The Time I Was Asleep

A red flash fell from the sky to the ground, and soon a huge shockwave surged.

As the world shook as if turning upside down, dust swept around like a storm.

The horse I was riding was startled by the sudden shockwave and roar, but there wasn’t a knight in the Imperial Knights who couldn’t handle a startled horse.

After the dust settled, what Theodore saw was the back of a man holding a red spear, his body tattered.

As if a meteorite had fallen, the ground around the man was completely overturned.

Nothing remained, just a large crater.

He had single-handedly caused destruction close to a disaster. His appearance was more than enough to call him a transcendent being.

Calming his startled horse and carefully moving forward, the man seemed to notice Theodore’s approach and glanced over his shoulder.

Blue eyes could be seen in the darkness that the moonlight couldn’t dispel.

The ferocious madness in those blue eyes instinctively made Theodore reach for his sword hilt.

A Sword Master’s instinct warned him of the man before him.

,Monster.’

Theodore swallowed hard at the man’s sharp, knife-like gaze.

He had met many transcendent beings of the continent while working in the Imperial Palace, but this was the first time someone had given him this much pressure with just their eyes.

Thankfully, as far as he knew, no one had ever been injured by a gaze alone.

Seureureung――!

As Theodore drew his sword, the members following behind him also drew their swords, tense.

,Leo, be careful.’

Leo, who was next to him, also gripped his sword tightly, tense at Theodore’s cautious voice.

Then, Princess Bella, who had been hidden by the man’s body, came into Theodore’s sight.

,P, Princess-nim?’

Theodore, who found Bella collapsed on the ground and protecting herself with magic, immediately raised his magic power.

If so, the man in front of him is from the cult that attacked the Princess.

The situation was assessed.

,Everyone, charge! Save the Princess-nim!!!’

At Theodore’s cry, the Imperial Knights charged towards the man at full speed.

Just as Theodore, who had raised his magic power, was about to unleash a powerful sword aura.

The man’s body staggered and collapsed forward powerlessly.

Theodore, bewildered by the sudden situation, froze with his sword raised high.

The Princess, holding the man covered in wounds in her arms, looked up at Theodore.

Making eye contact with her golden eyes, Theodore hurriedly dismounted and knelt to pay his respects.

,Princess Bella-nim! Theodore, the commander of the Second Imperial Knights-‘

,…Shh.’

Theodore closed his mouth for now at Bella’s gesture to be quiet. Theodore rolled his eyes at Bella’s appearance of carefully feeling the man’s body with cautious hands.

,What the hell is going on?’

Bella’s voice came to Theodore’s ears, who was sweating profusely at the incomprehensible situation.

,Potion.’

Theodore, who didn’t understand the short words, was momentarily stunned, but Leo quickly took out an emergency potion from his pocket.

As Leo carefully handed over the potion, Bella opened the cap with her own hands and carefully opened the man’s mouth to make him drink the potion, then let out a sigh of relief.

,Move this man to the Imperial Palace as carefully as possible.’

,…Y, Yes, I understand!’

He was curious about the man’s identity, but the Princess’s order came first.

At Theodore’s gesture, two members behind him approached and carefully lifted the man, who was in Bella’s arms.

While Leo was fixing the man’s body to the saddle so that it wouldn’t shake, Theodore supported Bella, who had fallen to the ground.

,A, Are you hurt anywhere…. Heoeok! Your arm, your arm…!’

Theodore, who discovered that Bella’s left arm was missing, quickly took out a potion from his pocket.

While Bella drank the potion, Theodore looked around with his head bowed as if he was sorry.

There were no traces of life at all. No, there weren’t even any landmarks.

Because it was all swept away and destroyed by the red flash, presumably caused by that man.

,Is he a transcendent being who was secretly protecting the Princess-nim?’

Theodore was convinced as he watched Bella throw the empty potion bottle on the floor and send a loving look to the man.

,They had a deep relationship!’

***

Seeing the knight in golden armor approaching on horseback, I knew it was the support force called by Estelle.

I let out a sigh of relief, thinking it was over, and immediately lost consciousness.

A moment later, a pure white world unfolded before my eyes when I regained consciousness.

A place where nothing exists. In this pure white world, where there isn’t even a boundary to distinguish between up and down, I was left alone like a black dot that fell from the sky.

,…What is it?’

When I was having the stupid thought of whether I had come to heaven, a message popped up in front of me with good timing.

[Authority – You have gained the penalty of continuing the battle.]

[You cannot leave this place until you have distinguished all the orbs.]

Along with that message, orbs smaller than my pinky fingernail began to fall from the sky like hail.

When I was blankly looking at the orbs rolling around, two pouches fell on my head with a thud.

