Chapter 74: When Roses Were Sweet (4)

[74] 10. When Roses Were Sweet (4)

It felt like the summer sun was piercing through my skull, scorching my brain cells one by one, and ominous thoughts were swimming in my bleached mind.

It’s not like I’d never thought about my own death. My life had always been precarious, so such thoughts were inevitable.

But I’d never thought about the pain my death would bring to others. It’s not that it was an unimportant matter to me.

I simply thought that the people around me would be fine even if I were to die, that my absence wouldn’t be that big of a deal.

I believed my absence would be something they could recover from.

I thought that even if Parsley and Clara weren’t, the Captain, at least, would be fine.

The man’s words shattered those beliefs.

“I don’t know who suggested it first. But it was the Emperor who was at the center of it all. No, saying that she *became* the center would be more accurate. The women who couldn’t accept your death flocked to the Imperial Palace.”

The man continued nonchalantly,

“Anyway, under the Emperor’s direction, preparations were made to summon you. And those preparations were anything but simple. See that tower?”

He pointed toward something beyond the window. Among the low-lying roofs, a single tower stood tall, like a giant.

The tower, covered in strange symbols, was clearly out of place.

“The Emperor built that to summon you to this world. Ah, in your world, was it Captain? Anyway, that’s not the only one. There are towers like that all over the continent, in every city…”

“That’s enough.”

Irene’s cold voice cut him off. There was a low growl in her voice.

“Get to the point already.”

“…I was just answering his question.”

The man shrugged, then turned to look at me.

“Well, then let’s get to the point. As I said before, I want you to leave this world.”

He paused for a moment, as if choosing his next words.

“You are… variables to this world. Unknown factors that could cause unforeseen problems.”

“…”

“Of course, that doesn’t mean I plan to force you. I’ll even tell you how to go back.”

He crossed his arms and looked down at me.

“Just tell me that you’ll go back. Then I’ll tell you how.”

Go back.

The moment I heard those words, my rational mind rejoiced.

I had things to take care of in the original world. And besides, this wasn’t my world.

I could come up with a dozen reasons why I had to go back.

But, at the same time, a lump formed in my heart.

It was shaped like a question.

These people… these pitiful people who couldn’t accept my death and had resorted to this… was it really okay to leave them behind?

No, right or wrong aside, *could* I even do that?

“And let me just say this,”

The man smiled faintly—a chilling smile that made a part of my heart freeze.

“I said that I have no intention of forcing you *right now*. I could always change my mind.”

His meaning was clear.

“Right, I’ve been patient long enough.”

And because of that, I wasn’t the first to react.

A black muzzle was pointed at the man’s head. Irene holding the ‘cannon’, her face twisted in fury, said through gritted teeth,

“Answer only the questions I ask.”

“Isn’t this a bit much? I’m just trying to help…”

*BAM-*

The man’s head jerked forward, and blood splattered onto the floor. Pressing the muzzle against the wound, Irene continued,

“I said, answer only the questions I ask.”

“…”

The man let out a sigh and slowly nodded. Blood trickled down from his torn forehead.

Irene bared her teeth with an uncharacteristic expression.

“So, how do we go back?”

“…It’s simple.”

The man raised a finger and pointed at my chest.

“The thing that replaced your heart, the Dragon King’s Essence…”

Dragon King’s Essence,

a word that brought back memories and unease.

“By using its wish-granting abilities, you can return to your world.”

Ah, hold on, don’t tell me…

“I’ll even tell you the magic circle, one simple enough that even you can activate it…”

“Wait a minute.”

He looked at me, a questioning look in his eyes. I said, feeling a headache coming on,

“Isn’t there another way? Last time, you just opened a portal when Parsley and I came here before.”

“Sorry, but that’s not something I can do often. I barely managed to do it that time, by gathering all the energy I had.”

The man grumbled, his face a mixture of annoyance and frustration.

“To begin with, moving between worlds isn’t an easy feat. For now, the only way is to use the one inside your chest…”

“I can’t use it.”

“…What?”

A bewildered look appeared on the man’s face. Rubbing my face, I replied,

“I already used it to chase after Parsley.”

It took him a moment to understand.

And then, when the realization finally struck, he grimaced,

“This is crazy…!”

*BAM-*

The man’s eyes rolled back into his head, and his body slumped to the floor. A pool of blood spread around his head.

I stared dumbfounded at Irene, who was setting down the blood-stained ‘cannon’. She held out her hand and said,

“We’re done with him, let’s go, Oppa.”

“Wait, is he even…”

“He’s not dead.”

Her voice was cold as ice.

Her eyes glared down at the man.

