Chapter 203 - North Rabbit

Episode 203

It would be nice if dragons also had collars to grab.

But it was impossible to seize and shake a giant reptile larger than myself with just my eyes.

All I could do was scream like a mayfly whimpering before a dragon.

“Give me back my Arpad!”

Then, from behind, Arpad embraced me tenderly and warmly.

My vision had momentarily gone red with rage at the lizard before me and the entire world, so I was also angry with Arpad.

“Why are you stopping me?! Are you taking his side just because he’s your ancestor?”

Arpad shook his head.

“No. I did that because I was worried you might get hurt. If you swing your hand even slightly wrong while Artanus is standing still, you could be seriously injured.”

Arpad’s tender, gentle words only made me angrier.

“Your way of speaking! I told you not to copy that lizard!”

“…Ah! I am concerned for you.”

“That’s not the only thing!”

“What?”

Arpad wore an expression that seemed to ask, ‘Have I made another mistake?’

“Not Artanus, that damned lizard!”

Originally, this was a term Arpad had used first. I was merely following his lead.

But I hated seeing Arpad call that lizard ‘Artanus’ in front of me.

‘It feels like he’s drifting further away from my Arpad.’

After all, the intense hatred and rejection towards Artanus was even greater in Arpad than in me.

Once the matter of address was settled and my roughly heaving breath had somewhat evened out, Artanus opened his mouth.

-At last, the time you have earnestly desired has come, my successor. Now, take up the burden that has long rested upon my shoulders. Gather all my remaining power and return me to nothingness. To the side of my bride.

Artanus—no, the damned lizard—stretched its long neck toward Arpad with a gentle, smiling expression.

Arpad reached out his hand without any sign of rejection.

His movements seemed as if he already knew what to do.

Somehow, I had a bad feeling.

That if Arpad made contact with that lizard, something entirely opposite to what I desired would occur.

So I shouted toward Arpad.

“Arpad! Your hand!”

As I spoke, I thrust out my own hand.

Immediately, Arpad’s hand, which had been reaching toward Artanus, obediently changed direction.

Arpad’s hand, placed atop mine like an obedient puppy, and I were alternately observed by the giant lizard.

A sense of absurdity was plainly evident in its emotion.

-Is it your intention to interfere with us, bride?

“Speak correctly. I’m not interfering with ‘you both,’ only with ‘you.’ Don’t arbitrarily count Arpad as being on your side!”

-He is my successor.

“He is my husband first!”

Watching my back-and-forth with the fat lizard from the side, Arpad seemed to feel confused.

The lizard creature then extended its tentacles toward him.

-Arpad. My successor. Do you not also feel it? Most of my power has now passed to you. What remains for you to inherit is merely a hollow shell. Yet it is something of utmost importance and nobility in this world.

Arpad was not given a chance to respond to the long-tongued lizard’s claim. Because I intervened.

“If that position is so noble, then you should continue to hold it yourself! Instead of pushing Arpad into countless regressions just to pass on the burden!”

At my continued interference, Artanus finally revealed his refusal.

-This is a matter between me and my successor. It is not an issue for you to interfere in, bride.

“Don’t make me laugh!”

I couldn’t help but scream out like a shriek in that instant.

It hadn’t even been days since ‘that incident.’

An hour? No, not even several dozen minutes had passed.

I remembered that scene so vividly it made my hands tremble.

The sight of Arpad’s heart rapidly stopping before my eyes.

And what I ultimately had to do to save him.

My chest felt as if it were tearing apart, and it was hard to breathe.

My vision blurred hazily.

I realized anew. The reason for my exaggerated words and actions in the presence of the changed Arpad, and my vehement tone that continued even before Artanus.

The reason for all of it.

‘If I don’t push myself like this, even if it’s forced, I’m afraid I’ll collapse from fear…’

That I might lose Arpad forever.

That was why.

But now, I had no leisure to be shocked or wounded and remain still.

Such things could be done after I reclaimed Arpad.

I gritted my teeth again. The taste of blood filled my mouth.

