The Novel's Extra - Side Story 38 – Dream in a Dream (38)

The darkness receded as I stood in the brightly lit garden with her.

I knelt on one knee and looked at the princess, small and delicate as a rose. It felt as if she would break if I squeezed a bit too hard.

The princess smiled at me. Her bright and innocent smile made me smile too.

Then a thought suddenly crossed my mind. Why did I swear to protect her? What conviction pushed me to the brink of destruction? No, could that even be called conviction in the first place? Or was it the price I had to pay for turning back on my oath?

Multiple VIP guests gathered in Buckingham Palace’s rear garden.

The royal family and the queen watched as I swore my oath of fealty. Even my wife and child were there, albeit at a distance.

I looked at myself kneeling on the ground and beaming with pride.

I recited my oath starting with the words, My lord…, and I swore to protect her for the rest of my life.

The princess looked at me with a bright expression. She had no idea what was going on as I knelt on the ground and recited my oath to protect her for the rest of my life.

“Awright!” she exclaimed in her squeaky voice with a huge smile.

However, I didn’t smile or laugh at her adorable actions. Instead, I looked at her in amazement when I realized this little bird would be England’s hope.

“Shank you!” she said in the purest voice I had ever heard.

Her cheerfulness felt contagious.

Yes… now I remember…

My desire to protect the princess stemmed from my empty self. It didn’t come from the princess’ request and no one forced me to swear an oath to protect her.

Honestly, no special reason existed. Everything began with some words I picked up somewhere while growing up when I had no idea what being a knight meant.

I solemnly declared that I would risk my life to protect the princess of my own volition.

***

Shwaaa…

Rachel’s spirit illuminated the heavens and earth. The blinding light disintegrated the evil spirits.

Meanwhile, Lancaster calmly observed Rachel from a short distance away.

“…”

He smiled at the warm dream that suddenly popped up in his mind. The warmth from her spirit’s light reminded him of his memories buried deep inside.

Now, Rachel walked towards him as her spirit’s light rapidly spread like the wind. The evil spirits couldn’t withstand the light and they either ran away or disintegrated. However, she suddenly stopped when an agonizing pain brought her to her knees.

The situation… is getting… better…

It will… soon… happen…

The noise she often heard resounded in her head. No, it felt like the noise was pounding in her brain.

She gritted her teeth and tried to endure. “Keuk!”

Rachel forced herself back up and aimed her sword at Lancaster, who stood quite close.

Shwaaaak!

Her spirit pierced through the evil spirits between them. She saw him looking down at her. He had a sad solemn look on his face before suddenly smiling.

“Vice Leader! Vice Leader!”

Someone violently shook her and Rachel’s eyes suddenly shot open. She blinked a few times and looked around.

The sky above looked clear and sunny.

Rachel looked at the people who shook her awake. Her guild members all seemed worried.

“Where am I? Where is this?” she asked.

She felt extremely confused about what just happened. Wasn’t she just with Lancaster a moment ago?

“We aren’t sure ourselves, but we suspect that we’re now outside the Hampton Palace.”

“Then was I dreaming just now?”

“Yes, I think you were.”

Rachel frowned at the realization that everything had been a dream when the ground violently shook.

Dozens of hooded figures appeared around them and looked exactly like the robed minions who attacked them on their way to the general assembly.

They appeared one by one until numbering in the hundreds and fully surrounded Rachel’s party.

“Hahahaha!” A burst of laughter echoed out.

The laughter came from a gigantic rock-like person a distance away.

Marcus flinched after seeing the djinn Chiffelin who served Lancaster.

Chiffeling snickered and said, “Marcus! Great job! It would’ve been impossible to lure the princess and these English Royal Court bastards if it wasn’t for you!”

The guild members instantly glared at Marcus, who vigorously shook his head in denial.

“No! It’s not what you think! I didn’t do anything!”

“You damn bastard… You dare trick us until the end!”

“Hey, you piece of scum!”

“This was another trap? How could you do this to us?!”

“No! I said it wasn’t me!”

“Shh!” Rachel hushed her guild members and gripped Galatine.

She looked around and even over Chiffelin’s towering height, but couldn’t find Lancaster anywhere.

Chiffelin shouted to start the main event, “Now! It’s time to activate the spell since the main character is here!”

The ground underneath their feet began to squirm like a slithering snake and a powerful energy surged from beneath them.

They stood on a massive magic circle that slowly painted the sky gray.

“We have to stop it—” Marcus tried to shout, but a louder noise interrupted him.

Wooong… Kaboom!

Bzzt! Bzzt! Bzzt!

An electric current shot out from the ground and zapped them.

“What’s going on… Ouch!” Rachel wondered what happened when she realized that Yoo Yeonhwa had detonated the homemade bombs across England.

The magic circle stopped activating thanks to her efforts.

