CHGD 22

Chapter 22

“What do you mean by that…”

“You don’t need to lie in front of me. You hate this world, don’t you, my daughter-in-law? You despise the family that tormented you, the terrible empire, the barbaric culture, don’t you?”

At the sudden mention of my past, my blood ran cold.

More than the fear of having my past read, what surged within me was anger at her behavior—dragging out the emotions I had kept hidden in one corner of my heart.

I tried to deny it, to say that wasn’t true, but whether it was due to the pressure of this world or the burden of her presence, my mouth wouldn’t move. …Or perhaps, I simply didn’t feel like denying her words.

She mercilessly dug into my heart. Whether she was truly reading my mind, or whether my soul had already long been in the palm of her hand—I couldn’t tell.

She gazed at me intently.

“Erasing memories carries the possibility they might return someday. If that’s the case, I’ll change your past entirely. Isn’t that what you truly want? You, Del… you didn’t want to become ‘Deliana,’ did you? In truth, you didn’t want to be reborn, nor did you want to take over that body, right?”

“I…”

The more she spoke, the more the past memories I had tried so hard to forget came flooding back.

Insults and humiliations, an empty stomach and cruel violence, and an endlessly dark space… The murky emotions I thought I had shaken off clenched at my heart, following her words.

It wasn’t an illusion. Lowering my head due to the pain, I saw an unknown black mist congealing on my chest.

Her words, her magic, began to gnaw at my heart.

“It’s alright, I told you, you don’t have to lie. I won’t get angry. I won’t blame you either. If you wish for your own death, rather than Haster’s, then this mother will gladly grant your wish…”

As her cold yet gentle words, laced with false affection, pierced my ears—

“…Oh my.”

Color began to seep into the black-and-white world.

It started with the sky.

A yellow light descending from the heavens cut between her and me. At first, it was just a handful of light, but soon it illuminated the surroundings like the sun piercing through a hole.

“My, my son is quite diligent, isn’t he?”

She looked up toward the light with an expression of approval. The light, upon discovering her, instantly grew in size.

“……!”

To me, it looked like ordinary light, but the moment it touched her skin, she began to burn. Her pale flesh slowly melted away in the light. The smell of burning protein wafted through the air, and nausea rose within me.

Skin turning red then crumbling to ash, nails falling to the ground, and melted flesh.

Just watching was painful, yet she instead spread her arms wide, welcoming the light.

“Ah, to be so angry. You’ve grown so much.”

‘She’s insane.’

Praising her child’s growth in a situation like this—even in human form, a monster was still a monster.

As I stepped back with a horrified expression, she lowered her head again to look at me.

“Yes, it’s time for you to go back now.”

“……”

“Don’t be too scared. This kind of pain, this mother can endure it endlessly.”

She tried to reach out her hand toward me, but her arm, its joints melted away, fell limply to the floor.

“Remember our deal. If you grant my request, whether it’s killing Haster, or killing your past… I will grant you anything.”

Even while dying, she didn’t forget the deal she had proposed. I tried to shake my head in refusal, but her confident voice stopped me.

“Now that you know the secret, now that you’ve seen the next scenario, you won’t be able to stop. Pretending to refuse is useless. My daughter-in-law, humans are…”

**[Creatures of greed that know no satisfaction.]**

With those words, her head was completely melted away by the light.

Her brainless body collapsed powerlessly to the ground, and the light shone even more intensely, as if determined to obliterate even her traces.

The stench of burning flesh, the sizzling sounds, the blinding light, and the melting corpse on the floor.

‘Ah, no. I can’t take any more…’

Maintaining my sanity had reached its limit. I squeezed my eyes shut. As I felt my consciousness fading, a familiar voice called out from across the sky.

“Deliana—Deliana!”

Was it because I had been conversing with an inhuman mother-in-law? Hearing that voice filled with emotion brought a wave of relief.

I wanted to rush toward that voice and erase this terrible memory.

As if my wish had been conveyed, the urgent voice grew closer. I wanted to welcome him with all my heart, but my body had already sunk into a deep slumber.

