TSMMT Ch 182

Your Atonement

Her mind went blank. Guiscard watched her anxiously, like a child who had committed a grave misdeed.

Cold sweat slicked her palms as her heart pounded violently against her ribs.

[Dianna] "Did you... save me?"

[Guiscard] "Y-yes..."

[Dianna] "How?"

He offered her a cautious glance and spoke in a low voice.

[Guiscard] "I killed them all."

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "If I kill them all, it works."

[Dianna] "Are you saying those undead are the people you slaughtered?"

He nodded like a child seeking praise. Then, his tone shifted to that of an apologetic youth.

[Guiscard] "Th-they hurt you. They had no reason to live anyway. Their only worth was as sa-sa-sacrifices to bring you back."

A prophecy she had heard from the god after her regression flashed through her mind: A killer drenched in the blood of a million gazes upon you. A dragon slayer soaked in dragon blood will see you.

The prophecy had already come to pass. Amid the relentless hardships of her life, she had overlooked that ominous warning. The murderer of a million was none other than the Guiscard Lodbrog of her past life.

Her heart sank into a dark abyss.

His stutter vanished. A chilling light gleamed in his eyes as he offered a demonic smile.

[Guiscard] "Yes, that woman too. The one who tormented you the most."

[Guiscard] "She tortured you, didn't she? You must have hated her intensely. So I gave you the chance to take your revenge."

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "Revenge felt wonderful, didn't it? You looked pleased, which made me happy. It was my first time seeing you command spirits, but I was relieved you didn't have to stain your own hands with blood."

[Dianna] "..."

She had always found it strange how she had walked away as if spellbound before being kidnapped, and how Levian had suddenly regained her memories of that past life. Levian had even claimed that Guiscard loved her in that past existence.

What if he had appeared before Levian not as Fafnir, but as himself?

[Guiscard] "I could never love a woman like her. You don't believe her, right?"

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "She was far too foolish, far too wicked."

He smirked.

[Guiscard] "She didn't even realize how she died."

What was he thinking?

His eyes narrowed in a fleeting smile. A cold shiver raced down her spine as the man with a killer's eyes spoke in a chilling tone.

[Guiscard] "Spouting nonsense until the very end."

Dianna recalled her reunion with Levian at the ducal manor. The woman had seemed trapped in bizarre delusions, only to plunge into despair and perish upon some sudden realization.

[Dianna] "Levian... you manipulated her as well."

Even her revenge had been orchestrated.

Dianna turned pale. As Guiscard watched her reaction, his face clouded with sudden regret.

[Guiscard] "Ah... r-right. You wouldn't like hearing this. It was too cruel."

He blinked nervously, then forced a brighter tone to change the subject.

[Guiscard] "You came here because those bastards forced you, didn't they? Demanding that you sacrifice yourself."

She shook her head.

[Guiscard] "You d-don't need to do that. You were terrified. You... you used to tremble even at tiny monsters."

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "Just coming here must have frightened you terribly. The monsters won't attack you. It's fine. I'll slaughter every last one of them for you."

At his gruesome words, Dianna bit her lip tightly and shook her head. He looked at her in confusion and let out a soft sigh.

[Guiscard] "P-please, just stay still. I know you hate me. You probably can't stand the s-sight of me."

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "I know you hate seeing this. Cruel and terrifying things hurt you. But please, just let me do this. Don't threaten to die."

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "Once I finish all of this, I'll die for you. Alright?"

Tears spilled from her eyes. Guiscard had restored her to life, and now he was intent on slaughtering the world to keep her alive once more.

The Guiscard of her past life was the reason behind her regression. But why had he turned back time for her?

She had to ask. She could no longer shrink away from his past self in horror, treating him like a monster. For the first time, she found the courage to confront the pain and face her own wounds.

She lowered her head and forced her voice to remain composed.

[Dianna] "How were you... after I died?"

He flinched. He closed his eyes and spoke quietly.

[Guiscard] "It was painful. So painful I thought I would die."

She bit her lip at the heavy exhaustion in his words.

Even with his youthful features, his face appeared pitiful and desolate. He was a broken man who had lost everything.

Her expression crumpled as a surge of overwhelming emotion welled up inside her. No longer holding back, she poured her heart out.

[Dianna] "Then why did you treat me like that?"

[Guiscard] "..."

[Dianna] "You could have been kinder!"

[Guiscard] "..."

[Dianna] "You could have cared for me a little more! You could have trusted me! Why... why did you do it?!"

