VIP Chapter 475: A Dream or Reality? (4k)
“Hmm, why are you so glum?”
“My bride?”
He stood at the end of the wedding ceremony, dressed in a white suit, swirling a glass of red wine and extending his hand towards her.
He was also adorned with the bright, shining gold of the morning sun.
Without a doubt…
Here, standing before Treya and calling out to her…
Was Will.
His appearance hadn’t changed at all since they parted ways; he was just as he used to be.
And, most importantly…
Treya’s hand first moved to touch her lips. Her expression was unchanging, let alone her eyes.
Yet, he could pinpoint Treya’s “glumness” with such accuracy.
But he was able to discern her emotions from such a poker face.
Only one person could do such a thing…
“Will… Teacher?”
Treya took a step forward, not truly following her “thoughts,” but rather moving reflexively.
Everything here was eerily similar to the environment when they last parted—
A wedding held deep within the forest.
The two of them were participating, with all other seats empty.
It was only three steps to reach the altar.
Except…
Now Treya was the one standing below, invited by Will’s outstretched hand.
After calling out this name, Will seemed to hesitate.
“Why are you still calling me Teacher? Didn’t we agree before that you didn’t need to use that title…”
Will’s words were cut short as Treya, walking the few steps, fiercely pulled him into an embrace.
“…Treya?”
Her voice trembled as she held Will even tighter.
“I can finally dream of you again… I’m so glad. I thought after completing all those missions, I would never dream of you again…”
“Is that so… Even standing here, you think it’s a dream. Alright, that’s within expectations.”
Will’s words held a hint of mockery.
“I… I…”
Hearing Will speak, Treya grew more flustered. She released him first but didn’t know where to put her hands, nervously interlocking her fingers.
She was at a loss, unsure whether to touch Will or to continue speaking.
She no longer seemed like the Empress of Entak, but rather a little girl unsure of herself in front of the person she liked.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean that Will already… no longer exists. Nor did I mean that this is a dreamscape…”
She apologized first.
Afraid that Will might disappear again, she reached out and grabbed the cuff of his white suit before he could move.
This was the first time she’d dreamt of a dreamscape without any “mission” as its objective.
She had no idea what would happen next.
“It’s okay, it’s okay. After all, for a very, very long time, Treya has always been like this… Hmm, someone who’s always hard to understand.”
“You’re the one who sees through me the most.”
“Eh? Really? I always felt like I was misinterpreting your thoughts every time…”
As Will was saying this, he lowered his head and saw Treya’s sparkling eyes.
Whether it was her purple one or her light blue one, both seemed to be eagerly awaiting his every word.
“That’s right. It’s… the real Will.”
The moment she touched him, Treya had confirmed it.
She didn’t know what the demons had done, or what had happened in Zero Demon City.
Without conjuring a dreamscape herself, she had indeed entered a dream with Will.
This Will was identical to the real Will…
Almost exactly the same!
His tone of voice, his every habitual gesture, even the pressure of his hand when holding hers.
It was all exactly like the real Will.
“…Is that how I appear in your eyes?” Will chuckled lightly. “So, why… why are you so glum?”
“I… I…”
“Hmm, let me guess, did something happen in Zero Demon City?”
“!?”
Treya turned her head. Though she said nothing, her eyes seemed to plead, “Help me.”
“I knew it. Tell me more about it.”
Thus, Treya recounted how Zero Demon City encountered an intruder, and how the demons offered her the Undead Swordsman.
However, she deliberately omitted the part about how she wanted to “self-destruct” and was toyed with by the demons.
“Oh! So it’s the Undead Swordsman. What a coincidence, that’s a monster I wrote about.”
“Mhm, mhm.”
Treya nodded vigorously several times.
“So, is it difficult to defeat?”
“Just as you described it… very difficult. Truly my lifelong nemesis.”
She slowly narrated how she couldn’t defeat the Undead Swordsman.
“In short, I tried the methods you taught me, whether it was agility or wearing him down with prolonged combat…”
“And you didn’t win?”
