"Don't… don't hit me anymore..."
After a hellish mixed-gender 'rescue,' Prince Freckles, who had been beaten black and blue, passed out and woke up again, could no longer hold on. He wrapped his arms around his head, curled into a ball, and protested on the ground,
"I… I'm a Prince after all, you guys from the Purification Bureau and the royal family have an agreement to… to ensure our safety..."
"Prince Joshua, you're being unfair."
Shaking his somewhat sore wrist, Leon, who was truly delighted after the rescue and amazed at how deeply entrenched Prince Freckles' views were, couldn't believe that even after such a thorough beating, he still clung to his identity as a prince. Leon earnestly and nonsensically said,
"We're ensuring your safety right now. After being rescued by us for so long, don't you feel much better? No more of those weird feelings of being controlled or influenced?"
*That feeling never existed in the first place! I just wanted to know what the dream was all about!*
Even though he wished he could tear these two damned cleaners to pieces, Prince Freckles, having taken the first beating of his life, was genuinely a bit scared for the moment. With his butt sticking up, he nodded repeatedly and said,
"No more, no more, really not a bit of that feeling anymore. I've never felt better!"
Joshua was only taught crooked views, not actually lacking intelligence, so he naturally understood the underlying message in Leon's words.
Feeling much better probably meant no more beatings, whereas not feeling that way at all meant still being controlled and requiring further "rescue" until he really felt better!
Well then, just as I'm relieved too.
Seeing this prickly creature finally concede, Leon, who had been rescuing him for quite a while, was truly exhausted and immediately turned his head to the tall, beautiful woman next to him, politely asking,
"Senior Emma, do you want to rescue him a bit more?"
"No, I've already vented my anger."
Returning a rather bright smile to Leon, Senior Emma reminded him,
"Leon, remember to heal his wounds before we leave, otherwise when the investigators from the bureau come down, it will be hard for you to explain."
Nodding in response, Leon took out the [Plague-Infected Blood Band], and amidst Prince Freckles' struggles and screams, he forcibly pried his arms away from his head and wrapped the dirty bandage around his head twice.
As the health extracted from a fat chicken in the kitchen rapidly infused, Prince Freckles' face, swollen like a pig's head, took only about a dozen seconds to deflate, revealing his original appearance.
*Finally… finally, is it over?*
Noticing that his face suddenly didn't hurt anymore, Prince Freckles hurriedly reached out to touch his face and almost cried out when he found the swelling had subsided.
Although the national ruin and family destruction of last night was tragic, it happened in a dream after all. With a layer of separation, the impact was not so deep. The extreme remorse that felt like heart-wrenching and meat-cutting gradually faded after waking up from the dream.
But the beating he just endured now was real pain, truly palpable!
In all these years, aside from a few childhood scrapes and scratches, he had never been beaten so badly; even his father, the King, had only slapped him once… Ah!
"Tsk, why did you move?"
Seeing Prince Freckles, who was slapped to the ground again, holding his face in utter confusion, Leon couldn't help but furrow his brow and said with displeasure,
"I accidentally healed yesterday's slap along with your injuries, and since yesterday and today were for two different reasons, one slap can't substitute for another. So, I have to reprint that slap...
Get up! Hands down! Stand properly and don't move! If I miss again, I'll have to redo it from scratch!"
"Alright, alright, let's leave it at that."
Seeing Prince Freckles trembling as he put his hands down, eyes shut tightly with a mournful face, waiting for Leon to reprint the slap mark, Emma couldn't help but shake her head. She walked over, hooked Leon's arm, and pulled him out of the room, stopping him from giving another slap.
"Senior Emma, why are you pulling me?"
"To keep you from getting into more trouble, of course!"
Seeing Leon still seeming somewhat dissatisfied, Emma couldn't help but sigh,
"No wonder the director specifically told me before coming here to keep a tight rein on you.
Even though we found a pretty good excuse, this will still definitely attract investigators from headquarters. Since he has already admitted he wasn't harmed, you should have stopped. If you keep hitting him, it will cause trouble."
"Don't worry; I already thought of a reason before I took action."
Leon chuckled after hearing her concerns and explained,
"Though I have no memory of such a thing, didn't his sister say she had agreed to my proposal? In that case, by name, I am his brother-in-law.
If a brother-in-law and little brother-in-law have a spat, and I lightly slap him a couple of times without using any Anomalous Object to hurt him, wouldn't that be considered a family conflict? The investigators from headquarters wouldn't bother with something , right?"
Emma was slightly taken aback, then she said with amused resignation,
"You really are something… fine, you got me there!"
"I'm not all that, senior; you're the truly amazing one."
Thinking of Emma's remarkably stable emotions and her calm and rational handling of unexpected situations, Leon couldn't help but genuinely admire her,
"I'm just a bit more flexible in thinking, but when it comes to capability in handling matters, there's still a lot for me to learn from you… By the way, senior, your soul jumped violently before; did you discover something?"
"Don't call me 'senior'; it makes me sound old. I'm actually not much older than you. Just call me Emma from now on."
After correcting Leon's form of address, Emma, in a very good mood, smiled and said,
"As for discoveries, I did find a few… Have you heard the name 'King of Nightmares'?"
"King of Nightmares?"
"The King of Nightmares is also known as the Lord of Nightmares, mastering the Nightmare Authority within the realm of dream Authorities. It is one of the True Gods worshipped by the Bai Ye Sect.
Because its true form only exists in the dreams of intelligent beings and never interferes with reality, even headquarters has little it can do about it. It's quite a troublesome entity."
After briefly explaining the situation of the King of Nightmares, Emma pondered while explaining,
"The ancestors of the royal family of our Kingdom once fought with the King of Nightmares and repeatedly forced it away, thus suffering some curses from it.
As they grow older, each direct Blood Descendant of the royal family begins to encounter repetitive nightmares, constantly reliving their most regretful past in dreams, and the older they get, the more regrets they accumulate. These dreams become more real and more painful. The current Old King is tormented by such nightmares and has fallen ill.
So, if I'm not wrong, last night Prince Joshua likely experienced an incredibly painful nightmare, which is why he suddenly lost his mind and acted so madly, wanting to know what the dream was about no matter what.
This is also why, at first, I didn't plan on paying him much attention; he suffered through such a horrifying dream last night, so being emotionally unstable is quite normal, and he does have his own reasons."