Chapter 147 - Book Rabbit

Chapter 147

Hilia’s steps held not a trace of hesitation.

As if she were not the least bit afraid of Arpad, who had become a monster of nothing but murderous intent and destruction.

How she could be so was not well understood.

Nevertheless, Evangeline was momentarily overwhelmed by Hilia’s decisiveness.

Because she knew, unconsciously, that such a courageous act was impossible without pure faith and affection.

And that it was an impossibility for herself.

Even the resulting feelings of inferiority and defeat.

Evangeline absolutely could not admit it.

‘She’s doing that because she’s stupid. I didn’t know, but anyone can see that thing is a monster now…….’

Hilia wrapped both arms around Arpad. And pressed her lips to his.

Evangeline, chewing over her jealousy and sense of defeat, raised only malice, cold and sharp.

‘Bite her! Tear her apart! Like you did to me! No, just kill her!’

But Evangeline’s wish did not come true.

Because the two arms, covered in claws and scales that should have ripped Hilia to shreds right then, simply held her still.

“…Huh?”

While the divine power was concentrating as if it would burn his own body away, Arpad acted as if he did not even feel the pain.

Holding Hilia most preciously, he passionately returned the kiss.

When their lips parted, a silver thread stretched between them.

After licking away even this trace, Arpad treated her with utmost earnestness, and yet with a care as if trying not to hurt the other.

A rain of kisses continued. From lips to chin, to nape, and to shoulder.

Evangeline watched the sight blankly, frozen in shock.

She felt as if she were an unwelcome guest who had sneaked into a place she should not be.

An unwelcome guest hiding in another’s secret, lovely bedroom.

That was the position Evangeline had been given now.

She chewed over her wretchedness. The taste of rusted iron in her mouth was not solely due to the wound on her face.

Only one thought rose.

Why? Why?

Without realizing it, her mouth moved and let out a sound.

“Why isn’t he hurting that woman? When he made me look like this!”

The words that left her own throat and returned to her ears sounded wretched and foolish even to herself.

Nothing but the belated grumbling of a loser.

Evangeline denied reality.

‘It makes no sense. I’m the protagonist, aren’t I? So why her, and not me?!’

While Evangeline was caught in feelings of inferiority and wretchedness, an even more shocking thing was happening.

Arpad’s appearance, which had completely transformed into a monster, was slowly beginning to revert.

‘!’

The scales that had sprouted all over his body noticeably disappeared.

The long-grown claws also returned to their original length.

The eyes that had glowed red, emitting only a terrible murderous intent, were also returning to human ones.

Finally, the handsome, sharp Arpad that Evangeline liked opened his eyes.

His gaze, having returned to human form and regained reason, turned toward Hilia.

Evangeline learned for the first time that Arpad was a person capable of such affectionate and warm eyes.

Even after over ten years of seeing him since her possession.

He called the name of the woman he held so preciously.

“Hilia…….”

So very affectionate, and yet so sorrowful.

“It is always you who saves me.”

That gaze, that voice, that embrace—all were what Evangeline had desperately desired.

Dark red blood dripped onto the white sleeve.

Evangeline’s face was reflected in the silver candlestick rolling on the floor from the explosion’s aftermath.

An expression hideously distorted by jealousy, wretchedness, and defeat.

And the wound left on her cheek, so vivid and terrible.

Evangeline screamed in despair and rage.

“Why! Whydid—! Aaah! Aaaaah—!!!”

Evangeline thrashed, scratching even her undamaged cheek with her nails.

“Kill them! Kill them! Get rid of them now! Both of them! Remove them from my sight!”

The Archbishop, not understanding why Evangeline was suddenly flailing, realized a moment too late.

That Arpad had escaped his madness and returned to normal.

“Damn it!”

He had already crossed an irreversible river.

He had conspired with Evangeline to trap Arpad and Hilia, and had tried to take their very lives with the divine barrier.

‘If the Crown Prince regains his senses, he will not leave me or the Temple alone, all the more.’

Even if Arpad had regained his senses—no, precisely because of that—he had to be killed.

The Archbishop took out the divine relic of Morpheneia, which he had entrusted to Evangeline, and the divine relic of Despoina he carried.

Both relics had their goddess’s authority activated by the Archbishop.

Despoina’s authority of fruition, and Morpheneia’s authority of illusion.

He canceled the activation of the two authorities and redirected that divine power elsewhere.

Soon, an enormous amount of divine power concentrated on the Archbishop.

Holding Evangeline, he used the divine power to manifest the authority of spatial movement.

Simultaneously, as a precaution, he activated the detonation device for the bombs stockpiled underground.

It was triggered by pressing specific tiles on the floor in a predetermined sequence, a secret known to no one else.

In fact, even the priests of the Earth Mother Goddess, who wielded the greatest influence in the Temple during the Harvest Festival, did not know of it.

