As I trudged into the detached palace, Hereis, Raki, and Forti were waiting for me at the door. As soon as Raki saw me, his eyes widened and he shouted.
“Young master, that flower!”
“Flower?”
Ah, I raised my hand to my ear. Lost in thought, I’d forgotten to remove the flower. As I tried to take out the Prolain, Raki grabbed my hand in alarm.
“You mustn’t remove it!”
“Hm?”
“His Highness the Crown Prince put it there for you, right?”
“Yeah…”
“Then you must leave it as it is until the wedding night. If the groom doesn’t remove it himself, they say your married life will be unhappy.”
I wanted to rip it off right now… Even as I thought that, my hand that had been grasping the Prolain’s stem slowly released. Forget just breaking up—becoming unhappy sounds like the precursor to a gruesome death ending.
“What kind of flower is that?”
“Forti doesn’t need to know yet.”
When Forti asked curiously, Raki answered with a beaming smile. I’d thought Raki somewhat disliked Eldon, but it seems his heart melted already just because he put Prolain on me. What an easy man.
“I’m going to rest a bit.”
“Yes. Please sleep now. If you’re going to stay up all night, you should sleep now!”
He was truly a man who had served Rosenthal Chendewden, the flower of high society. He had no hesitation at all in talking about embarrassing matters. I passed by Raki, who was delighted to see the Prolain, and entered my room.
“You received Prolain.”
Hereis, who had followed me inside, made a belated observation. No, he stated the fact dryly. I was rather grateful for the lack of congratulatory remarks or sentiment.
“Yes. I ended up receiving it.”
“Are you not pleased?”
“…I don’t know. I’m a bit troubled.”
“…Is it because you don’t remember the past?”
“What? How do you…?”
How does Hereis know about the excuse I hastily made up last night?
“I apologize. I heard what the two of you were saying last night.”
“…From outside the door? Is your hearing that good?”
When I asked out of pure curiosity, Hereis shook his head.
“As I left, I placed an eavesdropping spell on the room. Since I didn’t know what that man might do.”
Hereis must have been quite shocked that Eldon threw his fiancé to a tentacle monster. Indeed, even by this world’s standards rather than South Korea’s, it’s clearly a trashy thing to do.
“Thank you for worrying about me. But please don’t do that next time.”
“Yes…”
Even in that brief response, Hereis’s words trailed off.
“Harry, are you alright?”
“…May I eat?”
He spoke in a heavy voice. Hereis’s red and blue eyes had settled coldly. Had his gaze been so chilling? Shadows fell across his gaunt face. He’d always been slender, but the waistline of his perfectly tailored butler uniform now looked loose.
When I lowered my head, my hair fell forward. Hereis approached and swept back the fallen hair. His cold fingers lingered on my right ear, then brushed against the flower’s stem. I thought the Prolain might fall out, but this wasn’t the time to worry about superstitions. I stared at Hereis. He looked precarious, as if he might collapse at any moment.
At first, he’d said once a day. Suddenly he changed his words to once a week, but it couldn’t be true. It was just a lie to consider my feelings.
I smiled broadly.
“Of course. Please eat. I was just about to sleep anyway. But I’m worried it might fail again today. Is there perhaps another method?”
We couldn’t fail again. Hereis’s condition looked too serious to just acknowledge the limits of sympathy, reflect, and end it there. It felt like we shouldn’t let this moment pass.
Then Hereis’s eyes trembled. He clearly had some method but was hesitating. Even in this situation, he was being considerate of me.
“Anything is fine, so please tell me if there’s a method.”
I took his hand. His cold, emaciated hand pained my heart. This all happened because of me. When I spoke repeatedly, Hereis opened his mouth heavily.
“…It can be done in dreams too.”
“What?”
“Contact is possible in dreams as well.”
“…How?”
Is this different from an erotic dream? Not quite understanding, my eyes widened, and after a brief pause, Hereis continued.
“Would you like to try?”
“Yes. Please do!”
I nodded unconditionally. Then Hereis laid me down on the bed and placed his hand over my eyes. It wasn’t different from usual. Is he trying an ordinary erotic dream again? Today won’t be any different either… I was about to tell him it’s really okay so use another method, but drowsiness poured over me.
***
Hm, what? I thought I’d fallen asleep, but haven’t I? I looked around. This is my bedroom. And Hereis was standing beside me.
“Hereis, no, Harry. What’s going on? What about the erotic dream?”
“You may call me Hereis. Since this is inside a dream.”
Hereis’s voice resonated even lower than usual.
“A dream?”
“This is inside a dream.”
