Chapter 32: The Passage of Time – Interlude 4; When Dreams Come True

** Roe Scheherazade POV **

I still can't believe it, after so many tragedies I went through in my life; losing all members of my family and finding out that my last relative, my fake husband Kamil who was actually my brother in all but blood, died poisoned by the people we trusted and to learn about it from one of the same assassins tried to rape me.

My whole life seemed like a tragedy taken from one of the darkest stories you can find, but luckily all bad things have to come to an end, and without realizing it, I was saved from the damned man who wanted to rape me as I struggled and tried to defend myself with all my strength.

It took me a while to realize, but I no longer had that animal on top of me trying to take off my clothes. I quickly inspected myself and saw that I was covered by a blanket and carefully checking my clothes I saw that although there are several parts of my dress torn in various places, the overall integrity of the clothes is still there, the bastard definitely did not manage to abuse me and only managed to tear parts of my clothes.

I sighed with relief, but at the same time, I began to evaluate my surroundings which somehow changed without me noticing. I was no longer in my room and instead, I am in an unknown room.

But most importantly, I am not alone. I saw him, an almost naked man is looking at me. I almost had a panic attack, I thought he was some partner or accomplice of the damned man who wanted to rape me, but then I saw that he was protecting a woman who was behind him, she is clearly as scared and nervous as I am, only that the source of her fear is not the man, but it seems to be me instead, so I discarded a bit the idea that they are accomplices of that animal.

"Hello, can you tell me who you are and where I am?" I asked, but the woman just looked puzzled and the man said something while pointing to his mouth. I did not understand a word he said, but the mere fact that he spoke indecipherable words while pointing to his mouth is a clear indication that we don't speak the same language. However, that doesn't make sense, all humans in Paradise speak Paradisian, even the other intelligent races speak it, so it makes no sense that they don't know the language.

Now I don't know what to do. I started to inspect the surroundings and saw that it was quite a luxurious room on the level of the rooms in my palace, but I know we are not in my palace since I don't remember such a room and the decorations and those strange objects I have never seen before, not to mention that the lights are not being projected by magical lamps but instead come from those powerful crystals that I can't look at directly without them bothering my sight.

While inspecting the room, I saw the man move and I got a little scared fearing he might try something bad, but to my relief, he just went to a closet and took out clothes and put them on. That relieved me quite a bit because it indicates that he was not naked for being an accomplice of the man who wanted to abuse me, instead, it seems that I was the one who was transported to their room and took them by surprise, which explains why they were both in underwear and why the woman was scared behind the man, they must be a couple and I was the one who interrupted their rest.

At least that is what I can think of the whole situation, but I still cannot completely let my guard down, it could be a twisted plan of those bastards from Sinyoung to have fun at my expense as they did when they killed brother Kamil while pretending to be our allies.

I kept my guard up a bit, but I saw the woman become calmer after exchanging a few words with the man. I did not understand any of the conversation, but I could see that the woman noticeably relaxed and then went to what seems to be a small rectangular box and opened it. From it, she took out transparent containers with liquids of different colors and offered them to me. I can't drink that... I have never seen colored drinks that are not elixirs or potions, and clearly, the ones they are offering me are neither of those I mentioned, nor do I think they are safe. If this is a trap by the bastards of Sinyoung, then they are surely poisoned and are made to kill me like they did Kamil.

But my suspicion was quickly dismissed when I saw the woman take several sips from each drink and she gestured to me that it was okay. With a bit of fear, I took the one that was black in color and drank a slight sip. To my surprise, the drink was cold and sweet, but the most fascinating thing was that it felt like it caused small tickles in my mouth; it was a pleasant drink that I had never tasted before. I took the opportunity to enjoy it and drink it slowly.

While I was drinking, I inspected the room more thoroughly, and evaluating the whole situation, I definitely can't be in Paradise. The evidence is clear: first, the couple that does not speak Paradisian; second, the luxurious room lacking any decoration related to any deity and instead decorated with other things I don't recognize; and finally, the different drinks that I had never seen before.

