The World Is Mine For The Taking

Chapter 1447: Intermission 8: The Future With You (3)

I finally managed to get away from the absolute bombardment coming from the mercenary girls in the guild.

Seriously, those girls had way too much energy.

The second I escaped from the crowd, I immediately leaned my back against the nearest wall and let out a long breath, like someone who had barely survived a battlefield. Honestly, dealing with armed monsters felt easier sometimes. At least monsters didn’t corner you just to ask a hundred questions at once while teasing you nonstop.

I closed my eyes for a moment and sighed again, trying to calm myself down.

Then, almost unconsciously, my hand slowly moved lower.

I touched myself down there lightly while trying to remember the feeling from that dream.

Or... maybe calling it a dream wasn’t exactly right anymore.

Because the sensation still hadn’t disappeared.

That was the weird part.

Usually dreams faded away after waking up. You forgot details, forgot feelings, forgot the atmosphere after a few minutes passed. But this one hadn’t gone away at all. If anything, it still felt fresh inside my body, lingering around in a way that honestly made me nervous.

Especially because I could still remember how real it felt.

Every little detail.

Every touch.

Every emotion.

It was still stuck in my head so clearly that I almost felt embarrassed just thinking about it again.

Was it really just a dream?

Or was it actually a vision?

For some reason, my instincts kept leaning toward the second option. I couldn’t explain why, but deep down, I felt like what I saw wasn’t something random my sleeping brain made up.

It felt too vivid.

Too real.

Like it was showing me something that was eventually going to happen.

But at the same time, thinking like that felt ridiculous too.

Because honestly, the whole thing was impossible.

First of all, I barely even knew Leon personally.

Sure, I had interacted with him before, but it wasn’t like we were close. We hadn’t spent much time together, and we definitely hadn’t sat down and had long conversations or anything like that.

Most of the time, I only saw him from a distance.

And every single time, he always looked busy.

Which made sense considering who he was.

That alone already made the whole thing unrealistic.

Second, Leon already had way too much on his plate.

He was constantly dealing with problems, responsibilities, politics, dangerous situations, and honestly, probably a dozen other things I didn’t even know about. Adding another woman into the massive group already surrounding him probably wouldn’t help him at all.

If anything, it would just create more trouble for him.

And honestly...

The biggest problem was probably me.

Or more specifically, the fact that I might not even be his type to begin with.

I wasn’t exactly busty.

I mean, I had breasts obviously, but they weren’t nearly impressive enough to stand out compared to the women around him. I wasn’t the kind of woman who walked into a room and immediately made people stare.

At least... I didn’t think I was.

And it wasn’t like I considered myself overwhelmingly beautiful either.

Sure, people had complimented me before. I’d been told I was cute, or charming, or that I had some appeal. But even then, I couldn’t imagine myself actually comparing to the women already in his harem.

That was the really absurd part.

I mean, seriously.

He already had King Myrcella.

Princess Titania too.

Then there was Princess Trill from the Feliann Clan, and even Yr, the Sleeping Beauty herself.

How was I supposed to compete with women like that?

Just listing their names in my head was enough to destroy my confidence.

Not only were they beautiful, but they also had status, power, influence, talent... basically everything.

Meanwhile, I was just the daughter of a baron.

Not even the heir of the house either.

Honestly, my position was so average that I sometimes wondered if people only remembered my title out of politeness.

I had practically nothing to offer him.

No overwhelming beauty.

No absurd power.

No major political value.

Nothing.

The only thing I could realistically give him was probably my body.

And even then, I couldn’t stop thinking that it was mediocre compared to the women he had already been with.

I sighed quietly to myself again.

At this point I was basically bullying my own self-esteem for free.

Honestly, if confidence were a weapon, mine would probably snap in half the second combat started.

While I was busy drowning in my own thoughts, my phone suddenly vibrated inside my handbag.

The noise startled me enough that I straightened up immediately.

I opened my bag, searched around for a few seconds, then finally pulled my phone out.

Tris was calling me.

I blinked in surprise before answering.

"Hello?"

"You’re done with work already, right?" she asked immediately.

Weirdly enough, she sounded kind of excited.

Actually, more than kind of.

There was definitely something going on.

"Well, yes," I replied. "Why? What do you want?"

"Well, Johanne and I are planning to get a little tipsy together with Leon, so I figured I’d ask if you wanted to come too."

For a second, I genuinely thought I heard her wrong.

"C-Come? Me?"

"Well, yeah," she said casually. "Even if it was only for a short while, we still worked together back when the castle situation was unstable, right?"

"That’s true," I admitted. "Although you definitely fooled me back then."

I could practically hear her awkward smile through the phone.

"Well... sorry about that," she said. "But Leon told us that if we didn’t fool you, then the future you saw would’ve ended up happening instead."

My expression softened slightly after hearing that.

Because honestly...

She wasn’t wrong.

If they hadn’t deceived me back then, things probably would’ve turned out completely differently.

And if that happened, then the future from my vision, the one where the Prince successfully took over the castle, might’ve actually become reality.

Thinking about that still made me uncomfortable.

"Do you really think I can go there?" I asked after a moment. "I mean... that’s the Sword Saint’s mansion. I’m only a baron’s daughter, you know? Even among nobles, our status is pretty low. Honestly, I don’t even think I deserve to be there."

"You’re still thinking about status?" Tris sighed loudly on the other side of the call. "Seriously, you worry too much. You’re our friend, so naturally we’d invite you. Isn’t that normal?"

I stayed quiet for a few seconds after hearing that.

Friend.

Hearing her say it so casually made my chest feel weirdly warm.

If she put it like that...

Then maybe it really was okay for me to come.

Still...

Leon was going to be there too.

The moment that thought crossed my mind again, the dream immediately resurfaced inside my head.

That dream.

That vision.

Whatever it actually was.

And honestly...

A part of me genuinely wanted it to happen.

Not as a dream.

Not as some fantasy I kept hidden inside my head.

I wanted it to become reality someday.

Which was honestly a dangerous way to think.

Because now that the possibility existed in my mind, it was impossible to completely ignore it anymore.

"So?" Tris asked again. "Are you coming or not?"

I let out a slow breath before finally answering.

"I’m coming," I said. "But first, I need to prepare myself."

And by prepare myself...

I definitely needed to wear a really good pair of lingerie.