Ch.181Love?

“Afraid? My husband, of me?”

Charlotte’s pupils twitched slightly.

Though Charlotte had endured all sorts of provocations that came with Olivia’s mockery, starting with the taunt about her being a virgin, this latest remark was something she simply couldn’t let slide.

Olivia, undeterred by such a reaction, raised her voice even more.

“Why do you pretend not to see the truth right in front of you? Hm? Why can’t you accept that you’ll never be loved by Master? I don’t understand you people. I love Master. And Master loves me. It’s simple. So why do you desperately try to deny it? Why do you try to belittle and ignore this simple fact? You can’t get close to Master. You can’t be loved. Because Master only has me. Why don’t you understand this? Are you afraid? Is it because I’m the only one Master loves, and that’s too hard for you to accept? Face reality. You can’t get close to Master. And Master won’t try to get close to you either. There’s only me. The only place where Master can comfortably rest, the only place where Master can find peace is by my side. I’m the only one in this world who can save and love Master. Because unlike you, Master shows me their true self. Master truly loves me and reveals all emotions to me. Don’t believe me? Then I’ll prove it. I’ll prove why I’m different from the likes of you, why Master truly loves me.”

She seemed to be muttering all sorts of things enthusiastically, but it was all nonsense. Charlotte didn’t want to hear any more of such drivel. She snapped her fingers.

Absolute zero engulfed Olivia and her surroundings completely. Countless tiny ice crystals formed on the surface of the black mana where frost couldn’t normally form.

The temperature dropped to such an extreme that even sound was blocked. The black mana, which had been undulating as if alive, ceased its activity. Frost rose from it, preserving the rippling pattern exactly as it had spread.

“Arise, flames.”

Following Charlotte’s command, a single spark fell upon it. It was Purgatory, flames containing the full heat of hell.

The extreme heat and extreme cold violently collided, drawing out the power of opposing forces. The frost completely evaporated into liquid, only to freeze again, a cycle that repeated itself.

The air, unable to withstand the rapid temperature changes, exploded repeatedly with ear-splitting force. The black mana, fully enveloped in these explosions, continued to fluctuate, yet Olivia remained unharmed.

Olivia snickered. Seeing that disgusting smile, Charlotte extended her hand to draw a magic circle.

“You, has Master ever whispered ‘I love you’ to you?”

Or rather, she had intended to draw one. Charlotte stopped what she was doing the moment she heard Olivia’s next words.

Had the boy ever told her he loved her? No. While Charlotte had said “I love you” or “I like you” countless times, the boy had never once said such things to her.

That’s why she had been determined to someday extract a confession of love from her husband. That “someday” had been postponed quite a bit, but still.

Yet, she asks if Charlotte has ever been whispered words of love, claiming this will prove how she’s different? Charlotte’s brilliant mind immediately grasped the hidden meaning.

That damned woman had essentially already heard such meaningful words herself.

“Has Master ever told you they like you? Has Master ever shown sincerity in response to your actions? Has Master ever genuinely revealed their emotions? Has Master ever acted like a normal person in front of you—smiling joyfully, getting angry, feeling sad? No, right? You’ve never seen Master like that. Of course not. My Master isn’t the type to reveal their inner thoughts to the likes of you. I know. I know everything. Master has never been sincere with you, not even once. Want to know how I know? I’ve looked into Master’s memories. My Master has never truly cared about any of you, not even once. Why do you think that is? Hm? Hm?”

Charlotte couldn’t respond to Olivia’s rapid-fire words. This time, there was truly something that bothered her.

Her husband had always acted like a detached person. Whether in front of Charlotte, Serena, or Christine, he rarely showed emotional fluctuations.

No matter what the three of them did, far from getting angry, he would simply say “that can happen” and let it go without concern.

He maintained a cool smile in almost all situations, rarely seemed genuinely angry even when he did show anger, and even instances of sadness were hard to find.

The boy was always just the boy.

“It’s because there’s only me. Master’s heart is completely filled with me, Olivia. Master can’t forget me. Never.”

“Can’t forget? Well, I shall prove your words wrong, so offer your neck here. Within a month—no, a week—I will make him completely forget the likes of you and fall deeply for my body.”

“Kik kik, how foolish. You think a mere week would be enough? Master hasn’t forgotten me even once since the moment we first met.”

“Then, he will forget now.”

“The likes of you?”

Olivia let out what must have been her umpteenth sneer.

“You don’t even know why Master never showed sincerity to you, yet you claim you’ll make Master forget me? You’re joking, right? It’s not even remotely funny.”

Before she could finish speaking, space split in two. Olivia restored the collapsing space with just a gesture as it cracked and crumbled. Both actions occurred in the blink of an eye.

Charlotte irritably prepared her next spell.

“You’re stupid. Truly, incomparably stupid. Not knowing your place, not realizing that Master and I love each other, yet desperately trying to come between us. Do I have to personally tell you how much Master loves me and why Master ignored you? Hm? Is that what I need to do?”

Next.