“Which stupid son of a whore did this?!” Chiffelin cried out in anger.

He and his minions instantly glared at Rachel’s party.

Rachel didn’t have to say anything for her party members to immediately prepare for combat. She wielded Galatine in reverse even though she knew the back of the blade wouldn’t be able to cut anyone.

However, that was exactly what she wanted. She felt sick and tired of this endless cycle of revenge and hatred from someone losing their life. She would put an end to all this once and for all.

***

Step… Step…

Chae Nayun slowly walked towards Kim Hajin. The stone statue stood there looking for any gaps in her defense, so she couldn’t carelessly turn her back.

Kim Hajin laughed while looking at her carefully approaching him.

“Why are you here?” she asked him.

She could smell his nostalgic stench of cigarettes.

Kim Hajin didn’t respond and simply continued staring at her.

She stole a glance at him before suddenly looking away. Strangely enough, her cheeks became flushed red and her hands trembled.

Why did she get so nervous when she knew full well this was just a fake Kim Hajin?

“This… This is all a dream, right?” she glanced at him and asked.

The breeze in the hall stopped blowing and the stone statue suddenly froze. It seemed as if time had stopped when Chae Nayun realized this was all a dream.

“Yes, you already destroyed the stone statue. Remember?” Kim Hajin replied.

“Did I? Maybe I can’t remember because I destroyed it in a single blow. I’m that strong after all…”

“Exactly, the stone statue released a wave of illusion when it got destroyed.”

“No wonder, I had a strong feeling this was all a dream. You know my instincts are never wrong, right?”

Her memories slowly returned after talking to Kim Hajin. She suddenly looked downcast and asked, “Then, I won’t be able to wake up like you?”

“No,” Kim Hajin shook his head. After all, he already finished deciphering the secrets behind the dreams in this place.

He grabbed Chae Nayun’s wrist.

“Crazy bastard!” She flinched and tried to pull her hand away, but Kim Hajin tightly gripped it and refused to let go.

No, more like she only pretended to pull her hand away. She didn’t want him to let go of her.

“Hey, what are you doing right now? You… Hey… hey hey hey hey!”

“Stay still, will you? I’m trying to detoxify you.”

Kim Hajin applied the antidote from his Medicinal Memory Physique. Chae Nayun shuddered at the strange sensation when he directly injected the antidote into her vein.

“Done,” Kim Hajin said as he let go of her wrist.

Chae Nayun slightly regretted when his touch left her skin.

“Is that it?” she asked.

“Yeah, you’ll wake up soon,” he nonchalantly replied.

“Hmm… Is that so?”

Chae Nayun crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Kim Hajin.

She figured that the Kim Hajin in this world was just a fake who didn’t have the same complicated relationship with her as the real one. It would probably be fine not to be so awkward around him.

“Hey.”

“Time for you to get up.”

“H-Huh? What?”

“I said, wake up.”

“No thanks, I still have a lot to tell you.”

Chae Nayun narrowed her eyes and asked, “You’re from this world, right?”

She asked just in case since the real Kim Hajin could also have been transported here like her. However, it looked like Kim Hajin had no idea what she meant.

Chae Nayun sighed before shaking her head. “Nothing. Never mind.”

She got the result she wanted. Now she had an idea of how to get the Miracle Stone Fragment from this place. The evil spirits gave her a hint about the real owner of this dream.

“Sure,” Kim Hajin replied with a smile.

His smile looked warm and gentle for some reason, but that was the last she saw of him.

Chae Nayun pouted when she woke up from her dream.

The sun brightly shone on her. She squinted her eyes and covered them with her hand as she got up. How many hours did she sleep? Why did her body hurt so much?

“Ughh!”

She stretched and got up on her feet.

“Phew…”

One two… One two…

Chae Nayun lightly stretched and walked towards the door. She flung open the main doors and steeled her resolve to finally obtain the Miracle Stone Fragment.

Creak…

The world beyond the door appeared.

“…?”

Chae Nayun stood there dumbfounded and blinked a few times.

Blink… Blink… Blink… Blink…

She closed her eyes a few times and even rubbed them in case she was seeing things.

“What the hell is this?!” she exclaimed in disbelief.

This wasn’t the Hampton Palace anymore. No, forget about the Hampton Palace… An entirely different world had popped up in front of her.

“Isn’t this just… England?” she muttered in astonishment before jumping in surprise.

The general assembly had kicked her out without her noticing.

“What the hell is this? Huh? Hey… wait a minute… but why?”

A thought suddenly flashed across her mind when she felt completely flabbergasted and at a loss about what to do.

“Wait a minute…” She calmly looked around.

Her instincts were telling her something. No, the spirit that clung to her wanted her to realize something.

It tried to tell her that the ending she wanted was somewhere nearby.

***

“Heup!”

Yoo Yeonha detonated all the bombs she installed across the fake England.

