Chapter 96 – A Chrysalis in a Cocoon Dreams of a Butterfly

Lilith was the best expert in destroying the human spirit.

The swordsman called Cheonwaecheon, who reached a level that even the swordsmen of the past could not surpass, the contractor who made a contract with the devil and killed the former gluttonous family with a single vengeance, and the great king of the dwarves who once drove the demon king’s army to ruin, all in her hands. Ruined by

In the process of corrupting countless heroes, Lilith found the most efficient method, and that method was undoubtedly effective for the aforementioned great ones.

At first, they endlessly stimulate their unfortunate past or trauma. There were more people who collapsed here than I thought. This is because all humans have scars in their arms as long as war has been going on since before the demon king existed.

However, there are exceptions, and there are those who endure by advocating trivial values ​​such as bond, justice, and duty. Such people have strong mental powers, so they couldn’t confine their egos to the mental world with simple nightmares.

How can I destroy those with strong minds? The answer Lilith came up with was simple. It is to deny themselves the value that supports them.

It brings back happy memories and emotions, not negative memories. Even those who have maintained a defensive attitude to external stimuli tend to loosen up in the feeling of happiness, so it is better if a bond with a friend or a loved one is introduced.

After that it’s simple. It distorts good memories very slowly. They instill trauma in the memories themselves, cast doubt on beliefs, and bring out the negative aspects of loved ones.

The moment the pillars that supported oneself slowly start to crack, a person’s unconscious mind takes one of two actions without fail.

Waking up from a dream with a broken mind and being stained with madness, or making a huge barrier or cocoon in the unconscious, digs into it and falls asleep in a dream within a dream. Then, in the reality where the ego is asleep, you will become a disabled person forever.

It was the same this time too. Touching Violet’s bad memories of her, corrupting her good memories of her, and at the end of that, the moment she harbors ill will towards the last remaining man named Artin, Violet will fall asleep forever in a dream within a dream .

“It should be… Why not?!”

A very small part of Lilith, which resided in Violet’s unconscious her in the form of power, exploded in rage as she looked at Violet inside the cocoon.

The time in the cocoon, the deepest part of the unconscious, passes much more slowly than the time in dreams. Lilith’s fragments had already been doing their best to destroy Violet’s spirit for nearly a year by her standards of hers.

But all attempts were unsuccessful. Through all the process, they succeeded in making a cocoon, but all attempts to make Artin ill towards men failed.

“No bullying, no violence, no cheating, no disinterest, what the hell is wrong with you?!”

To put Violet to sleep forever, the dream within a dream had to come true. In order to do that, she had to cut off all of Violet’s obsession with the outside world, but she couldn’t.

Every time they inflicted more than a certain amount of psychological pain, Violet resisted. Every time I tried to run amok as if my memory with this man was something, I had to give up in the end and put it to sleep again with Artin’s welcome.

Even more upsetting was the fact that he tried to interfere with Artin’s party, the intruders in the dream, but he failed to do so and had to leave Artin and Al’Miraj unattended.

“Why does the illusion I created just turn a blind eye and stop listening to me!?”

The illusions created based on Violet’s memories must all be transformed into the power of Lilith and cause pain to the owner of the dream. As much as Artin’s illusion, he is trying to help Violet out of his control her at every moment.

[You’re too worried, so you’re going to get rid of it. Believe in yourself as much as you believe in me.]
“In addition! In addition! I have to go get rid of the intruder right away, so why bother with the illusion!!”

It’s been a year in Violet’s time since such an unlikely tug-of-war continued, and now, Artin’s group has really come right in front of the cocoon of unconsciousness. There was no more time to let him fall asleep in his dreams.

“Kyaaak! It’s all annoying now!! It takes time to recover, so I’ve been saving my strength, but now I’m going to use all my powers, which are fragments, to collapse your mind!”

The fragments of Lilith knew that the moment Violet’s mind collapsed, the unconscious herself would also disappear. However, high self-esteem did not allow failure more than ego death.

The fragments of Lilith, who were determined to sacrifice themselves and his subordinates her, entered his dream her and began to use all of their remaining powers against Violet.

However, apart from Lilith’s expression of indignation, Violet’s still dreaming expression was peaceful.

**

Violet’s childhood consisted of lonely times. This is because he lost his parents early, received only expectations instead of love from his grandmother his, his only relative his, and realized too early that the witch sisters were fundamentally strangers.

What soothed Violet’s loneliness was a children’s book that her mother had made for herself when she was a baby with no memory of Violet.

The name of the main character in the children’s book is Violet, and she is a pink-haired girl with the same name as herself, and she is the princess of a magical kingdom! When Violet was very young, she identified herself with the heroine of a fairy tale, but when she reached the age when her baby teeth were all gone, she couldn’t.

Violet in the children’s book was loved by everyone. She was a wonderful princess of a country, and she was a strong witch who directly punished the evil villains who harassed the people. In addition, at the end of the fairy tale, the main character, Violet, was a happy child who married a tall, handsome and wonderful prince.

…In contrast, the real Violet was a little different.

She was not loved by everyone like Saint Olga, she was not a wonderful princess of a country like Princess Agnes, she was not a woman who defeated villains like genius Xiao Mei.

So Violet worked even harder. In order to be accepted by her grandmother her, to be like the wonderful Violet in her children’s books her, she has been giving herself up and doing her best every moment.

──However, as if all her efforts were futile, the results were insignificant compared to her expectations of her.

