Villain, Let Me Touch You! - Chapter 65
Helios hurriedly left Benz’s room, claiming to have urgent matters to attend to. He waved off Vincenzo and headed for his office alone.
“Don’t come in unless I call for you.”
Alone, Helios strode across his office and opened the balcony door wide. Once out on the balcony, he took a deep breath, his chest heaving.
“Haaah.”
He exhaled very slowly. It was a deep breathing technique Rienna had taught him to use when his heart was pounding.
After a few repetitions, much of the anxiety he’d felt in Benz’s room faded. Helios released his grip on the balcony railing and straightened his back.
With sharp eyes, Helios looked down at the Imperial Garden. No, he didn’t really look—he just stood there, his vision blocked. The sun had been fierce today.
Earlier that morning, he received a message from a broker at the Steel Merchants Company who he had contacted at the World Fair. They informed me that they weren’t able to find a suitable inscriber.
He was about to message them back to tell them to scour the entire continent when he heard that Rienna had gone to see Benz.
The thought of Rienna examining Benz turned the plush cushion Helios was sitting on into a chair of thorns. He quickly abandoned whatever he was doing and headed to Benz’s room, only to hear about the man’s dreams.
Helios, too, had the same dream.
He blocked out any information from the outside world and focused on Benz’s recounting. It was very rare for Helios to take an interest in the affairs of others, but Benz’s was difficult to ignore.
Not just because he was the Queen’s nephew and Rienna’s patient, but because they had the same dream. A dream where letters attack. It was a nightmare that Helios had been having for a long time. Whenever he had them, he would also fall ill just like Benz.
Of course, he wasn’t only sick when he had nightmares. There were many days when he would suddenly feel pain and collapse. The days he had nightmares were just a few among the many days of pain.
Is it a coincidence?
He and Benz, dreaming the same nightmare, were both suffering from an incurable disease.
Helios closed his eyes, trying to recall a dream he never wanted to relive. Perhaps because the nightmare was intense, Helios’s consciousness was instantly drawn into it.
It always started the same way. Helios stood alone in a dark, empty room, unable to distinguish between the ceiling and the floor. After a while, letters began to pop out from the black walls. The letters bounced or flew, hitting Helios as they passed by.
At first, Helios was simply intrigued and amused by the moving letters. But that quickly changed. As the letters brushed against him, wounds began to appear on his body. The cute letters had turned into weapons.
How could a dream feel so vividly painful?
The sensation of blood coursing through his skin felt too real. His pride wounded, Helios fled from the letters.
The onslaught of attacks continued. Countless letters stuck to him tenaciously, and the patterns of the attacks became diverse. Sometimes the letters were fire, scorching Helios’ skin, sometimes they were sharp spears, piercing his flesh. The more he tried to escape, the more stubbornly the letters clung to him in their relentless pursuit.
They clung to his body like leeches. The places they touched felt sore and decayed. If he could, Helios wanted to cut off his arms and legs where the letters had stuck.
On the day he first had that dream, Helios collapsed during training. On the second day of the dream, he had to relinquish his knighthood, and on the third day, he was diagnosed with a terminal disease.
For Helios, the nightmare had become a reality. He decided to investigate the dream because consistently having the same dream was highly unusual.
He called upon a renowned fortune teller, met a scholar who specialized in the unconscious mind, and even had discussions with counselors. Although they listened attentively to Helios, they all came to the same conclusion.
‘It’s just a dream, Your Highness.’
Helios could tell that they secretly wondered if he was disturbed. Afterward, he refrained from discussing his dreams with anyone. Even with Vincenzo, he simply mentioned, ‘I have strange dreams,’ and that was the end of it.
