(15) The Second Dream
Enoch removed his lips from Asla’s hair and gazed at her intensely.
“There’s time until you can file for divorce again, so please think about it once more.”
“Enoch.”
Just as Asla was about to rise, there was a knock on the door of their first-class compartment.
Enoch sighed briefly and told them to enter, and Talet bowed with an awkward smile.
“An urgent telegram has arrived. It’s a matter that requires your attention, my lord……”
“I understand.”
After exchanging glances with Talet, Enoch jumped up from his seat and left the room.
As soon as Enoch left, Talet took out a package from inside his coat and handed it to Asla.
“Madam, these are items the master urgently ordered to be purchased.”
“……?”
“Well then, I must go.”
Talet hurriedly followed Enoch and closed the door. Left alone with the package, Asla untied it.
“Haha.”
She laughed weakly. It contained a travel fan, a small sketchbook, and a pencil.
Enoch even knew about her only hobby. How should she understand this man?
She hadn’t picked up a pencil since entering the Ventus mansion.
Asla slowly opened the sketchbook, sharpened the pencil, and began drawing the scenery outside the train, eventually nodding off and falling asleep.
⁕⁕⁕
When the cool air touched her cheek, Asla opened her eyes and immediately sighed.
The high ceiling of Asrai, columns carved with wings and waves symbolizing God lined up along the corridor.
It was a corridor paved with white marble tiles so pristine that someone with OCD might not be able to pass through.
This was her current destination, the Grand Temple of Tulia.
Since they couldn’t have arrived yet, it was clearly a dream.
‘But……’
This vividness that gave her goosebumps.
With a sense of disbelief, Asla slowly raised her hand.
“Another divine dream……”
The large hand was a man’s, and it clearly belonged to Enoch.
Finding herself dreaming of becoming Enoch again, Asla slowly touched and felt her face and body.
She felt like she was doing something wrong, but she needed to confirm if she was Enoch.
‘Ah.’
Asla recalled an easier method and leaned toward the white marble floor.
A jawline carved like a sculpture, beautiful silver hair, and a perfectly fitted suit.
It was indeed Enoch.
Asla swallowed hard and calmed her trembling heart.
Was this another vision of the past?
Knowing these divine dreams showed the past, she couldn’t dismiss it carelessly anymore.
‘What time is this?’
While wondering why Enoch was at the Grand Temple, Asla instinctively hid behind a pillar when she heard someone approaching from a distance.
“Yes, Your Holiness. I am doing well.”
A measured voice echoed through the hall.
‘That’s my voice.’
Since Enoch’s body was large, Asla worried she wouldn’t be well-hidden behind the pillar and only peeked her head out.
The woman in a straight white dress flowing from the chest down, with long pink hair braided to one side, was undoubtedly herself.
Encountering her past self again, Asla’s heart raced.
When soil contamination from the Holy Kingdom of Sherita reached the royal palace, she had lived in this Grand Temple from the age of eighteen until she left to marry Enoch.
She spent two years at the Grand Temple—a long time in some ways, short in others—but it wasn’t particularly pleasant for her.
“No, Princess. May I say something, Your Holiness?”
“Nanny.”
The past Asla politely restrained her nanny with a troubled expression, but the nanny, seemingly very frustrated, clutched her chest and confronted the Pope across from her.
“Even though the Princess has a duty to follow the laws of the Holy Kingdom, there are too many restrictions here!”
“What restrictions?”
The Pope asked with a gentle smile.
That smile made the nanny, past Asla, and present Asla all freeze.
That smile meant he had no intention of listening.
‘The Pope. More slippery than the Emperor.’
She gritted her teeth, thinking, ‘I should have left the Grand Temple right then.’
“You only allow her three hours of sleep daily, excessive doctrine lessons and prayer time, and only give her one-fifth of the food she ate at the palace! She’ll collapse at this rate. She’ll fall ill soon!”
“I’m fine, Nanny.”
Watching her past self speak calmly, she laughed bitterly.
If she hadn’t said she was fine then, would things have been different?
Since she began living at the Grand Temple, the Pope and high priests had imposed a harsh daily schedule on Asla, claiming it was to purify the Holy Kingdom’s contamination and pray for the kingdom’s peace.
They said the Princess must practice restraint, restraint, and more restraint for God to forgive the Holy Kingdom of Sherita.
Asla felt suffocated watching this miserable past and turned to lean her back against the pillar.
Distressed, she raised her hands to cover her face, then suddenly realized.
‘Enoch…… was watching this?’
In the past, she had never seen Enoch at the Grand Temple.
But this was clearly the past.
Did that mean Enoch had hidden here and witnessed her in this state?
While confused, Asla sensed someone approaching and looked up.
