Chapter 181 - North Korean rabbit

Episode 181

At that moment, Arpad suddenly grabbed my left hand.

The very hand inscribed with the dragon language magic of Artanus.

Even though I had been carefully hiding it, the moment Arpad took my left hand, I reflexively jerked it away without thinking.

*Thump!*

I was the more surprised one.

“Ah, sorry……”

“…….”

Arpad stared at me with wide eyes for a long moment.

Then, he enveloped my left hand again with his large hand.

“Do you dislike it?”

“No. Not at all.”

“If you dislike it, tell me anytime.”

Arpad was speaking with an uncharacteristic softness.

“Anything at all, if there’s even a hair’s breadth of something you dislike or find disagreeable, tell me right away.”

“…I said there isn’t anything like that.”

“I’ll fix anything. I can adjust to you.”

And in the next moment, I saw the raw, unfiltered expression on Arpad’s face, revealed because he failed to properly manage his emotions.

“So, divorce is absolutely, under no circumstances, allowed.”

“…!”

This time, I couldn’t help but be startled.

His words were striking at the weakness I had been wanting to keep hidden.

I asked with feigned nonchalance.

“Why are you suddenly talking about divorce? It’s not as if you’ve actually gotten a lover in the meantime.”

I referenced the words I had said to him several times.

In the past, I had believed Arpad would soon have a lover, and reacting like this to absurd statements was typical of me.

Arpad furrowed his brow and retorted curtly.

“It’s been a while since I’ve heard talk of a lover who never existed for even a moment.”

Now it was my turn to widen my eyes.

“Really, there isn’t one?”

“You’re not suddenly becoming suspicious now, are you? You should know better than anyone by now that I have no lover.”

When I confessed about the regression, I had told him this as well.

About why I had been so convinced he would have a lover.

Arpad seemed quite aggrieved.

“So that’s why I’ve been treated like a husband who would naturally commit adultery?”

“Sorry.”

“…No. That’s not it. In this case, the problem lies more with the ‘husbands’ you’ve seen until now. That Ludwig fellow must have acted so promiscuously that you formed strange preconceptions…….”

Arpad’s anger and killing intent once again turned toward Ludwig, who was not present.

Perhaps it was fortunate he had gone missing.

Ever since hearing about the regression, Arpad acted as if he would chew Ludwig alive whenever he was mentioned.

Anyway, I now knew well that Arpad couldn’t possibly have a lover.

Arpad knew that too, which is why he was looking at me with such an aggrieved expression.

I gently stroked Arpad’s cheek and whispered.

“You know me.”

“…What?”

“Aren’t I your lover?”

Arpad’s eyes grew so wide they looked like they would roll away if poked.

Soon, he grinned. I recognized this expression now.

It was one he often showed when I did or said something he liked very much.

He sat on the edge of the bed and leaned his head toward me.

“Right. You’re correct. I did have a lover.”

Our lips lightly touched, and then a honeyed whisper seeped into his breath.

“Right here.”

Surely, breath and words have no taste.

So why did this feel so sweet?

We once again confirmed our love, hotly and fervently.

Arpad held me tightly, without a gap, and whispered plaintively.

“I keep having nightmares.”

“What kind… of nightmares?”

“Dreams where you abandon me and disappear. Only after waking up and confirming you’re beside me can I finally feel at ease.”

I draped the utmost effort of tranquility over my face.

And kissed Arpad’s cheek.

“Silly. Dreams are just dreams.”

It was the one and only lie I left him with.

* * *

Now, only one thing remained.

‘To confirm whether Arpad’s madness has completely vanished.’

For it would be proof that we truly loved each other, and confirmation that I could leave him.

Not long after, the season of the Crimson Moon arrived.

It was the third Crimson Moon to rise since I met him.

Night fell, and the strange red moon rose high.

On the terrace of Sia’s bedroom, we waited for the Crimson Moon to rise.

Thereafter, under the red moonlight, Arpad checked his own condition several times, as if he couldn’t believe it.

