Chapter 200 - North Rabbit

Chapter 200

Even without being able to use divine power or magical power, Hilia could now summon Artanus's dagger.

Anytime, anywhere, her will alone was sufficient.

Because of that, she could hand it to someone other than herself, and even if it were taken, she could reclaim it if she so wished.

Hilia finally understood why the dragon Artanus had given her this dagger in such a manner.

A solid sensation filled her grasp. Every time she held this, Hilia always felt uneasy and anxious.

In truth, she never wanted to draw it.

She worried that if she frequently held this dagger, the probability of harming Arpad might increase.

It wasn't as if she had been told that would definitely happen.

The blade glowed red like blood.

There was no guarantee that her current prediction would be exactly right.

But this was the only thing Hilia could cling to.

Right now, Arpad was dying.

And if the 'Bride' stabbed his heart with this dagger, if she killed him as a human that way...

'He said he would be reborn as a dragon.'

Not wanting to lose Arpad the human, she had fled to the ends of the earth, and now this was what she was clinging to.

She felt so pathetic she thought she might go mad.

But there was nothing else to rely on.

'Whether he becomes a dragon or not, he must live first!'

Even if he lost his humanity completely, she so desperately wished for him to be alive.

Though the action she was taking now was the opposite, what Hilia desired was the same.

To save him, she stabbed his heart.

*Thud!*

The sensation of the blade tip piercing flesh was so vivid and horrifying.

She drove the blade in deep with all her strength.

Into the heart of the man she loved.

She did not close her eyes. Because she could not look away from reality.

'If this doesn't work properly, I won't let it go. Damnable lizard!'

The dagger parted human flesh and bone and went in with terrifying ease.

With a trembling hand gripping the hilt, Hilia checked Arpad's condition.

"Arpad? Are you alright?"

Words ill-suited to the moment after she had just stabbed his heart.

But Hilia could ask no other question.

Streaming tears blurred her vision.

She called out to the man she loved once more.

"Arpad, you're alive, right? Hmm?"

Finally, a scream burst forth.

"Please say that you are!!!"

Simultaneously, light began to erupt from the dagger piercing Arpad's chest, and from his slumped body.

* * *

The people of Beneta were staring blankly up at the shattered castle.

To them, Beneta Castle was as naturally and permanently present as the sea.

But that castle had been smashed.

"Was it... an earthquake?"

"No, but the castle didn't collapse, its side blew out? Does that happen in an earthquake?"

Beneta had stable ground, so few had experienced earthquakes.

"Could it be war?"

"But we don't see any other country's armies or ships at all!"

Confusion and fear were spreading like waves.

"Shouldn't we go to the lord?"

"Well... I heard the castle gates have hardly opened lately."

"What in the world is going on?"

Amidst this, something strange began to appear before people's eyes.

Right after the explosion, some fragments had fallen from the castle to the market square.

They weren't large fragments, and their blackish color led people to think they were charcoal or ash from burning wood that had flown over.

But it was not a substance with a fixed form.

It squelched unpleasantly, like tar or oily residue.

A young man, curious about the fragment, threw a stone at it.

His older sister tried to stop him, but it was useless.

"Don't touch it carelessly when you don't know what it is!"

"Ah, because I don't know, I need to check it out more."

The thrown stone disappeared as if it had plopped into a puddle.

His curiosity further piqued, the young man picked up a piece of firewood and began poking the strange object.

"The texture is weird...?"

The amorphous object, which had remained still even when hit or touched by the stone, suddenly flipped over.

No, to be precise, its middle split open wide like a snake's maw.

"Whoa! What is this?!"

The man recoiled in shock, but it was already too late.

The monster, having expanded its body dozens of times wider, ensnared the youth as if with a fishing net.

And the predation began.

"Agh! Uwaaagh! Aaaagh! Help me!!!"

"Kyaaaah!!!"

Piercing screams rang out.

The same thing happened everywhere the fragments scattered by the castle explosion had fallen.

The disaster was merely beginning. This chaos was caused only by some of the fragments that flew over during the explosion moments ago, for the main body of the monster—having lost its core and left with only its predatory instinct—had fled from Arpad and was now flowing down the collapsed castle walls into the streets.

Over the heads of the densely gathered people.

* * *

The light was so intensely bright it stabbed at my eyes, but I absolutely could not close them.

Because I had to witness with my own two eyes the deed I had chosen and its result.

No, in truth, there was only one thing I wanted to see.

For Arpad to exhale a sweet breath again.

