123 – 25. Dream in a dream
She smiles elegantly, wearing a blood-red crown.
The black robes glowed darkly under the dim light, and the cloak, which was not made of red cloth but a blood-like liquid, shimmered.
Kim Eun-ha stretched out her hand to me without even thinking about wiping the bloody tears flowing from one eye.
“Why are you doing this? Fortune teller. No…Namgoong Min.”
“…Are you really the princess?”
“Of course it’s me. Kim Eun-ha, who we met during a special exam, spent the first semester together, and became close friends with you. You even prevented my assassination threat, right?”
“……………….”
“Shall we walk first? There is an end to this hallway. Follow me.”
Alluring and relaxed.
It was clear that the person in front of me was Eunha Kim, but it felt like it wasn’t Eunha Kim.
She walked down the dark hallway in front of her, tears of blood dripping from her eyes.
“Where is…?”
“It’s a lucid dream. Oh, aren’t you looking for this answer? This is the basement of the princess’s palace.”
“…You mean underground?”
“It’s a prison under the palace that I used to run around with when I was young. It’s a hell where only the worst of the worst can come, and I can never get out again.”
Why on earth is such a place in the basement of the princess’s palace?
…… I already knew why.
And.
Kim Eun-ha also seemed to know that fact.
“As expected, you didn’t ask.”
“……….”
“You knew everything. Things I shouldn’t know, things no one should know, even secrets I kept hidden. Maybe that’s why I can confess even my most intimate secrets.”
“……………….”
“Are you silent? That’s a good attitude. Well, there’s nothing worse than explaining something to someone you already know, but… Please take a closer look. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this sense of freedom.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. This is a dungeon, a prisoner’s hell, a place of my childhood memories… And a place where sacrifices for me are gathered.”
Cheolkeong.
Prison bars on both sides of the hallway.
Kim Eun-ha picked up a chain that was connected to the inside of a pitch-black prison where not even the faintest light could reach and pulled it lightly.
Of course, it was a light movement even for her.
Bam!!
“Whoop!!!”
“Ah, I remember Mr. Park Hwang-cheol. He was a special person among the prisoners gathered here.”
“…Special, you mean?”
“Of course. When you were first brought here, you looked at me and said you would rather rape me. How scared was I as a child?”
“……….”
“That kind of guy is like this now.”
Park Hwang-cheol.
A prisoner with his entire body bound in chains, without even a sense of self, just moaning in pain.
If I remember correctly…… That was the name of the doll in the young princess’s room.
Is it because it is a lucid dream, or are the young princess and Kim Eun-ha in front of her eyes the same person?
Without having time to answer the question, Kim Eun-ha grabbed Park Hwang-cheol by the scruff of the neck and laughed.
“What’s wrong? He’s a child s*x offender. That’s why he came here after receiving the death penalty, right?”
“Ugh, ugh…”
“Still, he was special. He was the only prisoner who lasted four days. To me, it was like having my beloved doll broken.”
Thud.
Kim Eun-ha, who made an ominous sound from Park Hwang-cheol’s throat with only the strength of her slender arms, threw him limply into the darkness.
She wiped her hand, which had been holding his neck, on her bars as if she had touched something dirty, and then looked back at me.
“Don’t worry because you’re not dead. You can’t kill the person you are now.”
“You mean the curse of immortality?”
“To be exact, it’s a contract. From that day on, the Has shackled me. Thanks to that, I can’t kill others even if I hurt them.”
As if to prove it, Park Hwang-cheol’s moans were heard in the darkness.
Even though it was an infinitely terrible sound, Kim Eun-ha moved lightly as if she was used to it and took another step.
“Are you unfamiliar with me like this?”
“Yes.”
“You speak so confidently. It makes me sad to be turned away by a fortune teller I can trust.”
“……Is it okay if I ask you one thing?”
“Oh, what would a fortune teller who knows everything ask? I’m excited.”
“Have you been liberated from ?”
“…I see, you might be curious about that.”
Tap.
A hallway with only dim lights and bars.
Like before, the princess takes the lead, and I follow.
