My Husband Has Changed - Chapter 158



Only Noblemtl

#158. The Last Truth
2024.03.06.

“Oh my goodness. You’re awake!”

Donovan made the sign of the cross with a deep sigh of relief. The faithful knight’s face looked pale, as if he would faint at any moment instead of her.

“Do you know how surprised I was? You were moving normally, and then suddenly fell over… …”

Adele blinked slowly and looked around. They were at the bottom of a huge stone pillar. They

had come to a fork in the road, and the fog was starting to fill the area.

“How are you feeling? Can you move?”

Adele stood up from her seat, supported by Donovan. As time passed, the situation began to become clearer.

‘It was all a dream, after all.’

It was a fact that she had vaguely noticed from the middle of the dream.

If it hadn’t been a dream, Valentin wouldn’t have appeared so suddenly in the first place. And… .

Adele absentmindedly tried to wipe her face and found her palm soaked with blood.

Donovan followed her gaze, checked the torn wound, and carefully elaborated.

“It looks like it was torn somewhere when you fell. It doesn’t seem like your bones were hurt, but…”

“… … .”

No, this wasn’t the wound I had at that time. At least Valentin was right about one thing.

What happened in that dream affected reality. Then his soul must have been… … .

Adele clenched her torn palm tightly. The sharp pain made her thoughts clear. She raised her head.

“Let’s go.”

“… … No. I can’t do that. I can’t force you to move while you’re injured. It would be better to find a place to rest for today.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Absolutely not… … .”

“I said there was no need to search anymore. The Grand Duke is already dead.”

“D-dead? What, what did that… … .”

Adele headed toward the entrance of the cave she had passed Donovan.

She could sense his confusion behind her, but there was no time to explain. There was someone she had to meet right away.

The horses responded to her call back to the surface.

Adele ignored Donovan’s shocked gaze, grabbed Hazel, and ran straight back the way she had come.

There were only traces of battle on the road, no monsters or troops to be seen.

Before long, she arrived at the main gate of the main unit. She

carelessly snatched the Nassau ring from her neck and threw it to the soldiers who asked for her identification badge.

They were puzzled by the old relic and let Adele into the main unit.

She walked through the center of the main unit without hesitation, with Donovan and the soldiers following her, who were bewildered.

Donovan, who had been following Adele with a skeptical face, gaped when she stopped in front of the barracks with the flag of the Great Crusade.

“… … How on earth, Your Majesty, is this place… … . When you look at the location… … .”

Donovan looked confused, not embarrassed.

After all, it wouldn’t be natural for a woman who had only just joined the main force yesterday to be moving around the barracks as if she were used to it.

As she slowly walked toward the barracks, the priest standing guard in front of her bowed his head politely.

“Come in. He is waiting inside.”

That person. The priest’s eyes, as he spoke, seemed somehow hazy.

And she now perfectly understood the state of those who made such expressions.

Adele slowly let out a long breath and passed through the cloth entrance the priest had held out for her and went inside.

The inside of the barracks was cold, devoid of any light or warmth.

It was a darkness that made it difficult for human eyes to see even an inch ahead, but everything was clearly distinguishable to her eyes. And… … .

“… … .”

As if he had anticipated her coming, the one who had leisurely prepared steaming cups and a teapot smiled kindly when he found her.

Adele slowly released the grip on the entrance to the room.

“Come in.”

Padre, it was him.

“A woman born as a doll, who will be recorded as a god.”

* * *

“Yes.”

Padre opened his mouth, putting the teacup on the saucer.

Adele stared blankly at the teacup, then raised her head at the sound. When their eyes met, Padre smiled broadly.

“I remember telling you that you would need me in the future. And you said that would not happen.”

“… … .”

“Tell me that your thoughts have not changed even now.”

Adele mixed a cold laugh into her breath.

“Your speech has changed.”

“There’s no need to embellish it anymore.”

“Who are you?”

