“Hm, you see me as too cruel of a ruler. I don’t just blindly kill my people.”
You say you won’t kill me, but you’ll kill me anyway if I fail. You even said that you would use the straw until it was tattered and torn to shreds and then kill me by overworking me. Sonidor swallowed hard at the last part and glanced at Terry. The only thing the emperor needed was her, the dream artisan. There was no need to drag him into this dangerous business.
“Then please leave my assistant out of this job.”
“What? No!”
Terry glared at Sonidor, his eyes glazing over at the sight of the Raizel Guards. He’s really getting on my nerves right now! Raising a child turned out to be pointless. She spat out a harsh breath and glared back at him. The emperor glanced lightly at the two of them in turn and raised the corners of his mouth in satisfaction.
“That won’t be possible since he’s heard everything.”
Hey, you’ll die too if I fail. Sonidor silently patted Terry’s shoulder, reading the meaning behind the emperor’s words. She swallowed a sigh. I’m really going to have to risk my life for this. She could only hope that whatever curse or illness had befallen the crown prince was not deep.
“Okay, let’s set aside what will happen if I fail to fulfill the request. Let’s talk about compensation first.”
The emperor paused for a moment, running a finger along his smooth chin. He already had a rough idea of what they wanted.
“For now, I’ll give your assistant the opportunity to be trained by one of my knights.”
“…!”
Terry’s hazel eyes widened.
In disbelief, his hands were trembling and he then suddenly grabbed Sonidor by the shoulder. He rocked her back and forth, giving her a look as if asking if he was dreaming. Although he was restraining himself because he was in front of the emperor, his face looked as if he would jump on the sofa and dance and cheer at any moment.
“And you… You seem to want money.”
N-Not necessarily. Sonidor muttered to herself, but did not dare say it with her mouth. Right now, it seemed like she was branded as a lazy snob by the emperor, but it was more sad that he wasn’t exactly wrong.
“Well, money is money.”
Crying in a tearful voice, she pulled away from Terry, who was still in a state of excitement.
“I won’t ask for you to recognize artisans as citizens of the empire. I ask that you instead grant us our freedom so that we can at least go out of the empire if we can’t stand the persecution.”
She could always earn money, but she realized that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was only available now. And as a member of the Descencian tribe, she couldn’t turn a blind eye to the artisans who still endured insults and persecution for no good reason.
If possible, I’d love to reclaim the lost land and regain the many rights we had lost, but the thought of such a ridiculous gamble would have me killed on the spot.
With a slight frown, the emperor spoke.
“How rude of you.”
“I apologize.”
“All right. If you can wake up the empire’s sole heir, what is there that I can’t do for you? I’ll tell you this though. As the only living dream artisan in the Arche Empire, I’m betting everything on you. If you succeed, I will grant artisans the right to emigrate, and you will get enough money to live on for the rest of your life.”
His words seemed to weigh heavily on her, as if it would break her back from the burden she was now going to carry. Catching her breath in her throat, Sonidor bowed low and rubbed her hands together like a shrewd merchant. She then cautiously asked.
“Um… I’m sorry, but when you say it’ll be enough money for me to live the rest of my life on…?”
“How about ten billion bukh?”
*note: bukh is the empire’s currency
Gasp!
Sonidor let out a gasp and clutched her chest. It was certainly a heart-stopping sum for a commoner to hear. While Terry glanced at the Raizel Guards and blushed, Sonidor’s lips twitched at the thought of ten billion.
Oh, I almost drooled.
“Now let’s talk about what happens if you fail.”
The fall from heaven to hell was instantaneous. She snapped herself back within an instant as if she had been thrown to the ground. She nodded her head slowly, her eyes darkened with death.
“I think I know enough about that even without being told.”
“I’m glad you do.”
The emperor said with a wry smile.
“Dream artisan, cut off the beginning of this curse with your own hands.”
***
“Hmm.”
Sonidor stood in front of the mirror and studied her face. If nothing else, she had beautiful eyes. Green eyes that sparkled like dewy blades of grass and large, clear eyes. The only thing that bothered her was her unruly scarlet hair. Her curly hair stood up no matter how much she tried to tidy it. It was messy. All over the place.
“Ow.”
In the end, she gave up on leaving her hair down and pulled her hair back into a tight bun. A neat bun or braid would have made her appear more presentable, but she didn’t possess such hairstyling abilities.
There’s no one who I even have to look good for, but I’m uselessly worrying about it because we’re going to the imperial palace. Sonidor picked out a shirt that was as lint-free as possible and put it on, pulling a black vest over it as well as a woolen gray coat and skirt. This was certainly not an outfit a woman would wear, but Sonidor wore it everyday because it was comfortable and even had it specially made.
