Surviving as the Wife of the Swordsmanship Clan’s Troublemaker - Chapter 133
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 133
Gazing down the empty corridor, I found my thoughts drifting to Ludvin.
“Has the truth about the Northern Emperor being a fake spread?”
It seemed he had leaked the information to the right people.
“Either way, it works in my favor.”
Without hesitation, I stepped out of the room. I couldn’t simply wait idly—there were people I needed to find immediately.
‘Junel, you’re alive, aren’t you?’
Since Junel disappeared, there had been no sign of them. I couldn’t ask anyone else about it either.
My heart was burning with anxiety, threatening to drive me mad.
And Docheop.
He said he was handling demons on the outskirts, but there’s been no word.
“Ugh.”
Whatever had happened, demon blood and flesh were scattered throughout the castle.
A horrific stench assaulted my nostrils.
But remembering how Junel always delighted in finding treasures hidden within demon remains, I searched that area as well.
“Junel!”
All that was visible among the gruesome remains were bloodstains.
Crash!
A loud collision echoed, and dark clouds gathered overhead. Something was happening within the Manor.
I seized the chaos as an opportunity to slip toward the thicket near the Tower. Perhaps Junel had been flung far away and fallen here, where no one would venture.
“Junel… Junel, where are you? Answer me. I’m here.”
As I desperately searched every corner, my breath catching in my throat, I heard a voice I didn’t want to hear.
“Lara. Who are you searching for so desperately?”
My hands, which had been rummaging through the thicket, froze rigid. I turned slowly to find Auriel looking down at me.
“Blood.”
Yet his white uniform was splattered with it.
He lowered his head slowly.
“This isn’t the blood of anyone here.”
“Did you kill a Northern Empire knight?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
In other words, the promise he made applied only to the people of Bloodmere.
‘He must have come to capture the Northern Emperor after learning he was a fake.’
That’s what the knights had said, after all.
“Please don’t kill him.”
“I won’t. But in exchange, come with me quietly now.”
“Where are we going?”
Auriel extended his hand. If I took it now, I had no way of knowing whether I’d ever return to Bloodmere.
I glanced back at the castle for a moment, then turned away. I couldn’t refuse to follow him.
But then, he suddenly changed the direction of his extended hand.
Trees were sliced apart as if by a colossal saw, and someone burst through the gap.
“Hallara.”
A voice like a beast’s growl tore through the dust. It was Docheop—a man drenched head to toe in the crimson blood of demons.
He appeared gasping for breath, radiating a killing intent unlike anything before.
“My lord!”
At my unbidden cry of joy, Auriel turned his head.
“Lara.”
His languid voice suddenly plummeted, as if dropping into an abyss.
“…Why is my heart…”
He murmured low.
Then his eyes transformed in an instant. He raked his gaze over the blood-soaked Docheop from crown to toe, and opened his mouth with a bitter smile.
“Is that the Bloodmere human you were supposed to marry?”
He let out a hollow, deflating laugh.
“We really did choose the most pathetic human together.”
He seemed to be speaking of a past I didn’t know. His hand seized my waist.
“Let go.”
Docheop growled like a beast, gripping his sword tighter.
Despite that lethal momentum, Auriel pulled me deeper into his embrace and smiled bitterly. I tried to escape, but instead he pressed his lips to my forehead.
He was doing this deliberately, making sure Docheop saw.
And with that, suspicion transformed into certainty.
“Were you and I… like this?”
Auriel didn’t answer.
Then Docheop shouted.
“Johannes!”
I turned my head at once.
‘Johannes?’
The angel trapped in Paradise.
Had he really escaped into the world?
Before I could ask, golden light flashed across everything.
A powerful sword strike erupted, and the man called Johannes walked toward Docheop. Docheop drove his blade down at him.
He neither dodged nor drew a weapon. He simply raised his hand lightly into empty air, and pitch-black smoke exploded forth, swallowing Docheop’s sword strike head-on.
Johannes flew at Docheop through the smoke.
“Get away!”
Johannes said something to Docheop through his twisted, rising mouth.
