Chapter 580: Only A Dream? (II)

"Edmond..." she spoke his name softly, and there was a hint of desperation in her tone.

From afar, she could already see her house, and she saw Edmond taking a weapon from the storage shed while still holding their daughter in his arm.

"Edmond!" Rose shouted as loudly as she could. "Don’t fight them! Run! We have to—"

BOOM!

Just as she was about to step into their living area, the ground around Edmond exploded one after another, trapping him and their daughter in a ring of explosions and fire.

At the same time, the ground beneath Rose’s feet shook so violently that she was thrown backward.

Her body slammed against the ground. For several seconds, all she could hear was a painful ringing in her ears.

She almost lost consciousness, but she slapped herself as hard as she could to wake herself up.

Wake up?

Could this be just another dream as well?

In her confusion, she hit her own head hard again and again, hoping that she could escape from this nightmare.

"Wake up... Please..."

She wanted to open her eyes and find herself back in their bed.

She wanted to see Edmond lying beside her, looking at her with worry in his eyes and he would pull her into his arms like he always did.

He would gently stroke her hair, then he would tell her the words she wanted to hear more than anything. "It’s alright, sweetheart. It’s just a dream."

But no.

No, it wasn’t a dream.

No matter how hard she hit her head, she never woke up, and even though Rose had already realized that, she refused to believe it.

Primrose, who witnessed these painful memories through Rose’s eyes, could only cry in desperation, unable to do anything.

She could feel everything Rose felt; the fear, the panic, and the desperate hope that this was only another nightmare.

Primrose wanted to look away, but she couldn’t.

She wanted to close her eyes, but she had no control over what she saw.

She wanted to tell Rose that she wasn’t alone, but Rose couldn’t hear her.

It was too much.

These memories were too painful.

Primrose didn’t want to see any more.

She wanted to leave this place.

She wanted to go home.

She wanted to see Edmund.

But no matter how desperately she wished for it, the memory refused to let her go.

She could only remain there, trapped inside Rose’s past, until she had witnessed everything to the very end.

On the other side, Rose desperately tried to get back on her feet. She placed both hands on the ground and pushed herself up, but her arms immediately gave out.

"Damn it."

She fell back down. Her whole body hurt. Her head was spinning, and the painful ringing in her ears still hadn’t stopped, but she couldn’t just stay there.

She needed to find Edmond and their daughter.

Rose tried to stand again, but her legs refused to support her. The moment she put any weight on them, she collapsed once more.

A moment later, she began to crawl instead. Her palms scraped against the rough ground as she dragged herself toward their home.

"Edmond..."

Smoke burned her eyes and made it difficult to see, but she kept moving.

"He’s fine..." Rose whispered to herself. "He has to be fine."

Edmond was a Lycan and he was not just any Lycan, but a powerful one.

He had survived things that would have killed an ordinary person. He could heal quickly, and his senses were far stronger than those of a human.

There was no way an explosion like that could kill him. At least, that was what Rose desperately wanted to believe.

"He must have found a way out." Her voice shook as she continued crawling. "He probably took our daughter somewhere safe."

Rose held tightly onto that thought as she dragged herself forward, refusing to think about any other possibility.

However, another explosion suddenly shook the ground in the distance again.

Rose flinched, instinctively covering her head. When she looked up again, her breath caught in her throat.

She saw their home was burning.

The small house they had built together was almost completely covered in flames. The storage shed had already collapsed, and fire had spread across their little farm.

The crops Rose had carefully planted were turning into ash.

The fence Edmond had built with his own hands was broken and burning.

She could hear the terrified cries of their animals somewhere beyond the smoke.

Then, one by one, those cries disappeared.

Rose stared at everything in horror. It had taken them months to build this place.

Months to turn a lonely part of the forest into their home and it had taken only a few moments to destroy it.

Even so, Rose quickly shook her head because none of that mattered.

If their house was destroyed, they could build another one.

If their crops were gone, they could plant new ones.

They could raise more animals.

They could start over and build their life again from the beginning.

They had done it once before, so they could do it again.

However, for her to make that happen, she had to make sure that Edmond and their daughter were alive.

"Edmond!" Rose shouted as she continued crawling toward the flames. "Where are you?!"

She waited for an answer, but even after waiting for so long, she never heard his voice.

It was strange because no matter what happened, Edmond always answered whenever Rose called him.

Even if he was busy, even if he was far away, he would always let her know that he had heard her. And he would usually come to her whenever she called him with urgency.

But this time, he didn’t.

Her heart began to pound even harder. "Edmond!"

Rose swallowed hard and dragged herself forward. "Please..." Her voice broke as she continued, "Answer me."

She was beginning to lose all the hope in her heart, but not long after that, she suddenly saw a silhouette walking through the ring of fire.

A smile slowly formed on Rose’s face, and hope began to rise in her heart again. "Edm—"

The smile on her face froze as she realized that the person stepping out of the ring of fire wasn’t her Edmond.

"It’s nice to see you, my dear daughter," the Cardinal greeted as he slowly removed his mask.