Chapter 2.1 - To Open One's Eyes

Chapter 2.1: To Open One’s Eyes

A woman poured a light green tea out into a white teacup . It was an herbal tea that Sienna loved to drink .

 

The tea gave off a bitter fragrance . Sienna liked to put a spoonful of sugar into the tea before drinking it . There was a subtle harmony in the mixture of the bitterness of the tea and the sweetness of the sugar . Only a few people knew that Sienna had a sweet tooth .

Sienna reached out with her right hand and held the teacup . She looked forward to the bitter aroma and the sweet taste . However, she couldn’t smell or taste a thing .

“Add less sugar next time . ”

“Yes, Your Majesty . ”

Sienna thought she had reached out on her own accord, but it had only been a coincidence that the owner of the body had done the same .

—Again?

This was her second dream .

Sienna wasn’t shocked as she had been the last time . Knowing that this was just an illusion that would end when her eyes opened, she was able to keep her composure .

“It seems my taste has changed with age . I no longer find the sweetness pleasant . ”

 

“That isn’t true, Your Majesty . You are still as vibrant as always . I am in the wrong for having prepared the tea incorrectly . ”

“What do you mean? This is not the first time you’ve brewed this tea for me . There is no other person that brews tea as well as you . ”

“Thank you, Your Majesty . ”

Sienna comfortably listened to the conversation between the two . She felt like she was watching an interesting play .

In her first dream, she had been too shocked and missed important details . The voices she heard echoed as if she had still been half asleep . However, if Sienna just focused enough, she was able to make out the words clearly .

—This place is the same as last time .

It was the emperor’s office . Because she had seen it a few days ago with her own eyes, the room seemed more familiar to her . The woman serving the tea was not the same woman she saw in her first dream . She had never seen her before . She looked fairly old .

—Did I really make all this up in my head?

Sienna still couldn’t believe that all this was a dream .

“Emma, whenever I drink tea, I always remember the tea leaves that I am unable to drink . ”

“Do you mean the precious box of tea leaves you are keeping in storage?”

“Yes . ”

The emperor laughed softly .

“I received them just before my twentieth birthday . An unexpected gift from an unexpected person . At the time, I was more worried than happy . I could only wonder about the true intention behind this gift . I had such a narrow mind back then . ”

 

“Your Majesty, the officials have arrived . ”

Sienna heard the voice clearly . She turned her head along with the emperor and opened her eyes .

A group of officials began to enter the office . They were all holding stacks of documents in their arms .

After all the courtesy greetings, they began to stack the documents on top of the emperor’s wide desk . The emperor looked up and down at the mountain of documents .

Sienna was unable to read the emperor’s mind, but judging from the way her gaze fell on the documents, she was able to guess her thoughts .

The officials dropped off the documents and left the office . Only the woman who had served the tea and the emperor were left in the room .

“Have you ever met the previous emperor?”

The woman didn’t immediately respond .

“I’m speaking of my father, the late emperor . ”

“I’ve seen him from a distance . ”

“He used this office as his private room . Unless one was personally called to come here, no one could step foot in this room . ”

“I see . ”

“However, I thought differently . I believed the office should be a public place of work . But I think I now understand that person’s intentions . ”

 

The emperor took another look at the documents and let out a sigh .

“Each page carries one more thing to worry about . ”

“Your Majesty . . . ”

“Every time they walk in here with their piles of worries, I feel angry . ”

The emperor muttered bitterly .

“Emma . ”

“Yes, Your Majesty . ”

“After I became the emperor, for the first time in my life, I realized that I am also human . Isn’t that funny?”

Sienna blinked as she continued to stare at the ceiling . It was dawn, and the sun had just begun to rise . Sienna slowly got up and sat on her bed . She was still thinking about her dream .

“The emperor is also human . . . ”

Sienna rubbed her chest . Her heart was throbbing .

The Imperial family was superior . The emperor was absolute perfection . He dominated the world . His existence itself was perfection: his heart was objective and he was absolutely level-headed .

A suffering emperor . An emperor exhausted from work . That was a weakness . One mustn’t become an emperor with that kind of attitude . More than that, it bothered Sienna that this emperor kept making an appearance in her dreams .

 

After her first dream, Sienna looked through many books that talked about dreams . Many authors claimed that dreams were reflections of the dreamer’s desires . This perplexed Sienna .

‘Do I want to become the emperor? Is that my subconscious desire?’

At present, there weren’t any grievances with the current emperor’s rule . Either way, the throne was Sienna’s, and she only had to wait for it . There was no need to fret over it .

Sienna knew that the throne was in her future, but she was confident that she had no greedy desire for the throne . Feeling uncomfortable, she flipped through the pages of many books until she came upon an interesting passage .

 

—The members of the Imperial family are deities due to their godly blood . They are descendants of the gods as well as the priests . There have been instances where the gods have descended onto the bodies of the members of the Imperial family and relayed their messages through voices or illusions .

 

‘Have I received a prophecy?’

That would explain everything . Sienna was convinced .

‘If this is a prophecy, that means that the gods are communicating with me through my dreams . The emperor in my dreams might be a real emperor of the past . ‘

This history of the Imperial family ran as deep as the history of the Empire itself . Many emperors reigned over the Sun Palace . The memories of their lives permeated every little stone that made up the walls of the Imperial Palace .

 

‘Which past emperor could she be? There isn’t enough information . ‘\n