Children of the Holy Emperor Chapter 276

276. On the dream road (5)

It happened more than ten years ago now.

That day, cleaning continued late into the night at a bar in Regina. This is because a group of mercenaries from a foreign country celebrated the success of their mission and drank alcohol until late at night.

The owner and staff were exhausted, but they didn’t feel too bad.

The Astros mercenaries who were the guests that day were rough but fairly well-controlled. In addition, they even drank all the poor quality beer left in stock.

Thanks to this, the owner’s pockets were well-filled, and the employees were also scheduled to receive a solid bonus for working overtime.

“Could that young man from earlier also be a mercenary? He looked somewhat different from the rest of the party, so maybe he was a knight from a famous noble family… … .”

The girl serving in the hall asked while working hard on dishtowels. She had a slightly flushed face, perhaps because she was busy moving her body.

Even without a specific explanation, the owner could immediately tell who the girl was referring to.

Certainly, he was a young man who would stand out anywhere.

“You have a licensed mercenary badge? Even though he looks young, he’s been around for quite a long time. “If you look at his level, he is not someone who has been working for one or two years, but more than ten years.”

“How do you know that?”

“When those guys started drinking, they took up their mercenary badges in advance.”

There were many bars in Regina that sometimes asked for a mercenary badge as a guarantee. This was because there were so many mercenaries who drank alcohol and caused accidents.

“okay.”

The girl nodded and smiled brightly, wondering what she was thinking.

“He was sitting upright, so I thought he was a driver. But it’s also fitting that he’s a capable mercenary.”

The owner clicked his tongue.

“Arthur. I don’t carelessly give my heart to those guys. “Do you think there are a lot of young mercenaries and widowed women who made a living in Regina?”

Regina is a large city where most mercenary groups traveling to and from the North pass through. Many mercenaries went to the north, making promises to their lovers, and disappeared into the Ortona civil war.

At that time, Benjamin, a boy who was coming in carrying a bag of onions, snapped at the girl.

“They’re just people who can’t settle down and just wander around. “Don’t pay attention to those things and just do your job properly.”

“No, you’re giving me attention! Besides, when have I ever not done a good job?”

As the girl opens her eyes sharply and shouts, Benjamin’s voice also rises.

“Ask everyone how you looked today! Just by looking at him, it seemed like I fell in love with him at first sight!”

“Who has a crush on you! “Why are you suddenly arguing with me?”

The girl pouted, grabbed a dishtowel, and disappeared into the kitchen. Benjamin also roughly puts down her sack and walks out of the bar.

Only the owner, who knew Benjamin’s feelings for the girl, clicked his tongue inwardly.

Such an ugly guy.

‘I know. ‘I’m taking my anger out on Anna for no reason.’

Meanwhile, Benjamin was not very comfortable after yelling at the girl he had a crush on.

But still, he couldn’t hold back his anger. Because I could understand very well the excitement the girl must have felt toward the unfamiliar mercenary.

The first time he couldn’t take his eyes off the mercenary was the same. Wasn’t he someone who seemed to be a direct replica of the cool mercenary that everyone admired from the stories?

“… driving me crazy. “How can I see Anna’s face tomorrow?”

Benjamin foresaw the failure of his first love. That was when he was hanging his head down, overcome with feelings of self-destruction, defeat, and depression.

sparkle.

Something glowed on the floor and caught his attention.

“huh?”

On a dark moonless night, strangely enough, something that had fallen on the ground was shining alone.

Benjamin walked towards the light without thinking. The identity of the light discovered was a small bright red pendant.

“This… … .”

Now that I think about it, didn’t the young mercenary throw something on the floor as he was leaving the bar?

‘Did you throw it away because it was broken? It would be a waste to do that… … .’

For some reason, it was completely split in half and unusable, but the brilliant jewel still gave off a beautiful light.

It was when he was about to place his hand on the pendant as if possessed.

[Be careful.]

Suddenly, I heard a strange voice ringing in my head.

He flinched in surprise and raised his head to see a woman staring down at him.

“… who?”

Benjamin was startled and took a step back. This is because the woman was entirely covered in ominous black.

