One Day, My Fiancé Brought His First Love Along - Chapter 113

Aireen instinctively knew who she was looking at.

Gibita. The Tanil tribe’s oldest and most powerful shaman.

Even though her form was hidden beneath a pitch-black robe, the heavy, oppressive energy she radiated was unmistakable.
Gibita—the source of the curse that had tormented Carlisle for so long.

Aireen narrowed her eyes, staring into the shrouded face hidden beneath the hood.

They were separated by no more than the width of a stream.
It was impossible to read Gibita’s expression.

“If I kill you… will this all end?”

Aireen’s dry voice fell like a blade between them.

“If it were that easy, this curse would’ve been lifted long ago,” Gibita replied with calm, unaffected poise, despite being cornered.

Aireen’s eyes swept over the shamans who still stood around Gibita. Was she counting on their protection?
That couldn’t be it—Imperial knights already flanked her from behind.

This standoff, with nothing but a narrow, empty gap between them, felt strangely ridiculous.

A quiet scoff escaped Aireen’s lips.

The faint sound of her laughter cut through the tension like a knife. The air, moments ago thick with the threat of bloodshed, suddenly brimmed with charged silence.

“If you kill me, the curse will never be lifted,” Gibita warned, her lips curling slightly.

“Then I’ll make sure it can be,” Aireen answered with a cold smile.

And just like that—her smile vanished.
Aireen charged.

At the same moment, Gibita’s incantation exploded from her lips.

Rrrrumble. The ground trembled. From beneath the earth between them, something began to surge upward, bursting through the soil.

Chunks of dirt flew in all directions—
And from within, the dead rose.

“Ugh…”

Someone nearby gagged at the sight.
For many of the knights from the Khan and Lil orders, this was their first time seeing such a grotesque spectacle. They squeezed their eyes shut, fighting nausea.

“There’s so many of them!”

One, two, three… they couldn’t even be counted on fingers anymore.

Dozens upon dozens of corpses, robbed of peaceful rest, cursed to wander the world of the living.

Aireen couldn’t stop her expression from twisting. Her lips trembled with disgust.

To use even the dead without hesitation—such cruelty made her blood boil.

The undead shuffled forward with decaying limbs, aiming straight for the knights.
Gibita’s goal was clear: Aireen had to die.

“So this was your hidden card.”

Aireen’s voice was laced with bitter sarcasm.

“You won’t find it easy,” Gibita replied evenly.

Yet her voice trembled ever so slightly.

Luckily, no one seemed to notice—caught in the chaos around them.

Inside, Gibita was struggling to swallow the metallic taste rising in her throat.
A sharp pain had bloomed in her chest and was spreading through every corner of her body.

This spell was no simple feat.
Summoning the dead—dozens of them at once—was far from easy, even for her.

Around her, the other shamans looked on in open awe at what she had done.
She had no choice now but to maintain the illusion of power.

Never before had she been pushed to this point. Gibita had never been forced to reveal the full extent of her strength.
For the first time, even the Tanil and the other northern tribes saw her true capabilities.

And because of that, their fading morale reignited with fire.

“Kill them! Kill the Imperials!”

All around them, the northern tribes shouted, emboldened.
Those who could still move ran alongside the undead, charging toward the Imperial army. The Tanil shamans hurled fireballs in support.

In an instant, the tide of battle had shifted.

Gibita exhaled slowly, relief masked behind a strained breath.

It was a last-ditch effort.
She hadn’t expected things to go this far. She had paid a heavy internal price to create this standoff—but it had worked.

This was her last chance. It had to end here.

Her cold gaze locked onto Aireen through the chaos.

“Go for the head! It’s the weak spot!”

The knights of the Sel Order, well-versed in fighting the undead, shouted to their allies.

The creatures moved like they had in life, but they could be defeated—again—by severing their heads.
Whether “killed” was the right word was another matter entirely.

The Imperial knights fought with grim determination, their blades heavy with sorrow and respect for the dead they were forced to strike down.

“I’ll handle that one.”

Aireen yanked her sword from a skull and turned her piercing gaze toward Gibita.

“You don’t need to say it—it’s yours.”

Siran, who had been clearing the field beside her, replied without hesitation.

Since rejoining the knights, this was his first time fighting at Aireen’s side.
She had been surprised by his strength—so much so that she trusted him to hold the line while she focused solely on Gibita.

“Stop her! Stop her, damn it! We’re giving you everything we’ve got—why can’t you stop her?!”

The panic didn’t last long.

The Imperial knights had already learned the hard way how to handle the northern tribes—and their composure quickly returned.

Even the army summoned by Gibita began to falter.
Before long, the Tanil tribe’s expressions twisted into dread and disbelief.

Aireen cut through the chaos and reached Gibita in a flash.

