If You Live As You Dream – I

A plot of land smack in the middle of Eva. Although it was surrounded on all sides by commercial buildings, the plot was large enough that it didn't feel stifled.

Well, the main reason for that was probably that a majority of the land was unoccupied and undeveloped, with only one building sitting in the center of it all.

"So this is the prime real estate that guy gave us, huh?"

I stepped forward and surveyed the area with a closer eye.

The building was an old-fashioned mansion. Although not quite as big, it gave me the same vibes as that Emperor's tomb place where I saved Sora and met Flone's grandfather.

Mostly because it was reeking of resentment and filled to the brim with vengeful spirits.

None of them were at the level of Flone though. Instead of possessing an intact ego like my beloved spiritual love, the spirits in the mansion were more just forces of nature. Crumpled up balls of negative energy that moved around based on instincts.

Hannah flipped through a manila folder and then nodded. "This should be it." She looked up and then frowned. "...Though it seems a lot more shabby than I expected for all he was talking it up."

Ian stroked his beard as he looked around and said, "Shabby is fine. What matters more is the land itself. Hm..." He stopped stroking his beard and then said, "It should be doable. There's a decent amount of ambient mana here and enough room for even an ambitious build."

Hannah tucked her folder away and looked at Ian. "Even if there wasn't, for a Grand Architect like you, it should be fine, right?"

"I keep telling you, it's Grand Alchemist, not Grand Architect!"

Hannah waved her hand and said, "Say that again when your main achievement switches from being the main architect of Arden Fortress to something like a grand elixir."

Ian opened his mouth to retort, but then closed it and let out a deep sigh.

While my wife was bantering Ian, I tapped my fingers against my side, thinking for a bit.

There wasn't really a problem with me clearing up the resentment here and making it ready for development. But the fact that a place like this existed...

"Eva really is corrupt, huh?" I muttered under my breath.

Hannah glanced at me and then gave me a worried look. "...You aren't going to run off and flip the city upside down, are you?"

I snorted and said, "What do you take me for, an idiot? I know that there's a process to doing things, you know? Didn't you see how I handled Sinyoung?"

Hannah slowly nodded and said, "...True. I suppose you've gotten a bit more thoughtful since you stopped playing dense with all the women around you."

"That's right. And because I'm so thoughtful, I'm leaving it all up to my smart wife's discretion."

Hannah snorted and said, "Flattery won't get you anywhere with me, 'Hubbie'."

"That's because I already made it to homebase, Wifey."

Hannah blushed and then cleared her throat. "A-Anyway... Can you clean the place up, Jihu?"

"No worries." I nodded and then held up my left hand. "Give me a few minutes and it'll be prime real estate." I glanced over at Ian and said, "The real question is if our Grand Architect can work his magic in time."

Ian huffed and rolled up his sleeves. "You younguns underestimate me too much."

I clenched my hand, drawing out the resentment and imbuing it into the cursed spear I kept in my left arm. As I did that, I looked at Ian and said, "Says the old man who was whining about his old age until I gave him an elixir of youth."

"I did not! ...Did I?"

I laughed and then focused on grabbing all the last bits of resentment.

It wouldn't do for our future home base to be tainted by bad karma.

Speaking of bad karma...

I glanced over at Hannah and said, "The situation with Jinhee and the others is being sorted out properly, right?"

Hannah adjusted her glasses and then scoffed. "Of course it is. Although..." She gave me a sidelong stare and said, "...Were you planning on hiding the fact that you had another beautiful young woman with a crush on you and called you Oppa from me?"

"Okay, hear me out. It's not my fault that Yuri likes me, and you know that I'm bad at turning women down."

"Yuri, is it? Not Miss Eun?"

"..."

Ian chuckled and said, "Hao was correct. It seems that you're quite the magnanimous Emperor, Jihu."

"You're using that word wrong, Ian. And it's not like I planned for it to end up this way, okay?"

I sighed.

xxx

An entire day of planning and plotting. Since we had prime real estate and limited time, we used the most we had to get the ball rolling before trouble came our way.

Not that the trouble was a problem. Still, nobody would want to have to clean up a pile of shit when doing housewarming.

So, because of that I spent the day going over the plans of Elysium's new home, as well as Elysium's revival.

Ian was there too, of course. But for the most part, the Grand Architect- I mean, the Grand 'Alchemist' was lost in his own world thinking of the possibilities for the new building.

In reality, it was more like a sort of honeymoon for me and Hannah. Especially after I made a little small shelter for the two of us to spend the night together while Ian worked through the night to make his self-proclaimed Magnum Opus.

I worked through the night as well, but as for the details... Well.

I finished cleaning Hannah up and then tucked her in beneath a fresh blanket. "For someone so smart, you really should have known better, Wifey."

It was late into the night... early into the morning depending on your perspective of things.

Hannah was out cold and probably would also be wiped out for the rest of the day.

Honestly, considering everything I had to do these days, I wanted to do the same.

But my day wasn't over yet.

I conjured up a mirror and then followed the tips Hao provided to avoid an emperor's downfall.

First, eliminate any visible signs of affection still lingering on the body.

Second, neutralize all scents since women are particularly attuned to the scents of other women.

Third, make the woman you are currently with feel like she is the only woman in the world.

...I wasn't entirely sure if it was completely sound advice since Hao wasn't living that life, but it sounded reasonable enough to me.

And I was kind of banking on the fact that my girls loved me and felt special enough when they were with me that they would compromise in general.

Speaking of my girls...

I opened my status menu and carefully reread my new class's ability. Well, the first of my new class's ability.

xxx

[Timeless Love (Ungraded)]

With your powers, even time and space will not stop your affection. Allows limited temporal distortion so long as causality is not broken. Shattering causality will resort in a forced recall prior to the temporal distortion while locking this ability for 24 hours in your timeframe.

xxx

"...Alright." I took another glance at Hannah before nodding to myself. "Guess it's time for a scumbag like me to do some save scumming."

