Chapter 182 - North Korean rabbit

Chapter 182

Chapter 20. Getting a Hold of the Tail

Yulken had been feeling utterly miserable lately. Frankly, he felt like telling Arpad outright to get a grip.

But he couldn't do that.

No matter who it was, Arpad had just gone through 'that incident' not long ago.

It was only natural, as it was a deeply personal and inevitably wounding affair.

At the same time, it was also true that he felt a sense of resentment.

'What on earth did the two of you do while you were together that made the Crown Princess leave, even going so far as to divorce...'

In any case, it was a matter between husband and wife.

Moreover, Arpad was so sensitive these days that it was awkward to even say a word.

Like the current situation.

"Why is the room in this state!"

The roar poured over the backs of the prostrated palace servants of the Crown Prince's Palace.

"B-but, Your Highness, did you not order us yesterday morning to clean out Sia's room?"

"...!"

At those words, Arpad paused for a moment.

Because it was indeed he himself who had given that order.

As per his command, Sia's room had been cleaned out thoroughly.

Except for the heirloom furniture, all the trinkets and items newly added for 'someone's' taste and convenience had been removed.

And the bedding, carpets, tapestries, and such had also been replaced with others.

It was exactly as it had been before the owner of this room came into being.

Since waking up in this room yesterday morning, Arpad had been tormented by a dreadful sense of loss all day.

What was driving him mad was that he had no idea what the cause of this sense of loss was.

It felt as if a hole had been punched through his chest, but he couldn't understand why.

From morning till night, this terrible feeling did not improve one bit.

The moment he returned to his original bedroom and lay down on the bed, Arpad realized it.

He was now the most wretched person in the world.

As if he were a child abandoned by his mother.

But he himself did not properly recognize why he felt this way, or because of whom.

Furthermore, the bed felt strangely unfamiliar and unpleasant.

As if he hadn't slept there in months.

'That can't be right. During the marriage, I slept in Sia's room only a handful of times...'

Thinking this, Arpad fell into confusion.

That was clearly the case. It was a marriage of political convenience, and after its utility ended, a divorce naturally followed.

That should have been correct.

But.

'But then, why is it like this...!'

It was strange. Everything, from start to finish.

Could his mood become this bad just because he couldn't sleep for one night?

Sleepless nights were as familiar to Arpad as breathing.

So why was it so unbearably difficult, as if his nerves were being frayed?

In the end, having spent the night wide awake in his own bedroom, Arpad headed to Sia's room with a sense of defeat.

Because he remembered that at least there, he had been able to fall asleep the previous night.

The moment he entered Sia's room, Arpad felt a shock as if his heart had dropped and rolled to the floor.

It was different from the place where he had woken up just yesterday morning.

Sia's room, with someone's traces neatly erased, was strangely dreadful.

Even as he summoned the servants and roared at them, he couldn't bring himself to touch a single item in the changed state of the bedroom.

"Change it back to how it was."

"If by 'how it was' you mean..."

"Exactly as it was when I opened my eyes yesterday morning."

Though bewildered and resentful, the servants bowed their heads and obeyed his command.

Yulken, who had been watching from the side, threw in a remark.

"If you were going to do this, why did you order it changed?"

"I don't know."

"Pardon?"

In the midst of his intense confusion, Arpad spoke again.

"I don't know either."

Why he felt this anxious, this desperate. Why his chest felt utterly hollow.

And... why he felt as if he had been abandoned by someone he absolutely shouldn't have been.

The more he agonized over why he was like this, the more he tried to remember, the more he felt himself sinking into a deeper quagmire.

His temples began to ache with a sharp pain. It was strange that a headache he hadn't had before was now appearing.

To think it might be the onset of madness... he had personally confirmed not long ago.

On the night of the Crimson Moon, his entire body bathed in the red moonlight, but no madness had occurred at all.

And at that time...

"Congratulations."

"Why do you say that?"

