Chapter 208: A Bitter Fate (14)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 208: A Bitter Fate (14)
“What kind of trick did you pull…?” Gis asked, steadying his staggering body as he swallowed his rage.
“You already have an idea, don’t you? It’s poison.”
“Don’t make me laugh! There’s no way I’d be poisoned by something so trivial! You must have done something else…”
“Well, if you’re not going to believe me, don’t bother asking.”
“You bitch, running your mouth!”
Gis strode toward Neria. A heat haze shimmered before his eyes, making his head spin and his body lurch with every few steps. Seeing him, Neria laughed.
She couldn’t help it.
This was the man who had toyed with her to satisfy his own filthy desires. The enemy who had stolen her happy future and taken the most precious person in her life.
He was a man she hated enough to want to tear limb from limb, yet feared in equal measure.
A monster who had branded her with such terror that she couldn't even dream of revenge.
How could she not laugh, seeing such a man in this ridiculous state?
And so, Neria laughed endlessly, even as Gis reached her, kicked her, and ground his foot into her throat.
“Keuk… Heh… Ehehehe…”
Even as her throat was crushed and she couldn’t breathe, she didn’t stop laughing. Gis was unnerved by her laughter.
“You crazy bitch… You have the antidote, don’t you?”
Anyone who handles poison naturally carries its antidote. One never knew when they might fall victim to their own concoctions. But in response to Gis’s common-sense question, Neria spat out a taunt.
“Like I’d have one, you fucking idiot?”
“…If you want to die, I’ll grant your wish. Don’t worry. I’ll throw your corpse to the dogs.”
“Go ahead.”
What did her body matter after she was dead? If Cloud had a grave, she would have wanted to be buried beside him, but since he didn’t, she couldn’t care less what happened to her corpse.
‘…Cloud.’
As her consciousness faded, the face of a man surfaced in her mind. A handsome man with red hair and fine features. She missed that face, a face that wore an innocent smile so well.
I want to see you one last time before I die.
But that was impossible.
Even if this Cloud had the same face, the person inside was different.
And even if he had been the real Cloud, she was too ashamed to face him.
Dying quietly like this would be better for them both.
Resigned, she did not resist the approaching darkness. Her ears went numb, strength drained from her body, and her vision blurred.
Just as the thread of her life was about to snap completely…
“Gack?!”
Gis, who had been crushing her throat, was sent flying by someone’s kick.
With the pressure gone, Neria could breathe again. But her breaths were faint, like a candle flame that could be extinguished at any moment. She tilted her head back to see who had kicked Gis.
‘Cloud…’
The one who had kicked Gis away and saved her was the very Cloud she had longed to see.
Cloud took out a potion and offered it to Neria, but she shook her head.
Her revenge was complete.
She no longer had a reason to live.
Perhaps understanding her feelings, Cloud didn’t force her to take it. Grateful for his consideration, Neria gazed at his face.
His gently glowing red eyes, free of any menace, his high-bridged nose, his sharp jawline.
He was undeniably a handsome young man, but in his features, Neria saw traces of the boy he once was.
‘He was handsome when he was young, but not this much.’
If they had known he would turn out like this, the village girls would have been trying to seduce him instead of tormenting him.
Of course, Neria would have done everything in her power to stop them.
A small smile touched her lips.
That single glimpse of the past opened the floodgates, bringing back more memories, more cherished moments.
And most of them involved Cloud.
Her heart ached as her consciousness grew dim.
In her daze, for just a fleeting moment, Neria saw the man before her as the real Cloud.
It was enough to make her gasp.
Perhaps that was why.
She finally opened her mouth.
“I’m sorry…”
She hadn’t intended to say anything.
Her apology was for no one’s ears but her own, nothing more than a selfish attempt to ease her own conscience.
And yet, seeing Cloud’s face, she couldn’t hold it back.
“I thought I was doing the right thing… I thought if I just tried hard enough, everything could go back to the way it was… but it couldn’t. I… I was too overconfident. I ruined everything…”
No matter how cowardly it was to say this just to unburden herself, no matter if he wasn’t the real Cloud, dying without a single word of apology to the Cloud she had hurt felt like an unforgivable sin.
“I’m so, so sorry… I like you… I love you… More than anyone, more than anything in the world, I love you.”
She said it all, pouring out the words she had wanted to say for so long but couldn’t.
Cloud listened in silence. When her confession ended, he placed a hand on her forehead.
Neria smiled faintly at the warmth she felt.
“Thank you…”
Those words were for Han Jisu, not Cloud.
With that, Neria’s faint breathing stopped. Her vibrant blue eyes turned dull and vacant, and her head fell limp.
Cloud gently closed her eyes.
His hand glowed with a white light.
It was for such a brief instant that no one but him could have possibly noticed.
“You should say that to him in person.”
Cloud looked at Neria’s soulless body and smiled bitterly.
“You idiot.”
*
Kicked by Cloud, Gis couldn’t get up right away. A searing pain coursed through his body, and a fever raged in his head, feeling as if his brain were being cooked.
‘This is poison? Bullshit!’
After being taken in by his adoptive mother, Gis had ingested countless poisons, building a powerful resistance.
