CH 95

The soft hands were trembling, but there was no fear or apprehension with the slow strokes of his eyes and cheeks.

Then Ophelia cupped Richard’s cheek with her hand and said,

“I don’t know… I don’t know. No, I know. I know.”

Ophelia didn’t even know what she was talking about.

She was just in a hurry to catch him who was trying to leave.

She opened her mouth somehow, but she didn’t know what to say.

She would rather pull anything out since her head was in a jumbled state.

But it was just white and empty, and only one thing clearly came to mind in it.

Love… It was love.

“Richard said…”

“Yes.”

“You’re…”

“I’m in love with you.”

As he said that, he collapsed, unable to turn around.

As if in penitence, Richard knelt at Ophelia’s feet and took her hand as she stroked his cheek.

His lips touched her cold palm.

Deeply kissing, and saying nothing.

Even so, it was clearly heard in Ophelia’s ears.

His confession of ‘I love you’.

Ophelia looked down at him.

This was the second time she had looked down at him like this.

The first time… Yes, it was when she kidnapped him.

Back then, she looked down at him like this, wondering what to say.

Ophelia slowly lowered her body so that their eye levels were the same.

As she kissed Richard’s eyelids, which were closed, golden eyes reappeared.

Ophelia spoke with an expression that made it hard to determine if she was laughing or crying.

“…I was jealous.”

Numerous gazes and smiles toward him in the hall.

Her stomach twisted, and she felt cold as if she had swallowed ice in her stomach.

Because one of those people would stand by him.

It wasn’t a matter of whether or not the woman who stood by him was qualified.

No matter who came, even if the real heroine of the novel came, she would have said that she was not good enough to stand by him.

It was a different feeling from the total loyalty that Iris or Cooper felt.

Ophelia laughed as if crying.

The moment she realized that she loved Richard was never beautiful.

No, it couldn’t be beautiful, it was ugly.

Her heart beat only for him, she couldn’t help but feel excited when she saw him, and she felt that the whole world was like heaven when she was with him.

If she had realized that she loved him, would she have been able to say it a little more confidently?

“You… whoever swears an oath to be with you for the rest of your life, standing by your side and bathed in a rain of flowers…”

Ophelia’s throat clogged up and she shut her mouth, and Richard just stared at her indifferently.

“…I thought I didn’t want to see anyone, I didn’t want to see anyone…”

She didn’t like the people around him.

The moment she met him, the moment she recognized him, and the countless times they spent together.

The same thought was always stuck in the corner of Ophelia’s head.

Of course, the seat next to Richard, the protagonist, would be the female lead.

It was a thought that bizarrely remained unchanged, even after knowing deep down in her bones that this world was no longer fiction, but reality.

But since when did she erase the female lead from the spot next to him?

It was already too late when she realized that the things sticking up inside her like thorns were jealousy.

It was a shame that she said she would run away if someone approached her because whether it was dating or love, it was too much now.

Before she knew it, her heart was taken away by him, and she was blind and deaf.

She couldn’t help but call it love.

“Ophelia.”

As if drawn by his call, a single phrase escaped from Ophelia’s slightly parted lips.

“I love you.”

That one reply was enough.

That one sentence was enough.

Richard stretched his hand out towards Ophelia.

His sincerity, his feelings, his heart that did not come out of his mouth.

He was running to her.

The two of them hugged each other so tightly that there wasn’t a gap to fit a piece of paper in, and focused only on each other for a while.

How long were they like this?

Ophelia opened her eyes slowly and looked up at Richard.

People in love often whispered this.

That they were satisfied if they could have even one piece of you.

Or if they had even a small piece of you, it was enough.

But she couldn’t even say such a thing even if her mouth would be torn.

It didn’t matter if he cursed at her for being greedy.

Ophelia wanted it.

Not just a part of Richard, but all of him.

And, maybe… It was the same for him.

In Ophelia’s blue eyes, blue flames that were hotter than the burning red fire broke out.

Red lips parted, letting out hot breath.

“If you want me to be yours.”

Pressing her thumb hard against his lower lip, she whispered.

“You will have to be mine.”

It was a terrible thing to say. All the more so because it was directed at the crown prince of the empire, the next emperor.

However, Richard nodded very willingly, without hesitation.

“I am yours.”

No matter how long the time passed, no matter how much time went back.

If only he could be by her side. If only he could keep her by his side.

The next moment, Ophelia laughed.

She ate the dew of dawn, and like a rose in full bloom, she smiled brightly.

Richard took her hand that was pressing down on his lips and kissed her fingertips.Once and then again.

The kiss, which was short and light as if confirming warmth, deepened as it went from her fingertips to her palms, and to the pulsing of her slender wrists.

His hot breath, which had risen little by little, finally came very close, like it was touching hers.

