Chapter 97

“Think of this place as a dream, and it will be easier.”

“Dream…?”

“Yes. An Alchemist is a mage that saves wishes and materializes them.”

So, did Name use magic to realize dreams in a dream?

Yuna’s head tilted in confusion.

Every step she took made the dewy grass crunch beneath her feet, and the cold air passing through her lungs felt so real that it was hard to believe it was false.

“What about the people over there? Are they also magic?”

Haru was curious about the blonde siblings.

“Yes, it’s magic. On one hand, they are also the people I’ve missed.”

“I still don’t understand…”

“You can just think of them as people just like us.”

When looking far away, it felt as if the sky and the meadow merged and continued endlessly, giving a sense of calm as if time had stopped here.

Though the distance from where they were to the hill seemed quite far, they had somehow arrived at the spot with the picnic mat without having walked much at all.

Is that why they called it a dream? Haru murmured softly.

“Hello, everyone.”

With teary eyes, Name greeted them first.

The siblings, who were trying to keep the picnic mat fixed against the wind, stopped their actions.

“You…? Princess?”

“Wow! Aestasha, Aestasha! Do you finally feel like coming out of the room? Who’s next to you? Are they friends? Can you introduce me to them?”

To the children wearing sulky expressions, Name casually advised.

“You know how to play house, right? From now on, you are Princess Yuna, and you are Princess Haru.”

“Wait, play house? All of a sudden?”

“Hik, Princess…!”

While Haru slightly grimaced, Yuna was filled with excitement.

Becoming a princess was a long-cherished wish for Yuna. She never imagined that Name would share this kind of interest.

“I’ll formally introduce you. This is Yuna and this is Haru.”

“Ah, um… hello Yuna, and Haru.”

“Hello! It’s really nice to meet you! Your names are so beautiful!”

Name introduced them in a different order this time.

“This boy here is Hiasen, and call the younger one Niobe. This isn’t too difficult of a name, right?”

“Ah… hello, Hiasen oppa?”

“Hello, Niobe unnie.”

“Yes! Nice to meet you!”

Even so, they still felt awkward around the two blonde siblings.

Perhaps they found it alien to hear such exotic people speak their own language compared to their classmate Han Seori.

Especially since they both had such outstanding looks, it likely contributed to their sense of distance.

Hiasen’s long lashes trembled slightly as he scanned the three girls.

“Aestasha…?”

“Yes, Hiasen.”

“You’ve changed a lot.”

“A lot has happened.”

“You said you wouldn’t come back until you finished everything. Have you fulfilled your dreams now?”

“… Yeah.”

“Was I there at the end?”

“You were.”

“I’m glad… the outside me didn’t leave you all alone.”

Name’s words were only half true.

The one who took the last life of Princess Aestasha was none other than Emperor Hiasen.

But Name wanted to hide that fact as she didn’t want to ruin the mood.

“You, seriously! Why do you bring up such strange topics and lower the energy?”

“Niobe’s being annoying, so just stay quiet.”

“Yeah, so what will you do about it! I’m going to play with Aestasha and not with you!”

Niobe rushed over and intertwined her arm with Name’s.

“Come and sit quickly! I just finished preparing for the picnic. Yuna and Haru are all welcome too!”

It was now a gathering that unexpectedly grew from two to five, and the mat felt a bit cramped.

But it meant that Hiasen and Name could partially sit on the grass to secure some space.

“Um… do you all already know Name?”

Haru asked. The one who answered with a grin was Niobe.

“Of course! Aestasha is our eternal little sister!”

It was the voice of a girl with platinum blonde hair covering her mischievous smile with her hands whenever the wind blew, as if they would be buried in her chubby cheeks.

It was funny that she called Name her little sister, but as Name had said earlier, she decided to accept it.

This world had already blurred the lines between common sense and absurdity.

“On the flip side, I’d like to ask you. How did you come to know Aestasha?”

“We’re classmates at the Academy!”

Yuna confidently replied to Hiasen’s question.

“And best friends…!”

She also made sure to add.

“Academy? Aestasha, didn’t you drop out of the Academy?”

“I re-enrolled.”

“Well, you have always wanted to make friends since back in the day.”

“Me…?”

“Yep.”

“Hiasen, you’re still talking nonsense.”

“I’m always serious.”

“Even with that tone…”

Everything felt familiar, and thus it was missed.

Niobe’s antics, Hiasen’s sarcasm.

Name’s expression darkened at the thought of connections she would never be able to encounter again.

“Aestasha, pa- ah-”

Niobe, noticing Name’s gloomy demeanor, abruptly stuffed an éclair filled with cream into her mouth without waiting for her response.

“Mmph-!”

“It’s okay to eat it! You won’t gain a single pound! Heehee.”

With front teeth that weren’t even permanent, Name bit down and barely freed the bread crumb from her mouth.

“I learned something new. Name, did you live abroad?”

