After finishing her meal, Chohee waved to Lars who would be leaving due to government duties. He looked at her, gave her a light peck on the lips, then curved the corners of his eyes beautifully.

“I love you, Elysia.”

Chohee nodded and kissed beside his lips. Lars chuckled softly and tucked the hair that had fallen in front of Chohee’s face behind her ear.

“I’ll come right back after finishing government duties and oracle-related work. If I’m late, go ahead and sleep.”

“…”

Chohee nodded. Lars also pressed his lips to Chohee’s shoulder and buried his nose in her nape. Each time he deeply inhaled her scent, the fragrance of myrrh and freesia sweetly filled his nostrils.

“Well then, I’ll be back. See you later.”

Chohee patted his shoulder heartily. Lars smiled broadly, then slowly withdrew from her and turned his back.

When he completely disappeared from sight, Chohee rubbed her stomach and enjoyed the feeling of fullness. Even so, her stomach didn’t protrude at all, so at a glance it looked like she hadn’t eaten properly.

“…”

Ah, Chohee tried speaking as a test.

“Claes.”

Then her voice was clearly articulated. It was a delicate yet subtle sweet voice completely different from her real voice. Chohee got up from her seat and looked in the mirror.

In the full-length mirror stood a beauty with long black hair who had both an innocent and alluring atmosphere. Her hair reaching her waist was straight, truly contrasting with herself who had curly hair in reality.

“Really pretty.”

Chohee brushed down her hair while looking directly at herself. Her figure consisting of full br*asts that couldn’t be covered with one hand, a narrow waist, and plump hips was also her ideal that she could only wish for in dreams.

“Hehe.”

Chohee went and sat on the bed again. But staying still until Lars came felt boring. When she got up and walked around the room, a bookshelf in one corner of the room caught her eye.

She reached out to read the book titles and caressed the spines of the books where they were written. But when she selected and pulled out one book from there, this thought suddenly occurred to her.

‘Come to think of it, it’s already been over a week and seems to be the second week… Why on earth am I not waking up?’

By now enough time had passed that my phone alarm should have been ringing for a while… Of course, since I fell asleep tired, even if it takes time to wake up, there was a sense that time was being delayed.

Chohee quietly looked down at her body. This body that delivered too vivid pleasure and sensations to her for a dream made it hard to imagine the process of rising from among corpses in skeletal form and gaining flesh.

“What on earth is going on…”

While muttering, Chohee felt a gaze. So when she turned to look to the side, she saw the door was slightly open. Did Lars not close it properly when he left?

‘That doesn’t seem likely… Could there have been someone who heard me talking?’

Chohee slowly approached the door. While she was grateful that Lars was passionate about his work, she felt that the false oracle matter would be resolved around the time she woke up from the dream and returned. Therefore, Chohee hoped to wake up from the dream quickly.

‘Sorry to Lars, but… I do have to go to work.’

Being this late, she would definitely be late to the company. Chohee felt anxiety enveloping her. Looking out through the open door, she saw there were no guards.

‘Could it be… did Karad hear me talking?’

If he learned that she could speak, he would obviously be troublesome, saying this was different from previous Elysias. Or he might desperately try to get her to swear not to aim for the empress position of this empire.

‘Well, the empress position doesn’t seem to suit me anyway.’

She was already a tired office worker. In dreams at least, she hated troublesome matters. Since she had heard from Claes that empresses also had to do paperwork, she didn’t want to work even in this healing dream world and hoped to just remain in the position of breeding vessel.

‘…But I don’t want to see another woman beside Claes…’

Chohee was relieved to see the guards returning. They must have been away briefly due to shift change. But she didn’t notice that there was someone hiding around the corner watching her close the door and go inside.

‘She could speak, so why on earth has she kept her mouth shut until now?’

Karad controlled his anxiously beating heart with deep breaths. Though he had ordered the guards to temporarily leave their posts, the guards returned to their positions after only 5 minutes. Therefore, knowing he would soon be reported to Lars and be unable to enter in the future, Karad who had forced his way in had no choice but to leave quickly.

‘Still, it’s a big gain. I found out that she was deliberately pretending not to be able to speak.’

However, soon seeds of anxiety grew in Karad’s heart.

“But what if… she tells Claes everything I’ve done?”

His voice trembled involuntarily. Even that hurt Karad’s pride tremendously. But this was an issue that needed to be addressed.

Originally, Elysias couldn’t understand words or speak until they gave birth to children. This was a strict truth. But this generation’s Elysia was different.

She was someone who could actually fulfill the role of empress, not just the role of breeding vessel. She could read, understand words, and though she didn’t speak now, she had the ability to speak.

Therefore, Karad was shocked. He had only planned to use her as his plaything, but he had to watch Elysia slip from his grasp without even being able to have s*x properly.

‘D*mn…!’

Duke Serow had said everything would be solved if they just issued a false oracle, but that wasn’t the case at all. The more he dug, the more traps he set, the more other things popped out. Karad knew that if the fact that he had caused a false oracle to be issued was revealed, it would deal a major blow to his position.

Therefore, he became even more anxious and his fists trembled.

‘Of course, Duke Serow will also be hit along with me, but… not as much as me. I… will even lose Brother Claes’s trust. And how can someone who lost the Crown Prince’s trust be the Imperial Palace Knight Commander…’

He had unnecessarily brought up the false oracle. Even if expelling Elysia was impossible, he shouldn’t have committed such an act.

Dizziness struck. But Karad pressed his fingernails against the wall.

‘No. I just need to make sure I don’t get caught somehow.’

Before High Priest Altair confesses his false oracle…

‘I’ll kill him…’

Grinding his teeth, Karad clenched his fists tightly.

‘First, I’ll tell the knight order that I suddenly want to take a vacation, then kill High Priest Altair and return. And I’ll testify that I went to a resort city. I’ll also bribe a few guys there with gold to testify to my alibi… Then even if Lars suspects the oracle is false, he won’t be able to openly refute that the oracle is false.’

Staggering, Karad began to move. His vision felt like it was dancing in waves, but time was urgent. He needed to send word to Duke Serow that he would kill High Priest Altair so their stories would match.

“…”

Thus, Karad headed toward the knight order.

One of the guards who had received his orders thought it was suspicious when he passed by him on the way back, but since no one else caught his eye, Karad couldn’t include that guard in his scheme.