Black dress, black hair and black veil.

In particular, the black veil completely covered the woman’s face and hung down to her chin, making it extremely grotesque.

But still, the silhouette looming over the veil was delicate, and the black dress that fit well was elegant and beautiful.

‘I don’t think he’s human!’

It’s scary but pretty. Isn’t it like the fairy in the old story who sentences death?

Benjamin was in a cold sweat, quickly grabbing his pendant and trying to escape. The woman’s strange voice echoed in my mind again.

[I warned you. Once you get caught up in a cause and effect that you cannot handle, there is no turning back.]

For a moment, I felt an eerie light flashing through the black veil.

‘We must run away!’

My instincts are screaming at me to turn back and run right now. However, Benjamin could not easily let go of his lingering attachment to the pendant on the floor.

Even though it was broken, that beautiful gem still seemed useful. Those who have saved his salary all their lives, will they ever be able to touch such jewels again?

[…] … .]

Benjamin hesitated and looked, but the woman was still standing there. Contrary to her heavy warning, she doesn’t seem to have any intention of stopping his actions by force.

gulp.

After gathering his courage, Benjamin quickly rushed over and snatched the pendant from the floor.

But at that moment.

Woe!

Like an illusion, a huge red flame suddenly rose up before his eyes.

“… … !”

At one point, Benjamin was standing on a wide swath of land engulfed in flames.

A hellish land where stars lose their light in the sky and fall to the ground, and on the floor, countless people writhing black and charred in pain.

The acrid smell of burning flesh stings my nose.

And screams. That desperate scream as if it was squeezing out one’s soul.

“Ugh! It’s hell! “It’s the end of the world!”

Benjamin screamed frantically in fear.

“what! “What’s going on, Benjamin?”

“Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

The owner and Anna, startled by the commotion, run out of the store.

And after a while.

When Benjamin finally looked back in cold sweat, the woman had already disappeared without a trace along with the pendant.

* * *

“Yes, I…” “How could I have forgotten these until now?”

Amelia, who held the old pendant and shed tears for a while, then looked back at Seongjin and smiled softly.

“I’m sorry, sister. I can’t even think about your feelings… … .”

Seongjin lowered his head with a guilty face.

Even though I clearly knew what she went through in the Sigismund Territory when she was young, I felt that she was too indifferent.

“no. “On the contrary, it is something I should be thankful for, Mores.”

But Amelia shook her head and fondly touched the pendant.

“How should I explain it? I had many dreams when I was in Sigismund. “For some reason, whenever I fall asleep with this pendant, happy dreams always come to me.”

okay. It was a happy dream.

It was so vivid that young Amelia believed it to be real.

So, she mistook the unfamiliar Seonghwang who came to visit her for the man in her dreams and followed him without hesitation.

Soon, the affluent life of the imperial palace began, and the vague boundaries of her childhood dreams soon disappeared from Amelia’s mind.

However, it was clear that the dreams had left an impact on Amelia in some way.

She easily learned Breton, which she had never learned from anyone, and already knew many stories from a continent she had never learned before.

Above all.

What was the reason why Amelia lost her heart to Leonard?

-Please become my precious, one and only family that I will love with all my soul.

Amelia, who felt an overwhelming joy at that simple marriage proposal, nodded without even thinking twice.

This is because, even subconsciously, I already knew, vaguely, what it felt like to have ‘one precious family’.

“Maybe I had a big delusion back then that a happy life like the dream of my childhood would come again.”

Meanwhile, Seongjin, who was listening to Amelia, suddenly remembered what Seonghwang had said in the gap the other day.

-I blessed her soul, not her body. So that I can dream sometimes even in extreme pain.

A dream blessing given to the former Countess Sigismund.

At the time, I wondered why it was done that way, but now I can understand it a little bit.

A kind of mercy that would provide as much rest as was allowed to Sister Amelia. I didn’t even know that was his way of guessing cause and effect.

“At the time, I called it the ‘dream necklace.’”

Amelia wiped the dirty pendant with the lace hem of her sleeve. Seongjin, who was quietly watching the scene, felt an ominous feeling creeping up on him.

By any chance, that pendant… … ?