I can only conclude that I am on Earth. I remember that a few years ago, just after announcing the engagement of the fake marriage with Kamil, I received a letter from the deities asking me to go to their temples. When I went, the reason in the letter was that we would change some requirements for the use of the Royal Oath. In the new requirements, it was not necessary for the owner of the Oath, in this case, me, to use the Oath formally in case an event occurred that would put my physical or mental integrity at risk, and in case such an event occurred, the Oath would activate to take me to a safe place.

If I evaluate my previous situation where Kamil was killed by poisoning and they tried to rape me, it seems that this new requirement established with the deities was met and the Royal Oath was activated, and that is why I am here. I quickly checked my necklace, which is the symbol of the Royal Oath. I had not noticed it before because I prioritized checking my clothes and body, but now that I focused on the necklace, I saw it; the crystal that adorns the necklace is broken, which indicates that the Oath was fulfilled.

I sighed with relief and sorrow; relief for being saved from that situation, but also sorrow because the Oath that I so selfishly wanted to spend in the past and instead ended up caring for and promising to use it to help the kingdom or Paradise in case of a crisis as every member of my family did in the past, was used to save me.

But there is no use lamenting what has already passed; I can only happily accept being saved from one more tragedy in the long list of tragedies that I have already suffered by losing my entire family.

After that, things happened very quickly. In one way or another, I managed to learn to pronounce the names of the man and the woman, and they learned mine. Then they lent me some clothes because mine were no longer in good condition, and they took me to several rooms, and only after a while did I understand that they were giving me a choice of one to stay in, and when I chose one that was close to theirs, we finally separated and went to sleep.

I lay down quite puzzled in the bed of the room, it was more comfortable than I thought. The bed in my room is comfortable but too soft, and sometimes I sink into it and it becomes uncomfortable, but this bed is soft enough to make me feel like I'm floating, but not so soft that I feel like I'm sinking. It is more comfortable than the one in my room.

This made me wonder if these people are from the royalty of the land where the Earthlings come from and where I assume I currently am, but then I remembered that according to what the Earthlings said when they spoke of their home, they do not have royalty, but there are people with more power than others, I assume that this couple is among those people.

After going through so much in such a short time and lying down in such a comfortable bed, I could not help but fall asleep. After realizing I was safe, I relaxed and slept.

I woke up early in the morning; I can see the sun coming through the windows of the room. Judging by the amount of light, I can tell that dawn broke not long ago.

I felt completely renewed, although it was only a few hours of sleep, it was actually more than I usually get. Due to my duties as a queen, I rarely manage to sleep more than two or three hours a day, so now that I slept close to four or five , I feel refreshed.

A few minutes after getting up, I heard someone knock on the door. I opened it and it was the couple from before. Before, I was very nervous, scared, and on guard against them, so I had not noticed, but the man is quite handsome. Remembering that yesterday he was almost naked and I could see his entire body, I could not help but remember his physique; it was impressive. Sometimes I saw some of the knights of the kingdom without their shirts while they trained, but none of them had such an impressive physique.

For a moment, I blushed thinking very quickly about my childhood dreams where a knight in shining armor would steal me from the kingdom and take me to live in a secluded place. But I quickly composed myself; this man is not a knight in shining armor, and besides, he clearly already has a partner. I remember that the Earthlings mentioned that in their society they only had one partner and harems did not exist on Earth, so I quickly discarded any wild fantasy that I might have thought for a second. Besides, what man would want a married woman? Even though my marriage was fake, no man would want a serious relationship with me. At most, they would be scoundrels who want to take advantage of my body, like the idiot who tried to rape me. But a serious and real relationship, and remembering that I am now a widow, makes it even more impossible.

I sighed resignedly and reaffirmed my determination. I am no longer a girl who believes in bedtime fairy tales. Since I falsely married brother Kamil, I gave up any idea of finding a man who could arm himself and love me.

I stopped getting lost in my mind and followed the couple who indicated that I should follow them. We walked through several corridors; their house is definitely big, although the style is different from the castle I am familiar with. I suppose that on Earth, powerful people do not live in castles but in large houses like this one.

