Chapter 4: Dream?

Oh, this is a dream.

I suddenly realized that fact.

The one moving my body right now wasn’t me.

I was merely conscious.

They say you can do anything in a lucid dream, but I learned that wasn’t entirely true.

“An attack!”

“Ike! Move!”

The dream’s setting was the Crown Prince’s social debut ball.

I was too scared to move and only managed to act at the very last moment.

But the me in this dream was different.

At Father’s command, he drew his sword instantly.

At the report of an attack, he sprang into action swiftly.

I could tell from watching.

This was the ‘real’ Ike Axus.

“Ike! Cover the rear!”

“Yes, Father.”

It was different from what I experienced.

Though the Crown Prince was critically injured, Ike’s involvement resolved the situation much faster.

Father clearly said Ike lacked talent.

But to my untrained eyes, that seemed like a lie.

His strikes were fast and heavy, unbelievable for a 14-year-old.

His movements were nearly on par with the adult knights.

He could even compare to Father.

“It’s over.”

With Ike’s declaration, the last assailant fell.

No one was hurt.

It ended much quicker.

Only then did I understand.

Why Father was so disappointed.

What he meant by believing in Ike’s endless efforts.

It all made sense.

“Ike!”

Father approached Ike with a smile, sheathing his sword.

And at that moment…

“Danger!”

The Crown Prince, heading toward us, suddenly dove to the right.

No one else noticed the final strike from an unseen assailant.

A dagger flew at an incredible speed, not toward the Crown Prince but toward Reyna.

She didn’t have the strength to react, standing still as it approached.

A horrific future flashed in my mind, and I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn’t.

Because it wasn’t me moving this body—it was the real Ike.

“Urgh!”

The dagger pierced the right chest of the Crown Prince, who had thrown himself to save her.

After that, Reyna fell in love with the Crown Prince who saved her.

She visited him daily, tending to him with devotion as he recovered.

Of course, the Crown Prince didn’t return those feelings, but she had no way of knowing.

Oh, this is bad.

The story went off track from the start.

With that thought, I woke from the dream.

Waking up, my head felt foggy.

“…I feel like I had an important dream.”

I tried to recall it, but the memory was too hazy to grasp.

If it was truly important, it’d come back to me.

With that thought, I let it go.

Two weeks had passed since the incident at the ball.

Naturally, all the assailants were sentenced to death.

The imperial family tried to uncover their backers but failed.

Some had taken their lives on the spot, and even those kept alive by magic refused to talk.

In the end, no information was gained.

“It’s probably those guys anyway.”

At first, I thought it was all due to the succession struggle.

But on second thought, that didn’t add up.

The Crown Prince’s noble faction was practically nonexistent at this point.

His faction only existed because of his overwhelming talent.

If so, simply disrupting the party to lower his standing would’ve been enough.

As long as people didn’t rally around him, his path would be blocked.

In other words, this incident was too extreme to be just a succession struggle.

It was severe enough to suspect another motive.

That left one possibility.

It was likely the work of the final boss’s forces from the original story.

They’d be dealt with by the Crown Prince and the heroine later, so I wasn’t too worried.

Come to think of it, the Crown Prince had begun actively expanding his faction.

As if proving his genius wasn’t a lie, his influence grew rapidly.

Despite being critically injured at the ball, he fought to protect the nobles.

That story spread, and the incident ended up giving him wings.

Compared to the other princes, his faction was still small, but its growth was remarkable.

It was as if the 14 years he’d been sidelined were just a handicap.

One more thing had changed.

“Young Master, Lady Reyna is here.”

…My time with Reyna had increased.

Originally, we met once a week on Mondays.

Just for two hours.

Now, it was three times a week—Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

And we talked for about four hours each time.

Reyna approached me with a brighter demeanor than before.

I was happy about that too.

Her chattering with a slight smile was adorable.

She used to keep people at a distance with her cold demeanor, always acting like a perfect noble.

That was beautiful too, but I knew it wouldn’t melt the Crown Prince’s heart.

So seeing her gradually change, moving toward a happier future, made me overjoyed.

But there was one problem.

“His Highness? We meet about once带动周。And we have light conversations before parting. Even as fiancés, we don’t know each other well yet, so we’re taking it slow.”

