"Haah… You're really beautiful."
At the sudden, unexpected compliment, Lena's mind went blank.
'…Huh?'
Lena thought she must have misheard.
What kind of fool would like her?
Lena believed that, aside from her position as a princess, she had no qualities that made her attractive as a woman.
She was always rolling around in the dirt, getting scolded by the Duke, and looking like a mess.
She would recklessly charge into war, and her strict upbringing left her with no flexibility.
Her tall stature made men uncomfortable, and her lack of eloquence made women avoid her.
If there was one thing Lena regretted about her late mother, it was that she hadn't inherited the grace a woman should have.
But she had always thought that as long as she had her father's support, that was enough.
She was even confident that if her father arranged a marriage, she wouldn't care who the other person was.
She had lived her life convinced that she would never fall in love with a man.
But she was wrong.
Lena's heart began to pound so hard that it felt like it might burst through her chest.
Thump, thump, thump, thump!
'N-No… This must be a mistake. Calm down, calm down…'
If it had been any other man hugging her, she wouldn't have been this excited.
But the feeling of a man's chest against hers for the first time only heightened her excitement.
'What is he trying to do? Is he going to do something more?'
But despite Lena's doubts, the man simply held her and whispered to himself.
However, his tone now carried a completely different atmosphere.
"…What's this?"
"…?"
Lena tried to focus on the man's words, but the sound of his heartbeat against her ear was mesmerizing.
Thump… thump… thump...!
'Haah… haah… Just a little… huh?'
Lena, who had been focusing on the man's heartbeat, suddenly began to feel drowsy.
***
"…?"
Lena found herself in an incomprehensible situation.
Just a moment ago, she had been lying down, but now she was in a different place.
The place she was in was one she could never forget from her memories.
It was Feron IV's bedroom.
And there, standing weakly before her, was Feron IV, shedding tears of gratitude.
"Lena… It's all thanks to you. If it weren't for you, this war…"
"…."
As soon as Lena heard those words, she immediately realized it was a dream.
Whenever she slept in the Demon King's castle, she always had this dream.
The script was always the same. Her father, weakened and frail, would cling to her and cry pitifully.
'A dream? But can I really be this aware that it's a dream?'
Lena, fascinated by her first experience of lucid dreaming, began to look around while ignoring Feron IV.
She tried altering the objects around her.
She changed the tulips in the vase to roses and turned the landscape painting on the wall into a portrait of her mother.
As Lena marveled at her surroundings, a man caught her eye.
It was the same man who had been holding her just moments ago.
'This dream… I've seen it before…'
Recalling the scene from before, Lena's face turned red.
'Could it be that I'm going to get spanked again…'
Since the dream started similarly to the previous one, Lena naturally assumed she would be spanked by him.
But the situation began to unfold differently.
Suddenly, Feron IV shouted.
"Who are you! How dare you intrude into my bedroom! Is there no one here?!"
"…?"
Instead, Feron IV was trying to have him arrested.
Guards rushed into the bedroom and pointed their spears at him.
The man, surrounded, hesitated.
'This won't do, I can't let this happen!'
Lena decided to protect the man.
Not realizing she could control people in the dream, she stepped in front of the man and stopped the guards.
Lena urgently spoke.
"Please calm down, Duke!"
"Who is this man that you're protecting?"
"Th-That is…"
Even though this was just a dream, it felt so real that Lena didn't want to see him get hurt.
But the only people allowed in the Duke's bedroom were guards, vassals, attendants, and family.
The man Lena was protecting didn't belong to any of those groups.
'My father remembers the names of everyone in the castle. A clumsy lie won't work…'
No matter how much Lena racked her brain, she couldn't come up with a solution.
'I can't say he's going to be family either…'
Even if it was just a dream, Lena couldn't bring herself to make such an embarrassing statement.
"Everyone, step back."
But then, at Feron IV's sudden command, the guards lowered their spears and stepped back.
Lena looked around in confusion, only to see the Duke smiling brightly.
"…?"
"I've committed an unforgivable rudeness. Please forgive me."
Lena, not understanding, asked the Duke.
"Duke, what do you mean?"
"To show such rudeness to the man who will become Lena's husband, please forgive me."
Lena's eyes widened like a rabbit's as she looked at the man beside her.
The man also looked at Lena with a bewildered expression.
The two of them looked at each other and spoke simultaneously.
""…What?""
***
Today, I happily barged into the kid's room to get the key and entered the princess's room, excited to hold her again.
Like yesterday, I gently hugged her and, without realizing it, muttered while looking at her.
"Haah… You're really beautiful."
Even without doing anything lewd, just holding her brought me joy.
And in that state, I activated Dream Invasion.
But the Dream Invasion didn't work, and all I could see was the top of the princess's head.
'What's going on? Dream Invasion isn't working. I'll have to try again.'
[It seems you need to be careful with skills you're not proficient in.]
I focused and activated Dream Invasion again.
It felt different from usual, but I managed to enter the dream.
'Something's off…'
In my vision, I saw the princess talking with Feron IV in the Duke's bedroom.
'Oh ho~ Today, I'll ramp up the intensity and give her a good spanking.'
I commanded the Duke, anticipating the feel of Lena's plump bottom.
But…
Nothing happened.
'What's this? Wait, something's wrong…'
No matter what I did, Feron IV just sobbed while looking at the princess, showing no reaction.
'I think I need to wake up… But how?'
I've only ever entered dreams; waking up always happened naturally.
As I was pondering this, Feron IV suddenly shouted at me.
