MHHC Chapter 80

The Past

That they'd discovered she was a mage.

She remembered making eye contact with the Holy Knights just before fleeing the shelter.

She'd announced her identity openly when entering—by now, the entire capital must be ablaze with rumors that the Grand Duchess of Ansgar had employed dark sorcery.

Adelheid's face went ashen as the full weight of the situation crashed down on her.

"If that's true, we can't stay here like this."

"..."

"Ansgar will... Margaret and the servants who came with us, the knights—they'll all be implicated in this incident. If both of us disappear, suspicion will fall on them. We have to go back right now. If I can't, then at least you should go immediately and..."

"..."

"The... the Holy Knights only saw my face. You should go back and testify that you knew nothing. That I awakened my magic on my own, that I studied it in secret. If you do that, Ansgar will be safe..."

"So now you're telling me to abandon you."

Valentin cut through Adelheid's frantic words with a voice cold as midwinter ice.

She flinched at that glacial tone, and he exhaled a thin breath. His arm slipped around her waist, drawing her close with unexpected gentleness.

"First, calm down. Even for just a moment."

"But we need to go now..."

"I've stopped time outside. Even if we spend an hour here, barely a blink will have passed out there. Even Morig hasn't noticed yet that I've halted time's flow. Though he must have sensed something wrong."

Her heartbeat crashed against his quiet chest and echoed back to her—her own pulse, and yet it felt faint and fragile, as though it might stop at any moment.

"Once time resumes its normal course, we won't be able to stay here anymore. I forced this place open in a moment when Morig's attention wavered. When the paused time starts flowing again, he'll realize you were here."

"What happens then?"

"He'll do whatever it takes to make you hate me."

"That couldn't possibly..."

Happen. She'd been about to say it was impossible when she remembered the seeds of doubt Morig had planted in her before.

How, when those seeds had been growing inside her, she'd felt flashes of genuine hostility toward Valentin.

And besides, their problems remained unresolved. The question of how her feelings had begun would always be incomplete and uncomfortable, wouldn't it?

"So now you need to choose, Adelheid."

His voice pulled her back from the labyrinth of her thoughts. Valentin cupped her chin gently, tilting her face toward his.

Her gaze lifted with the motion of her head. Eyes like pale spring leaves met eyes bright as the noonday sun.

"Will you continue living as a human, or will you take my hand and step beyond the boundaries of humanity?"

Valentin's eyes were calm and his manner remained gentle, but Adelheid had the distinct impression he was tense—that beneath the soft exterior, his nerves were drawn taut as bowstrings.

His eyes narrowed slightly as if to hide that raw anxiety. The fingers that stroked her cheek with deliberate tenderness were trembling, just slightly.

"I don't understand exactly what you mean. Does choosing to continue as a human mean I can't choose you?"

"If you choose a human life, all responsibility for everything that's happened stays with you. Even if you flee to another country, you won't escape the category of 'human,' so the consequences will always follow."

"And if I choose you?"

"Well... you'll probably resent me for it. And yet we'll always be at each other's side anyway."

And yet. In those two words, she could feel his selfishness laid bare. She could see which choice he was pushing her toward.

And yet—he knew that selfishness would ruin her completely, which was why he hadn't presented this option as though it were the only one from the start.

'So I'd become something... not human. Something closer to a monster.'

Neither choice could be made easily. If she went back now, she'd face a holy tribunal as a human accused of being a monster.

But if she disappeared like this?

'What about Ansgar? What about all the people who believed in them and followed them?'

They might all be branded as those who consorted with monsters.

The blades of the Holy Knights might turn toward all of Bitzleben, toward Ansgar itself.

Even if by some miracle all humans forgot their existence, Morig would remain.

If that deity harbored such fury and hatred toward Valentin, would there be any paradise to find, no matter where they fled?

"Once this moment passes, I'll never make this offer again. So think carefully before you answer."

"I... No, I mean... I..."

"Tell me what you want. Whatever you choose, that's what will happen."

It was a strange sense of déjà vu. As though... she'd answered a question like this before, sometime in another life.

"I..."

Adelheid barely managed to swallow her ragged breathing. Could anything be more incomplete and terrifying than being born human but living forever?

It would be a life drowning in loneliness. She knew this from watching Valentin.

