646
Chapter 646
At Arthur's shocking statement, Laura and Rex looked surprised.
Rex moved toward Arthur and Ramon, saying.
"A-Arthur, what do you mean?"
As he tried to approach, Laura blocked Rex's path.
She was highly alert due to the ominous energy emanating from Arthur.
Meanwhile, Ramon, his shoulder gripped by Arthur, faced him with a hardened expression and opened his mouth.
"Arthur, I..."
"Perhaps you were promised to be made head of Jiemens if you eliminated me here."
Ramon's eyes wavered at Arthur's words.
Rex pushed past Laura and shouted.
"Arthur! Come to your senses! Ramon would never do such a thing!"
At these words, Arthur pulled at the corners of his mouth and smiled.
"Hmm, that's what Rex says. What do you think, Ramon?"
CRACK.
The sound of bones dislocating came from Ramon's shoulder as Arthur's grip tightened, making him grimace in pain.
When Rex tried to approach them again, Laura blocked him once more.
"Rex, wait."
She pulled out a medicine bottle and whispered quietly.
"He might be showing temporary delirium from the demon beast's poison."
Rex, who was about to push past her again, considered this possibility coming from Laura, the healer.
He calmed down and stepped back.
Ramon remained silent while facing off against Arthur.
Laura then approached Arthur.
"Hey, Arthur Draker."
Arthur turned his head at her call while still gripping Ramon's shoulder.
HISS!
Laura suddenly sprayed the status ailment antidote at Arthur.
Purple mist rose in clouds.
As Arthur's grip loosened, Ramon twisted his body and barely escaped.
"HUFF, HUFF."
Ramon collapsed on the ground, breathing heavily and sweating.
The antidote mist still lingered around Arthur.
But then.
SWOOSH!
Arthur instantly moved through the mist and roughly grabbed Laura's wrist.
"UGH!"
Laura was startled by Arthur's unimaginable grip strength.
He held her wrist that held the spray and looked down at her.
Meeting Arthur's eyes, Laura felt her breath stop.
She felt an alien power that seemed to suck out her soul from his gem-like eyes.
Under that gaze that seemed to thoroughly examine her soul, Laura felt a chill as if stripped naked in severe cold.
RING!
Golden aura suddenly flickered around her body.
Only then did Arthur release her wrist and step back.
Both Laura and even Rex couldn't help but be wary of Arthur's clearly different atmosphere and attitude compared to before entering the dungeon.
Looking around at his companions' reactions, Arthur suddenly burst into laughter.
"HAHAHA!"
Laughing heartily, Arthur spoke with exaggerated gestures and voice like an actor.
"I suppose my joke went too far."
He approached Ramon who was collapsed, smiling.
Then he extended his hand to Ramon.
"I was so overjoyed to return alive and see you all again that my joke went overboard. I’m sorry."
Ramon knocked away Arthur's extended hand.
"Get away."
Arthur smirked as he watched Ramon get up alone, showing his displeasure.
Arthur looked at Rex, Laura, and Ramon one by one, then said with a most charming smile.
"Though I'd like to celebrate my return and spend more pleasant time with you all, I have things to do first so I'll head down now. I spent more time in the dungeon than expected."
He added one last thing while looking at Ramon.
"Ramon, let's have a deeper conversation in Atlas."
Arthur left those words and went out of the cave.
Only after he left could the three finally breathe.
Rex turned to Ramon, whose face had turned pale.
"Ramon, was what Arthur said really just a joke?"
Ramon sat down on a rock without answering Rex's question.
That silence made Rex's mind complicated.
'What if Ramon hadn't thrown the scroll to the demon beast then?'
Even though Arthur was ready to strike the demon with his sword, Ramon ignored his hand signal and threw a scroll, exposing their location to the demon.
And when Arthur was attacked by the demon, Ramon used a teleportation scroll to flee, leaving him behind.
As questions grew in their minds, doubts continued to multiply and expand.
That's when Ramon, who was sitting on a rock, slowly opened his mouth.
"...Are you all suspicious of me too?"
A voice exhausted beyond measure.
Rex couldn't immediately deny it.
But that's when it happened.
SLAP!
Laura, who was standing beside him, struck Ramon's back hard.
Ramon writhed in pain from the intense impact.
Laura glared at Ramon with sharp eyes and said:
"Sitting there with that face like you're carrying all the world's troubles! If you have something to say, say it straight!"
Laura's refreshing words turned around the tense atmosphere.
Ramon suffered from the pain in his back where he couldn't reach, coughed a few times, and finally managed to calm down.
"UGH. Laura, do you know how much your hands sting?"
"Whatever, just talk quickly. I'm getting annoyed."
For the impatient Laura, she had been quite patient until now.
Ramon looked at Laura with an exasperated expression before finally speaking.
"...It's not that there wasn't such a proposal."
Rex's eyes widened at those words.
"Ramon, you don't mean..."
Ramon stood up from his seat and shouted.
"Damn it! No matter how good the conditions, I'm not the kind of person who would sell out my friends!"
He continued speaking while breathing heavily.