“Yes. Each time, I felt like I was so close. But I always lost due to very strange details, like failing to notice a certain weakness on myself.”
As Treya spoke, she instinctively began analyzing her battle.
At this moment, she noticed the back of Will’s hand.
Because she had been talking for so long, she realized that time was passing quickly in this dreamscape.
When they entered, it was morning; now the sunlight indicated it was afternoon.
“I see, then…”
Will tilted his head back, seemingly observing the sunlight overhead. His profile was softly illuminated by the sun, and his monocle glinted slightly.
The moment she saw it, countless phrases the real Will might say flashed through Treya’s mind.
For example, advising her that she needed more training.
For example, providing a solution within three minutes just by hearing the problem.
For example, presenting a plan, prepared beforehand just like he always did, to defeat the “Undead Swordsman.”
But…
“…Then don’t fight it!”
He turned around, shaking his finger with unusual ease.
“…Eh?”
“Isn’t this a mission I wrote? I didn’t know I’d live this long back then. So I set a series of tactics for your nemesis in a future where I wouldn’t exist. But…”
Will paused for a moment.
“I’m alive and well, and you’re here with me, so I guess there’s no need to fight anymore?”
“…Huh?”
Treya’s expression returned to its usual blankness.
Because…
She truly…
Couldn’t imagine Will answering her like this.
Wasn’t he always the “good teacher” who made her constantly improve, learn, and move forward?
Especially a teacher who…
Would guide her to become a “good queen”?
“Do you really want to fight it? Without the mission I wrote, you surely wouldn’t be interested, right? Oh, right, you might not even know such a monster exists.”
Treya was a little surprised. She felt that the Will before her was exceptionally relaxed.
There was no pressure of her family’s fate on her shoulders, nor the fervor to protect or change the country.
She sensed something unusual about the Will before her.
Something unusual, not like something within a “dreamscape.”
“What? Besides this, are there other things troubling you?”
As he asked with a smile, he seemed as concerned about the sky as Treya, especially the time, and even glanced at his watch.
“I…”
She hesitated for just a moment. Will gently patted her head and guided her with great warmth—
“Didn’t you say I was your good teacher? Tell me everything.”
“Actually, Entak’s finances aren’t much better than before. Because the Dungeon factions take too much tax revenue, and even with cooperation, the Dungeons are more inclined to guard against us…”
“Oh… I see.”
Will pondered for a moment.
Treya looked at Will with anticipation, waiting for a “reasonable” answer.
But…
“Then just get rid of them, and you can take over the Adventurer’s Guild yourself?”
“…Huh?”
“These aren’t all the problems, is there more? Continue.”
Will seemed more eager than Treya. He spread his hands and asked,
“What about… diplomacy? The neighboring countries still seem to think Entak is the same powerful entity it once was. I wanted to appear weak, but showing weakness might…”
“Forcefully tell those neighboring countries not to meddle with Entak. The strongest Adventurer’s Guild is here, and the strongest army that can be trained is also here. We fear no one.”
“But… I don’t have the Adventurer’s Guild…”
“Didn’t we take over in the previous step?”
“Hmm?”
Treya began to believe this was definitely a pure “dreamscape.”
Only in a dreamscape would there be such “wild” imagination? Compared to her own previous dreams, which were filled with “conventional” outcomes, she had never heard Will give such violent answers.
“Lastly, Mr. Carver, your father’s legislative power…”
“I haven’t settled the score with him yet. The first step to taking over his Adventurer’s Guild is to eliminate him.”
Will said this with absolute certainty.
He glanced at his watch again.
Treya noticed this small action, realizing Will was very concerned about time, and also that…
The passage of time in this dreamscape was exceptionally fast. It was now dusk, the sky had darkened, and night was approaching.
“…Is it really right to do this? What about those servants?”
“Those who do well become friends, we drink and play together; those who do poorly are fired? It’s a simple principle, isn’t it?”
