KFBRV Pt 2 Ch 96

She frowned at his stubbornness and snapped back.

[Odette] "Stop being so difficult. How is there an 'intention' in these clothes? I’m covered up perfectly with total dignity."

She thought he should at least come up with a believable excuse. His explanation felt so lazy that she couldn't even pretend to fall for it.

But he wasn't making excuses.

[Viktor] "Do you ever wear blouses that button all the way to your chin? You didn't have another choice, did you?"

He spoke as if he could see right through her. In fact, she really hadn't had any other choice but this blouse.

[Viktor] "It's disgusting because his desire to show off is so obvious."

[Odette] "Ah..."

[Viktor] "Furthermore, that skirt is soaked in perfume, and you didn't even notice. It's the same scent as the oil on your calves. That bastard did it on purpose. He wanted to remind me exactly who is attending to your clothes and your baths."

Odette recalled the events of the morning. Now that she thought about it, Zion had been exceptionally devoted today. Unlike his usual self, he had given her a foot massage with unusual care and picked out every single piece of her clothing. All of it had happened after she told him she was meeting Viktor.

She had thought Viktor was just picking a fight, but since he had countered her so perfectly, she had nothing left to say. She had to admit it. He was angry about her clothes.

[Viktor] "You're going to keep wearing those clothes? I was against you entering that mansion from the start. It was already terrible, but now it's like that bastard owns you—"

His sharp voice suddenly cut off. He cursed under his breath and curled inward, clutching his scars. Intense, unbearable pain had clearly struck him.

Look at this. This happens because he avoids the purification every time.

She reached out to soothe his pain.

[Odette] "If you hate the Marquis owning me so much, Colonel, you should move into the mansion where I am."

Even while writhing in pain, he rejected her hand. He stared at her with eyes shimmering with rage.

[Viktor] "Bullshit. Are you telling me to stand there and watch you purify those bastards with my own eyes?"

Even in that state... doesn't he ever get tired of this?

She lost count of how many times they had argued about this. She couldn't help but sigh.

Viktor had clearly passed his limit long ago, yet he remained stubborn. He refused to set foot in Zion's mansion and used every trick possible to avoid her when it was his turn for purification.

Even when she called him out because she worried about his pain, the most they did was share a meal or walk the streets together. Holding hands was the best she could get him to do, and even then, she had to ask.

As his destruction drew closer every day, he was a Transcendent who drew lines and avoided her more as the situation grew more urgent. He was a complete nightmare to deal with.

[Odette] "You're too stubborn. How much longer do you plan to reject me?"

His body was held together by sheer force after being torn apart. A shallow, half-hearted purification wouldn't fix it. To stop his destruction, Odette had to pour her power into him.

[Odette] "I know you're at your limit, so stop fighting me. You have to learn to accept the situation."

Odette, who had received a fresh oracle from the World Tree last night, had no intention of backing down today. She had been granted an oracle that allowed her to experience exactly what kind of pain Viktor felt and how he was enduring it.

Vicious man. How can he keep such a calm face with a body like that?

Remembering the oracle, his patience felt almost sickening. He had bitten the back of his own hand so many times to endure the pain that it looked like a beast had mauled him; muscle and bone were visible in a gruesome display.

The pain felt like every bone in his body was shattering, a sensation far beyond human imagination. Having felt it herself, she was certain Viktor didn't have much time left.

Why else would she bring him along even now, when she should be savoring Paula's downfall? She was determined to persuade him, no matter what it took.

[Viktor] "Enough. I... don't need it."

Even while drenched in cold sweat, he remained firm.

[Odette] "But why? I accepted this first. The Prince and the Marquis have both accepted it. Why are you the only one who can't? You don't need to feel guilty—"

[Viktor] "Those bastards don't know because they have no experience."

He cut her off, his voice sounding like he was grinding his teeth.

[Viktor] "They don't know how horrific it is to be unable to reject someone you hate. They can do those things because they know nothing. They can be forgiven because they are ignorant."

His voice was full of murderous intent. Although he was facing Odette, his eyes seemed to be staring at someone from a distant memory—someone who had exploited him in the past.

[Viktor] "Do you think I don't want it? When that watchdog provoked me, I was ready to let you purify me. I was going to become stronger than him. I was going to kick that watchdog away from you. But damn it, I know! I know what it's like! Odette, do you think you won't break? Do you think your mind will stay intact if you keep giving yourself up like that?"

[Odette] "Colonel."

[Viktor] "You think you're really okay? That a relationship built on your one-sided sacrifice won't ruin you? Do you think I haven't tried to trick myself like that? I deceived myself into thinking I had endured and overcome it all. You don't know the ways it can make a person go mad!"

Viktor poured out raw anger. It was passionate and intense, but ultimately, it was worry for Odette. He feared she would be hurt the same way he was. He feared she would suffer because of it.

He really has no time left.