"I deliberately approached them to find out what they were planning when I learned they were targeting Arthur. I had to figure out their plans in advance in case they tried to use assassins."
He meant he had acted as a double agent.
At Ramon's words, Rex collapsed in his seat as if drained of energy.
Then he gave a hollow laugh.
"HAHAHA, of course. What was I even imagining…?"
He felt ashamed for doubting Ramon, his close friend, even if only briefly.
That's when Laura spoke while looking at Ramon.
"So it's true that the Draker family is targeting Arthur. Earlier you made it sound like it was just speculation."
Rex's expression turned to shock at her words.
"Good heavens, then isn't Arthur in danger if he goes down there now? We should quickly..."
As Rex tried to move urgently, his wound reopened.
As he winced in pain and curled up, Laura shook her head and said.
"Don't overdo it. You can't move yet. You need a few more days of recovery."
She turned her head toward Ramon and continued.
"Ramon, if Arthur is in danger like Rex says, shouldn't you have stopped him from going? Why did you just let him leave?"
Ramon lifted his head at those words and said:
"...Something was different."
Laura's eyes changed at Ramon's words.
"Different? You mean Arthur?"
She couldn't dismiss Ramon's words since she too had sensed unsettling changes in Arthur.
Ramon continued.
"The Arthur I was facing... didn't seem like Arthur."
Laura's eyes narrowed at Ramon's words.
"What do you mean Arthur wasn't Arthur? Are you talking about a doppelganger or something like that?"
Ramon shook his head at Laura's words.
"Not that. I can't explain it in words but... something definitely changed. It feels like there's something else inside him."
Ramon felt chills down his spine again as he recalled the look in Arthur's eyes.
Ramon felt an instinctive fear from those eyes that were transparent yet hollow, as if they knew everything.
Looking at the frozen Ramon, Laura said:
"So even if Arthur has changed somehow, that doesn't mean he's safe from the Draker family."
"That's true but... I don't know. I'm too confused."
Zeke was watching this whole situation from inside Rex's body.
'So they were somewhat aware of Arthur Draker's changes too.'
Zeke had witnessed with his own eyes Arthur Draker embracing dark matter and becoming a solar entity.
Not only that, but the changed Arthur became more comfortable with expressing emotions and better at speaking, unlike before.
And ironically, it was the changed version that more closely resembled the Arthur Draker that Zeke had known.
'Does this mean he continued living in this changed state since that incident?'
Zeke knew what was going to happen next.
Arthur Draker would win the Draker family head competition despite unfavorable conditions.
The situation changed when the eldest son, who was the most likely candidate for family head, died in a suspicious accident.
Fierce factional competition arose among the remaining competitors, and during this time, Arthur Draker gathered power through his abilities alone to become the strongest candidate for family head.
All competitors who crossed swords with him were brutally slaughtered without exception.
Eventually, Arthur Draker was the only candidate left, and the Draker knights had no choice but to swear allegiance to him.
The Council of Elders, having no way to check Arthur Draker's power, changed their stance to support him instead.
Finally, Arthur Draker was unanimously appointed as the family head.
It was the birth of the most powerful tyrant in Draker family history.
A man who held stronger power and authority than anyone else.
Arthur Draker was the most suitable person for the human king that the sun god Apollion ideally envisioned.
'Did the sun god choose Arthur Draker to make him the new avatar Adam?'
Given the circumstances, there was no other way to think about it.
While Zeke was lost in these thoughts about Arthur Draker, Laura approached Rex.
"Let me look at your wound."
She treated Rex's scarred wound with healing.
But then it happened.
WOOOONG!
Laura magically transmitted her voice so that only Rex could hear it.
―Rex, Ramon is hiding something from us.
Rex's expression hardened at Laura's words.
"Bear with the pain a bit. You're built like a mountain but your face gets all stiff just from getting treated."
Laura made the first move before the perceptive Ramon could sense something was wrong.
―Just listen to me first. Ramon seems to be hiding something, but that doesn't mean he betrayed Arthur. I think there's something else.
Unlike Rex who only vaguely noticed that Arthur had changed, Laura seemed to notice that Ramon was also hiding something.
But then it happened.
WOOOONG!
The moment golden aura emerged from Laura's hands, Zeke's consciousness separated from Rex.
At the same time, the surroundings rippled and the background began to change.
WOOOONG!
A completely different scene unfolded before Zeke's eyes.
Laura, wearing modest clothes, sat at a tea table in a garden with beautiful flowers blooming, while Rex, dressed in House Tourn's traditional colors, stood looking down at her.
Then Carmilla, dressed as a maid, brought tea to the table.
Without saying anything, Carmilla quietly placed the tea with its excellent aroma on the table.
Rex looked at Laura and said,
"Laura, are you really sure you won't regret that choice?"
Rex's voice was much more mature than when they were in the cave, suggesting at least ten years had passed.
Laura also had a calmer atmosphere than before.
She looked at the flowers blooming in the garden and said,
"Yes, Rex. My choice remains unchanged."
Rex's expression hardened at Laura's answer.
Then Laura spoke again.
"To protect the destined savior, I must marry Arthur Draker. No, that monster pretending to be Arthur Draker."