NMRJKM Chapter 113

Out now!!

Carlothian ran dozens of times and screamed hundreds of times. The hem of her dress brushed against his fingertips. A body bursting apart.

How much time had passed like that?

“Carlothian, are you okay…?”

Seeing Carlothian’s face pale with fear, Dorothea spoke. It was the same clueless expression of Dorothea he had seen hundreds of times.

Before that sound could be heard again, Carlothian pushed Dorothea aside and rushed out the door. But—

She wasn’t falling.

She hadn’t fallen.

Luciano, lifting Dorothea who had been pushed by Carlothian, said, “What are you doing, Carlothian!”

He sounded a bit angry, but that wasn’t what mattered right now. Carlothian looked up.

He saw the hem of her dress and her white legs. Carlothian shouted.

“Wait!”

Please, wait. Ariadeline. Don’t jump.

He dashed back inside the hall.

Then he climbed up a floor, and another, reaching the top floor. He saw Ariadeline.

She was sitting by the window like a doll with its strings cut. There was no sign of life in her back.

Carlothian hurriedly approached, wrapped his arms around her, and pulled her away from the window frame.

Holding her tightly, he kept whispering.

“Ariadeline, please. Stop. Just stop.”

He held her tightly, fearing he might lose her, and pleaded.

“Please, please don’t jump. I understand how desperate you are. And…”

I know you love your voice more than me. So please.

Even as Carlothian begged, Ariadeline didn’t say a word. It wasn’t that she couldn’t respond; her voice simply wouldn’t come out.

Carlothian carefully looked down at her in his arms. Her blue eyes were unfocused.

Despair was evident. He saw only endless despair in her blue gaze, devoid of anything else.

“…Ah.”

Seeing her eyes, Carlothian felt a wave of anxiety wash over him again. He needed to get Ariadeline away from here.

He fled down, holding her as if escaping. Then he headed toward his room.

His legs trembled as he walked toward the room. Still, Carlothian didn’t let go of the limp Ariadeline in his arms.

“Your Grace, what happened?”

The butler, still standing at the door, asked about his unusual condition.

Hearing this, Carlothian suddenly remembered and said, “Clear all the sharp objects from the room.”

“What?”

“Quickly!”

“Yes, yes. Understood!”

Carlothian laid Ariadeline down on the bed. She fell onto it like a doll, without any strength.

Though she was lying down with her eyes open, she was simultaneously looking at nothing. Carlothian gently took her hand.

“Was that really the only reason for you to live…?”

So that’s why you did it?

The voice that wanted to ask this rose to the tip of his throat, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

He didn’t know what to do if the answer was yes.

Carlothian held Ariadeline’s hand and pressed it to his forehead. For the first time, he sought a god.

Please, God, save this woman. But there was no way he would get an answer.

Behind him, servants came and went, clearing away everything sharp. From picture frames to the paper knife used for tearing letters, everything was removed.

While Carlothian held her hand, Dorothea and Luciano, who had been left in the first-floor hall, came up to the room.

“What on earth happened?”

Dorothea looked at Ariadeline lying on the bed.

Then she flinched and froze. There was nothing in her eyes. They were filled with such intense despair that she couldn’t look into them.

“…She suddenly ran up.”

“She jumped from the top floor…”

She fell. Hundreds of times. But his voice choked, and he couldn’t finish the sentence.

The two, understanding it as an attempt to jump, widened their eyes in shock.

Dorothea and Luciano stood there, unsure of what to say.

Carlothian continued to hold Ariadeline’s hand and whispered.

“I will find a way, somehow. Ariadeline, please. There has to be a way. Surely…”

His voice was deeply cracked, as if he had lived for decades longer. Seeing this, Dorothea clenched the hem of her dress tightly.

“I’ll go to the temple and find a way.”

Carlothian turned his head for the first time and looked at her.

“Yes, can you do that?”

“There have been very few cases of cursed objects appearing in the world. So there might not be a lot of information, but there will definitely be a way…”

Dorothea grabbed Luciano’s arm and turned around.

“Please take good care of Ariadeline in the meantime. Please.”

Carlothian didn’t nod, but instead turned his gaze back to Ariadeline. He saw her slowly closing her eyes.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible…”

With that, Luciano and Dorothea left, and only the two of them remained in the room.

Carlothian, as if he didn’t want to see anything, closed his eyes and held Ariadeline’s hand, whispering and whispering like a madman.

“I will find a way, somehow. Ariadeline. I… I am so…”

I was so foolish.

To think I said I would make you love me without knowing what you truly wanted.

I was so arrogant, not even knowing what you loved.

Carlothian whispered to her as if confessing his sins without any coherence.

“Ariadeline…?”

But there was no answer. Ariadeline’s closed eyes did not open.

Carlothian could not leave her alone. So he stayed by her side, ignoring everything else.

Ariadeline’s hand was cold. Like that of a dead person. Carlothian held her hand tightly, determined to warm it.

As time passed, night fell and dawn approached.

‘…My head.’

Fatigue had piled up so much that his eyes stung. He blinked slowly for a moment.

Ariadeline slept as if she had died, without a single movement.

Carlothian’s eyes blurred for a moment as he looked at her. A wave of despair washed over him. He clenched her hand tightly and bit his lip.

While I was asleep, who knows what she might do again?

That anxiety kept him from sleeping.

However, his body, exposed to an unbearable stimulus for a day, no, for a long time, eventually surrendered. In an instant, he closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, his hand was empty.

☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓

When she opened her eyes, it was early dawn. Ariadeline slowly looked around.

‘Ah, this is Carlothian’s room. So, this is our room.’

She slowly got up from her place. She felt no emotions. She could not remember anything.

As she raised her hand to touch her neck, something fell with a thud.

It was Carlothian’s hand. Ariadeline quietly looked down at him. She could see his face, lying on the bed as if he had fallen asleep beside her.

She struggled to recall the words he had whispered. They were hard to remember.

“I will find a way, somehow. Ariadeline, please. There must be a way. Surely…”

His voice was desperate. Yet, despite that desperation, no thoughts came to her.

Ariadeline slowly left the bed and headed toward the terrace.

As she approached the terrace, tears streamed down her face, falling with a soft thud.

As she had wished, regressing was possible. However, for some reason, it only happened right before the fall.

She could not return to before the incident with Yermondi. She didn’t know how many times she had jumped.

Just before hitting the ground, she thought she caught a glimpse of Carlothian jumping toward her. What did he shout? She couldn’t tell.

‘I’m sorry. I’m selfish.’

My desperation hurts more than yours.

She could not bear the fact that her voice would not come out.

She didn’t know why she could still return, but the very fact that she could was torturing her with hope.

Perhaps if she took her own life once more, she could go back before her neck was cut?

Ariadeline slowly stood on the railing. It was a bit difficult since the railing was high, but once she set her mind to it, nothing was impossible.

Ah…

It was a relief that Carlothian was asleep. She pushed away the small thoughts she had about him. But then.

“Ariadeline…!”

She heard the voice.

Cautiously, she turned around on the railing. Carlothian was staring at her with wide eyes, unable to approach.