Ch.131Thought

“……You met another woman? Me?”

As soon as I heard that razor-sharp accusation come out of nowhere, I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t make sense of what was happening.

One thing was clear: the “other woman” she referred to wasn’t Christine or Serena.

Regardless of what Charlotte might think of those two privately, she wouldn’t react this sharply just because I met Serena or Christine.

I felt the blood in my body turn ice cold. The sensation of blood flowing from my severed neck was vividly clear, as if I could feel the life draining from my head.

That pair of crimson eyes, fixed on me like nails, were pure savagery—as if the deep affection and love they had shown just moments ago had been nothing but lies.

It had been a very long time since Charlotte had shown such hostility toward me—not directed at Christine or Serena, but at me personally.

About 90 years ago when I visited the Holy Church supposedly to attempt suicide and brought Christine back, she asked if she alone wasn’t enough for me.

And 13 years ago when I told her I’d found and started raising Serena, she asked if I really had to bring in a second one.

Those were the last two times I’d seen Charlotte truly angry with me, but it seemed I would have to add another instance today.

“Why do you not answer, my dear? I, the eternal ruler of your kingdom and descendant of the Gargantua dynasty, Charlotte de Gargantua, am asking you a question. If you dare defy the queen’s command, I shall never forgive you. You shall pay a price equal to the love I have shown you.”

The hand gripping my severed neck tightened further. The lower part of my face crumpled with repeated sounds of breaking bones.

I knew from experience that nothing I said would get through to Charlotte in this state.

I could only wait endlessly for her anger to subside somewhat. The control of this situation belonged entirely to Charlotte.

‘Still, I need to ask who she saw.’

But that was a separate issue. Even at the risk of provoking her further, I needed to find out who she had seen in that forest to make her this angry.

With that thought, I tried to open my mouth, but only a gurgling sound of air mixed with blood escaped between my lips.

It was impossible to speak with my lower face completely shattered.

I needed to restore my body before I could attempt any persuasion or endure another attack.

I glanced at Serena, the final variable in this equation. Upon hearing Charlotte’s words, she had frozen in place, ready to lunge forward with Wind Shear in her right hand.

There was no life in her eyes. Her expression was filled with disbelief and shock. The hand holding Wind Shear trembled.

At least she didn’t seem likely to swing her sword while I was being manhandled by Charlotte. That was somewhat fortunate.

I summoned my regenerative abilities. Charlotte’s hand, which had been crushing my face, was pushed away, and my head, now without support, fell vertically and buried itself in the dirt.

Her gaze, filled with murderous intent, glared at me as if to devour me while my ultra-regeneration ability activated.

My sprawled body slowly rose as if time were rewinding. Blood and flesh fragments scattered around gathered together.

My head, with its shattered lower jaw now fully restored, floated back to where my neck had been. The taste of blood that had filled my mouth completely disappeared.

Before my neck could be squeezed again, I hurriedly opened my mouth.

“Charlotte, what are you—”

Unfortunately, Charlotte’s action was much faster. Before I could finish speaking, my throat burst open. I felt my airway completely blocked. I looked down.

I saw a large ice pick embedded in my neck.

Sticky blood flowed up my throat and into my mouth. The blood that spilled out froze instantly upon contact with the ice pick.

“I do not recall giving you permission to speak. To attempt to speak without Our permission is a capital offense deserving execution.”

But just a moment ago, you were demanding I answer your question…

Noticing that her self-referential pronoun had elevated from “I” to the royal “We,” I set aside my curiosity and waited for Charlotte’s next words, blood dripping from my mouth.

I had no idea what was going on, but seeing that Charlotte had changed how she referred to herself in front of me, any further excuses would be meaningless.

I could only wait quietly for her rationality to return enough to listen to me.

‘I need to figure out who Charlotte met there first.’

Desperately trying to ignore the cold emanating from the ice pick piercing my throat and the iron smell of blood constantly regurgitating from my windpipe, I frantically tried to think of why Charlotte was acting this way.

