Episode 26
"Meow..."
"...Another cat dream today. Nice."
Lately, I've been having a lot of cat dreams for some reason. Lucid dreams, at that.
Of course, for someone who loves cats to madness, this is the best situation imaginable.
After all, the only thing that can comfort my exhausted heart is this dream world filled with cats.
'...No, I should start venting to Cania from now on.'
Honestly, I wanted to pretend I didn't know that Cania had figured things out about me... but that was honestly too lonely.
It might be a bit rude to say about a cat doll, but I can't exactly pour my heart out forever to a doll that can only make meowing sounds.
"Meow?"
As I was thinking this, the cat in front of me tilted its head and started approaching my feet.
"...Huh?"
Looking closely, I saw that my black cat doll, one of my most treasured possessions lately, was looking at me with hazy eyes.
Only then realizing that the one making cat sounds was my beloved cat doll, I greeted it with joy but then cautiously asked, wondering if it might have noticed my inner thoughts.
"Um... surely you didn't peek into my inner thoughts, right?"
"...Haaak!"
Then, the cat doll made a hissing sound with a sulky expression and turned its head away. Thanks to that, I became embarrassed and scratched my head while muttering.
"Well, it's a dream existence, so of course it would know my thoughts."
"...Meow."
"Sorry... I'll pet your belly instead... ah, is this something I like?"
After apologizing to the cat doll for a while, I suddenly looked around and frowned.
"...This place, it's somehow familiar."
Looking around the strangely familiar street and retracing my thoughts, I saw a small child walking from afar and opened my eyes wide while muttering.
"...It's me as a child?"
I don't know why, but my childhood self was walking toward where I was, holding someone's hand.
Feeling somehow like I should hide, I quickly moved my body toward the wall, and the cat doll toddled along after me.
As I was hiding behind the wall, my childhood self who was walking down the street stopped, pointed somewhere, then let go of someone's hand and started running somewhere.
"Damn. Why of all times..."
And at that moment, I instantly understood what situation this was.
"...W-who are you?"
"Why are you lying like that? Are you hurt somewhere?"
Right now, I seemed to be dreaming about the day I first met Perloche.
"T-that is... well..."
Perloche, lying on the street in a disheveled state, started looking at my childhood self who was looking down at her with fearful eyes.
Seeing that appearance, the image of Perloche looking at me with contemptuous eyes at the cathedral today came to mind again.
"...Ugh."
I hurriedly closed my eyes and covered my ears, afraid that the young Perloche's appearance in the dream might change like that, but for some reason, I could still see ahead clearly and hear sounds distinctly.
"Here, eat this."
"What is this...?"
"Potion. If you eat this, your pain will get better."
Perloche, who inadvertently received a top-grade potion from my childhood self, asked with a guarded expression.
"You... who are you?"
"Frey Laon Starlight, the first son of the Starlight Ducal House."
"Why are you being good to me?"
"........"
My childhood self, hearing her prickly answer, propped his chin on his hand and fell into thought with a serious expression.
Then Perloche, who had been looking at my childhood self with suspicious eyes, smiled a cold smile as if she knew it would happen and said.
"I knew it... If I drink this potion, you're plotting to kidnap me somewhere, right? I don't need this kind of potion. So take it back."
And from that point, I started tilting my head with doubt.
'...It's different from my memory?'
Certainly in my memory, Perloche should have made a foolish expression there, said thank you, and then gulped down the potion. But why is the content of the dream different?
"...Why shouldn't I be good to you?"
"...What?"
As I was pondering that question, my childhood self answered with a bright expression, and Perloche said with a flustered look.
"What do you mean..."
"You were hurt so I helped you, is that wrong?"
"........."
Then Perloche quietly closed her mouth, and my childhood self took out 2 more potions from his bosom, gave them to her, and pointed to the cathedral in the distance while saying.
"There's a cathedral over there! If you go there, they'll take care of you!"
"...The cathedral is not trustworthy. Some of my friends went there and went missing."
"...Huh."
But when Perloche spoke coldly, my childhood self was speechless for a moment, eyes rolling, then cautiously said.
"...Then, want to come to our house?"
"As expected! You were a human trafficker too!"
"What's a human trafficker?"
"You don't even know that? It means bad people who kidnap kids like us and sell them off!"
".....?"
After listening to angry Perloche's words for a while, my childhood self heard someone calling him from afar and started saying goodbye to Perloche.
"...Sorry, I think I have to go now."
"W-wait a moment! Go where, you human trafficker!"
"If you have nowhere to go, definitely go to that cathedral over there! It's a safe place I visit often too!"
"That's exactly! That's your scheme!"
"...Well then, stay well!"
My childhood self, who firmly gave her some kind words, started walking toward someone with quick steps, and Perloche, who had been looking at the potions in her hand for a while, started shouting with stammering voice at me who was moving away.
"I-if any strange reaction occurs after feeding it to a passing rat! Then... I'll immediately expose the Starlight family's atrocities to the world!"
She, who had been huffing and puffing for a while, soon muttered with a downcast expression.
"...I'm running out of food, maybe I really should go to the cathedral."
And the next moment, the world stopped.