Reyna didn’t seem to have fallen for the Crown Prince yet.

In the side story, it was clear she fell for him after that incident.

What went wrong?

No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine the Crown Prince saving her like that.

A man with no interest in others, who never loved her, wouldn’t risk his life for her.

So there must be another reason she falls for him.

…Am I being too impatient?

Maybe I need to wait a bit longer.

Something else might happen because of that incident.

I should be more patient.

For a world where Reyna and the Crown Prince end up together, where she can be happiest.

“Hup!”

“Too slow, Ike!”

Training had become routine.

Swinging the sword, refining mana.

In my original body, I wouldn’t have lasted a minute.

But Ike’s trained body could handle it.

Since the ball, one more training was added.

“Read the enemy’s path and predict their attack to counter. Didn’t I teach you that’s the basis of combat?!”

“Ugh!”

Formal sparring with Father.

It used to be just listening to advice on movements or mindset.

Now, we sparred for at least an hour.

Father mistakenly thought my freezing at the ball was due to the tension of my first real fight.

After our first spar, he sighed with a regretful expression.

[‘…We’ll keep sparring until you overcome all that tension.’]

I couldn’t tell him the truth, so I let it slide.

Sparring with Father was necessary for me anyway.

“Distract their gaze! Aiming only for strong strikes makes you predictable! Unless it’s a sure hit, don’t use it!”

The purpose of this sparring was clear.

That movement from the ball’s final moment.

It wasn’t my will, but the body’s movement.

Replicating that was my goal.

“Your actions are too big! In a life-or-death fight, one mistake can be the end!”

I could confidently say my current movements were less than 10% of that moment.

I needed to reach at least 50%.

I didn’t think it was impossible.

I hadn’t grasped how yet, but it was this body’s movement.

Surely, I could do it too.

“That’s enough for today. I’ll head in first, Ike.”

“Yes, Father. Thank you.”

The fear from that day, when I thought of running, still lingered.

But the terror of seeing Reyna hurt because of my weakness, nearly dying, was far worse.

That’s why I stood here now.

To become strong enough to protect her.

“Haa, haa.”

I was out of breath.

Other training wasn’t this exhausting, but sparring with Father always left me like this.

Reyna, watching from under a tree, approached.

“Here’s a towel and water.”

“Thanks.”

I wiped my sweat-soaked body with the towel she handed me and gulped down the water.

“That was impressive. Both His Grace and you.”

“Compared to Father, I’ve got a long way to go.”

After catching my breath, I continued talking with Reyna.

“Is watching this fun?”

“I have some knowledge of it.”

Reyna was a talented noblewoman in the original story too.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have held off assailants alone.

Some readers initially hoped she’d end up with the Crown Prince.

They thought the cold, refined Reyna and the kind-but-distant genius Crown Prince were a good match.

Of course, those opinions quickly faded.

“…That’s still there, isn’t it?”

Suddenly, Reyna looked at my chest with a complicated expression.

“Oh, this.”

My shirt was slightly torn from sparring with Father.

Through the tear, a large scar was visible.

The mark from when my right chest was pierced instead of Reyna.

It was healed with magic immediately, but the wound was too deep to erase the scar.

“Does it hurt?”

“It feels odd when touched, but it doesn’t hurt.”

That was a lie.

It still throbbed occasionally, but I didn’t want Reyna to feel guilty about the scar.

“Thank you.”

“It’s fine. I think of it as a badge for becoming a knight.”

Since that day, Reyna always thanked me whenever we met.

It felt a bit burdensome, but she had her reasons, so I didn’t stop her.

“Let’s take a walk by the lake. I’ll change and be back.”

“Okay, I’ll wait here.”

While changing out of my sweat-soaked clothes and heading back to the training ground where Reyna waited…

“Ike.”

I ran into Mother in the corridor.

“Mother.”

“You’re going to the lake at the estate with Lady Reyna today, right?”

“Yes.”

“Can I ask a favor?”

“Of course.”

Something felt different about Mother today.

Not dangerous or uneasy.

It was like she was looking at something amusing.

“Could you two go to the market together? I need some things.”

For some reason, Mother’s smile seemed more playful than usual.