“Why does Your Grace continue to show interest in the Princess?”
“……Priest Ian Herta.”
Asla blinked and lowered her hands as she faced Ian, who glared at her fiercely.
‘So they met here.’
Asla carefully considered whether this dream was simply a dream or if it had truly transported her to the past.
Should she act as in a normal dream, or should she behave as if she were truly Enoch?
Deciding not to act hastily, Asla chose to imitate Enoch.
But even this was difficult.
Previously, she would have adopted the aristocratic and refined attitude and speech she knew of Enoch, but now she felt confused.
After recently spending time with him, she suspected that the image she had known wasn’t his true self.
While Asla pondered, Ian stepped closer and spoke irritably.
“You ignored me last time, and you’re ignoring me again now.”
“No.”
Asla was quite flustered by Ian’s aggressive approach.
She didn’t know much about him, but he was publicly known as a gentle and kind man.
Yet now, Ian was behaving like an angry wildcat toward Enoch.
Asla decided to speak sparingly and drew a firm line.
“Interest? Why would I have any reason to be interested in the Princess?”
Asla worried her impersonation of Enoch might seem suspicious.
But he continued to look angry without showing any signs of doubt.
Instead, he confronted Asla in Enoch’s body with an even angrier voice.
“Do you take me for a fool? Every week, once a week, you hide along the Princess’s path and secretly watch her before leaving. You’ve always ignored me, and now you’re even lying.”
“Every week……?”
“Every week, and you’ve been caught by me every time.”
He summarized concisely, leaving Asla dumbfounded.
Enoch had come to the Grand Temple to see her, and weekly at that. She had no idea.
At this time in the past, she was eighteen and Enoch was twenty-one. She had never seen the twenty-one-year-old Enoch.
Back then, she had been secretly pining for him without any contact.
‘Why? Why did he come?’
As Asla floundered in confusion, Ian clenched his fist and growled at her.
“This time I will get an answer, Your Grace. What did you discuss with His Majesty Emperor Rosenberg?”
She had the illusion that Ian’s deep green eyes were burning with fire.
At the mention of Emperor Rosenberg of the Tulia Empire, Asla decided to focus.
This past was full of things she didn’t know. If she didn’t pay proper attention, she might waste this precious opportunity.
Asla stared at the excited Ian for a moment.
Judging by his boyish appearance, Ian seemed to be around her age.
‘I don’t know Ian’s exact age, but…… probably eighteen or nineteen.’
Why was this man so agitated?
Ian Herta was one of the priests who had moved to the Grand Temple with Asla when the palace grounds became contaminated.
Despite his young age, he was classified as a special talent due to his considerable holy power, but he had no reason to cross paths with Asla at the Grand Temple.
Yet from this situation, it seemed Ian had also been hovering around her along with Enoch.
When had it all started?
“Why……”
Asla opened her mouth.
Enoch’s deep voice coming from her mouth felt both unfamiliar and thrilling.
As Ian glared at her, waiting for her to continue, she gathered her trembling emotions and spoke.
“Ian Herta. Why are you also watching over Asla Sherita? I wouldn’t harm the Princess. Besides, you have no duties related to the Princess. You know that Lisette Groase, the Princess’s nanny, is sufficient for her protection.”
Ian’s expression changed.
Asla wondered if she had been too specific in her accusations, but figured Enoch would have been even more stern, so this seemed appropriate.
Ian’s lips turned white as he bit them and trembled.
He looked like a delicate pretty boy who could be mistaken for a woman, and his trembling seemed quite pitiful.
However, since his silence confirmed the truth of Asla’s words, she couldn’t simply feel sorry for him.
Lisette Groase, Asla’s nanny, was one of the twelve high priests of the Holy Kingdom. Because children were rare in the Sherita royal family, the capable high priest was appointed as nanny to the princess at birth. As a holy knight as well, Lisette also served as Asla’s formidable guardian.
Therefore, if Ian had been following her, it meant he had some other motive.
“I’m more curious about why you’re pursuing Princess Asla Sherita.”
Honestly, Asla was more curious about why Enoch had secretly visited her, but since she currently possessed Enoch’s body, she had no way to ask him.
Ian scratched the back of his head irritably and exclaimed in annoyance.
“For the same reason as Your Grace, I suppose.”
“The same reason as me?”
When Asla asked again, Ian laughed briefly and replied.
“Princess Asla Sherita is my first love.”
Asla was so shocked that she didn’t realize her lips had parted.
First love?
No, since when, no…… more importantly, how could he be so certain it was first love when they had barely spoken?
As Asla thought this was absurd, she immediately felt a pang of guilt and reflected.
Someone who had fallen deeply in love after seeing someone just once.
That was precisely Asla Sherita, the fool—herself.
