Instead, Seoho raised the hand that had been patting his chest and lifted the handkerchief that was covering Rosetta’s eyes slightly.
“I’m not scared anymore.”
Seoho met his gaze and smiled brightly as he talked about what he had felt and what he had actually seen.
“Dawn is really strong. It’s bright and clean, but solid. The hand couldn’t even touch me with a single fingertip before it disappeared.”
A white light rose faintly from the hand clasped together with Rosetta’s. The energy that started from his hand traveled up Rosetta’s arm and spread throughout his entire body.
When the light reached Rosetta’s face, it felt exactly like a halo was shining. Even his swollen eyes seemed to be getting better little by little.
“I felt it then. As long as your power is with me, even if the dream continues, I won’t be dragged away.”
“Yeah.”
But Rosetta was sobbing again. Seoho quickly added more words.
“Don’t cry, okay? If you’re really worried, call Angel. And check the red thread. See if it’s connected properly.”
Rosetta’s gaze turned toward Seoho’s feet. And after a moment, he nodded with a face that was definitely more stable than before.
“…Alright.”
As soon as the answer came out, Aris and Puti, who had been waiting, appeared. Seoho stopped using his divine power and let them into the room.
Perhaps having received something from Puti, Aris entered the room without showing any particular surprise and immediately treated Rosetta.
“It’s done.”
Seoho nodded as he examined Rosetta’s eyes, which had returned to normal in the blink of an eye, but when their eyes met, his eyes began to redden again.
“If you cry again, I won’t console you. And I’ll go out alone to meet Angel.”
When Seoho warned him, Rosetta put strength into his eyes. Relieved by that sight, Seoho asked Puti, who was staring intently at him.
“Can you tell Angel we want to meet as soon as possible?”
“Yes, I will.”
“And something simple to eat too.”
“Yes.”
Seoho turned to Aris.
“Thank you too, Aris.”
“Not at all. If you’re going to have a meal, I’ll step out for a moment.”
Seoho stopped him, who had been called from early morning.
“You can join us though.”
“I’ve already eaten.”
He didn’t know if he had actually eaten, but he couldn’t stop someone who said they’d already eaten.
“Alright. I understand.”
“I’ll be with Puti. Call me if you need anything.”
“Okay.”
Puti and Aris left the room, and Seoho turned back to Rosetta.
Thanks to magic, Rosetta looked exactly the same as usual. His gaze moved together whenever Seoho moved, and even while eating the breakfast Puti brought, he kept looking only at Seoho the whole time and couldn’t even eat properly, but at least he looked fine on the outside.
‘Time will solve the rest.’
Seoho decided to wait for him, firmly holding Rosetta’s hand as he quietly approached from the side and grabbed his hand again.
***
Seoho greeted Angel, who entered the room with a somewhat stiff face.
“Thank you for coming.”
That rigid smile must be from embarrassment. Since Rosetta was reluctant to leave the room, Seoho ended up inviting Angel to their room.
“Seoho-nim.”
He was curious about what going out of the room had to do with having a dream, but for now, he decided to wait for Rosetta to stabilize, so Seoho obediently followed Rosetta’s stubbornness.
Since there was a large table in the room prepared for studying with Aris, there was a place set up for conversation.
“Please come this way.”
Seoho looked back at Puti, who had served tea and quietly stepped back, and Aris, who was standing next to such Puti.
Actually, since Aris and Puti didn’t know everything that had happened at dawn either, he had suggested they sit together before Angel came, but they shook their heads.
Puti emphasized that he was a servant, and Aris emphasized that he had recently been mainly in charge of guarding Seoho. While doing so, Aris spoke as if it worked out well.
‘If I stay in the back, I’ll be able to see the Saintess’s reactions better.’
Seoho was giving his attention to the two people standing behind Rosetta when he heard the sound of a chair being pulled and turned to look at her, opening his mouth.
“You must have been surprised to be called suddenly?”
“Not at all. But is something wrong?”
Angel looked back and forth between Seoho, who had spoken first, and Rosetta, who still had his mouth tightly shut and was only looking at Seoho.
From inviting her to the room to the current situation. She would be able to guess sufficiently that something must have happened.
Seoho glanced away to confirm that Rosetta was okay, then said.
“Actually, I had that dream again.”
“…Pardon?”
