“Don’t you remember? Don’t you remember helping her at the royal banquet three years ago!”
“…”
[There, I helped her resolve Eugenie’s plot to trip her up.]
“Don’t you remember? At the Crowning Festival, you directly refused my invitation and stood on her side?”
“…”
[At that time, I had Treya wear black stockings, so she could gain the favor of demons during the Crowning Festival.]
“You… have you completely forgotten? Every little thing you taught her, every little piece of advice you gave her on how to act in the future, how to draw everyone into her scheme?”
“…”
[During that time, every weekend afternoon, sitting at a table in the royal gardens, I subtly hinted at what would happen in the future, and how her siblings would fight.]
[Right… right… I’m certainly not her canary. I should… I should be her teacher…]
[Like a colorful oil painting with pieces of black and white shattering; like a grotesque black ghost appearing in a beautifully painted dream;]
[The “reality” before my eyes seemed to crack.]
[It was like realizing, in a chaotic sleep, that a long and beautiful dream was actually a dream.]
Will wasn’t unable to recall anything.
It’s just that…
Thinking about these memories only made his head hurt more.
Eugenie, not receiving a definitive answer from Will, became gloomier, no, even more “desperate.”
“This is bad… it looks like, it looks like that madwoman has finally… finally laid hands on even the person she loved the most.”
Eugenie slumped into a chair behind her, as if deflated.
“Hah. Even to her most, most, most, most trusted teacher, she could do such a cruel thing. No wonder… no wonder things are the way they are, then what she’s doing outside is no longer strange.”
“No wonder… no wonder she discarded us, her brother and sister, as soon as she was done with us. Perhaps she never intended to count us among her people from the beginning. That’s why she sent us to the northern border.”
“Ha… ha… she… she even plans… plans to have the Hysterm Family directly intervene in the political system as representatives of the adventurers…”
“Even though Father has only been gone for a month, she wants to hold the grandest wedding in the entire country with you.”
“She wants to completely change Entak’s centuries-old foundation and family relationships.”
Eugenie furiously cursed Treya multiple times. She seemed truly cornered, supporting her head with both hands.
“I originally thought… I originally thought she still had that one last little glimmer of hope.”
She raised her head, her eyeballs bloodshot, as if the veins were about to tear her eyes apart. She looked at Will.
“At least, as the one she loved the most, as the one she trusted the most, as the one she relied on most in her life, she wouldn’t do anything to you.”
“I was wrong. She really hasn’t done anything excessive to you.”
To Will, Eugenie, before him, was not only hysterical with every outburst but also erratic.
After her series of rants, she suddenly leaned forward and spoke to Will properly:
“But… perhaps for her, a little canary kept close by is easier to control than someone like you, who always has the most complex thoughts.”
[This is a dream, wake up quickly.]
“Or perhaps, she wanted to protect you this way.”
[No matter how beautiful the dream, it is false; no matter how passionate the love, it is absurd; no matter how exhilarating the thrill, it is void.]
Will, enduring the pain in his face and head, raised his head, one eye open and one eye closed.
It was…
So strange.
He found it difficult to describe how he felt now.
Yet, he had “experienced” this feeling before.
When people dream, they sometimes realize within the dream that everything happening is just a dream, and then their minds subconsciously try to wake up.
At that moment, consciousness is in a semi-awake, semi-dreaming state…
He would see everything in the dream continuing to play out according to the plot, and he would also see himself lying on the ceiling of his home, the two overlapping scenes flashing before his eyes.
In the blink of an eye, the world in his eyes would shift, simultaneously waking and dreaming.
This is the scene before Will’s eyes now—
“If that’s the case, perhaps mutual destruction is the answer. If I kill the little canary who can’t do anything, will she be driven to despair and madness? I’m truly looking forward to it…”
Eugenie and this entire room were, at times, very gentle and warm…
[At other times, it was like the depths of hell, filled with all sorts of torture devices seemingly meant for him.]
Eugenie raised the knife in her hand.
She did not bring the blade down.
Like a blooming red rose, matching her hair color, it bloomed on her palm.
[Her palm, holding the knife, was severed from her wrist by a black sword.]
“Pain… it hurts so much… Treya, how could you be so fast—”
The room’s door had opened at some unknown time.
Light…
Shone in.
Will forced his eyes open.
Treya seemed to bring the light with her as she walked step by step towards Will, still wearing the black wedding dress he had chosen for her, suggesting she had rushed here without changing.
