kscans

Chapter 126 - Drowning Memories and a Warm Hand

Ariel had been feeling a suffering like she was constantly drowning in deep water. She reached out her hand, but there was nothing to grasp.

It hurts. It’s painful. Help me. Stop.

She didn't know why she was in this place. There was only the agony that constricted her entire body.

She could hear a voice in the distance. Someone was calling. She could hear someone crying, too. But who was it… even if she couldn’t remember, she felt like it was okay now. I did my best. I’ve done enough.

A warm something coursed through the depths of her body. She clearly recognized that she had been cold until now. It’s warm… I want to feel this more.

But before she knew it, she was in the deep water again. She could breathe. But it was cold.

She didn't know who she was or how she had ended up like this. She measured the world only by pleasure or displeasure.

A hand touched her forehead, and a crying voice echoed nearby.

Whose voice is this? Who??

Ah! It’s Darius. Darius… who was Darius again?

Am I alive? Or dead? A conversation, so hazy she couldn't tell if it was real or an illusion, reached her ears.

Even when she felt warmth in her hand, she couldn't move her body as she wanted. She couldn't speak, couldn't understand.

All she knew was… that Darius was here. Her mind was foggy. She was forgetting something important. Darius… who was that again?

Next, the voices of Adrian and Mireille. From around that time, the figures of Darius, Adrian, and Mireille began to float in her mind.

Someone is crying.

"I’m sorry, Mireille."

"It’s okay, I’m okay now."

Even though she thought this in her heart, she couldn't voice it, and her body wouldn't move. I’m okay… but. What does… okay mean again?

She sank into the water again. She was so close to understanding… she wanted to remember, but it was fading away.

Again, a new power flowed through me.

It was cold, though she couldn't see it. Her eyes fluttered open. Before her, there was still nothing to see.

A cold air. A presence like hostility. She couldn't escape now. Only her eyes moved. Even her eyelids were heavy…


"So the living weapon was saved, I hear."

After cooperating with Ariel’s mana supply, Albert glared at the blindfolded woman with disgust.

"Albert-sama, she is not a living weapon, she is Ariel-sama," Eleonora said quietly, but firmly.

"The name doesn’t matter. I just want her to disappear from my brother’s sight as soon as possible," Albert spat out with genuine contempt.

"Albert-sama, we hold this person so dear that we wish to welcome her as our adopted daughter. To belittle her is disrespectful to us as well."

Albert frowned.

"…What is Adrian thinking? If not for this commoner, Darius could have been happy much sooner. He could have had a peaceful family. And he finally broke up with her."

"She is a benefactor who saved my husband’s and Darius-sama’s lives. Therefore, I believe such a view is incorrect."

Albert was at a loss for words and fell silent. After this coup, the relationship between their two houses had become indispensably strong. And Adrian, as chancellor, was an essential figure on the path to his son becoming king.

But he couldn’t hide his surprise at his wife’s firm attitude.

At that moment, a groan echoed.

"…St…op. Please… stop…"

The two of them started. Albert, who couldn’t afford to be seen, quickly left the room.

When Eleonora removed Ariel’s blindfold, she found Ariel with a single tear tracing a path from her eyelid, her face contorted in pain.