Passing through the white marble hallway and stepping past the back door, a sprawling rear courtyard unfolded before her.
Towering trees, rising as though to pierce the sky, enclosed the detached palace so tightly that nothing within could be seen from outside.
For that reason, the detached palace was known among the nobility as the ‘Palace of Solitude.’
They said the princess, the King's sister, lived there, yet no one had laid eyes on her since she was a child.
No one was permitted entry to the detached palace without the King's permission; those granted access were only her maid Annie, her guard Cole, the royal physician, and a handful of maids assigned to rough labor.
In her childhood,
on the day she realized the things she saw in her dreams came true before her very eyes, a strange ailment had appeared alongside it.
An illness where she would suddenly collapse into slumber without any prior warning.
Ever since the first episode struck before her mother, the woman had chosen willingly to live with her in the detached palace.
At a tender age, Dalia had hated life far removed from the main palace, but after her mother's sudden passing, she had chosen on her own to shut herself away in this place.
Here, she had no need to mind the eyes of others.
She did not have to live bound by the title of princess, but could freely just be Dalia.
Dalia sat on the bench where she usually rested, gazing ahead.
The world around her was full of everything she loved.
A blue sky.
White clouds, puffed like tufts of cotton.
Birds chirping lovely melodies, and a gentle breeze caressing the strands of her hair.
Her spirits, sluggish from staying indoors for so long, gradually began to revive.
If only she had not seen that dream…
She could have lived her entire life enjoying these things she loved in peace.
The future she was forced to see through her dreams.
Once she had a dream, the event came to pass within a single day at the earliest, or within a year at the latest.
Rumble… A terrifying roar.
The sky gave voice to a dread sound, as though it were on the verge of collapsing at any second.
She should have recoiled in terror at the deafening noise striking her ears, yet her body was weighed down by something invisible, unable to move so much as a finger.
It was the same dream… once again.
It hurt…
Every time she had this dream, pain surged from somewhere within her flesh.
Dalia tried to force her eyelids open, but her lashes merely trembled faintly.
“Aaargh!”
“Save me!”
“No… I'm scared…”
“Aagh!”
Countless screams.
Piteous sobs swallowed by dread.
A violent rush of trampling footsteps.
And the roar of beasts pursuing them.
She wanted to cover her ears, but she lacked the strength to lift her hands.
Unable to shut out those horrifying sounds, Dalia could only pray for time to pass.
Then a tear slipped from the corner of her eye, and her eyelids finally began to part slowly.
Through her hazy vision, she saw the blue sky torn to shreds like paper.
Beneath it, terrifying black shapes plunged to the earth in their thousands, tens of thousands.
Hell.
The world was falling apart before her eyes.
She wanted to shut her eyes once more, but once opened, they would not close again.
It was the hour of ruin she had witnessed over and over in her dreams.
Even knowing it was a dream, the utter helplessness pierced to the depths of her soul.
If only she knew where she was…
If only she could find a single thread leading to an answer…
Yet all her eyes could find were white pillars.
And then…
“His Majesty, Emperor Gray…”
A man's voice reached her, sounding as if he were weeping aloud.
In this recurring nightmare, she had never heard anything before except screams.
This was the first time she had ever heard such words.
Dalia wanted to turn around in shock, but the man's voice came from outside her field of vision.
“If only His Majesty had married…”
Married?
Gray… Was that not the name of the Emperor of the Lucifon Empire?
What did the Emperor's marriage have to do with the end of the world?
“It never would have come to this…”
Wait…
Did the world end because the Emperor never married?
Why?
What link was there between the world's ruin and the Emperor's marriage?
Dalia wanted to ask, to make certain of what she had heard, but as always in her dreams, she could not command her body.
“Cough… If only he had married…”
“Wait!”
Dalia cried out urgently, snapping her head up.
At the very same moment, white flower petals drifted before her eyes, falling like snowflakes.
With bleary eyes still heavy with sleep, she stared at the petals piled upon her nightclothes, then lifted her gaze.
Princess Rose's personal maid stood before her with an apologetic look on her face.
“Hehehe!”
The culprit giggled crisply from a distance; she had been placing petals one by one on Dalia's head while she slept on the bench.
When Dalia turned her head, she caught sight of Princess Rose's small, rounded back looking endearing enough to coax a smile.
If pure cuteness ever had a form, it had to be that child.
Yet… if the world perished, what would become of her?
What about this little one's future?
All at once, Dalia's breath caught, and tears welled in her eyes.
A searing ache flared in her chest, and cold sweat coated her palms.
Her dreams always came true in reality.
Ever since the day she failed to stop her mother's death, she had learned that dreams could never be changed, choosing instead to accept them and go on living.
In truth, however… it had been surrender.
Even so, was the ruin of the whole world not too cruel?
She had shut herself in her room for days on end, denying the dreadful future, falling into despair, and at last being forced to accept it with bitter reluctance.
Yet today was different.
She had heard it in the dream.
That the world would not perish if only the Emperor married.
Could she truly change this fate?
“Aunt Dalia, aren't you going to look for me?”
Rose called in a sweet voice, hiding among the bushes.
Dalia clenched her fists tightly as she looked at Rose's small back.
If she let things go on like this without doing anything, that child would have no future.
Dalia's violet eyes sparked with earnest resolve.
She would try, just this once.
‘Just this once… I will change fate. Even if I can't change any other future, please… let me change the end of the world.’
Dalia offered up her prayer to God with every ounce of sincerity she possessed.
Rose poked her head out slightly from behind the shrubs, sneaking a peek, and the moment their eyes met, she quickly ducked back into hiding.
Did she think hiding her face was enough when that little backside was sticking out plain as day?
Dalia watched the scene with a fond smile, before the fire in her eyes flared anew.
The Emperor had to marry.
She had no idea why, or for what reason the Emperor had to marry to keep the world from destruction, but she resolved to see him wed first before searching for the reason.
She had at most one year before the dreams turned into reality.
And it could even be… tomorrow.
“Aunt Dalia, hurry up and come find me!”
Noticing that Dalia had not come looking for her right away as usual, Rose urged her along in a sweet, childish voice.
“Grrr—where could Princess Rose be hiding?”
Dalia spread her arms wide, mimicking the sound of a wolf.
“Hehehe!”
Rose let out a burst of clear laughter, pattering away on her short little legs.
Dalia feigned looking around for her, scanning here and there while etching the sight of that lovely little back into her memory.
Every time she woke from the dream of the world's ruin, she had crumbled into despair and locked herself away in fear of the coming future.
Today, however, for the first time, she had grasped a thread of hope.
She gave chase after Rose, her heart overflowing with a burning plea.
To protect the future that child would live in…
she would do whatever it took.
