Pretending to Be Human Is Exhausting Again Today - Chapter 94

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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Pretending to Be Human: Episode 094

Loreil drew a sharp breath as he gazed upon the space beyond the shattered wall.

“What in the world is this…?”

The space beyond was filled with nothing but infinite darkness. The problem was that something writhed within that darkness, visible to the eye.

Glossy black clouds—that description seemed most fitting.

“What is that?”

“The space beyond the wall hasn’t materialized because of the limitations of imagination.”

The spot I had just struck was also a section where the dream’s owner paid little attention. You might call it a gap in consciousness.

When you strike such a place with physical force, a passage like this opens to the Dream’s Inner Realm.

‘The 3rd Division Commander taught me this. I wonder how he’s doing.’

I seized Loreil’s arm and pulled.

“Come on, let’s jump.”

“You mean down there? What’s beneath us?”

“The Dream’s Inner Realm. The World on the Other Side of the Mirror. We thought we were gazing into a mirror, but it’s the opposite. We’ve been looking out from inside the mirror this whole time.”

In other words, where we stand is the outer region where we cannot meet the dream’s owner.

It would have been better to open our eyes in the inner realm from the start, but that’s the limitation of whoever invited us into this dream.

And that inner realm lies directly below us.

“What’s your basis for saying it’s below?”

“Because it’s a dream. Haven’t you ever had a dream where you were falling?”

“Why does that connect to the Dream’s Inner Realm… Never mind. It’s probably beyond my comprehension anyway.”

Loreil exhaled deeply.

“Then at least tell me the reason. Why must we descend into the Dream’s Inner Realm?”

“The dreamer should be down there, so I thought we might try talking to them. And while we’re at it, wake them up so we can escape the dream as well.”

“Is there no other way to wake from this dream besides conversation?”

“There is a rougher method…”

I trailed off.

“We could forcibly shatter this dream and break free. But if we do that, I can’t guarantee the dreamer will survive intact.”

If they were truly reliving their life’s moments at death’s threshold as I suspected, forcing them awake could trigger a backlash that might lead to actual death.

And that wasn’t the outcome the person who sent us the letter desired.

“The sender asked us to ‘save Mother.’ So I want to at least meet them first and talk it through.”

“…”

Loreil regarded me in silence for a moment, then quietly moved to my side.

“If that’s the best course, then we’ll do it together.”

‘For someone who affects such coldness, he’s surprisingly compassionate.’

I let out a short laugh.

“Aren’t you afraid of jumping? Should I hold your hand?”

“…Sometimes I feel the urge to bind His Majesty and deliver a sermon.”

Oh no—if I tease him much more, he’ll explode. I quickly averted my gaze.

“On three, then. One, two, three—jump.”

“Understood.”

“Ah, and you might lose consciousness on the way down. This place below is tangled with all manner of memories. Now then, one, two—”

“You could have mentioned that from the start…!”

“Three!”

I hurled myself into the darkness. Loreil cursed sharply—”Damn it!”—and plunged after me.

The darkness engulfed us in an instant….

[Don’t worry. No matter what happens, I will protect Biki.]

The Countess’s memory pierced through our minds.

The most beautiful flower in High Society.

The most brilliantly ascending star in the Empire.

I, Lillis Adonia, believed that no obstacle should ever stand before me.

Rather than belief, it felt like an inevitable truth.

I possessed the qualifications for such certainty.

Formidable power and unwavering influence, exquisite beauty, an unblemished reputation and renown. Knowledge and wisdom, and a beloved family that propelled my life forward.

A perfect life, a perfect future.

The world had always favored me, and misfortune was a word belonging to others.

So I believed I could breeze through any crisis that might arise.

…But that confidence shattered far too easily before the true misfortune that soon arrived.

“Master, a blight has struck the crops.”

It began with the failure of the Domain’s harvest. Without any warning, blight ravaged the crops, and famine descended upon the Domain.

‘The crops were safe through summer, yet the moment autumn arrived, blight appeared? Something is amiss.’

While my Husband tended to the Domain, I suspected the machinations of the Empress and exhausted every effort to find the culprit.

But before I could uncover the perpetrator, a second misfortune descended.

And it targeted my most precious family.

“M-Madam! Come quickly! The Carriage carrying the Count and the Eldest Daughter returning from the Domain was struck by a rockslide…!”

The moment I heard those words, my mind went white.

I rushed frantically toward the site of the accident.

‘It cannot be. It simply cannot be.’

The stretch of Road where the rockslide occurred had not seen a single accident in decades. Yet on such a brilliantly clear day, rocks suddenly tumbled down?