Now to rack up those affection points so that nobody goes full yandere on me...

xxx

An official married wife in Korea. Two more overseas in America and Europe.

A Western femme fatale, a Chinese beauty, a childhood flame.

A tomboy princess, a priestess who turned back time, a priestess who gave up her vices.

And that wasn't even the end of it.

Flone had acknowledged and accepted that she wouldn't be the only one in Jihu's heart despite being the first.

Well, technically Seonhwa was the first in the heart of "Seol Jihu."

But for "Jihu", Flone was definitely the first.

Nobody could ever take that from her.

Which was why she was taking a few steps to cement that position while laying the foundation for the future.

Jihu's apartment in Seoul. There, a five-year old young girl with silver hair and bright blue eyes looked around while marveling at everything she saw. "So this is the world from which Father hails. Truly, the dimensions differ vastly."

Flone rummaged around the fridge and said, "That's right, Rosie. And remember that the rules are different as well."

The former infamous 'Dreaming Witch' Roselle La Grazia and current toddler Roselle (Rosie) La Rothschear turned to look at Flone and nodded. "I am aware, Mother." She patted down her cute and fluffy white dress before letting out a beaming smile. "I will take extra care to assure to not cause trouble to you or Father. Still." She looked around and said, "This is *fascinating*."

Flone couldn't find anything that wasn't old... probably because they had spent too much time in Paradise and Jihu forgot to restock.

He tended to be forgetful like that... Probably because of the fact that he was technically a foreign soul inhabiting a body whose soul had been snuffed out and reanimated after he arrived.

But that was why it was good that Jihu had someone like Hannah who kept track of all the details as a wife.

Anyway, as to what Flone's 'daughter' was saying...

Flone shut the fridge and said, "If you think this is fascinating, you likely would have liked Jihu's real home world."

Roselle paused and then her eyes widened more. "Real world? Are you saying this world is not Father's true home as well?"

"Mm... It's a little complicated." Flone walked over to the cabinets and started pulling out some tea bags. "Jihu... rather, your 'Father' is physically from this world. His body was born, lived, and arrived in Paradise from this world. But his soul is from a different place entirely." She paused and said, "I'm not sure exactly how it works... but I think he said something about a metaphysical dimension where this entire dimension is just a story?"

Roselle gasped. "That... No." She calmed down a bit and nodded. "It makes sense. Only a higher planar entity would be capable of that strange resonance with my magic and merging time, destiny, and dreams together as one. Perhaps Father is a fragment of eternity bound into a singular moment? An entity that can perceive all of existence and bind it to the present? No, to mention this realm as merely a story..."

Roselle trailed off, mumbling under her breath.

Flone thought it was cute. Especially with the way that Roselle really looked like a young precocious daughter between her and Jihu.

...That made her wish that they could have a real child together sooner, but she'd be patient.

There was an order to everything, and jumping around could make it all collapse like a house of cards.

And speaking of house of cards...

Flone pulled out the device that Jihu provided her to keep in contact with Jinhee while he was busy.

It was complicated and strange, particularly with how it connected to the seemingly endless well of information this world's humanity had developed.

If such a thing existed in the past... Or if the Empire had allowed such a technology to flourish, perhaps Paradise wouldn't have fallen so quickly.

But in any case, that was neither here nor there.

Flone tapped the little picture that would allow her to call Jinhee and then placed the device against her ear, waiting.

Roselle looked over with curiosity clear on her face. "What is that, Mother?"

Flone waved her hand and said, "I'll explain later, Rosie-"

"Unnie?"

Flone smiled after hearing Jinhee's voice and said, "Jinhee! Sorry to bother you, but Jihu is busy today. Can you come get us?"

"Of course, Unnie. I bet Oppa just dropped you off again without any food, huh? I'll be right- Wait. What do you mean, 'us'?"

Flone looked at Roselle and said, "I mean me and my daughter, of course."

Silence on the other end of the line. And then after a few moments, Jinhee took a deep breath and said, "...Give me fifteen, no, ten minutes."

xxx[...May the stars have mercy on your soul.]

Gula's voice echoed in the depths of her temple, shortly after Jihu left to meet up with Hannah.

And then the moment it did, Jihu reappeared, looking around with a confused expression. "Huh? I'm back here?" He paused and then looked at Gula's statue, frowning. "And what do you mean 'May the stars have mercy on my soul'?"

Silence.

Even if Gula wanted to respond, she couldn't.

Jihu paused and then clicked his tongue. "Right. Causality... Still need to figure out what that is. But since I'm back here... Huh. Something definitely feels weird." He turned his arms over and looked at his body before saying, "It's like I'm here but not here at the same time. Weird. But anyway..."

The air around Jihu's hands distorted for a bit before a black bunny mask appeared. After that, he placed it on and conjured the resentment-filled spear that he usually kept sealed in his left arm.

"Might as well test out some hypotheses I have about what causality is while I'm at it. Now..." He spun his spear around to rest on his left shoulder and said, "Let's see what Resa and Yuhui have been up to... and whether I need to follow through on uprooting the Temple of Luxuria while I'm at it."

He started walking out of the temple and then muttered, "After that, I should check up on Seohui and Seora. Then I should definitely make sure Seonhwa is fine... probably need to check if those visions were real or not. After that... Haven't spent much time with Chohong for a long while now. Definitely need to apologize to her too. Not to mention Maria. Then there's Claire. And I still need to help Flone sort through her dowry... and I hope I'm not forgetting anyone."

Jihu sighed and then shook his head. "Well. This is my life now, so... let's a go."