The difference is that she does not hold my hand and lead me.
Is it her trust that I will follow her, or is it her conviction that she has no choice but to follow me anyway?
One thing is certain.
All she could say was that she was in a very good mood right now.
“How much do you know about ?”
“I know enough to know.”
“As you know, Is a skill I have had since I was born. It kept my body healthy and improved my physical abilities.”
“But aren’t there side effects?”
“It was pretty minor. He just wanted to kill someone on a regular basis.”
, , .
The occupation and general skills that Kim Eun-ha has had since birth.
General skills that can usually only be obtained through artifacts or special opportunities, the princess was already born with both.
It’s definitely a blessing, though.
The content of the skill was the problem.
‘
Was also called . You can satisfy your desires by killing others periodically…… Is a skill that loses its sanity but becomes stronger as it is covered in blood.’
If it became known that the princess of the Korean Empire was born with such skills, it was obvious what kind of division would arise.
Therefore, the emperor practically imprisoned Kim Eun-ha in the princess’s palace, and at the same time called her
Mediator and placed restrictions on her ministers to keep the princess’s secrets.
And finally, an underground prison was built under the princess’s palace to house only death row inmates.
It relieved her On a regular basis.
This bizarre daily life went quite smoothly.
The princess grew up, until the day she turned seven.
“It was a happy day.”
“…Is that so?”
“Anyway, the prisoners who come here are people who have already been sentenced to death and no longer exist in the world. If I can ‘use’ such people to relieve my , Isn’t it a useful use?”
“……………….”
“There are child s*x offenders like Mr. Park Hwang-cheol, serial killers, economic criminals, and terrorists. They were not people, they were just objects that only made me feel stable.”
“……….”
“I was handling Well, and Mama Mama came to visit often. Abama Mama… Almost never came. Anyway, even though I was trapped in this palace, I was able to have whatever I wanted.”
…… In front.
The end of the hallway where the princess walks.
I saw a door.
Soon, Kim Eun-ha walked up to the door and naturally opened the door.
“Of course…Until that day.”
“……This.”
“It’s a mark from that day. A scar carved into me.”
Beyond the door was a small room.
Unlike the dark and cold prison, the room was cozy and warm.
The bookshelf, table, and bed are well maintained, and a soft, warm light shines in the center of the room.
A person was sitting on a chair, lying limp and dead.
…… It was the same hair color as Kim Eun-ha.
“It’s my mom.”
“……………….”
“It was the same day as always. This was a place where I took a nap or rested after relieving my worries.”
Kim Eun-ha, who was caressing the bookshelf and table as if it was a place she missed, walked around the room around her body.
Even though I didn’t know this room at all, it was a room that made me feel nostalgic and warm.
The corpse in the middle was emitting cold air as if it were denying him.
“Originally, Mom used to play with me in my room in the princess’s palace. We read storybooks, played with dolls, and played house often.”
“……….”
The room in the princess’s palace where the young princess slept together.
“But that day, Mom and Mom came all the way here. It was probably my birthday. They were planning to give me a surprise, right?”
“……………….”
“So, Momma came to this room for the first time… And it turned out to be her last visit.”
And the room in the dungeon where the corpse lies.
Both of the rooms were Kim Eun-ha’s rooms.
It was her memory again.
“…When I came to my senses, Momma had passed away. She was lying on the floor, cold.”
“Is it true that the feeling of death has not been resolved?”
“Well, honestly, I don’t think it really matters. It doesn’t change the fact that in the end, I was the one who killed Eomamama.”
The day when her happy life as a child changed.
That night, three consuls came to see her little girl.
” Makes the contract, Makes the obligations, and Makes the restrictions.”
“……….”
“That’s how my Was sealed, and I was able to leave the princess’s palace.”
That is Kim Eun-ha’s past. A past that was a little different from what I knew.
But then a question arises.
Why wasn’t Sealed from the beginning?
“Nam Goong Min, do you know that?”
“…What do you mean?”
“
Was with me since birth, a part of me. Since it was tied up and disappeared… I stopped being ‘myself’.”
Suppose there is a person who was born without limbs.