"Who are you! How dare you intrude into my bedroom! Is there no one here?!"
"…."
At his shout, a dozen guards rushed into the bedroom and pointed their spears at me.
'Oh no… Am I screwed? If I die here, won't there be problems in reality too?'
Realizing the situation was more serious than I thought, the princess stepped in front of me, shielding me with her body.
"Please calm down, Duke!"
'…Huh? This is different from last time.'
Last time, the princess had tried to kick me out, but this time, she was protecting me.
Just in case, I tried to control only the princess this time.
As expected, the princess didn't respond to my commands.
'As expected, I can't control the princess.'
Originally, Dream Invasion couldn't control the dream's host.
I had tried it a few times before and realized it was impossible.
Unless I gave direct commands unconsciously, they wouldn't follow my control.
After some back-and-forth between Feron IV and the princess, the guards suddenly lowered their spears.
'…What's going on? Why are they like this…'
My commands weren't working, and just as I was feeling frustrated, the Duke spoke.
"I've committed an unforgivable rudeness. Please forgive me."
"…?"
"To show such rudeness to the man who will become Lena's husband, please forgive me."
I looked at the princess after hearing that.
The princess also looked at me with a bewildered expression and spoke.
""…What?""
***
I found myself in the princess's room by chance.
The princess was sitting at the same table as me.
She didn't say a word, just kept her head down, staring at the table.
I tried to assess the situation while looking at her.
'…Could it be that her mental strength has returned?'
That was one of the possibilities I could think of.
Perhaps the princess's mental strength had recovered to some extent, which was why my Dream Invasion didn't work.
'Or it could be my own condition.'
Considering that Dream Invasion hadn't worked the first time, that was also a possibility.
'Surely she wasn't awake, right? If she had been, she would've twisted my neck when I hugged her.'
It didn't make sense for her to be awake.
Beatrice had clearly said that Dream Invasion had side effects.
While subjugation had a high risk of side effects, Dream Invasion only caused problems within the dream.
'Side effects… I get that control doesn't work, but could it be that I can't leave?'
Time flowed the same in the dream and reality.
Clearly, more than five minutes had passed, but I couldn't leave the dream.
'First, I need to figure out how to get out of this room calmly.'
It was a worrying situation, but I couldn't just sit here twiddling my thumbs.
After all, the princess was dreaming, and if I could get out of this room and out of her sight, I could probably figure something out.
'From the princess's perspective, since it's before her marriage, I'd be in a lower position, right? I've never thought about marriage, so I'm not sure…'
The only marriage I'd experienced was in games.
And in most of the games I played, I usually didn't get married.
I'd just slap a marriage badge on some other guy and brand the women as slaves…
Even in typical romance games, marriage was usually just an ending.
I smiled at the princess and spoke.
"Princess, thank you. Thanks to you, the misunderstanding was cleared up."
"Hoh! Th-That, ahem… N-No, it's nothing. I'm just glad you weren't hurt."
"…?"
The princess suddenly became flustered at my words, coughing awkwardly and twitching her lips.
'Every time I enter the princess's dream, it's always this fresh…'
First, she asks to be spanked, and now her behavior is more dazzling than usual.
Just as I thought I understood the cause of her punishment dreams, I was faced with another puzzle.
'First, I'll make up some excuse and leave.'
"My visit today has disrupted your meeting with the Duke. I'll take my leave now…"
"…Please don't go."
"Huh?"
As I stood up to leave, the princess approached me and hugged me tightly.
She was wearing high heels, so she was just the right height for me.
'Wow, look at this figure…'
I hugged her body and asked.
"Princess?"
"Haah… Please don't go."
I was faced with an incomprehensible situation.
***
[Luna's POV]
"Princess, thank you. Thanks to you, the misunderstanding was cleared up."
"Hoh! Th-That, ahem… N-No, it's nothing. I'm just glad you weren't hurt."
Lena, upon hearing the man address her as "Princess," unconsciously flinched and twitched her lips.
'Th-This feels nice…'
Just having the person she had always served address her with respect made her feel refreshed.
Moreover, she felt a tenderness from him that he usually only showed to Viola.
'So this is something that can only happen in a dream. But if this is a dream…'
A sense of emptiness welled up, but at the same time, a feeling of euphoria bloomed.
This was just a dream, after all.
To Lena, Suho was just a character in her dream.
And she thought that no matter what she did to him, the real Suho outside the dream would never know.
'Right, it's a dream… This might be the last time. He's leaving in a few days anyway…'
Lena didn't want to let this chance slip away.
Having already experienced the folly of missing an opportunity when she failed to keep her promise to her father, she knew how foolish it was to let chances go.
The man suddenly stood up, preparing to leave.
"My unnecessary visit today has disrupted your meeting with the Duke. I'll take my leave now…"
"…Please don't go."
"Huh?"
Lena approached the man and hugged him.
And she made up her mind.
'Even if it's just here, I want to stay with him…'
But Lena's wish couldn't be fulfilled.
…Huh?'
Lena's vision shifted from the Duke's bedroom to her own room in the Demon King's castle.
And in her arms, Suho was still there.
***
'…Something's off today.'
I was suddenly ejected from the princess's dream.
The cause was unknown.
'Sigh… Armonia, is this a side effect…?'
[Suho…]
'Huh?'
Armonia interrupted me and spoke.
[The princess has woken up.]
'….'
Hearing Armonia's words, I unconsciously lowered my gaze slightly.
In my arms, I saw the princess looking up at me.
***
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