NOVEL NEXT Chapter 226
Six hours later.
“…What the?”
Arpe, with a sulking face, gritted her teeth at me.
“Why are you suddenly being so nice?”
“Because I’m grateful.”
“If you’re grateful, does that mean you’ll keep this up from now on? Looking like that?”
“That’s not happening.”
I checked the reflection of the other bizarre existence created through the Holy Sword, ‘Bel-kun,’ in the mirror multiple times.
“Nothing’s changed since 500 years ago.”
A human body.
A male body.
Just like I created Marin on the Bride Ship, I made countless clones 500 years ago.
This ‘Bel-kun’ is one of them.
Thanks to Arpe’s mana and the mana from the Holy Sword, I have hair and eye colors that are obviously not normal—white hair and white eyes, which differentiate me from 500 years ago.
Other than that, everything remains the same, just like when I infiltrated the Hero Party as a porter and wrecked Arpe’s party.
“Really, thinking back to that time gives me chills. The person I loved, the one I risked my life to save, is sitting crossed-legged on the Demon Lord’s throne.”
“…I was more stunned.”
That day.
Demon Lord Belphegor kidnapped Bel-kun, and while others said it was a trap.
Arpe attacked the Demon King’s Castle alone.
“Ha haha. Foolish. The ‘Bel’ you loved is me, Demon Lord Belphegor! What’s with that?”
“What do you mean? That’s a shocking truth you never thought of. I’m the one who’s more baffled.”
The moment I revealed the truth on the Demon King’s throne.
“Where’s the hero who confronted the Demon Lord?”
“Right here.”
Arpe stuck her tongue out at me in mockery.
I grabbed that very tongue with my hand and began to tickle the inside of Arpe’s mouth with my fingers.
“Ah, ahh, s-stop…!”
“How dare you.”
“Sss. Do you even realize the situation? I could really mess you up right now.”
Arpe pointed to the body of the spotted witch lying soundly on the bed beside us.
“This? Should I, like, totally switch this with you?”
“Is this a threat?”
“Well, of course, because you’re not cooperating. We need to clarify the relationship here. I’m currently in charge. You’re in the subordinate position. You owe me a favor.”
“Tch.”
There is a favor.
There’s a favor that I could never repay even if I tried my whole life.
I’ve done countless cruel things to Arpe.
I did so when I was alive as a Demon Lord, when I was trapped in the Demon World, and even now.
“…If I have to make one excuse, it’s that I thought ‘Bel’ was dead.”
“Sorceress of Crimson Lotus.”
“Yeah. That makes sense; Bel was her ‘clone.'”
About 500 years ago, I—
“Where are you reminiscing? The Red Moon Goddess was Bel’s true form, and her clone fell in love with the Demon Lord and bore a child, which was the whole story behind the incident 500 years ago.”
“No, if you put it that way…”
An episode that could easily fill about 50,000 words or ten chapters was hastily summarized by Arpe.
“Do you realize what you just did? You completely erased the emotional significance of the touching and desperate story surrounding Demon Lord Belphegor.”
“Why should I care? It’s not my story. Unless you’re planning to write a whole volume about our encounters from when we met to the last moment, shut up.”
“Ugh….”
Arpe is still in charge.
Right now, my consciousness has only detached from the main body, and the Holy Sword ‘The White Silver’ is attached to that main body.
“People these days don’t really like those dreary past stories. Especially if it has a sad ending. They prefer happy endings.”
Every time I see the White-Eyed White Dragon attached to the perfectly lying main body, I have mixed feelings, but Arpe insists that if she’s not going to talk about herself, she should keep her mouth shut.
Still, I want to say something.
“Arpe. Just give me a simple answer. After I stopped the ‘Planet Splitter’ 500 years ago, what happened?”
“…Well, it’s simple.”
Arpe pointed to the basement under the bed.
“The Demon Lord took the planet bombardment head-on, causing a reverse summoning to the Demon World. The Red Moon Goddess, who tried to destroy the Intermediate Realm, used all her divine power and vanished. The ancient god and ancient people who remained in the Intermediate Realm, the sage living since the beginning, and Bel, the clone left by the Red Moon Goddess on the earth… Ah, it’s all Bel everywhere. It’s annoying.”
“……Let’s not use names; let’s use titles.”
“Fine. Anyway, that sage, no, witch had the Demon Lord’s child. She should have perished with the Red Moon Goddess, but she stubbornly held on for dear life. To give birth.”
What does that mean?
Just like the relationship between Belphegor and Belerze.
The Red Moon Goddess and Sorceress Bel had a main body and a clone relationship.
Simply put.
The consciousness of Sorceress Bel completely diverged from the Red Moon Goddess, gaining a complete self-awareness—something the Red Moon Goddess never predicted.