He smiled at her.

“The first Morrig.”

“That’s… … .”

“Yes. I am the god who created dragons and snakes. To be exact, I was a god. Now, I only have the strength to borrow consciousness like this for a moment.”

Where the wordplay of “echo” and “desirable being” disappeared, only the unbearable truth remained. Adele burst into laughter.

“… … When did you say I was the one you desperately wanted?”

“Back then, you desperately hoped that ‘I’ wasn’t Valentin?”

“Have you been deceiving me from the beginning? You knew everything, and you pretend not to know?”

The old man shook his head from side to side.

“Padre is a faithful man. He won’t even remember this conversation after I leave.”

“I came to you because I wanted to know the truth.”

He took a few more sips of tea in silence. Then he returned the cold cup to the saucer and opened his mouth.

“Yes. We don’t have much time. Where should I begin…?”

He rubbed his forehead and slowly chose his words.

“I knew that I was not perfect. Envy, jealousy, hatred, and destructiveness. Terrible sinful emotions stirred within me…. Do you understand this far?”

“That is why you decided to create a replacement. I understand that.”

“It was a very simple reason for deciding to give up God, but sometimes that is all. But I wanted perfection so that I would not repeat my failures after I left.”

“….”

“And for a while I believed that I had succeeded.”

A long sigh.

“What I had missed was that all living things have desires. And desires bring about change, whether for good or for bad.”

“That is….”

“The fall was foreseen. “I thought I needed something to ‘turn’ that child back from the moment I realized it.”

“… … .”

“If only there was something that would remind me of my compassion for the world… … . So I gathered my last remaining power and made a doll.”

Padre pointed his wrinkled finger at her as if poking her.

“Yes, you. A tool that blindly serves only humans.”

“Just like that… … . As if I was created for some special purpose… … .”

He smiled,

but Adele thought it was a very cynical expression. “Can a human created for one purpose be called a human? You are nothing more than a doll made to be my son’s lover.”

She clenched her hands that were shaking in shock. She didn’t want to believe it. She couldn’t believe it at all.

But she was now a god, whether she liked it or not.

That meant that she had the power to ‘read’ if there was a lie or deception in the other person’s words.

And ‘he’ was telling the truth. At least, I firmly believed that.

“… … .”

The values ​​I believed to be right, the way I looked at the world, the past where I was constantly obsessed with relationships despite being betrayed and suffering from people.

I just thought that all of that was just my nature. But, it was designed for some purpose from the beginning.

“Actually, it was like that from the moment I was first created. So even if I tried to imitate a normal human being, it would be awkward. I could pretend to be normal and blend in, but those who are sensitive would feel it more.”

“ … … .”

“And those who ‘notice’ that way generally have two feelings when they see you. Disgust, and guilt.”

“… … .”

“My sons were the same. One knew about your existence and was busy hating you. And the other was so guilty that he only had you in his world.”

It was relatively clear who the ‘sons’ he was talking about were.

One was Valentin, and the other was the current ‘Morig.’ Even amidst the shocking truths pouring out in a frenzy, Adele felt awkward that he even called ‘Morig’ his son.

“Morig is your child too?”

He stared at Adele with wide eyes as if he had not expected her to ask such a thing.

Then he burst into a loud laugh that showed his Adam’s apple.

“It is a little awkward to hear the name that way. If it were true, my name should have been passed down to the eldest son.”

“… … .”

“And to answer your question, yes. I feel that snake is my child too.”

“… … .”

“I should have just not cared from the beginning. I didn’t know that my half-hearted consideration would cause him even greater frustration.”

“… … There are things that even God doesn’t know.”

He smiled broadly at Adele’s cynical words.

“I can only feel the great flow. If God could read the entire future, he wouldn’t have created a doll to be attached to in order to prevent the fall.”

“… … .”

“And I could have predicted in advance that the doll would become a detonator that would not only prevent the fall, but also incite it.”
　

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