Black smoke engulfed them both.
“My lord!”
Soon Docheop’s face appeared through the black smoke.
Rage seemed to gleam in his face, stained with demon blood.
Perhaps because of that.
Docheop met the assault unfolding before him head-on, refusing to evade.
Docheop was thrown backward by the recoil, but he quickly regained his footing. However, the dark mass came hurtling down with terrifying speed, striking him squarely in the abdomen.
“Ugh.”
A sickening sound erupted as blood sprayed from his mouth. His massive body was launched like a cannonball, crashing into a stone statue in the garden.
“My lord!”
A desperate scream tore from my lips. Docheop, drenched in blood, tried to push himself up with a cough, but his body wouldn’t obey.
“Perhaps it’s time to end this nuisance.”
Johannes murmured languidly, raising his hand.
‘No. This can’t happen.’
At this rate, Docheop would die.
Though he was a regressor, he was still no match for Johannes.
In the original story, he only faced Johannes after transcending all limitations.
Moreover, as long as Johannes’s true self remained in Paradise, there was no point in fighting him here.
“I’ll go with you! Just stop this!”
I stepped in front of the fallen Docheop, spreading my arms wide.
“You promised not to touch anyone here if I did as you asked.”
At my cry, the killing intent gathering at Johannes’s fingertips wavered. His face twisted with displeasure.
“Why do you shield that human?”
“If you kill him, he’s truly gone. I’m human—unlike you, I can’t inhabit a corpse. It’s simply the end.”
“…Lara.”
His eyes glared at Docheop, collapsed behind me, as though they could tear him apart.
But then he let out a hollow laugh and slowly lowered his hand.
“You’re right. There’s no need to soil my hands now.”
He stepped closer.
“Once your memories are fully restored, you’ll sever that human’s life with your own hands.”
His voice was infinitely tender, all traces of killing intent vanished.
“When that time comes, it must be you who kills him. Lara.”
The moment those whispered words ended, Johannes reached toward the void.
With a sound like shattering glass, the sky tore open. A gate swirled with crimson light yawned wide.
“Hallara!”
Behind me, Docheop’s blood-soaked voice rang out.
‘Don’t look back.’
If I saw him now, I knew I would hesitate.
Yet in the end, I turned to face him.
I couldn’t bear to leave without seeing Docheop’s face one last time—perhaps for the final time.
***
The international conference held in the Western Empire came to an abrupt halt.
The information Ludvin had provided had already spread across the continent like wildfire under the Western Empire Emperor’s decree.
When it was revealed that the Northern Empire’s Emperor was not the blood child of the Former Emperor, Maximus fell to his knees.
He who had spoken so boldly at the international conference mere moments ago now found himself imprisoned in the deepest Underground Prison, confined behind iron bars.
The Western Empire Emperor gazed down at Maximus, who sat pathetically beyond the prison bars.
“Impressive. Had I been in your position, I would have kept my head down and simply enjoyed the luxurious life of the Imperial Palace.”
A hollow, bitter laugh escaped his lips.
Yet Maximus’s face bore neither anger nor resentment. Only a vast, hollow despair remained—the despair of one who had lived through everything. He lifted his vacant eyes to meet the Western Empire Emperor’s gaze.
“I lack the energy to engage in such trivial conversation with you.”
“Of course. You’ll have mountains of sins to answer for.”
“Do you think it ends simply because the Holy Church’s existence has been exposed?”
“What?”
“How naive you all are.”
Maximus let out a hollow laugh.
“Yohannes has stepped into this world, wearing the shell of my wretched son.”
Maximus’s hoarse voice echoed emptily through the prison.
“If he is your son… then what you’re saying is that he came back from the dead…?”
“The dead cannot return to life. If even you are naive enough to believe such a thing, then the entire world will perish beneath the feet of that demon masquerading as an angel. It’s all over now. I only wish to go to my true son’s side.”
The color drained from the Western Empire Emperor’s face. Capturing the Northern Empire’s Emperor was not the end.
The real war was only beginning now.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————