Arpad had already been confident that his madness would be gone.

But when it was actually proven under the moonlight, he couldn’t help but feel amazed and overwhelmed.

He approached with a bright, smiling face and pulled me into an embrace. And whispered.

“Thank you.”

“Huh? For what?”

His happiness was natural. But for a moment, I didn’t understand why he was thanking me.

“I believed it would happen, but the fact that you love me is overwhelming and unbelievable all over again…….”

He had, above all, obtained the most certain proof.

That I loved him.

Conversely, confirmation was given to me as well.

That Arpad loved me too.

Even though I already knew, having it come into my hands in such a concrete form was truly joyous and heart-swelling.

However, I alone could not rejoice wholeheartedly.

The madness vanishing was tantamount to proof that I could leave his side.

It was a sorrowful and bitter realization.

Wanting to forget this feeling, I pulled Arpad inside the bedroom.

“Hilia?”

After laying him on the bed and climbing onto his lap, Arpad showed a genuinely flustered expression.

“Why suddenly…….”

“You’re the one acting suddenly innocent. You acted like such a violent beast in bed every single day.”

“That was…….”

I pressed down on Arpad’s shoulders as he unconsciously tried to sit up.

The large, solid body of the man lay back down like a docile lamb under my light touch.

The gaze looking up at me seemed entranced.

I quite liked him looking up at me like that.

Fiddling with the tie of Arpad’s robe, I asked.

“So, do you dislike it? This sort of thing?”

Then this handsome, ever-impeccable man made the most foolish face in the world, if only for a moment.

“No, I like it too much.”

We did not leave the bedroom for the duration of the Crimson Moon.

* * *

The morning after the Crimson Moon ended.

Arpad opened his eyes in Sia’s bedroom.

The sheets were chaotically rumpled. He furrowed his brow.

‘What is this? It’s different from usual.’

The bed Arpad woke up in alone was always neat and clean except for the spot where he had lain.

He neither slept long nor, once asleep, lay still as if dead.

This situation was exactly like…….

Arpad shook his head.

That was already in the past.

Perhaps it was a sense of dissonance from sleeping in Sia’s bedroom after a long time.

Feeling subtly unpleasant and irritated for some reason, Arpad left the room in that state.

Attendants waiting in the adjoining room approached and assisted with his grooming.

Among them were a few faces that stood out irritably.

Anika Loren, standing politely among the ladies-in-waiting.

She was a person left behind by that woman.

“?”

Arpad paused for a moment, halted by a sudden sense of dissonance.

“Your Highness?”

“Is something the matter?”

But the sense of dissonance that had risen like a heat haze soon vanished without a trace.

It seemed sleeping alone in Sia’s bedroom hadn’t agreed with him after all.

Then Yulken cautiously asked.

“…Would it not be better to tidy up Sia’s bedroom? It has no owner now.”

It was a valid point. Moreover, Arpad would soon be moving his residence to the main palace after the coronation ceremony.

It was right to tidy it up so that traces of the former owner were not felt.

But even so…….

He was disinclined.

“…No. We hardly have the manpower or time to waste on such a place, do we? Leave it.”

“…Yes, Your Highness.”

Stomping down the rising sense of dissonance and unease, Arpad slowly left Sia’s bedroom.

For some reason, leaving the room alone like this, without being seen off by ‘someone,’ felt very unpleasant.

* * *

Fortunately, the inner workings of the imperial palace were proceeding smoothly without major issues.

Even though I was now absent from here.

I am made to realize anew the power of the divine artifact now held in my hand.

I opened the book woven of light, <The Book of Fate>, and scrolled down a page.

There, a sentence I had added in my own blood last dawn was shining with a golden light.

「Hilia and Arpad divorced peacefully according to their prenuptial agreement.」

And this content was being recognized by most people. As an obvious fact.

Ironically, <The Book of Fate>, which had failed to break the dragon language of Artanus, was of great help in my leaving Arpad.

Romance, Fantasy,