Chapter 35

 A Spring Dream (4)

“Ah, Doctor.”

The nurse beside him spoke up.

“He’s Korean. We managed to confirm his identity through the passport in his bag.”

“I see… That’s a bit surprising.”

“It’s a shame something like this happened while he was traveling. I hope he recovers soon.”

“…Yes, I hope so too.”

Izumi nodded.

It was unexpected that the patient was a foreigner, but not particularly strange. If someone is severely injured while traveling, it’s only natural they receive surgery in the country they’re in.

Money, procedures—none of that is more important than a human life.

But why?

Why do I feel so uneasy?

There was something surreal about it.

Strange.

So very strange.

An endless cycle of busyness continued.

Even amidst it all, Izumi couldn’t stop thinking about the unconscious Korean patient.

“Professor, when do you think the patient will wake up?”

“Well… that’s the concern.”

Professor Takeya, who had performed the surgery, spoke with a troubled expression.

“The surgery itself went well. There were no complications. But strangely, she still hasn’t woken up.”

“I see…”

It was only natural to be worried when your patient’s recovery is slow.

Izumi sighed and went home for the first time in three days. He remembered to send a message to Anna.

[To. Anna]
10/30, 8:12 AM

I’ll be home today.

Want to have dinner together?

“…Hm.”

Strange. No reply.

Maybe she was having dinner with her coworkers from the publishing company. Feeling a bit lonely, Izumi bought some groceries from a nearby store and went home. He planned to make curry.

But Anna still hadn’t come back by the time he finished dinner.

[11:31 PM]

No matter how late the work dinner goes, isn’t this too much?

Feeling increasingly anxious, Izumi paced around the house restlessly. That was when his phone rang loudly.

“Anna? Do you know what time it is—”

= Hello, are you the guardian of Yuuushi Anna?

“…Yes? Uh, yes. I’m her older brother.”

= Please come to D University Hospital immediately.

As soon as the call ended, Izumi rushed to the hospital. His heart was pounding with desperation.

And when he arrived—

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could, but by the time she arrived…”

“…That’s a lie.”

Izumi muttered blankly.

“That’s a lie!”

Shouting in his everyday clothes, he drew the eyes of those around him. But no one whispered or gossiped.

This was an emergency room.

A place where people died every day. It wasn’t uncommon to see family members scream when a young patient died in an accident.

The only difference was that Izumi, once an observer, was now the grieving party. The shock was so great that he couldn’t even cry.

Just as he slumped down in despair, a nurse unaware of the situation approached him.

“Oh? Dr. Yuuushi! You haven’t gone home yet? Perfect timing, actually.”

“What…?”

“The Korean patient you were in charge of earlier—she’s gone!”

She looked worried.

“If she stays off life support too long, she could be in real danger. We need to find her quickly, or it’ll be too late. …Huh, Doctor?”

“Sakura.”

As Izumi stood there in a daze, another nurse who knew what had happened gently tapped Sakura’s shoulder.

“The doctor just… lost his sister…”

“…Let’s go find her.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“…Yes.”

It was impulsive.

Maybe he just wanted to escape from the unbearable reality. Looking at his sister’s cold face still didn’t feel real, and he just wanted something to throw himself into.

“….”

Even so, he had no idea what to do.

Was Anna really dead?

Was this all just a dream?

Anna shouldn’t have been there in the first place. She hated hospitals. Why would she be in the emergency room?

Why…

“…Why?”

Why did everything feel so off?

It was strange.

No matter how much he thought about it—strange.

Lost in thought, he eventually found himself on the rooftop.

At this late hour, the rooftop was empty.

No—one person was there.

“Hello, Doctor.”

She was a breathtakingly beautiful woman. Her face, veiled in white, radiated a near-holy aura.

“Or should I say, Hero?”

“Who…?”

Murmuring, Izumi suddenly realized.

Izumi Polly.

That was his name.

Yuuushi Izumi was dead.

[10/31 12:01 PM]

Precisely… on Halloween.

That was the source of the dissonance.

“Saintess?”

“This is all just a nightmare.”

Justinas stepped closer, gently cupping his face.

“All of it—a nightmare…”

“Yes, a nightmare indeed.”

She smiled softly.

“It’s time to wake up.”

“What should I do?”

“It’s simple.”

Izumi’s appearance changed.

He was now wearing the outfit of a Hero. He gently touched the holy sword at his waist.

“I have to die, don’t I?”

Justinas nodded.

Izumi smiled.

“That’s easy.”

If there were a world where Anna was still alive, even if only in a dream, he might have hesitated.

But now, none of that mattered.

