Chapter 193 - North Korean rabbit

Episode 193

Arpad muttered in a voice laced with killing intent.

“You’re listening, I presume. Hand over my wife. If you don’t, I’ll make you regret not having died by my hand last time.”

At that, the doll’s head rolling on the floor grinned mockingly and asked.

“And what will you do if I don’t hand her over? For a threat to be effective, shouldn’t you say you’ll exact a more powerful revenge? Is that even possible?”

Arpad replied coldly.

“I will die right here, right now, without leaving behind a single strand of my hair, a single drop of my blood, or a single piece of my flesh.”

“…….”

Gaspard was at a loss for words.

Here was a husband, before the kidnapper who had taken his wife hostage, holding his own life as a hostage.

For a moment, a heavy silence fell over the inn room.

Even Ani wore a more astonished expression than when she had seen the head of the Beltain (imitation doll) being cut off.

The doll’s head could not reveal Gaspard’s emotions.

However, the bewilderment felt in his voice and tone was clearly reflected.

“H-how is that revenge against me?”

Arpad let out a short, derisive laugh.

“Not a word you should be saying, you who rolled on the floor demanding a drop of my blood, is it?”

“…….”

Indeed, they already knew each other.

Gaspard’s ultimate goal.

And what Gaspard most desired as well.

Moreover, Arpad had regained all his memories from before the regression and possessed considerable information about Gaspard.

Having already kidnapped Hilia and secured the child in her womb, he might have judged that Arpad was no longer necessary.

But Gaspard’s obsession with dragon blood prevented that.

Seeing Arpad appear before him alive, Gaspard now wanted to possess him whole.

Furthermore, unlike usual when he was clearly difficult to touch recklessly, it was visibly apparent that he was weakened.

“As expected, Your Highness the mad Crown Prince, even your lies are murderous.”

“Why do you think it’s a lie? I couldn’t be more sincere.”

“…….”

The severed head rolled clunkily on the floor. As if pondering for a moment.

Of course, Arpad had no real intention of dying.

But merely mentioning the possibility was enough to unsettle Gaspard.

Because he so desperately wanted Arpad’s physical body.

Shaking Gaspard was Arpad’s true objective.

Internally suppressing a sense of defeat, he feigned calm.

‘My physical condition… is far too poor.’

Even now, the smell of blood rose in his throat, and every bone, muscle, nerve, and blood vessel in his body was screaming.

Had he been in perfect condition, he would have been confident in facing Gaspard.

‘And Hilia is already taken hostage.’

An absolutely irreplaceable hostage, at that.

Every situation was the worst. Therefore, he had to unsettle the enemy all the more.

By forcing an opening, he could at least slightly increase the possibility of breaking through this impasse.

Arpad calmly uttered insane words and performed an insane act.

He squeezed out the little magical power he had left and ignited his aura.

The crimson aura flared up in a single, brilliant, threatening stream, like a flame.

At that moment, the Tower Lord, ultimately overwhelmed by the momentum, surrendered.

In the end, greed had won.

“Enough.”

In this bizarrely reversed situation, Gaspard felt absurd and displeased.

“I’ve lived quite a long time, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen someone crazier than me.”

It was a statement hard to distinguish as an insult or a compliment.

But Arpad grinned.

“The highest of compliments.”

It was true that he was insane for Hilia, and admiration for that degree was nothing.

The body of the doll imitating Beltain crumbled, and the hidden magic circle began to glow.

It was a spell to open a small-scale spatial teleportation portal.

It was a level of power impossible for anyone on the entire continent without abilities on par with Gaspard or Vio.

It was also possible because Gaspard’s hideout was not far from here.

Arpad did not even know this fact, nor was he interested.

The only thing that mattered was that Hilia was beyond that portal.

In his worst physical state, Arpad stepped through the portal without hesitation.

* * *

Gaspard’s state was strange.

After saying that Arpad was nearby, his expression suddenly stiffened and he even stopped moving.

