If I was trapped in this dream forever, I would never be able to escape.
A dream formed by slowly eating away at the weak parts of a person. I knew this was a “dream” because it was me…
But anyone else would’ve gotten lost in it, unable to get out.
“They really gathered all the good things, huh.”
I recalled the best of what I’d accumulated before heading to the Wesleyan Empire.
Wealth and honor.
I had more money than I could ever spend, and in this place where no one failed to recognize me, it was truly sweet.
I didn’t have to stay up all night dealing with paperwork, nor did I have to suffer through the political power struggles of nobles.
I didn’t have to fight to get rid of demons.
“In comparison, this place has none of that…”
This world was different. Peaceful. There was nothing I needed to struggle for.
At the very least, it was much easier than when I was a Saint.
“It’s peaceful, indeed.”
No matter how much I looked around, there were no mountains or trees to be found.
The sound of cars felt endlessly noisy, and all I could see were high-rise buildings packed so tightly they blocked the sky.
It didn’t look good at all…
I met the eyes of birds walking on the pavement.
“Don’t follow me.”
They had dark black feathers. But just like when I could use divine power, the animals seemed to recognize me and were following.
“Even if you follow me, I can’t do anything for you.”
In this dream, I was too busy keeping myself together. I couldn’t tell what was what, and I had no time to worry about them.
“It’s just a dream anyway.”
Why did everything feel so real?
The moment I locked eyes with the pigeon again, I sharply turned my head and kept walking forward.
“I can’t do anything right now.”
Right now, I was just a helpless person who couldn’t even escape her own dream.
I wished that clear blue sky with not a single cloud would collapse.
And I wished I’d return to where I truly belonged.
***
I kept walking, wondering where the end of this dream was.
When my body began to ache so much I could hardly keep walking, someone suddenly grabbed my wrist.
A cool hand held onto me tightly and wouldn’t let go. I was startled, but when I saw the black hand gripping me, I bit down hard on the soft flesh inside my mouth.
I was too busy chasing after that hand.
It was so sudden my vision blurred.
The black hand holding onto me felt familiar.
I entered a dark alley untouched by sunlight.
I was surprised such a place existed in this illusion.
“Who are you?”
The figure didn’t release my hand. I tried to pull away, but the pressure was too strong, and I gave up.
“Doesn’t seem like someone from my dream…”
I scoffed at the ‘black’ hand gripping my wrist.
My clouded mind felt like it was beginning to clear.
It felt like I’d finally found a clue in this seemingly endless dream.
“Lady Emilone.”
A chill ran down my spine. The name of my soul, bestowed directly by the divine.
A voice—genderless—rippled in my ear.
Only then could I manage a smile.
“Lady Emilone.”
“Speak.”
I couldn’t see them.
They seemed to have melted completely into the darkness. That much, I was sure of.
“Will you stay here?”
That was the path, the way out of this ‘dream.’
It asked me, and I began to speak while looking at the wrist it gripped.
“…I have to go back.”
At my words, the figure made a curious humming sound.
The eerie sound made me tremble, but I stood straight, pretending not to notice.
“Do you really need to go back? You could forget everything and just live comfortably here.”
At the word comfortably, I slightly turned my head and looked outside.
The sunlight was burning my skin. It had to be something this illusion created.
It wasn’t reality.
Even the people walking by were just figments of my illusion.
“Erase your memories as a Saintess. Live as a normal person, just as yourself.”
The grip on my wrist loosened.
The black hand gently stroked my hair.
Strangely, the scars on my arm began to sting.
“Not as Saintess Emilone, not as someone who must sacrifice her body to live…”
A man’s voice echoed right by my ear.
Like Snow White, falling into an eternal sleep after biting the poisoned apple, my body felt heavy and languid.
“Just live as your true self. That’s who you really are.”
His sharp words jabbed at a point deep in my heart.
I had lived here all my life.
If I ignored the fact that this was a dream.
If I abandoned the Saintness within me and lived on, there would be no issue with survival.
If I did that, I could even dismiss everything that happened in the Wesleyan Empire as a strange dream.
“Forget the people I left behind in the Empire…and live, just like that?”
“They’ll live just fine without you.”
“I left Alois and Reneben behind in the Kingdom of Eseah. I need to help both of them—”
“They were already living well without you.”
I bit down hard on my lower lip.
It was such a tempting offer. And I could tell there was no lie in that voice.
“Lady Emilone, you can’t stand on your own…but they? They’ll live just fine without you.”