Yeah.
I fell in love with the clone of the Red Moon Goddess.
And the main body, jealous and wanting to drown me and the clone in one fell swoop, tried to blow the entire planet away and ended up dying.
The Wind Hero was merely the blade that the Red Moon Goddess used to kill me, Bel.
“…When the former Wind Hero stabbed Bel’s belly, I thought I had killed the child as well.”
“I know. I thought the same when I searched for her. But….”
Arpe placed her hand on her lower abdomen and smiled bitterly.
“But I guess, despite being the same woman, she wasn’t that cruel. A woman so cruel she would kill a child before it could even see the world’s light.”
“I thought the knife pierced her belly exactly.”
“Who knows? The witch might have saved the child in an instant using an organ-swapping technique.”
“…….”
The truth lies beyond that.
What is important is that the child was born without dying.
“And after that….”
“I became her mother. Without returning to the Empire, I became the mother of the child that you and your wife gave birth to in death.”
I was at a loss for words.
“My father risked his life to save the world so that the child could live, and my mother sacrificed her life to give birth. How could I abandon a child who was crying in this world without parents right after being born? I’m not that terrible a woman.”
Arpe tidied my main body’s hair.
“I ran away to this castle and kept it a secret from others. And I raised that child without anyone knowing: the child born of the man I loved, from another woman’s womb. The child of the man who sincerely loved the woman the most.”
“Ugh, ahem.”
“It felt disgusting. I started from a lie, loving out of necessity, while someone went to the extent of throwing away being a Demon Lord just to love.”
“…….”
“I’ll gather all the Holy Swords and block all outside interference from other worlds, and then I’ll accept your confession. Ha, the witch was really greedy. And yet, I ended up genuinely pregnant.”
I couldn’t bring myself to say anything in response to Arpe’s sharp words.
“But it didn’t matter. Even if he wasn’t my biological child, he was the child of the man I loved. I don’t know how long I’ll live, but I raised that child with all my heart.”
Arpe’s hand clasped mine.
“And I let that child die.”
“Arpe, that—”
“It’s about the Holy Sword. It wasn’t easy to find. No, even if I did find it, I had to know how to awaken the Holy Sword.”
Awakening the Holy Sword comes down to two options.
Either the Holy Sword chooses the person, or the person knows the ‘activation word’ and can be made the master of the Holy Sword.
“I had countless opportunities. To continue your child’s life, to make your child immortal.”
“That’s not true. You—”
“Just listen.”
Arpe cupped my face with both hands and silenced me.
“With the Holy Sword of Light and the Holy Sword of Earth, I could have made your daughter immortal. It would have been as simple as passing my Holy Sword to her, and it wouldn’t matter if the Empire fell, as long as I took the Empire’s Holy Sword and gave it to her.”
“But you couldn’t do it. It would have been expected. You are ‘Leberced Arpe.'”
The woman who was the princess of the Empire and also the Empress.
The woman who loved Demon Lord Belphegor.
“…Isn’t it shameful? Wanting to see the man I love again and stubbornly holding onto life, while letting the child of that man die.”
“It’s not shameful at all. I don’t know if my feelings are conveyed, but—”
I placed Arpe’s hand over my heart.
“I’ll say it sincerely. Without any lies. You did not kill my daughter.”
“…Lies. That’s just empty words.”
“No. It’s the truth.”
This is the truth.
“Everyone dies eventually. Your daughter had a lifespan, and she died when that lifespan ran out.”
It’s a complicated relationship.
Arpe herself wouldn’t be able to clearly define her feelings, and I also can’t speak carelessly about Arpe’s feelings.
But.
“There’s no need for you to blame yourself for not extending my daughter’s lifespan. Just because you knew how doesn’t mean you had to use that method.”
“…….”
“If you want to hear this, though it may not be my place to say it, I’ll say it here.”
I held Arpe in my embrace and patted her back.
“Thank you for looking after my daughter. Thank you for being her mother. …Gratitude is gratitude, and this is what you want to hear.”
I stroked Arpe’s head.
“I forgive you.”
“……!”
“You always blame yourself. You always attribute it to your mistakes.”
Because you’re a Hero.
“Therefore, I shall forgive you. All the sins you think you have. So from now on, you don’t have to think you did wrong. You did your absolute best.”
Pat, pat.
I comforted Arpe for quite some time.
“…Thank you.”
Arpe hugged me tightly.
“As expected, you’re still the Bel-kun I knew.”
“…Time doesn’t change a person’s essence, not at all.”
Hehe.
“You…?”
“I’m just reluctant to let you go.”
Arpe laughed while crying.
“From now on, we’re together forever.”