Holy Night: My Husband is Definitely a Paladin - Chapter 299
TL: Elphie / PR: Marm
He pressed a kiss to the back of Ireneās hand.
“I will bear all the filth.”
He kissed her hand again, over and over, before turning away. Then, he raised his sword and struck it against the wall beside him.
Screeeech!
A terrible sound rang out as sparks flew.
Deliberately dulling the blade, he looked at Cecilia, who was struggling, with a cold gaze that was nothing like the one he’d used to look at Irene.
And in that moment, Irene realized.
He had damaged the blade on purpose.
To make her suffer as much as possible.
Slowly, he lifted the sword. Cecilia, still trapped in his grasp, trembled violently, her body betraying her terror.
He prepared to bring the blade down.
[Your Majesty! We’re moving!]
From the corner of the room, a tentacle shot out and bit into Ireneās clothes.
Before she could even react, a powerful force yanked her backward.
In that instant, the ground beneath her turned into darkness.
Irene plunged into the void.
Far above, Michael swung his sword down. She thought she heard the sound of crimson blood splattering. A scream, raw and sharp, pierced the air.
Irene did not look away.
Not from the man who was committing sin in her place.
* * *
Thud!
With a heavy impact, Ireneās body landed on a soft carpet.
She lay face down, unmoving.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
[Your Majesty! Are you alright?]
Chomp-chomp anxiously circled beside her, clearly at a loss.
“Just now, that place wasā¦”
[It was inside Your Majesty’s memories. When you perished, your memories shattered and scattered everywhere. We must have fallen into the one most deeply connected to you. After all, Your Majesty’s memories are also a great monster realm!]
“Memoriesā¦”
Irene murmured the word.
Memories were something one could recallāfragments of the past brought back to the present.
Which meant that what she had just witnessed had truly happened.
[That place must have collapsed right after we left. It was in an extremely unstable state!]
Chomp-chomp chattered excitedly, seemingly thrilled that they had escaped.
Irene turned her head to look at Chomp-chomp.
Something was strange. Up until she had fallen into that place, she had only thought of it as a mere tentacled monster.
And yet, now she could recall its name as clearly as if it had always been thereāChomp-chomp.
And she knew, without a doubt, that she had been the one to name it.
But that was where the memory ended. Surely, there should be memories of how they first met. Or of the moment she had given it a name.
Yet, her memories were riddled with gaping holes.
And in the world just moments agoā¦
āā¦Iām back.ā
Her memories had always been full of holes. But now, at last, some of them had been filled.
Because of that, Irene could finally recognize the voids that still remained in her mind.
The memories that had returned were disjointed, scattered like puzzle pieces. But there was one thing she now knew with certainty.
She had died once before.
With great effort, Irene pushed herself up and looked around.
It was yet another unfamiliar place.
‘Butā¦ why does it look so old?’
The window in the room was cracked or broken, and dust and fallen leaves littered the floor.
As if this place had been abandoned for a long, long time.
Irene opened the door and stepped outside.
The hallway wasnāt much different from the room she had been inādusty, aged, and forgotten.
Then, voices rose from downstairs. Irene approached the staircase, straining her ears to listen.
Two men were moving quietly, trying to make as little noise as possible as they gathered up whatever they could.
āThis place is haunted. Letās just grab what we can and get out of here.ā
āThereās barely anything left to take. This place has already been looted. And cut it out with the ghost stories.ā
āIām serious. Plenty of people have seen it. When night falls, the headless Count Rhodiam wanders the halls, searching for his missing head.ā
At that, the other man clicked his tongue.
āWell, if itās Count Rhodiam, I wouldnāt be surprised. He was beheaded by an intruder, after allā¦ā
āAnd it wasnāt just the count. The whole estate was slaughtered. Killed by some madmanāno wonder heād hold a grudge.ā
āI heard about that. The guy stormed in during broad daylight, demanding someone be brought to him. What was the name again? Irene? But there was no one like that in the countās household.ā
āYeah. When they told him that, he went completely berserk. Either way, the countās corpse is still hanging at the manor gates, isnāt it? Gives me the creepsā¦ā
The men continued whispering as they made their way out of the manor.
Irene remained curled up on the stairs, frozen in place, unable to move.
Another lost memory was returning to her.
It was a childhood memory.
She had lived in this manor.
