Chapter 44: How Could I Have Such a Dream
The sound of dripping water echoed, and mold spread in the dark cage.
Adults in military boots came and went, the sound of their boots thudding mutedly in his ears.
This familiar scene was a dream that he knew completely echoed old memories.
An inescapable past had become a nightmare that surrounded him day after day.
He hated this feeling of reminiscing about suffering and sweet memories, and he also hated recalling painful memories to spur himself onward.
His blue eyes peered through his hair at the towering figure that moved back and forth; it was all too distant, and within this dream, he couldn’t depict any face with detailed features.
Even he, in this dream, couldn’t recall what he looked like in his youth, lowering his head and seeing nothing but the tattered clothes he once wore.
“It seems someone has died again…”
“Yeah… how could such a small child possibly survive…?”
But the voice full of terror was distinctly clear.
Every day he would hear of someone dying; he could hear the cries in the teaching room not far away.
The person beside him had been moaning in pain just the day before, yet a few days later, he could smell the stench of the corpse.
“How could such cruelty exist…?”
The slightly older children prayed timidly.
“Woo…”
The younger children sobbed, their broken words barely understandable.
“That guy was just a little over ten years old; how could he make such a cruel decision…!”
The bearded vagabond, reeking of medicine, was filled with unknown reagents; his final curse seemed to be a last gasp, using all his strength to complain about the injustice.
“…that bastard emperor—”
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?!”
Seeing a young girl looking ready to speak such treasonous words because of the old man’s remarks, the boy beside her quickly covered her mouth, fearing that the nobles passing by, dressed in splendid gowns as if choosing merchandise, would hear words that could lead to their immediate execution.
But everyone here knew, and everyone was cursing, cursing those nobles who, beneath their glamorous exteriors, were full of decay.
In this dimly lit cage, only the candlelight was bright.
Yet outside of the dream, the dawn had already arrived.
Evelia had come early to Alman’s door, and after it was time for him to wake up, she knocked and brought in breakfast.
“…Huh…”
Unexpectedly, Alman still hadn’t gotten up; however, he seemed to have heard the sounds from outside, moved a little, and let out a soft grunt, yet still showed no intention of getting up, merely curling deeper into his blankets.
It seemed the sleep aid from yesterday had worked well.
Evelia gently placed the plate on the table and then, using her skillful silent steps, approached Alman.
After sensing Evelia’s closeness, he moved again, half his head peeking out, but the sunlight streaming through the curtain made him frown in distress and retreat again.
Evelia quietly stood by the bed, looking proudly at Alman’s sleeping face, thinking to herself how she had some talent for helping others sleep.
Realizing that Alman had no intention of waking up, Evelia squatted down, resting her head on the edge of the bed, gazing at Alman’s not-so-comfortable sleeping expression.
Evelia didn’t know what Alman’s dreams were like; she just knew that even though he managed to evade the direct sunlight, he was still frowning tightly, looking rather pained.
Seeing Alman’s troubled expression, Evelia recalled last night, when her superb skills seemed to please him greatly, not only mending their past grievances but also allowing him to sleep well, so she decided to use that method again, hoping to make him like this feeling, which would later help her in winning his favor.
Thus, Evelia quietly lifted herself, leaned down, and gently blew on Alman’s ear.
On Alman’s side, his dream suddenly turned strange.
In what had been a solitary cage, a strange sound suddenly appeared in his ears, followed by the emergence of a large pink dog beside him.
Where did this dog come from?
And why is it pink?
That pink, completely different from the surrounding darkness, looked extraordinarily bright.
How could there be such a pink dog?
In the dream, Alman was even seriously contemplating what breed this dog was.
“You—uh huh?!”
Before he could understand what was happening in this chaotic dream, the large pink dog pounced on him, licking him uncontrollably, as if it wanted to lick off a layer of his skin. Due to its large size, Alman was even having difficulty breathing.
“Hey—hey?! Stop, stop licking—let go—!”
In the next moment, Alman woke up from his dream, opening his eyes.
What welcomed him was not the familiar ceiling.
“Uh—?”
But instead, a mass—no, two masses.
Two masses of fluffy white that looked rather chewy.
It seemed Evelia needed a better angle to lick Alman’s ear, so she leaned over, which resulted in her chest pressing against his face, creating various indentations with her movements.
“…?”
Alman, just waking up, clearly didn’t know what was happening. He stared blankly at the white fluff in front of him, unsure of what to say, only feeling a tickling in his ears and a tingling sensation throughout his body, with strange panting sounds filling his ears.
On Evelia’s side, when she noticed that Alman was awake, she twirled her tongue and slowly pulled away from Alman’s ear, retracting her soft chest from pressing against his face and hopping off the bed, shaking herself with a bounce.
“…Evel?”
Alman, half-awake, stared at the pink girl with sparkling lips, blinking repeatedly. His not fully operational brain wondered why a perfectly good dog had turned into a person.
After a moment of confusion, he thought that Evelia did indeed resemble the dog from his dream; inexplicably, he poked the “culprit” responsible for his inability to breathe and mumbled, “It’s pretty soft.”
He stared blankly at Evelia, then turned over and buried his head back into the blankets, having just been licked by a dog one moment, and now encountering this scene; it was hard to believe it was “just reality,” especially since he had been stimulated by Evelia the night before, reasoning that it must have been a dream inspired by his thoughts.
“Waking up to Evel licking me first thing in the morning… how could I have such a dream…”
Muttering this, Alman rolled over and quickly fell back into a deep sleep.
Finally, when he opened his eyes again, he found Evelia still waiting by his bed. He stared at her in a daze, thinking for a long time before uttering a syllable:
“…Ah?”
