Chapter 1387 |
Moonlight, a survivor from Goran Kingdom and the captain of its Special Operations Unit, woke up in pitch-black darkness.
She had no clue where she was. She couldn’t see anything. All she could sense was the metallic stench, the unknown sweltering heat, and the foul smell of sweat. It wouldn’t take much to convince her she was in one of the deepest layers of hell.
The power she possessed stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the most formidable figures on the continent. In fact, she was confident that her strength was among the top five known powerhouses of the continent. Though she had grown strong through unusual circumstances, essentially taking a shortcut, she was still undeniably powerful.
Alas, things turned out very differently from what she had expected. She clearly remembered fighting the monsters and suffering a crushing defeat.
She’d thought she could find a way out as long as she put her mind to it, even if winning head-on was difficult. Yet, she was completely overpowered and dragged away by grotesque beings that seemed like mere underlings, not even the main monster itself.
The fact remained that she had no clue where she was. As she tried to make sense of it, lights flickered on, revealing a dim, gloomy room.
A line of figures then entered.
“Kyu.”
“Kyu.”
Once she fully regained her senses, she clearly saw the group of snow-white rabbits bursting with muscles. They had human bodies glowing with a pale white light, but their heads were those of rabbit dolls. Their small, red, bead-like eyes made it impossible to read what they were thinking.
She couldn’t find the words to describe the endless fear she felt. The instinctive, primordial fear etched into her very being turned her body rigid like stone.
Clutching her clothes, ripped and tattered from the fierce battle, she cautiously backed away.
The red rabbits surrounded her, steadily advancing.
“S-stay away! Stay away, you monster bastards!!”
Her mind raced with every horrifying fate she was likely to face at their hands.
‘Will they tear me apart? Or will they…’
As they approached, their muscles twitching and bulging, she glared back at them with hostility.
Then, one of them stepped forward and held something out to her. It looked like a dumbbell used for muscle training, but it was a deep and vivid pink.
The rabbit nodded, signaling her to pick it up, showing no obvious malice.
Just as she cautiously reached out to take it, the pink dumbbell slipped from its hand. Once it hit the floor, a loud crash echoed across the entire space, the shockwave even jostling a nearby glass of water so violently that it spilled.
[Whoops. My hand slipped.]
Despite it having the nondescript face of a bunny doll, she could tell purely by the tone of its voice that it was giving whatever the rabbit equivalent was of a shit-eating grin.
One of the rabbits effortlessly picked up the heavy dumbbell that had fallen and offered it again.
[Take it.]
She didn’t respond. It wasn’t something she could lift! Terrified, she made yet another desperate attempt to run away.
One of the rabbits straightened up and clapped its hands like a noble directing their servants.
Thud, thud, thud!!
The other rabbits quickly approached and held her tight.
As she watched the rabbit slowly bring the dumbbell closer with its veined arm, she screamed in panic, “L-let go! Let go! Don't bring that thing anywhere near me!!”
She began to beg with a pale face, “I... I was wrong! Please, take it away! Please, just take it away!”
Of course, the muscle-crazed rabbits were in no mood to grant her pleading request.
[Let's just hit biceps for a bit today. Don't worry—you'll get these huge, awesome guns just like us soon enough, Sista[1].]
“I’d rather die!!”
Even in the underground space where sound was almost completely cut off, her scream still managed to echo through to the surface.
* * *
All the other members of the Special Operations Unit besides Moonlight were easy kills. While some fell in the battle against the Killer Rabbits, the quick-witted ones had eventually realized the situation was hopeless and tried to break free. Some even fled to avoid the final trump card Moonlight had prepared in the forest.
However, Davey had blocked that ultimate last resort.
In the end, the entire Special Operations Unit was quietly wiped out in that empty forest.
“Brother! Brother! You have to stay awake! So you can hate me even more! So please, hold on tight!” Aeria begged through tears.
“You foolish thing…” Vashas couldn’t believe how forgiving she was, especially after how much hate he had treated her with over the years.
Aeria kept talking to Prince Vashas to prevent him from losing consciousness while Davey prepared for treatment. She nervously asked him, “Can you save my brother…?”
“I'll try. The injuries are so severe they'll need to be cauterized with high level divine holy magic. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but… you’re in luck. Your husband can do just that.”
Prince Vashas had suffered bodily harm, not been exposed to some kind of disease. Therefore, a thorough cauterization with holy magic would potentially make recovery possible.
However.
“Is there a reason the prognosis is so bad?”
Emperor Deorte El Lyndis and Crown Prince Alberth El Lyndis, who had rushed over as soon as they heard the news after Prince Vashas was brought back to the Lyndis Imperial Palace, fixed their gazes on Davey.
“He completely lost the will to live.”