It wasn’t just a matter of not moving.

He seemed wholly absorbed, his attention completely seized by something.

‘What? Is he genuinely bewildered?’

That Gaspard?

What is happening?

While sufficiently astonished, my body diligently moved, seizing the opportunity in the meantime.

Now that Gaspard’s attention had momentarily shifted away from me was an absolutely unmissable chance.

I rushed toward Gaspard, who stood frozen like a statue, almost tumbling forward.

Simultaneously, I swung my left hand with all my might.

“!”

Gaspard, even perceiving my movement, showed neither surprise nor fear. He even sneered.

Well, of course. I was an ordinary person with combat ability not just at 0%, but close to negative.

Moreover, all my self-defense weapons and magical artifacts had been taken, so all I could do was swing my bare hands.

And this fact was one of the things I believed in.

When dealing with me, Gaspard had no choice but to be careless regarding physical threats.

Yet, as I got close, a barrier Gaspard had prepared in advance activated.

It was an absolute truth that I couldn’t even touch Gaspard.

The predetermined future would have been me being repelled by the barrier and tumbling to the floor in an ugly heap.

But what actually happened was different.

*Clang—!*

An eerily crystalline sound rang out, and the barrier enveloping Gaspard shattered.

Because the blade of the crimson-glowing dagger in my hand had smashed through Gaspard’s barrier all too easily.

‘Got it!’

Yes. Gaspard had taken all my self-defense weapons and magical artifacts, but there was one he could not touch.

‘Still, it comes in handy once, you damn lizard!’

Only the dagger Artanus had implanted in my left hand!

And the dragon-made dagger performed flawlessly.

*Thud!*

The dagger I swung stabbed precisely into Gaspard’s chest.

“?!”

Simultaneously, an anomaly began to occur in the basement.

One wall warped, and a massive black hole appeared.

From it emerged a figure so familiar and longed for, whom I wanted to see more than anyone but absolutely did not want to see.

Though I hadn’t seen him for barely over a month, his face, which had become half of itself in that time, clawed at my heart.

The moment he recognized me, his red eyes shook mercilessly.

I called his name as if it were a scream.

“Arpad!”

* * *

After passing through the portal Gaspard opened, Arpad momentarily doubted his own eyes.

Because the scene unfolding before him was so utterly unexpected.

He had anticipated seeing Gaspard and Hilia together. But he had never imagined Hilia stabbing Gaspard.

Arpad couldn’t help but let out a delighted laugh.

Because the one who always exceeded expectations and left him flustered was precisely the woman he loved, Hilia.

Truly, anywhere, anytime, she remained the same.

This fact relieved Arpad.

Hilia’s eyes widened as if in recognition.

Astonishment, denial, and yet an utterly unstoppable emotion overflowed from behind her beautiful amethyst eyes.

With a face on the verge of tears, Hilia ran toward him and cried out.

“Arpad!”

Arpad had never attached any special meaning to his own name.

He thought of it dully, as merely a label to distinguish him from others.

But this moment was different.

His name, clothed and colored by her emotion and voice, was a hymn praising the most beautiful life in the world.

Arpad realized anew.

They had been apart for far too long.

The time they couldn’t meet directly had been excruciatingly long.

It had been so very long since he had taken in her face and form with his eyes, heard her voice, and felt her warmth.

Their souls and consciousness had connected, but that alone could not suffice.

A thirsty person drinking seawater only suffers greater thirst. That was precisely Arpad’s state.

He ran and embraced Hilia in his arms.

Simultaneously, Arpad’s five senses gained meaning.

To perceive and accept her.

He had arrived at a place where he could barely live and breathe.

The sense of betrayal that she had deceived him, or the resentment that she had abandoned him, felt distant and did not surface.

There was only one thing.

He gave voice to the sole emotion that ruled him, exactly as it was.

“…I missed you.”

“…!”

“Really, really so much… I missed you madly.”