She held a beautiful paintbrush in her hand, its body black.
[She held that not-so-beautiful, thin black sword in her hand.]
“I’ll handle this personally.”
She raised her right hand, making a stopping gesture behind her, then walked up to Eugenie.
“Because your brother, whom you thought would never betray you, has confessed everything.”
Her black high heels stepped on the rose that had just bloomed.
[Her heel crushed Eugenie’s severed right hand.]
“You… don’t come closer, what do you want to do, have you forgotten? I… I am still your dearest, dearest sister.”
“Oh? Don’t you know who you’re attacking? Although I don’t like Entak’s traditional ways, like Edward, what I cannot accept is not that siblings or children are bad people, but the betrayal of an ally.”
She painted a beautiful red line on the canvas, which spread out like a gently flowing river.
[Her thin sword severed Eugenie’s right arm. Blood gushed from the stump, flowing all the way out the door.]
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, my dear sister, I was wrong.”
“I wanted to deal with you three years ago, if not for… the fact that Will then seemed to think you were somewhat useful.”
She sprinkled raindrops of blue onto the canvas, like a shower that would leave a rainbow.
[She picked up a bucket and poured it over Eugenie’s red hair. The dirty water flowed down Eugenie’s severed arm and right hand.]
“You… you’re crazy, you’ve completely… you’re just left with…”
“A bit noisy.”
Her paintbrush flicked upwards on the paper, leaving behind flying blossoms on the blank white surface.
[The thin black sword flashed in the darkness, slicing off half of the tip of Eugenie’s tongue as she spoke.]
“However, what I cannot accept is…”
More and more flowers appeared on the canvas, all red, surrounding the scarlet river.
[More and more limbs were chopped off by the black sword in her hand, scattering on the ground.]
“You want to ‘awaken’ him.”
Round candies, alternating blue and white, rolled sporadically on the ground.
[Eugenie’s eyeballs fell to the ground, rolling in different directions.]
“This is the beautiful dream that I painstakingly managed to create for him, so that the tired, weary, and hard-working him can enter a world without any sadness.”
“You relics of the old world.”
“Scoundrels like you who had ill intentions from the start.”
“Should all disappear from his beautiful dream—”
This beautiful picture finally took shape, beside the red river spreading into the distance amidst the blue raindrops, with candies placed around, and flowers blooming one after another.
[Eugenie, as Treya’s sister, as the former “sister” who had wanted to harm her three years ago and was controlled by Treya to her side…]
[Lay in a secret chamber, somewhere in the royal palace, in such a tragic manner.]
[The only thing worth being happy about was perhaps the honor of being personally executed by the current Empress.]
She put away her paintbrush. Countless colors of pigment stained her black wedding dress and the black stockings she wore.
She gently wiped the paint from the corner of her mouth and even licked her thumb slightly.
[So scary, so scary, so scary, so scary…]
[This is what she looks like when she’s blackening.]
[This is not a beautiful dream at all!]
[There are no pretty watercolor paintings, no sunny afternoons, no kind-hearted Empress.]
[There is only… only…]
[A demon that forcibly controls one’s memory, spirit, and everything.]
“Will—dear Will… are you alright? I’m sorry, I’m sorry I didn’t notice that clothing store was from Eugenie’s family…”
She walked over, her frenzied tone instantly changing.
Will looked up. He was indeed in some pain.
But more than the pain, he instinctively feared the Eugenie before him.
Unlike the time with Liya, his mind was constantly telling him…
This is a beautiful dream, this is your best, best, best, best Empress, this is the beginning of all your happy life—
Yet his body wanted to flee, to escape this place reeking of blood, filled with resistance…
Treya’s ice-cold fingers touched his face, wiping away the water stains and the marks from the slap he had just received.
She hugged Will—just like always.
Her head rested on Will’s shoulder—just like always.
“It’s okay now. From now on, I won’t let you fall into such danger again.”
“After all, from the beginning, I did this so that you wouldn’t have to worry about anything, wouldn’t have to take any risks, and wouldn’t have to face the darkness of this world directly.”
Her fingers picked up the glasses that had fallen nearby, and she put them on her nose, as if putting them on in the morning.
“Let’s go out now. You today…”
“Need to get a good night’s sleep.”
In his eyes—
On the side with the intact lens, the light shone on Treya, her smile blossoming like a flower, like an angel.
[On the side with the cracked lens, half of her face was plunged into shadow, her tense face etched with an unerasable anger, resembling a demon.]
This dream…
It has to end.
