Chapter 84

The sky split, and the earth shook.

Two beings, capable of annihilating a small country without breaking a sweat, gazed only at each other, exchanging love and hatred.

The Queen took a deep breath and exhaled, causing dozens of trees to vanish without a trace under the compressed wind pressure.

If Raul hadn’t deflected it with a vibration, his entire body would have been torn apart. Of course, blocking it didn’t mean he was unscathed. His clothes were tattered, and blood dripped from numerous small wounds.

When Raul stomped his foot, imbued with a powerful vibration, the entire forest began to tremble. Though he adjusted the force to avoid harming the village, it was enough to destabilize the Queen, who stood firmly on the ground.

“Nothing like gold coins has fallen to the ground. Feeling a bit dizzy, aren’t you?”

Raul’s knee drove into the Queen’s abdomen.

Her internal organs were damaged, and she vomited blood, yet she didn’t lose her smile.

“It’s not gold coins. With a treasure like you standing on the ground, how could I recklessly spread my wings?”

The Queen’s hand, now with sharp claws, slashed across Raul’s chest.

Blood spurted, and the Queen licked it, smiling eerily.

“So sweet. So beautiful. Who would be foolish enough to fly away from such a treasure?”

“…You’re insane.”

Raul punched the Queen in the face. Her nose broke, blood flowed, and Raul licked the dragon’s blood from his hand.

Unlike ordinary blood, it was sweet and pleasant. But Raul found it utterly disgusting and spat it out.

“Tastes awful.”

“Wasn’t it sweet?”

“I despise sickly sweetness. I couldn’t possibly swallow something reeking of your foul stench.”

“What a pity. If you had said it was sweet, I would have fed you my blood for a lifetime.”

Even as they exchanged these words, their fists continued to fly.

Fists capable of turning boulders to dust aimed for each other’s lives, and Raul deflected them with his vibration-imbued left hand.

But the Queen neither dodged nor blocked. She accepted Raul’s attacks as love. How could she block the love Raul gave? That was her way of loving.

“This pain… this agony… it’s truly ecstatic!”

She was excited. Disgustingly, she reveled in her ecstasy, spewing fluids. No reproach for such filth would reach her ears.

The Raul she saw was like her own reflection in a mirror.

Perhaps her interest began with pain. A fascination with a man who wielded vibrations that even immortality couldn’t withstand. That was all.

But as she learned more about him, her love deepened.

“I am you! You are me! Lonely souls who yearned for love amidst pain! Those who ultimately severed everything themselves!”

The Queen saw Raul as another version of herself.

Due to their origins, they were neglected by their environments. They faced death in such conditions.

In their wanderings, Raul met Layla, and the Queen met the Old King.

For the first time, they felt the beat of their hearts. Their hearts, which had stopped, began to beat again in the presence of these beings.

But as always, tragedy struck suddenly. The Demon King’s visit and the schemes of enemies severed their happiness.

They couldn’t bear to watch their beloved suffer in that tragedy. So, they delivered death. Whether it was the other’s request or their own decision, it was clear they took those lives with their own hands.

Thus, they became the Queen and the Hero. Though they never liked those roles.

The Queen convinced herself she killed dragons for power. She turned her eyes away from that terrible regret, claiming it was her own choice.

Raul didn’t look away. He faced that regret daily, confronting the pain head-on.

“I am not you. You are not me. I am me, and you are you. There can never be two perfectly identical beings in this world.”

Raul vowed never to dream again.

“I lost Layla because I didn’t know that. My selfish desire for an identical being killed her. She was her, and I was me. We weren’t one.”

Raul’s eyes could no longer shed transparent tears, but his expression was sadder than anyone else’s.

The sorrow in his eyes wasn’t something that could be born from ordinary farewells.

That sorrow could only be forged through heart-wrenching loss and pain.

“It wasn’t Layla who tore my heart that day. It was me. I tore my own heart while destroying hers. What a joke I can’t even complain about.”

Raul laughed bitterly.