Her own hair color changes by awakening her own ‘color’, which all witches are born with. Among them, the lineage of the seven great witches was special. Wasn’t her her own grandmother her, Val Bourg, her Purple Crow her dyed half of her hair her purple?

What about violet? She hadn’t even dyed a single strand of her hair purple until right before entering the academy. It was because she could no longer bear her disappointed grandmother’s gaze that her Violet her turned away from her witches’ education and headed to her academy.

Perhaps, the reason why she did not reject Zorba’s invitation to become friends in each episode was because Violet herself was so exhausted that she wanted to take a break. Her Violet her was exhausted.

The social gathering that came together like that gradually made me feel shabby. The people Zorba brought were full of great people.

Cayenne, who is perfect like the prince in the children’s book her mother drew her, Xiao Mei, who is regarded as the best genius in the first grade, Princess Agnes, Princess Marianne, the giant slayer, and Prince Ojie, the real prince.

The people of the Fellowship were just the granddaughter of her grandmother her, the Great High Witch, and she was too great and burdensome to be around. Except for one person.

Artin Ludwig. She is lowly talented and short, and compared to other males, she is the only one who would be more appropriate to say that she is cute rather than cool.

Naturally, Violet developed an inner affinity for Artin. All of them felt like people from fairy tales, but only Artin felt like a real person in real life.

Naturally, the two of them spent a long time together as they became close. As I saw in my dream earlier, Violet took care of Artin, who studied together, talked together, and was always hurt or struggling in exchange for hard work.

And those times remained in Violet as shining memories like jewels.

…Of course, Artin didn’t always show only good looks.

Sometimes he shows himself surprisingly angry, and sometimes he confuses with harsh words or strange words that are hard to understand. Sometimes he showed an exceptionally tough side, and at other times he showed an ugly side and made a lot of mistakes.

But all of that didn’t make Violet hate it. Looking at Artin’s appearance his, every time he overcame adversity together, he began to feel a little boy named Artin even bigger in his heart his.

Although she didn’t realize it herself, Violet didn’t just fall for the third episode. The reason she remembers each episode so intensely is because she lost her heart to Artin in each episode.

Your own little prince, like the princes in fairy tales, who is neither cool nor perfect, but always makes you perfect, your own prince who can endure it no matter how hard it is just by being by your side.

*

As Lilith’s shards began to torment him with all their might her, Violet suffered nightmares that were too painful to bear.

“Ahhh—!! Violet! Because of you! Because of you!!”

Artin’s nails were pulled out and his fingers were snapped, and Artin’s screams of pain could be heard over and over again.

“To raise an ugly bitch like you as your granddaughter, my life is truly shameful.”

The look in her grandmother’s eyes was too cold for her contempt her for herself. Her grandmother spat out the words and left her seat without looking back.

“Wow, do you really think your older brother confessed to you because he likes you?”
“Violet, you really are a stupid woman who doesn’t even know the subject.”

Agnes and Xiao-Mei’s vicious words hurt like cutting through the chest with a knife. They continued to laugh at themselves.

It was horrible, it was painful, it felt like everything about me was being denied. Violet’s spirit looked fragile and at risk, as if it could break at any moment.

But whenever Violet felt like letting go of everything, she thought of Artin. Even though Artin actually went through death, when they met again, they smiled and encouraged and showed a bright side.

──That must have been painful. In those terrible deaths, Artin could have resented them. But it didn’t.

‘…I want to be like Artin, too.’

The more Lilith’s shard reminded Artine to torment Violet, the more Violet came to understand how hard Artin had endured. The time of one year in the past dream became the process of quenching Violet’s spirit with pain and understanding.

‘I want to be a strong and cool girl like Violet in the children’s book, and become Artine’s strength.’

In a series of hellish nightmares, what Violet hoped for was not the frustration of not wanting to be hurt anymore like the others.

──What she wanted was to dream of her hope that could not be erased no matter how hard Lilith tried.

“I miss you, Artin.”

──Thrilling

The cocoon surrounding Violet in the deepest part of her unconscious she began to pulsate. Then came the silence.

──Kwajijik

This is because the chrysalis, which was afraid of becoming a butterfly, decided to break her cocoon and spread her wings.

“Wait for a moment! What are you doing! I died because of you! It’s a nuisance that you even try to do anything!”
– “Don’t be scared, you can be stronger than anyone else? I’ll help you do that.” –

The sound of criticism from Artin’s vision began to be erased by the cheering voice of Artin from the past.

“No! It’s not over yet! Dare to be a arrogant witch or brat is my authority…”

──Suddenly!

Then, along with the sound of something being cut, the screams of a woman in pain rang out.

The darkness was torn apart, and white light began to shine through the cracks. The light was so blinding that Violet had to cover her own eyes.

At the same time, the people who sold themselves disappeared. Beyond the gap of light, a tingling smell of blood strongly stimulated my nose.

Violet, is this also a nightmare? I thought for a moment, but I felt the light shining towards me was too warm for this moment to be a nightmare.

“No matter how much beauty sleeps a lot, you overslept, you idiot.”

A familiar voice, a voice that always warmly greeted me, came from beyond the light.

“——I came to pick you up, Violet. It’s time to wake up from the dream.”

On the other side of the light, someone held out a hand. Violet unknowingly reached out and held her hand her, and the warm hand pulled Violet out of her dark unconsciousness her.

“Good morning?”
“…Yes.”

When Artin, who was covered in her blood and wounds her, asked kindly, Violet nodded her head, holding back her tears.

The long nightmare is over.