“Release the curse on Carlisle. Before every last one of your allies dies.”

Standing face-to-face at last, Aireen’s voice rang cold and sharp. She wanted to kill Gibita right then and there—but she couldn’t.
She still needed to know if there was any way to break the curse. Even the slimmest hope had to be preserved.

But Gibita gave no response. Was she hesitating now that the battle was turning against her?

Aireen narrowed her eyes.
With Gibita’s hood still drawn, it was impossible to read her expression.

Just as Aireen’s patience wore thin and her brow began to furrow, Gibita finally spoke—her voice low and quiet.

“…Drown her in shadow.”

“What—?”

Aireen barely had time to question it.

Flash.

A pitch-black light surged from Gibita’s fingertips.

It was the color of pure darkness—and in an instant, it swallowed Aireen whole.

“Aireen!”

Somewhere beyond the darkness, a voice called out in fear.

“I’m fine.”

But her reply never reached the others.
She was alone—completely cut off in an unknown space.

It felt like she’d been thrown into the middle of a moonless night sky.

Aireen couldn’t see a thing.
She couldn’t even tell if she was standing on solid ground.
There was nothing but endless blackness—no sound, no light, no direction.

But she could feel it.

Something in this open, exposed space was watching her.
Waiting. Hunting.

She didn’t know when or where it would strike. All she could do was stay alert, her senses strung tight like wire.

Cold sweat began to trickle down her spine.

Was this what Carlisle had felt?

The thought hit her suddenly.
Only now, standing alone in this isolated space, could she truly begin to imagine.

The truth he never dared to show her—not even to the person he loved and trusted the most.

Was this what his every day had been like?
Carrying a pain too heavy to share.
Crushed by despair over a future he could no longer see.
Haunted by the fear of being swallowed by something he couldn’t even name.

Days spent wondering what would come for him, and when.

Frustrated by the lack of answers, crushed by helplessness.

Rage surged within her.
Carlisle’s suffering was now hers to bear.

Helplessness. Fear. Uncertainty. Emotions she couldn’t even name crowded her mind.

I won’t forgive this.
I’ll kill her.
How dare she curse him—

Just then, her sword began to glow with a faint violet light.
It shimmered softly along the blade, sharpening the edge.

But Aireen was so overwhelmed she didn’t notice the change.

At that moment, something like a dark red mist began to swirl around her feet.

Her sharpened senses immediately shifted downward.

“There you are.”

Expressionless, Aireen drove her sword straight into the ground.

Crack.

She felt it—the jarring sensation of something shattering beneath the blade.
A cold shock climbed up the hilt and sent chills through her shoulders.

Aireen looked down.

“You…”

Lying there was Carlisle.

The same distant gaze.
The same man who had once brought Judith and ended their engagement.

And that familiar, cold face—was now cracking apart where her blade had struck.

Her emotions, about to erupt, suddenly cooled.

There was no more pain.
She felt… detached.
Like watching an actor on a stage, a lifeless extra with no presence.

“How pathetic.”

The words fell out, bitter and flat.

All the confusion, the grief, the anger from before—gone.
As if they had never existed.

Wearing Carlisle’s face to hurt her—
This desperate imitation of the past made her want to laugh.
It was pathetic and infuriating.

Aireen took a step back.

The false Carlisle slowly stood, face still fractured.
A long sword shimmered dimly in his hand.

“Get lost, fake.”

To mimic Carlisle—to try and unsettle her with such a cheap illusion?

It was a complete failure.

In the end, it had never been Carlisle who betrayed her.

When she’d learned the truth, that he hadn’t abandoned her—
Was that feeling crawling up her spine rage, or was it… relief?

Once was enough.

She’d already lost him once.
She would never endure that pain again.

That’s why she chose the sword.

Because now, seeing Carlisle barely clinging to life—
It was tearing her apart.

Without hesitation, Aireen lunged forward and slashed diagonally.
Just as he had once taught her during their training.

Swish—

Her blade left a long scar down the false Carlisle’s chest.

“Aireen.”

That cold, indifferent voice called her name.

“Goodbye.”

Aireen deflected the fake’s incoming strike and swept her sword upward—
piercing directly into his chest.

“Ah… Aireen…”

For a moment, pain flickered in those lifeless eyes.
But she didn’t look away. She gripped her sword tighter—and drove it in.

The false Carlisle began to break apart.

Fssshh—

His form dissolved into particles of light.

And where he vanished, a small rift appeared.
From it, pure white light spilled out.

The radiant glow grew quickly—
and in moments, it pushed back all the darkness that had imprisoned her.

“Aireen!”

The dark shroud that had swallowed her was gone in an instant.

From within it, Aireen reappeared—bruised, battered, covered in dirt and sweat.

Across from her, Gibita’s face twisted in shock.

And Aireen… smiled.

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