IDED | Chapter 141

Episode 141

As soon as Serena arrived at the imperial palace, she searched for Azaid.

“Anna, where is His Majesty?”

“Oh, he went to the changing room to change his clothes…”

“Thanks!”

Turning away from Anna, Serena headed straight for the changing room. Judging by Anna’s expression, nothing major seemed to have happened, but Serena wanted to confirm with her own eyes that he was truly fine.

She rushed quickly and arrived at the changing room.

“Your Majesty!”

“Ah!”

Serena barged in without knocking, startling the maids who were attending to him. Azaid smiled as he saw Serena bursting in breathlessly.

“What’s this? Did you miss me that much?”

“Are you okay?”

“I wasn’t okay because I missed you, but now I am.”

Azaid casually adjusted his clothes and slowly walked toward Serena.

Just in case, Serena examined him carefully. Strangely, despite the Duke’s warning, Azaid seemed no different from usual.

Was I deceived? Or did I arrive before the Duke could make his move?

Although relieved to see Azaid unharmed, Serena remained on guard.

“Has anyone suspicious come by?”

“Not at all.”

“Have you eaten or drunk anything strange?”

“You went into danger—do you think I could have sipped even a drop of water in peace?”

“Phew.”

Only then did Serena exhale in relief, and Azaid gently wiped the sweat from her forehead with his fingertips.

“What on earth made you so worried that you rushed here like this?”

“It’s nothing. I think I was just being overly sensitive.”

Of course. A rampage? How absurd.

She must have fallen for the Duke’s provocation because of her experiences in the previous timeline.

Still, something felt off. The Duke had nothing to gain from making an empty threat.

“When you get like this, just say you ran here because you missed me, Rena.”

Azaid lightly kissed Serena’s cheek in mild reproach. But then—

“Ah. This is bad.”

Azaid let out a soft gasp, suddenly clutching his chest and staggering. Seeing him, who had been perfectly fine moments ago, suddenly falter, Serina grabbed his shoulders in alarm.

“Your Majesty? What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

“Ha… Why now, of all times…”

“Your Majesty?”

“Serena. It’s dangerous—don’t come any closer.”

Azaid’s voice was hoarse and strained, making Serina hesitate. For some reason, the air around them felt prickly and hot.

As Serena stood there speechless, Azaid furrowed his brows, his expression contorted in pain.

“I… I know what this feeling is.”

“…….”

“Serena. Run as far away as you can. Don’t get hurt like last time.”

Azaid forced a smile as his eyes met hers. At the same time, flames enveloped Serena’s entire body, as if to shield her.

The moment their eyes met, Serena’s heart sank. His gaze was becoming more and more vacant—just like the eyes she had once seen in the storage room when she was a child.

“I’ll check later to see if you got hurt.”

With that warning, Azaid pushed Serena far away.

“Azaid!”

Boom—!

At the same moment Serena shouted, Azaid’s mana core flared intensely, erupting into a massive pillar of fire with a deafening roar.

In an instant, the ceiling was blown open, and the surrounding air turned unbearably hot and prickly. The maids screamed and fled in terror.

“Kyahhh!”

“I-It’s a rampage!”

Though the rampage lasted only a moment, its impact was devastating. Even after piercing through the ceiling, the flames grew fiercer, threatening to consume the palace.

This was nothing like the rampage that had happened in the storage room. The scale and power were on an entirely different level. At this rate, it seemed impossible to even take a step closer.

“Your Majesty!”

Leonard, who had been waiting outside, rushed in upon hearing the commotion. The moment he saw Azaid in the midst of his rampage, his face turned pale with shock.

“W-What is this…!”

“Ha, this idiot.”

Serena glared at the pillar of fire as she cursed the emperor without hesitation.

Telling her to run? And after always insisting she stay by his side?

Serena was furious that even in his final moments, Azaid had used his power to protect her.

She had always known about his overprotectiveness—ever since he used to make a fuss over something as minor as a broken fingernail. But this was going too far.

I won’t let him die this time.

If Azaid had suddenly gone berserk, it meant he had been exposed to Aaron’s poison for some time.

It’s not too late yet. And this time, I’m not the same as before.

Of course, since she had already returned all of Azaid’s power to him, even approaching him would be difficult.

The pillar of fire devoured everything in its path.

But Serena decided to trust in the protection of the blue flames surrounding her.

Even if her body ended up covered in scars, she would wear them like badges of honor. Even if she burned to death, she would return and shake Azaid awake again.

Seriously, he’s a man who won’t let me take my eyes off him for even a second.

