Chapter 186 - North Korean rabbit

Chapter 186

As Hilia’s condition suddenly worsened, Ani, who was standing guard beside her, asked in a worried tone.

“Are you all right, my lady? It really is too much for you to board a ship in your current state.”

Lord Beltain, standing nearby, agreed.

“Indeed. You haven’t been eating properly for days, have you?”

They had followed Hilia’s pre-arranged orders before she left the palace: quietly resigning or withdrawing, then gathering at the promised location.

These two, also affected by the revisions in the *Book of Destiny*, were under the impression that Hilia had divorced Arpad and left the palace.

Her final plan was to cross over to another continent from this easternmost port city, Veneta.

The problem, however, was the dire state of Hilia’s own health.

Despite pushing through and making it to the docks, her condition deteriorated upon smelling the sea air.

Only Hilia stubbornly insisted on boarding the ship as planned, while everyone around her was opposed.

At that moment, the black serpent appeared, dragging a couple of people along.

Lord Beltain warily stepped in front of Hilia and Ani.

The black serpent sneered.

“Still guarding me like I’m some assassin. Isn’t it about time you stopped that?”

“I cannot help but be wary of one who shamelessly followed us without the Lady’s permission to accompany her.”

This was a conflict that had been ongoing since the moment Hilia and Lord Beltain met at the rendezvous point.

For the black serpent had suspiciously trailed after Hilia, sticking close to her heels.

This time, the black serpent presented a compelling argument that even Lord Beltain found difficult to refute.

“I’ve brought the most renowned physician in this city. Isn’t it clear what a Lady in poor health needs most?”

“……!”

Ani and Lord Beltain had also tried to seek out a physician.

But their mistress, Hilia, was stubbornly insistent, acting as if she were being pursued, which made it difficult.

Moreover, they had only just arrived in Veneta.

There was insufficient time to find a physician.

The black serpent had disappeared for about a day, and it seemed he had come to Veneta ahead of time to seek out and bring a physician.

In the end, Lord Beltain had no choice but to step aside.

The black serpent looked down at the rigid knight with an infuriating smile.

The physician, brought here by the black serpent’s money and threats, was about to examine Hilia’s condition.

Hilia, her face pale, suddenly lifted her head and sprang to her feet.

Her attendants all voiced their concern in unison.

“You mustn’t!”

“You’ll collapse!”

Hilia brushed off Ani’s attempts to stop her.

At that moment, a light like a danger signal spread from the ring on her left ring finger.

This was different from the precarious light she had seen nearly every day for the past month whenever she had to rewrite the *Book of Destiny*.

This was stronger, a more dangerous warning light.

Currently, Hilia had combined the power of the other four divine artifacts with the Star of Stytilia at its center, and had also connected the *Book of Destiny*.

In other words, the danger signal the ring was now emitting was from the *Book of Destiny*.

Hilia sensed it instinctively.

That something had gone wrong with Arpad.

Instantly, nothing but Arpad entered her mind.

The dizziness and nausea that had been plaguing her just moments before were completely forgotten.

The most powerful divine power on earth blazed white-hot, and a book formed of light appeared above Hilia’s hand.

*Flick—!*

Though there was not a breath of wind, the glowing pages turned rapidly, illuminating the place their owner desired.

The page where the two sentences Hilia had rewritten were located.

The sentence she rewrote daily was glowing red-hot, like lava.

And the next moment.

*Crack—!*

The sentence Hilia had newly written to alter reality shattered. The words forming the sentence turned into fragments of light and scattered.

“!”

And new sentences began to rise.

These were not sentences written by Hilia or anyone else’s will.

They merely transcribed the current situation unfolding in a distant place.

「Arpad had regained all memories from before the regression. Along with precious and happy moments, memories that were horrific and dreadful. The latter overwhelmingly outnumbered the former…….」

She understood why the sentence she had written had shattered.

‘Arpad regained his memories and erased the sentence I wrote in the *Book of Destiny*!’

There had been signs. For the past month, Arpad had been continuously resisting the *Book of Destiny*.

‘I anticipated he might regain his memories.’

That was why Hilia planned to flee as quickly and as far as possible.

Even if it strained her, to protect him.

But this situation was entirely unexpected.

‘Why memories from before the regression?’

Wasn’t Artanus blocking them?

New sentences raced swiftly across the *Book of Destiny*.

「…Under the immeasurable pressure of memories, madness encroached upon Arpad. This was different from the hereditary madness passed down through his bloodline, but in driving him insane, there was no difference.」

In horror, Hilia reached out.

“Arpad!”

Countless ripples of light began to spread from the *Book of Destiny*.

* * *

Within the unconsciousness.

Arpad smiled under the endless deluge of memories pouring over him.

Among them certainly existed memories of happy, precious times with Hilia.

Precious, beautiful memories that shone like stars.

They were but a tiny, fleeting moment.

The absolute majority of the mud-like memories poured over Arpad were stained with pain and madness.

He died countless times. Many of those deaths were by his father’s hand. Often because the madness had encroached upon him.

The memories of death repeated endlessly were certainly dreadful, but it was something else that gnawed at Arpad’s spirit.

The meaningless, ceaseless repetition.

“When on earth will it end? Does an end truly exist?”

“After repeating, and repeating, and repeating… it will just repeat again in the end.”

At that end, Arpad went mad, unrelated to the hereditary madness.

The meaningless continuation of regression turned his soul into a tattered rag.

“Dreadfully tedious.”

He had probably cut his own throat and died right after a regression hundreds of times.

Realizing even that was meaningless, he had likely killed anyone in sight, over and over again, the count surely exceeding three digits.

He literally ran amok in madness.

It was understandable why Artanus had sealed all those memories.

The dragon must have thought that state would be of no help to the present Arpad.

But Arpad cared not for a dragon’s thoughts.

He accepted the deluge of madness pouring over him without resistance.

Willingly.

Because this conviction was firmly rooted in his heart.

‘If I am in crisis, she can never abandon me.’

It was a gamble.

But also an incomparably sweet and welcome trial.

Certain of victory, Arpad cast himself into the very heart of the madness and let it consume him.

At that moment.

“No—!”

A single ray of light pierced through the overflowing darkness.

Like sunlight seeping into an abyss.

At the center of the blinding, white-hot light, a lovely pink hue appeared.

Amethyst eyes filled with tears, worry, and anger instantly came right before him.

White fingertips reached into the swamp of mad memories, hooked onto Arpad, and pulled him out.

It was always only she who rescued Arpad from ruin.

A rebuke like a scream resonated through his soul.

“Why on earth did you do such a foolish thing?!”

Arpad silently narrowed his eyes and stared at her intently, like a person facing the sun.

Hilia continued to rage.

“Do you know what almost just happened? If I’d left you alone, you would have truly gone mad! And that wasn’t the hereditary madness, so I might not have been able to do anything about it!”

As she spoke, her anger seemed to take more concrete form.

“Moreover, it’s uncertain if you can even regress anymore! And if you were to go mad…!”

“That’s precisely why.”

“…What?”

“I deliberately tried to go mad.”

Arpad smiled brightly and whispered toward Hilia, who had frozen in shock.

“Because you broke your promise.”

“…!”

His tone had changed.

It was a manner of speech hardly heard since they had confirmed each other’s hearts recently.

It resembled Arpad’s way of speaking around the time Hilia went to the catacombs to request a marriage of abduction.

It was as if Arpad’s consciousness had returned to that time.

Once more, Arpad emphasized.

“You broke your promise.”

Romance, Fantasy,