instead. At a glance, it was hard to tell them apart. However…
– Ah.
One nightmare’s eyes blinked and turned to look at Mari and Samir. Ordinary dreams brushed past them. Auspicious dreams laughed and played, too busy to care. But the nightmares stared at the two of them, especially at Mari, as if boring holes straight through her.
– Me too.
That solidified dream, that incarnation of a dream, roused greed in the negative ones. An arm stretched out, reaching greedily toward her.
Clang!
Samir’s sword struck it aside. The big white hand scattered like dust. All the nightmares turned to Mari at once. Even the big, showy butterfly that had looked like a good dream stopped moving.
“Do we run?”
Mari nodded. Splash. Their shoes kicked up the standing water as they broke into a run.
– Grrarf!
A huge black dog bared its fangs. Samir twisted his body, screeching to a halt. Whoosh. Water surged high along his kicking foot. Just as the little wave blocked the dog’s vision, his curved blade sliced through the water. Crunch. With a single stroke, he severed the dog’s neck, used the recoil to spin, and took off after Mari again.
“My stats seem to have dropped a bit as well.”
“Then just go!”
“My lady, I do not know how to take this leash off.”
A dagger strapped to his thigh flew. The bat whose wings it pierced fell into the water. A wire coiled around Samir’s wrist whipped out, entangling a snake that was trying to latch onto the hem of Mari’s dress. He yanked hard, hauling the body into the air, and his blade split it cleanly in two.
“I was trained this way.”
From childhood, and even after he awakened as S class.
“Perfectly healthy, not to mention S class awakened, and yet still like this. That is the reality I live in.”
Thud. A shapeless mass slammed into him. Samir crossed both arms and blocked it. The tips of his toes slid back slightly with a splash. He kicked upwards in a long arc, water spraying, and the mass went flying. Behind him, something eel–like, which had been swimming beneath the surface, sprang up. Sharp spines flashed.
“I couldn’t help it!”
Mari’s sword cut the eel. Slice. The nightmare split vertically and sank into the water.
“If you know that’s just how it is, if you live like that… Then other people might think it’s pathetic!”
Why does someone who is perfectly fine still fail to escape? Why, when they are even more capable than others? But the lethargy that comes from familiarity is terrifyingly heavy. When unfairness becomes your everyday, you do not even have a reason to form the will to escape.
Boom. With a heavy, pounding step, a massive bull charged. Samir caught its horns with both hands. Mari leaped up behind him. The tip of her sword drove into the bull’s forehead. Fwoosh, the nightmare dissipated like smoke.
“I couldn’t get out on my own either. But sitting still, well, first of all, Mister Seong Hyunjae pissed me off!”
The way he looked at her as if she were a puppet without a will of her own. An attitude that said he did not even feel the need to treat her as an equal, or even as a full person.
“And then Mister Han Yujin came for me!”
Mari ran. Samir ran after her. The water kept clutching at their ankles. It was heavier than when they started, slowing them down, but they did not stop.
“Isabella is my younger sister.”
As he threw one of the two daggers he had left, Samir spoke.
“Where we live, the oppression of women is severe. Bella has lived there all her life. Even so, she awakened and immediately tried to escape.”
“That just means Bella is amazing!”
“I think so too.”
They were not blood siblings. They had only met after they awakened. But Samir had helped Isabella with her dangerous plans. Because of that, he had been injured countless times and bound by unfavorable contracts, but he never regretted it. He simply wanted to see it. Someone doing what he could not.
“You have always enjoyed yourself wherever you were, my lady. You did your best to.”
“Because I really did have fun!”
“And so I ended up not wanting you to go back.”
Ahead of him, the hem of her dress fluttered like flower petals. At some point, waves were trembling in the sky above as well. Though they had run through only ankle–deep water, it now felt like they were in the depths of the ocean, water on all sides.
“…I can’t go back anymore.”
At the very deepest part of the sea, Mari stopped. The ocean began to change around her. In the distance, buildings rose. As the realities remembered by people’s dreams became concrete, another world formed, layered over the world that already was.
“So you really didn’t have to follow. This isn’t going to have a very happy ending.”
“As I said, I was never taught how to take this leash off.”
Unlike the other dreams that seeped into the new world being created, the nightmares kept stubbornly following. Samir stepped in front of Mari to block them. Mari watched his back, biting her lip. She was going to fall asleep here. If that happened, what would become of Samir?
“This world of dreams isn’t finished yet. If you go back the way we came, you might be able to get out!”
His only answer was his sword swinging. Clang. Long claws met the blade. He ducked low and slid forward, tearing open the beast’s throat.
– Kiiik!
A sharp beak grazed his leg and plunged into the water. Samir stomped down on the yellow, vicious bird and sprang upward. Splash. Three arms smashed into the spot where he had just been standing. A big snake slithered up one of the arms and snapped at his foot.
“Seriously!”
Mari stamped her foot. Every instinct screamed that she must not leave this place, but she wanted to rush out right this second. Thump. Samir, who had been dodging smoothly, took a thick tail straight to the body. Water sprayed as he tumbled, briefly disappearing from her view.
There were too many of them. There might not even be an end to them. People would keep on dreaming. There had to be some way to get him out. Mari bit down on her lip again.
– What is this, I wonder.
A whisper brushed her ear.
– What are you doing here?
“…Who are you?”
– You all know me. Do you remember me?
Mari blinked. It was a voice she had heard before. She definitely remembered, back then…
“Ru Ga Pheya!”
At Chatterbox’s party. The hazy fog laughed. It stroked her cheek as if praising her.
– Only the tiniest traces are left, finely ground down. But this is, somehow, the place where those traces all gather.