"...What?"
At that strange phenomenon, I and the black cat doll next to me looked around in bewilderment, and then a brilliant radiance started flowing out from right beside me.
"...Ugh."
I frowned for a moment at the brilliant radiance, but realizing that it wasn't blinding at all, I started tilting my head.
"Me... meow..."
".....?"
But the cat doll suddenly started trembling violently, then hid behind me and stuck its head out slightly, glaring at the light.
"...What's wrong? Kitty?"
"...Meow."
Looking at the somehow completely dejected cat doll, I soon felt a presence from ahead and instinctively reached for my waist... but perhaps because it's a dream, my beloved sword was nowhere to be seen.
"Calm down."
"...Y-you surprised me!"
As I was backing away hesitantly with the cat doll, a human form started emerging from the light.
"...Who are you?"
"I'm a thought entity that was dwelling in your treasured sword, and I'm about to dissipate after using up all my power. For now, just know that much."
"...What?"
Before long, someone who looked somewhat similar to me walked out from the light and started spouting incomprehensible words.
"Actually, I've tried quite hard to interfere since a long time ago, but being a thought entity, I didn't have enough power so it didn't work well."
"...You didn't have enough power?"
"Yeah. But thanks to what you experienced today, your unconscious defense weakened, and I finally succeeded in interfering with the memory I wanted to show you! It's really fortunate."
".....?"
As I was looking at him with puzzlement, the man suddenly smiled and drew the sword at his waist.
"Wait, what are you doing right now..."
- Kajiiiing!
"......!"
And the next moment, the sky split.
"W-what on earth... are you... what exactly is your identity...?"
I, who had turned pale at such an overwhelming sight and prostrated on the ground, asked with a trembling voice, and the man pointed at the sky and spoke indifferently.
"Never mind that, just look at that. It's an important foreshadowing."
"...!?"
As I looked up at the sky as he said, the sun was split in half.
Looking at that sight with my mouth agape, as the man before my eyes started fading, I urgently asked.
"So, what is that?"
"Good grief..."
Then, he scratched his head, left one last word, and scattered to pieces, disappearing.
"...Just memorize it, I said."
And the next moment, darkness descended upon the world.
Panicked, I picked up the cat doll that had been trembling behind me and started looking around, and then discovered something strange.
"...Perloche?"
The young Perloche, who had been stopped holding the potions, was looking at me at some point.
"...Frey."
"W-what is this... heup...!"
As I cautiously approached her, I was startled and fell backward, bruising my bottom.
"I... hurt..."
"Ah, aah..."
Perloche was shedding bloody tears with the Demon King's army's weapons stuck all over her body.
"It hurts, it hurts so much I feel like I'll die."
"No, no no... why are you showing me this again... I didn't want to see this again... I tried not to even accidentally recall it... it's never appeared in my dreams even once..."
"Frey..."
"Just, just why...?"
Trembling violently at the terrible sight I never wanted to see again in my life, Perloche twisted her neck grotesquely, instantly came right in front of me, and whispered.
"...It's all your fault. Why are you pretending not to know?"
"Heup, huah..."
Unable to even think of backing away at that horrible sight, trembling violently, someone started tapping my shoulder from the side.
"Lord Frey..."
And the next moment, something speaking with the Princess's voice whispered in my ear.
"...Was slicing open my belly a satisfying experience?"
"Ugh, uuu..."
Unable to bring myself to look to the side, head bowed deeply, this time two people spoke to me from behind at the same time.
"...Young master, please just give up."
"...Give up and be at peace, Frey. Don't fight until the end like I did."
Hearing the sound of Cania stabbing her own throat with a sword and Serena's faint voice, I was biting my lips hard when I started feeling a strange sensation on both my legs.
Biting my lips hard and looking toward my legs, Isollet and my father were holding both my legs, shedding bloody tears, and smiling coldly.
".....Uuu."
I closed my eyes and started struggling to not look at them, but even though it was dark all around, even though I squeezed my eyes shut, no matter how much I struggled, they who were mocking me with grotesque appearances became only more distinct.
"G-get away! Get away, I said!!"
And I don't know why, but I started being seized with more and more fear.
It was a terrible scene I absolutely didn't want to see, but it's strange that I'm this overcome with fear.
Certainly my mental strength is...
"Uh, uhh...?"
Suddenly my body started being dragged somewhere.
Coming to my senses and looking around, the dream existences were trying to drag me into pitch-black darkness that had appeared behind me at some point.
Somehow, I felt like something irreversible would happen if I entered there.
"...Kugh!"
"Meoooow!"
Panicked, I started grabbing the ground to resist their strength, and at the same time, the black cat doll bit my leg and started pulling, helping me not to be dragged into the darkness.
But perhaps because there were overwhelmingly more people?
Or perhaps unconsciously I thought I wanted to give up now?
Though I grabbed the ground until my hands were all scraped, I started being dragged into the darkness by the dream existences.
"Me, meooow!!"
The cat doll, panicked at that desperate situation, eventually let go of my leg it had been biting and started running somewhere.
"...Right, at least you survive."
