Ch.137A Forgotten Incident

# 1.

The long-awaited meeting with my only friend.

“Save them. Like you… saved me.”

A voice whispering like a dream.

Fearing it might disappear if I woke up,

Nahan stared intently at Hyeseong’s face, trying to commit this moment to memory.

No,

【<Goddess>’s intervention has ended.】

【<Black Wolf(Ex+)>’s nightmare has ended.】

He had been staring.

Just as people dream every time they fall asleep, but remember only a few of those dreams.

【Due to the effect of <Mutual Destruction>, intervening in <Lactea(Ex-)>’s nightmare.】

Having moved into Lactea’s <Nightmare>, Nahan completely forgot what had just happened.

All he remembered was the final whisper.

-Save them.

-Like you saved me.

Though he couldn’t recall it precisely, Nahan decided to follow those words.

“…Lactea.”

Nahan, who had been captured by the <Shadow of the Abyss> instead of Asha, and the comrade of this world who had jumped in without hesitation to save him.

Hence, Nahan wondered.

Even though she had noticed he wasn’t the ‘Black Wolf,’ why had she risked her life and jumped into the nightmare to save him?

‘…No. Instead of pondering, I should move.’

With him captured by the Abyss, the others must be holding back the Abyss outside.

‘Before they’re annihilated, I’ll save Lactea and escape from here.’

Having set his goal, Nahan stared at the crimson system window that appeared before him.

【Do you wish to intervene in the <Nightmare> and proceed with saving <Lactea(Ex-)>?】

【Accept / Decline.】

Without hesitation, he reached for “Accept,” but a new window blocked his path.

【Success: Salvation of <Lactea(Ex-)>.】

【Failure: Mutual Destruction.】

【Ignore: Return of <Black Wolf(Ex+)>, Annihilation of <Lactea(Ex-)>.】

It was a question filled with the Abyss’s malice.

If he failed to save Lactea, would he be okay with both of them being annihilated?

If he ignored this and returned, he alone would be released without harm.

A hopeful choice amidst despair.

But Nahan knew.

Such choices were mostly just another form of despair disguised as hope.

So Nahan casually asked the Abyss that must be watching from somewhere.

“Getting scared you might lose?”

After his sarcastic question, Nahan’s finger shattered the malice and touched “Accept.”

【Accept.】

【Intervening in <Lactea(Ex-)>’s nightmare.】

Once again, his consciousness sank into the abyss.

.

.

.

A moment later.

What Nahan faced when he opened his eyes again was—

“…? What are you?”

A child with silver hair and golden eyes, looking curious with languid eyes.

# 2.

Babylonia Imperial Palace.

A room similar in structure to Reina’s, but giving a more neat impression.

Nahan, who had awakened while sitting on the windowsill, looked at the girl approaching with small steps.

“…? What are you?”

He could tell immediately.

This child with golden eyes looking at him was not Reina, but Lactea.

‘But how?’

Currently, Nahan was in a spirit-like state, intervening in the nightmare.

It should have been natural for him to be imperceptible, yet Lactea was clearly looking at him.

“Can’t you hear? I asked what you are?”

“…? First Princess? Is something wrong?”

“Hm? Can’t you see? There’s a black person sitting on the window here.”

“……What?”

Seeing the servants’ confused reactions, it seemed only Lactea could see him.

Nahan put his index finger to his lips and whispered to defuse the situation.

“I’m… well… Ah. A good child. Yes. I’m a fairy that only good children can see.”

“…A fairy? Not a spirit?”

“Ah, well, yes, a spirit.”

Lactea’s expression brightened at that.

She was about to say something more but turned to the servants who were cleaning.

“Everyone, please withdraw.”

“What? But the cleaning is still…”

“It’s fine, please withdraw. I just remembered the answer to a magic formula problem I learned yesterday, and I need to write it down before I forget.”

Only then did the servants slowly leave the room under the head maid’s direction.

Finally alone, as Nahan was trying to assess the situation,

Lactea approached with small steps, extending her small hand, and asked.

“You’ve come to save me, haven’t you?”

“…Hm?”

“Hmph. Pretending not to know.”

Lowering her hand, Lactea rummaged through her formal dress pocket.

Rustle.

“Ah, found it.”

What she pulled out was a magic problem with complex formulas.

“Here! Solve this!”

Faced with her casual attitude, Nahan looked at the problem and spoke.

