“Episode 38”
Seeing his wife’s gloomy demeanor, reminiscent of a rain-soaked puppy, Lucian couldn’t help but feel sorry for her as he affectionately spoke.
“In fact, she wasn’t dull. I unexpectedly encountered her while wandering around the library, where she was energetically running past the window.”
As Lucian spoke, his eyes sparkled even more.
“She was riding a lazy horse that had been grazing in a corner of the stable. As a boy who remembered the stable boy scoffing that the horse would never regain its vitality due to its laziness, it was quite a surprise.”
The corner of Lucian’s mouth, depicting the image of young Elerina, was now drawing a gentle curve.
“She laughed heartily, ran around, and played with the horse. She seemed very free. Even the horse, which always had the same bored expression while grazing on grass, regained its energy and galloped around. Seeing her lively expression, the boy suddenly thought about wanting to live like her. It was a big deal for a foolish boy who had understood life through death, sacrifice, and recognition. I didn’t want to die.”
“Lucian?”
“Eren, thanks to you, I didn’t want to die. And at the same time, I thought, ‘Ah, I shouldn’t like someone like that for the rest of my life.’ It would surely make them unhappy. How could a madman make someone happy? But…”
Lucian bowed his head.
And he buried his face in his small wife’s shoulder. With a sense of worship akin to paying homage to his little sun goddess, he murmured.
“But you always liked me. Even after the end of the academy’s spring… How much… How sad and happy I was knowing that you… gave me your name…”
“Lucian.”
“If I wished for your happiness, I shouldn’t have bound you as the empress. But I wanted more. If I could keep you by my side and not go mad, and not do such a thing to your child… How wonderful it would be to have a complete family. I always…”
“I, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
In confusion and astonishment, his wife, now a mess of emotions, was embraced by Lucian. He then clearly stated to Elerina.
“I loved you. Elerina Walter.”
“!”
Elerina was startled and pushed away from his embrace.
The joy that was about to shine on her face suddenly dimmed under the sudden onslaught of emotions.
Elerina collapsed in a heap. As she fell into unconsciousness, her body was firmly supported by Lucian, who held her in his arms. He sat down, holding her in his lap for a moment.
At that moment, someone unexpectedly popped out from behind them. Standing precariously on the railing, Yoon sneered disdainfully.
“Why are you confessing when you’ll just erase her memories? This is too much like a romance novel supporting character’s behavior.”
“If you roughly know what you’re talking about, don’t go ahead with the story. This isn’t a world from a novel.”
“Ugh…”
To Lucian’s surprise, Yoon stuck out her tongue in front of the emperor. Lucian, who showed no particular reaction to her attitude, said.
“If you and I hadn’t shared the magic stone called ‘Ariacne,’ I wouldn’t have found a way to break the curse of the imperial family.”
“Right. So you should be grateful for my appearance, shouldn’t you?”
Yoon chuckled and toyed with her fingernails. Without making eye contact, she hummed a foreign song.
“What are you looking at again?”
“Why didn’t Elerina’s words warn of death in advance?”
Lucian’s eyes flashed as they met Yoon’s. Then, with an unerased smile, Yoon sneered.
“As long as I’m in this world, this world will move for me. You know that too. Like how I communicated with Ariacne’s magic, you also connected with Ariacne through the blood magic passed down through dozens of generations. We’re just like siblings born from the same monster. Younger brother.”
“My siblings are already dying in the cold palace.”
Lucian gritted his teeth.
He couldn’t forget the moment Yoon appeared.
It was on a day when he was working. On that day, when Yoon was caught in a defensive magic at the Emerald Lake and couldn’t move a muscle, Lucian felt an immense pain just like her.
It felt like the blood in his whole body was churning and surging backward. As someone who inherited the immense amount of magic and memories from his ancestors through Ariacne in an inappropriate manner, Lucian felt an unlucky feeling.
There was someone who resonated with him just like this. Someone who resonated with him was suffering just like Lucian.
It was unbelievable. There was someone exactly like him? A person who inherited the immense magic and memories of the ancestors and became like a crazy emperor whose ego was crushed?
Lucian wore a subtle expression, seemingly understanding and uncertain at the same time.
Her constant words were about coherence. The possibility of turning something virtual into reality or becoming real…
“To be precise, I didn’t kill her. It was the coherence that made your empress kill herself.”
Yoon chuckled sarcastically.
The night had grown deep, with heavy clouds gradually obscuring the moonlight.
