Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 196
As they walked together, Michael and Irene soon arrived at her room.
āIāll just wash up and change real quick.ā
Walking under the midday sun had left her sweating and sticky. Irene selected some clothes from her wardrobe and started toward the bathroom.
Michael, naturally, followed and stood beside her.
āIāll help you bathe.ā
āMichael!ā
Caught off guard by his unflappably calm demeanor, Irene was momentarily shocked, despite knowing they were the only two in the room. She quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.
āW-What are you even sayingā¦!ā
Her face turned a deep shade of red, and she didnāt know where to look. Faced with her clear refusal, Michael decided to take a step back.
āThen Iāll help you undress.ā
āThatās not happening either!ā
Irene shouted in exasperation before hastily retreating into the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her. The thick door effectively blocked out most sounds from the bathroom.
The problem was that Michaelās hearing didnāt miss even the faintest noise.
Swoosh. Swish.
The sound of soft fabric slipping against smoother skin and falling to the floor made Michael swallow involuntarily.
It reminded him of the softness he had touched without restraint in the dungeon, just a few days ago.
Soon, the sound of water filled the room, mingling with Ireneās embarrassed muttering.
Michael sat down on the nearest chair outside the bathroom.
At this time of day, the monster wouldnāt show itself.
That creature would crawl back out only when the sun had set beyond the mountains and the world plunged into the quiet chaos of predawn darkness.
As he waited for Irene to finish, Michael found himself staring at the empty air before him.
Suddenly, the seemingly normal space began to distort, cracks forming as if someone had ripped it apart.
Beyond those cracks lay an unfathomably deep, dark void, reminiscent of a dungeon entrance.
Michaelās eyes darted quickly across the void as though searching for something.
āAh.ā
The sound escaped him, brief but certain, like someone who had just found what they were looking for.
Moments later, a small piece of metal emerged from the darkness, sliding into view before him.
As the fragment appeared, a faint rattling came from a drawer in the corner of Ireneās room.
Michael moved his fingers slightly, and the drawer opened, revealing another piece of metal wrapped carefully in cloth. It floated into the air and joined the first piece.
Michael stared quietly at the fragments now hovering before him.
These, too, were artifacts.
Long ago, amidst the ruins of a collapsed fortress, a battered appraiser had handed him notes about what these fragments were and what powers they held.
The artifactās name was āImpossibilityā.
Its unique ability was to reverse time.
The activation condition, howeverā¦
āā¦The complete eradication of all dungeons and monsters.ā
As Michael murmured the condition, a profound weariness washed over his face.
When he had learned the artifactās condition, he had wondered if its name, Impossibility, referred to its ability to reverse timeāor to its absurdly unattainable activation requirement.
But the moment he realized there was a way to erase all his regrets, to meet Irene again, he had begun to act.
He didnāt know how many dungeons he had entered, slaying every monster in his path.
The world outside the dungeons kept changing.
New sprouts emerged, only to wither in the summer heat. Bright autumn leaves fell, and heavy snow covered everything.
He had witnessed such cycles hundreds of times, it seemed.
At some point, his body had succumbed to complete corruption by miasma, turning into something no longer human. The flow of time ceased to affect him.
Each time he exited a dungeon, the world outside looked increasingly different.
The number of dungeons multiplied, and the fortress pairs could no longer keep up with them.
The fortress crumbled more and more with each visit.
Eventually, he stopped seeing humans outside the dungeons.
Places once bustling with people became infested with monsters, and the skies turned a perpetual crimson.
Michael hadnāt cared. After all, everything out there was destined to die by his hand anyway.
When no more dungeons appeared, he began hunting the monsters wandering outside.
Under the dark skies where the sun no longer rose, he killed the final monster, and at that moment, the artifact in his possession began to glow.
The fragment Irene had held and the one he had found came together, merging into a single piece of light.
The impossible had been achieved.
Butā¦
Michael glared at the metal fragment with bitterness in his eyes.
He was grateful for its time-reversing ability, even if the activation condition had been absurd. After all, he had managed to fulfill it.
But in the timeline he had returned to, a problem remained.
He covered his face with his hand as a mistake from long ago resurfaced in his memoryāthe mistake he had made when he first turned back time.
Erica
Huh wasnt this already posted ??