A person with healthy limbs would see him as disabled, but for someone who had no limbs to begin with, that is normal.
If you grow and grow like that, you actually get used to not having limbs.
Even if we were able to walk and touch with artificial limbs.
People tend to get confused due to the gap with the senses they have had since birth.
‘So, Kim Eun-ha’s Disappeared…… ….’
Naturally, you experience a mental gap.
Of course, because it was the imperial family who knew about her and were concerned about her, they relieved her , Albeit in a deformed form.
That was broken after Kim Eun-ha killed her mother and empress.
In the end, the imperial family made the decision.
I would rather live in an imperfect state.
“Do you remember what I said earlier?”
“Yes, I remember everything.”
“As expected, you’re amazing. I told you. Right now… I’m feeling liberated.”
In the middle of the room where my mother’s body was placed.
Eunha Kim smiled maniacally and spread her arms wide.
The blood that flowed from her eyes, blood-red crown, and cloak began to gradually wet her room.
“With my life sealed away, I became incomplete. I was always frustrated, forgetting something, and feeling uncomfortable somewhere. But what about now?”
“…You’re smiling.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Namgoong Min.”
…… Me?
My…… Thanks to you?
What is that──
“As I met you more and more, I realized something.”
From Noble mtl dot com
“What on earth…….”
“My Shakes every time I see you.”
“……………….”
“But as an imperfect person, I didn’t know. Because my Was sealed away, I didn’t know what it felt like. I may have mistaken that heart pounding for love.”
“……….”
“But right now… It’s only a brief liberation in a lucid dream, but I’m fully aware.”
──I want to kill you.
──And I want to soak myself in that blood.
“……….”
Overwhelming madness and joy.
Kim Eun-ha, smiling brightly along with her bloody tears, slowly approached me.
Her entire body was soaked in blood, and she was slapping the blood-filled floor.
I carefully placed my hand near my heart.
“So…Nam Goong Min.”
“……Yes, princess.”
“Do you mind if I kill you?”
That was the smile I saw earlier.
The pure smile that the young princess wore.
The only thing that changed was his appearance and what he said.
That’s why.
“No.”
“……Is that so?”
“If you ask me in real life rather than in a lucid dream, the answer may be different.”
“Ah, hahahaha, hahahahaha…As expected.”
Sigh.
She withdrew her hand from her chest and stepped back.
Her blood throbbed along with him.
The overflowing blood stops, and the blood accumulating on the floor gradually disappears.
Eunha Kim was looking at me with a pure smile with her back turned, as if she was really just asking a question.
“As expected, people who can come this far… Are different. Just one word from you touches my heart.”
“…Is it related to the fact that the hero was kicked out first?”
“If you think about it, it’s true. Abel Legion is a dream within a dream…It can’t enter my deep heart, and it’s not worth it. I let it escape first, since it couldn’t come in anyway.”
“You left it…?”
“…Now, it’s time. Even if it’s a dream within a dream, I can’t hold on any longer.”
“……Yes?”
Gugh.
A sound is heard from somewhere.
The same sound I heard in the young princess’s room.
Like what was heard when the hero scratched the space──
“──Huh?”
The door to the small room opens.
And what you see is…… Crack.
A huge, torn apart crack began to suck me in fiercely.
“Ugh…!?”
“Remember, Nam Goong Min. This is just a dream in a lucid dream, and when I wake up, I will be incomplete again.”
“Princess…!”
“The me now and the me you know is the same person. This is what I was like when I was young.”
Eunha Kim says:
She wears a blood-red crown.
She suddenly became younger and wore her white dress.
“And please remember the deep sincerity in my heart.”
“………!!”
I can’t hold on any longer, right before I’m roughly sucked into the crack.
The young woman said with a smile.
“──Seriously, I want to kill you.”
That was her sendoff.
*
[Eunha Kim’s character event goal has been achieved!]
[Goal achieved: ‘Bringing out Kim Eun-ha’s sincerity’]
[The next goal has been updated!]
[Caution!!: This event requires high combat power. The fortune teller can’t do anything alone, so gather some friends!]