Gripping the sword tightly, he walked past Justinas and stepped to the edge of the rooftop.

His soft brown hair, a symbol of the Polly family, fluttered in the breeze—standing in sharp contrast to the modern streets of Japan below.

Without hesitation, he jumped.

“…Gasp!”

And then, the familiar world returned.

Above him stood the Saintess.

“Did you sleep well, Hero?”

“Hurry up and get up, trash.”

“Ah… ha.”

Izumi sat up, murmuring.

“Yeah, well. That’s a dream I never want to have again.”

Meanwhile, Lilliana was wandering through her own dream.

But unlike Izumi or Cedric, she was fully aware that this was a dream.

This is such a strange world.

Diold still acted like a wild dog, and her once-gentle father had lost his mind from grief over losing her mother, becoming a tyrant.

Is it because the Saintess doesn’t exist?

Her investigation of history revealed that this world diverged when the Saintess failed to appear.

In other words, this was a world without a Saintess.

“Hello, Princess! I’m Izumi Polly, newly appointed for this mission.”

“Ah, yes.”

Soon after, a Hero arrived to receive his appointment from the kingdom.

Lilliana calmly greeted him.

Before long, the Hero noticed something strange about Diold.

“Princess, don’t you think there’s something off about the Crown Prince?”

“He’s been brainwashed by demons.”

“I knew it! Then we need to kill the demon!”

“Wait, what?”

Before she could stop him, the Hero went ahead and killed Duke Biya.

“Izumi Polly, you are under arrest.”

“Huh? Me?”

“Come quietly!”

And off to prison he went.

“???”

Lilliana was so dumbfounded, her jaw dropped.

What kind of idiot was this guy?

The complete opposite of the refined approach of the Saintess, this was brute-force recklessness.

Thankfully, Diold’s brainwashing was eventually broken.

But getting the Hero out of prison was a whole different story.

With no other choice, Lilliana brought food down to the dungeon. She was planning to tell him about a secret escape route.

“…He’s gone?”

But the Hero had vanished.

Stunned for the second time, she dragged herself back to her chambers—only to nearly faint.

“Shh! Princess, hide me for a bit, please.”

The shameless Hero had occupied her bed without permission.

“I’m infiltrating the slave traders tomorrow. It’s already been arranged with Prince Diold.”

“What are you—”

“Just wait. I’m going to wipe out this country’s corruption.”

The Hero grinned confidently.

And a few days later, he really did destroy the slave traders.

Lilliana watched the now-pardoned Hero being publicly awarded and fell into thought.

How long is this dream going to last?

She had no attachment to a world without the Saintess or her mother.

But being trapped in a dream for a month—it was driving her mad.

“Princess, when you can’t see the path forward, sometimes giving up is the answer.”

She kept recalling the last words she exchanged with the Saintess before waking up in the dream.

“Give up…? Give up.”

Lilliana’s expression turned serious.

What does giving up really mean?

The answer is death. Once you give up on life, all possibilities end.

Truthfully, she’d considered this ever since realizing it was a dream.

But… is that really the answer?

The Saintess cherished human life more than anyone. It was unthinkable that she would suggest death so lightly.

And besides… that kind of advice didn’t sound like her at all. When she first heard it, she thought it was a joke.

Had the Saintess foreseen this? Was that why she brought up giving up so randomly?

“….”

Yes.

Lilliana admitted it.

She had been complacent about this situation—naively hoping she’d just wake up eventually if she waited long enough.

But now was the time to act.

She’d waited a whole month. To keep waiting now was nothing more than running away.

As she thought deeply, a question suddenly came to her:

If this is my dream, what happens when I go beyond the boundaries of what I know?

She’d lived her whole life inside the capital. She had no idea what lay beyond.

So she borrowed a horse.

“Princess, where are you going?”

“I’m just taking a look around the capital to clear my head. I’ll be back before dinner—don’t tell anyone.”

She was a skilled rider. Throwing a cloak over her head, she slipped out through the servants’ passage.

She had a single destination in mind.

And with her perfect memory, she wouldn’t get lost—even in a dream.

“Hyah!”

She rode hard for an entire day.

And then, she realized she was right.

The world was growing hazy.

The scenery had stopped changing—repeating in an endless loop.

“…Hm?”

That was when she saw it.

Something she couldn’t explain.

A flickering square shape amid the looping background.

As she approached, the distortion became clearer.

Inside it were repeating green circles and lines, forming a distinct pattern.

Then, strange text appeared:

$ sudo apt-get –purge remove lillyana’s dream

As if hypnotized, she reached out toward the glitch.

And at that moment—

Lilliana woke up from the dream.