They didn't know what to say to that.
“The cause is...” Davey whispered to the two so Aeria, who kept talking to keep Prince Vashas conscious, wouldn’t hear, “Well, it's probably because he can no longer bring himself to hate Aeria.”
He didn’t know all the details, but it was clear that Prince Vashas had held on so long by clinging to his hatred of Aeria.
One might wonder how much he loved his mother to end up like that, though the bigger reason was that grieving her and resenting her purported killer had turned into a foundational aspect of his being, not just something temporary.
“That idiot…”
Davey could see it clearly with eyes imbued with divine power.
Though the man’s Master-level body was capable of stubbornly enduring such severe injuries, his soul no longer sought any meaning in life.
“Generally speaking, he's beyond saving. The cumulative injuries on his body are too great. While it’s certainly possible to cauterize them with high level holy magic, since it's a recovery he doesn't want, we also have to consider the possibility of mental issues complicating or even outright invalidating the process.”
Emperor Deorte put a hand to his forehead and sighed.
Seeming to have heard Davey’s whispers, Aeria grabbed Vashas’s collar and shook him with tears in her eyes, shouting through sobs, “Vashas, you have to wake up! Why are you trying to give up on yourself?!”
Facing the sudden jostling of his wounds, he involuntarily winced in pain despite being in the depths of a coma. He clearly stood on the brink of death.
Right as Davey thought that, Vashas’s eyes shot wide open before he shoved Aeria’s head away mercilessly and gasped for breath.
“Be quiet... Go away...”
Davey wasn't about to take that kind of disrespect lying down. “That... that bastard!”
“Hold it! Hold it!”
Seeing that, Alberth rushed forward to stop Davey, who was about to lose his temper and crush Vashas into a TV dinner.
“Aeria,” Vashas called out.
“Yes... Brother...”
“If you truly care for me... let me die here.”
Instead of saying anything, she slowly and sorrowfully shook her head.
“I... I don't even have the strength left to hate you. After I hated and resented you so much, you still worry about me to the very end… I can't even tell anymore what's right or wrong, or if I can ever hate you again.”
It seemed like there were other reasons he was struggling with as well.
Davey approached with an indifferent expression, gathering divine power into both hands.
“That's not all, is it?” Emperor Deorte coldly asked his son. “Isn't one of the things you're most tormented by right now related to Belluard?”
Vashas didn't have a response.
“Is the guilt of failing to raise your son properly finally hitting you?”
His anger wasn’t only directed at Aeria but also himself because of his son.
Belluard had turned into a monster far beyond what Vashas had imagined, even losing his imperial status and falling to the level of a commoner.
“It’s no surprise you’d think that, after learning the truth. You really ruined your own son just to keep hating Aeria. In the end, your thirst for revenge destroyed everything, all while Aeria worried about you like a complete fool.”
Prince Vashas stayed silent. It seemed Emperor Deorte was saying exactly what was on his mind. He finally responded, “Just... let me die. Do it, just like you let my mother go.”
“You insolent—!” Emperor Deorte made a furious face, even though he knew what he was saying wasn’t true. “Do you know how much pain and hardship your words are causing your mother’s memory right now?”
No response.
“Tell me, how tormented do you think Redimia would be if she saw the state you're in now?”
“Don't you dare speak my mother's name!!” Vashas cried out painfully with a dying voice, “Your Majesty could have saved my mother back then. If only you had sent people faster, or more of them...”
Emperor Deorte turned away. It seemed that he had been forced to delay Redimia's rescue due to matters regarding the throne. As a result, he must have lost any slight chance of saving her.
“That is a sin I must bear,” he solemnly declared. “It is absolutely not a reason for you to suffer, or for Aeria to be in pain.”
“What good is any of that now? Just let me die. I will apologize to my mother in the afterlife.”
Just as Emperor Deorte was about to flare up again, the necklace around Aeria’s neck suddenly began to shine, and a holy aura poured out from her body.
Everyone inside watched the scene with surprise, except for Davey.
Then, a voice that made everyone doubt their ears echoed from the intense light and rang in their heads.
[Vashas…]
Emperor Deorte knew about it, but seeing and hearing it in person was a different matter.
[Vashas…]
At the voice that resonated again, Prince Vashas spoke up in pain, “M-Mother?”
The intensely spreading light subsided, and a translucent woman appeared.
“R-Redimia…” Deorte muttered.
“Mother!!” Prince Vashas tried to force himself up despite his injuries.
However, what she did next made everyone stand still. Empress Consort Redimia, in her spirit form, buried her head in Prince Vashas’s chest as he lay on the floor and quietly began to sob.
It was the reunion of mother and son after more than a decade. It also coincided with the reunion of husband and wife after more than a decade.