“You came back?”
– No, this is a dream. That is what dreams are. Memories wrapped in one more thin layer. There is no real power here. All those pieces together barely manage to make a voice.
So she could not ask for help after all. Mari’s shoulders slumped. Meanwhile, Samir was accumulating more and more wounds. If it went on like this, he would not make it out alive.
“Is there no way to leave this place?”
She asked on the off chance. Ru Ga Pheya’s voice made a sound like someone tilting their head, thinking.
– Why are you asking me when you are the one creating it, little girl?
“I am… I mean, I’m a dream.”
Mari hurriedly explained her situation. Ru Ga Pheya stirred, interested.
– That is rather amusing. It is simple. Leave here.
“What?”
– You do not need to fall asleep, do you? Why should you be the one to sleep? You can just wake up. You are a princess. The heir to a throne.
Clang. A broken sword spun through the air and splashed onto the surface. Samir grabbed a spare weapon, but fangs sank into his arm before he could bring it up. A low groan slipped out. Mari involuntarily took a step forward. The water was up to her waist now. It was hard to move.
– In your world, that is what a princess is, right? A position reached with great effort.
“I’m–”
– Take it. All of it. This dream is yours.
The fog giggled. Mari’s face twisted as if she were about to cry. She was a princess created for a purpose. That was all.
“I’m not that kind of princess…!”
Still, you are a princess.
Mari pressed her lips together. She took another step forward. I am a princess, and also…
“…This is my dream.”
She was someone else’s dream. But Mari was Mari. The time she had lived was undeniably real. The scent of blood reached her. Mari splashed forward. She had had fun. She had tried all sorts of things, picked up new hobbies.
“I walked out here myself. I made friends myself.”
She reached toward the fallen Samir. The nightmares stared at her.
“I can dream too.”
A dream within a dream. Her green eyes closed, then opened wide. Ru Ga Pheya had been right. Escaping a dream was very simple. You just woke up.
“Even if I disappear when I wake up… From now on, in the real world, I’ll be the one who dreams.”
Feeling the world of dreams complete itself, Mari woke from her sleep.
“There’s still no news?”
Marisa watched Park Hayul grumble. He heaved a deep sigh, like he was trying to sink a hole into the floor.
“Where even is Yujin hyung! He showed up in London all of a sudden, then went back to Korea, then disappeared again! London was seriously dangerous. Why are S ranks like this? Yujin hyung is only F rank!”
Muttering about when he would finally be able to see him, Park Hayul’s eyes went hazy.
“Hyung is the clearest, most dazzling person I’ve ever seen. He was so cool. Ah, I want to hurry up and meet him and bring him home.”
In the course of her investigation, Marisa had found plenty suspicious about Park Hayul. His weak sense of reality was not that strange on its own. There were rookie Hunters who got hurt because death and injury felt unreal to them. Park Hayul was the sort who simply could not imagine anything bad happening to him.
And that was literally true.
Park Hayul had not died. In a situation where he should have, he came back just fine. He brushed it off with, “I had a scary dream.”
His skill was unusual as well. Mental–type skills were difficult to use, even at high rank. Even an S rank mental skill would barely work on a mid–rank awakener. You had to lower their mental resistance and meet several conditions just to get it to take. Against high–rank Hunters, it was practically fair to call them immune.
But Park Hayul worked on anyone, without discrimination. Even as a triple overlap of A grade, he could affect almost anyone with barely any prior setup. Even someone like Han Yujin, who should have had extremely high resistance thanks to his own strong mental skill.
He probably isn’t really A rank.
Ignoring Park Hayul’s “Please find a way for me to see Mister Han Yujin,” Marisa thought. Crescent Moon had brought Park Hayul and used him to create Mari. Park Hayul was half asleep, half sunk in a dream, and Mari had been born from that.
Something powerful, at least S rank, tied deeply to Crescent Moon and endowed with mental powers. That was nestled inside Park Hayul. Marisa was certain of it, but could do nothing except keep him close and watch.
“I get the feeling you’re not listening to me, noona!”
Park Hayul shouted at Charlotte as she entered the sitting room.
“If I help, then we can find Yujin hyung and–”
His voice, full of complaints, cut off mid–sentence. Park Hayul blinked.
“Uh…”
His body swayed.
“Sleepy, I…”
Then he collapsed onto the carpet. Charlotte rushed over, checked his condition, then looked up at Marisa.
“He has fallen asleep.”
“Asleep?”
“Yes, it seems there is nothing else wrong…”
Smack. Charlotte slapped his cheek. There was no reaction. She tried a few more times, but it was the same. Marisa calmly looked down at Park Hayul, who would not wake up.
“Let’s put him to bed in the annex.”
Charlotte left the room to call someone. In the middle of that sudden development, Marisa suddenly thought of the girl named in part after her.
“…I do not know.”
But in that moment, she was more certain than ever that the girl who had just left was firmly out of her reach now.
“Ah!”
Mari opened her mouth wide. A bright blue sky stretched above her. Rows of glass windows glittered in the sunlight. Under the familiar English signs, passersby stopped, startled, and stared at her and the man collapsed in her arms.
“I’m… I’m fine!”
This was reality. Mari had not vanished.
Her relief lasted only a moment before the smell of blood rushed back in. Fumbling, she grabbed a potion from her things and shouted.
“Samir! Mister Samir! Hey, someone call nine one one! No, call the Hunter Association! A healer!”
Her voice rang out clear and sharp.
When the princess woke, the seed of destruction fell asleep.
The sprout of a Transcendent that Crescent Moon had sown sank into the sea of dreams.
–TL Notes–
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