The eight Val Arcain wives stiffened at her words.
Ellie’s eyes darkened. "What... did you just say?"
Mi-kyong kept her mocking expression, her entire deanor like soone completely detached from the world.
"What I said, huh?" She smirked. "No matter how much you all love Bemmy, I will always be his infinite lover."
She stepped forward, making the girls instinctively shift into guarded positions. "Did you think Bemmy was a virgin?"
Arthur’s hand covered his mouth. ’No... No...’
It wasn’t like he wanted to. It wasn’t like he was trying to erase her mory.
No, he wanted her gone.
Because of the trauma he had suffered from her death, he had completely cut off her mory.
Mi-kyong pressed her hand against her stomach. "Bemmy, our baby is still alive."
All the girls’ eyes widened in shock.
Nathira, regaining composure first, asked, "Baby?"
Mi-kyong nodded. "Yes, and Bemmy had our first ti when we were twelve."
She wrapped her arms around herself. "That was the best night of my life."
The beautiful woman tilted her head slightly. "Isn’t that why Anna’s illusion felt so real? Isn’t that why you couldn’t bring yourself to move?"
Arthur had felt it then, when Anna kidnapped him.
It wasn’t like him to simply let soone have their way with him.
But that ti had been disturbingly different.
He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t control himself. It felt like he was compelled to obey, like his body wasn’t his own.
That night in the hotel room, after they had committed their first murder together...
That was the night they had done it, the night Mi-kyong beca pregnant.
But the baby had died.
He was certain of it.
He had been there when she was struck in the stomach while they were robbing a gang.
That was the event that pushed Mi-kyong closer to the edge.
Arthur clenched his jaw. "Stop it, Mi."
Mi-kyong stared at him, bewildered. "Bemmy, aren’t you supposed to stop these bitches from ruining our family?"
Arthur tried to rise but nearly collapsed. Both Nathira and Ellie caught him just in ti.
With one arm over Nathira’s shoulder and the other over Ellie’s, his sharp gaze locked onto Mi-kyong.
He had long since shed his past self.
If he said he wasn’t afraid, he would be lying.
If he said he didn’t love Mi-kyong more than his wives, he would still be lying.
But none of that mattered anymore.
His past, her past, their past, none of it mattered.
Only his present and his future mattered.
"Jinwoo died that day." Arthur’s sharp voice cut through the room.
Mi-kyong opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off.
"I was broken too when our child died, but I still believed we’d grow old together." He t her eyes. "But you left , didn’t you?"
Mi-kyong stepped back, her jaw tightening. ’No...’
The young woman tried to et her forr lover’s gaze but couldn’t.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go.
All she wanted was a happy family, her, their son, and Beom-seok.
Then why? Why did it all fall apart?
Even then, she always believed that if she found him again in despair, he would realize how wrong he had been about what happened.
If he was broken, he would listen to her.
If he wept, maybe he would feel the sa pain she had felt.
But why?
Even now, why did he look so sorrowful?
She forced a smile. "In the end, Bemmy..."
She extended her arm as if she wanted to sink into the ground. "You ended up cheating on ."
Arthur’s eyes widened.
Not because of his usual PTSD, nor because she had made the building explode.
No. It was because he knew Mi-kyong too well.
She was brilliant. Terrifyingly brilliant.
In all his life, he had never seen anyone as intelligent as her.
It was she who taught him the plan A-to-Z thod. No, even that was an understatent. Everything he knew was just fragnts from Mi-kyong.
His entire identity ca from her.
And that sa woman would never co here without a plan.
Her smile softened. "Lee Beom-seok from Sesang Elentary School... why don’t we dance together in hell?"
The entire building began to shift, blocks tearing out of place and twisting.
It wasn’t just the building. The entire world was contorting.
Mi-kyong’s body slipped through the hole ford by the distortion.
As she fell, she whispered her final words. "Everything is for you, Bemmy."
...
It wasn’t a voice Arthur heard after the loud splatter. It was a feeling.
A chilling feeling of dread.
At first, it was just Mi-kyong’s final words echoing in his mind.
But then realization struck him.
It didn’t co from his thoughts. It felt as if it had already been placed inside him.
"I knew."
Arthur dropped to his knees as the room warped and the sky outside darkened.
Mi-kyong had known from the start. He had never escaped her grasp. She was simply the one who chose not to appear.
Arthur didn’t even need to think. The mont the thought entered his mind, so did the answer.
"I wanted you to see that even with other won in your life, you could never escape ."
And the next words made him tremble:
"You wanted to see God, right? Here I am."
The sky split open, and wrecked ships glowing with primordial red light sailed through the rift in space.
In that instant, everything crashed into Arthur.
God wasn’t so ancient being born at the dawn of ti.
No. God created humans, and humans created God.
Ti wasn’t a line that separated past and future.
Just as the past could affect the future, the future could affect the past.
And the one who uncovered this chain reaction was Lee Mi-kyong.
The founder of The Magic Academy’s Genius Scholars.
The deranged driver of the truck he had seen.
The one who brought Kim Na-Ri into his life.
Everything that had ever happened to him, all of it was her.
Not just his life, but his family’s as well.
She was the one who gave the prophecy. The one who made Sylvia seal Nathira. The sa person who caused the war of gods.
Every event in the world so far, every tragedy, every joy, was part of her grand design.
All of it to prove that even if he conquered the world, he would always belong to her.
To show him that a hundred won couldn’t replace her.
And now that she had made her point, it was ti to end it.
She planned to wipe the world clean and recreate one for the two of them, where he had no mories of this life, no tragedies.
A place where they could live forever with their dead son.
Arthur’s trembling hands shut his mouth. "She’s planning on reseting the world..."
One final reset.
─── ✦ End of Chapter ✦ ───
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