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Chapter 32

 A Fleeting Spring Dream (1)

Tick. Tick.

Other than the ticking of the wall clock’s second hand, a perfect silence filled the room.

‘She figured it out?’

I was sure I had completely deceived her.

Just in case, I had changed both my hair and eye color, but wasn’t the Saint supposed to be blind in the first place?

I hadn’t left a single clue. Even my demonic escort—though he might have seemed suspicious—was nowhere near suspecting that she could be a demon, let alone one of the Four Demon Lords.

“What… do you mean by that?”

“You’re going to play dumb, I see.”

A smile appeared on the Saint’s face.

“In that case, fine. Haru, let’s see your ‘sick little brother’ first.”

She even got the name right.

‘…How?’

Even among fellow demons, that name was barely known.

And yet, how could a mere human know it?

Haru froze for a moment. If she thought calmly, the Saint knowing her name and identity wouldn’t impact her original plan at all. But the Saint’s utterly unexpected confidence had caused Haru’s mind to stall.

Tap.

The Saint’s cane dropped from her hand.

Step. Step. Step.

The woman, dressed head to toe in pure white, wore a chillingly benevolent smile as she walked past Haru.

Creak.

The door groaned open.

As expected, there was no bed in the room. The floor, empty of any furniture, held only a magic circle Haru had drawn earlier—one that flickered with ominous energy at a glance.

The blind Saint spoke.

“Well, of course, you can’t see it. Not that it would matter—it was all a lie anyway.”

That was when Haru finally regained her senses. The moment she’d lost control had only lasted about ten seconds, but it had been an intense and deeply unpleasant experience.

“You insolent human…”

Her once-clear, bright voice turned hoarse. The pink of her eyes and hair rapidly shifted to black.

The Saint standing before her gripped the rosary hanging from her neck and began to speak.

“—”

Haru reached out her hand.

Her vision flipped upside down.

Black screen.

I opened my eyes.

And the moment I did, I understood everything.

“Yuna noona, the professor asked if you could help peer-review the paper and grade the upcoming exam. He sent this for you.”

“…Wait, is Maxwell’s equations part of the test scope this time?”

“Well, we usually cover electromagnetism in the second semester. Ah, it came right after the torque chapter—total nightmare.”

“Really? Isn’t it manageable before quantum mechanics? Most freshmen already learned a lot of this in high school.”

“Well, you might think that, but…”

In front of me was my junior from the same research lab, who was currently pursuing his master’s degree, and a ludicrous amount of paper reviews the professor had dumped on me… along with the final exam sheets.

‘This isn’t real.’

Changcheon, Haru.

She is the ruler of dreams.

In the warmth of spring, just like those dozing from the floating pollen, anyone around her naturally falls into a waking dream she controls.

That’s why, although she’s the weakest among the Four Demon Lords, she’s also the trickiest.

Without knowing her true form, people are doomed to wander endlessly in her nightmares.

But of course, that doesn’t work on me.

[Mental Immunity]
Completely blocks all forms of mental attacks.

Not because I’m special or anything—it’s just this skill doing the work.

‘If I didn’t have it, I’d be in serious trouble.’

Judging by Haru’s behavior, she clearly meant to kidnap me into a nightmare.

Instead, I was still in this familiar research lab thanks to this skill. And I knew exactly how to wake up from a dream like this.

‘More importantly though…’

Even knowing it’s a dream, this is annoying.

I could live with the paper, but the moment I picked up the exam sheets, I sighed aloud. Maybe it’s a stereotype, but most physics majors were guys—and their handwriting was atrocious.

“Hyunsoo. What do you think this says? L? I?”

“Just mark it wrong.”

“I did that last time and got chewed out by the professor for grade corrections.”

“Yeah, our professor’s kind of… you know. Remember how he asked Minho hyung to pick up his daughter at the airport?”

“Dude, I’m losing it. I must’ve been insane to enroll in this integrated master’s-Ph.D. program and end up with this damned professor—”

“Yuna, Hyunsoo, are you two in here?”

Oh crap!

Speak of the devil and he appears.

…He didn’t hear that last bit, right?

Startled mid-gossip, Hyunsoo and I instantly stood up. The professor waved us off with a friendly smile.

“Hoho, no need to stand. Stay seated.”

Excuse me?

Last time I stayed seated, he spent the whole day finding faults and nitpicking me with that displeased look on his face.