Even a three-year-old could tell it wasn’t a genuine laugh.

“My becoming like this is entirely my own fault. Not everyone who suffers abuse loses their eloquence like me, not everyone who experiences loss loses their will like me, and not everyone who sinks into despair becomes as foolish as me.”

Raul knew well that he was strange.

He knew his way of speaking caused misunderstandings. Yet, changing it felt like abandoning his past self, like discarding the memories of Layla who understood his speech, like declaring all of it meaningless.

That fear paralyzed him.

“Layla.”

“My lord…?”

The Queen felt a surge of anger.

Raul wasn’t looking at her.

His gaze was directed at her, but his eyes saw a ghost beyond her.

“Look at me. Look at me. That’s not battlefield etiquette. Look at me risking my life to fight you. That’s why I’m here! Raul Berze!!!”

What reflected in Raul Berze’s eyes wasn’t the Queen, but a beautiful blonde woman.

“Layla. Not my other half, but Layla Nevermore. Beautiful Layla Nevermore, as herself. The other I loved.”

Raul Berze denied being her other half.

“I’m sorry.”

Raul, filled with sorrow, adjusted his grip on his staff.

“You are you, and I am me. How could I discard you? You are simply beautiful as you are. So.”

Raul’s gaze shifted.

No longer filled with sorrow,

But with the eyes of the Giant Hunter who brought terror to the battlefield.

“I won’t use it as a reason to stagnate anymore.”

Raul’s hand, gripping the staff, began to vibrate with intense resonance.

Faster and stronger than ever. Like Layla’s swift movements.

“I’ll use you as a reason to move forward.”

The Queen couldn’t bear it.

Raul wasn’t looking at her, but at Layla.

Raul was using Layla, not her, as his reason to move.

She had to face him with hostility. She had to make his hatred for her the reason to move.

“I told you to look at me. That’s infidelity. The love directed at me…!”

“…You should perhaps restrain yourself from speaking only of what you know. Speaking so selfishly will only earn you hatred.”

Raul genuinely worried about the Queen’s way with words. Though it was unclear who was scolding whom.

“In this sacred union where we exchange pain… looking at someone else is infidelity… an unforgivable sacrilege, isn’t it?”

“I can’t understand, nor do I wish to understand, what you’re saying. But I’ll humor you. Let’s end this union soon.”

Raul accelerated his blood flow by resonating his heart.

“Raul Berze. I’m the groom who will kill you.”

Raul charged at the Queen, using a technique he had saved.

A technique that maximized resonance, imbuing his staff with sorcery through incantations.

“This is merely a gesture. Alone, it’s nothing, has no proper name, and cannot reach you.”

Sorcery demands a price.

What Raul offered was his own obsession of not letting go of Layla, which had kept him stagnant.

The self that had given up understanding, scarred by regret and pain.

“I want to be called by you. I want to reach you. I don’t want to be forgotten. I won’t forget you either.”

By discarding that, he achieved completion.

“So call my name.”

Raul’s staff flew toward the Queen.

The Queen could have dodged it.

She could have flown up with her half-wing to evade that destruction.

But then she saw his eyes directed at her.

“Haha…”

How could she evade it?

The gesture of such a beautiful man. The steps of such a lovable man. The eyes of such a sorrowful man.

How could she deny this love on such a beautiful, melancholic day?

The staff pierced her body, and red blood spurted like a fountain.

“Let me become your flower.”

“Well… you already are… my flower.”

The Queen’s blood fell onto the petals of the red anemone.

“You didn’t evade.”

“That’s… my love… not evading… not resisting… obedient love… that’s my pure love. Everything you give me is so lovely, so…”

The Queen gazed at her reflection in Raul’s eyes.

She saw Raul reflected in her own eyes within his.

She saw herself beyond that, and Raul beyond her.

She laughed bitterly, watching the infinite refraction of herself and Raul.

With the sorrow that perhaps a future where their refracted selves walked together might have existed.

“I didn’t evade… so you too… just for a moment… don’t evade me.”