Chapter 72
Chapter 72
I felt a touch on my cheek. A soft peck. I opened my eyes.
“Oh?”
Cesar had kissed my cheek. For some reason, I felt my face flush. Then, his lips touched my other cheek.
“Oh, oh.”
I realized my expression must have looked incredibly foolish when I saw Cesar’s wide smile. It was just the cheek kisses I had shown him before, so why was I having such strange thoughts?
“Uh, oh, oh…”
My mind was in a daze. I didn’t even realize I was making such silly noises.
“Heheh.”
“Ha, pfft.”
Laughter bubbled up. We spent a long moment just looking at each other and laughing. All the tension drained from my body.
I collapsed back onto the bed, burying my face in the pillow. My shoulders shook with lingering laughter.
“Ren…”
Perhaps seeing me go from tears to laughter seemed strange. Cesar lay down beside me, a worried expression on his face.
A playful impulse struck me, and I lightly pinched his nose.
“Ow.”
Cesar wrinkled his nose. His reaction was so cute that I burst out laughing again.
***
After that, I had nightmares several times. The content of the dreams varied, but they were consistently terrifying. Sometimes, they showed scenes I’d never seen before; other times, they replayed moments over and over.
The one constant in these dreams was this: I became a candidate for Empress, and then I died at someone’s hand.
“Gasp…haah…”
I gasped for breath. The damp sheet felt like a noose tightening around my neck, an intensely unpleasant sensation.
“Are you alright?”
“Uh, y-yes. I’m fine.”
As always, it was Cesar who woke me. His red eyes came into focus. For some reason, seeing them always brought me back to reality. Those crimson eyes reassured me, time and again, that what I’d experienced was just a dream, and that this place, here and now, was where I truly belonged.
He always came and woke me whenever I had a nightmare. I had become quite accustomed to this workshop now.
“Thank you.”
“Mm.”
He always held me close after I woke up. And it didn’t end there. Something warm touched my cheeks. He seemed to have misunderstood the cheek kisses I had shown him. It was as if, having started on the wrong foot, this ritual had become ingrained in him. I tried to correct him several times, but it wasn’t easy.
It was a bit embarrassing, but the feeling of his lips on my cheeks chased away the lingering discomfort of the nightmare.
“Thank you. I feel much better now.”
But Cesar seemed to have no intention of letting me go.
In the end, I had no choice but to lie back down, trapped in his embrace. The thought that I must smell of sweat from the nightmare faded away, replaced by the rhythm of our shared breaths. My ragged breathing calmed, and my racing heart slowed to a normal pace.
“…Why do I keep having these dreams?”
The thought suddenly struck me, and I murmured it aloud. Were these dreams glimpses of something real? Or were they just manifestations of my anxieties?
My questions didn’t end there. How did Cesar always know when I was having a nightmare and wake me up at just the right moment?
“How do you always know?”
I turned in his arms to face him, my gaze locking onto his.
“Hmm? How do you know when to wake me up?”
Was I really talking nonsense in my sleep? But Cesar just smiled innocently. After a slight pause, he spoke.
“I just…know.”
“Just know?”
When I questioned him, he smiled brightly and nodded. How could he just know?
As usual, Cesar’s words were difficult to understand. Seeing him just smiling at me made me feel like I was the only one taking things seriously. I sighed.
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