Bab 54: Dreams That Come True

Princess?", 

"Are you alright? The queen will soon be here. In the meantime, how may I serve you?", asks the single maid servant who had been standing idly by, to keep an eye on the little princess.

Her questions go unanswered, as Riuka doesn't seem to hear anything.

…

'Was it real?'

Still feeling a strain in her throat, Riuka compulsively takes a hand up to feel her neck again.

'It most definitely was real. So what saved me? How am I alive?'

....

What she didn't know was, when the fierce beast was pushing down hard on her neck, squeezing the last drops of oxygen out of her lungs and brain, she experienced an Awakening!

It preserved her life.

In those moments when she was sure to die, her powers had been triggered on instinct, like a reflex action. Suddenly activated, they forced their way out to save her.

Sadly, her torturous near-death experience was the necessary trigger to make it happen.