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‘…… It’s a dream.’
I knew it in my head. It’s all in the past, it’s just the past. That I’m just having a nightmare standing still.
Still, overwhelmed by the memories, I couldn’t move my whole body.
Then, the lizard stared at me like a predator, indicating that it had captured its prey.
I’ll be eaten at this rate.
My opponent was much smaller than I was, but my instinct sounded such a warning.
“No…..”
Very barely, I moved my lips a little.
As if noticing my defiance, the lizard opened its mouth wider.
In the next second, several things happened at the same time.
The lizard lunged at me with its mouth open as wide as its body.
At the same time, as if noticing my feeble struggle, Ian looked back at me.
“Irene!”
Ian shouted, but the lizard was a little faster this time.
The leaping lizard’s head came close to swallowing me whole. Nightmarish memories hit me like a tidal wave.
“Do not come!”
I closed my eyes tightly and shouted with all my might. The voice that gathered from inside my stomach burst out.
At the same time as my scream, my body moved again, as if freed from the scissors. I gasped and coughed.
“Cough, Cough!”
My throat felt sore as if I had inhaled fumes. While coughing, I frowned and opened my eyes. Lizards were nowhere to be seen.
‘Huh?’
I thought the lizard’s head had gone away, but it was slumped on the floor. And I saw Ian running towards me from the other side.
“Irene! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine……Cough.”
Did Ian save me again?
I was about to say thank you this time, but Ian glared at the lizard with a terrifying look.
“How dare it be dirty.”
Ian raised his sword and aimed the tip at the wriggling lizard. And the next moment.
Wham!
From the tip of the sword, energy shot out like an explosion.
“Huh……”
I covered my mouth so as not to scream.
A thick cloud of smoke spread in the aftermath of the explosion. After a while, the smoke died down, and there was no trace of the lizard anymore. The floor also became horrific, as if it had been bombed.
“Are you okay?”
Ian looked back at me and asked again.
I gave a strong nod. My throat was a little sore, but that went away after I coughed once.
“I’m fine, cough, don’t mind me. Rather……”
I tried to explain to Ian what I had just been through. It was clear that the lizard just now was also some kind of dream horse, seeing as it had triggered nightmares in my head.
But another voice interrupted me.
“…… Customer, you.”
Ah. Come to think of it, Rizello was here as well.
I turned around and looked at Rizello. I had forgotten about him for a while.
He was making a strange face.
“No way……”
Rizello murmured.
He looks like he is shocked, and I feel like he has been hit. In a way, he seemed to be moved. It was a colourful expression that I never thought I would see in a teddy bear.
What’s the matter with him? I opened my mouth and tried to answer, but I was in a strange feeling.
“Hey.”
Ian strode forward and grabbed Rizello by the collar.
“Si-Sir Ian?”
Ian walked up to Rizello and grabbed him by the collar.
I understood that he was talking rudely, but he grabbed him by the collar! I was agonising over whether I should stop it, but Ian whispered to Rizello as if to warn him.
“Fuck off your dirty curiosity. Whatever you see, you’d better pretend you didn’t see it.”
“ … Did you know? Sir Ian, you too.”
Even with Ian’s collar, Rizello looked at me with his shiny doll eyes.
Ian growled.
“Didn’t you understand? Whatever it is, it’s a story to get attention.”
“The response makes me even more sure. Is what I saw true?”
What in the world are you two talking about?
Even though it was clearly a conversation in the imperial language, I couldn’t understand a single thing the two were saying.
Ian violently shoved Rizello by the collar, as if tossing him away.
“Don’t approach my wife. The moment you dare to do it, it will be regarded as an attack on me and the cathedral.”
“I’m scared. I don’t want to see a war between the Magic Tower and the cathedral. But…Do you want to share something fun? Isn’t it?”
“Stop the bullshit.”
Clank, the sound of drawing a sword, resonated fiercely.
Ian had already drawn his sword?
Even in the midst of this, I looked back at Ian with a curious thought, and I opened my mouth wide in fright.
What was in Ian’s hand was the same sword he used to fight the incubus. The holy sword that should be sleeping in subspace.
“Don’t approach my wife. I’ll cut you right now if you don’t swear.”
Ian pointed at Rizello and said.
At that moment, the jewels embedded in the wall came out all at once and surrounded Ian. Jewels imbued with magic power emitted light as if they were alive and hummed menacingly. As if if Ian moved even a little, he would attack right away.
Rizello put her hands up to show.
“I have no intention of fighting with the commander.”
“I swear.”
