“Another weird dream?”

The next morning, at the dining table on the first floor, Tiran listened as Aya vividly described what she’d dreamed about the night before, all while yawning.

“You only dreamed about something like that because you were worrying too much, Senior Aya, right?”

The little Angel looked like she hadn’t fully woken up yet. She poked a hole in the skin of the fried egg before her with her fork, and the half-set yolk slowly oozed out, filling the air with a mouthwatering aroma.

“That still doesn’t explain anything, does it? And who was that woman who stabbed you with a cleaver? You’re not hiding something else from me, are you?”

Lady Tiran stared at Aya suspiciously.

“Of course not! If something like that had really happened, how could I possibly say it so confidently?”

“You can’t rule out the possibility completely. After all, it’s Aya we’re talking about.”

“Yeah. After all, it’s Senior Aya.”

“Hey! That’s enough, you two!”

Aya repeatedly slapped the table in protest.

“Don’t take it too seriously, Aya. Maybe it was nothing more than a bunch of random memory fragments stitched together—then again, most dreams are like that anyway.”

“Mm… I hope so. It just felt so real. I barely slept last night…”

Compared to Tiran and Xiaofeizi, Aya was the one who was truly yawning nonstop. Sitting at the dining table, her head bobbed up and down as if she might fall asleep at any moment.

Even though she’d said she wasn’t going to think about it anymore, Aya still unconsciously recalled what Ciella had told her when they went to deliver something to Academy City before.

Once someone reached the Holy Rank and mastered the Laws of Time, they might come into contact with all kinds of fragments of time while unconscious. These fragments could come from the past or the future, and if their mental strength was powerful enough to piece them together in their subconscious, it was possible to produce the effect of a prophetic dream.

Of course, most of them were possibilities that existed almost entirely on another worldline, like the dream she’d had before about Tiran’s delivery company.

Judging from the strange logic that had gone berserk later in last night’s dream, it definitely belonged to the stitched-together type too, right?

Yeah, that’s right. Thinking this, Aya finally relaxed.

There wasn’t anything scheduled for today. After all, they’d already visited all the places they’d wanted to go to together, so the rest of the trip was completely free time.

“I wish to go pick fruit at the manor halfway up the mountain.”

“Oh, that sounds pretty nice. Aya, want to come along? We can also look around the town afterward.”

“I’ll pass. I’m so sleepy =_= I think I’ll stay here and catch up on some sleep.”

After finishing the bacon and fried eggs left on her plate, Aya rinsed her mouth in the bathroom, then dragged herself upstairs.

“You’re really not coming, Aya? If I pick anything delicious, this lady isn’t saving you any.”

“Suit yourself…”

At this point, Aya’s mind held nothing but her beloved bed and soft pillow. After waking up last night, she’d been unable to fall asleep again, with nothing but images of being cleavered—and the accompanying pain—running through her head. She hadn’t slept for even a second. In the end, it was only after her physical exhaustion finally overwhelmed the stimulation in her mind that the sky had begun to lighten.

“Looks like she really is tired.”

Tiran was a little surprised. If Chirp hadn’t gotten up yet either, did that mean only she and the little Angel were going?

In the second-floor bedroom, Aya swayed as she walked, then plunged headfirst into the warm embrace of the blankets and drifted back into a deep sleep.

Even though the sun had risen, the mountain air remained cool and pleasant. Covered by the blankets, she didn’t feel stuffy or uncomfortable at all. The bedding and sheets prepared by the villa were no worse in quality than those used in the castle, making sleep exceptionally peaceful.

So when a ticklish sensation brushed against the side of her cheek, Aya didn’t realize that anything was wrong.

Or perhaps, with sleep just around the corner, even if she noticed something was off, she simply didn’t want to deal with it.

Meanwhile, Tiran and the little Angel had already taken a carriage to the manor’s orchard halfway up the mountain.

The weather was excellent today. The sunlight was warm, the sky was dotted with pale clouds, and a gentle breeze drifted by.

Green fields spread down along the mountain road, covering the slopes below the plateau’s elevation. The gentler terrain also left more room for agriculture to develop.

“I’m sorry, Her Highness Tiran, but it’s harvest season, and there are quite a lot of visitors here to pick fruit. I’m afraid we can’t clear the area…”

The manor’s manager, one of the few people who knew Tiran’s identity, spoke to her apologetically.

“It’s fine. There’s no need to clear the area in the first place. We’re only here to pick some fruit.”

Tiran waved her hand and walked straight into the orchard with a basket in each of their hands.

Compared to the vast stretches of cultivated land, the many visitors who had come to pick fruit were hardly noticeable. They were scattered in twos and threes among the fruit trees and trellises all over the hillside.

“Hmm, what should we pick first?”

As she made her way between rows of fruit trellises, the dazzling variety of tropical fruits gave Tiran the same satisfaction as browsing through a supermarket.

“Let’s just pick a little of everything first.”

The little Angel, on the other hand, refused nothing. She picked fruit as she walked until half her basket was already full.

“Is this… a mango?”

In front of a tree, Tiran studied the yellow-orange fruits above and the leaves with their rounded bases and pointed tips, then made a guess.

In theory, this season was already much later than the mango harvest season she knew. But who could say? This was a different world, after all.

There were quite a few fruits hanging from the tree. The lowest ones drooped to just two or three meters above the ground—a height Tiran could easily jump to without even trying very hard.

It saved her the trouble of carrying over a ladder or using any tools. Her Highness the Princess couldn’t help marveling at how useful this body was—far better than the pure shut-in body she’d had before.

…Though she was still a shut-in now, technically speaking.

“Hey! Witch—no, I mean, T-Tiran, Her Highness Tiran, look over there!”

The little Angel suddenly tugged anxiously at Tiran’s sleeve and pointed toward a stretch of trellises below the hillside where the mango tree stood.

Unlike the other trellises, which were heavy with fruit, that stretch was covered only in lush vines and green leaves.

“Uh, what about it?”

“I recognize those grapes!”

The little Angel clenched her fist and declared it with absolute confidence.

“White Diamond.” That was the name of this type of grape, named for the color and appearance of its fruit.

It was said to be a variety discovered by an explorer on a deserted island overseas. His original goal had been to search for a lost pirate treasure. After drifting at sea for three days and three nights, the exhausted explorer finally reached the island, only to discover that it contained nothing but the wreckage of ships and the skeletons of pirates. As for the treasure, it had vanished without a trace long ago.

Deeply disappointed, the explorer stayed on the island to repair his fleet. To pass the time, he wandered into the island’s dense forest, where he unexpectedly discovered a grapevine growing up a tree beneath a cliff. It bore a single fruit the size of an apple, shining in the sunlight like a pure white Elf’s gem.

According to the explorer himself, it was the most wonderful flavor he had ever tasted.

Unfortunately, the explorer failed to preserve it properly. On the voyage back to the mainland, the grapevine withered and died because it couldn’t adapt to the soil and water. In the years that followed, the explorer returned to that island, but he never found a second White Diamond grapevine.

“To recreate that flavor, he gave up his career as an explorer and devoted himself to improving grape varieties. In the end, he finally produced this White Diamond, which was said to reproduce fifty percent of the original flavor!”

The little Angel described it with vivid enthusiasm.