NOVEL NEXT Chapter 330: His fault
Noah and his siblings watched calmly as Lea stabbed Neron with the sword, making him cry out in pain.
The scene dragged on, and on, with Noah always restoring Neron just enough to keep him alive, just enough to feel it, before ordering Lea to pierce his heart again.
At the beginning, naturally, Lea cried in pain. She wept again and again and screeched at Noah like a deranged goddess about to turn into a demoness, a vile being birthed by the ugliness of universe itself.
But all she received was Noah's indifferent gaze, made worse by the cruel smirk tugging at his lips. Clearly, he couldn't care less about how she felt.
In fact, he relished watching a Worldborn suffer this much. And as he looked at Neron in this state, his mind drifted toward Orien and Klaus…
…toward the day their turns would come, when they would lie bleeding on the ground while the one they loved most ripped out their hearts, then shredded them like sheets of paper and scattered them to the corners of the universe.
Yes, that was what he wanted. And that was what he would get.
This baneful scene continued for a while before Noah finally stopped it.
Lea sat on Neron's stomach, her hands drenched in green blood, clutching the sword above him, its tip trembling with the spill of his life.
Her eyes were wide and dilated, and at the same time, something inside them was gone forever — that spark of love, of happiness, of mercy, of purity… completely extinguished.
A coldness cloaked her whole body like a veil of death and despair, the kind only seen in the broken.
Her arms no longer trembled, they stopped only because Noah told her to stop.
She was completely broken.
She had wept until there were no tears left.
She had begged for mercy until her throat was dry and cracked like drought-stricken rock in a desert under a sun that would not answer.
All of this because she had kept shredding the heart of the love of her life, again and again, watching him choke on his blood, his face numb with pain and fear, and all she could do was bathe his face in her tears as if they could heal the hole she carved in him.
The sorrow was so much, so damn much, that her mind shut itself down, her emotions numbed to protect the last shards of her self from shattering.
"Aye… I didn't know you could be this cruel, brother. Please, remind me to never make you an enemy, okay?" Asaemon said, his voice carrying a distinct note of amusement.
He was obviously not taking this seriously.
After all, he had seen far worse. In this universe, you could witness the most atrocious things committed by people you would never believe capable of harming an annoying fly.
The darkness of the universe runs deep, extremely deep. And the moment you set foot inside it, you never escape.
Only then do you realize how sinister, how wretched, how malevolent people with power can be. They will do anything they want…
Destroy your world, your family, rape you, twist you, make you do horrors a mortal mind cannot comprehend, all to feed the disgusting desires they hide from the light.
So both Asaemon and Aurelia felt nothing in particular as they watched.
They had seen worse.
And yet, there was something compelling about how Noah acted — how he tortured you and made you feel the deepest pain you ever experienced while wearing the sweetest smile on that disgustingly handsome face.
Something in it made his dear sister Aurelia want more of it. She wanted to see it and, in a quiet corner of her mind, she wanted to experience it.
To feel what it was like to be in the soft but cruel hands of a man like Noah.
And that rising feeling only grew as she watched what came next.
Crunching steps began to echo through the space as Noah approached Lea, still holding the sword, eyes lifeless, with Neron beneath her, his face a ruin of tears, blood, spit, and snot.
Truly, a bloody mess.
Noah stopped an inch from Lea and squatted, bringing his gaze level with hers.
She still didn't react.
She looked as if she were only waiting for Noah's order to resume her merciless work.
Noah took her chin gently and turned her face to his. Lea's eyes locked into his white ones, her expression still lifeless.
Noah smiled.
"Did it hurt you?" he asked softly.
"Did it hurt you to stab your husband's heart again and again, to feel the resistance of his flesh and hear the tearing of his heart?"
He paused, staring deep into her yellow-grey eyes.
"Did it hurt?" he asked again.
And as his master, she had no choice but to answer, no choice but to obey his every bidding.
"Yes," she said, nodding. "It hurt." She answered truthfully, and Noah's smile sharpened like the edge of a blade.
"And so does mine, Lea. Even now."
"So tell me, do you blame me for seeking revenge? Do you blame me for wanting to return the same pain to those who carved it into me?" he asked, his hand tightening on her chin.
"No…I don't. I understand. And I… I would do the same as you…to you." she answered, again truthfully.
Noah chuckled.
"But can you do it?"
At this, Lea could only grit her teeth. "No."
Because she knew. the bindings of the Records were not something any being in this universe can break without the Records' own consent.
"So do you know what to do now?" Noah continued, drawing her focus back to him.
She looked confused, not understanding what he meant.
Noah smirked and pointed at Neron.
"If you think about it, you are in this situation because of Neron. If not for him, if he didn't love you, if he weren't your husband, you wouldn't be feeling any of this right now."
BADUM—!
Lea's heart skipped a beat as Noah's voice sank deep into her, and she began to feel something she shouldn't.
She shook her head violently, bit her lip, and glared at Noah. "It's… it's not his fault," she snarled.
Noah's smirk turned razor-thin.
"You know I'm right. I'm only the consequence. But him…" he said, pointing again at Neron…
"…he is the cause of all this, my dear Lea."
Lea began to tremble as she turned to look at Neron, and now that she truly thought about it…
He was the one who provoked Asaemon, an abomination, because he was Worldborn.
Asaemon and his siblings came to kill him, but he dragged her — and her entire realm — into it.
And after that, she walked through torment… because this smiling bastard wanted to hurt her husband by hurting her.
All of this… because of him.
Slowly, Lea began to look at Neron with something unthinkable…with resentment.
It was maddening.
But Noah was not satisfied.
He leaned even closer, his face an inch from hers, and whispered like a sinful dream, like the greatest devil,
"It's all his fault… all of it. Hate him. Loathe him. Kill him by your own will. Watch life disappear from his eyes after everything he made you endure…"
"…do all of this and…"
Their eyes locked.
White eyes against yellow-grey eyes.
Their lips almost touched as Noah finished:
"…do all of this, and…"
He grinned and, instinctively, Lea mirrored his devil's grin.
"…and be mine, Lea."
—End of chapter 330—