Chapter 190 - North Korean rabbit

Episode 190

He himself had not yet noticed, but a red magical power began to surge intensely from the center of his heart.

This was clearly the power, the magical power, that Arpad had possessed since birth.

But that power began to pour forth with unprecedented, overwhelming force.

A pressure as if his soul and body were being crushed.

Arpad had already felt a similar sensation before.

Within the unconscious, at the moment he had regained all his memories from before the regression.

In that instant, Arpad realized.

The overwhelming volume of memories he had regained was, in fact, a vast magical power.

There could be no other source for such immense and overwhelming strength.

‘Artanus!’

The dragon Artanus had already transferred his power to his successor, him.

In the form of infinitely repeating regressions.

This was possible only because Arpad was Artanus's rightful successor.

And Arpad had transferred this power to save Hilia.

The three subsequent regressions.

The life he met at their end was the present one.

This was the limit of the power that could be contained within the ring he had given her.

Then, where had the remaining dragon's power gone?

It would have nowhere else to go.

In truth, it had been slumbering in one place from the very beginning, and continued to do so until now.

Within Arpad himself.

After regaining all his memories and making contact with Hilia's soul and unconscious, an intense power had been stirring within him.

A feeling as if he held a blazing sun within his body.

That power, responding to its master's intense desire, changed its form.

Arpad surrendered himself completely to this power.

The red magical power surging from Arpad's heart grew deeper in color and spread ever wider.

Finally, the moment a form of magical power coalesced around Arpad.

*Whoosh—!*

The phantom of a golden dragon soared over the Artanua plains.

The dragon, spreading its two wings, began to fly straight toward the eastern edge.

Toward where his heart, his soul, resided.

Those who witnessed this sight were astonished.

“Heavens! It is the dragon!”

“Lord Artanus!”

From the imperial capital to the eastern edge of the continent, a ceaseless line of people witnessed the dragon's flight.

They looked up at the sky and bowed in reverence.

It was the moment a new myth was born, following Artanus and Istride.

* * *

The great golden dragon Artanus, coiled within his nest in a body now little more than an empty shell, slowly raised his massive head.

For he had sensed that his successor's awakening had just begun.

With a gentle gaze, he looked down at his bride enshrined within the crystal coffin and whispered.

- *Not long now. My Istride. The day I come to your side….*

Simultaneously, Artanus knew.

- *He has merely grasped the thread of awakening now. In the end, the only being who can make the dragon complete is the bride.*

In the end, the successor and his bride would meet the conclusion Artanus had prophesied.

For that was the only way for the dragon to be born complete, and the means to set him free.

Artanus laid his long head back down upon the ground.

* * *

“Hah! Hahk!”

Sweat poured down like rain.

Given that the smell filling his nasal passages and the taste rising in his mouth and throat were all of rusted iron, he could guess his current state.

His vision was also red.

Wiping his nose and mouth with his hand, dark red blood came away in abundance.

When he coughed, clots of blood gushed onto the floor.

Now, having reached the outskirts of Beneta in a single night, Arpad was in the midst of bleeding profusely.

The price for using the dragon's power was this severe.

Aside from the fear of madness and the stress, this was the first time Arpad had felt such excruciating pain.

A feeling as if life itself were being ground away.

The sensation of the magical power throughout his body being drained to the dregs was something he had never felt, not even in his mother's womb.

Had he pushed himself just a little more, despite the powerful vitality possessed by one of dragon blood, he might have lost his life.

But he had ultimately succeeded.

With the newly risen sun at his back, he had arrived at Beneta, at the eastern edge of the continent.

Before Hilia could board a ship and leave the continent.

Staggering, he leaned against a tree and pushed himself upright.

Then, he tore his shirt and wiped his ruined face.

He could not meet Hilia with a face stained by nosebleeds and hemoptysis.

The bloodshot eyes, veins all burst, were unavoidable.

It made no sense to wait until he recovered before seeking her out.

He had kept his word. He had truly chased his bride to the ends of the earth.

What Arpad had learned when he made contact with Hilia's soul was that she had been at the docks of Beneta.

And only the fact that Hilia was trying to board a ship to cross to another continent.

Beneta, a central trading port with the Eastern Continent, was no small town.

Searching the entire city alone to find her would take too much time and be inefficient.