For his heart to beat, playing a beautiful melody.

For his red eyes to see me again and curve gently.

I wanted to see it.

So desperately.

As if answering my fervent wish, the immense light slowly seeped into Arpad.

The dagger I had stabbed into his heart seemed to have melted into the light, becoming part of his body, for it was no longer visible.

But Arpad still lay there, eyes unopened.

Trembling, I placed the back of my hand near Arpad's nose.

A shallow breath tickled my fingertips.

Next, I pressed my ear to his chest.

*Thump-thump-thump...*

A regular, powerful sound beat against my ear.

He was alive.

Every sound he made proved he was alive.

At least, his physical body was.

A profound sense of relief pressed down on my entire body.

Soon after, an emotion just as immense, no, several times larger and heavier, pressed down on my head.

Anxiety.

Could Arpad really open his eyes?

Even if he awoke, would he be the Arpad I knew?

"Regardless of your will, when the time comes, you shall kill Arpad and complete him."

The dragon's ominous prophecy circled in my mind.

That prophecy had ultimately come true.

Just as the damnable dragon said, by my will, with my own hand, I had stabbed Arpad's heart.

'Was this really the right choice?'

No matter how much I thought, no matter how many dozens, hundreds of times I agonized, the result was the same.

The Arpad of moments ago would have had his breath cut off within minutes if left as he was.

No matter what happened, no matter the cost, I did not want to see him die.

I could not bear to see it.

Anxiety and guilt-ridden, complex questions echoed in my mind.

'What if the Arpad who opens his eyes again has lost most of his humanity?'

'What if it's as that wretched lizard desires, and he's become like that lizard? What will you do then?'

'And if you can't consider him the Arpad you know...?'

Reproach and blame for my choice rose in my chest like an angry swarm of bees.

Among them, the most piercing question stabbed coldly into my heart.

'Then will you run away again? Will you abandon him again?'

Swallowing my tears, I shook my head violently.

"I won't abandon him. No, I never abandoned him in the first place! How could I ever abandon Arpad!"

That choice back then was closer to abandoning myself.

Arpad said I was his heart.

My feelings for Arpad were a little different.

He was my courage, my joy, my happiness.

Above all, I wanted him to live.

More than my own happiness or joy, I wanted a world where he lived and breathed.

Through all my lives, circling round and round, until this very place, I had never once abandoned Arpad.

I could not abandon him.

Tears fell in a torrent, wetting Arpad's cheek.

Then a low voice asked.

"Really? You really never once... abandoned me?"

It was a voice unlike that of a human who had died and come back to life.

It was more like that of an utterly delighted rascal.

"Arpad!"

"Yes. You are not mistaken. My bride."

Red eyes were gazing at me tenderly from between eyelids curved like crescent moons.

The unusually deepened color of the iris and the even more elongated pupil seemed a little different.

But it was Arpad.

My Arpad, the one I knew.

I burst into the tears I had been forcibly holding back and buried myself in his embrace.

Arpad wrapped his strong arms around me as if vowing never to let me go again.

* * *

As if to render her anxiety and worry meaningless, Arpad was exactly as she knew him.

"You're really you, right?"

"I am. Do I seem otherwise?"

Hilia meticulously scrutinized his words, actions, and every part of his body, but concluded he was indeed her husband.

'It's, it's a relief!'

Her legs nearly gave way from the intense relief.

Immediately after, intense self-reproach and shame overwhelmed her.

'Then why in the world did I flee all the way to Beneta? Was there even any need for all this?'

Hilia's doubt and shame soon turned into resentment toward Artanus.

'You should have explained properly, you damnable lizard!'

It was then.

Hilia belatedly noticed the situation outside the castle.

Screams and chaos.

"What is that?!"

She soon realized.

That the body of Gaspard, having lost its core to Arpad, was draining the magical power of living beings to survive.

Innocent people were being chased by the monster.

Hilia grabbed Arpad and shouted.

"Let's go down quickly! We have to save the people!"

The usual Arpad would have nodded immediately.

No matter what people said about him being inhuman or a mad Crown Prince, he knew well the duties of one destined to be Emperor.

In such a situation, Arpad was someone who would do his utmost to protect the imperial citizens, and had the ability to do so.

He would have taken the initiative before Hilia even spoke.

But a completely unexpected answer popped out.

"Huh? Why should I?"

"......!"

Hilia raised her head, dumbfounded.

Standing there was the man she loved, wearing an utterly unfamiliar expression.