Wooong… Booom! Boooom! Boooom!

A powerful tremor could be felt even underground. The atmosphere around her instantly changed after the explosions.

“…”

Reddish-black spirits that looked hideous emitted sinister auras.

“Hey… this is a bit too scary for me. I might actually lose my mind here.” Yoo Yeonha weakly complained with tears welling in her eyes.

“Kiiiieee…”

She looked at the ceiling where the sound came from. An evil spirit suddenly pushed its face through the ceiling and stared at her with its wide open mouth.

“Hiccup! Argh… Ahh…” Yoo Yeonha froze and jumped sideways to avoid the evil spirit’s drool. Then she carried Kim Hajin and ran out of the room.

She almost fell on the way out with Kim Hajin when her legs suddenly gave out.

“Mommy!” she screamed and looked around the lobby.

Not only the bedroom, but evil spirits crawled all over the place. Rather, the entire place was made up of evil spirits. Her feet sunk into the jaws of evil spirits whenever she took a step.

“Ah… Eugh… Hiccup! Huk… Huk…” Yoo Yeonha began hyperventilating from the fear and suddenly noticed her back felt quite light.

Her face turned ghastly pale and she instantly turned around to find that Kim Hajin had gone missing.

Don’t tell me I threw him away without realizing it? She questioned herself as her entire body trembled.

Yoo Yeonha looked around the floor in hopes of finding him when someone suddenly spoke from behind her, “What are you looking for?”

She flinched and turned around to find Kim Hajin smiling at her.

Then, she finally realized that this was once again just a dream. She would wake up from this nightmare soon enough.

Contrary to her expectations…

“This isn’t a dream. I’ve woken up,” he said with a smile that didn’t suit their situation. His smile definitely felt mischievous.

Yoo Yeonha composed herself and asked, “No… ah… I mean… really… geez… You sure took your time sleeping, didn’t you? Hey, do you even know how long you’ve been asleep?”

“Of course, I can go back to sleep if you want me to,” Kim Hajin teased her while snickering.

He looked into the distance at something.

[Medicinal Memory Physique has fully detoxified the Empty Dream.]

[Tower of Wish Bonus — You have received a special inheritance!]

[You have inherited one skill stored in the player’s storage!]

Inherited Skill ▶ [Extraction, Materialization, and Synthesis]

A string of notifications appeared in front of him without Yoo Yeonha’s knowledge.

“What are you doing?” she asked while pouting.

Kim Hajin took out his Black Lotus Bow, nocked a dark ore arrow, and aimed at the ceiling.

Then he shot the arrow and activated one of the Black Lotus Bow’s effects, which could purify evil spirits.

The evil spirits that filled the place slowly disappeared after screaming in agony.

“Let’s go up now,” he said.

“Hiing… Well… I guess guarding you all this time came with some benefit. Alright, let’s go,” Yoo Yeonha replied with a nod.

She regained her confidence and haughty look after he vanquished all the evil spirits. They promptly climbed the stairs.

However, the walls and stairs began to melt like candle wax. The wailing spirits gave them a sharp headache.

“Kieeeeek!”

Yoo Yeonha tightly held onto Kim Hajin. She asked him some questions to distract herself from the horrifying screams.

“How long were you stuck in your dreams? It must’ve been quite a long time, right?”

“…”

Kim Hajin glanced at her and nonchalantly replied with a shrug, “Perhaps around… fifteen or twenty years? At least that’s how it felt.”

“WHAT?!” Yoo Yeonha’s jaws dropped. “Fifteen… Fifteen years?! Then… Then… do you remember everything that happened in your dreams?”

“Yeah, I do. Rather, I tried to remember them.”

“Why? Isn’t it better for you to just forget about them?”

He flashed a smile filled with sadness.

“I got to meet everyone that I’ve been wanting to meet.”

Yoo Yeonha couldn’t understand what he meant. She stared at him intently for a while before looking away and feeling sorry for him.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

“I see…”

She didn’t say anymore and quietly followed him.

The long staircase leading up kept winding and she gradually grew drowsy for some reason. She staggered up the stairs and buried her face into Kim Hajin’s back.

“We have a problem…” she muttered.

Kim Hajin stopped and turned around.

Yoo Yeonha looked at him with droopy eyes.

“I feel so sleepy. I think I’m going to die at this rate if I don’t sleep…”

Her voice trailed off as she rubbed her face against his back.

Kim Hajin smirked at her, “You can go to sleep. I’ll let you have the sweetest dream ever.”

His voice sounded reassuring for some reason. Yoo Yeonha smiled before collapsing and Kim Hajin carried her on his back.

Step… Step…

Yoo Yeonha fell into a deep slumber with her chin resting on his shoulder. Only the sound of his footsteps filled their surroundings.

She didn’t know why, but she knew she would have a good dream this time.