Chapter 181 – Episode 180. To Be Proud (1)
“… Are you okay, Asti?”
Leopold quietly grabbed Asti’s hand.
That faintly trembling hand seemed to clearly show how nervous Asti was right now.
If it hurts, if it hurts—
Or if you are afraid.
It would be fine if I quit.
Even so, Asti bit his lip and nodded his head.
“… To a baby, even to be a confident mother. I am… I need to know. My identity… It’s a bit strange to say, but anyway. I need to know.”
【Isn’t it okay not to do that? It’s not even single body. Wouldn’t it be okay to just live moderately?]
At Astrid’s words, Asti shook her head.
It shouldn’t be like this.
She couldn’t be like this.
Without knowing her true identity, will she be able to live as a proud mother? If she did, she didn’t have the confidence to do it.
She hoped that at least she could confidently tell me what her mother had been like and how she met her father and gave birth to you.
For that to happen, she couldn’t be like this.
Today was finally the day.
Vera Shien also said that she had finished her preparations, and after preparing as much safety equipment as possible, the day I finally decided to try her magic once again.
Once before, she sent Asti back to her own world—even though it was a dream, today was the day she decided to try her sorcery once again.
Mitterien Capital Mansion in the capital.
For today, all the servants in the mansion have been sent out, and only Leopold and Asti, as well as Veracien and Erania, are sitting here.
A person cannot perceive a dream as a dream.
If you have a dream that is too absurd, you can recognize it, but if you don’t, you usually don’t recognize a dream as a dream.
Dreams cannot be distinguished from reality, and that is why people often become swept away by dreams.
And the witchcraft using it could make the victim wander in the dream forever without being able to get out of the dream or not. The spell Berasien cast on Asti in the past was also in that context.
A spell that traps you in a dream and prevents you from waking up forever.
It was just a spell that failed right away because Astiga and Astrid never thought that two souls existed in one body.
And it’s the day to cast that magic once again.
“I will ask you one last time. Come back… There’s no chance you can’t So, there is no such thing as not being able to meet the baby or anything like Astinee’s worries. This I can swear on my her contractor Eranya. But… “
Vera Shien murmured her words.
There was nothing else she was worried about.
“… Are you shocked or not? That’s another story. You are not hurt, you are not shocked… There is no such guarantee. Are you okay though? I don’t think there will be any complaints about my current life.”
Asti did not respond to Veracien’s words.
I have no complaints about my current life.
That’s true, but that’s a different story from continuing the current life as it is.
“Doesn’t care. Rather, it seems like I can’t do it if it’s not now. I am… Because I want to know.”
Who I am, where I’m from, why I’m here, why I—
Was it Astrid?
“Yes, I mean.”
Vera Sien took out two stones the size of her fist and laid them on her table.
“Actually, it’s a spell close to hypnosis.”
Dream stone.
These were the names of the two stones that Verathien had taken out.
It was a rare mineral that could not be obtained in the human world and only in some areas in the demon world.
Originally, it is said to be a mineral consumed to grant people’s wishes—but in fact, it was a mineral that allowed dreams to come true.
In return, you can get the spirit, something like a succubus’s necessity.
Berashien— Beraya, who had never done anything like a succubus yet, but now it was like a kind of service.
Astrid and Leopold were able to meet fairly rare humans in her position, and thanks to those two, Beraya’s instincts as a succubus grew out of control.
‘… Service, service. Only this time. It’ll be fun for me too.’
Originally, only fragmentary dreams or peripheral dreams would be possible, but in that sense, Asti is on the lucky side.
“Asti, you are on the lucky side.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I didn’t know that Leopold would come back to find that much information.”
I thought that it would be different even if it was the imperial family reading room, but it wasn’t.
Surprisingly, in the data that Leopold had collected, the data on witchcraft were described in great detail, and among them, there was data on witchcraft that was practiced even in the Demon Realm.
There was also Veracien’s judgment that if he had this, he would have been able to block Astain’s ruins more easily, but he didn’t say anything because he wouldn’t need to talk about it again while it was already over.
I would say that I am a person who likes to keep records.
Thanks to that, I was able to prepare a more advanced level of magic that I couldn’t use originally.
‘If we were to fight humans, wouldn’t the first thing we should do was occupy the library… ‘
Vera Shien calmly touched her Dream Stone while preparing herself.
As she accepts her energy, the dream stone slowly begins to turn red.
The last one is needed, but that’s up to Leopold.
Now, all preparations are complete.
*
“Because nothing will happen. I hope you get the results you want and come back.”
Asti and Leopold lay side by side in Veracien’s smile.
Leopold took a deep breath while holding Asti’s hand, which was still trembling slightly.
It’s a place he’s already been to once, but he still has to go to a different world than the one he’s lived in so far.
He’s not going alone, now with Asti.
“Do you remember the caution I gave you? It must never be forgotten.”
First. Don’t try to get involved in your dreams.
Second. Never approach dark spaces that are occasionally seen.
Third. In the event of an emergency, use the prepared items immediately.
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”
“If you keep those three things well, there is nothing dangerous. Of course, you should protect your reason and take care of Asti. We don’t know what Asti will look like, so he might lose his temper.”
“… Don’t keep saying scary things. I’m still nervous.”
Asti was still caressing my stomach.
There was such a worry from the beginning, whether it was okay to do such a thing with a body that embraced a child.
But still, it’s because it’s a mother.
‘Baby, watch over her mother. Please watch over her so that she can become a mother who can be a little more confident to you… ‘
Asti took a deep breath.
“Okay then. I will make you dreamy.”
Little by little, warmth spread from the dream stones that Asti and Leopold held in their hands.
And smoke began to flow from the dreamy incense that Veracien had lit on either side of the bed.
How did the two souls come to dwell in one body?
What else does it mean that the source of the soul is the same?
“Dom, Domu, Doma, Dom, Domu, Doma, Dom, Domu, Doma… “
Veracien’s voice came.
That voice that recited words one by one that I couldn’t even understand what they meant, according to a certain rhythm.
The voice that seemed to caress my ear seemed to be getting farther and farther away.
Fall asleep
I fall asleep painfully.
You will fall asleep soon like this.
Even in the consciousness of moving away from Asrai, Asti continued to caress my stomach.
Hoping to watch over her mother.
*
“Whoa.”
Eranya handed Vera Shien her handkerchief as she sat down in a sweat.
“Are you okay?”
Erania’s worrying words.
Even so, Erania’s eyes were on Leopold and Asti.
Where did the two of them, who had fallen asleep as if they were dead, go now?
“Huh. Are you okay. As long as you follow the precautions I gave you, there will be no problem. It’s just a very realistic dream.”
Veracien also looked back at them.
She didn’t lie.
Although she is a demon, she is a race that enjoys getting into trouble by interpreting her contracts only in my favor, but now Leopold and Asti were not the target of such pranks.
Rather, it was the kind of person who wanted to continue her relationship with Vera Shien for a longer time.
“… If anything happens, I’ll go and get it myself. Nothing will happen.”
“Yes, if so.”
Eranha also shut her mouth at that point.
I wanted to ask you some more, but before you—
Vera Shien took out her crystal ball, but something was reflected, albeit faintly.
I saw a familiar place.
Both Leopold and Asti.
It was a very familiar place.
A place you know well.
Where you have already been.
“Here is… “
Even if Leopold didn’t say it, Asti already knew.
“This is a familiar place.”
Should I just get used to it?
The place where a lot of things happened in the past week.
It was the single room where Asti lived alone.
