Chapter 150 - North Rabbit

Episode 150

Artanus's answer to my question was unequivocal.

-No. I did not send you back.

-However, it is not entirely incorrect to say that I am one of the causes that set this regression in motion, a regression that ultimately entangled you as well.

If the beginning of this regression is this dragon, then ultimately, it means he is the one who sent me back, doesn't it?

Then why does he say no?

He has no reason to lie to me.

Though he could read my thoughts, the dragon did not give an immediate answer.

He only continued to stare at me intently with eyes larger than my torso, uttering incomprehensible words.

-I wished to save my successor. If my successor were to die like this, I would have had to wait again for long years, until another opportunity arose.

-For that reason, for the first time in three hundred years, I spread my wings and soared into the heavens, harnessing the magical power of the sun and moon simultaneously to reverse the flow of time.

"...!"

I understood.

He was speaking of the 'Dragon's Eclipse.'

-To a time before my successor met his death.

So, the Dragon's Eclipse was actually a ritual for regression?

Well, for a power great enough to turn back time, it makes sense that a being as colossal as a dragon would need to be involved.

One mystery was solved.

But in doing so, even more incomprehensible parts increased. Like a tangled skein of thread.

'But the Dragon's Eclipse occurs over a month after the point I regress to?'

The timing doesn't match.

That was the ritual for regression? It doesn't make sense.

Soon, I realized.

Artanus had been consistently stating one thing.

He did not send 'me' back; he sent his successor, that is, Arpad, back.

'The two regressions are separate.'

Then, who sent me back?

The answer to this question...

Unconsciously, my gaze shifted sideways.

To the man resting his head upon my lap.

My husband.

Arpad Istrid.

His fine, slender hair brushed between my fingers.

The dragon's tranquil gaze was also fixed upon him.

This in itself was the answer to my question of 'who sent me back.'

"......"

My heart felt like a tangled mess.

I couldn't even begin to describe what this feeling was. It was terribly complex.

Questions arose one after another, each linked to the last.

'If it truly was Arpad who sent me back, then what on earth was the reason? Does that mean Arpad is also in a state of regression?'

This time, an answer came immediately. Directly.

-Neither I, nor even a god, could execute a reversal on such a massive scale, one that would entangle the entire world, based on two axes simultaneously.

'So, does that mean Arpad is not currently in a state of regression?'

This feels exactly as if Arpad's regression has been transferred to me.

The dragon indicating that Arpad was the one who sent me back points to that as well.

While I was having these thoughts, light began to gather within Artanus's body.

No, it began to disintegrate into light.

The light that poured forth began to form not the body of a dragon, but a human body.

It was a form that greatly resembled Arpad, save for the hair that was long enough to trail on the ground.

Platinum hair shining like moonlight, and red eyes with vertical pupils.

It resembled him so much that anyone could see they were connected by blood.

The non-human aspects were, in fact, even more similar than those of Arpad's biological father, the Emperor.

Perhaps this was related to the statement that Arpad was his successor.

-I bestowed the authority of regression upon this child. To draw 'you' here.

-To turn the world itself, and turn it again, repeating and repeating, to create a massive gravitational pull to draw your soul to where it needed to be.

-It was a process absolutely necessary for this child to become a complete dragon. But after repeating death an unfathomable number of times, beyond human comprehension, this child...

Artanus's finger touched Arpad's forehead.

The slender platinum hair swayed slightly.

-...went mad.

I have experienced three regressions.

If I were to gather all the memories from those times, I would still shudder even now.

But an uncountable number of regressions... it was horrifying just to imagine.

"Is that... why Arpad hates you?"

-Yes. The child hated me, saying I had pushed him into a hell without salvation.

-Though he has forgotten now, if he were to face me again, he might remember those times.

A faint red light coalesced at Artanus's fingertip.

It was a thread-like light drawn from within Arpad's mind.

Holding the thread of light on his fingertip, Artanus extended his hand to me.

-It is better for you to see and hear for yourself. After all, this is also your affair.

I was a little afraid. But I did not avoid the dragon's outstretched hand.

Because I felt I shouldn't.

The moment the dragon's finger touched my forehead.

A scene suddenly flashed into my mind, as if light had been driven into my head.

"Ah, that mad lizard said I'd know the moment I saw you. And it was true. Damn it all."

It was Arpad, with eyes completely shattered beyond any comparison to now.

* * *

The memory swallowed me.

It was daytime. Yet a strange darkness covered the surroundings.

A sharp, hazy light shone from behind the sun suspended in the middle of the sky.

Blocking it was the enormous shadow of a dragon.

There stood a man with eyes utterly ravaged by exhaustion.

Standing with the Dragon's Eclipse behind him, he spat out words filled with madness and hatred.

"When that mad lizard said that if I just repeated and repeated... if I wandered, weaving together time and life... I would eventually meet my bride... I thought, of course, a mad lizard would only spout madness."

"......"

"It was strange, though. The Ducal House of Delphin never had a daughter, and the title went to Ludwig. Then suddenly, a daughter of the Duke of Delphin appears and does something."

Arpad's eyes flashed ominously.

"She really existed. That being called the bride."

"Is that... me?"

It was my voice, from a memory I did not possess.

A memory from a timeline I do not remember, but which existed.

The moment he met 'me,' who appeared for the first time only at the end of Arpad's long and painful regression, not my own.

Naturally, I knew nothing.

I was only shocked and bewildered by Arpad's murderous intent, trembling and stammering incoherently.

"Hah, b-but I'm just an ordinary woman. Appearing suddenly in House Delphin... I have all my memories of being born and raised normally..."

"Shut up. I don't want to hear it."

Arpad was holding a broken sword against my neck.

With just a little more pressure, my life would be severed.

Arpad growled like a beast.

"I thought I'd kill that so-called bride the moment I met her. I even boasted about it in front of that lizard."

For a moment, Arpad, who had been glaring at me, contorted his brow.

Around us, people were falling, bleeding.

Again, I could hear Lord Beltain's anguished cry as he tried to protect me.

"Your Highness, the Grand Duchess!"

That's right.

By this time, I was already married to Ludwig.

It was on my first journey to the imperial palace after returning to the capital following my honeymoon with Ludwig.

There, I was ambushed by Arpad, who had just recognized the changed circumstances upon his regression.

"I was determined to kill you at least a dozen times over. Not that you'd remember any of it, but it would serve as my venting. That's what I thought, but..."

It was along the same lines as what Arpad had said in this life.

After all, he was the same person.

He had said that if he met the being called the bride, he thought he would hate her.

He had shown rejection towards the idea of an absolute, fated partner.

Driven mad by repeated regressions, he had come to keep his word.

He was in the midst of infinitely repeating regressions.

He must have thought that even if he killed me, I would come back to life when he regressed again.

A broken regressor who found his own life unbearably tedious and considered the lives of others more trivial than flies.

That was Arpad at this time.

And he...

*Clang—!*

The broken sword blade, unable to sever my neck, fell to the ground.

With a thoroughly distorted face, Arpad spat out a low curse.

"Damn it! That lizard bastard must be laughing his head off!"

That face... somehow, it looked as if he were crying.

Without thinking, I reached out and touched his cheek.

My fingertips were cold.

"...Are you... crying because you're upset you couldn't kill me?"

"Shut up! If you don't want to die!"

"But... you couldn't kill me."

This was our first meeting in the truest sense, one I do not remember.

Romance, Fantasy,