Chapter 173
“……!”
“Rzel, answer me. Did you find out what was happening to me?”
Arzeletta’s lips trembled. The moment he saw her hesitation, Theogrim already knew the answer.
“You were the one who saved me from hell, Rzel.”
“Ah….”
“You loved me, and you saved me from Ragnar. Isn’t that right?”
Yes, that’s right.
Arzeletta answered. Her head was ringing. She could not distinguish whether it was truly her own words, an answer imagined in her mind, or one spoken by a heart that had already learned obedience.
“And yet now you say you’ll reveal your identity to save Ragnar? How could you say such a thing, Rzel.”
“……”
“There’s really not much time left now.”
Theogrim leaned closer once more. On Ragnar’s bed, Arzeletta instinctively shrank back from him. It was a reaction she herself had not intended.
“All preparations are complete. Just one more step, Rzel.”
“…Hht.”
“This wasn’t part of my original plan, but thanks to you, everything has become so much easier.”
Theogrim’s lips brushed against Arzeletta’s forehead. The moment they touched, her body went rigid.
“The promise we made—that we would survive in this land of madmen and love each other.”
“……”
“At last, that promise of ours is coming true, Rzel.”
In the darkness, Theogrim’s eyes narrowed. It was the beautiful smile that had always earned admiration under the sunlight.
“Why are you like this, Rzel?”
“……”
“Aren’t you happy?”
I am happy.
Truly happy, Theogrim.
Arzeletta heard the answer her heart was crying out.
It was true happiness. She had to be happy. She had accomplished what she had longed for. She had saved the Theogrim she loved from suffering, and led the great god who had tormented him onto the path of death.
And Theogrim wanted her.
We love each other.
…So she ought to be happy.
“…Why have you had that look in your eyes since earlier, Rzel?”
The man with a face so beautiful it made her heart ache asked her quietly.
“All misunderstandings are resolved now. There shouldn’t be any problems anymore.”
“……”
“So never again, never anywhere, must you ever speak of being a fairy. Rzel. Do you understand?”
“The Lord…”
Arzeletta’s trembling lips opened.
“Please let me meet the Lord, Theo. I beg you.”
In that moment, the hand caressing Arzeletta’s shoulder tightened. She furrowed her delicate brows in pain.
“…What have you been listening to until now, Rzel? What do you intend to say to him when you meet?”
“If something happens to the Lord like this… I feel as though I will never be able to smile again.”
“……”
“I will never be able to be happy….”
Arzeletta asked herself.
Are you happy?
Happy because you finally confirmed Theogrim’s love, which you had chased after so desperately your whole life?
‘…No.’
Arzeletta barely managed to pull out her true feelings, buried deep beneath the heavy shadows.
She was not happy. She could not be happy. She could not imagine happiness with Theogrim while turning her face away, holding her breath, as Ragnar was dying because of her.
This was not what she had wished for.
“Rzel….”
Theogrim called her. The shadows cast across his face deepened beneath the backlight of the moonlight.
“This bed?”
“…What?”
“Was it on this bed that you showed yourself to Ragnar?”
Rip—.
“……!”
In an instant, Arzeletta’s eyes widened as far as they could go, unable to believe what had just happened to her.
In her flickering green eyes, the figure of a man was reflected. The master of her soul, cloaked in the image of a pure angel. In his hand was a torn piece of fabric—the black tunic that, only moments ago, had wrapped around Arzeletta’s beautiful body.
“Ah…!”
Exposed in an instant, Arzeletta stumbled backward. But trapped in Theogrim’s arms, she could only be pushed deeper toward the center of the bed.
“Did Ragnar see you like this? Did he touch your body? Did he mix his saliva with your lips and press his tongue into every corner?”
“Te-Theo…!”
“Answer me, Rzel. Without hiding anything.”
Theogrim’s beautiful violet eyes flashed. Arzeletta lifted her arms to cover herself.
Even now, the air of the bedchamber brushing against her revealed skin, the feel of the sheets—it was achingly familiar. Yet this time, as she exposed her body within this red and black darkness, she felt a threat and a fear she had never once known before.
She was afraid of Theogrim. That truth pained her heart, and Arzeletta had already begun to weep softly.
In her wet eyes, which so clearly revealed her fear of him, the veins stood out even more tightly on Theogrim’s hand gripping the fabric.
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