A life where no one could comfort you, where you couldn't empathize with anyone else's emotions...

Even Valentin, who would become her creator in this new existence, wouldn't be able to understand her perfectly.

No matter how thoroughly he'd wrapped himself in human skin, he'd been a predator from birth.

Unlike her, born a mouse. How could a mouse understand a lion just because it suddenly grew claws?

"..."

Valentin seemed to already know what her answer would be. She watched something in his smooth expression crumble like old stone giving way.

As though he knew, but hearing it from her own lips was still unbearable.

Adelheid turned her gaze from his grief. She met his eyes, her breathing harsh and uneven.

She tried to speak clearly, but her voice came out wet and broken. Still, her will was unmistakable.

"I was... born human."

She wanted a life where brief joys and small achievements sparkled like stars—not the stagnant eternity he offered.

She wanted to live moments that were precious because they would end.

Even if she chose Valentin, she didn't want to choose him like this—as an escape route, a shelter from consequences.

"So I want to... die as a human too."

This was all the resolve she could show him. Taking responsibility for everything her actions had caused.

And at least in this life, refusing to run from anything or turn her eyes away ever again.

'It doesn't matter if the beginning was wrong.'

As long as he respected her and she didn't turn away from him, they would find common ground eventually.

She could believe in that much, at least.

Valentin could read her thoughts—he would understand better than anyone what she meant by these words, what feelings drove them.

He stared at her in silence for a long moment before finally speaking, his voice hollow with something that might have been defeat.

"Yes."

His gaze was fixed on her and yet felt impossibly distant. As though he were looking at someone else, some other time—not at her but at the past, or perhaps at a future only he could see.

"Of course that's what you'd choose."

Valentin released her slowly, almost pushing her away as he let go.

He walked toward the far side of the lake, stopping before the thing she'd once mistaken for a black boulder. Even Valentin's tall frame barely came up to a tenth of its height.

Only now did Adelheid truly comprehend how massive it was.

"Come here."

Was she overwhelmed by the atmosphere? She'd sworn she would never approach that thing of her own will, but at Valentin's single command, her feet carried her forward as though in a trance.

Only when she stood close did Adelheid realize the creature was as large as Ingrid's Wall—and emaciated enough that its ribs showed through its hide.

'It wasn't black to begin with. It's like something sticky and dark has been poured over it.'

What she'd thought was movement had been its heart—so prominent beneath the shrunken scales that she could see it beating.

That still-pulsing heart had a long, wickedly sharp blade driven through it.

'That blade is what's keeping it asleep. Or maybe it just can't move...'

Once she understood that, Adelheid felt an unexpected pang of pity for the creature. That was when Valentin extended his hand, gripping a dagger, toward it.

"V-Valentin! That's dangerous..."

Her shrill warning came too late. Without hesitation, Valentin sliced through the creature's tough hide with the blade.

He caught the dark red liquid that flowed out in a cup he'd summoned from thin air. Then he held the cup out to Adelheid, who'd frozen in shock.

"I've done what I can to repair the damage with my power, but the source is broken beyond fixing. Drink this."

"This is..."

She didn't need to ask what it was. She already knew. Blood.

She'd suspected it was a living creature, but this was taken unilaterally from something that couldn't resist while it slept. Could she really just drink it?

"I can't drink something like this..."

"You've gone back to formal speech again."

"But, Valentin."

"If you don't drink it, the moment time starts flowing, your rampage will begin. I'm barely holding it back with my power as it is."

"I can't drink something when I don't even know what it..."

He laughed shortly, as though her answer amused him. The expression in Valentin's shadowed eyes reminded her of an animal the knights had once captured alive—caged and wounded but still dangerous.

"No, Adelheid. You already know."

Adelheid's eyes snapped open. White marble floor beneath her.

What had just happened? Greta had nearly died, and she'd used healing magic.

After that, her memories came in fragments. Valentin had appeared, and he'd offered her something, and she'd drunk blood...

'Ah... my head...'

She pressed her hand to her forehead against the throbbing pain. She couldn't quite remember what she'd been thinking about just moments ago.

Who had done what, exactly?

"Adelheid Désirée Bathildis Nürnbergian."

Above her crumpled form, someone's voice fell like ice from a great height.