Charlotte’s left pupil, vertically split, read the flow of mana. While seeing time lines would be useless against that woman, she could certainly read the black mana.

If she could interfere with the black mana surrounding that woman and dismantle the magical barrier—

“I told you earlier. Master fears you. Master should only love me, should give all that love only to me! But if you become like me, Master can’t do that! To protect me, to protect the love directed at me, Master didn’t show sincerity to you! You’re just tools that can be broken without concern! The only one Master truly loves is me!”

Charlotte stopped her movement.

It was because she had precisely identified the core meaning in what Olivia had just said, ignoring all the psychotic nonsense about being loved.

The essence was this: Master kept his distance because he feared Serena, Charlotte, and Christine might change to become like that woman.

Charlotte recalled everything that woman had said earlier. She stripped away all the unnecessary rhetoric and the insane talk about love.

Yes, now all the scattered puzzle pieces were finally coming together.

The reason the boy was particularly sensitive to words like “kidnapping” or “confinement.” It was clearly because he had already experienced something similar from that woman in the past.

Although she hadn’t received a definitive answer, recalling how that woman had kidnapped the boy as soon as she appeared in the world was confirmation enough.

The boy’s desperate attempts to eradicate black blood demons and black mana upon hearing of their appearance was also clearly because that woman was using black mana.

Since that cursed woman wielded black mana, naturally he would want to eliminate it wherever he saw it, whether due to past memories or whatever else.

And finally, the reason he didn’t show sincerity to Charlotte.

‘…My lord. Why didn’t you tell me about such things earlier? If you had, I could have hidden this personality of mine as much as needed.’

While her fundamental character wouldn’t change, she was more than willing to alter her outward appearance. It might not be possible for the other two, but it was certainly possible for Charlotte.

Of course, the more she suppressed on the surface, the more thoroughly she would trample underneath, but still.

“But. I’m so jealous of that.”

The smile on Olivia’s face completely disappeared.

“Only I should be Master’s tool, only I should be used by Master. The fact that there are others in this world who could become like that makes me so jealous I can’t stand it. So, I will never kill you. Not knowing your place, you dared to covet my Master. I will definitely keep you alive and preserve you. So you’ll never die, for eternity.”

In an instant, a torrent of black mana surged toward Charlotte. Reading the flow of the black mana, Charlotte gritted her teeth and opened the Dragon’s Eye to its limit.

She extended her left hand forward, concentrating mana. Based on the information her brain had just screamed to process, this torrent of black mana wasn’t the type of attack one could simply avoid.

It was something that entangled all time and space in its path, destroying their original form and clumping them together like mud in one place.

She couldn’t avoid it, nor could she block it. She had to strike it down. Pure mana gathered in her outstretched left hand.

The Dragon’s Breath. A violence of pure mana, said to erase all things in the world and burn all creation. Only this could strike down that thing.

“So what if that’s the case?”

Despite discovering the shocking truth that the boy was subconsciously uncomfortable with her and treated her artificially, Charlotte wasn’t shocked. She wasn’t inwardly shaken, nor was her spirit broken.

She merely regretted that she should have hidden her love more thoroughly.

“If that is truly how my husband feels, then it is simply a matter of changing it.”

Saying he doesn’t like her could, conversely, mean he doesn’t dislike her. Human emotions couldn’t be so precisely divided into a dichotomy.

And for Charlotte, that was enough. Even if there were no positive emotions, as long as there were no negative ones either, she could still hold onto the possibility.

Charlotte had no intention of changing herself. Because Charlotte didn’t regret what she had done so far.

She didn’t regret torturing women who clung to her husband out of jealousy, or monitoring his every move with magic.

Therefore, it was simply a matter of changing her husband’s perception.

That she would be different from that crazy woman. That while she might be a bit jealous, she could be a devoted and good wife who thoroughly obeys her husband’s words.

“I am different from the likes of you.”

A torrent of pure mana was fired toward the black mana that mixed time and space.

“Let me declare clearly here. My husband does not love you.”

The two opposing forces collided. No sound was heard. Not because the colliding forces were weak, but because the black mana and blue mana engulfed even sound as they clashed.

Paradoxically, it became quiet because it was too loud.

The pattern repeated countless times: black shadows devouring blue light, and conversely, blue light driving away black shadows. Fragments of mana scattered in all directions.

Light and darkness endlessly exchanged offense and defense. As mana and mana wrestled, space was erased and time distorted. Due to the distorted time, mana that had already disappeared sometimes reappeared.

“…What?”

In the midst of such a fierce battle, Olivia glared at Charlotte with a grim face.

“Did you not understand? Then I shall tell you as many times as needed. My husband will never love the likes of you. Someone like you does not deserve to be loved.”

In the end, the two forces couldn’t penetrate each other and disappeared. Where the torrent and turbid flow had collided, even space itself had been completely erased, leaving literally nothing but an empty world.

The surrounding world began to collapse. At first, fragments the size of fingernails fell bit by bit, but soon pieces as large as palms tumbled down.

Ignoring the collapsing world, Olivia asked once more.

“What did you just say?”