I didn’t want to hear any more. But the black hand wouldn’t let me block my ears.
I wanted to turn my head and ignore it, but the black hand only kept pressing me harder.
“You’re afraid of being alone, aren’t you?”
“…Of course not.”
“Didn’t you give your affection to so many people because you didn’t want to be alone?”
It latched on tighter and tighter.
From the moment I started talking to the owner of this black hand, I had already exposed all my weaknesses.
“Everything you’ve built is here. Things achieved by your own effort.”
“Ugh.”
“It’s different from the status and power granted by a single word from God. This is a place filled with everything that’s truly yours.”
The tension was unbearable.
Even though I couldn’t see its face, it felt like the figure was staring straight through me.
As if sensing my nervousness, laughter crept into the voice.
“Do you think the High Priest and those from the temple you cherish so much will still care for you if you’re no longer the Saintess?”
“That’s—”
“As if. The ones who revere you just because you’re a Saint, would they really still care if you weren’t?”
What could I say…
The figure started stabbing straight into my heart with words.
The more I heard, the more anxious I became. But my mind also grew cold and clear.
These were thoughts I’d had before.
The reality that I held value only because I was the Saintess.
What the voice said wasn’t wrong.
“You…”
Which is exactly why it felt strange.
To be tempted by doubts I’d already wrestled with and overcome once.
“Who are you?”
The chatter stopped. Then a voice, laced with amusement, responded.
“Who do you think I am?”
My lips parted.
Who…do I think it is?
“I’m your vulnerable inner self.”
The black hand brushed down over me. I could feel the chilling sensation in full.
“And I’m this dream itself.”
The hand released me.
I tried to catch the black figure retreating too late—but it moved faster.
“How…how do I get out of here?”
The black silhouette stepped closer to the sunlight.
Its face, once entirely shadowed, gradually came into view.
“Do you really want to leave this place?”
“There’s no way I’m going to spend eternity trapped in a dream created by my weak inner self.”
I bit down hard on the soft flesh inside my mouth.
So that was it. The source of this dream.
My own weak self.
It used memories of the most peaceful, relaxed days to fabricate a ‘happiness’ I’d never wanted.
Now I finally understood what kind of place this was.
A false paradise created by my own yearning.
The black figure slowly took on a human shape.
And when I saw what it had become, I let out an incredulous, empty laugh.
Pale white skin. Big, deer-like eyes.
“I will…become the one you love the most.”
Red lips. Long lashes fluttering open and closed.
Even the crimson irises peeking through were flawless.
“Alois Eseah…”
“If you want to leave this place, if that’s what you truly want, then destroy me.”
His name spilled from my lips. The thing carrying Alois’ face gave me a bright smile.
“If you can destroy me, that is.”
* * *
A Saintess who had fallen into eternal sleep. Nothing good could ever come of this fact becoming known.
“What do I do…Lady Emilone”
Her pink hair had turned pitch black. She used to say it was the color of her hair before coming here.
“What kind of dream are you having?”
He wanted to lift those delicately closed eyelids and look into those red eyes.
Those red eyes that shone as if they were ready to devour him at any moment.
“My father is currently confined in his own room, under the temple’s watch.”
He’d sent her off thinking that the power of the Saintess could handle a couple of heretical faction stragglers. He even gave her a sleeping pill containing the poison of the divine beast.
But if there was something he didn’t expect, it was just how deeply obsessed his father was with the throne.
He had used dark magic himself. At first, I thought there was another dark mage but then he realized the truth after seeing his father go mad.
“Father is no longer king. No, he cannot be king anymore.”
That was the price he paid for using dark magic without being a proper dark mage.
The King of Eseah had plunged the Saintess into eternal sleep.
And because it was sleep, not death, she couldn’t escape even with divine protection.
“As long as you wake up, everything will be perfect.”
She had only fallen asleep.
He had gone through every book he could find like crazy last night but couldn’t find a way to wake her up.
“Haah…”
I had found her sleeping peacefully in the audience chamber yesterday evening. And across from her was the King of Eseah, who had gone mad.
Just remembering how the king had lost all the reason and was now under the watchful eye of the temple made him sigh helplessly.
Alois looked down at her as she lay motionless on the bed and clenched his fists tightly
His nails dug into his pain, inflicting a sharp pain as it cut skin.
“This time, it’s my fault.”
*.*.*
- Emilone’s Temptation Labyrinth – Chapter 139 - October 3, 2025
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