Chapter 187 - North Rabbit

Episode 187

“You broke your promise.”

“What did I…?”

What promise had I made with him? What had I failed to keep?

Even as I searched my memory, nothing came to mind.

I had lied and run away, but that was different from breaking a promise.

I had a rather shameless thought.

Arpad pressed me fervently.

“You said you would keep me from going mad?”

Only then did I understand what Arpad was talking about.

The promise I had made to him when requesting the marriage of abduction.

“In return, I can ensure Your Highness ascends to the throne safely, without going mad.”

Forgetting even the current situation, I felt absurdity and anger surge within me. That was why I hastily retorted.

“I did, didn’t I? The madness is all resolved, and just a moment ago I saved you from going mad. Where did you forget that and…!”

Arpad pulled me tighter, as if to prevent me from running away.

“No, I’ve already gone mad.”

Arpad exhaled a hot breath and whispered into my ear.

“Separate from the imperial madness or the madness that nearly consumed me just now, in truth, I’ve been completely mad for quite some time now.”

Clearly, I was now within Arpad’s subconscious. We had no physical bodies.

Yet, the sensation of body heat and touch felt so vivid.

As if we were truly embracing each other.

“Who do you think is the cause?”

When I met Arpad’s slowly raised crimson eyes again, a wave of tension filled me.

Arpad was essentially dictating and forcing the answer. I had no choice but to give him the answer he wanted.

Because I could feel his desperation, his desire to hold onto me even if it meant he himself went mad again.

“Because of me…?”

“Yes. So you must take responsibility. For a lifetime.”

I was a little afraid of what would come next. Because, as he said, he seemed a little, no, very much insane.

“If you don’t take responsibility… if you irresponsibly abandon me and run away again…”

His low voice clung stickily to my mind.

“I will chase you to the ends of the earth and make you take responsibility.”

His mouth was smiling brightly, but his eyes were burning with a mad obsession.

Arpad emphasized once more.

“Without fail.”

“……”

I was speechless. It wouldn’t be entirely wrong to say I was somewhat overwhelmed by his sincerity.

As I hesitated, not knowing how to respond…

“…?”

I felt an unknown force tear my consciousness away from Arpad and pull it sharply.

“Ah!”

Our touching hands separated.

I saw Arpad’s red eyes, still thick with the aftermath of madness and confusion, widen in shock.

And then a sensation of falling, as if plunging from a cliff, swallowed my consciousness.

“!”

Suddenly, my vision cleared.

“—!”

Noise cascaded over my head like a pile of sharp nails.

‘What is this? Just a moment ago, I was with Arpad…’

It was hard to gather my senses.

It took quite some time to recognize that the surrounding noise and the light seeping through my eyelids were not pain.

“My Lady! Are you all right?!”

It was Lord Beltain, holding me, shaking my shoulders with a worried tone, calling out repeatedly.

“Wh-what happened?”

“You suddenly collapsed. You have no idea how frightened I was…!”

It was Ani, sniffling in front of me.

And standing behind the two of them…

‘Why has that man chased me all the way here?’

It was the Black Serpent.

Seeing me open my eyes, he let out a sigh of relief and then, surprisingly, made a calm and reasonable suggestion.

“It would be better to move her to a place where she can rest comfortably and stably.”

I, Ani, and Lord Beltain all held antipathy towards the Black Serpent.

But given my physical condition, and the fact that I had collapsed after emitting light, causing too much commotion around us,

we ultimately ended up moving to a clean, comfortable inn that the Black Serpent had secured in advance.

As I was carried on Lord Beltain’s back, I had only one worry.

‘Arpad, is he all right?’

That experience earlier was not a dream or an illusion. It couldn’t have been.

Because I had directly felt Arpad’s soul.

It seemed that through the power of the <Book of Fate>, I had been directly connected to Arpad’s subconscious.

I had fainted while my soul briefly visited Arpad.

I felt weak all over and so anxious I thought I might go mad.

Because Arpad’s attitude and tone from our meeting in the subconscious kept coming back to me.

“He said he would deliberately go mad.”