It seemed like rain was about to pour. Under that sky, Lucian stood silently, looking at Yoon with calm eyes.
There was neither fear nor retreat in his gaze. He wasn’t afraid of resonating with the strange woman whose mind was somehow connected to his through the power of Ariacne.
Observing his state, Yoon chuckled and half-admired.
“Wow, you’re really a cool supporting male character.”
Yoon found it amusing these days. It wasn’t bad to have come to this world for a while, and it was also fun to watch characters who had been seen and criticized already shaking hands.
Speaking like a teacher instructing a foolish student, Yoon said, “In the ‘original work,’ Elerina becomes jealous and turns into a villain. And now? Just by the fact that she’s jealous of me, she’s ‘jealous.'”
Yoon continued, mocking.
“The core of Elerina Walter’s character is jealousy. She’s a villain who is obsessed with jealousy, letting go of her mind and jumping off a cliff. That’s her essence. As long as I’m here, she won’t be able to get rid of that essence. So ‘coherence’ will dress up the villain for the safety of the heroine. For example, increasing the probability of a poisonous weed accidentally getting into Elerina’s food…”
Yoon chuckled.
The short laughter echoed painfully in Lucian’s ears. Despite Lucian’s grimace, she didn’t pay him any attention. Instead, she continued murmuring as if lost in her emotions.
“It was that coherence that killed her words. I didn’t kill her. I just knew that she would kill her own words.”
Yoon chuckled again and added brightly with her dark, round eyes twinkling.
“And you are my ‘helper.’ You’ll illuminate the path ahead for me and help me reach a satisfactory ending.”
“I doubt it.”
To Lucian’s firm words, Yoon shook her head in half-disbelief.
“Oh, foolish Lucian. Haven’t you felt it? The sensation I felt when I came to this world… The sensation of tearing through thin wallpaper and having new ‘eyes’! It must have been agonizing. Painful, isn’t it? But Lucian Bu Ariacne, you know the value that comes with countless sufferings. Don’t you?”
Yoon smiled softly like a caring younger sister.
“I, as someone connected to Ariacne, will help you find yourself who unfairly lost the magic and memories of your ancestors and help you form a complete ‘family.'”
Now she spoke like a compassionate deity.
“You’ll never want your children to challenge the imperial succession like cruel emperors, will you? Even now, your siblings, cousins, and other palace children are all going mad in the cold palace. You sometimes visit them like a penitent and leave them to the healers.”
Yoon was playing the role of an all-knowing deity. Lucian wanted to warn her against her arrogance, but he had to nod against his own feelings. Because everything she said was true.
As Yoon looked at Lucian, her eyes glowed cruelly. Like when she killed ants she played with in her palm, she laughed wickedly and said.
“But that’s just a way to keep those children from dying. Why can’t you let them die? Oh, is it because of survivors’ guilt?”
“Yoon!”
In the end, Lucian raised his voice. But despite the emperor’s warning, Yoon poured out laughter-laden words.
“Do you also want to create your own child like that? You’ll never do that! Never! As long as you love your villain!”
“Seriously, what do you want from me?”
Lucian looked at Yoon, who chuckled, with a painful murmur.
Even though Yoon didn’t remind him several times, Lucian couldn’t forget, and the little villain in his arms was asleep with tears.
Holding her warm body, Lucian acknowledged the overwhelming feeling he had felt before.
The pain he felt when ‘Yoon’ appeared. It felt like one side of his eyes was forcibly opened, and he saw a new world.
This place was a fictional world where the ending was already decided, and she was the coherence itself that could directly affect the ending. As evidence, Ariacne, which had never been divided, obeyed her.
Lucian Bu Ariacne felt that his body, mind, and magic were filled with Ariacne’s power several times over.
He chuckled alone.
He found his ancestors pathetic. If he could, he wanted to dig up their graves, crush their bones, and blame them for this pitiful ending.
He looked at Yoon with a painful gaze. Even then, she spoke slowly as if mercifully.
“I want to enjoy this world a little more. To do that, I have to enter the story I know. Got it?”
Ding!
When Yoon flicked her finger, Lucian, who had become an emperor, felt his mind, which had been crumbling, clear up slowly.
Gasping for breath, he sat on the steps of the empress’s palace, holding Elerina.
When he finally caught his breath and looked up, the moonlight was shining brightly on the stone path of the palace.
Yoon was already gone. She would wait for an answer, but that wait wouldn’t be long.