“They used to put a lot of mud on it on purpose so that users wouldn’t recognize it. “It was badly broken, but at the time it was one of the prettiest treasures I owned.”

And that premonition was correct.

What appeared in the lace without any grime was an item that Seongjin was familiar with.

“milestone… … .”

A bright red jewel split in half.

It was clearly the bright red signpost that my grandmother had left behind.

* * *

That night.

Seongjin returned to his room after a long time and was lost in thought, forgetting to meditate.

-How did you get this? Because it happened when I was very young, I don’t remember much about it.

When Seongjin asked where the signpost came from, Amelia answered with some hesitation.

-Probably right after my mother passed away, when I was left alone in that cold villa. A strange woman came to see me.

He said he couldn’t remember what he looked like because his face was covered with a black veil.

The woman, who was all in black, handed Amelia the broken pendant and asked her to keep it carefully.

‘It probably means that he is a person who knows well what a milestone is and its value.’

So is it also Oracle?

Since she said she was a woman, she probably wouldn’t be very successful, and she was probably the former Oracle or something.

‘… But it really can’t be your grandmother, right?’

Empress Bethsheba heard that the Holy Emperor was poisoned when he was young, before he left the palace. If that were the case, he wouldn’t have been alive until then.

Seongjin took out another milestone he was carrying and looked at it carefully for a moment.

Although it was only half of the piece left over from Dexter, it was a mysterious gem that gave off colorful lights as if even its cross section had been carefully cut.

Dexter explained this as a kind of terminal that reflects the spirit of Oracle.

That’s why it holds so much data that the moment you try to analyze it with a source editor, the machine can’t handle it and explodes.

-It breaks and shatters, reminding us that this is reality and not his foresight.

That’s how Seonghwang explained the milestone.

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘If the oracle chooses the future as instructed by the signpost, what happens to the foresight the oracle saw before the choice?’

What happens to the future that remains as a possibility without being chosen?

If the milestone reflects the spirit of Oracle, wouldn’t it be possible for some part of it to remain in the milestone in the form of data?

After thinking about it, Seongjin hugged Lee Myeong and lay down on the bed. I thought the only way was to find out for myself.

[…] What are you doing now?]

The Demon King asked hesitantly, but Seongjin ignored him and firmly closed his eyes. Anyway, I was planning to try the method I heard from Amelia first.

-The way to dream was simple. All I had to do was hug my jewel and fall asleep.

Okay, hug this and sleep.

‘I’m not a kid who hides toys, I never thought I’d do something like this at this age.’

But it’s definitely worth a try. Seongjin, who decided that, tried to sleep hard while suppressing the feeling of his jewels leaking out.

[Check the connection of the guest ID.]

How much time has passed like that?

In his sleep, Seongjin heard what sounded like a faint electronic sound.

[I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. □□□ □□… … .]

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I could hear people muttering next to me. It was a clear conversation made of thoughts.

[It’s been a really long time since I last had a guest ID.]

[But is his connection somehow unstable? The graphics are broken.]

[Sometimes this happens. But it’s okay. The function was fine.]

What are you saying?

If you’re talking about me, explain it first so I can understand.

Seongjin opened his mouth to those who looked like vague shadows without a proper shape.

“What are they talking about now? Who are you? And where are we now?”

For a moment, one of them froze in surprise.

Then, he immediately shouted out to Seongjin as if he was happy to see him.

“Now say that! It’s definitely an imperial language. Are you from Delcross?”

“… … ?”

Before Seongjin could respond, he strode forward.

Crackling, crackling. Occasionally there seemed to be noise in my vision, but I could still make out his tall height and sturdy physique just through his faint shape.

“Wow, this is the first time I’ve seen someone log in with a guest ID in the main world of Delcross! “I couldn’t be happier!”

When Seongjin looked up with wide eyes, a cool laugh was heard from him.

“haha. hey. You may still be confused, but don’t worry. “I will help you.”

Crackling. Chick.

Beyond the noise, the faintly curved mouth is visible.

“Take care of yourself, newbie. Shall we make a statement first? My name is Owen. “It’s Owen Lockwood.”

fantasy,