Chapter 98
Chapter 98. Memories Hidden in the Abyss (2)
Each time Tatar de Tessibania thrust upwards, Vinea Madretta Veshnu’s toes, which barely touched the ground, fluttered in the air. One of his hands burrowed into her dress, gripping her hips, while the other clasped her slender waist, lifting and lowering her in rhythm with his movements.
Vinea, trying to suppress her moans for fear of being overheard, eventually couldn’t withstand his relentless pace. Pl*asure-laden groans escaped through her parted, flushed lips.
“Ah, ah, hmmm—”
As she succumbed to the overwhelming pl*asure and bent her head down, her moans directly reached his ears. Tatar decided to savor this ephemeral dream, his own body taut with tension.
“Ah, no, just a bit gentler, please…”
What had they done for him to go easy? Tatar, consumed by desire, closed his eyes and focused solely on Vinea. Her body, already tight, now clutched his m*mber so fiercely that it was almost impossible to move freely.
When he thrust powerfully upwards, Vinea’s body stiffened momentarily and then shook violently. Her legs, rigid in the air, soon collapsed, but he did not stop, continuing his movements as lewd sounds echoed through the garden.
Vinea, no longer able to comprehend her surroundings, simply allowed her body to be swayed as he wished.
“Ugh…”
Soon, Tatar’s cl*max reached deep inside Vinea. The overflow, mingling with her thighs and dress, marked their union.
He growled in a hoarse voice, “Not yet over.”
When he said that, Vinea struggled to open her eyes and clutched her stomach.
“No, Your Majesty. No more…”
“Just one more time. Show me mercy, Empress.”
Despite his pleading, Vinea shook her head and buried her face in his shoulder. He swallowed a low moan.
“Don’t forget we have to visit the temple tomorrow. It’s an important appointment.”
Her words brought Tatar back to the reality of when this memory might be set. Not only had Vinea lost her memories, but everything surrounding them was different from the seventy-seventh regression. It was a memory from before all regressions began.
Resigned to the inescapable past, he nodded grimly.
Tatar’s eyes darkened with sorrow.
Regrettably, we won’t make it to the temple. Assassins will take our lives before then.
He hurriedly adjusted his disheveled clothing and effortlessly carried Vinea. Though it was usual for him to carry her due to the strain of their encounters not being in a bed, at this point, she was unfamiliar with such closeness and squirmed in his arms.
He pressed her face into his chest.
After returning to the bedroom and spending the night, an unwelcome day arrived.
Knowing all possible futures, he found it hard to attach meaning to this schedule in reality, yet he did not want to behave poorly here.
Mimicking his past self, Tatar spent time and then boarded the carriage.
The fatigue of a single night was still evident on Vinea’s face sitting across from him.
Resting one arm against the window and tapping his temple, he opened a conversation.
“If we were to die today, what do you think you’d regret the most?”
Caught off-guard by his sudden question while reading the newspaper, Vinea looked up. Her blue eyes, filled with confusion, met his.
“Why would I die? I need to live.”
“…A response befitting an Empress,” he said, straightening up and leaning back. The travel from the teleportation spot to the temple would take about two hours. After that, we die. Whether I wake up again, I don’t know.
His fingers tapped his knee rhythmically.
“Still, try to answer. If you were to die today, what do you think you’d regret the most?”
“Regret…”
After a moment of contemplation, Vinea set aside the newspaper. Her gaze, clear and devoid of shadows under her long eyelashes, met his squarely.
“It seems you desire a serious answer, so let me speculate.”
What would she say? Asked what she most wished for, she had once said peace with him, based on her memories shortly after their marriage under the influence of the Arpanium tea.
What would she, having been with him nearly a year, regret the most?
Tatar waited with a slight sense of anxiety for her reply.
“Perhaps marrying you, Your Majesty.”
“…What?”
“Just curious. Without any coercion, if one were to choose a lifelong partner, who would it be? And how would I be living? It’s an unreachable future that continues to pique my curiosity. Since you insisted on an answer.”
“Unfortunately, such a future will remain unreachable. After today, you will spend a very, very long time… with me.”
“That’s a unique way to say ‘let’s live a long life.'”
Vinea chuckled lightly and picked up the newspaper again when the carriage suddenly lurched to a stop.
The silence outside, the sudden chorus of crickets, the goosebumps rising without reason. Amidst the tension and silence, footsteps approached rapidly.
Tatar gazed at Vinea with settling eyes, as if reading the impending doom, her complexion growing notably paler.
“Your Majesty, now…”
“Don’t be afraid, Empress. The pain will be brief, and our lives will not end with this.”
Standing, he shifted the chair cushion aside and drew a sword hidden inside. Knowing they were about to die, he hoped to spare her from pain, even if this was just a fleeting memory or hallucination.
He was the first to leap from the carriage, as he had before the regressions began.
As the rain began to pour, he wielded his sword fiercely, accustomed to the sensation of cutting through flesh. Though his movements were incomparable to those of the past, the assassins pressed him harder as he fought them alone.
There’s a limit to how many one can fend off alone. As wounds accumulated on his body, it was inevitable that Vinea would emerge from the carriage.
He grimaced as she picked up a fallen sword and ran towards him, even though she didn’t need to.
“The Empress always comes to save me. Unaware of the value of her own life.”
He blocked a sword aimed at Vinea’s back. The clang of steel sparked as he intercepted the blade.
He knew it wouldn’t last long. His body was heavy, and the assassins were increasingly aggressive.
One by one, as Tatar cut down the assassins, a sword aimed at Vinea’s heart caught his eye.
This is it.
Without hesitation, he threw himself to shield her back.
Thud—The two bodies collapsed lifelessly as the sword pierced through both hearts, their blood diluted by the rain.
The assassins quickly vanished, and Tatar, amidst the pain, captured the fading light in Vinea’s blue eyes.
“It’s okay. It’ll be over soon. Blink, and in a moment, we’ll…”
His breath stopped. As warmth left his body rapidly, he couldn’t even hold her.
Unable to close his eyes, Tatar watched as Vinea faced death.
Had he also stopped breathing? Unable to move a muscle, he had no way to check. He just kept his eyes open, capturing Vinea in his memory, continuously, until the end.
And as this memory drew to a close, a scene he had never seen began to unfold.
A brilliant light poured from Vinea’s fallen body, stunningly beautiful, almost making him forget it emerged from death.
He had seen this light before.
Sefitiana. The cursed start of the regressions.
The same light that he had encountered in Sefitiana now enveloped Vinea. Her body, slightly lifted in the air, gradually settled back to the ground.
The aurora light emerging from Vinea then coalesced into a human form with long hair and a slender body, surrounded by a multicolored glow, resembling someone he knew.
The woman in the artifact, the first to make a wish in Sefitiana.
As the light in the woman’s form caressed Vinea’s body, a lump of unemerged light was pulled into her embrace.
The woman, cradling the light as if soothing a child, turned around. Facing the fallen Tatar.
Then, as if showing off to his dead eyes, she shook her head.
‘Is this a memory or a hallucination?’
He thought he was wandering in the last memories of his first life before the regressions started, but now, faced with a scene he had never seen, he started to question if this was real or just his delusion.
Eventually, the woman with the orb of light turned her back on him.
Unable to call out or look away, he simply watched her form until it completely disappeared. And his vision darkened until total darkness enveloped him.