And lastly, she wore a pair of magic shoes that instantly increased her height by a whole hand’s length. Terry clicked his tongue again today, saying that she was trying to cover up her height. Did her feet not hurt?
“Don’t I look pretty good today?”
“You look the same as usual though.”
“No, just take a closer look. I ironed my clothes so well that there aren’t any wrinkles, and my hair is tied up higher than usual.”
“Now that you mention it, I guess I can see it.”
Terry replied dryly and packed his things into his lightweight enchanted bag. Sonidor frowned as she looked back at the endless amount of stuff that had been stuffed into the bag, and at the empty office. Everything in the office seemed to be packed away, except for the furniture. How are you going to even take anything out later if you pack it all in there?
“Are you taking refuge somewhere?”
“We might never come back here again, so it wouldn’t hurt to bring it with me.”
“D-Don’t say such unlucky things.”
It was a life-or-death situation. Sonidor shuddered as she remembered the emperor’s icy gaze, even as she scolded Terry. She had to wake up the crown prince, no matter what. Not only was her life at stake now, but also Terry’s and the fate of the tribespeople. If the crown prince couldn’t wake up, she wouldn’t be able to hide it forever. If word got out among the people that the curse had been revived, there was a high possibility that a massacre similar to 500 years ago would happen again, and that bloody history would be repeated.
As she recalled the seriousness of the task she had been trying to ignore, she became depressed again. She felt like she was going to be crushed to death by the weight of such a heavy responsibility.
It would be great if, like most artisans, there were no restrictions on the use of abilities, but that was not the case for Sonidor. While some could bend iron and steel as easily as they could breathe, she could only enter dreams once and would suffer severe consequences upon leaving them. In that sense, Sonidor would’ve preferred to break her own arms with brute force rather than attempting to manipulate people’s memories or emotions since it was such a challenging thing to do. Similarly, prophecy artisans who could foretell the rise and fall of countries and time artisans who could travel through time, were limited in their abilities.
Anyway, that was why she had to be as efficient as possible once she was in. When she used her ability, she would link her consciousness with that of her sleeping client to create a dream of a new space, but the dream world was beyond Sonidor’s control. In other words, she couldn’t design the dream world. It was all based on what the client had seen, heard, experienced, and felt up until that point. It could be a mixture of the past, the present, the future the client hoped for, or even an imaginary country they had thought up in their mind. Sonidor had to navigate through a world that was created by the client’s subconsciousness.
However, most people who came to make a request generally had something they desperately wanted at that moment, so even if it was unintentional, Sonidor could make a world that was easy for her to work with. For example, her recent client, Lephonse, had a strong desire to meet and confess to his first love before he died. He deeply regretted why he couldn’t confess to Lila for so many years, so when the dream world was created, the garden where he first met Lila was set into the background. Sonidor was able to transform into the image of his first love, which was what the client desired most.
Sometimes one can be lucky and sometimes one can be so unlucky that they get dropped in the middle of nowhere. So once she received a request from a client, she would have to delve into every possible detail about that person. She would start with the people around them, their childhood, and then find everything she could about their preferences in love, their hobbies, and their dreams.
But right now, Sonidor knew nothing about the crown prince. She only knew that he was highly educated, had a gentle temperament, and that he was expected to become a great ruler in the future from the rumors that she heard while walking the streets. She also heard that he bore a striking resemblance to His Majesty the Emperor and the late Empress. However, she had no idea what he currently yearned for or even why he had collapsed, so what the hell was she supposed to do?
As Sonidor thought back to the conversation she had with the emperor just a few hours ago, she couldn’t help but mess up her neatly tied hair in frustration.
“Your Majesty, I have one more condition.”
“What is it? Tell me.”
“There can be no lies or secrets kept from me. I must have all the information I can have about His Highness the Crown Prince. Everything from his childhood to the people he’s kept close to him. It’s essential that I have it so that I can wake up His Highness.”
“If that’s what you want, then I don’t really have anything to say. I’ll send a separate document later, so when you’ve finished reading it, burn it on the spot.”
“Hm… Such superficial records are of course necessary, but…”
She put on a troubled expression at the emperor’s nonchalant response. Normally, she would have been able to pry for even the smallest details by speaking to the person directly, but she couldn’t ask the crown prince when he had collapsed and was unable to wake up.
“For example, I need the smallest bits of information about what he likes and dislikes. Oh! It would be even better if it was related to the weather.”
“Weather?”
“Yes. For example, a person might really hate rainy days because of some experience they had with rainy days in the past… Or a person might have a lot of happy memories about sunny days where there was not a single cloud in the sky.”