Soon we arrived at what seems to be a dining room, and I could see many more people sitting in chairs around the dining table. Judging by their characteristics and actions, it seems they are a family. There are 2 men, one older who seems to be the father, and another younger one who, judging by his features, must be the eldest son and brother of the man I am following. I saw them looking at the couple and then at me. I felt a bit embarrassed because I am clearly wearing clothes borrowed from the man who told me his name was what I think is Jihhu yesterday. I still don't know if it is correct, but it is the best I could remember after trying to say it many times.

The woman of the couple, who called herself Seghe or something similar, reacted distressed to the situation. I don't quite understand why she is acting like this; yesterday and until a few moments ago, she was very happy. At her reaction, the older man at the table stood up angrily. I feared that he would be upset because of me and want to harm me, but he ignored me and went towards Jihhu. He was about to reach him when the young woman returned to normal and then alarmed, she stepped in the way of the older man and seemed to calm him down in some way. I think she was making a heavy joke and it got out of hand, or she was simply distressed and now acts calm to defuse the situation. I don't quite understand what happened to decide which situation it is.

But shortly after, they happily joined the table to eat and indicated that I should do the same. I could not help but notice that one of the young women, who seems to be the partner of Jihhu's older brother, is carrying a baby. Carefully looking at the whole table, I realized it is simply a happy family.

How long has it been since I witnessed a scene like this? Maybe more than 8 years ago, when my whole family was still alive, and we ate like this, together, at the palace dining table, laughing and joking as a family.

I could not help it, and seeing such a scene and remembering my happiest days in the past before the Parasites invaded, I could only cry. My reaction seems to have alarmed the family and broke the family scene. I really did not want to ruin the mood, but I could not help it after remembering such a happy time in my life.

The women in the dining room stood up and hugged me, they told me words I did not understand, but I did not need to understand the language to know they were comforting me, I couldn't help but cry more and more.

After that, things happened quickly as if it were a dream, they got me new clothes and "Jihhu" impressively learned to speak Paradisian in less than 2 weeks, when in that time I barely learned a few words of their language. Another thing I realized during the time we spent together while trying to learn each other's language is that his name is not Jihhu, but Jihu, and his last name is Seol.

Then we had a serious conversation about my situation and I was surprised once more to learn that he is the champion chosen by the Seven Deities to save Paradise and that he has a power that allows him to see a bit of the future, and because of his power, he knew about my situation and the kingdom and that he sent the letter that saved me, not only that, but he also sent a letter to brother Kamil, but apparently, he could not be saved like me because he had used his Royal Oath in the past to save the kingdom from a disease that almost caused many deaths.

As time went by and I got to know Jihu more and more as he asked me to call him, I could not help but be impressed by him. A few weeks after our conversation, he created a "Technological" device, as the Earthlings call the instruments they use instead of magic, which allows me to speak with the other people of this kingdom or country as they call it. Apparently, this device repeats what I say in Paradisian, but instead, it repeats it in the language of this place, at the same time he gave devices that do the same to the other members of his family and thanks to that we were finally able to talk and understand each other.

Thanks to the fact that we could now communicate, I told them my story and the situation in Paradise from beginning to end. The Seol family is a very kind and loving family and they were moved by my story, they showed me a lot of solidarity, they accepted me and offered me all the help possible while I am here on Earth.

I could not be more grateful and as the weeks and months went by, I became fond of and joined the family, I got along mainly well with Mrs. Seonmi, with Jinhee, with Hyo-ri, and with Seunghae.

With Mrs. Seonmi because she is a very kind person and given her physical situation, I offered to accompany her for most of the day and we quickly became friends because of that.

With Jinhee because she was very curious about Paradise which is a world that seems like it's taken from a fantasy tale for Earthlings, and while I told her about Paradise she taught me how to use the technological tools of the Earth.

With Hyo-ri because I could not help but become fond of her little Jungseok, the child is adorable and Jihu always looks for a different excuse to steal him for an hour and play with him every day.

And with Seunghae, it was because of a very embarrassing accident; she discovered my big secret. It was very embarrassing, and that day I almost felt like I was betraying her trust and everyone else's because she caught me secretly watching Jihu's morning training.

He trains every morning in the courtyard of the house, and I found out by chance one morning when I was taking a morning walk. After that, every morning very discreetly, I began to take those walks to steal glances at him.