Even the most heinous poison should have only been able to momentarily disrupt him.
He had already tested this with the Silver Viper’s venom. Convinced he was afflicted by some terrible curse rather than a poison, Gis forced his trembling legs to move, slowly pushing himself to his feet.
By the time he stood, Neria’s eyes were already closed.
“Is she dead?”
Cloud nodded with a bitter expression.
“Fucking bitch… If she was going to die, she could have at least lifted the curse first.”
Gis clicked his tongue in annoyance. At his words, Cloud tilted his head.
“Curse? What curse?”
“The dagger that bitch stabbed me with. It was cursed, wasn’t it?”
“The dagger? Ah… that wasn’t a curse. It was poison.”
“Bullsh— No, forget it.”
Curse or poison, what did it matter now?
Cloud, who had run to the city center, was back.
The Black Sun was shining brightly once more.
Gis wasn’t stupid enough to misunderstand what that meant.
Ptui.
Spitting out a wad of bloody phlegm, Gis gripped a dagger in a reverse hold and took a stance.
“Waste of time. Come at me, you limp-dicked bastard.”
“You think you can fight?” Cloud asked, gesturing to Gis’s trembling limbs.
Gis snorted.
“And if I don’t? Are you going to let me go?”
“Yeah.”
“…What?”
Gis frowned as if he’d heard something impossible. Ignoring him, Cloud stepped forward. Gis backed away, but Cloud’s advance was faster.
Just as Gis gave up on retreating and opened his mouth to speak, Cloud grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and slammed him into the ground.
“Of course, I’m not letting you go in one piece.”
Cloud placed his hand on Gis’s lower dantian, just below his navel. Mana began to gather in his palm. Gis sensed something was terribly wrong, but it was already too late.
Cloud’s mana pierced through Gis’s lower dantian.
His body, ravaged by the Dragon’s Blood Poison, was a wreck, and naturally, his dantian was not functioning properly.
Normally, his densely packed mana would have blocked any external invasion, but his broken dantian simply accepted the incoming mana.
Crack—
Cracks spiderwebbed across his lower dantian, and the mana that filled it began to leak out. After destroying the lower dantian, Cloud’s mana surged upward, shattering the middle dantian and even the unopened upper dantian before twisting his optimized mana circuits into knots.
“Guaaaaaah!!!”
Unable to bear the horrific pain, Gis screamed and thrashed on the ground.
It was a pathetic sight, but the fact that he hadn’t died or passed out despite his dantian being shattered and his mana circuits mangled was impressive enough.
The Hero was still the Hero, it seemed.
Still, if left alone, he would surely wither away and die. Cloud took out a potion and forced it down Gis’s throat.
It was difficult since Gis was coughing up mouthfuls of blood, but once he managed to get it down, his condition improved considerably.
The moment he felt better, Gis tried to drag himself away from Cloud with his elbows. Cloud didn’t bother stopping him.
He simply stated the facts.
“The poison in your system is Dragon’s Blood Poison. It destroys muscle tissue and nerves, using the victim’s own mana to burn their blood vessels. It’s a toxin potent enough to kill an ancient dragon. But don’t worry, you won’t die.”
The poison used on Gis had been slightly diluted.
Because Neria had not wanted him to have a peaceful death.
“I’ve destroyed your dantian, so you won’t be able to use mana to expel the poison. Even if a small amount of mana gathers in your shattered dantian, your twisted mana circuits will prevent you from controlling it.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“You have to live like that for the rest of your life.”
She wanted Gis to drag himself through a life of agony.
At Cloud’s words, Gis’s eyes went wide before he started to chuckle.
“So this was the revenge? Making me live as a cripple forever?”
“Yes.”
Gis burst into louder laughter. It only stopped when he choked on a mouthful of bloody phlegm.
“Well… fine. Not a bad form of revenge. Living in this fucking body will be a fucking nightmare. But aren’t you forgetting one thing?”
He pulled a new dagger from his coat and held it to his own throat.
“Why do you think I’ll go along with your plan?”
“You don’t want to live?”
“I’d rather die than live like this.”
Gis hoped to see Cloud flustered. The sight of Cloud, frustrated that things weren’t going his way, would be a decent bit of entertainment before he died.
But Cloud remained impassive.
“Then I guess I’ll have to give you a reason to live.”
“What?”
As Gis narrowed his eyes, Cloud snapped his fingers. A woman shot across the sky, folding her black wings as she landed beside Cloud.
Gis’s eyes went wide when he saw her.
“Mother?”
The woman was his adoptive mother, Hailey.
‘She was alive?’
How?
More importantly, why was she standing next to Cloud?
It didn’t take long for Gis’s questions to be answered.
“Hailey. Obey.”
“…Yes, Master.”
Hailey knelt, bowed her head, and pressed her lips to the top of Cloud’s boot.
“M-Mother…?”
Gis’s eyes trembled violently, as if he were witnessing the impossible.
Cloud drew his sword and held the blade to the neck of Hailey, who was still kissing his boot.
“If you die, your precious mother will die too.”
Very painfully.
His chilling voice subtly emphasized the end of his sentence.