“Count, my Lord…”

Something warm touched my shoulder. It wasn’t the feeling of fingers that enveloped my shoulder and back. But it was the first warmth I had felt in this cold, black-and-white world, so I clung to it without hesitation.

I didn’t care if my husband was a monster.

“It’s okay, I’m here. It’s alright.”

The Count slowly stroked my back. As if soothing a baby, he whispered ‘it’s alright’ into my ear, over and over.

Using his voice as a lullaby, I fled from the horrific reality.

‘That damn old hag.’

Returning to the real world, Haster looked at Deliana in his arms and recalled his mother.

He had sealed her because he couldn’t kill her, yet she had managed to find a gap and send a分身.

Furthermore, he disliked that she had targeted a human village, where Haster’s surveillance was relatively lax.

‘I always thought she’d target Deliana someday… but this is too soon.’

Having been preoccupied with suppressing the beings of Acheim Castle and making contact with the Empire, he hadn’t anticipated his mother reaching out.

He had left her alone thinking it would take at least a few more years to break the seal… That complacency had led to this situation.

Haster wiped the cold sweat from Deliana’s forehead and muttered softly.

“Of all places, she had to take her to that world.”

A space where color faded and time and senses were sealed off—it was a place similar to the world Deliana had been trapped in before.

Knowing she suffered from claustrophobia, he had made everything from the bedroom to the dining room open and spacious. All that effort had gone to waste.

Now, whenever she entered a cramped space, she would recall the memories she had worked so hard to erase.

“Ikavel.”

“Yes, yes!”

He called Ikavel, who had been waiting behind the alley. The knight who had been Deliana’s escort was overwhelmed with guilt over the failure of his mission.

Haster spoke to the ashen-faced man in a cold voice.

“I entrusted Deliana’s protection to you. I even bestowed you the blessing of protection so you could track her at any time. So why, why were you slower than I was?”

“Th-that is…”

The moment Deliana vanished during the parade procession, Haster had ordered his subordinates to search every corner of the city.

But it wasn’t Ikavel, who bore the blessing of protection, nor the city’s administrator, who found her first—it was Haster himself.

If he had rescued her sooner, he could have prevented this situation.

A quiet rage simmered at his own complacency and his incompetent subordinate.

“Don’t make me regret entrusting you with the Source.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“Remember that a new Vallos will soon be born. If you fail to prove your usefulness, I will take not only your position but also your very reason for existence.”

The tense Ikavel swallowed hard. If he lost his position to Vallos and had his Source reclaimed, he would be reduced to a mere mortal, rather than a transcendent being.

He had to prevent that—returning to being an ignorant mortal, struggling to survive alone in the cold.

Leaving behind Ikavel, who saluted as if vowing never to make another mistake, Haster turned his steps toward Acheim Castle.

First, he needed to return to the castle and check if Deliana had any injuries.

“Count, my Lord…”

Still unable to escape her terror of his mother, she burrowed into Haster’s chest, fidgeting restlessly.

He was immensely pleased just to have her call out to him in her nightmare, but he didn’t show it. He lowered his head and kissed her forehead.

As his lips parted, a yellow light seeped from her forehead and permeated her body. Deliana’s erratic breathing returned to normal.

“It’s alright now, Deliana. I’m by your side.”

Cradling her precious and fragile body in his arms, Haster made a vow.

After all, there was no need for higher-dimensional beings in this world. His mother, his son, and his infinite father—all were beings that deserved to be excluded.

If a seal wouldn’t work, there was only one option left.

‘Let’s kill them.’

He would shatter them into pieces so they couldn’t approach his bride, so they couldn’t revive for hundreds of years. With that much pain, resurrection would be difficult, and they wouldn’t dare try to approach again.

For Deliana’s sake, he was more than willing to commit such atrocities.

If he killed all the family members who stood in his way, Deliana would be that much safer.

“Let’s go home, Deliana.”

The groom’s steps, having rescued his bride, were light.

The fact that fragments of his mother’s flesh clung to his feet was a trivial matter.