Fearlessly (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 14
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“The reason I locked you here. The reason I turned your staff into a tower. The reason I gradually made your power fade.”
“……”
“The reason I prevented humans from using their power.”
Lakrahan released Bercheria and, as if retracing his thoughts once more, gently stroked his dry jaw with his fingertips.
“Have you never thought about it?”
“Thought about it……”
Bercheria’s lips closed slowly, suffocatingly.
She hadn’t.
It had always been that way, so she’d taken it for granted.
When she’d come to her senses, all she’d wanted was to escape.
So she hadn’t let the opportunity that came to her slip away—and now this was the result.
“Lakrahan.”
Bercheria, lost in thought, suddenly jerked her head up.
She scanned the area below, then abruptly grabbed his collar.
“I hear a sound.”
“……What sound do you mean?”
“The sound of Mother coming here every day.”
Her face, already pale, was now turning ashen gray.
Clunk, clunk.
The sound echoed in her mind—so familiar now that her body reacted before her thoughts could catch up.
The pattern was always the same.
It always began with the noise of stones on the ground bouncing off the wheels of an ornate carriage.
When the carriage hit the bulge midway down the weed-covered road, it would rise smoothly, then drop down a half-beat late.
-Hyah!
At that moment, the coachman whipped the horse’s hindquarters again.
“Lakrahan!”
Bercheria cried out, almost like someone on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
“Mother—Mother is coming here!”
“What are you saying? Are you all right? Your state right now……”
Bercheria clung to him pleadingly.
“It’s not a delusion. I’ve heard this sound every single day of my life. It’s Mother.”
Bercheria gasped for breath, words pouring out in a rush.
“Mother is coming here right now. I’m right. She didn’t die. That wasn’t Mother. The real Mother is coming.”
She muttered like someone who’d lost her mind.
Just what was this being called “Mother,” anyway?
How could a woman who had always stood so confidently before her crumble so instantly?
“Bercheria. Look at me straight. Pull yourself together.”
Lakrahan’s nerves were stretched taut.
He didn’t know what her life had been like—living in this filthy, tiny tower with not a single possession.
Even trying to imagine it, just by looking, felt utterly absurd.
The very notion of guessing what life here must have been like made no sense from the start.
“Everything’s ruined. Now I’ll be trapped here forever, enduring Mother’s whippings until I die.”
She whispered weakly, like a child who’d just had her favorite candy snatched away.
“I can’t even die alone if I want to. Mother said she’d never take that ability from me until the very end. So I……”
What must it have felt like, living day after day unable to die or leave?
How harshly must she have whipped herself just to stay sane?
What had she been thinking when she stepped out of the tower in those filthy clothes?
“It’s over now.”
Bercheria’s shimmering golden eyes were stained with despair.
Lakrahan felt something hot surge up inside his chest.
This was Bercheria—the one who’d refused to utter even a single word of weakness to him with her expressionless face.
He couldn’t just stand by and watch her fall apart like this.
He didn’t know what kind of person the “Mother” she spoke of was, but back then he hadn’t been there—and now he was by her side.
Bercheria needed to realize that.
“How long does it take?”
Lakrahan took her hand, which had been clutching his collar, and pressed it firmly against his chest.
She was the woman who’d once said her heart raced just by looking at his face—he hoped this might somehow snap her out of it.
“I asked how long it takes for the carriage to reach the tower.”
Bercheria answered with a blank expression.
“Ten minutes. No—about fifteen.”
Lakrahan exhaled deeply.
“Then let’s do it. Everything you and I can possibly do in those fifteen minutes.”
“What?”
“There’s no time to hesitate. We have eleven minutes now.”
“What are you talking about right……”
Lakrahan suddenly pulled Bercheria into a tight embrace.
Their chests pressed together, and the sound of her heartbeat reached him through their skin.
He held her even tighter.
“How does it feel? Do you sense anything?”
His voice, slipping out in urgency, trembled faintly at the end.
In the North, the morning sun was slowly rising.
Since early morning, a long procession had been forming outside the castle gates.
Today was the day Princess Kelita from the royal court was scheduled to arrive.
Wyatt and the knights, dressed in formal attire for the first time in ages, were heading to the portal to formally greet her.
It was unavoidable—they couldn’t risk the royal court gossiping that they’d failed to show proper etiquette for the princess’s visit.
Beside him, Alex, riding his horse in unison, covered his mouth and whispered discreetly.
“But where on earth has the Duke gone?”
“I don’t know.”
Wyatt, who’d spent all night searching for Lakrahan, was in a foul mood.
He was furious that Lakrahan had vanished so completely, even though he clearly knew he was supposed to meet Princess Kelita at the portal.
“Seriously! What am I supposed to tell the princess!”
Wyatt shouted, making Alex jump and glance around nervously.
“Um… Can’t we just tell the truth?”
“Are you insane? That he ran off into the forest at midnight with some unknown woman?”