It was unbearable.

So unbearable that—

“This is just a natural reflex from my deep respect for you, Professor. I stood up before I even realized it.”

I plastered on a smile and flattered him shamelessly.

“What? Hahaha!”

The professor burst into hearty laughter.

Ugh, disgusting. Please stop laughing.

If he doesn’t stop within three seconds, I swear I’ll flatter him even more.

‘Wait a second.’

This is a dream, isn’t it?

Then why am I doing this?

…Habit really is terrifying.

“Oh, right. I had a wedding to attend for a friend today, but I’m tied up. Sorry, but could one of you two go in my place? I’ll give you the congratulatory envelope—just drop by and say hi.”

“…Excuse me?”

I blinked.

“Professor, um… where is the wedding?”

Hyunsoo asked from beside me.

“Oh, it’s in Daejeon. Not far, right?”

“…”

“…”

Both of us were speechless.

‘Hyunsoo, you go.’

‘Noona, can’t you go? I haven’t been home in three days!’

A fierce, silent battle of eye contact erupted between two graduate students, dark circles under both our eyes. Though I had every intention of pushing it onto him, I ended up deciding to spare the poor soul who hadn’t gone home in days.

Even if this is just a dream. Still.

“…I’ll go.”

“Oh! Good decision. Then once you get back, could you also finish grading the finals by tomorrow? You can grade them on the train, right?”

“I don’t think I can grade on the train…”

“What was that?”

The professor’s eyes lit up with ‘How dare you?’

With the weight of blood in my throat, I opened my mouth.

“I’ll finish by tomorrow.”

This is hell.

I’m sleepy.

I want to cry.

I sat on the train to Daejeon (for which I paid out of pocket, by the way), staring blankly over a portable desk.

‘Something’s wrong.’

It’s clearly a dream—so why does it feel like I’m dying?

Of course, it’s totally normal for graduate students to never go home. There’s a reason this nightmare is set during that phase of my life.

Even in a dream, I can’t rebel against my professor. How pitiful.

Honestly, I don’t even know why I bought a train ticket to Daejeon. This isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing.

Despite my mental immunity, the deep-seated PTSD from grad school years made my body tremble. The scariest thing in the world to me is postponing graduation. Second scariest? My professor.

And both are tied to my Ph.D.

Damn it.

“May God be with you.”

A brief prayer, whispered with hands clasped.

Snow-white robes and hands so familiar I’d seen them to death for over ten years appeared in my vision. Looking out the window, the exhausted grad student was gone—and in her place was a silver-haired, blue-eyed girl on the verge of tears.

‘Been a while since I saw that face…’

She always smiled, after all.

But this expression was fine. No one else was around.

I swept my hand down my face with a bitter look.

No. I can’t break down now.

Twelve years. I’ve lived in another world for twelve years.

No matter how long I spend there, I can never truly get used to that world. It’s not where I was born.

My real place is Earth.

I am… Korean.

‘I want to go home.’

Even if my grad school days haunt me in my nightmares, the days spent chasing knowledge were undeniably fulfilling. Scraping away at the bedrock of my field, even with just a spoon, was meaningful.

And my family’s here.

My loving parents. My younger sibling, smart and a little snarky like me, but always looking out for me in the end.

……

Alright. I have to admit it.

Mental immunity is just a system-level buff. It doesn’t make me emotionless. That’s why I’m suffering this irrational urge to just melt away in this warm dream.

But I won’t give in.

Just like I haven’t for the past twelve years, I’ll let go of being “Yuna.”

‘By now, Haru’s probably tried everything to take control of me and failed.’

After going through denial and rage, she’ll likely move on to finding other victims or expanding her domain.

That means by now, the outside—at the very least, the capital region, or in the worst case, the entire Terra nation—is probably lost in a nightmare.

“Hey hey, did you see that girl?”

“Damn. It’s like a whole musical for the price of a KTX ticket. Is this the subway?”

“Bro, shut up. But seriously, wasn’t she not there earlier…?”

Behind me, I heard two awake male students snickering.

I looked at my reflection in the dark window.

Anyway, it’s time to move on to the next phase. Thanks to mental immunity, I can act a bit faster than in the original scenario.

Then now…

I pulled out my phone and opened the airline app.

[ICN→ROM First Class – One-way Ticket]

Since I’m stuck in a dream anyway, might as well enjoy one last luxury.