As Serena prepared to charge into the flames, Leonard grabbed her to stop her.

“You can’t, Lady Serena!”

“Let go.”

Serena shot Leonard a glare filled with venom. With time running out, Leonard was only getting in the way of saving Azaid.

But Leonard refused to release her wrist.

“You can’t! If you try to approach now, you’ll burn to death before you even reach His Majesty!”

“So you’re telling me to just stand here and let Azaid die?”

Perhaps because of the urgency of the situation, Serena unconsciously dropped the formal title and called Azaid by his name.

Leonard briefly looked surprised before his expression twisted in distress.

“It’s impossible to handle this alone. We need to summon the imperial mages and extinguish that fire pillar first—”

“This isn’t an ordinary rampage; it’s a poison-induced one.”

A normal rampage always had warning signs, but Azaid had shown none. That meant the poison had spread through his body at an incredibly fast rate.

She had overlooked the fact that the poison was colorless and odorless—just because Azaid had appeared composed.

Besides, in her past life, the mages who had tried to stop Azaid’s rampage had all been swept away by it.

Back then, she had assumed it was simply because his rampage had been too powerful, but looking back, it was likely due to the poison the Duke had created.

If I had known this would happen, I would’ve landed an uppercut straight to that bastard’s face.

Grinding her teeth at the thought of not having punched Aaron when she had the chance, Serina continued speaking.

“If we bring the mages here, we’ll just end up with more rampaging Awakened ones. And then who’s going to clean up that mess?”

“What?”

“You might have been exposed too, Leonard. Take this first.”

“What is this?”

Leonard, caught off guard, took the medicine Serena handed him, looking puzzled.

Serena bit into the antidote as if she had never been tense in the first place. Then, in a dry voice, like an overworked doctor, she began to list the prescriptions.

“It’s an antidote. I made it just in case, but I never thought I’d actually need to use it. There are a few more in my room, so take them. If anyone starts running a fever or talking nonsense, shove one into their mouth.”

“Lady Serena…”

“I’m not recklessly rushing in. You see this? This is a protective barrier that Azaid just put on me to prevent me from getting hurt. With this, I should be able to go inside. At worst, I’ll just get a little scorched.”

It was actually a gamble with no guarantee of success, but she lied to reassure Leonard.

If she didn’t, Leonard would likely keep blocking her from going inside.

“I’ve saved someone who went berserk before. So don’t make that face, and focus on keeping the mages away from here.”

“…Understood. I will do as you say. His Majesty has said before that your words are as good as his own.”

That bastard went into that pillar of fire alone, leaving me behind?

Of course, if Azaid hadn’t pushed Serena away, she would have been incinerated without a trace the moment the flames erupted.

So it was just a complaint. She was grateful that even in the face of danger, Azaid’s first thought had been to protect her, but at the same time, she found his recklessness frustrating.

At that moment, Leonard, who had swallowed the antidote, wrapped Serena’s body in aura and spoke.

“I don’t know if this will help, but it should buy you some time. This is all I can do for you.”

“This is more than enough. Thank you. Thanks to this, it’ll be a little less hot when I go inside.”

Serena answered energetically, and Leonard released her.

“Then… wish me luck.”

With those words, Serena stepped into the pillar of fire without hesitation.

Inside the pillar of fire, it was eerily quiet—like the eye of a storm.

The raging flames, which seemed as though they would consume everything in their path, did not leave even a single scorch mark on Azaid’s body.

Before losing control, Azaid had instinctively cast a protective barrier not only on Serena but also on himself.

It was a precaution to prevent the rampaging mana from attacking even its own caster.

Because of this, it seemed that the berserk power would take a little longer to eat away at Azaid’s life.

How long can I endure this?

Leonard was outside, so he would probably bring other mages to suppress the situation as quickly as possible.

If they extinguished the flames and Serena entered once it was safe—if his body could hold out until then—he could make it through this.

Clutching his violently trembling mana core, Azaid tried to estimate how much time he had left.

The artificially amplified mana core, poisoned by the drug, emitted a loud, ominous hum, sending waves of pain through him.

If he let his guard down for even a moment, he would lose his reason entirely. The power was that overwhelming.

It was a lonely battle.

And just then—

[“Am I really going to die because of a mana rampage now? If I die again so meaninglessly… am I going to regress again? Ugh, this damn life. I wish everything would just go to hell.”]

That voice—familiar yet brimming with anger—was undoubtedly Serena’s.

“Serena?”

Azaid turned his head toward the direction of the voice. And the moment his gaze met that vision, memories he had never experienced before began flooding into his mind.