“I will chase you to the ends of the earth and make you take responsibility.”

“Without fail.”

For someone who had lived his whole life avoiding madness, to consider doing something that might make him go mad…

Arpad’s desperation not to lose me made my heart ache anew.

Simultaneously, fury surged.

‘Who am I doing all this to protect! You’d throw yourself into danger? On whose authority, how dare you!’

If he were beside me, I felt like I’d give him a few smacks on the back.

Soon, a hollow laugh leaked out between my lips.

What presumptuous thoughts for someone who abandoned him and ran away.

Anxiety crept up one after another.

‘Surely, he wouldn’t really chase after me… No, he will. He really will.’

Didn’t Arpad himself say so?

If so, I had to leave this place as soon as possible. I had to cross to another continent.

Meanwhile, I had been gently laid on the inn bed.

As soon as I felt certain, I tried to sit up abruptly.

“You mustn’t, my lady!”

With Ani’s scream, I fell forward onto the sheets again.

The dizziness and nausea were too severe.

As I barely gathered my wits while lying on the bed, I heard unexpected words.

Regarding the physical condition that had plagued me for the past few days.

The physician the Black Serpent had brought examined me and made a bombshell announcement.

“My Lady, you are currently with child.”

“What?!”

My mind went completely blank.

* * *

“Your Highness! What is the meaning of this sudden action?! Have you truly gone mad?”

Yulken tried to stop his master in a fluster, but it was useless.

Arpad, who had been unusually on edge lately, reacted sharply even to his close aide Yulken.

“How novel. You act as if you’ve only just realized I’m a madman.”

“Well, that may be, but I thought you had changed somewhat lately… Ugh!”

Arpad ruthlessly kicked Yulken, who was grabbing and hanging onto the reins.

Then he spurred his horse and began to gallop.

The speed was tremendous. Yulken, who had been thrown backward, muttered blankly.

“Well, his temper has mellowed a bit. Seeing as he didn’t draw his sword first…”

He groaned and staggered to his feet.

“Ah, really. I thought such incidents were a thing of the past since Her Highness the Crown Princess came…”

Yulken felt a sense of dissonance with his own thoughts.

Her Highness the Crown Princess.

Hilia.

The people of the Crown Prince’s Palace lived their days offering prayers of gratitude for Hilia’s existence.

The difference between Arpad before and after marriage was like night and day, so from a subordinate’s perspective, Hilia was a savior incarnate.

Moreover, didn’t Yulken practically worship Hilia’s abilities?

But strangely, he felt as if he had forgotten about Hilia for a while.

And…

‘Why has Her Highness the Crown Princess not been at the Crown Prince’s Palace for about a month?’

Neither he nor the other palace attendants felt any strangeness about this.

It was an absurd situation.

* * *

Gaspard, who had been hiding like a sewer rat in his hideout, jerked his head up.

“…!”

His eyes began to glitter in the darkness.

Because the information he had just heard was that shocking and joyous.

The experimental subject he had desperately desired as material to complete his research was precisely a royal fetus.

A fetus is a being with infinite potential to grow in any form.

Especially if that child had inherited a strong dragon lineage, it would be an indescribably perfect experimental subject for Gaspard.

The price for helping Isabel had been a child for the same reason.

But the Emperor never sought Isabel out, and he couldn’t demand a child that had never been conceived as payment.

‘I had given up, but…’

This time was different.

It was a child that definitely existed.

Moreover, the sole bloodline of Arpad, said to have inherited the purest dragon blood since the Empire’s founding emperor.

A greedy smile spread across Gaspard’s lips.

In truth, Gaspard had already been covetously watching for an opportunity to seize Hilia. He had placed his agents and was waiting for the right moment.

But now, a reason to absolutely get his hands on Hilia had arisen.

Gaspard’s reason for targeting Hilia was simple.

She was the most effective hostage against Arpad.

‘Moreover, recently she has shown powerful divine power, making her useful in that regard as well, but this is beyond that.’

Now, Hilia was like a treasure chest containing everything Gaspard desired.