“Those bastards don’t die that easily.”

***

Irene and I, wearing magical disguises, headed towards a nearby inn.

As we walked, I felt as if I’d become Hansel from Hansel and Gretel. But instead of leaving behind breadcrumbs, I was leaving behind my sense of reality.

I roughly accepted this situation in my head.

The parallel world, me being summoned, and the Dragon King’s Essence.

The cause-and-effect relationship was clear, and the concepts weren’t that difficult to understand.

But it was a completely different matter to accept it with my heart,

that people, unable to accept my death, had summoned me here.

Honestly, it still felt like I was in a nightmare.

I feel like I’d be able to wake up if someone just pinched me. I could feel my head spinning with confusion.

And that must have shown on my face.

“You okay, Oppa?”

That was Irene’s first question as soon as we entered the room. I smiled faintly and shook my head.

“Don’t worry. I just… need some time to process everything.”

“No, that too, but… You said you used it.”

Irene’s eyes turned to my chest.

“So, Oppa, your heart…”

It was then that I finally realized what she was worried about.

“You don’t need to worry about that. I used it to chase after Parsley, but it was just a wish. And what’s keeping me alive is the magic of the Dragon King’s Essence itself.”

Irene’s brow furrowed, as if she didn’t understand. I chuckled and shook my head.

“I’ll explain it properly later.”

Then I sat down and asked,

“But are you sure it’s okay for us to not cooperate with that guy? Our goals seem to align…”

I abruptly stopped when I saw Irene’s face distort mercilessly.

She leaned in, grabbing my shoulders, forcing me to look at her.

“Oppa, you should never trust those bastards.”

I could see her eyes. A dark, churning mess of emotions swirled in her pupils.

An unspeakable rage.

It was an intensity I had never seen from her before.

So, the question I’d been trying to suppress escaped my lips.

“Who are they?”

Irene’s eyes trembled.

“No, how do you even know them?”

Parsley, as knowledgeable as she is, didn’t know who the man was. She could only speculate that he was some sort of transcendental being.

But Irene recognized him at a glance. And not only that, she was even showing open hostility, as if they had some kind of history.

And there was something else.

Unlike me, who was confused by the current situation, Irene seemed completely calm, as if she had already experienced this before.

Or maybe someone had told her.

There were too many reasons to be suspicious.

As if realizing this, Irene bit her lower lip.

Her answer came after a long pause.

“…The world’s administrators.”

Leaning against the wall, Irene continued.

“They’ll do anything to ensure the survival of their world. Murder, massacres, torture, kidnapping… They’re extreme utilitarians who don’t care about individuals. And they can’t stand variables like us.”

It’s an excessively vague explanation. I opened my mouth to ask more.

“And that’s all I can tell you.”

However, Irene beat me to it. She continued speaking with a gloomy expression.

“I’m sorry, Oppa. I want to tell you too, but… not now.”

“Why?”

Irene didn’t answer. Directing her eyes downward, she spoke in a hardened voice.

“…I’ll explain everything someday. When this is all over.”

When I heard those words, I knew that it was just an empty promise, and that I might not get another chance to ask.

“Okay.”

But in the end, I shrugged.

This was because I trusted Irene. Though it had only been less than a year, but I trusted her.

She might be sly sometimes, but she was a good person. And the fact that she had helped Clara and Parsley was proof of that.

And more importantly…

To me, Irene was more than just Irene.

The only other person from my homeland.

Only those who’ve lived 20 years in an unfamiliar world would understand what that word meant. And to me, someone who’s been through so much, those words held even more weight.

So I could pretend to be an idiot once, just for her.

“So, what are we going to do?”

Having decided to drop it, I crossed my legs and quickly changed the subject.

“That man said there’s no way for us to go back, right?”

The man had suggested using the Dragon King’s essence as a return stone. But the Dragon King’s Essence I had no longer had that ability.

In other words, according to him, we’re trapped.

I looked at Irene, hoping he was wrong. But her words weren’t the solution I’d been hoping for.

“…Are you sure you’re okay with not staying here?”

Her voice was brimming with worry.

I could easily read her intentions because it was the same conflict that had bloomed in my heart.

Aren’t the Parsley and Clara here the ones I love?

And they’d even gone this far because they couldn’t let me go.

Could I really just leave them behind?

“…Let’s find a way to go back first.”

I said, swallowing my conflict.

It’s a question I couldn’t answer right now anyway. So, acting was more efficient than thinking.

“… Okay.”

Perhaps understanding my intention, Irene nodded with a stern expression. Then, crossing her arms, she answered my question.

“It’s not that we don’t have a way back. In the first place, the only reason I listened to that bastard’s story was to see if there were any methods I didn’t know of.”

