Beltira in the Dream

Beltira Augustus walked into the hall.

But she did not look as Bard remembered her.

In Bard's memories, the female hierarch always wore a robe with all religious symbols erased from it. Her face was cold and distant, her eyes seemingly forever shrouded in darkness, and her lower body was always a tangle of roots and vines. The unsettling rustling was the signature sound of her footsteps.

But this "Beltira" who walked in was completely different—she wore a green-and-white druidic gown, with the insignia of a Holy Spirit Druid on her chest. Her face looked younger, utterly devoid of coldness or darkness. She strolled into the hall at an unhurried pace, and beneath her skirt hem were a pair of normal legs clad in long boots.

Her appearance was identical, yet the differences were glaring.

Only Gawain, who had inherited the original owner's memories, could not help feeling a sense of familiarity upon seeing this "Beltira."

Beltira had also noticed the uninvited guests in the hall—as a person within a dream, she had somehow noticed Gawain and Bard, who had theoretically escaped the dream's structure.

She raised her head, her face bearing a dazed expression. She first glanced at Bard as though looking at a stranger she did not recognize, then her line of sight fell upon Gawain. After studying him intently for a long while, she finally spoke with curiosity and hesitation. "Gawain... brother?"

Gawain frowned.

Seven hundred years ago, before she became a Dark Druid, when she was still the "Her Highness the Princess" beloved by everyone in the Eastern Expeditionary Army, Beltira had addressed Gawain Cecil this way.

They were not siblings, but they had been quite close. Even after Gawain had been ordered to hold the southern border and could no longer travel freely, they had