131 – thoughts
‘… … You said you met another woman? I?’
As soon as I heard the black-and-white question that had been spat out out of nowhere, I was dumbfounded. I was wondering how this is going to work.
First of all, it was clear that the word ‘other woman’ meant neither Christine nor Serena.
No matter what Charlotte was thinking about the two of them, I couldn’t have reacted this sharp just because I met Serena or Christine.
It felt like all the blood in my body was cold. I could clearly feel the blood flowing through the cross section of the severed neck and escaping from my head.
A pair of red eyes fixed on me as if they were nailed to me, as if the deep affection and love I had shown just a moment ago were a lie.
It’s been a long time since Charlotte showed such a hostile reaction towards me, not toward Christine or Serena.
About 90 years ago, when I visited the Holy Church with the intention of committing suicide, and brought Christine, once asked if I was not enough.
And when I said that I started raising Serena 13 years ago, I asked if I had brought in a second person.
Those two were the last times I saw Charlotte genuinely angry with me, but I guess I should add one more today.
“Why do you not have an answer, my dear? I am asking this question of Charlotte de Gargantua, the eternal ruler of your kingdom and a descendant of the Gargantua dynasty. If you dare to disobey the Queen’s order, I will never forgive you. As much as the love I showed you, you will have to pay for it.”
The hand gripping the amputated side of the severed neck tightened more and more. The lower part of his face shrank with the sound of bones breaking.
I knew very well from experience that no matter what I said to Charlotte in this state, it would not work.
I just have to wait endlessly for that anger to subside a little bit. The initiative in this situation belonged entirely to Charlotte.
‘Still, I have to ask who I saw.’
But that was it and this was this. Even if it only infuriated him more, he had to find out who he had seen in the forest that made him so angry.
With that thought in mind, I tried to open my mouth, but a gurgling sound of bloody wind escaped through my lips.
Even if he tried to say something, it was impossible because the lower part of his face was completely destroyed.
It seemed that I had to restore myself first before asking questions so that I could do something, whether it was persuading or taking another attack.
I looked at the last variable, Serena. As soon as Serena heard what Charlotte had to say, she held the wind shear in her right hand and stood still, ready to attack.
There was no life in those eyes. His expression was also full of astonishment that he couldn’t believe. The hand holding the wind shear trembled.
At least there was a hint that I wouldn’t swing the sword all of a sudden while I was being swung by Charlotte. Fortunately, it was.
Increased regeneration ability. Charlotte’s hand, which had been gripping it with the force of crushing my face, bounced off, and the head, which had no support, fell vertically and landed on the dirt floor.
A gaze filled with murderous intent glared at me, who activated the super-regeneration ability.
The body that had been scattered randomly stood up slowly as if time was rewinding. The blood and pieces of flesh scattered everywhere gathered in one place.
The head, which had completely restored the shattered lower crown, floated up and returned to the place where the neck was. The taste of blood that filled my mouth was completely gone.
Before my throat was squeezed once more, I opened my mouth hastily.
“Charlotte, what is that—”
Unfortunately, Charlotte’s actions were much quicker. Before I could finish my words, my throat exploded. I felt like my throat was clogged. I lowered my sight.
I saw a large ice pick stuck in my throat.
The sticky blood ran down his throat and flowed back into his mouth. The blood that flowed out of his mouth froze as soon as it touched the ice pick.
“I do not remember giving you permission to open your mouth. To dare to speak without my permission is a felony that deserves to be executed.”
No, until just now, I told you to answer the question.
When he talked to me, he confirmed that the pronoun referring to himself had been upgraded from ‘I’ to ‘Jim’, and he put his curiosity on hold and waited for Charlotte’s next words while bleeding from his mouth.
I don’t know what the hell the situation is, but seeing that Charlotte even changed her title in front of me, further excuses seemed pointless.
I can only calmly wait for the reason to come back to listen to me.
‘I need to find out who the hell Charlotte met there.’