She shouted, but Guiscard offered no answer. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

[Dianna] "I suffered so much..."

[Guiscard] "..."

[Dianna] "It hurt so badly I wanted to die. It really did."

Only now did she convey the words she had never been able to speak, the words she ought to have delivered before making the tragic choice to end her life. The resentment, despair, sense of betrayal, and rage that had remained unspoken for so long finally poured forth.

[Guiscard] "I'm sorry."

[Dianna] "..."

[Guiscard] "I'm sorry, Dianna Brienne."

Her vision blurred. He was offering an apology he had never granted her in life.

[Guiscard] "I... I..."

His eyes darted around before he spoke in penitence.

[Guiscard] "I didn't want you to save me... but I crossed over too late."

She stared in shock at the profound distortion in the man apologizing to her.

[Guiscard] "So... um... even if it's now, I'll make sure to kill Guiscard Lodbrog completely. You can be happy. I'll eradicate the people of this kingdom too."

Only then did Dianna realize that this was his apology to her. It was the most gruesome, blood-soaked apology in the world.

[Dianna] "Is this your atonement?"

[Guiscard] "..."

[Dianna] "Is this your answer?"

Crossing through time and transcending death, he was striving to give Dianna Brienne a life without Guiscard Lodbrog. He intended to destroy the Kingdom of Lodbrog as well, for every single one of them had been an accomplice in her death.

Faced with this simplistic, barbaric logic, Dianna clenched her teeth.

All of this was for me! Every single bit of it!

It had all been done for the sake of Dianna Brienne, who had barely managed to die.

[Dianna] "Is this your idea of atonement?"

[Guiscard] "Th-there's... no need to be frightened. Yes! You're worried about that, aren't you? I'll die too! As I said, once I kill them all, I'll die as well..."

He misinterpreted her question and waved his hands frantically, desperately assuring her that he would perish.

How cruel was an atonement completed only through one's own death? His mind and soul had shattered long ago, broken beyond repair.

She closed her eyes and reached a quiet resolve.

[Dianna] "Yes... I understand."

[Guiscard] "..."

[Dianna] "Guiscard, look at me."

She stepped toward him. As she closed the distance he had hesitated to breach, Guiscard recoiled in surprise.

She shed her cloak, revealing the garment beneath. A pure white, voluminous skirt. A square-neck white dress adorned in the style of Panborough, the very dress that had resembled a burial shroud when placed upon her body.

[Dianna] "Do you remember this?"

[Guiscard] "Yes..."

[Dianna] "It's the dress I wore when I died. An exact replica, at least."

His face twisted in agony. From his ruined eyes seeped an intense emotion that even she couldn't fathom. He buried his face in his hands and cried out in torment.

[Guiscard] "A-Ahhhhh!"

[Dianna] "..."

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the tormented man. As he trembled weakly in her embrace, she whispered into his ear.

[Dianna] "Let us go together."

Just as Tarascus had instructed, Dianna had chosen the dress she died in as the medium to anchor past and present.

A radiant light burst from her dress. Above, a white dragon swooped through the azure sky, circling slowly in the air.

Simultaneously, mysterious arcane sigils carved themselves into the plain beneath their feet, blazing with brilliant radiance.

A warm glow washed over the world. Yet to the people of this era, it was merely an ordinary light, a spell designed to affect only those hailing from another time.

[Taras] "There is no way to kill Fafnir. But killing Guiscard is simple."

He met her gaze, his voice firm.

[Taras] "You must travel to the past... and kill him yourself."

The bodies of Guiscard Lodbrog and Dianna Brienne glowed brilliantly before vanishing into thin air.

---

[Guiscard] "Aaaaaahhh!"

As he beheld the woman who had consumed poison and died, he shrieked in agony as if he were the one swallowing the lethal draught.

The man who had treated her with cold indifference, who had ruthlessly destroyed every facet of her life, now clutched her lifeless body, sobbing with grotesque, tortured wails.

[Guiscard] "Ah... ah... Dianna. Dianna, Dianna!"

He clutched his wife, weeping as though the world itself were crumbling beneath him.

Dianna watched the scene in a daze. She observed the slow fracture of reality. The world she thought would spin on beautifully without her began to shatter.

He wept until his voice turned hoarse, holding her body for three days and three nights, like a devoted husband who had lost his beloved, as if he had loved Dianna Brienne with all his heart.

His living hell unfolded directly before her eyes.