‘It cannot be a serious accident. It cannot be.’

But when I arrived at the scene, my hopes shattered completely.

A destroyed Carriage.

Wheel tracks stained with blood.

And my beloved Husband and Eldest Daughter, motionless forevermore.

“Ahhh, ahhhhh…!”

And so, without warning, misfortune claimed two members of my family.

“I cannot forgive this. How dare you, how dare you take my child…!”

My mind consumed by sorrow and rage, I convinced myself that all of this was someone’s machination, and I exhausted every resource searching for the culprit behind it.

But….

‘This is absurd. Truly, was it all mere coincidence?’

The results were hollow. Not only could I find no culprit, but I couldn’t even uncover a single suspicious clue.

The plague that ravaged the crops had no identifiable cause, and the rockslide that crushed the Carriage was traced to the ridiculous conclusion that a passing beast had dislodged a boulder—an accident born of pure chance.

I could not comprehend it, nor did I wish to.

That such a trivial coincidence would harm my family—it could never have happened unless the Deity had abandoned me.

Yet my misfortune had not ended.

Not long after I held the funeral rites for my Husband and Eldest Daughter, my Second Daughter too fell prey to an incurable disease.

“Mother, I’m sorry. I should be your strength, and yet….”

The misfortune that befell my Second Daughter, the most brilliant of my three children, was a paralysis that petrified her entire body like stone.

First her feet, then her legs, her arms, her fingers… and finally, a terrible death where she would forget how to breathe itself.

“I beg you. Please, please save my daughter.”

I devoted every ounce of my strength to finding a way to save her.

I sought out renowned Physicians, exceptional Priests, even a Diviner from the Black Market, and I pleaded with them all. Yet each one examined my Second Daughter’s condition and shook their head.

This was an incurable disease, they said. It could not be cured unless the Sun God himself granted a miracle.

I could do nothing but watch my child slip toward death.

“Mother, I love you. Please, please….”

And so she too, adorning her final breath with love, departed from my side.

That day, I understood.

The Deity is no longer on my side.

“…Mother?”

As I sank deeper into despair, my youngest daughter, Biki, approached me. My precious youngest, who still called me mother.

I gathered her into my arms and spoke.

“My youngest, I will protect you no matter what.”

“Mother….”

“Don’t worry. I will keep Biki safe, no matter what happens.”

After that, I never left Biki’s side for a single day, not even for a moment.

I had sworn that no matter what misfortune befell us, I would throw my own body in front of her to protect her.

But it seemed the shock had affected more than just me—Biki’s condition grew increasingly strange.

“Yes, I understand. I’ll trust what you say.”

“Father, don’t you want to see Mother?”

She began speaking to the corners of the darkened room, to the empty air above—her mental state seeming to regress to that of a younger child.

Unable to accept that her family had died, was she seeing illusions?

Yet I could not stop her.

At that time, all my attention was consumed by vigilance against my surroundings rather than caring for the child.

I wandered the Manor all day long—ensuring the chandelier would not collapse, that sparks would not fly from the fireplace, that the candlestick would not fall onto the carpet…

Everything in the world seemed to be watching for an opportunity to take my daughter from me.

And that anxiety proved justified once more.

“Biki? Where are you, Biki?”

Just a moment. A brief instant—four days without proper sleep, leaning back in the Study chair with my eyes closed.

Biki had vanished.

“Biki! Find Biki, at once!”

I issued urgent commands to the Servants. We ransacked the Manor’s interior, the Streets, the Domain, even the surrounding Cities.

But Biki did not appear.

‘This cannot be. She must be hiding somewhere. Yes, this is hide-and-seek. Biki loved hide-and-seek when she was young.’

But that hope shattered before the Chamberlain’s trembling voice.

“My lord, in the River ahead… we found shoes believed to belong to the Youngest Daughter of Adonia…”

What came after, I do not remember clearly.

Only the fact that I screamed in a voice no human could produce remained dimly in my memory.

After opening my eyes, I became a breathing corpse—a thing that had lost all will to live.

Each day without family was meaningless. I wished only that the next misfortune would come swiftly and take my life.

Then one day, a Woman visited my Manor.

“My, how haggard you’ve become. How pitiful.”

Unlike me, who had withered, she remained a radiant flower of High Society.

“It has been long, Lillis. My sister-in-law.”

It was Empress Chersil.

She gazed at me with pity and spoke thus:

“I have come to help you. Tell me—would you not wish to dream a sweet dream?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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