"It sounds like you're congratulating someone who has nothing to do with you."

"...That can't be..."

The woman had said that and smiled.

Arpad frowned. Who had been by his side then? But that memory...

The faintly surfacing memory scattered along with a pain as if a drill were piercing his head.

Only one fact remained.

He was now free from madness. This was all too clear.

But the strange thing was... he couldn't properly recall how that had been possible.

Arpad felt this sense of loss and dissonance at every moment, in every place.

As if he alone were inhaling all the unease in the air.

* * *

The <Book of Fate> glowed. Beneath the line stating that a natural divorce had been established, there was a newly written sentence.

「The memories and emotions regarding the married life and divorce process have been distorted and replaced. No one felt anything strange about this.」

The newly written sentences, unlike the other characters, flickered precariously.

* * *

Over the past week, the atmosphere in the Crown Prince's Palace was like walking on thin ice every day.

This was all the more so because its master, Crown Prince Arpad, was in a state like a bomb that could go off at any moment.

Even in daily life, he did not restrain his killing intent, to the point of scattering it about.

Because of this, even trivial reports had to be submitted entirely through Yulken.

There was no other way, as a servant tasked with delivering simple documents had fainted outside the office.

Frankly, even Yulken had felt chills down his spine over the past few days.

'Sigh. Still, when that person was here, the atmosphere was so good...'

Yulken was surprised at his own thought.

'What is this? As if that person was the only one who could stop our lord.'

But that couldn't be, could it? There was no person in the world who could dissuade or stop Arpad.

Not even his father, the Emperor, could do such a thing, let alone a Crown Princess who had merely held the position temporarily for political reasons.

Struggling to erase the subtle sense of dissonance, Yulken opened the office door and spoke with forced cheerfulness.

"At this rate, the Crown Prince's Palace will be called a Dragon's Lair."

Arpad, who had been diligently handling administrative affairs while frowning, retorted curtly.

"You speak as if there was ever a time it wasn't."

"Well... I suppose that's true?"

There was absolutely no reason for Arpad to have ever been well-behaved.

But hadn't he spoken as if there had been such a time?

Yulken soon shook his head, brushing off this strange feeling.

"By the way, haven't you touched a single bite again?"

There was no sign of anyone having touched the food on the trolley, which a brave servant had barely managed to bring in.

Yulken asked anew.

"Are you getting any sleep at all?"

Arpad glanced at his subordinate and then averted his gaze.

"What's with the concern? It doesn't suit you."

This meant he hadn't slept a wink.

And as far as Yulken knew, there hadn't been a single day in the past week when he had eaten properly.

"I know Your Highness is robust to an uncouth degree, so I'm fine, but someone who would worry..."

"...What?"

Arpad, who hadn't taken his eyes off the documents, looked up.

His red eyes stared piercingly at Yulken.

As if anticipating the words to follow.

But Yulken tilted his head and said,

"No, nothing. It was a slip of the tongue."

"......"

Arpad turned his head back to the documents, his face all scrunched up again.

He couldn't concentrate at all, but there was no help for it.

Only by doing work could he at least pretend, even a little, that the feeling of a hole punched through his chest or the strangely slow passage of time was abating.

One thing was clear.

This sense of dissonance, displeasure, and loss was only growing larger as time passed.

* * *

Inside the swaying carriage.

She saw the ring on her left ring finger glittering. A precarious flicker.

"Again..."

Hilia sighed and took out the <Book of Fate> again.

On the opened page were the sentences she had newly written.

They were flickering precariously.

A faint red hue swirled around the golden letters. As if resisting the sentences newly written in the Divine Language.

When this red light intensified, the sentences flickered as if they couldn't endure and would disappear.

Then Hilia would write the sentences anew.

For the past week, every day.

This time, too, after writing the sentences again, Hilia sighed.

'It seems to be getting faster...'

The cycle of having to rewrite the sentences, that is.

Romance, Fantasy,