When Hereis moved his finger lightly, the surrounding scenery changed in an instant. This was a Hyeon Tribe cuisine restaurant overlooking the Serian River. The very place I’d come to with Forti and Raki.
In the best window seat of the restaurant full of noble guests, Hereis and I were present. It was also the seat where I’d had a date with Eldon in a dream.
Even though there was a huge bed instead of a table and Rosenthal Chendewden had boldly shown his face, the guests didn’t care at all and each concentrated on their meal.
It really is a dream…
“Is this kind of thing possible?”
“Yes. Because I’m a Dream Demon.”
He matter-of-factly informed me of the truth.
“Entering dreams, conversing, making contact—it’s all possible.”
He took my hand and lightly kissed the back of it. I gently withdrew my hand. Even knowing it’s a basic greeting here, I can’t get used to it. Besides, I was an ordinary young man from South Korea. It’s one thing to kiss someone’s hand, but receiving it still feels awkward.
“If there was a method like this, you should have told me sooner.”
Once the embarrassment faded, I felt somewhat deceived. As I grumbled softly, Hereis’s gaze changed.
“…Are you serious?”
“What?”
“Does that mean you’re willing to give me your vital energy directly while having a lucid dream?”
“Yes.”
It’s much better than being anxious about what kind of dream I might have. It’s not actual contact, just a dream.
As I nodded lightly, Hereis climbed onto the bed in an instant. And he grabbed my chin.
“You’re truly saying I may eat as I please?”
A breeze carrying the scent of the Serian River’s water blew. His neatly combed red hair scattered in the wind, clearly revealing his red eyes.
In the original work, there were frequent descriptions of Rosenthal being the empire’s greatest beauty, but I don’t agree.
My head automatically bowed before Hereis’s beauty that far transcended the human realm. His sparkling odd-colored eyes seemed to pierce through my heart and read everything.
“Yes. Of course. But h-how do you do it?”
“Like this.”
Hereis’s hand moved downward and unfastened my belt. Then blue silk underwear was revealed. I grabbed the front of my pants in confusion.
“He-Hereis, what…!”
“It’s mealtime.”
Right, mealtime. An incubus absorbs vital energy from semen or love fluids. To eat something, you’d have to undress first. Even though I’d boldly declared anything was fine, I ended up too flustered.
Hereis’s hand, which had been unhesitatingly removing the belt, fell away again. He was reading the situation because I was too flustered. This won’t do.
I gathered the meager seduction and sensuality that existed within me and looked up at Hereis.
“Then feast. Hereis.”
Pretending to have predicted this situation from the start, pretending this was a piece of cake, I acted as relaxed as possible while lowering my pants and underwear. Unlike my voice that stuck like honey, the secret is that my fingertips trembled violently.
Hereis thinks I’ve lost my memories. So I didn’t need to put on airs and pretend to be experienced like the real Rosenthal.
But let’s think about it from his perspective. If I somehow awakened as an incubus because of some strange guy and needed to eat, but my partner was a virgin who couldn’t even dream properly, and doing it for real was unpleasant, but I needed to preserve my life so I compromised and entered a dream only to tremble there too—what would I do?
I’d be unable to force it, fumble around, and end up starving to death. Hereis was also being forced into this, so I didn’t want to burden him further.
But even after I’d lowered my underwear, Hereis just watched silently. Why is he doing that? Does he really not feel like it?
Well, in the original work, Hereis disliked Rosenthal too. Even if not a sub-top, he was one of the characters who had favorable feelings for Seha. Even if not a main fish like Eldon or Arleigh, he did have a history of staying in the dating pool.
Because Hereis treated me so well, I’d momentarily forgotten he was a character who took the lead in bringing down Rosenthal. He was furious enough just from the assassination request on Seha, so there’s no way I, who caused him direct harm, would look pretty to him. Behind that caring face, he must have been carving ‘patience’ again and again.
The courage I’d barely mustered instantly crumbled, and sensuality was replaced by embarrassment.
“Haha, y-you have no appetite. At a restaurant, you should eat. Can you order in dreams too? Can you taste things? Have you tried dwenjang jjigae? It’s really delicious. Um, I’ll order!”
I reached out toward a waiter, but he passed by me indifferently. As if he didn’t know there was a person like me there—a very clean ignore.
Ah… I should’ve kept my mouth shut. Look at this. Can’t even wear my pants properly and I’m trying to order what.
To hide my burning face, I bowed my head deeply and fumbled to pull up my lowered underwear, but Hereis grabbed my hand and stopped me.
“Hereis…”
Before I could even finish calling his name, Hereis used his other hand to throw away the Prolain flower stuck in my ear. As I cast my gaze at the red flower that fell on the bed, suddenly hot breath touched my penis.