The fact that his raw emotions were exploding like this proved his pain had reached a peak. He could no longer maintain the appearance of being fine, a facade he had fought so hard to keep.

She stood up. Viktor, covered in sweat, watched her with a look of disbelief as she reached for him again.

[Viktor] "What... are you doing?"

He frowned deeply and brushed her arm away. But she didn't retreat. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him to soothe him.

[Viktor] "You... you have no fear."

He gasped for air and ground his teeth against the agony. Odette pushed her purification into him, but the amount was nowhere near enough for his level of corruption.

[Viktor] "I can't... hold back... anymore."

Viktor, who had been trying so hard to ignore her, whispered a curse. His arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her in.

His strength was incredible, nearly impossible to believe it came from just one arm. Even though the beast was no longer in his body and he was suffering in pain, his strength didn't feel human.

Startled, Odette instinctively flinched. At her reaction, his jaw, already tight from pain, hardened even more.

[Viktor] "See? You're this scared, and yet you claim you've accepted it."

She thought he was finally giving in to the purification, but it seemed he was only trying to warn her. A warning never to approach him so fearlessly again.

[Viktor] "Stop. I know how disgusting this is. Because I know, I can't do this to you. How... how can I make you go through that? I didn't fall for you just to ruin you."

He spoke with a wheezing voice.

[Viktor] "I won't claim to love you while I make you miserable."

He spoke with desperate determination.

She felt she knew what kind of things the noblewoman in his trauma must have whispered to him. She also knew those words had only made him more miserable.

She understood exactly what kind of unhappiness Viktor was trying to protect her from. She carried her own scars from her past life when Ferdinand almost raped her. Though she had barely escaped, Ferdinand appeared in her nightmares many times, holding her so she couldn't run.

Viktor was someone who actually had to endure that nightmare. Someone who couldn't escape and had to remain trapped in that situation for a long time. Someone who had to learn through his own experience how violence leaves a scar.

[Odette] "Colonel, I’m not miserable. I’m happy."

She understood his worry, but he was wrong. Viktor couldn't make her miserable. It was because he was trying to protect her from pain and suffering. He was a completely different person from that noblewoman.

[Viktor] "You're being deceived right now. You're caught in a game those two bastards set up—"

[Odette] "It's not just that I was tricked by Karl."

At the steady tone of her voice, Viktor finally looked at her properly. He looked at her, not at a ghost from his distant memories.

[Odette] "I know Karl's intentions, and I know the Marquis's intentions. Even so, I’m happy."

Yes, she admitted it. At first, she had been deceived. Until she decided to purify Johan, she believed Karl was sacrificing himself. Because of that, she had felt terribly sorry for him.

But eventually, she noticed something was wrong. She knew Karl's fundamental nature too well.

The Karl she saw in the endless time shown by the World Tree—that jealous and greedy man had given up Odette to Johan? He endured such pain when he gained nothing in return?

She was certain Karl had something to gain from this situation. Still, the reason she tried to keep loving him was that his plan, whatever its purpose, helped her live a meaningful life.

So, contrary to Viktor's worry, she wasn't being swept away by the situation without knowing anything.

[Viktor] "Still... even so... you're happy?"

[Odette] "I am."

Saying she "seemed to be happy" might have been more accurate, but she spoke with certainty. If she doubted her own happiness here, Viktor would surely refuse the purification to the very end.

[Odette] "Colonel. I was always alone. Even if this entire situation was created by his schemes, I don't hate it."

She confessed her true feelings to the still-unconvinced Viktor.

[Odette] "If the Transcendents weren't here, I would have been swallowed by an endless void."

When she decided on revenge, she only wanted the end of it. She told herself she didn't care if there was only emptiness and void at the finish line. She just wanted to reach it. She told herself she would be satisfied then.

She had worked hard to arrive at that point, and there was certainly a sense of victory, but there was no happiness. Revenge is about destroying the opponent; it isn't a process that fills the person who was already destroyed.

Even after the revenge ended and everyone in the Count's family vanished, Odette's life continued.

What was her next step?

As she got closer to the finish line, she felt lost. She had no purpose after this. She had to find happiness instead of just victory, but she didn't know how.

The void opened its mouth to swallow her. It felt as if it were waiting to take her the moment she wandered without a new goal.

To her, the mission to save the Transcendents and the duty to love Karl opened the next path. The mission of salvation, rather than revenge, became her next goal.

And she could vaguely sense that if she followed this path, there would be true happiness at the end. In Viktor's eyes, this might not look like happiness, but it was the closest thing to it she had ever possessed.

[Odette] "And I will be even happier if the Colonel accepts my purification."

[Viktor] "……"

[Odette] "This isn't forced, or a trick, or violence. It's because I want to be close to you."

Hearing those words, Viktor whispered a curse and kissed her desperately. As he hugged her even tighter, Odette pulled him close and held him back.

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