RAMHM Chapter 107

Bloodshot blue eyes stared at me with fierce intensity.

I understood immediately what he wanted.

A dog that had already betrayed its master once was now seeking compensation from its new owner.

"Then I'll forgive you."

Rhodness's urgent hand gripped my arm. But I didn't take my eyes off Novian.

A whirlpool stirred in those deep blue eyes. But only for a moment. The eyes that had been wrestling with inner conflict suddenly flashed with the light of new hope.

Novian's sunken gaze dropped straight to the dagger I'd thrown. His somewhat emaciated, elongated hand slowly reached toward it.

"Uncle, Uncle..."

The Crown Prince, frozen with terror, clawed at the floor as he called out to Novian. When he received no answer, he crawled toward the entrance with all his strength.

"Help! Someone help... Push the portrait aside. My mother's portrait, you idiots!"

The Crown Prince screamed frantically toward the sounds of confusion still coming from the entrance.

Crash. The sound echoed from far above. Agitated voices carried down the walls into the deep darkness.

Novian picked up the dagger.

"Hurry, hurry down! Ugh... Damn it! Damn it! Uncle! Un-Uncle!!"

Rhodness's grip on my arm tightened. I raised my free arm and covered his hand with mine.

Novian stood abruptly and quickened his pace toward Bardenaldo. The Crown Prince, who had barely managed to stand by gripping the entrance wall, was turned around by Novian's hand.

Thunk. With no readable expression, Novian finally plunged the dagger into his lord's heart.

The Crown Prince, his face frozen in terror, clutched Novian's body tightly one last time before sliding down to the floor.

At the same time, Rhodness also dropped to his knees with a thud.

The hot hand that had been gripping my arm slid down and seized my hand tightly.

With his free hand, Rhodness covered his face and groaned low.

No matter how betrayed he'd been, no matter what reality he'd witnessed, it would take time to banish the memories they'd shared together.

Just as I had done when I cut Novian Trovika from my heart all those days ago.

I stroked Rhodness's head once in comfort as he buried his face in both hands.

Then I immediately pulled down one of the ornate tapestries hanging on the wall and covered the fallen Bliea.

The tapestry was large enough that covering the small woman's body was no trouble at all.

Novian's gaze, which had turned away from the fallen Crown Prince, clung persistently to me.

The eyes of a dog seeking its reward.

I smiled, but at the same time twisted my expression.

"Noah."

At the word "Noah" flowing from my lips, a faint light bloomed at the edges of Novian's dark gaze.

"I'll forgive you."

"Adrienne..."

"But that doesn't mean I'm coming back to you, does it?"

His mouth opened and closed, unable to form a rebuttal.

The days when I'd wanted to be his hell were already my past.

I no longer wanted to be even his hell. I simply wanted us to be nothing to each other.

Let the fallen Bliea be his hell instead.

I covered Bliea's body more thoroughly with the tapestry and stood up.

Novian just stood there vacantly staring at me. I could see his hand, stained with Bardenaldo's blood, trembling.

The face that realized neither love nor hatred—not even anger or contempt—remained in my eyes looked utterly wretched.

"Your Highness! Your Highness!!"

Gasp. The sound of sharp intakes of breath came in succession.

The physician Rhodness had summoned, along with the knights who had dragged Novian from the little forest and several of their comrades, came flooding in.

The people entering the secret chamber gaped at the gruesome scene.

Some were so shocked they collapsed onto the floor with a thud.

I took advantage of the chaos to nestle into Rhodness's arms as he stood. Rhodness flinched and looked down at me.

"C-Crown Prince! Your Highness! Your Highness!!"

"Your Highness! Your Highness!!"

The physician frantically examined the Crown Prince—his breath hadn't stopped yet, it seemed.

"Quickly, quickly get His Highness outside!!"

I watched the Crown Prince being carried out of the underground chamber in a knight's arms, my face buried in Rhodness's embrace.

A few remaining knights looked at Novian and Rhodness with devastated eyes.

Still held in Rhodness's arms, I quietly pointed to Novian Trovika, who had stabbed the Crown Prince.

"The Grand Duke... stabbed the Crown Prince!"

No further explanation was necessary.

They hadn't stayed to ask who stabbed the Crown Prince. They simply wanted confirmation from me.

Rhodness's despairing face after watching his brother get attacked right before his eyes.

Novian Trovika's disheveled appearance, the killing intent still not faded from him. And just from seeing the bloodstain clearly left on his hand and the Crown Prince collapsed before him, they would have deduced it.

The extremely simple conclusion: 'Novian Trovika, who had been expelled from his position as leader of the Crown Prince faction, harbored resentment and attempted to assassinate Crown Prince Bardenaldo.'

"Summon the 2nd Imperial Knights."

"Your Highness, what on earth happened here?"

"Novian Trovika assassinated the Crown Prince."

Once Rhodness's confirmation fell, the two knights who had first let Novian slip away ground their teeth and seized him.

Novian's gaze remained on me until the very end as he was dragged away with both arms captured.

The rest, who had been trembling at the sight of the displayed corpses, vanished to summon the 2nd Imperial Knights who would be assigned to investigate this place.

Overwhelmed by the splendid secret chamber and the spectacle of numerous corpses displayed within, they fled to the surface as if escaping.

Naturally, they had no time to pay attention to Bliea covered by the tapestry or the strangely empty glass coffin.

The smell of Bliea's blood, the Crown Prince's blood, and the oddly damp and humid atmosphere finally registered clearly in my nose.

Only Rhodness and I remained in the underground chamber.

When I tried to pull away from where I was still held, Rhodness instead pulled me tighter against him.

We stayed like that for a long time.