“You could say that, or you could say I didn’t.”

If the Alchemist is a magic that materializes dreams, then judging by their conversation, this group was undoubtedly acquaintances of Name.

It was fascinating to Yuna that such beautiful people claimed to be Name’s older siblings.

After finishing off the éclair, Name shared her thoughts.

“It’s amazing. The world I live in is different, and my body has completely changed, yet the storage of Raul-Sist remains intact. Could it be because the constellations are the same?”

This strongly supported the evidence that Name’s previous life was not merely a one-night dream.

Hiasen and Niobe were clearly existing people, suggesting that Name’s previous life was indeed the same person as Princess Aestasha.

With a mindset of “nothing to lose,” Name performed the magic as a last resort.

The magic that she had pulled out whenever things got tough was the one that had supported her until this point and prevented her from succumbing to the sweet temptation of suicide; it was the same as she remembered.

* * *

It wasn’t unreasonable for the people of this world to misunderstand the Alchemist as simply a magic to see stars.

When magic was cast by chance, what they would encounter would only be the vast universe, making it difficult to determine its exact use.

After all, even Raul Luminus, who discovered magic for the first time in his previous life, and Hiasen, who passed this magic onto me, had thought of it only as a means to see stars.

The Alchemist is a phantasmagoric magic that reassembles and materializes the happiest moments.

It presents a realistic and concrete illusion based on the waves of starlight that reached Earth.

It is significant in that it builds a fantastical world based on the information stored in starlight without relying on one’s imperfect memories.

But it was also a double-edged sword of magic.

While the caster could escape their harsh reality and enjoy a sweet respite, the emptiness felt upon returning to the real world could not be adequately expressed.

The happiest memories implied that reality could only ever be bleaker than this.

I would only use the Alchemist (Raul-Sist) when I wanted to give up on all the tasks assigned to me.

The time when I most frequently used this drug-like magic was likely during the Laziness Subjugation War.

To unleash the seed of laziness implanted in my body, I had no choice but to employ a bizarre and unreasonable method of not sleeping.

I could only stubbornly endure and endure.

The magic repeated the process of forcibly eliminating toxins like adenosine and amyloid-beta accumulated in the brain while replacing the role of cerebrospinal fluid, and relaxing the muscles to alleviate physical fatigue.

But all of this was merely an act of artificially substituting deep sleep; I couldn’t completely erase my need for sleep.

Repeating such a horrific act for an entire year, the Alchemist became an essential magic for me to maintain my sanity.

“But to think I murmured this magic even while sleeping, I wonder if I’ve caused unnecessary worry to my friends.”

Meanwhile, the fake Hiasen and fake Niobe marveled at how my body had changed.

Of course, it was to be expected as I had cast the Alchemist more than ten times.

No matter how much they were false personas woven from magic, they would still possess the memories I had made.

“Did you say your new name is Name? I’m disappointed that I can’t call you Shasha anymore.”

“What kind of nickname is that… and I’ve changed so much.”

“I was a bit surprised. I was wondering if you accidentally swallowed some poisonous spider this time.”

Hiasen remarked with a smirk.

“Come on, I’m not a kid, and I’ve lived more than four times your life now.”

There can’t possibly exist a poisonous spider that turns your hair black.

If such a thing did exist, its venom would likely sell well as hair dye for the elderly.

During our walk, meaningless conversations transpired between Hiasen and me.

Finally, he told me about defeating Payran with a sword, and how Josephine’s fiancé was caught having an affair with the daughter of a baron in the outskirts, resulting in the family being devastated.

Though he recounted the events as if they had just occurred, they were indeed stories over two decades old.

He repeated the same lines every time I came to this place, and I always found them amusing.

Due to the nature of the magic, I had no choice but to meet Hiasen fixed at the age of thirteen, but perhaps because he was so mature, even talking with him felt genuinely like conversing with a true friend.

It wasn’t bad to feel the emotion of familiarity after a long time.

“This is nice. Talking to you is the most comfortable, Hiasen. Even if your tone is a bit cocky.”

“Of course I’m still a kid! You’ve lived a few more years outside, so it’s obvious. But you know what? Talking to you was the hardest thing in the world for me.”

“What do you mean, does that mean you were forcing it all along?”

Suddenly, his confession hit me like a brick, leaving me feeling emotionally wounded.

Isn’t this somewhat like the situation where someone I thought was a friend turned out to have no one else to hang out with but me?

“No, that’s not what I meant, Aestasha.”

“Then what do you mean?”

“… I will never tell you.”

“Seriously, this is ridiculous.”

Just as I added my comment, Hiasen turned red and swiftly looked away.

“Ah… I’m not ugly!”

Whenever I called him ugly, he would get indignant, requesting I take back what I said, clearly aware of his own good looks.

Look at that narcissist, who combs his shiny, curly hair over and over.

If he had a hand mirror, he would surely spend the entire day just fixing his hair.