Abandon the past, focus on the present (1)

Opening his eyes, Levinte found himself in a foreign setting. He glanced everywhere but still could not recognize the place. The weird thing was that he was conscious but he did not have full control of his own body, only managing to move his head around yet incapable of moving his limbs.

His body suddenly began to move forward and sauntered down a lonely route. Suddenly, the scene changed and he saw people dressed in medieval clothing walking past him. His eyes darted a glance at their faces which looked oddly familiar. They had the same features as the Machaera people! Strangely enough, while trying his best to understand the situation, he found himself standing in front of the grand palace, the feeling was akin to when he stood in the same spot with Acre beside him.

That was when he realized, where was the mister?

Once again, his body would not listen to his mind and progress further. Wait! I can't just walk in there! He tried to halt but to no avail, he was stopped by the guards. "State your business."

Damn it! His heart was beating wildly as he thought of a reasonable excuse. Unexpectedly, his mouth moved on its own. "To meet the empress."

He wanted to slap himself and cry.

"Wait no! That wasn't what I wanted to say!" He had not realized that he was only speaking in his mind.

The guard did not say anything but only stared at him. He felt so awkward to the point where he wanted to take this opportunity to walk away.

That was exactly what he did.

What the fuck! His uncontrollable body began moving on its own and walked past the guards just like that. He quickly turned his head back and saw no one was following behind, only then he could exhale in relief.

Everyone in the main hall was running around. Levinte saw the two empty thrones. This setting was an unusual sight to see. The first time he stepped into the palace, the view that greeted his eyes was not like this, but the main hall still looked rather similar.

At the moment, his disobedient body matched his thoughts by following the running maids to see what all the ruckus was about. They ran quite a distance and finally reached a destination even more confusing.

It was a courtroom and a trial was about to begin.

He felt self-conscious standing in the doorway and blocking people from coming in, luckily his unmanageable body snuck into the crowd and sat in a random empty spot. The people beside him did not seem to mind or notice him, so he lowered his head to keep it this way.

Then someone delivered a speech from a pulpit, clear and loud enough for everyone in the room to hear the words being enunciated. "Today we are blessed by the Emperor to be in the Emperor's Bench to witness the trial of Lady Gloria Amaryllis. We ask for the Emperor's favor to commence."

All heads turned to look at the man sitting on the dais. "May the people of Machaera have justice. The truth shall prevail and the lies shall quell. I give my blessings to commence."

"Your Majesty! Please help me!" A woman acted aggressively.

"Lady Gloria! You are obliged to remain silent. Every witness will come to the front and drink the Potion of Eternal Verity before stating their testimony." Levinte supposed it was the Chief Justice who spoke.

"I am innocent! Shut up!" The woman shouted miserably.

Watching the situation, Levinte's eyes widened in full anticipation and curiosity. What will happen? What was the trial about? What did the woman do? However, he could not help but stare at the man on the dais. He had the same red hair as Empress Diana did. According to the documents he read, only the Gertrud bloodline has this special trait. But it was impossible to have both emperors and expresses to have similar traits, except in the case of incest, but the Machaera empire was strict on the topic of marriage.

Is this a dream?

As soon as he perceived the situation, he suddenly gained full control of his body. He could feel every sensation in his lower part like a normal person.

The first person walked to the front and stepped up to the podium. "Long live Machaera and the emperor. I'm a retired imperial soldier who served in the palace before Lady Gloria came." After that, someone dressed in a white cloak gave him a small bottle and he drank it.

"When I was still serving in the palace, Empress Irene was the one who supervised us. She was a great leader of the army. All of us were close to her. After the brutal accusation of Empress Irene by Lady Gloria, I saw the lady rushing to conceal something in the Imperial Armory. I'm pretty sure she wasn't allowed to enter there, so I'm convinced that she conducted something treacherous. After she ousted Empress Irene, the army that served the Empress was dismissed without any explanation. I'm not afraid to say this at all, but I believe that Lady Gloria swapped the Empress' sword during their match!"

After he said that, everyone fell silent as if waiting for something to happen.

It did not happen. He did not tumble and die. Everything he said was the truth! Even his theory was accurate!

"No!" the woman cried out.

The room was soon filled with whispers and shouting.

"How dare you manipulate us!"

"Poor Empress Irene!"

"We were scammed!"

"She's truly pathetic!"

Everyone was worked up, moving around as if they could not sit silently after hearing the testimony, only Levinte seemed to be unmoving on his sit.

Empress Irene?

Then he heard the people beside him bravely shout. "Emperor Euluc! You must take action! You must avenge the Empress!"

Dear heavens, what sort of dream is this?

He tugged at the person's shirt to get his attention, but he was ignored. He tried again but it was still the same. Could they not see him? Levinte stood up and tapped on the person's shoulder, "Excuse me!"

They really could not see him! He attempted to call another person, but they acted as if nothing was there, no one was shouting their lungs off beside their ears.

With full access to control this dream, he slipped through the crowd and walked around the room. He was invisible in this dream. One long-winded speaker after another came to the podium and the room became more hectic.

Having no one to stop him, Levinte thought of a brilliant idea to step up on the dais, curious to know the man's reaction to all this frantic scene. Levinte stood beside the man with red hair and watched his expression. The man's face was filled with remorse and shame, to the point where he could not listen anymore and covered his face with trembling hands.

Hah, that serves you right.

Levinte looked at the wild crowd. Some people shed tears, some people were shouting their hearts out, and some people bit on their shirts or handkerchiefs in frustration. He could see every mixed emotion caused by one woman. Then someone caught his eye.

"Mister?!"

Like a true cliffhanger, the scene changed anew. He was now trapped and crushed by a crowd. They were all shouting, similar to the dream before. This time, they shouted in unison.

"Forgive us, Your Majesty!"

Levinte was beyond confused, so he looked at the source of attention. It was a gorgeous woman, looking down at the crowd from the balcony with her striking brown eyes and her waist-length brunette hair flowing with the breath of wind. At first glance, anyone could tell that she did not want to be there.

The crowd continued to shout, showing their grievance, and begged for forgiveness.

After a while, the woman on the balcony waved her hand and displayed a weak smile. Then she walked into the palace and disappeared from everyone's sight.

The crowd shouted, "Long live Empress Irene!"

So the gorgeous woman was Empress Irene! Levinte's jaw dropped. How could the emperor choose that ordinary woman from the scene before compared to that breathtaking empress? Absurd!

Levinte was now biased toward Empress Irene. Her appearance was truly his type. Even her weak smile was enough to make his heart ache for her.

Then everything went black.

Levinte opened his eyes to see his hotel room. He stared at the fan spinning above for a long moment before jolting up.

He seriously thought he had traveled to the past.