Neither of us could offer any words to the other as we listened to each other's breathing.

Rhodness no longer cried, but his body shook intermittently as if sobbing internally.

"I should have... been the one to end it."

It was Rhodness's low voice that cut through the heavy silence.

His voice sounded completely shredded inside, so I simply held his waist tighter.

Even in the midst of confusion, Rhodness pulled me close several times as if confirming my revived existence.

"Rhoan. When you need help, you accept it."

"..."

"Even if you'd been in my place, you wouldn't have let me end Bardenaldo."

Was the Crown Prince dead?

Strangely, I found myself not caring whether Bardenaldo was dead or alive.

'It's over.'

Just the thought that this exhausting fight seemed to be over filled me with satisfaction.

Perhaps it was because Rhodness was by my side.

Novian Trovika's hand had pierced Crown Prince Bardenaldo's heart. Wasn't that revenge enough?

Of course, it would take time to reveal exactly how Crown Prince Bardenaldo had tried to kill me to possess my corpse, but either way, the result had been achieved.

I quietly slipped away from Rhodness, who still didn't want to release me from his embrace, and approached Bliea.

I carefully pulled back the tapestry and examined Bliea's pale face.

"!"

Just in case, I held my finger under her nose—faint, but she was definitely breathing.

I urgently shook Bliea's body.

Separate from the fact she was breathing faintly, her face didn't show even the slightest grimace.

Like a breathing doll. If I hadn't concentrated, I would have thought her dead—she maintained only breathing so faint it was barely there.

Rhodness, who had approached without a sound and examined her as well, looked at me with surprised eyes.

I found myself fumbling with the pendant without thinking.

I stared blankly at the pendant after opening it, then carefully shook it.

Faint but distinct, it made a rattling sound as if a stone were inside.

When I pried open the lid side I'd never even thought to check, there was a stone inside that sparkled like a pebble—emerald green.

"...A mana stone."

Rhodness, who had approached behind me at some point, immediately identified the stone. It was exactly the same color as the stone supporting my glass coffin below.

I looked around.

The other coffins were decorated with the same gorgeous fresh flowers that adorned this chamber, but my glass coffin was different.

They were exactly the same flowers I'd seen on the first day of my funeral.

Unable to open the coffin, he couldn't decorate it with flowers to Bardenaldo's taste. Yet the flowers inside my glass coffin were as fresh as if just picked.

"I think this mana stone was stopping time for my body, like these flowers here."

Touching the flower buds that remained vibrant even after 100 days, I put the stone back into the pendant.

"Perhaps..."

I swallowed dry breath as I looked down at Bliea.

"I looked dead, but I might have actually been in this state."

"!"

"Who knows the truth? I have no memory after the feeling of my breath stopping, and if the glass coffin only opens at my hand holding this necklace, then no one else could have checked after the first confirmation of death."

"But how could such a thing..."

"A dead person came back to life, so making a living person appear dead might be entirely possible if one sets their mind to it."

Though I'd learned almost all the truth for revenge, I thirsted for another truth.

The feeling was very, very strange.

As if I'd stolen that woman's vitality, I could breathe much more easily than before and strength flowed through my body.

If both Bliea and I weren't actually dead...?

"Rhoan. Please... help me."

At a sudden flash of insight, I asked Rhodness to lift that woman and place her in the coffin.

The blood that had kept seeping from my side no matter how much I wiped stopped the moment Bliea entered the glass coffin.

The more I moved, the more certain I became that I wasn't a soul temporarily revived only to dissipate—this felt real.

An instinct-level certainty that I hadn't been completely dead from the start.

Looking at Bliea with her bleeding stopped, I fell into thought for a moment.

Then, as if entranced, I opened a wardrobe in the corner—it was filled with beautiful dresses for Bardenaldo's doll play.

I dressed Bliea in the dress most similar in color to what I was currently wearing.

Beautiful dresses for the dead weren't like the uncomfortable dresses worn in life—it was easy.

Rhodness helped with a bewildered expression, seeming about to pour out questions but remaining silent.

Bliea was completely laid to rest in the glass coffin where I had just been lying.

Coincidentally, nearly two weeks had passed since I'd recovered and awakened in body.

The roots of Bliea's hair glinted gold—visible only if you looked closely.

I gathered the beautiful flowers stuck in vases and scattered the blossoms over her.

"...Adrienne?"

Rhodness, who had vaguely sensed what I was trying to do, called my name.

I was falling into an inexplicable elation rising within me.

When I gripped a vase, went to the fountain, filled it with water, and sprinkled it over Bliea's hair, that elation reached its peak.

"Adrienne, what on earth are you..."

Just as I'd seen before, Bliea's hair quickly turned golden. Like magic.

Rhodness lost his words and looked down at the sight.

'If this isn't reincarnation or possession... if our souls simply switched. If I wasn't actually dead but alive, then it's because of you.'

I had no evidence, but I couldn't help but be certain. Clearly Bliea had done something.

I looked down at Bliea and placed my hand on her cheek.

My hand, which had regained warmth, made her lukewarm cheek grow warmer.

'Was this the truth you wanted me to confirm?'

After staring at her for a long while, I quietly closed the glass coffin. The dome-shaped glass lid shut tight as if it would never open again.

If my guess was correct and the mana stone beneath stopped the body's time...

"...I'll wake you up."

She had awakened ignorant me and brought me this far, so now it was her turn to open her eyes.

And to tell me the remaining truth. Or anything at all.

But to my whispered promise to wake her, Bliea inside the glass coffin gave no answer.

"So this time, you'll become Adrienne."

Just as I had lived as you these past few months.

Like that.

Bliea Acacia became Adrienne Pirreta.