~Chapter 110~
“Bella!”
Thankfully, she wasn’t far.
She stood in front of the west annex—the place where they usually stored junk—and turned at his voice.
“Why are you out he—”
Of course she came out because she sensed a crack. A magician’s instinct.
Armians hurriedly grabbed her hand.
“No, Bella. You mustn’t.”
Her blank gaze followed him. It seemed she had already forgotten his name again.
Bella had already lost many memories. No one knew when the memories she paid as a price would run out, but it was clear she was near her limit.
Richard had said he didn’t know what became of a magician who had paid the full price. It surely wouldn’t be good.
Even now, Bella was straining to close the crack. The moment her mana stirred, Armians moved too.
“I’m sorry.”
He lifted limp Bella over his shoulder.
‘Now she can’t even sleep safely.’
Troublesome as it was, he would have to place a watcher even in the bedroom. Only then could they catch her the moment she disappeared.
‘I’ll summon the knights as soon as we’re back. But that won’t solve the root problem.’
There had to be a way…
While holding Bella, Armians looked up.
The crack he’d thought was fist-sized had grown as big as a doorway. It writhed like a living thing—disgusting to behold.
In the instant he stepped back on instinct—
The crack split downward too and swallowed them both.
“!”
Right before they fell, Armians held Bella tight.
He had often wondered, watching beasts tear through the cracks:
What lay beyond that such vicious things came out without end?
‘But that didn’t mean I wanted to go inside myself.’
Armians looked around.
The space was pitch-black, with no sense of floor or ceiling. It felt like being inside the black smoke that dead beasts dissolved into.
Even so, he could still make things out.
Bella in his arms was still unconscious, and three or four steps ahead stood another person.
That man was…
“Axxion Blancia. Did you open this crack?”
“You already guessed. Why ask?”
“Why did you do this?”
“You can’t truly be curious now… Ah. You’re trying to buy time.”
Dragged into a strange space, he wanted to figure it out and look for an escape route—but Axxion had seen through it at once.
“Well… your struggling is ugly enough to be entertaining, so I’ll tell you.”
Axxion smiled.
“Grand Duke, you know the world’s unfairness. You can pour in effort and still fail; you can live faithfully and still meet sudden misfortune.
But in here, it’s different. Here, there are only two: the one who pays and the one who receives. Whatever you wish for can be made real.”
He gestured at Bella.
“With someone who uses magic by equivalent exchange, it should be even easier for you to understand.”
Axxion Blancia had risen as far as Chancellor, yet he had no interest in wealth. That didn’t mean he was spotless—but every wrongdoing of his was tied to Isabel.
He seemed complicated, but in truth, he was simple to read.
There was only one thing he wanted badly enough to do something this insane.
“You did all this… to save Her Majesty?”
Axxion pressed his lips together. His silence was the answer.
Armians swallowed a sigh.
“I have one question.”
“Ask.”
“Two years ago—why did you sell me to the slave traders? Binding my memory with artifacts was troublesome. Killing me would have been easier.”
“If you died, Isabel would hate it… I needed proof, in some form, that you were still alive.”
So this was how a madman loved someone.
“Since you brought up two years ago—how about you give back that life I spared now? If it feels unfair, think of it as a trade.”
Even without the long explanation, Armians understood.
Axxion wanted him to become the offering to save Isabel.
“I get to see Isabel healthy. You get to save the woman you care for. Not such a bad deal.”
“Well… I also earnestly wish for Her Majesty’s recovery…”
Armians laid Bella gently on the ground.
“…but I don’t like the idea of leaving Bella behind.”
All the more so now, when her condition was nearly the worst it could be.
“Then—”
Bang!
Axxion’s words cut off. Armians drew his greatsword and struck where Axxion had stood.
“Negotiations are over.”
“Shame.”
Axxion clicked his tongue.
Armians’ chest burned with frustration. It had been a decisive blow in his mind, but Axxion blocked it with his claw like he’d expected it.
The next attacks were the same.
A downward strike—blocked. A horizontal slash—Axxion sprang back and dodged.
He wasn’t only defending either. A moment ago, an arm studded with long claws had brushed just over Armians’ head.
Seeing hair fall to the ground made cold sweat bead on his neck.
‘He’s filthy fast.’
Axxion had been a typical civil official who’d never held a sword, but as his beast transformation advanced, his offense had grown.
Even so, Armians’ experience was far superior—he barely managed to hold him off.
But he couldn’t promise to last like this for long. Most of all, Bella was behind him.
When Armians’ gaze kept flicking to Bella, Axxion clicked his tongue.
“Why not wake her? Then you might have a chance.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
Bella must not use magic. Even if he died here, that would not change.
“What a tearful love story. I’m moved. It’s a waste to watch alone… Doesn’t everything look better with an audience?”
Beasts had no fixed form. Ones with two arms and two legs like humans were rare—and even those, if you cut limbs off again and again, new ones sprouted in strange places.
‘I should have expected this the moment I saw Axxion’s beastification!’
He’d thought too little. Luckily, his body moved first.
He threw himself over Bella—
Puuuk—
Axxion’s arm stretched long and pierced Armians’ back, the claws jutting out through his front and sliding back out.
“Sorry, but I’m in a hurry too.”
With the clawed hand, Axxion grabbed Armians by the chin.
“Kh…!”
“I’ll be generous and hear your last words.”
Armians gritted his teeth and looked around.
There had to be an exit somewhere.
“I—”
“Stop this.”
A voice that should never be heard here.
Axxion let Armians go and looked around. Armians, swallowing blood, lifted his head.
“…Your Majesty.”
If only it were an illusion.
Isabel was standing there.
Axxion hid his transformed hand behind him. Isabel looked at him with complicated eyes.
Even that look alone made Axxion flinch and step back.
“Axxion…”
She swallowed a sigh.
“This is entirely my responsibility. Because I cherished you, I hesitated to punish you again and again.”
This crack was the same.
If she had acted so he would not cling to false hope, this would not have happened.
But the crack was already open, and once open, it would not close until its purpose was fulfilled.
Fortunately, she held the key to end this chaos.
Axxion had opened the crack for Isabel’s health.
If Isabel disappeared, the purpose itself would vanish, and the crack would have to close.
“My sin is therefore not light.”
She took one step.
And another. Isabel walked forward.
She wore a white dress beneath a white veil—the one she had worn when she became engaged to Axxion.
The closer she came, the more Axxion trembled like a man struck by lightning, until he stopped.
“Come with me.”
At last standing before him, Isabel lifted her veil. She slowly held out the bouquet in her hand to Axxion.
“I will share the end with you.”
Her flower-like smile was pure white.
