Chapter 29: 29

Chapter 29

After a while, I realized what had happened.

‘Ahhh?!’

Alan and I were floating in the sky. 

After a few seconds, which seemed like a million, Alan suddenly fell. I fell with him in his arms.

The whipped cream cake and the days I spent past my eyes like a flashlight.

Bang!

When I thought that my life would end like this, Alan stepped on the wall. And jumped back up.

His jumps continued several times. Buildings, people, and the black forest passed under my feet.

We eventually reached the top of the North Tower.

A cold wind brushed my face. He put the back of his hand on my cheek as if measuring my temperature and whispered.

“Can you see the moon well?”

I caught my breath, clinging to Alan like a koala.

I was glad he didn’t let me down. If my feet touch the stone floor, I’d surely fall over.

“I heard it was a tall tower, was it only this high?”

Even the densely wooded forest was full of darkness below.

The pillar protruding like an awl to the north of the castle must have been a tower, not a tree. 

Sometimes I wondered if that was the world tree!

“It’s a little cold.”

Alan put a blanket around me and took a mat out of the basket.

The checkered fabric flew like a flag in the strong wind.

Alan sat down on a suitable stone, put the mat on his lap, and sat me on it.

No, why are you putting the mat there? This is why it’s meaningless to bring it.

“Would you like to drink something warm?”

The items that Nike had brought continued to pour out even after taking them out.

A cocoa water bottle made of heating magic stone, tableware fixed on another stone, a long-awaited whipped cream cake, etc.

There was also a pomegranate that had been cut into a nice shape, perhaps because he was mistaken that I like it.

I didn’t know how he prepared all this in such a short time.

“It looks different from the water container used in the war. Should I cut the back?

Alan lifted the cocoa jug upside down and bit off his black leather glove with his teeth.

Suddenly, there was the sound of bones breaking, and his claws bent like a beast.

I hurriedly took the water bottle and held the lid tight.

“Oh, no! This is how you do it. If you turn it with force… egghh…!”

Nike, why did you lock it so hard?! Of course, because this will keep it from leaking while flying!

Alan glanced at me and took the water bottle again. Then, he held the lid only with his index finger and thumb and turned it.

It’s a foul to open without even making a sound when I even gave it so much strength.

“Like this?” 

“…Yes.”

The sweet scent spread subtly. I got cocoa on the lid of the water bottle and blew it.

The moon was bright. It was a picnic at night. 

Alan looked at me slowly drinking the cocoa, without even paying attention to the wine in the basket. He seemed to be worried about my little tongue getting burned.

I felt weird. I couldn’t believe he was making that expression to a fake even if I’m just a substitute…

“Is it delicious?”

“Yes.”

Alan wiped my lips as if he was happy with the simple answer.

This was the chance. I opened my mouth hesitantly. There was something I wanted to ask him all day.

“You know, Dad…”

‘Since when have you doubted my identity?’

Anyway, I couldn’t ask him this.

I brought up another question instead.

“Can I go to the carnival? Even if it’s just the first day.”

“I’m sure you’ll have plenty of fun at the castle.”

I was asking just in case he changed his mind, but as expected it didn’t. Alan was cold-hearted, not determined.

“But…”

“Is the child Benimus so important?”

Whoa, he didn’t even give me the chance to reply.

“…He’s pitiful.”

I had nothing to talk about, so I made a poor excuse and sipped cocoa.

It was an atmosphere where I couldn’t even beg for more.

“…I’ll bring slave gladiators who look like him to the castle. I’ll hold a private gladiator match at the training ground, and if there are several people you like, I’ll buy them. Will you be satisfied then?”

No way. I am not some kind of blood-crazed ancient emperor.

I shook my head sullenly.

I had no interest in fighting gladiators, let alone making the innocent slaves fight.

I just wanted to judge the condition of Benimus, the main character of <No Dreams or Hopes>, with my own eyes.

I needed to find out if he would be able to help me run away in 4 years.

I’d rather not count the chickens before they hatch.

When I didn’t answer, Alan gently lowered his eyebrows.

“I’ll give you another gift. Is there anything you want to eat? Should I order a new dress? There are many places that have been neglected so far, so it would be ok to build a new detached palace. I will set up a crystal greenhouse in the garden.”

“It’s, it’s okay. Really.”

If I let him say more, he would have turned the castle upside down.

Alan lowered his eyes when I said that, he looked disappointed.

I felt like I’d done something terrible. 

Well, my request was strange at first glance. 

It was not enough to put a huge gift and a gladiator match on the same scale, yet watching a slave fight would be an overwhelming victory for me?

If others heard it, they would say that the child’s hobbies are bad.

‘But I guess I’m still useful as a substitute. Seeing that he’s trying to lock me up in the castle like that…’

He didn’t want to lose his favorite doll.