From the depths of Richard’s neck came a scratching growl.

“Eup!”

His mouth, hot as if it would burn if touched, swallowed her lips as if devouring them.

Reflexively, she closed her eyes and his breath… It was clear.

He was inhaling her greedily.

Short of breath, she pushed his chest, but he kissed her more deeply.

His hot tongue penetrated between her slightly parted lips as she tried to inhale a breath she was deprived of.

Digging through her mouth as if it was his, his tongue touched her soft gums and lightly licked the roof of her mouth.

“Uh, euk.”

Indescribable sensations ran up Ophelia’s spine, making her instinctively pull back.

But she couldn’t move because Richard’s strong arms were tightly wrapped around her waist. So she twisted her body instead.

His shirt crumpled under her whitened hands.

She had to push him away because she was out of breath, but she also wanted to pull him out of breath. 

At a loss, Ophelia’s eyelashes quivered like the wings of a hummingbird.

Naturally, Richard had no intention of letting her go.

More. A little more.

His big, rough fingertips around her waist brushed up her smooth back, and at the same time his tongue rolled against hers.

“Ah, yes…”

As her eyes blurred, a thrill went through her, as though electricity ran through those fingertips.

For a moment, as if he were giving her time to breathe, Richard lifted his lips and looked down at Ophelia.

Hot breath flowed between swollen lips, as if all the petals of an extravagant red rose had been crushed.

A fierce smile spread across his face as he looked down at her smeared lower lip.

“Ophelia.”

His low voice was boiling with desire.

Ophelia, who had been inhaling and exhaling through parted lips with her eyes tinted red, somewhat widened her eyes.

“Huu… hak!”

Richard embraced her again.

She was really dizzy now, and her eyes went round and wide as her body was drained of strength.

Ophelia instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, and Richard pulled her in a little more.

His legs squeezed between her weak and swaying legs.

He was so hot that his tongue felt like it would melt.

No, not only him, but she was so hot that her head seemed to melt and go limp.

Even so, it was only good.

It was clear. He was a man who persistently yearned for her and coveted her madly.

“Ri… chard.”

Just as a thirsty man sought water, the two swallowed and drank each other’s breaths without asking.

The shadows of the two interlocked seamlessly with the red rain falling sky behind.

Meeting as if they were united and swaying in the red flames burning the sky.

“Huh.”

Breathing insufficiently, Ophelia took a fresh look at Richard.

How nice it would be if all the days ahead were on a flowery path just because they had the same heart.

There was nothing better than that.

However, the reality was not so rosy.

They were still in a world on the brink of destruction where fire rained down, and they had to go through the freaking infinite regression.

‘It’s not to the extent that it’s not green, but isn’t it almost a tragic ending scene, whether it’s a novel or a movie?’

Ophelia, who was staring at him blankly, opened her arms and hugged Richard tightly, and suddenly began to laugh silently.

When her shaking was transmitted, he too laughed as if it was contagious.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Because you laughed.”

At the answer that came without hesitation, Ophelia’s chest tickled and swelled like she had swallowed feathers.

More than anything else, she was overjoyed. She was incredibly happy that she was with Richard.

She was happy.

“I laughed because it was strange.”

“Hmm?”

“I didn’t expect to feel this happy in the midst of the world’s destruction.”

“Me too.”

Richard’s eyes curved as he smiled and caressed Ophelia’s lips.

“I didn’t know how to tell you while the world was perishing.”

And he said it again.

“I love you. I love you. Ophelia.”

Richard was perfectly happy, like he needed nothing but her.

So he slowly kissed the corner of Ophelia’s eyes, the bridge of her nose, and her cheek.

Before long, Richard and Ophelia’s gazes met.

The second the breath that flowed between her lips touched his rough fingers that were gently brushing her lower lip.

Nothing was said between the two, but, as usual, countless words were exchanged.

Eventually, the two of them closed their eyes and pressed their foreheads together.

Badump, badump, badump.

The more their heartbeats melded into a similar rhythm, the more the smiles on Ophelia and Richard’s lips resembled each other.

The moment their heartbeats finally became one and their smiles became the same.

“Let’s go back.”

“Regression.”

Soon after, the fire rain and roar that covered the entire sky red, and the fourth sign of the world destruction that people had witnessed disappeared.

Ame: AHHHHHHHHHH! FINALLY!! FINALLYYYYYYY!! MY HEART IS FILLED AND I’m probably gonna die forever alone cause no one can stand up to all these hot and caring novel/manhwa male leads… whatever… BRING OUT THE CHAMPAGNE! OUR OPHELIA AND RICHARD HAVE FINALLY SEEN THE LIGHT!!!!!!

Dea: LETSSSSSS GOOOOOO! I WAS WAITING FOR THIS!! I also got so excited that I forgot the world was ending for a second haha