Hopeful words.

But the look on her face wasn’t bright.

“…It must be difficult, then. This method you know.”

“No, the method itself isn’t difficult.”

Irene shook her head.

“As that bastard said, you can travel between worlds if you have a powerful artifact or magic tool. And we already know of two such artifacts.”

Alain’s pocket watch and the Dragon King’s essence.

“But we left the watch in our world, and the Dragon King’s essence…”

“Oppa, have you forgotten? This is a parallel world. It’s practically the same as ours.”

Realization hit me like a lightning bolt.

“Wait, you mean the watch and essence of ‘this world’…”

“That’s right. All we need to do is get our hands on one of them, and I already know where they are.”

In essence, There was a way.

But Irene’s face was still dark.

I asked cautiously,

“…And?”

“…The problem is that they’re at the Imperial Palace.”

She added in a gloomy voice,

“The very place where the four women who summoned you are.”

I had guessed as much, but hearing her say it made me sigh. Rubbing my temples, I asked,

“Just in case, but is there any chance we can talk our way out of this?”

“Let me ask you the same. If we go there and ask for the artifacts, saying that we need them to return to our world, how do you think they’ll react?”

If I hadn’t known that they were the ones who’d summoned me, I would have given her a positive answer.

But unfortunately, I knew. And I knew those four women very well.

“…I’m not sure about the others, but Clara, she’d probably chop off my limbs to keep me by her side.”

Or maybe she’d chop off her own limbs. I remembered the incident at the Vatican and let out a bitter laugh.

“…What about the others?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

I couldn’t understand the heart of those who defied fate because they couldn’t accept my death. I couldn’t even fathom their desperation.

…Besides, until a year ago, I had thought they were all doing fine. It means my speculations were no longer valid.

But…

“Still, I think the Captain might listen.”

“Emperor Rosalia?”

“Yeah.”

I nodded.

“I think the reason she summoned me here was out of guilt, not because she wanted me to be by her side.”

…If she wanted me by her side, she wouldn’t have said that bullshit about leaving as soon as my heart was healed.

“That doesn’t seem right…”

Irene tilted her head, her expression full of doubt. I smiled sheepishly and shook my head.

“You wouldn’t understand, you didn’t know what happened between the Captain and me.”

“No, I’m saying this because I do know.”

“…You know?”

To my bewildered question, Irene replied.

“Feya Unnie told me. What happened back then.”

“Feya…?”

I was speechless. It was to be expected. After all, those times were like an unhealed wound to her.

But then I pushed down my confusion, I could see where Irene’s misunderstanding was coming from.

“That’s because you heard it from Feya.”

“…What does that mean?”

“She tends to exaggerate things about the Captain and me.”

“…But half of her story was about how much of a bitch Rosalia is?”

“…She’s just bad at expressing herself.”

I clapped my hands, preventing the conversation from going off-topic.

“Anyway, I think the Captain might at least listen.”

However, Irene didn’t respond to my words. She narrowed her brows, then suddenly asked me,

“Just what exactly happened between you two?”

“… Don’t you think the current situation is a bit too urgent to be talking about that now?”

Knowing the whole truth now, I could tell…

…That Amy and the knights who were searching the library,

they were looking for me.

Probably, even now, they’re scattered around searching for my whereabouts.

“It’s fine for about a day. I erased all our tracks.”

Irene’s eyes become serious.

“And this is a more important issue than you think, Oppa. If we can persuade Emperor Rosalia, like you said, then things will be much easier.”

“Well, that’s true, but…”

“And after everything that happened with Clara, can you be so sure about your judgment?”

I was speechless. Eventually, I sighed and scratched my head.

“Yeah, you’re right. But it’s a long story. You okay with that?”

“I told you, one day won’t hurt.”

Irene nodded firmly.

It wouldn’t be right to back out now, after hearing her say that.

Letting out a sigh again, I began my story.

“So, there’s this small port city in the eastern part of the continent, called Hapnis…”

***

[The Wishing Stone and the Princess]

Subtitle: Three Idiots

Directed by: Marianne Drubis

Written by: Marianne Drubis, Rosalia Amalia Ulrike Rem

*Cast

– Rem

– Rosalia

– Feya

– Sheila

– And others

Location: Essier City Theater

Time: August 21st, 21:00. Nicolai year 74

P.S. All those Rose Rem Mercenary Group bastards better crawl up here

P.P.S. Feya will be breaking the legs of those who don’t come

P.P.P.S Is it okay if our legs are already broken and we don’t come?

P.P.P.P.S (Blood splatter) Dealt with.

***