I could not help but develop feelings for him as the months went by and I got to know him and interact with him when he gave me Korean lessons because I needed to learn it to use devices like the phone and computer and to be able to speak without the need for a translation device to go shopping outside the house.

Time went by and we interacted more during the lessons, and he was so kind and gentle, sometimes he made me laugh with his silly jokes, or he cooked me some dessert to cheer me up when he saw me sad. There were many small details, and I did not realize the exact moment, but I ended up falling in love with him. But I knew I should not feel that way. He already has a partner, and although I know he has two girlfriends, which is not at all normal on Earth, that must be because he is a great man.

But that does not matter because there is also the fact that I'm a widow and no man would accept me. Moreover, the most important thing is that the whole family was very kind to me, and it would be a total betrayal to them if I tried to do anything with these feelings that would only cause problems for Jihu and his girlfriends and the whole family. So, I drowned those feelings deep in my heart and was content just to steal fleeting glances during his morning training and with the small moments that fill me with happiness during our interactions.

But one day, when I was walking and stealing fleeting glances of Jihu training, I was intercepted by Seunghae, who took me to a secluded place and asked me, "Roe Unnie, you like Jihu Oppa, don't you?"

"What? No, of course not!" I could not accept it; I could not betray the family's kindness more than I already had, and I could only deny my feelings, as much as it hurt.

"I've seen you over the past few weeks, always going for a walk during Oppa's training time. At first, I thought it was really a coincidence of schedules, but then I followed you without you realizing for several days, and I realized that you always steal many more glances at Oppa than would be considered normal for a morning walk. Also, although you hide it well, I've noticed the sparkle in your eyes from time to time, like when you talk with Oppa. If you say that's not because you like him, then I won't believe it," she said as she crossed her arms and looked at me intently. I could not look her in the eyes and turned my gaze away from her riddled with guilt.

I felt my eyes welling up with tears; I couldn't help it. I did not want to cause problems or become enemies with these wonderful people, but since I was discovered, the least Seunghae deserves is the truth. I will tell her everything and then leave the house. I can't continue to abuse the trust that I have already betrayed from this kind family. "Sorry *Snif* it wasn't my intention, I didn't want to, but I couldn't help it, but I swear I didn't plan to do anything with these feelings, and I'll leave before causing any problems *Snif* I-" I couldn't finish speaking, she hugged me tightly, as if she was afraid I would disappear.

"Unnie, don't be silly, I wasn't accusing you of anything, and there's no reason for you to feel bad about falling in love with Oppa. In fact, it would be strange if you didn't. We had already told you that Oppa is the most attractive man in the country. Surely any girl who isn't in love with a boy and interacts or lives under the same roof as Oppa would soon fall madly in love with him. I can't blame you for being a victim of Oppa's terrifying charm...

I just wanted to know, because if it's Roe Unnie, I can accept it. You are a good and genuine woman, not like those crazy fanatics who only see Oppa's superficial charm. If it's you, I won't oppose you pursuing Oppa. Instead, I will encourage and help you. But Seonhwa Unnie is stricter, so you have to win Oppa's heart without dating him before Seonhwa Unnie returns, because Oppa promised not to date other girls before her return. But dating Oppa and winning his heart are different things, right?" she said the last part while winking at me mischievously. I could not help but cry more and confide in her. I tried to prevent these feelings from developing for months and failed, then I tried to drown them deep in my heart not to betray these people. But now that Seunghae, one of Jihu's girlfriends, gave me her approval, I could not help but release my emotions.

After that, I became very close to her as well, and thanks to her help, I was able to win Jihu's heart and the family's acceptance. But it was only some time after Seonhwa returned that I could muster the courage with the help of a party and a lot of alcohol to declare my feelings. However, due to the drunkenness, the whole situation was much more embarrassing than I would have liked, but that is a story for another time...

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T/N: So... There's a bit of problem, I've just read the next chapter and discovered it has Lemons. The problem is that I don't like reading lemons and I always skip them in the novels I read, and it would be extremely uncomfortable for me to translate them. So I don't know what to do, should I just skip the chapter and move on to the next one or go ahead and translate part of the chapter that is not Lemony??? What are your Suggestions?