Ah, this is a dream.
I suddenly realized that fact. I wasn’t the one moving my body right now—I was only conscious.
I’d heard that lucid dreaming allows you to do anything you want, but I’d learned it wasn’t really like that.
“A raid!”
“Ike! Move!”
The dream’s backdrop was the crown prince’s social debut stage. I remembered being so scared that I couldn’t move, barely managing to react until the very end.
But the “me” in this dream was different.
The moment my father commanded, I drew my sword.
When the attack was reported, I jumped into action without hesitation.
I could tell just by looking—this was the “real” Ike Axus.
“Ike! Get behind me!”
“Yes, Father.”
This was different from the time I’d experienced it.
Though the crown prince had been mortally wounded in reality, the situation was resolved much more quickly with Ike’s involvement.
My father had always claimed Ike had no talent. But to me, an outsider, that was clearly a lie.
The 14-year-old moved with unimaginable speed and precision, his blows heavy and decisive. His movements were almost indistinguishable from those of the adult knights—enough to rival even my father.
“This is the end.”
With Ike’s declaration, the last assailant collapsed.
No one was hurt, and the conflict ended much faster than before.
Only then did I understand.
Why had my father been disappointed?
What did it mean to believe in Ike’s endless efforts?
I finally knew everything.
“Ike!”
My father smiled and approached Ike as he sheathed his sword.
But in that moment—
“Danger!”
The prince, who had been walking toward me, suddenly leaped to the right.
A final blow from an unnoticed assailant—a dagger hurled at blinding speed. For some reason, it flew toward Reina instead of the crown prince.
Reina, however, didn’t even have the strength to react. She stood frozen, unable to move even as the dagger closed in. I imagined a terrible future and wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn’t.
It wasn’t me controlling this body—it was the real Ike.
“Keuugh!”
The dagger pierced the right breast of the prince, who had thrown himself in front of Reina to save her.
After that, Reina fell in love with the prince who had risked his life for her. She visited him daily, tending to his wounds and caring for him with all her heart.
Of course, the crown prince had no such feelings for her, but there was no way for her to know that.
Ah, this is a big mess. The story had been twisted from the very beginning.
As I thought this, I woke up.
***
When I woke, my head felt foggy.
“…I think I dreamed something important.”
I tried to recall the memory, but it was hazy and just out of reach.
If it were truly important, wouldn’t it come to mind?
I pushed the thought aside and moved on.
Two weeks had passed since the incident at the ball.
Of course, the assailants had all been sentenced to death. The imperial family had tried to uncover who was behind the attack, but it was impossible. Some of the attackers had committed su!cide at the party, and those captured and saved by magic refused to talk.
In the end, nothing was discovered.
“It’s probably those guys anyway.”
At first, I thought it was infighting over the succession to the throne, but upon reflection, that seemed unlikely.
The prince’s faction of nobles was practically nonexistent in the current political landscape. The only reason the faction persisted was due to the crown prince’s overwhelming talent.
If the goal was to lower his status, it would have been enough to disrupt the party moderately. Even if people didn’t rally around the prince, his path would still be blocked.
In other words, the scale of the attack was too extreme to be mere succession politics. It was serious enough to suspect an outside force.
In the end, there was only one plausible explanation: the forces of the original final boss.
But I didn’t need to worry.
The crown prince and the heroine would handle it later anyway.
Speaking of the crown prince, he had properly begun his foreign activities to expand his faction. True to his reputation as a genius, his influence was growing rapidly. Stories circulated of how he’d struggled to protect the other nobles even after sustaining the most fatal wound at the ball.
The incident had ironically given him wings.
Though his faction was still weaker than those of the other princes, its growth was unusual—as if the 14 years he’d spent stagnant had been a handicap.
Lastly, one more thing had changed.
“Young Master, Lady Reina has come to visit you.”
The time I spent with Reina had increased.
Originally, we met only once a week on Mondays for two hours. Now, it was three times a week—Monday, Wednesday, and Friday—for a total of about four hours.
Reina came to me with a brighter demeanor than before, and I was happy to see it.
She chattered and laughed more freely, a stark contrast to her usual cold, aristocratic demeanor. While her composed appearance was certainly beautiful, I knew it wouldn’t be enough to melt the prince’s heart.
So, I was thrilled to see her gradually changing, inching closer to her future happiness.
But there was one problem.
“Your Highness? We meet about once a week now. We have light conversations and part ways. Even as fiancés, we don’t know each other well yet, so we’re taking it slow.”
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Check out my other projects: Roughly an Isekai Hypnosis Story (er0-novel 😉
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