No matter how one looked at it, what unfolded was too emotional, too tragic, and too hard to believe.
The miracle created by Holy Mother Aeria had created an opportunity for everyone present to finally get closure.
“Mother... Is it really... really you?” Prince Vashas struggled as he tried to hold her hand, but his stiff arm didn’t move easily. He grimaced and fought through the intense pain to move his hand, but it didn’t budge.
Clear tears streamed down his burned eyes, loathing his body’s pitiful state. “How... how can this be... Damn it! Move! Move!!”
He tried to somehow move his body, but it had already reached its limit.
[My sweet boy, I am so sorry. I made things too hard for you... Vashas, oh... My son... your mother is so terribly sorry. Hic.]
Empress Redimia continued to weep as she held onto Prince Vashas.
Watching them, Emperor Deorte couldn’t keep his composure. “Redimia… Is it really... really you? Is that truly you??”
[Your Majesty! You’ve gone through so much hardship all this time…]
She then embraced Emperor Deorte.
Although it wasn’t strange for a Master-level being to stop aging, it seemed that he had instead aged even more in appearance since reaching the Master level.
Seeing her weep in his father’s arms, Prince Vashas clenched his teeth and struggled to move.
Emperor Deorte was the emperor who ruled the continent's most powerful empire, yet he could not free himself from the guilt of failing to protect his own wife. Tears of regret, sorrow, and apology streamed from his eyes.
Alberth stared blankly at the reunion. “Good heavens... it's a miracle.”
Those were the only words he could think of at that moment.
“Alright, alright. I'm sorry to ruin the moment, but I have to treat him now. All the guardians need to step out. Aeria, you too. Leave.”
“D-Davey?!”
Emperor Deorte, Prince Vashas, and Empress Consort Redimia all shot him dirty looks, questioning his timing. Like one true family, they all stared at Davey with the exact same look.
Yet, as his physician’s instincts kicked in, he stayed completely unfazed. “What? Why give me that look? Does staring at the patient make him better? Mother-in-law, will you let your son die? Your Majesty, will you let your son die right now? Prince Vashas, do you want to die in front of your mother?”
Everyone winced with every word he said.
“Aeria. Haaah. Nevermind. Just leave for now, you don't have to worry about anything. Her spirit’s more stable than I thought, so she won't vanish immediately.”
Once he finished, he practically shoved the others out the door. He then looked down at Prince Vashas and grinned as he cracked his knuckles which glowed with a white radiance.
“So, do you still want to resign from life?”
Vashas had nothing to say to that.
“Let me tell you something, buddy ol’ pal. If you die here, you won't ever be able to see your mother again. Spirits aren't omnipotent, you know.”
Prince Vashas’s eyes widened in response.
“Do you want to talk to her alive, or part ways forever in death?”
“Save me... I must live!”
Davey smiled broadly at the desperate cry and placed a hand on his chest. “Alright, bite down hard, this is going to sting a little.”
“Wha— GAAAA!!!”
A blinding white light erupted, accompanied by a dreadful scream.
Davey knew well that hearing ‘this is going to sting a little’ from a doctor meant it was going to hurt like hell. After all, he had heard that phrase way too many times in his past life.
“Stop being a drama queen. I already said it’d sting a little.”
“Grrr. GAAA!!!”
“Endure it. You're a Master, and you can't even handle this? You have to live to see your mother again, so bite down.” Davey grinned, watching him clench his teeth so hard they might break. He announced, “Okay, the basic treatment’s done. Now, this one really is gonna hurt.”
If a doctor ever said ‘this is going to hurt’ then the patient best get ready, because it was going to be a nightmare beyond just pain.
About forty minutes after Davey began the surgery, Prince Vashas was wheeled out of the operating room on a mobile bed, looking half-dead with his soul nearly drained.
“D-Davey… did he struggle that much even with divine power healing?” Aeria asked with a pale face after the surgery.
He thought for a moment before answering, “Of course not. But after I treated his external wounds, I found he had a chronic illness too. There were more tumors inside his body than I expected, so the treatment took a bit more time.”
He’d had tumors. The fact that it only took forty or so minutes to treat cancer was something that’d terrify doctors on Earth, yet Davey said it like it was nothing.
“He’s the embodiment of a devil… I don’t want to be treated by your husband,” Emperor Deorte solemnly told his daughter.
“I couldn’t agree more, Your Majesty,” Crown Prince Alberth added.
Davey suddenly cut in to say, “Your Majesty, I heard your liver hasn't been well recently...”
“Cough! Cough! That’s not true! In fact, it’s so good these days that it’s actually TOO good!! Haha!”
Davey’s gaze narrowed in suspicion.
1. Think Hulk Hogan saying BRRROTHER
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