Chapter 154 - North Rabbit

Episode 154

I had not read the <Book of Fate>, yet I was able to obtain a great deal of information.

To be precise, it felt as though information was being forcibly crammed into my head and soul.

Why the Archbishop had mistaken Evangeline for me.

And how he had been able to interfere with the book.

The answers to these questions rose in my mind.

'Because the possessor had the same name as me, and was a being who had once read the <Book of Fate> that had drifted into another world.'

This wasn't some case of mistaken identity in a database due to shared names.

It was absurd.

'You mean the root of all my suffering was something like that?!'

If the book had been before me, I would have wanted to tear it apart immediately.

Or grab the hair of the goddesses who supposedly made it.

Since changing the past was impossible, I decided to calm my mind.

Evangeline, having overwritten the book's contents with blood-written letters, laughed like a madwoman.

"Aha! Ahahaha! I am the real one. I am the real protagonist!"

The repercussions reached me immediately.

Arpad and I were fleeing after he had repelled the Archbishop.

I felt a sudden abnormality.

Because all sensation in my body vanished. No, it wasn't just my body.

A sensation as if my very soul was crumbling.

"What is this?!"

It wasn't merely a 'feeling.'

My very existence was actually beginning to shatter.

I didn't know the reason, and at that time, I didn't know precisely what was happening.

But I realized instinctively.

That something harsher than death awaited me.

Not only I, but Arpad could also tell.

Because, as if someone were erasing my very existence with an eraser, my limbs, the ends of my hair, and so on began to turn transparent.

The emotions 'I' felt in that moment flowed into me intact.

Perhaps because they were my own emotions. It felt vivid, as if I were reliving it.

My chest ached with a piercing pain.

I was certain my existence would soon vanish like this.

"Hilia?!"

Holding me, who could barely move, Arpad was bewildered.

Looking up at his face, I couldn't hold back my tears.

It felt as if my body, my entire being, was melting away from sorrow.

With my last ounce of strength, I opened my mouth.

"Arpad, I……."

We had only ever fought, and I had never once properly spoken my true feelings.

That I know you are a deeply hurt and lonely person.

That I already know you care for me very much.

That I care for you too. No, that I have come to love you.

On the verge of my existence disappearing, that was what weighed most on my mind at that time.

I tried to continue speaking, but even my voice scattered, making it impossible.

Finally, my existence began to fade away, powerless.

"Hilia!!!"

Clutching me as I scattered, Arpad desperately did everything he could.

But even enveloping my entire body with magical power could not stop my very existence from vanishing.

In the end, Arpad sought help from Artanus.

"Artanus—!"

For the first time in his life, across countless regressions, he begged the being he had hated and despised, for the first and last time.

In response to his successor's desperate call, Artanus revealed himself.

Before him, Arpad knelt.

"Save Hilia. Keep her alive. She's the bride you kept talking about. My other half, my destined counterpart."

- Did you not deny and curse your bride? Swear you would never love or accept her?

That was the content of the oath Arpad had repeated before the dragon countless times.

The expression that appeared on Arpad's face at that moment, I will never forget.

It wasn't simple frustration or despair.

It was self-reproach, wondering if it wasn't because of the anger and that wish he held in the past that I was shattering in his arms.

Even though it wasn't.

Even though it couldn't be.

Arpad felt not a speck of humiliation or wretchedness.

He pleaded desperately.

"I was wrong. I thought wrongly. I've been denying it all along and haven't spoken my true feelings even once. Please, please… save her."

It was the first time I heard Arpad speak with such desperation.

The fact that it was because of me, to save me… made my heart ache.

He grabbed and clung to the hem of Artanus's robe, who had taken human form.

"I'll do anything you want. If Hilia disappears like this, won't you also be unable to achieve what you desire? Help me!"

Despite Arpad's fervent pleas, Artanus only shook his head.

- I have already transferred most of my authority to you. That power to rewind the world's time centered on you was obtained at the cost of all my magical power and authority.

- Therefore, the current me has no power to retrieve a bride whose very existence is vanishing.

Even the dragon said it was impossible. Arpad despaired. Soon, a light returned to his eyes.

The authority of regression.

These words gave Arpad an idea.

He jerked his head up.

"Regression! Right, then……!"

Arpad had found his weapon.

I immediately knew what he intended to do. He meant to take his own life. To rewind time that way.

'No!'

Merely watching the memory, I could not stop Arpad's action.

What Arpad was about to do felt utterly horrifying.

I didn't want to see it with my own eyes.

What stopped Arpad's attempt were Artanus's cold words.

- It's the first time you've chosen regression to save someone. But that cannot save your bride.

"What?"

The blade digging into his neck stopped. It was the instant a drop of blood split his skin and flowed.

- If you die now and rewind time, you will only face the situation where your bride has vanished.

- More precisely, you will meet the being who stole that woman's fate. Perhaps that very culprit will have become your bride.

It seemed that if the possessor completely stole my fate, even the existence of the 'bride' could change.

I wasn't the only one shocked.

Arpad's eyes trembled mercilessly.

The next moment, Arpad gritted his teeth and shouted.

"Don't be ridiculous! Do you think I'd accept such a thing?! If you're a dragon, shouldn't you know a way to save Hilia?!"

- Did I not already say? I have almost no power left.

As if forgetting his earlier pleas, Arpad began to threaten the dragon.

"If this woman disappears like this, and even if I regress I can't meet her again… I'll just give up everything and collapse."

- In that woman's place, there will be another bride who stole the fate. You will be drawn to her just the same.

"No. I don't need any other bride."

Arpad was filled with certainty down to the last strand of his hair.

"If this woman truly disappears, I will do nothing. I will stop within the regression. I will absolutely not undergo any awakening you desire."

He knew what the dragon most did not want and feared.

"You will be unable to go to your bride's side, bound to this place forever."

Artanus tilted his head as if troubled.

"So give it. The method to save Hilia. Any means is fine. I don't care what sacrifice it entails."

The dragon gave no answer, but Arpad knew.

This threat alone had to work.

"So… save her. Please……."

Words that began as a plea, passed through threat, and finally became a scream.

- …There is no choice.

In the end, it was the dragon who surrendered. The one who desired more had no choice but to lose.

- Then, I shall transfer the authority I gave you to this child.

"The authority you gave me? You mean regression?"

That power Arpad had so hated and resented.

It became the means to save me.

- Yes. From now on, the reversal of time will begin anew, centered not on you but on your bride.

- Though her fate was stolen, the true one is undoubtedly the being in your arms.

- Using the weight of the fate you have endlessly repeated, intertwined and woven, as that woman's anchor, to fix her so she does not scatter.

Artanus leaned his face toward his successor.

- And you will have to pay the price.

Arpad answered without a moment's hesitation.

"Anything. However much."

- Are you confident you won't regret it?

"Whatever price I pay, it's better than losing Hilia now."