“-1, 0, or 1. It’s one of these three.”

“Eh…? You know just by looking at it?”

“I’m a fairy… I mean, a spirit, after all.”

…Usually, such difficult math problems have -1, 0, or 1 as the answer.

And so, the next day.

“Amazing! -1 was indeed the correct answer!!”

Nahan became best friends with Lactea in the nightmare.

Unlike his worries about the nightmare, it was a relaxed and leisurely time.

Somehow, Nahan could intervene in the nightmare as if breaking the fourth wall, and Lactea could interact with him.

“Let me tell you what happened today!”

“…Kids’ energy is really hard to keep up with.”

“Hm? What did you just say?”

“…Nothing. Go on.”

“Yes, yes! Today! Reina…”

Nahan ended up witnessing all of Lactea’s growth from beside her.

To be honest, it was ordinary.

Of course, she was royalty, and that alone might make her life seem special, but

“Lactea.”

“Your Majesty!”

“Come now. When it’s just the two of us, call me father… no, daddy.”

Apart from formalities, Lactea’s family was ordinarily harmonious and ordinarily close-knit.

If there was any difference, it was that even her relationship with her younger sister Reina was harmonious.

“Sister!”

Normally, family members bicker daily and occasionally quarrel, but

“Ah, Reina!”

The sisters were exceptionally close.

“My pretty one. Did anything happen last night?”

Even amidst the nobles’ covert struggles over succession order, Lactea embraced Reina with love as if it didn’t matter,

“Yes! I had a dream! I was chosen as a hero in it?!”

And Reina, as if uninterested in such matters, sparkled her golden eyes at her sister.

According to clichés, the emperor should have been manipulated by nobles, bringing misfortune, but

“Your Majesty! It’s too early to decide the successor—!!”

“Enough. Lactea is the successor.”

“But—!!”

“I said enough!! Didn’t I say our Reina… no, the Second Princess’s dream is to be a hero!!”

Based on his strong imperial authority, he nipped such signs in the bud.

So when Nahan asked if Lactea was happy, she answered with a bright smile.

“I wish to live like this forever!”

When Lactea, who had grown from a child to almost a young lady, said that, Nahan gently embraced her and patted her back.

“…Hm? What’s wrong?”

Indeed, a promising talent.

“You seem… somewhat melancholic today.”

When Lactea, noticing Nahan’s change, asked with concern,

Nahan almost answered without realizing.

That in about three or four years, when Lactea comes of age,

The emperor will die from Eclipse’s sneak attack, and she will be framed for attempting to kill her sister and driven to the battlefield.

Even there, she’ll be caught in Eclipse’s trap and face death, only to be saved by the Black Wolf who appears by chance, and live a new life.

The chain of misfortunes that would occur.

Knowing all this, Nahan maintained his silence and pondered.

‘Rather than letting her relive the nightmare she experienced, wouldn’t it be better to let her see a different ending in her dream, like with Casler?’

The point at which one feels happiness is highly subjective.

If she can feel happiness even in a created illusion, wouldn’t that help her forget the nightmare?

“…Nameless spirit?”

As if ending Nahan’s contemplation, Lactea gently took his hand,

“…Listen carefully, Lactea. From now on—”

Just as he was about to modify part of the <Nightmare> to lead to a happy ending, like with Casler,

A golden system window appeared before him.

【Question.】

【When someone living in an unfortunate fate has a happy dream, would they want to wake up from that happy dream?】

A roundabout question.

But he seemed to understand what it meant.

‘The more unfortunate the reality, the sweeter the dream, the more one wants to escape.’

Judging by the color of the system window, it was clearly a kind of warning sent by the Goddess.

Then there was only one option left.

‘…Let her relive the nightmare, then help her overcome it with her own strength.’

Nahan looked at Lactea again.

“Tell me. I’ll listen to whatever you have to say.”

A kind-hearted girl who worries about others, not even dreaming of what’s to come.

What he needed to convey to such a child was the terrible misfortune she would face.

“Lactea, you…”

“Yes?”

“……You.”

As Nahan, after much deliberation, was about to speak of her misfortune,

“Sister!!”

Bang!

Lactea’s door burst open, and a scruffy child rushed in, shouting.

“I made a fwiend!!”

“Hm? A friend, you say?”

“Yes! Asha! And the other one is…!!”

Nahan.

“What…?”

This was an event he had no memory of.