“No, sorry. Wait—Commander! Isn’t the portal about to open already?”
“What?”
Wyatt looked up to see the portal looming right before him.
The portal, shaped like a massive semicircle, was made of Honyo stone—a material so rare it was nearly impossible to find anywhere on the continent.
The distinctive luminous black stone glowed faintly, as if holding sunlight within.
Once the light fully enveloped the oval’s edge, a transparent membrane would form inside the circle, and the princess’s party would appear.
“Damn it. This is really bad.”
Wyatt anxiously stared down the path toward the forest, hoping against hope that Lakrahan might still show up.
Lakrahan’s heartbeat pounded like an earthquake, shaking her entire body.
Her fragile frame couldn’t even absorb his rhythm—it simply reverberated straight through her back.
“How does it feel?”
Bercheria said nothing, but it was clear she hadn’t regained her strength.
He knew from the start that something as simple as an embrace wouldn’t solve anything.
Lakrahan cupped her face in both palms, lifting it so she’d look directly at him.
“We’re out of time. We must find a way before your mother arrives.”
Now it was his own heart that raced.
He’d realized that without her staff, escaping would be meaningless for Bercheria.
Simply prolonging her days—slowly eroding her life—might only bring her more suffering.
“Snap out of it, Bercheria.”
Still gazing into her wavering eyes, Lakrahan suddenly pressed his lips to hers.
This time, there was no room for thought.
His mind was filled only with the certainty that deeper contact worked better in urgent moments.
“……!”
It was just a fleeting, light brush—but enough to startle Bercheria.
Lakrahan watched her quietly.
A sharp, fiery light began seeping through her once-hazy golden eyes.
“Ha.”
Lakrahan squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again.
“Bercheria. Listen to me carefully.”
He wasn’t the kind of man who’d casually kiss a woman just to rouse her senses.
Even if it was meant as healing, it was difficult for Lakrahan, who had especially little experience with women.
“I’m helping you here because I care for my people.”
He felt he needed to make that absolutely clear.
Bercheria looked at him with eyes that couldn’t understand what he was saying.
“And this is also my way of repaying you for saving the children and Mrs. Morgan.”
“It’s fine—just hurry.”
Bercheria grabbed the back of his head and yanked him close to her.
Without hesitation, she kissed him.
The moment their skin touched, she understood.
This time was different.
Hot breath rushed in, and Bercheria felt as if her body had become the sun itself.
Golden light erupted from her like an explosion, instantly enveloping the tower.
It was a blinding radiance—bright enough to blind Lakrahan had he not kept his eyes closed.
And in the next instant.
Lakrahan opened his eyes, feeling as if the ground beneath his feet had vanished, and looked down.
The world below his feet had disappeared.
Simultaneously, both their bodies began plummeting toward the pitch-black floor below.
The portal gate opened, and a carriage bearing the royal emblem—an eagle—appeared.
Wyatt swallowed hard.
Before the war began, he’d served as a royal knight assigned to Princess Kelita.
He’d spent only two months by her side before the war broke out and he left the court.
Yet even after that, he’d occasionally thought of her.
He still didn’t know whether it was because wartime left so much time alone—or because Kelita had been the last woman he’d met.
He’d stopped thinking about her once rumors of his engagement to Lakrahan began circulating.
As the carriage fully emerged, Wyatt stepped forward nervously.
“Commander Wyatt.”
Kelita extended her hand naturally the moment she spotted him.
“Your Highness. It’s an honor to have you in the North.”
Wyatt knelt on one knee, kissed the back of her hand, then rose to his feet.
Kelita scanned the surroundings with her round eyes and asked,
“Where is the Duke?”
“Ah, well…”
Wyatt was loyal and brave—but not a clever man.
“He’s… got stomach pains and went to the lavatory…”
“What?”
He twitched his caterpillar-like eyebrows and scratched the back of his neck vigorously.
“He’s trapped in the lavatory with diarrhea! I’m so sorry!”
Kelita, who’d been blinking with wide eyes, suddenly let out a soft giggle.
Covering her mouth lightly with her hand, she smiled gently and said,
“Then I’ll wait.”
“What?”
“I’ll wait right here until His Grace arrives.”
Wyatt’s face went pale.
Kelita, who’d received special orders to ensure her marriage to Lakrahan succeeded no matter what, didn’t want this visit to go wrong from the very start.
“Don’t worry about me, Commander. I’m fine.”
Facing Kelita’s cheerful smile, Wyatt’s large lips trembled uncontrollably as he tried to smile back.
The moment her lips touched Lakrahan’s.
Bercheria felt the air around her shift instantly.
An unknown power surged within her, and the world seemed to slow down abruptly.
She slowly lifted her eyelids—and saw Lakrahan’s face.
At the same time, the tower surrounding them began to ripple as if alive, then gradually folded inward from the floor below, vanishing bit by bit.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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I have a inkling that Lione is probably Berche’s ‘Mother’?