"What''s this weird question of yours?"

    Prince Freckles, who felt completely confused, said with a bit of impatience,

    "I am Father''s only son. Where would I have a sister? If you''re wasting my time just to ask this kind of... um..."

    At this point, as if recalling something, Prince Freckles hesitated slightly and then glanced warily in Leon''s direction.

    "Did you... somehow spy on me while I was asleep to see what dreams I had?"

    Dreams?!

    Upon hearing Prince Freckles'' words, Leon and Emma both raised their eyebrows in unison, then instinctively exchanged a glance.

    "Prince Joshua, while the Purification Bureau does have Cleaners capable of dream invasion, our Virgin Branch doesn''t have anyone with such abilities... but we can''t guarantee that the Rebels don''t have someone like that."

    After exchanging opinions with Leon through their gaze and feeling that this could be probed further, Emma immediately sat up straight with a somewhat serious expression and said,

    "Prince Joshua, we now suspect that someone might have invaded your dreams and is trying to harm or control you through them. To ensure your safety, you must tell us the contents of your dream!"

    "Uh... It was just a jumbled dream, a nonsensical type with no logic. Do I need to talk about it, too?"

    "Yes, it might be critical intelligence!"

    "This... okay..."

    Startled by Emma''s serious demeanor, Prince Freckles hesitated for a moment but ultimately hesitantly confessed,

    "Just like your question, I happened to have a similar dream last night. In the dream, I wasn''t an only child but had a sister about fourteen or fifteen years older than me. I think her name was... Vera... Vero... something..."

    "Veronica?"

    "Yes! It''s Veronica!"

    Feeling a bit surprised, Prince Freckles clapped his hands gently before pausing slightly, then looked up at Leon, who picked up where he left off, with a face full of suspicion,

    "How do you know the name of the person in my dream? And, why does your voice sound kind of familiar...?"

    "Of course, we know that name!"

    Emma, senior to Leon, gave him a discreet pinch on the leg to stop him from speaking out of turn and replied with a slight frown,

    "Because there''s a woman named Veronica among those Rebels, Prince Joshua. We suspect that woman possesses an Anomalous Object that allows her to invade your dreams!"

    "So that''s what''s going on..."

    Upon hearing this, Prince Freckles seemed to realize suddenly, then surprisingly said with some relief,

    "That explains why the dream was so strange; it turns out everything was controlled."

    Strange?

    Upon hearing this, Emma blinked her eyes and promptly asked,

    "Prince Joshua, aside from having an additional sister, was there any other strange content in the dream?"

    "If we''re talking about strange... the whole dream was strange from start to finish!"

    After frowning and recalling for a moment, Prince Freckles recounted with some distaste,

    "In that Rebel''s manipulation, in the dream, I looked like a Clown.

    "From childhood, Father constantly compared me with her and made me emulate her in everything. Mother also took every chance to emphasize that she was my greatest threat to inheriting the throne, urging me not to trust the kindness she showed me, warning me that she might harm me for the throne.

    "Then... hmm... and then the me in the dream was rather foolish.

    "Even though my relationship with her wasn''t bad when I was younger, and she often took me to play in the Royal Palace, I started wanting to oppose her a bit once I got older. She was frugal, so I was extravagant. She was gentle, so I was forceful. I kept causing trouble for her later. Eventually..."

    As he recalled more details through active recollection, a hint of pain unexpectedly appeared in Prince Freckles'' eyes. Then, as if narrating his own story, he spoke with an uncomfortable expression,

    "Later... the Kingdom was attacked. They first blocked all major deep-water ports with warships. The main roads were bombed to the point where a quarter of them were unusable, and more than half of them were occupied. Half the Kingdom''s transportation was almost completely cut off, with airships dropping bombs overhead every day.

    "As for the army under the control of those useless military officials, they were utterly incompetent in front of the enemy, almost collapsing with just one strike. Only my sister and the Minister of Defense managed to organize a few new forces with some resistance capability.

    "But no matter how many numbers or weapons they had, they were far inferior to the other side. Although they relied on Old Hill''s command to fend off several attacks and stabilize the situation, my... my mother and some in the Finance Ministry kept dragging them down..."

    Recollecting his foolish actions in the dream, Prince Freckles could hardly continue talking. Suddenly, he slammed the table hard with rage and said,

    "Anyway, I didn''t do anything right!

    "Then the new forces couldn''t pay salaries, nor could they supply any more ammunition and weapons. Although they were barely holding together with my sister''s prestige, they couldn''t hold on later and were mostly trapped in Merino County.

    "Later, the Capital City was captured, and there were refugees everywhere. As I was mixed in with the Finance Ministry people with my mother, we got separated and couldn''t escape. Then... and then my sister came back."

    At this point, Prince Freckles paused slightly, then said with a highly complicated expression,

    "At that time, neither Father, Mother, nor Uncle came looking for me, but she was the only one who fought her way out of Merino County''s siege with her people, re-entered the Capital City, and found me in a converted air-raid shelter in the Old Town.

    "I... I asked her why she came. She said she didn''t want to either, but I had to stay alive. Father had only two children; I couldn''t just die like that, I had to live in case something happened."

    "I didn''t understand what she meant at the time, but later, after Father died while on the run, she was caught and executed after failing to resist, and after her death, the disbanded troops and those who didn''t want the Kingdom to be completely annexed began turning towards me, saying I was the last Robin of the royal family.

    "However, I... the me in the dream was utterly useless, with no ability to resist like her. All I could do was retreat again and again with the people, relying on complete submission to other kingdoms and signing a lot of harsh, unreasonable treaties to barely keep a piece of land less than three counties. S~ea??h the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    "And to avoid being entirely wiped out, we had to pay a large sum of precious minerals and almost 40% of our fiscal revenue annually, almost comparable to a major county of the other Kingdoms. Even though I worked as if my life depended on it every day, the situation kept deteriorating..."

    *As if experiencing it himself,* Prince Freckles recounted another self''s "experience" with an expression of gloom, then said with some bewilderment,

    "Just as everything seemed to be heading towards the worst result, with the entire Kingdom impoverished and unbearable, and almost to the point of disappearing forever, an old man with naturally smiling eyes, both squinting and smiling, asked me if I wanted to change it all.

    "Then he opened a door for me, telling me that stepping inside would allow me to undo the regrets, but the cost would be losing everything. As for the me in the dream, I was either utterly desperate or felt there wasn''t anything more to lose, so I just went in directly..."

    "..."

    "And then?"

    After waiting a while without hearing more, Emma, who was a bit engrossed, couldn''t help but ask,

    "What happened to the you in the dream after entering the door?"

    "After that?"

    Prince Freckles blinked, seeming a bit dazed,

    "After that, nothing. At dawn, I woke up."