That was good. The moment I become useless, I would only suffer more rather than be beheaded.

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‘But the carnival is next week.’

When I thought I couldn’t go see Benimus, I became more and more impatient.

Sneaking out was also a case at that point.

The extent to which I could freely roam was just within the duke’s castle.

The passage leading to the outside was guarded by the knights under his direct control, and in fact, I did not know where the entrance gate was.

I still didn’t know the inside of the castle well, but I needed to try.

So, I thought that if I climbed up to a high place, I would be able to figure out the structure.

But when I got there, I couldn’t tell if this was the east or the west.

‘What should I do? There is no other way if I miss this opportunity…!’

Boom!

I wondered if the heavens recognized my hopeless state, so I tapped my frustrated heart.

…No, it can’t be right. I looked up slowly over my head. I doubted my eyes.

‘That’s…’

The moon split. To be precise, the starry night sky was torn apart.

Beyond the sheath-like hole, there was only black darkness. It was a sight I had seen before.

How can I forget that day?

When the World Tree’s barrier was torn. 

“It’s been a while again.”

Unlike me, who was on the verge of fainting, Alan was relaxed.

He comforted me as if he had read my mind.

“That’s all right, Lily. It’s just a crack in the barrier.”

“A… crack?”

“Yeah, there’s only one gap.”

Certainly. The scenery was a little different from the first time I saw the divided sky.

On that day, holes were drilled all over the sky as if someone had chopped it.

But now there was only one wound that cut the moon, and the stars were shining quietly.

“The gaps in the sky reveal the state of the barrier beneath the earth. There must have been quite a few monsters today, but they can’t break the barrier with that kind of power. It’ll stop soon.”

As Alan said, the hole in the night sky stopped opening further.

A faint light rose like a bubble at the other cut, and the size of the hole gradually decreased.

It was as if a new leaf was sprouting.

“The duchy’s barrier also stood up in the civil war that took place 10 years ago. It is safe to be here.”

Alan wrapped his arms around me.

It was strong as if he wouldn’t let me go no matter how much it hurt.

The ‘safe place’ that the man said was more like inside his own arms than inside a barrier.

“Dad, my breath…”

“Sometimes a beautiful lie is better than a terrible truth.”

I thought my heart was going to explode.

What did he just say? Is he admitting that I’m fake? At this time? ‘You’re just a substitute, so don’t get ahead of yourself?’

“Over there…”

Alan pointed to the gap in the center of the moon with his gloved hand.

“It is the real world. The place we live in is fake, you know that?”

‘…Phew.’

I was relieved. He wasn’t talking about me.

“N, no.”

I think it was a setting I vaguely remembered on the day I was poisoned, but I just pretended not to know.

It was hard to answer if he asked where I learned it from.

Alan patted my head with some joy and whispered softly.

“Let me tell you. We live within the boundaries of the World Tree.”

His soft tone was like that of a sweet father who was telling his daughter an old tale.

“All the skies seen here are fantasies shown by the barrier. The blue day, all the stars.”

“Then… is that moon just a shining picture?”

“It’s much more sophisticated than the picture, but yeah. Barrier magic only recreates the sky a long time ago. The world before it was covered with darkness.”

I glanced at the hole in the sky.

Sure enough, beyond that, there was only black silence.

“Thousands of years ago, ugly evil spirits came out of the ground and covered the whole world.”

Without realizing it, I hid my left hand inside my sleeve upon the words ‘ugly evil spirits’.

It is a normal person’s hand now, but still…

Not knowing that I was wriggling for no reason, Alan continued to explain step by step.

“The world was almost destroyed, but Flora, the plant god, saved us. She rolled up the branches of the world tree and protected the handful of land it contained.”

I tilted my head, not knowing what it meant to protect the land with branches.

As if Alan noticed my question, he added an additional explanation.

“That is the empire we live in. The World Tree is a tree that has grown by lifting an entire continent.”

“Ah…”

The World Tree was bigger than I imagined.

“Therefore, life within the barrier came to be a sophisticated fantasy. Everyone praises this place as a sanctuary.”

Alan paused for a moment, then muttered to himself.

“No one wants to live in endless darkness. No matter how real that world is.”

‘Is that why Alan didn’t kill me?’

If he didn’t know the happiness of regaining his daughter from the beginning. He couldn’t go back once he tasted it.

Even if the unstable relationship kept cracking, he couldn’t go into the darkness without a single light…

At that time, I came face to face with the split moon.

The round surface of the moon shone white, as if it had been intact from the beginning.

“…The moon is beautiful.”

The man said so and gently closed his eyes.

I glanced at him and hugged Alan’s arm tightly.

“It’s nice to see it with Dad.”

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