Widening my eyes, I looked up at the colossal being and asserted my position without yielding an inch.

“You said it was necessary to fully awaken Arpad as a dragon, so you even placed a curse on me, and now you’re telling me to step aside because I’m unqualified?!”

It was truly laughable.

-What I placed upon you is not a curse.

“To me, it was a curse! A terrible curse like no other in the world!”

-That is the limitation you feel because you are a mortal. Guiding your mate to break free from a mortal body and connect to eternity is, rather, a blessing.

The dragon began to tempt me and Arpad with sweet words.

-You too must already feel it, my successor. You need only shed the faint mortal shell that still clings to you and now grasp true eternity. That will be the true blessing for you and your bride.

I was about to shout something more, but Artanus blocked me.

Merely revealing a fraction of the dragon’s overwhelming presence to slightly press down on my spirit was enough.

“!”

I was momentarily overwhelmed and could only falter.

Artanus’s massive head approached Arpad’s front.

To an observer unaware of the circumstances, it would look like a dangerous scene where the giant dragon was about to open its maw and swallow Arpad whole.

Frankly, even to my eyes, it appeared a similar sight.

Because the situation was the same: Artanus was trying to take my Arpad away.

Artanus spoke.

-Come, my successor. Now only the final step remains. Reach out your hand, take this physical form of mine entirely, and with that, all will be concluded.

“…Concluded?”

Arpad, who had been silent, pushed aside by the argument between me and Artanus, began speaking to the dragon for the first time.

-Just so. All that remains for you to inherit is this physical shell. Then you will succeed me as the pillar that supports the world.

“…I think I understand what you’re saying.”

Arpad raised one hand.

The hand opposite the one I was desperately clutching.

He clenched and unclenched it, looking down for a moment before raising his head.

“I know what will happen if I reach out to you. I’ll become a colossal being, able to look down upon the world. I’ll become the pillar supporting this world, as you say, and even be able to resist the power of the gods.”

-Just so. That is precisely your destiny, Arpad.

The dragon was filled with elation. It must have believed the moment of succession was now right before its eyes.

In truth, I wasn’t much different.

While desperately clinging to Arpad’s hand, a weak part of my heart wanted to resign myself.

Struggling to suppress it, I tried to call out to him again.

But this time too, the dragon did not tolerate interference.

-Out of mercy, because you are the bride, I have allowed this, but this is the limit. I shall send you to a safe place for a while until all matters are concluded. Wait there.

“…No!”

But my feeble resistance was useless.

No matter that it was now merely a shell with only the final step of succession remaining, the opponent was a dragon.

As it had said itself, it was a great being capable of resisting even divine power.

Before it, I was like an ant.

Sensing that I would be helplessly expelled from this space, I closed my eyes.

Anger and injustice overflowed.

‘This is too much!’

But the next moment.

I was still standing within this space.

Within the space permitted only to the dragon and its successor.

I could see bewilderment dawning in Artanus’s enormous eyes.

-…!

I realized.

It wasn’t just me clinging desperately, holding his hand.

He too had been continuously gripping my hand. As if he could never let go.

There was only one person who could stop Artanus from expelling me from this space.

When I opened my eyes, Arpad’s face filled my vision.

He stood with his back to the dragon, facing me alone.

The bewildered dragon’s call resonated throughout the space.

-My successor……!

“I know. That I am your successor. That if I just reach out my hand, the immense power to place the world beneath my feet will be mine.”

-Just so, therefore…….

“Probably, obtaining that power would feel quite good. Even now, instinct whispers within me. To take it immediately. That I was born for this.”

-Then why……!

Turning his back on the dragon’s plea, which sounded not just sorrowful but wretched, he looked only at me.

The hand that had been reaching toward Artanus changed direction and came toward me.

Now both his hands were coming to me.

Arpad wiped my tear-dampened eyes, which I hadn’t realized were wet, and spoke. Like a devout follower of an absolute truth.

“But my bride is crying right now.”

As if even if the world were to end, nothing could be more important, Arpad said.

Romance, Fantasy,