Because only Archbishop Bio himself and those among the Celestial God’s priests who were loyal to him had participated in this affair.

Those loyal subordinates and the Earth Mother Goddess’s priests were all abandoned.

One of the remaining Celestial God’s priests called out for his suddenly vanished master with a blank voice.

“Your Grace…?”

And the next moment.

A tremendous light and shockwave shook the Temple.

* * *

“Kuh-hack!”

Due to the aftereffects of excessive divine power use, the Archbishop vomited blood.

Evangeline was bewildered by the sudden change in her surroundings.

She was then shocked by the immense light, roar, and impact of a consecutive explosion that obscured one side of her vision.

Boom! Kwa-gwa-gwang—!!!

“The, the Temple!”

It was as Evangeline screamed.

The Temple located in the middle of the Artanua Plains had exploded.

After several explosions in succession, the building constructed of solid bricks began to crumble and collapse.

Flames starting from the collapsing Temple spread to the surroundings.

The Artanua Plains were on the verge of harvest.

On the night of the Harvest Festival, held to pray for that abundance, the Temple exploded and the wheat fields began to burn.

Because it was night, the light from the explosion and fire was all too conspicuous.

Evangeline stared blankly at the flames beginning to surge.

Beside her, the Archbishop, suffering from the side effects of excessive divine power, could not properly gather his wits.

An unexpected voice called to her.

“I didn’t expect to see you in a place like this.”

“Who is it?!”

When Evangeline turned her head in shock, she realized the face of the man in the trailing black robe looked familiar.

Years ago, she had seen his face once when he came to visit the Empress.

As the Empress said they needed to talk in detail alone and sent Evangeline away, their meeting had been merely a passing one.

But he was a man with such distinctive features that she could not fail to recognize him.

His position also played a part.

“Tower Lord Gaspard!”

The man’s eyes narrowed.

“You remember me, though we only met once.”

“Well… you were quite unique……”

She did not mention that it was also because Tower Lord Gaspard had appeared quite memorably in the original work.

Gaspard stroked his chin as he looked at the burning Temple.

“Anyway, this is a disaster. At this rate, the wheat fields of the Artanua Plains, on the verge of harvest, will all burn up.”

“…!”

Evangeline’s head jerked up.

He was right. The fire was gradually spreading. If it continued to spread unchecked like this, it would undoubtedly become a catastrophe.

A lightning-like realization struck her mind.

“Help me!”

A smile tinged with thrill and anticipation hung on Evangeline’s lips.

The Archbishop, who had been continuously coughing up blood, barely gathered his senses and tried to stop Evangeline.

“Stop, let it be. That man… is someone you, kuh-luk! should not show interest in… an evil one!”

But Evangeline shook off the Archbishop’s hand and rushed to the Tower Lord.

“Help me! Then I’ll make sure you get what you want!”

The Tower Lord tilted his head.

“What I want? Do you even know what that is?”

“You want to recreate a dragon with your own hands, don’t you!”

Gaspard’s eyes widened in pure surprise.

“…Did the Empress tell you?”

“No. That can’t be.”

“I don’t recall going around announcing my purpose everywhere. Why……”

…Could there be two women who act as if they know it well?

Gaspard did not utter that thought to the end.

Because Evangeline’s attitude, overflowing with excessive confidence and conviction, felt strange.

Forgetting the pain of her wound or the Archbishop’s dissuasion, Evangeline approached Gaspard and began to whisper passionately.

As her words continued, the smile on Gaspard’s face disappeared.

Conversely, a maddened smile bloomed like a flower on Evangeline’s face.

A flower as red as blood was in full bloom.

Gaspard raised his arm as if he had no choice, and raindrops began to fall over the surging flames.

It was the worst night of the Harvest Festival.

Chapter 16. Artanus

The moment the roar and explosion filled the world.

I also knew that Arpad had pulled me into an embrace, using his own body as a shield.

‘No!’

My thought to stop him did not get a chance to leave my mouth.

Blocked by Arpad’s sturdy limbs, my resistance also became meaningless.

And then my vision was dyed pitch black.

-…….

Am I dying so meaninglessly?

After trying so hard.

What was the point of regressing three times?

-…….

A profound sense of emptiness washed over me, followed immediately by surging rage.

As if my entire body had become a blazing flame.

Without realizing it, a curse left my lips.

“××!”

The moment I heard it, I realized.

I’m alive!

You need a mouth to curse, and ears to hear it.

-…Before that, don’t you need to be alive to even think?

I thought that was just my life flashing before my eyes…….

At that point, I startled awake.

What? Who am I talking to right now?

When I forced open my eyes, which felt as if they had been glued shut, what filled my vision was a red eye.

A vertically elongated iris—the enormous eye of a strange reptile.

Romance, Fantasy,