124 Vol. 2 pt. 61 Patch 11.0: The Not-So-Delusional Princess (2/2)
Ryouta lunges forward and pushes both Aiko and Hero at once forward, barely pushing them out of the way.
Without Hero between Ryouta and the incoming autotruck, the vehicle slams right into him and rolls his entire body instead of just his legs underneath its wheels.
He looks up, unable to feel anything below his neck, and sees Aiko and Hero safe.
He looks at the clouds. They are just like how he remembers them.
He closes his eyes. If this is what happened in reality, he would never be opening them again. Instead, it is just a dream, and he opens his eyes to the sight of his fan swishing above and cold sweats covering his body.
”Seriously?” Ryouta groans. ”I finally get some sleep and that is what I dream about? Come on, that's not fair.”
Ryouta wipes away the only tear on his cheek before crawling out of bed and limping over to his computer.
He only managed to get a few hours of sleep, but at least Nell finally got around to adding him on Fiscord. At least, he assumes that ”Hero's Princess #5693” is Nell. Who else could it be?
The moment that he accepts the friend request, her profile picture loads and shows a girl with dyed hair similar to Nell's in-game hair, but she's wearing a frilly dress that looks more like a cosplay than proper clothes. She's even winking while making a peace sign for the camera. Her hair is straight like Nell's as well, but it looks like it might be even longer than it is in-game and completely covers her forehead unlike Nell's whose stops just above her eyebrows.
Ryouta can barely make it out with how small the picture is, but he sees just enough of the room behind her—that he assumes is her bedroom—to tell that it looks really nice. Like, rich girl nice. There is a giant mirror and a vanity behind her that is covered in makeup and has a bunch of wigs on stands, some pretty dresses hanging from the wall next to it, and everything is bright pastel colors.
”I think I get where the princess delusions come from now,” Ryouta says. More importantly, as shallow as it makes him feel, he is really happy that she is just as attractive and cute in real life as she is in-game. There is always the worry of getting romantically, or sexually, interested in somebody over the internet and then realizing that they aren't exactly attractive in real life.
That's one less thing to worry about, and with that, he can limp back over to his bed to hopefully get some more sleep that is not plagued by old memories.
Instead of dreaming about changing history by saving Aiko and Hero, and dying in the process, he dreams about sailing on The Shoebill with nobody but Rock by his side.
While he steers The Shoebill to a decent fishing spot, Rock runs about on the deck gathering all of the fishing supplies together. She picks up buckets of bait by biting the handles, carries Rod in her mouth to Ryouta, and… wait, does Rock have a mustache?
Ryouta looks down at her. Yep. Rock has a mustache. A black and twirled mustache.
Good thing that this is just a dream. It looks kind of cute and is definitely amusing, but he would rather Rock not take after Blackstache.
Once The Shoebill reaches a spot where a bunch of birds keep on diving into the water to grab some fish, Ryouta and Rock both sit down on the side of the ship and cast their fishing poles. He isn't going to question Rock sitting on her back two legs and holding a fishing rod in her front paws.
Most of Ryouta's dreams from that point until he wakes up involve going on various adventures with Rock. They go diving together, but Rock just sinks to the bottom of the ocean and prances around playing in the sand and chasing fish on the bottom. They turn The Shoebill into an airship and Rock takes Serra's job of manning the ballista to shoot flying cats out of the sky. The final dream involves Rock taking on a feminine, human form by turning into a busty girl with dog ears and a dog tail, but Ryouta feels so guilty and excited by this dream that he wakes up before anything happens.
Rock is pure and her innocence must be maintained!