In the sacred, solemn courtroom, Karl stood before the judge with shackles on his wrists.

“Defendant Karl, the evidence is conclusive. Prince Elkin’s Spatial Ring was found in your household incinerator. Therefore, you are hereby sentenced to death for the murder of a prince of the empire, and the sentence will be carried out immediately!”

“Likewise, Count Watt and his family concealed the truth and harbored a criminal. They are also sentenced to death, effective immediately!!”

Hearing the verdict, Karl instantly cried out in panic,

“Wait!! I didn’t kill the prince! Calis did! Calis killed him!! At most, I’m only an accomplice. You can’t sentence me to death!!!”

But no matter how Karl shouted, it was useless.

Two burly knights dragged him away and hauled him onto the execution platform.

And the ones dragged up there with him were Freya and Mia.

Looking at the scene before him, Karl screamed in despair,

“Wait!! They didn’t do anything! Why are you killing them too?! This makes no sense!!!”

The moment he shouted, the massive execution blade came down.

“AHHHHHH—!!”

Karl screamed and jolted upright in bed. His clothes were already soaked through with cold sweat.

“Holy shit... it was a dream... a dream... thank god it was a dream...”

Sitting up, Karl looked at Freya still sleeping beside him and let out a long breath of relief.

But he didn’t lie back down.

Instead, he got up in the dark, lit the kerosene lamp, and headed downstairs.

He passed through the empty corridor, crossed the deserted garden, and came to the incinerator again.

The dream had mentioned Elkin’s Spatial Ring, so Karl figured he should climb inside and check for anything left behind.

If something hadn’t been burned completely and the investigation team found it, that would be a real problem.

Thinking that, Karl climbed into the incinerator and groped around over the pitch-black floor.

But after feeling around for quite a while, he still found nothing of value.

Just as he was about to crawl back out, the incinerator door slammed shut with a bang.

Karl yanked at the iron door with all his strength, but it wouldn’t budge.

And right then, flames suddenly burst to life inside the furnace.

The scorching heat swallowed him in an instant.

“Holy shit! Somebody help! Open the door! Open it!!”

Karl rammed himself against the door with everything he had, but it did nothing.

At the same time, a hand suddenly burst out of the ground and grabbed his ankle.

In the next second, the Royrod brothers, each with a hole in the middle of his forehead, crawled up from the ground and wrapped all four limbs tightly around Karl.

“Come down and keep us company~~~”

“Come on~~ it’s really fun down below.”

In that instant, Karl felt the Royrod brothers winding around his neck so tightly that he couldn’t breathe at all.

“Hah—hah—hah—ah!!”

Karl on the bed snapped his eyes open again. He was drenched from head to toe.

“Holy shit! A dream inside a dream!! Damn it...”

Karl looked at Freya beside him, her arms and legs wrapped around him like an octopus, and finally let out a long breath.

Wait.

What if this was the third layer of the dream?

Karl peeled Freya’s arms and legs off himself, got out of bed in the dark, lit the kerosene lamp, then picked up the water jug nearby and gulped down water.

If drinking made him feel less thirsty, then this was the real world.

If he felt nothing after drinking, then it was a dream.

This was how Karl had always told dreams apart from reality.

Thankfully, after drinking, he could clearly feel the water sliding down his throat.

“Looks like this time it’s not a dream.”

Just to be safe, Karl pinched his thigh too. Only after feeling the pain did he finally relax.

He definitely wasn’t going to rummage through the incinerator like in the second dream.

Because after burning Elkin and Abraham, he had already taken the remaining items out together with the ashes.

After Elkin was burned, a ring had indeed been left behind, but it wasn’t a Spatial Ring. It was just an ordinary royal signet ring.

As for Abraham, what remained was a misshapen gun barrel.

After collecting their ashes and belongings, Karl had found an empty patch of woods and buried everything there.

To avoid suspicion, the burial spot was naturally nowhere near the Count’s estate.

At this point, not only would the investigation team never find it, even Karl himself might not be able to find the place again.

After finishing the water, Karl changed into a dry set of sleepwear and lay back down on the bed, closing his eyes.

But the moment his eyes shut, they snapped open again.

“Are there actually ghosts in this world or not?? If I can transmigrate, then the people I killed turning into vengeful spirits sounds pretty reasonable too, doesn’t it???”

Thinking that, Karl quietly scooted a little closer to Freya, pulled the blanket tight, and hugged her firmly.

“Every debt has its debtor. Go find Calis, not me!!”

The next morning, everything was as usual.

His father-in-law read the newspaper headline from across the table. His mother-in-law sipped her coffee with elegant composure. His sister-in-law was still half asleep. His wife sat nearby, fragrant with a light sheen of sweat.

Everyone looked the same as always.

Only Karl, with two huge dark circles under his eyes, looked utterly drained.

“Karl, what’s wrong with you? You look like you didn’t sleep well.”

His father-in-law, Count Watt, asked with concern.

“Ah... I’ve... been having a little insomnia lately. I’ll brew some calming sleep medicine later. That should help.”

Though Karl felt that kind of medicine probably wouldn’t help him at all.

Freya, sitting beside him, asked with concern,

“Was I crowding you in bed?”

Still groggy, Mia immediately chimed in,

“Brother-in-law, if sleeping with my sister is uncomfortable, you can sleep with me.”

The moment Mia said that, Lucina shot her a fierce glare that instantly scared the sleep right out of her.

“I-I mean, if brother-in-law isn’t sleeping well, then my sister can come sleep with me.”

Only after hearing that explanation did Lucina withdraw that terrifying look.

Count Watt took a sip of milk and said,

“I don’t think it’s about who he’s sleeping with. This kid’s probably nervous about the investigation team, right?”

Karl gave a slight nod.

“A little, yeah.”

Prince Elkin and Abraham still hadn’t been found, so the knight order loyal to the royal family had immediately formed an investigation team and sent it to the Sovani territory.

And among the people they would question first, Karl was at the top of the list.

After all, he was the last person to see Prince Elkin and Abraham.

Lucina looked at Karl with a serious expression and said,

“Don’t be nervous. They’re only going to ask what happened. Just answer truthfully. Anyway, the prince’s disappearance wasn’t your doing.”

Hearing that, Karl felt like crying without tears.

Goddammit... I’m the one who did it!!!

O(╥﹏╥)o