She had clearly asked if I had been intimate with another woman. So there was no doubt that her anger was related to a woman I had supposedly met.

After all, the only situations where Charlotte would get angry at me would involve incidents related to women.

‘At least I don’t need to worry about anything that happened before going to the magic tower.’

Until I visited the magic tower, Charlotte’s behavior had been no different than usual—growling at Serena or showering me with affection whenever possible.

If there had been something to be angry about before then, she wouldn’t have held it in until now but would have exploded immediately.

Neither Serena, Charlotte, nor Christine were the type to keep things bottled up inside.

So I could only conclude that something major had happened in the forest I visited to investigate at the lord’s request.

‘Did she meet Christine? No, if it was just a simple meeting with Christine, she wouldn’t be angry at me like this.’

If the woman Charlotte encountered in the forest had been Christine, there would have been no need to ask me like this.

Why use the plain term “another woman” instead of expressions like “that crazy woman” or “that religious fanatic”?

If she had encountered Christine there, she would have just complained about her bad luck and used it as an excuse to appeal to me in various ways.

“I ask you. Why did you lie to Us?”

I wanted to ask what lie she was referring to, but the ice pick in my throat made a proper response impossible. Another clot of dark red blood gushed out.

I had no memory of lying to Charlotte about any woman.

Charlotte was well aware of my involvement with Christine and Serena, and those two, along with her, made up the entirety of my relationships with women.

Something was strange. Though I had interacted with quite a few women in the more than hundred years since meeting Charlotte, I had only experienced this kind of interrogation twice.

Those two times were, of course, when I first met Serena and Christine.

No matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t come up with an answer.

To figure out why Charlotte was acting this way, I absolutely needed to know who she had met in the forest, but that was the problem.

While I was desperately trying to think, my regeneration began, pushing the ice pick out of my neck. Air rushed into my lungs through my newly opened throat.

Afraid that asking questions carelessly would get my head blown off again, I kept my mouth shut obediently. Then, a hand as pale as death approached my cheek.

Delicate fingers slowly caressed my cheek.

“My dear.”

A voice filled with coldness reached my ears.

“I have told you time and time again.”

Her palm cupped my cheek. It was a chillingly cold hand, befitting her pale skin and ice-cold voice.

“That Charlotte de Gargantua loves you. This is an immutable truth, and even if this world were to perish, it would be an eternal love that would never change. I told you that waiting for my love to break would be longer than waiting for the seas to dry up and the land to disappear.”

The hand caressing my cheek began to apply pressure. Watching this, light gradually returned to Serena’s eyes.

No matter how shocked she was by Charlotte’s bombshell statement, it was apparently less shocking than witnessing Charlotte caress my cheek and suddenly confess her love right before her eyes.

“However, I also clearly stated that there should be nothing hidden while relying on and taking advantage of my love.”

“Hidden? What are you—”

A shockwave burst from Charlotte’s hand caressing my cheek and swept through my entire body. My vision wavered momentarily.

I felt as if my entire body had been shaken. Despite all my limbs being intact, I couldn’t muster any strength.

A ringing sound filled my ears, and my knees buckled. My body slumped to the ground.

But Charlotte seemed unwilling to let me collapse, as she caught the nape of my neck with something before I could fall face-first onto the ground. She must have used telekinetic magic.

“Kuhak, kuluk.”

After coughing a few times, blood mixed with organ fragments splattered down.

The shockwave must have burst through my eyeballs as well, as one side of my vision went completely dark. Some liquid, whether blood or tears, flowed down my cheek.

“Then, I shall change my question.”

Charlotte’s voice drew closer. The ultra-regeneration ability arbitrarily repaired my body, and the terrible ringing in my ears disappeared completely.

I barely managed to raise my head and meet Charlotte’s eyes.

“Who was that woman who called you ‘Master’?”

And then, I froze in absolute shock.