Angel’s face turned as white as a blank sheet of paper. At least from Seoho’s perspective, she looked truly surprised without any falsehood, but Aris and Puti’s impressions might be different.
But even so, since he couldn’t turn around right now and ask the two for their opinions, Seoho continued speaking.
“A white hand appeared. Like last time, it couldn’t grab my ankle or touch my body.”
Angel’s gaze quickly dropped to around Seoho’s ankle. Seoho spoke while watching Angel’s gaze staring intently at his feet.
“I’ve heard about the dream and experienced it, but since the hand didn’t touch me, there doesn’t seem to be a big problem. Is there any change by any chance?”
The gaze that had been wandering around his feet for a while came back up.
“At least from the outside, there’s no major change.”
That was fortunate news at least. If Angel had said here that there was a problem with the thread, Rosetta would have sunk even deeper than now.
Perhaps he might have cried his heart out without even caring that Angel was in front of him. As Seoho was about to turn back to Rosetta, Angel asked with suspicious eyes.
“Are you sure it was the same dream as that time? Isn’t there a possibility that you had a nightmare because you were shocked by that incident?”
Well, he hadn’t given a proper explanation and was hiding about divine power from her, so this reaction coming back was perhaps natural.
Until he had the dream today, Seoho’s ankle would get cold every time he recalled that hand, so that dream had definitely left aftereffects.
Seoho explained while leaving out the part about the divine power he had acquired.
“According to Rosetta, my body suddenly became hazy and I was barely breathing. My body got cold too.”
Angel slowly nodded.
“Then it’s definitely not an ordinary dream. But that’s strange.”
“What is?”
Angel looked down at Seoho’s ankle once more and asked.
“Why couldn’t it touch Seoho-nim’s body unlike that time?”
As expected, not talking about divine power seemed to create gaps. Seoho mixed half the truth and spoke.
“Before the hand could touch me, I woke up from the dream because of Rosetta.”
“Pardon?”
“I should say the dream was destroyed by Rosetta’s divine power. The surrounding space collapsed.”
He didn’t know if it was the divine power Seoho had or the divine power Rosetta had emitted, but anyway, all that divine power was actually Rosetta’s, so explaining it this way didn’t make it a lie. At Seoho’s explanation, Angel closed her eyes as if pondering deeply, then asked again.
“…When you had the dream for the first time, wasn’t His Majesty with you?”
“No.”
Certainly, at that time, Puti had entered the room right after he woke up from the dream. He couldn’t confirm whether his body had been trying to disappear like now, not only when Rosetta wasn’t there but also when Puti wasn’t there.
At Seoho’s answer, Angel let out a small sigh.
“I’ll need to look into it a bit more.”
That’s when Rosetta interjected for the first time.
“…Is that all?”
His muffled voice was wrapped more in sharpness than moisture. Seoho’s body flinched, but Angel answered calmly.
“Because there’s nothing to compare it to. I think I need to talk a bit more with the prince.”
Rosetta let out a sharp sneer and commanded.
“Summon him here right now. Puti?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Puti, who had made eye contact with Rosetta, bowed his head and quickly left the room. He was definitely going to bring Yun.
Rosetta looked at Angel and twisted his lips.
“It would be better to resolve things right away.”
“That’s right.”
His will to make it so they wouldn’t have any chance to conspire even if the two of them were plotting something was clearly visible.
Seoho examined Rosetta’s appearance, which had gained strength even if it was from anger, unlike before when he looked fragile.
‘I don’t know if he’s gotten better or worse.’
Seoho looked at Rosetta like that for a long time until Yun arrived.
***
Yun put down the report he had received through magic and looked over the photos the Emperor had permitted, which had been returned through a servant the night before.
‘It was a proposal I made on impulse, but…’
It was a coincidence that the magical item he had taken out without much thought had appealed so much to Seoho’s heart. Thanks to that, he had gained a suitable excuse to meet Seoho, and he was able to look around the imperial palace with his own two eyes instead of through his familiar, so it was beneficial in many ways.
‘Only the photos Seoho took have disappeared without a trace.’
He had roughly guessed it would be like that, but he wasn’t very pleased that his guess had become reality.
‘Really, he’s just like his father.’
He got goosebumps at the sight of him trying to possess everything related to fate. The only difference between his father and the Emperor was that he allowed Seoho freedom, albeit limited.