Therefore, the method Arpad chose was simple.

He kicked in and smashed down the door of the largest mercenary guild in Beneta and stormed inside.

*Crash—!*

After half a dozen mercenaries, enraged at seeing the wreckage of what was once a door, stepped forward only to be beaten into bloody pulps and left sprawled on the floor,

the branch manager of the Beneta Mercenary Guild appeared before Arpad.

“Just what reason do you have for causing such havoc?!”

Without a word, Arpad took a round golden plaque from his pocket and threw it at the branch manager.

“…What's this?”

The branch manager checked the plaque with displeasure, then nearly fainted on the spot.

“M-M-Master Gerald?”

Mercenaries named Gerald overflowed on the continent.

But there was only one who possessed this golden plaque issued directly by the imperial capital's mercenary guild.

The Mercenary King Gerald.

The fact that the known Gerald's appearance differed from Arpad's current one was no hindrance at all.

It was widely known that the Mercenary King hid his face and identity with a mask.

And after Gerald seized control of the empire's mercenary guilds and earned the nickname Mercenary King, those who impersonated him and lost their lives numbered in the hundreds.

By now, no one, no matter how brazen, dared to impersonate the Mercenary King.

Moreover, that golden plaque was impossible to forge.

The branch manager and the mercenaries lined up before Arpad like docile sheep.

“H-how… for the Mercenary King himself to come to such a humble place…”

Arpad spoke coldly.

“A noblewoman with purple eyes, a young knight in his mid-twenties, and a maid of similar age. They would have been at the docks of Beneta yesterday. Find the party that includes these three.”

It was a voice laced with a murderous intent that brooked no dissent.

* * *

Having turned the mercenary guild upside down and while waiting for them to bring information, Arpad washed his face with clean water.

And he obtained and put on a new shirt.

*‘I can't have our reunion be in a wretched state.’*

The reason he did not order them to look for a woman with the most noticeable feature—pink hair—was simple.

*‘If she wanted to avoid detection, she would have changed that first. She probably dyed it.’*

But eye color was something that couldn't be changed by things like dye.

Of course, using one of the goddess's divine artifacts could make one's appearance look completely different.

As Evangeline had pretended to be Hilia at the Artanua Temple.

But it had been nearly a month since Hilia left the imperial palace and began her travels.

Maintaining a changed appearance with the power of a divine artifact all that time would be excessively inefficient.

So it was highly likely she had not changed her eye color.

And Ani and Lord Beltain had surely followed Hilia.

Therefore, finding a party that included these three was correct.

Of course, a party consisting of a noblewoman, a maid, and a knight wouldn't necessarily be just them, but at least purple eyes were rare.

He would soon confirm that his judgment was correct.

Within a couple of hours, the guild branch manager found information about a party that had stopped by the docks yesterday, including two women and one man.

“There were quite a few parties with one man and two women… but there was only one noblewoman with violet eyes.”

A light returned to Arpad's eyes.

“It is said that yesterday at the docks, while trying to board a ship bound for the Eastern Continent, the noblewoman collapsed, so they postponed their schedule and stayed at an inn. And it's said that one more outsider man joined them there, and that the noblewoman displayed a miraculous feat, emitting a strange light.”

Arpad rose from his seat.

It was certain.

It was Hilia.

* * *

Arpad raced in one breath to the inn where Hilia's party was staying.

As the information brought by the guild branch manager included the room number, Arpad went straight there without getting lost.

And grabbing the door, which was bolted from inside, with his bare hands, he tore it open and stepped inside.

“Hilia!”

Inside the inn room stood two people: Ani with a pale face and Lord Beltain.

They were astonished.

“Y-Your Highness?”

“How are you here?!”

He slowly scanned the room, but Hilia's figure was nowhere to be seen.

Arpad glared at the two and slowly approached.

The fact that Hilia was not visible shattered Arpad's anticipation.

Not concealing his murderous intent in the least, he interrogated Hilia's two servants.

“…Where is Hilia?”

Then, Ani, who had been frozen like a mouse before a snake, forgot her fear, burst into tears, and fell to her knees.

“W-when we woke up this morning… the young lady had disappeared without a trace!”

Lord Beltain, gnawing his lip, continued the explanation.

“The black snake who was staying in the next room has also disappeared. That man must have abducted Her Highness!”