“I wasn’t thinking anything. I just suddenly felt a little tired…”

“It’s because you haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

Shasha subtly reproached him as if reminding him of what had been tormenting her these past few nights. Edgar smiled and replied:

“Yes, I’ll go to bed early tonight without thinking of anything else.”

Of course, even as he said this, the ripples that had formed in his heart weren’t easily calmed.

As promised, Edgar went straight to bed. Shasha’s gentle touch caressed his black hair, somewhat soothing the anxiety that had seemed impossible to dispel.

The warmth of her small hand also easily drove away the insomnia that usually accompanied his anxiety. Edgar accepted the drowsiness weighing down his eyelids rather than fighting it. And soon after falling asleep, he had a very strange dream.

It was the kind that could be classified as a nightmare.

[Grace]

A book with a hard cover bearing his sister’s name was in his hand. Edgar was turning the pages but couldn’t actually read the content.

This was because the letters filling the paper were tangled in disarray. The order of sentences was reversed, and individual characters flipped and shook repeatedly.

In the midst of this, he discovered a paragraph that remained still. His blue eyes naturally traced over those letters.

[…Ian glanced at the man with pitch-black hair identical to Grace’s. Unlike his cold and aloof lover, this man appeared to have quite a gentle disposition. He smiled softly and conversed with a kind attitude.

For some reason, there was a faint concern visible in those blue eyes behind the glasses, but there was no time to examine that emotion closely.

The conversation with Duke Oz was already burdensome due to his rare state of tension.

Meanwhile, the man sitting opposite dropped his spoon. The bowl in front of him overturned with a loud noise, and tomato soup stained the table terribly. The blue eyes of the man who glanced at the stain on his clothes naturally turned toward the dining room entrance…]

Even that scattered into jumbled letters after he had read a certain amount.

Edgar felt a sense of déjà vu about what he had just read, but couldn’t dwell on it as he continued turning pages. It seemed that actions were flowing automatically due to the uncontrollable nature of dreams.

And eventually, an ‘Epilogue’ appeared. The previously unreadable letters began to become visible again. However, they moved too quickly to understand, but on that final page with few remaining to turn, Edgar finally read one line and the short dialogue that followed.

[Grace spoke with a voice unusually full of laughter.

“It was truly a delightful wedding.”]

Edgar tried to ponder over that as well, but soon the letters on the page began to fade.

As if possessing volatility, the black ink drained away and the book transformed into completely blank pages. But Edgar, unable to accept the disappearance of the book’s contents, continued turning pages to check.

He searched obsessively for that one line of dialogue he had just seen, without knowing why. As if those words shouldn’t disappear.

But the book ultimately became empty paper devoid of content. His sister’s name written on the cover had also vanished.

As he felt confusion, the space around him suddenly distorted. And in the blink of an eye, Edgar found himself in the middle of a garden of fully bloomed blue roses. He was sitting leaning against a wall made of grass and vines.

His body wouldn’t move freely. Even though he heard someone sighing tiredly from beyond the wall, he couldn’t speak to them as before. He was paralyzed as if having sleep paralysis.

Just as he began feeling frustrated by this, the space changed again.

This time it was during the period when he was receiving heir training. The low-floor office where he spent most of his time back then. Edgar was leaning against the window there, looking outside. More precisely, he was watching the butler walking with someone in the distance.

And again, his body wouldn’t obey him. Once more, Edgar made a different choice from the past, regardless of his will. Instead of opening the drawer to put on his glasses to see the small woman following the butler, he tiredly drew the curtains.

And he began handling his assigned duties with blurred vision from not wearing glasses.

Naturally, the way he handled the butler’s troubled voice was also different.

“They say she’s good with numbers… but even if I tell her that maids don’t need such skills…”

“Mother will probably insist on taking her in if she finds out. If you don’t have a proper excuse, use me as one. Say that the young duke doesn’t let just anyone near his sister.”

“She seems quite desperate and unlikely to back down easily. How about writing her a letter of recommendation to send elsewhere?”

“There’s no need to show such kindness. But if she comes again, treat her as a guest and offer her a cup of tea. That would actually seem more final.”

What nonsense is this.

Edgar was furious at his dream self speaking so coldly. And he fully realized it. This dream was showing the past. However, in this past, the opposite of what he had actually chosen was unfolding.

He didn’t extend the kindness of bringing Shasha into the mansion, and their one-sided first meeting in the rose garden never happened. Though the order was jumbled, it meant that all his moments with Shasha had been altered.

Edgar felt deep despair even though it was just a dream. Shasha was being erased from his life.

In the midst of this, the scene changed again.

This time it wasn’t the past but the future. A rather plausible future that would have unfolded had he not chosen Shasha.

“Duke, the Madam waited for a long time before leaving. She was very upset and asked me to tell you that she must see your face when you return.”

“Call for a decent jeweler.”

“…Understood.”

The bleak Oz ducal household without Shasha and their baby.

The man alone in the office there was clearly Edgar. His face without glasses looked extremely cold and emotionless. Far from his habitual kind smile, he was squinting due to poor eyesight, making him appear prickly and sensitive.

The man called Duke continued his work sitting at the desk. The brief glimpse of the scene was quite boring and tedious.

And then another scene overlaid on top of that man. The two scenes were separate like oil and water, yet continued simultaneously. The bright Sweeney family mansion, different from the bleak ducal office.

“Theo!”

A familiar voice that matched that background was heard. A familiar woman’s voice calling a familiar name. Soon, short light brown hair fluttered, and purple eyes filled with laughter called to a child playing alone.

Edgar’s gaze followed her. And finally, at the end of his fixed gaze was an unfamiliar face. Not ‘their’ Theodore with black hair resembling him and a smile resembling Shasha.

But another Theodore with bright blonde hair.

“……!”

Edgar woke from that nightmare with a start as soon as his eyes met the child in the dream. He first groped for the space beside him in bed.

And realizing that the spot was empty, he rose with a pale face. Without even thinking to put on a robe, he ran to Theodore’s room in his nightclothes.

A vivid and terrible dream.

The mind of the man who had been forced to glimpse a future resulting from his wrong choices wasn’t functioning normally. Edgar was gasping for breath as if he were still in that dream.

The blonde Theodore was surely the child of Shasha and that servant named Benjamin. Blonde hair and purple eyes. The only person who came to mind with that combination was that servant.

So it was just a nightmare. He had such a ridiculous dream because his nerves were on edge.

‘Shasha will be disgusted if I show such behavior over a mere dream.’

Such rational thoughts also occurred to him, but unquelled fears still seethed in his blue eyes.