CH 172

Did people say that dreams were a reflection of unconsciousness?

Perhaps because I didn’t want to think about it intentionally, it was rare for me to dream of the thing that happened ‘back then’.

At the most, it was only once or twice a year.

A familiar scenery was spread before me, who had fallen asleep at some point.

Zen, who was hitting on the door with his small fists as if breaking it, was in front of me.

I unconsciously reached out to Zen, but my transparent hand moved past the young Zen’s body just like that.

What a novelty.

It felt like I was looking at a scene from the past as a third party.

Behind the door, it must be me, who wanted to open the door, bothering Mom, who didn’t move at all.

Then, after waiting for a while, Zen quickly went inside as the closed door was opened.

I stared at Mom as I didn’t know what to do at Zen’s story about the situation outside and his plea to save his family.

Then, the beautiful person with a cold face stared at me.

She looked down at the two clueless children and was deep in thought as if estimating something.

Her face was very cold.

I saw she separated me from Zen then whispered something.

“You have to give up on his family. Don’t be stubborn if you at least want to save Zen.”

She might have said that.

Even though I was young, I knew what it was like to give up family.

Mom then talked again to me, who was hesitating.

“I’ll be in trouble if you’re being more greedy than this. Both I and you, Marianne, could be in danger.”

Her voice sharply stuck on my heart like an awl.

I hesitated numerous times, but eventually, my choice was obviously my mother.

Even if I returned to that time, I would likely do the same.

However, this choice always remained as a debt in my heart and made me unable to look at Zen properly.

Because someone too precious for me was at stake to pluck up the courage to rescue people.

Yet Zen never commented anything about this choice of mine.

Whether it was criticism, or comfort that it was inevitable.

No matter which one it was, both the one who spoke and the one who heard it would surely be tormented.

Even though I knew this was a dream, my heart ached and I put my hand there.

The transparent hand faintly and repeatedly scattered and gathered as though it would soon disappear.

I continued to follow the young me and my companions.

Inside the carriage that was secretly escaping from the village, I and Zen, who were sleeping, were holding each other’s hands.

The carriage that moved quickly had stopped at a secret place at some point.

I never saw this scene.

Leaving me and Zen, who was sleeping, Mom carefully stepped down the carriage.

Someone was prostrating at her feet.

Both of them looked like they knew each other well.

“How’s it going?”

“It’s almost the final stage.”

The moment Mom nodded faintly, the man with black mask sent a glance inside the carriage.

“My lord said there shouldn’t be any survivors, I believe.”

“What should I say to my daughter, then? There wouldn’t be any problems if in the first place you all didn’t do your work badly and hadn’t gone all the way to get me to walk this far.”

My heart began to run wildly.

You all?

Who was she referring to?

That wasn’t all.

‘My lord,’ ‘survivors,’ I couldn’t understand any of this.

A lot of thoughts were mixed up in my head and made me dizzy.

The conversation that I couldn’t understand continued.

“It’s only one child. Is your group that incompetent to be in trouble just from leaving a mere child?”

The man’s gaze was still fixed at Zen inside the carriage.

The tear marks remained intact on the face that was fast asleep.

“We should eliminate the source of trouble.”

“I’ll take responsibility.”

Mom said that to the man, who repeatedly insisted like a parrot.

She covered the lower part of her face with the folding fan she took from her pocket and added,

“Thanks to the ruckus you guys made, my daughter has no real friends. If she even lost that kid, she won’t open her heart forever. I have no plan to raise my daughter as a stone like your master’s son.”

She added, smirking.

“If you’re that free, you better look for Mikel Jayhorn’s trace. That slippery fellow is far more important than that young child, right?”

He, who stopped for seconds, eventually stepped back.

After checking the man disappeared into the air, Mom returned into the carriage.

The hand stroking my sleeping face was extremely gentle.

While I was at a loss at the sight I saw for the first time, I felt my body being sucked in somewhere.

I instinctively realized that it was the time to wake up from the dream.

Even if I woke up from my dream, I didn’t think I could forget the scenes that were too vivid even if I wanted to.

Not long after, I opened my eyes on the bed that was wet with cold sweat.

“. . .”

It was really an unbelievable silly dream.