I Just Wanted to Avoid Death - Chapter 122
At that time, Adelio couldn’t understand the Empress’s behavior. Yet, another part of him had already resigned itself, thinking, ‘So now it’s my turn.’
“So, I was imprisoned for quite some time.”
“…Did nobody from the temple try to help you?”
“They were in no position to help. The Saintess had vanished, and the Imperial Family was openly pressuring the temple.”
Upon hearing Adelio’s words, Yeshion’s face twisted.
Of course he was alarmed. Rosaline had vanished? Was his disappearance somehow related to Rosaline’s death?
Yeshion glanced briefly toward Rosaline with this doubt in mind, only for him to quietly avert his gaze.
At that, Adelio gently buried his face against Yeshion’s neck. When Yeshion flinched slightly at the ticklish sensation of Adelio’s hair brushing against his skin, a low, warm chuckle escaped from Adelio’s lips.
“So, what happened to you?”
“…With the Saintess and the Archpriest gone, and you not there either, I couldn’t suppress the curse.”
He’d struggled desperately, more than ever before, to hold back the curse, but the heat that surged through his veins couldn’t be restrained by willpower alone.
Eventually, Adelio lost himself completely, acting like a beast consumed by insatiable lust.
Unable to suppress the curse, he attacked anyone who came near him. No matter how desperately he fought against it, the curse burning through his veins refused to yield.
“…In the end, I ended up proving that I really was cursed.”
Adelio muttered quietly, closing his eyes.
Even now, the Empress’s words remained vivid in his ears. Tied down helplessly, Adelio had been stared down upon by the Empress’s contemptuous gaze.
“This must surely be the work of the devil, Your Majesty. No matter his being of imperial blood, you must execute him to set an example.”
The sky on day he died had been exceptionally clear.
Even while struggling to hold himself up through the unending curse, Adelio’s mind was filled solely with thoughts of Yeshion.
He’d heard that the imperial troops had attacked the temple—what had become of it? Had Yeshion recovered? Had someone managed to deliver the medicine he needed?
And how would Yeshion react when he found out Adelio had died?
‘I hope he at least feels a bit sad.’
Holding onto that small wish, Adelio had closed his eyes for the last time. Even as the sharp blade pressed against his neck and his life ended.
Even then, at the very last moment, Adelio thought only of Yeshion.
“I thought of you until the very end. Perhaps heaven is granting me this wish.”
“……”
“Even after death, I’ve gotten to see you again like this.”
Adelio whispered, exhaling deeply.
But unlike Adelio, whose voice revealed profound longing and joy, Yeshion’s expression was troubled.
‘You were executed…?’
Could everything really have unraveled so disastrously just because he himself had died? Or had their tragic ends always been predestined?
“We aren’t dead.”
“Hm?”
Yeshion took hold of Adelio’s cheek, whose face had been buried against his shoulder, and gazed intently into his eyes. Adelio’s eyes slowly regained their focus.
“We’re both alive. You and me.”
“What are you talking about…? Then, was it all just a dream?”
“No.”
Adelio’s death.
Eldis’s death.
And Rosaline’s death.
Perhaps their deaths, following Yeshion’s own, had always been destined to happen.
An ending unknown to readers, one without a neat ‘and they lived happily ever after.’ Something neither Yeshion nor anyone else could have predicted.
‘Come to think of it, nothing was ever truly resolved in the original story either.’
Adelio’s curse was something Rosaline couldn’t handle alone. Eldis had secrets he’d hidden as well.
But if they solved these problems…
‘Maybe death could be avoided?’
Not just his death, but theirs as well.
And maybe even Rosaline could survive.
Yeshion clenched his fists tightly and spoke.
“We need to talk.”
“……”
“To avoid death.”
Not just his own death…
To avoid the deaths of all of us.
