SAAE 30

Chapter 30 

After Isael finished putting pants on me, he finally came back to his senses.

‘Should I be relieved about this…?’

Anyway, shaken out of his dark thoughts, Isael regained his usual composure and declared firmly that he would no longer allow the trials to sway him.

“Good, Isael. That’s the spirit.”

Isael—you’re back!

I knew you’d pull through.

I showered him with praise, proud of him.

Isael, however, stared at me with a baffled expression.

Either way, what mattered now was that we kept our minds together and overcame the trial.

We began Isael’s mental training.

“Fake Dominic and the fake princess might not be the only ones. More people we remember could show up.”

“That makes sense.”

“Yeah. So even if they do, don’t forget—they’re all fake.”

“Okay.”

“No matter who appears to interfere, don’t ever waver. Just eliminate all of them.”

“Alright. I won’t waver.”

Every time I gave a firm warning, Isael nodded obediently without question.

I kind of felt like a commanding leader. Not bad.

“By the way… Dominic Grace, he was your brother, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.”

Isael paused and stared at me.

I tilted my head, not knowing why he was looking at me like that. Finally, he asked:

“Even if he was fake… seeing him again, did you feel anything? Did you miss him?”

“Um… no, not really.”

“Not really?”

“Yeah. We weren’t exactly on good terms.”

To be precise, we had actually always gotten along.

Up until the day Dominic pushed me onto the altar, we got along great. Like real siblings.

But in the end, that was nothing more than fattening up a beast before slaughter, or perhaps just self-gratification.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t love.

I had given them pure affection, and what I got in return was something that resembled deception.

“Mm, we were close when we were kids. But then he pushed me onto the altar.”

“…What?”

“It was the day after my birthday. I followed him thinking we were going out to play like always, but it was the temple. He handed me straight to the knights.”

I shrugged, sounding indifferent.

“So no, I don’t miss him at all… I don’t even want to see him in my dreams.”

“…”

“At first I felt betrayed… but now, I don’t know. I don’t even know what I feel for him anymore. I just never want to see him again.”

For some reason, Isael’s face grew frighteningly cold as he listened to my story.

“Anyway, since we’re talking about him…”

Trying to lighten the mood, I continued in a casual tone.

“For some reason, it looked like our kids’ powers didn’t work on him.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

With a hardened expression, Isael declared:

“I’ll kill him. You won’t need to lift a finger—I’ll take care of everything.”

…Wow. He’s suddenly intense.

“All right, let’s leave as soon as the first one gets back.”

“Okay.”

He nodded right away.

Like an obedient big dog.

I watched him with satisfaction, then suddenly remembered something I wanted to check.

“Fake Dominic had a key. Did the fake princess have a key on a necklace or something like that?”

“No, I didn’t see any key…”

Isael answered normally—then suddenly raised a brow sharply as if remembering something.

“Actually… that fake princess did have a rather unusual necklace.”

“Unusual? How?”

“The shape.”

Isael explained:

“It was a pendant necklace. The pendant was shaped like a rounded bow… or maybe an instrument? Yeah. It looked kind of like a lyre. It was distinct.”

At that moment, the second, who had been sitting by the bed taking care of the third, suddenly jumped up and strode toward us.

“W-what? Second, what’s wrong?”

He startled me for a moment. When I asked, confused, the second began rubbing his neck frantically.

Hard—so hard I wondered if he was hurting himself.

“Your neck… It’s not that it itches, right? A neck…l—necklace? Necklace?”

The second nodded vigorously as if that was exactly it.

Isael, watching, commented casually:

“So the necklace must be important.”

“Looks like it. Oh—do the kids need it?”

As I told the second to stop rubbing his neck so violently because I understood, Isael cut in, sounding as if the matter was already settled:

“Then we’ll kill her and take it.”

…Cold-blooded, aren’t we?

This little villain seed seems to have grown into a young sapling.

“What’s this room?”

“A waiting room for attendants.”

“Oh…”

So princes had rooms like this attached to their bedrooms.

It was kind of fascinating.

There was a bell on the side wall, and the rope attached to it connected to Isael’s bedroom.

I imagined Isael yanking the servant bell, ordering attendants around, and couldn’t help snickering.

“Why are you laughing?”

“I just suddenly thought of something funny…”

“What thought.”

“…”

I quietly stepped back into the bedroom without answering. Thankfully, Isael didn’t press further and followed me out.

He said he had used this room since he was very young.

So I couldn’t help imagining little grumpy Isael calling servants and bossing them around.

And now, seeing him manage everything by himself so well… it made me feel proud of him.

After spending some time waiting like that, the first finally returned.

The first drifted in through the door, and I hurried over.

“First! How did it go? Did you find the door?”

The first jerked noticeably, then slowly shook its head.

‘Ah… so it didn’t find it.’

A shame, but nothing we could do.

If even the first couldn’t find it, the door must be really well hidden.

‘At this point, finding it quietly is impossible.’

I was about to tell the first, “Good job,” when a voice echoed:

—Here, no, door, other, subspace.

…No door?

And… another subspace?

I frowned, confused—when suddenly a theory came to mind.

Maybe the reason a door didn’t form… was because Isael and I didn’t separate?

This 6th floor was originally created from a single person’s memories.

One person had to clear all trials alone to descend to the 7th floor.

But since Isael and I stayed together, our memories mixed and the space formed strangely.

He and I remember different things.

Memory also warps easily over time.

‘Still… a floor with no door?’

I hadn’t expected this just because we stuck together.

But at least the door existed somewhere—in another subspace. Better than it not existing at all.

“But how do we get to that other subspace?”

“What do you mean, other subspace?”

Isael asked, having overheard my muttering.

“Oh—apparently there’s no door in this palace. It’s in another space.”

I explained everything the first had told me.

Our combined memories had created a distorted space, so no door appeared.

Isael quickly grasped the situation and frowned.

“So to get to the next floor, we need to move to another subspace?”

“Yeah, since the door is supposed to be there…”

I trailed off and looked at the first.

Its answer came:

—This floor, demons, subspaces, freely, move, portal, exist.

A portal?

—Portal, necklace, required.

I turned immediately to the second.

“Second… is the necklace you said we need… the portal the first mentioned?”

The second nodded quickly—exactly that.