I tried to ignore the cold air from the ice pick that had pierced her throat and the iron smell of the clot of blood flowing backwards from her throat, desperately thinking about why Charlotte was acting like that.
I’m sure he asked me if I had an affair with another woman. So, there was no doubt in my mind that the reason for my anger and the woman I had met had something to do with it.
In the first place, the only situation that could cause Charlotte to be angry with me would be when an incident involving a woman broke out.
‘I won’t have to worry about what happened before I went to the Magic Tower.’
Until I stopped by the Magic Tower, Charlotte’s words and actions were not much different from usual. Like growling at each other with Serena, or showering me with love whenever there is a chance.
If there was something to be angry about before that, I would have exploded it right away instead of keeping it until this time.
Serena, Charlotte, and Christine were far from the personalities of keeping something in their hearts.
So, at the request of the lord, I could only think that there was something big in the forest where I went to investigate.
‘Have you even met Christine? No, there’s no reason to be mad at me like that if you’re just meeting Christine.’
If the woman Charlotte met in the forest had been Christine, there would be no need to ask her in this way.
Why would she bother to use the ordinary word ‘another woman’ over such expressions as crazy bitch or religious person?
He said he met Christine there, and he must have stopped at appealing to me using that as an excuse for being unlucky.
“I’ll ask you. Why did you lie to Jim?”
I wanted to ask the question again, “You’re lying?” Another lump of dark red blood vomited out.
He had no recollection of lying to Charlotte about women.
Charlotte knew that I was entangled with Christine and Serena, and my relationships with women were all three.
Something was strange. Even after meeting Charlotte, there were quite a few women who talked to me or talked to me for over a hundred years, but I had only experienced this type of questioning twice.
Those two times were, of course, the first time I met Serena and Christine.
No matter how hard I tried, the answer didn’t come out.
To find out why Charlotte is doing this, you must find out who she met in the forest, but finding out that was the problem.
As I tried desperately to think, the regeneration began and the ice pick stuck in my throat was pushed out. The air from outside rushed into the lungs through the punctured throat.
I was about to keep my mouth shut for fear of my head exploding again if I recklessly asked a question, when a pale white hand approached my cheek.
Her slender fingers slowly brushed her cheeks.
“My dear.”
A voice filled with chills was heard.
“I have told you again and again and again and again.”
A palm covered my cheek. It was a frighteningly cold hand, befitting the pale skin and cold voice.
“Charlotte de Gargantua loves you. This is an unchanging truth, an eternal love that will not change even if the world perishes. I think waiting will be faster.”
The hand that stroked my cheek began to gain strength. The light slowly returned to Serena’s eyes as she watched.
No matter how huge the shock she received from Charlotte’s bombshell remarks, it seemed to be less shocking than the shock of watching her caress my cheek and confess her love in front of her eyes.
“However, I have also made it clear that I believe in Jim’s love and should not hide anything by pampering him.”
“Hiding it, that’s what–“
A shockwave erupted from Charlotte’s hand that was caressing her cheek and swept across her body. My vision was momentarily blurred.
A shock felt as if the entire body was shaken. Apparently, all the limbs were intact, but there was no strength.
I heard a tinnitus beeping in my ears, and my knees bent. The body sank to the floor.
But Charlotte didn’t intend to let me fall, so she grabbed me by the back of my head as I was about to fall to the ground. It seemed that he used telekinesis magic.
“Cheuk, cool.”
After coughing a few times, blood mingled with fragments of intestines dripped out.
As if the shock wave had exploded and passed through my eyeballs, one side of my vision was completely blacked out. A liquid, whether blood or tears, flowed down his cheeks.
“Then, let me change the question.”
Charlotte’s voice grew closer. The super regenerative ability restores the body arbitrarily, and the tinnitus that terribly resonated in the ears disappeared as if it had been washed away.
He barely raised his head and met Charlotte’s eyes.
“Who was the woman who called you Master?”
And, the impact was so great that it hardened.
