CHAPTER 166……………………………………..
In the meantime, the wind blowing up the hill had grown stronger. Her fluttering bangs might have been annoying, but Adel simply stood there silently, as if wiping away the scent of blood.
Adel, taking a deep breath against the wind, opened her eyes. Despite the chilly air, she felt no cold at all.
It must be because of this.
Slowly, she opened her hand, revealing the dragon’s red heart.
…So it was you.
It felt warm, though different from the energy she sensed in her own body. There was a familiar yet sorrowful feeling toward this being, unlike Balrog.
How did you even get all the way here?
Maybe it was because of her pregnancy, but she had grown unusually sentimental. It was impossible even to imagine how many stories had led something so precious to come this far.
“Nunim.”
Footsteps approached—Caden had come closer. From head to toe, he was soaked in red blood, now beyond the point where wiping it off even mattered.
It was ironic that his hesitant approach, afraid Adel might be disgusted, made him look surprisingly shy.
“Caden, you again…”
“I didn’t… I didn’t kill anyone.”
“…I see. You probably just begged them to die on their side.”
At least he wasn’t lying—our Caden.
Since it was obvious anyway, Adel didn’t want to know the details and merely patted his back.
Then, when Noella climbed up the hill as well, Adel turned toward her and unconsciously covered her mouth.
“…Noella.”
“Unni, I’m late. I tried to come quickly.”
“No, that’s not the problem…”
Unlike Caden, she wasn’t soaked in blood, but the spots of blood sprinkled across her white robe were even more chilling than Caden’s appearance.
Adel stared intently at the blood, dotted over her bright blonde hair and translucent skin, and Noella casually wiped it off as if it were nothing.
The more she wiped, the scarier it seemed—but in every other way, she looked genuinely happy.
…Hey, didn’t you star in some movie wearing a nun’s habit in your past life?
Adel pressed her lips together tightly and looked down at the villa below the hill.
There was no sign of anyone running away or paralyzed by fear—nothing unusual.
“…Chloe?”
“Ah, don’t worry. She’s alive.”
“You kept her alive?”
Adel asked in disbelief, and Noella showed the mark of a servant on her chest.
How many people she had pierced tonight with that mark, she didn’t know—but the way she wiped the blood off it was more careful than when she cleaned her own body.
“Chloe is fine. She just fell asleep for a moment.”
“Even if you don’t kill her, her arms looked like they’d die soon.”
“No. With the blessing of the High Priestess, Chloe cannot die.”
“….”
“I’m not some wicked woman who lets my only friend die easily.”
Oh, great God.
All of this had been gathered, again and again, only for today. With such an amount of the High Priestess’s blessing, its effect would rival even the dragon’s heart.
It couldn’t break ancient curses because the type of power was different, but it could heal illness and injury without limit.
“No, Noella… please… please, hngh.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll save her.”
Noella gently shared the blessing with Chloe’s rotting arm.
As new flesh sprouted on the arm, where pus had run and flesh dangled as if the bones were about to show, Noella made the sign of the cross in gratitude.
“Look, Lady Chloe!”
“Ah… so now I…”
“Yes. You’ll play with me again.”
Of course, she didn’t say she would fully restore her to health. She halted the blessing at the peak of suffering—just when Chloe was at the brink of wanting to die—and lovingly brushed through the hair matted with sweat and blood.
“You don’t need to thank me. We’re each other’s only friend.”
“…So you’re keeping her alive?”
“I’m different from others. I don’t abandon precious friends. I’ll keep her by my side, for a long, long time.”
That’s just a way of saying she’ll save her only to let her die again.
Looking at Noella, whose true nature had fully awakened, Adel wondered whether sending her to the living Fidelio had been the right choice.
But perhaps thanks to that, the previous version of her—focused solely on taking from others—was nowhere to be found.
All her inferiority, rage, and inner fire were now concentrated entirely on one person.
From that perspective, keeping Chloe alive wasn’t entirely bad for the world—though the fact that “alive” didn’t mean what they normally understood was a problem.
“But Unni, what are you looking at?”
“Hm?”
“Ah, so that’s what you were looking for.”
Noella, having carefully stored the mark with the High Priestess’s blessing, peeked over Adel’s shoulder.
Caden also leaned in slightly with curiosity, and the three siblings reunited at the same spot.
“Is it that?”
“Not as impressive as I thought.”
“….”
Leaning over Adel’s shoulder, Caden and Noella each made a comment, throwing contemptuous glances at each other.
It was obvious neither wanted to be close, but as long as they were tied to Adel, there was no escaping.
“That’s supposed to be a dragon’s heart? And it can break all curses?”
“Why? Do you want it?”
“Why would I?”
Noella just shrugged, already consumed by her own interests and attention, oblivious to anything else.
“I have something better. And if you ate that, it would come fully alive, so that’s out of the question. It’s a friend I gained… oh.”
Quietly, Noella spotted something in the darkness. Caden had noticed long before, but he didn’t react.
That alone was enough to guess who had just arrived.
“Your Highness! You’re here! I’m glad you’re safe!”
“…Prince.”
Adel smiled at Aaron, who had arrived a step late. Blood was still on the tip of his sword, so he had clearly fought as well.
“There were quite a few of his subordinates along the lower path to the villa. I handled them, so they shouldn’t cause trouble.”
“Thank you for your effort.”
Adel examined his appearance, folding her eyes slightly.
While Aaron seemed like a typical storybook knight, the three siblings looked as if they had clawed their way out of hell. Aaron seemed unsettled, even slightly horrified, as he looked them over.
“Lady Noella! Are you alright?”
“…Hm?”
“My, what on earth happened inside? Look at all this blood! I’ll clean it for you!”
“….”
Sorry, but there’s not a drop of Noella’s blood in that.
Adel ignored Aaron’s fuss. No matter how frantically he waved a handkerchief, Noella simply smiled brightly, unaware.
Caden, unable to watch, blocked Adel from seeing them.
“…Nunim.”
Don’t look at that.
Adel gave a small laugh at her youngest sibling, who was extremely sensitive to anything bad for prenatal care.
Caden no longer waited for his older sister to clean the blood. He seemed tougher now, as if realizing he had one more person to protect.
“You’ve really grown.”
“Hm?”
“Nothing… just feels like a long day.”
Adel looked at the heart in her hand again.
Caden just frowned indifferently.
A dragon’s heart was hardly a big deal.
Seeing this, it was clear he inherited Noella’s focus on only what interests him.
“So once we deliver this to your husband, it’s all over?”
“….”
“Nunim? What are you thinking so hard about?”
“Ah… just wondering how this came all the way here.”
Smiling faintly at Caden’s prompting, Adel swallowed a sigh.
Even if it’s someone’s heart, it didn’t feel repulsive. I wonder if our Balrog’s looked like this.
Caden nodded, as if reading her obvious thought.
“It’s definitely similar to his.”
“Really? Then this little one must have been a precious pet to someone too.”
“….”
Doesn’t really seem like it.
But Caden had grown enough not to say everything he wanted. Knowing how Adel felt about Balrog, he simply stayed silent, by her side. That was his best.
“Anyway, we found it safely, so that’s good, right?”
“No, that’s not enough.”
It was someone’s life, after all. Even if it came into her hands by chance, she had a duty to honor all the years and regrets it had gone through.
“…After all that time, it will finally meet its owner. We have to make sure it never regrets it.”
Covering it with her other hand as if shielding it from the wind, Adel held it close to her chest.