Witnessing that sight, I eventually sighed and let go of the ground I had been grabbing, and at that moment the dream existences made grotesque smiles and started pushing me into the darkness.
What would happen if I fall into that darkness?
Unexpectedly, would I just open my eyes in the morning with nothing happening?
Or would I eventually fall into corruption as well?
I don't really know. I just want to give up everything for a moment and rest...
- Kabababang!!!
"...Huh?"
As I was quietly watching my body slowly sinking into darkness, a twinkling light from afar started brightly illuminating the street.
So at first I thought the mysterious existence had returned, but looking closely, the situation was a bit different from when that existence appeared.
While before when the mysterious existence appeared, twinkling light had shot out in all directions, now brilliant particles were illuminating the surroundings.
""...Krrk.""
The particles that had been illuminating my surroundings suddenly burst all at once and started shooting out beams of light, and the dream existences hit by those beams instantly turned to black ash and disappeared.
- Shaaa...
Soon the light particles that had even melted the darkness trying to consume me, burrowed into my bosom and melted away faintly, melting the fear that had been consuming me.
"...Meow."
Looking at that sight in bewilderment, suddenly the cat doll's crying sound started being heard from ahead.
So I inadvertently looked ahead, and the cat doll was dragging someone by the ankle with its teeth, coming toward me.
"K-kitty... if you recklessly bite a person's ankle..."
I, who was hurriedly trying to stop the cat doll, stopped my words and started looking at the person in front of my eyes.
'...It's the person who was holding young me's hand and walking earlier, isn't it?'
As I was staring piercingly at that somehow familiar person, she, who had extended her hand forward, clenched her hand.
- Shuuu...
Then, the particles that had spread everywhere disappeared all at once.
".....!"
And at that moment, I could instantly understand who she was before my eyes.
"If the Sunrise Imperial Family is the sun that brightly illuminates the empire's morning, and the Moonlight Ducal House is the moon that faintly illuminates the empire's night..."
I urgently started running toward her who was already speaking with a nostalgic smile,
"...The Starlight Ducal House is the star that guards those who failed to receive that light."
"Huh, uh uh..."
She, who was dividing into countless star particles and disappearing, left me one last word and vanished before my eyes.
"...So you, who tries to protect everyone, are a sufficiently noble child. Frey."
"Mother......?"
And the next moment, I was muttering a word I hadn't used since I was young, with my hand extended into the air, lying on the dormitory bed.
".........."
In that state, blankly staring for a while, I carefully put down the black cat doll I had been hugging tightly to the side and glanced sideways.
"........."
Thus confirming with sidelong glances that Cania was still asleep, I carefully got up from my spot, afraid she might wake, and headed to the desk.
- Jorureu...
Soon sitting in the chair beside the desk, I quietly started pouring the remaining alcohol into a glass.
"...This is shit."
And I started drinking alcohol alone until daybreak.
Of course, my mood didn't improve at all.
.
"...Y-young master. Are you alright?"
As soon as morning came, Cania, who got up from her spot, hurriedly approached Frey who was at the desk.
"...You're up? Cania?"
"Young master, is there perhaps something wrong with your body?"
"...Why do you ask that?"
As Frey asked while tilting his head, Cania, who rolled her eyes for a moment, answered in a low voice.
"Ah, that's... I heard screaming in the early morning."
"...Ah, that."
Then Frey answered, trying hard to force a smile.
"...I just had a nightmare."
"........."
Cania, who heard those words, stiffened her expression and quietly stepped back, saying.
"Then... I'll bring breakfast."
"...Alright."
As Cania was chewing her lips finely and about to go outside, Frey asked her a question in a low voice.
"...Cania."
Somehow that voice was trembling, so Cania looked at him with a worried expression and asked.
"...Why do you ask?"
Then, Frey, who was holding an old paper in his hand, started cautiously asking her.
"...Suppose you've believed only in the prophecy written on a single sheet of paper and have devoted your life to it as your destiny until now."
"...Yes."
"But... what if, just what if that prophecy was wrong, what do you think would happen?"
Hearing those words, Cania answered with a pitying smile.
"Don't worry too much. As far as I can tell, that prophecy is not wrong at..."
"...It's already been wrong twice."
"...What?"
But as Frey spoke while trembling the hand holding the paper, Cania stiffened her expression and asked.
"What do you mean by that...?"
"Even if we consider the penalty regarding the main heroines' memories as such... what on earth is going on with Perloche's past...? Certainly the setting for Perloche in the prophecy book was..."
"...Young master?"
"Something is wrong here... it's wrong to an extreme degree..."
Frey eventually crumpled the prophecy book, threw it into his bag, and started muttering weakly.
"If I can't even trust the prophecy book... then what am I supposed to believe...? The system? No... the system is the one who put me in this state in the first place... then, what exactly am I supposed to believe..."
"...Lord Frey."
"I can't even trust my own memories now... so what am I supposed to believe..."
Unable to watch that sight, Cania approached Frey, carefully embraced him, and whispered.
"Young master, you can trust me."
"........."
"...Because I am your confidant."
Thus, the two spent time holding each other for a long while.
And the morning sunlight leaking from the window was shining on them brightly, if unfairly.