“Don’t do this. If I turn the Magic Tower into an enemy, I’ll be in trouble at the cathedral, right?”
“He has a very long tongue.”
A white halo of light fell on the blade of the holy sword. It was the same light he saw when he killed the incubus.
‘This is insane.’
I don’t know how it’s going, but what’s certain is that Ian’s eyes have turned properly.
No matter how much he was brainwashed, Ian was the one who became the final boss in the original storyline. If he made a mistake, he was a man who could easily wield a sword even if the opponent was the Magic Master.
Besides, what about Rizello? He, too, was by no means a good person who would laugh at provocations.
“St-Stop. Enough already!”
I shouted and jumped in front of Ian.
It seemed that no one would be able to stop these lunatics unless I stepped in.
‘
I don’t know. I’m going to be a human shield!’
With such a heroic resolution, I shouted again.
“I want both of you to stop. For now, without even thinking about trying to solve it through conversation— Cough. Cough!”
Was it because of the sudden, loud shout?
A cough broke out and I felt a sore throat. Of course, in the middle of it, I heard a cough, and the cough became more intense.
“Cough, cough, cough!”
“Irene. Irene!”
Ian looked back at me hurriedly.
“Are you all right? God damn it, too much….”
With such a murmur, Ian touched my forehead.
I only coughed a little, but it was a reaction as if he were treating a seriously ill person. Feeling a bit embarrassed, I shook my head while coughing.
“I just heard a little chatter, Cough. Anyway, Cough! You can’t fight him.”
I quickly whispered in Ian’s ear as he got closer.
“What the hell, are you really going to start a war? When you point your sword at the Master of the Magic Tower, you know what it means!”
If I had known that such a huge thing would happen, I would never have come near the magic tower with Ian. I would have been better off waiting for him at Miss Melody’s mansion.
“Let’s go back. First.”
Ian said urgently. It was a voice that was hard to hear from him.
‘Could it be that he’s worried about me?’
…… Just because I coughed?
It was a guess that made no sense in terms of common sense, but once the word to return came out of Ian’s mouth, it was something to be happy about. I quickly nodded my head, as he was about to change his mind.
“Yes. Let’s go back for now. That would be nice.”
“Hold on a little bit. It’s only a short time to get to the cathedral.”
After saying that, Ian glared at Rizello again.
“Don’t you dare mess around with my wife. It is the last warning.”
Without even hearing an answer, Ian looked back at me. It was also the moment when he was about to take Ian out before fighting Rizello.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes? What- kyaaah!”
Ian hugged me. So, in the so-called princess hug position.
“Why why? Why are you like this?”
Seriously flustered, I stammered.
However, Ian left the Magic tower while holding me, leaving only meaningless words that the patient did not walk.
‘This person… Has someone close to you been traumatised by tuberculosis?’
It was the first time in my life that I was treated like a patient just because I had a little cough.
‘Somehow, overprotective… It also feels like I’m receiving it.’
Ian is overprotective of me.
It was the most inappropriate sentence in the world.
Perhaps because of that sense of difference, my heart was tickling for no reason. Like an allergy sufferer who has hit the pollen season.
***
That night, when I returned to the cathedral, I was treated very hospitably by the attendants.
Soft taste, sweet honey water. Even music that helps to calm my mind and body.
Lying on a soft bed and receiving all the luxuries, I was not envious of the president of a conglomerate hospitalised in the VIP room.
“It was a day full of ups and downs, but what turned out to be good….to go?”
Although there was a creepy incident in which Ian and Rizello almost got into a fight, it was somehow glossed over.
I was almost attacked by a demonic lizard, but Ian saved me just in time.
I also obtained information on medication, which was the most important business.
Although it took a toll on my heart health, after all, today’s outing was a success.
As I was making my evaluation of the day, I heard unexpected news.
“Madam Irene, that boy.”
“That boy? ……Ah.”
Confused by Annette’s words, I immediately nodded.
By “that boy,” she meant Elliot.
He was unbaptized, so the child had no name yet. However, I heard that, thanks to his outstanding skills and good looks, rumours had already spread in the church under the name ‘that boy’.
‘Come to think of it, I’ve never been able to see Elliott.’
Still, his name is the male lead in the original work, but I thought that I was too busy with my work to pay attention to it.
“Yes, he is. It was talked about that he was also attending this baptism ceremony.”
So it happened.
I nodded again.
It was faster than the original, but being baptised was an unconditionally good thing for Elliot.
“By the way, he named Madam Irene as his godmother.”
“…What?”
I blinked at Annette.
What are you pointing at?