Chapter 97
However, there was no answer from inside.
“Master, Serina can’t use magic right now. Ardion already sealed her hands and feet to block her mana.”
I nodded and turned the doorknob.
The room wasn’t very spacious, but since it was inside a palace, it was decorated fairly ornately. It had a bed and a table, decent enough to stay in.
When Serina saw , she frowned. She was sitting on the bed and didn’t seem able to move easily. She just stared at . Once our eyes t, she said, “You’re here because you’re curious about , right? What a pity.”
I remained silent.
She continued, “I have nothing to say about magical drugs or anything like that.”
“Then you’ll have to stay here until you do,” I replied with a smile.
Serina sneered. “Was capturing your grand plan? Have you decided to go completely rogue now?”
“Wasn’t that your specialty to begin with?” I chuckled as I pulled a chair over to the bedside and sat down.
Serina glared at even harder. “If you’re going to kill , just do it. Don’t drag it out.”
“You know we can’t kill you that easily. I still have the magical drug in my body, rember?”
“So, if I tell you about the drug, you’ll kill ?”
“That… I’m not sure.”
Just then, Derol poked his head out of my pocket.
Serina, who had been still until now, instantly widened her eyes when she saw him. “Disgusting. How could you keep a rat…”
She seed to think Derol was filthy and hurriedly tried to back away fromh im on the bed. But she could barely move and just stared at in horror.
Derol, on the other hand, no longer seed afraid of people. He simply stared back.
I gently stroked him and said, “His na is Derol. He’s not dirty. Honestly, he’s probably cleaner than .”
“Clean? Don’t make laugh. Filthy things like that spread all kinds of diseases.”
“That might be true for other rats, but Derol is different.”
Derol let out a squeak. Serina’s frown deepened.
I looked at her and said, “By the way, Derol bit your ankle a lot. Don’t you rember?”
Serina snorted and sat as far from Derol as she could. “What would I rember a rat for? I have enough to worry about just staying alive.”
I gazed at Serina in silence. She felt so different now from the protagonist I had seen in the original story. How could soone change so much after dying once?
“You think I’ll spill everything about the magical drug just because you’re staring at like that? Dream on. I’ll give you credit for capturing , but that’s as far as it goes.”
Serina clearly had no intention of talking about the drug. I had known it wouldn’t be easy, but facing it like this made the wall between us feel even more solid.
As I silently watched her, Serina looked at and let out a dry laugh. “By the way, will you be okay?”
“What do you an?”
“I heard you married Ardion.”
“…”
“He’ll kill your mind next.”
At those words, I felt like a heavy stone dropped in my chest.
“Isn’t it dangerous just thinking about it? That damn mana light will kill not just your body, but your mind too.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Serina studied my expression before slowly speaking again. “If you’re not going to kill , then how about we kill Ardion together?”
“Serina, that’s—”
Before I could finish, she cut off. “My mind’s made up. I’m going to kill Ardion.”
Her eyes hadn’t changed. They were still burning with hatred, like she couldn’t see anything else. It was suffocating to see.
“Ardion probably doesn’t even rember his past life. Are you going to kill soone just because of that? And more than anything, you tried to kill .”
“So what? You’re alive, aren’t you? Isn’t that enough?”
“No, you tried to kidnap again. Because if you didn’t, Rowell would’ve killed you.”
Serina’s expression stiffened slightly.
I continued, “You say you want to kill Ardion, but in reality, you were trying to kill . You even tried to kill Derol.”
“…”
“If you kill everyone like that and Ardion is the last, then is that really revenge? If the person you’re punishing didn’t cause your pain, is that truly revenge?”
Serina frowned. “What are you trying to say?”
“That what you want isn’t revenge. It’s selfishness, selfish greed.”
Serina stared at , face hardened.
I held her gaze and spoke again. “If you want revenge, at the very least, don’t hurt innocent people. You go around killing others in the na of vengeance. Can you really call that justice?”
“So I should just give up now? After coming this far, with my goal right in front of ?” Serina bit her lip, her pupils trembling.
It pained , especially knowing what she’d been through in the original story.
But no matter how I looked at it, killing Ardion wasn’t the answer.
Serina said she died once, so wasn’t the original story already over?
Besides, the Ardion from the original didn’t exist here. This was a different Ardion altogether. One who didn’t even care about Serina anymore.
So could we really say that this Ardion was the sa person?
I looked at Serina with a serious expression. Her head was bowed.
I said calmly, “Serina, you’re misunderstanding sothing right now.”
She looked up. Tears were already streaming down her face. She looked at and said accusingly, “Misunderstanding what?”
“You’ve got the wrong target for your revenge.”
“What do you an? There’s no one else but Ardion…”
“Do you know why Ardion turned out the way he did?”
“I don’t care. My purpose is the sa regardless.”
“No. If you look at it closely, everything Ardion did was because of Rowell.”
“Rowell?” Serina’s expression finally began to shift. She looked at , clearly confused.
I nodded. “Rowell abused Ardion since he was a child. Neglect and scorn were just the beginning. He even ordered all the mana in Ardion’s body to be drained.”
“…”
“Rowell is the one who deserves your blade. If he had treated Ardion well, things might not have turned out like this.”
“Is that true?” Serina looked shaken. Her hands were trembling. In the original, she was physically weak too.
Feeling bad, I reached for her hand, but she quickly pulled away.
“If you’re lying, I’ll kill you.” She glared at , her eyes glowing with fury. Her hatred still ran deep.
I slowly nodded. “Why would I lie? And you should know better than anyone what Rowell is like. You were close to him.”
Serina remained silent, face still hard.
After a pause, I continued, “By the way, I saw it in a dream—you and Rowell talking. He said he’d kill you if you didn’t bring to him, didn’t he?”
“… You heard all that.” Serina didn’t look particularly surprised. She had already warned before that I might be able to see him through the connected mana.
“Yes. So tell , do you really want to stay under soone who talks like that, soone who threatens to kill you if you fail?”
“…”
“Even if you kill Ardion, your life might not get better. Rowell caused all this, and soone else will bear the pain he left behind.”
“How can you be so sure?”
I thought back to the original story. Ardion didn’t die in it, but with Rowell still around, their lives remained miserable. It was Rowell who had warped Ardion, and that pain passed on to Serina too.
I looked at her and said, “That’s why we need to do things differently this ti. Maybe now’s your real chance to take revenge.”
“What do you an?”
“A chance to cut through this tangled ss. If you keep trying to kill Ardion, nothing will change. The root of the problem will still be there.”
“…”
“But if you decide to get revenge on Rowell, I’ll help you. And I’m sure Ardion will too.”
Serina looked silently at the bed, her face still stone-cold. Then she slowly turned to , her gaze piercing right through .
“I’ve thought it was strange for a while.” She kept her eyes on mine, tilting her head. “I’ve lived a life before, but you don’t seem surprised at all. In fact, you talk like you rember a life too.”
My mind raced. Should I tell her I entered this world through a book? Or should I try to dodge the question…?
As I hesitated, Serina asked, “Did you live a life with before?”
If I told her I ca through a book… would she be overwheld? Learning that everything she knew was written down could shake her deeply.
And I didn’t know exactly what she was thinking when she asked. But from the way she looked at , she already seed to suspect the truth.
I paused, then answered quietly, “Yes. I’ve lived this life once before too.”
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