I raised my hand to check the pouches placed on my head.

Simple pouches labeled black and white.

That alone made me realize what I had to do.

,Wow… I’m already bored?’

I can’t believe the penalty of authority is simply filling the pouches with orbs….

A groan flowed out involuntarily.

I was expecting to be unable to move for a few days as a penalty, or to be asleep for that long.

It was a more annoying penalty than I expected.

Moreover, seeing the warning message that I couldn’t leave this place until I had distinguished all the orbs, I was the one who would lose out if I tried to cheat.

In this place without landmarks or boundaries between up and down, I couldn’t even perceive the flow of time.

One hour spent here might be a day in reality. Maybe it will be a week.

,Oh, well, let’s pick them up for now.’

No matter how much I worried in my head, these were things I could only know if I got out of here.

In the end, if I wanted to see Luna even a little faster, I had no choice but to bend over and pick up the orbs diligently.

***

Unlike yesterday, it was a late night with many clouds and no moonlight.

Princess Bella’s room was filled with a tense atmosphere.

,…If there’s nothing wrong, why hasn’t he woken up even after a day?’

The priest and the magician quietly lowered their heads at Bella’s cold question.

They had checked his body with magic, but there was nothing wrong. But for some reason, the man did not regain consciousness.

Even Benedict, who heard this news, came with a triumphant expression, holding a potion containing the power of the Saintess-nim, but even that great potion did not wake the man up.

Reason unknown.

However, no one said that out loud. The priests and magicians who came and went to the Imperial Palace knew that tact was life.

Just, Bella’s fierce momentum, silently looking at the man, had a strange pressure that made even Benedict shut his mouth and lower his head.

When everyone was sweating in the suffocating atmosphere, Bella sighed.

,…Everyone, go out.’

,Yes, yes!’

Everyone hid their happy hearts at Bella’s words and hurriedly left the room.

Benedict also tried to say a word of comfort, but he closed his mouth and followed behind the room, slightly following Bella’s heavy atmosphere that refused to approach.

Tak.

At the sound of the door closing, Bella sat on the end of the bed where Ross was lying.

It was awkward for Ross to be lying in the room she had used since she was a child. Even Roel had never laid on her bed.

Bella gave Ross a complicated look.

If Ross had said a few days ago that he would risk his life to protect her, Bella could have bet the position of Princess on it being a lie.

That’s how much it didn’t make sense.

Ross didn’t know what she had done to him.

Even Ross came to her a while ago and threatened to kill her with a hateful voice.

All the emotions Ross showed her at the time were genuine.

She didn’t regret what she had done to Ross. Until just yesterday.

Because there was no one in this world who would be on her side except for Roel.

The short words Ross threw after saving her life.

,Don’t die.’

The sincerity in that voice made Bella’s head even more complicated.

Why did Ross, who hated her….

Why did he show her such emotions like Roel?

She wanted to ask.

What did he mean by acting like that?

Why did he fight so desperately without giving up on her, who he hated so much, even in a life-threatening situation?

Also, she wanted to know why he lied to her.

When she asked if he wanted her to become Emperor.

It was a lie that he gave a materialistic answer that if his brother’s girlfriend became Emperor, wouldn’t something fall on him?

Surprisingly, Ross just purely wanted her to become Emperor.

That’s why she was even more curious. Until now, no one except Roel had wanted anything from her.

Money, position, power, body….

People who needed her because she had the status of Princess.

Lying, smiling at her. Those who offer loyalty without any sincerity.

Among the people who would turn their backs on her at any time if her value as a user fell.

She thought that the only person she could trust was only Roel in this world.

But Bella was now able to carefully recall one more person’s name.

Because that person told her to trust him as much as she wanted.

,…Ross.’

The name she said out loud sounded really awkward.

Just saying his name made Bella bite her lip with soaring guilt.

Complicated head, emotions that can’t be grasped.

When Bella, who was in confusion, covered her face with both hands and sighed, someone knocked.

Knock knock―

-Princess-nim. Roel-nim has arrived.

Bella was startled and got up from the bed at the maid’s voice. It was Roel who had left the academy for a while to find Ilia and the spirit beast.

She was worried that he might worry about the missing Ross, so she put a letter in Roel’s drawer that wrote about what had happened in the meantime. She didn’t expect him to come right away like this.

She couldn’t predict what kind of reaction Roel would show her. Feeling a strange anxiety, Bella carefully opened the door.

,Hello, Bella.’

Bella replied in a creeping voice to Roel’s appearance, who greeted her with a warm smile as always.

,Roel.’

,…I came to pick up my brother.’

There was an unmistakable deep sadness in Roel’s voice as he said that.