“Hmm…”
The Will before her…
None of his answers fit her concept of “perfectly correct.” They were filled with nonsense, recklessness, and lack of method.
But strangely, at this very moment.
Treya was incredibly certain that the Will before her was absolutely, undoubtedly…
The real person!
But why did she feel this way? He was doing everything wrong, and the real Will had rejected her wedding here, so how could she still feel this way…
Was it because she missed seeing him in her dreams so much?
“Ah, it’s nightfall.”
“Hmm?”
In an instant, it had been dusk just moments ago, but now the light reflecting off the monocle of the Will in Treya’s eyes had much diminished.
“Since it’s evening, we should be heading back, right?”
“!”
In Treya’s heart, these words were indistinguishable from “farewell.”
She believed the Will in the dream didn’t know it was a dream, but she knew…
The dream had gone from day to night, and it was time to sleep.
Therefore, she would wake up in reality.
“I need to get a good night’s sleep tonight.”
Will stood up and stretched. He was indeed in a hurry to leave this dreamscape.
“…”
Treya, who had always been poor at discerning her own desires, reached out her hand.
She, for rarely the case…
Felt as certain of what she wanted as she did when she first entered the Demon’s Spirit Vessel, and reached out to Will.
“Can you not go?”
She didn’t want this dream to end!
“Hmm?!”
She looked up, tears welling in her eyes, but she forced them back, watching Will.
—Perhaps this was just a coincidence.
—After all, dreams aren’t the exclusive domain of demons; theoretically, one can dream what they ought to dream.
—But this also means it’s an uncontrollable dreamscape.
—Once she woke up, he would be gone.
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll stay here with you, Empress Treya.”
Will placed a hand on his chest, bowing towards her with a playful smile, as elegant as a butler.
As Treya’s tears began to flow uncontrollably, she spoke with a calm, sobbing pause:
“If you leave, this place will disappear. You will disappear too.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve already… already lost you once.”
“And then on the day before yesterday, I discovered I could no longer dream of you…”
“I… I don’t want to lose you again in a dream…”
Only after saying this did Treya realize she was crying.
The last time she had shed tears was when she confirmed Will was truly dead. This time, she cried even harder, large tears falling onto her palms.
“Why would you say that?”
Will drew closer, blocking her eyes with his finger, and obscuring himself entirely.
Treya didn’t know why he was doing this, because now she couldn’t see Will. She gripped his wrist, trying to pull his hand away.
“Believe me. Didn’t I tell you?”
“Tell me what…”
“I’m still alive.”
As Will spoke these words, the strength in Treya’s grip lessened significantly.
“Then let us… bid farewell after the dream ends—”
*Crack.*
Treya heard the sound of shattering glass by her ear. The scene of the wedding before her condensed into a single point.
“Don’t go, I… I don’t want to wake up.”
She reached out into the darkness.
But the next moment, she woke up.
“Ha… ha… ha…”
Finally, sunlight streamed in from the partially open window curtain, hitting her eyes. She instinctively raised her hand to shield them.
She was awake.
“…Why… was it…”
She began to sob uncontrollably.
A chance dream, a dream where she could finally meet Will again, and it… just like that… gone.
Moreover, the words spoken in the dream, the Will seen in the dream, were constantly fading from her memory.
“This… this is a nightmare.”
Her open hand clenched into a fist.
Although she wasn’t truly crying, tears welled up in her eyes.
“Without this dream, I’ll never… never…”
“Never see me again?”
“…?”
Treya turned around.
Then, her eyes widened…
She saw…
On her real bed, the bed she slept in every night, in the position she had fantasized “he would surely choose”…
Will.
He was also lying beside her, as if he had woken up just a little earlier than her, looking with amusement at Treya’s strange behavior of crying to herself.
“How could you dream of such a thing?”
He sat up, seemingly still wearing pajamas from the Royal Palace.
Everything seemed to be making Treya’s dream come true.
“Haven’t I always been here? For example, today’s meeting… Sigh… there’s just too much. Being the ruler of a nation is this tiring.”
