“Even if I have to throw their useless shells and souls into hell, I will make sure they can never crawl back onto this land.”
Only one fact brought Redian joy.
“Do you know how long I’ve waited for this day, Ipos?”
“…”
“Thinking about the traces of Siani that might still remain in their bodies and minds, even now, I…”
Redian didn’t finish his sentence. But Ipos could guess what his lord had barely swallowed back.
“If I don’t do it, who will?”
What was clear was that Redian seemed extremely pleased. Today, they would be completely erased from Siani’s attention and memory. Finally, he would be able to monopolize all her breaths and traces.
“I should return before dawn to take a bath.”
With his robe pressed down, Redian headed to the prison. Fortunately, it was still dark. Siani would still be deeply asleep.
* * *
In the prison of the great temple, not a single ray of light was allowed. Due to the barrier surrounding it, nothing could be heard or seen. Only the intense darkness remained.
“….”
Ash, who was trapped there, did not know how many days had passed. He had no interest in how the world was turning. He just stared at the cold floor with empty eyes.
“How could you…”
Ash clutched his head, endlessly replaying the image of Siani. Her unwavering steps toward the altar where flames sparked, the look in her eyes as she stared at Redian tied to the stake, the hand that ultimately saved that filthy devil!
“How could you…”
But Siani hadn’t looked back when he was bound by soldiers. Even as he screamed her name, she didn’t spare him a glance.
“Siani, how could you do this to me?” Ash bit his nails and repeated those words for a long time.
How much time had passed like that?
-You should have died instead of me.
Suddenly, a sickening smell of blood wafted over him again.
-Because of you, I died!
A blurry vision flickered before his eyes like smoke.
-You useless b*stard!
It was his father, dead with a hole in his head.
-You ruined everything!
But Ash’s expression was only vacant as if he were used to it.
-Bring me back to life, Ash! Even if you have to sacrifice your life, bring me back!
“If you wanted to live, you should have kept your promise to me.” Then Ash, who had staggered to his feet, approached the vision. “Father, if my body hadn’t been bound, I would have stepped on your fallen corpse to get to Siani.”
-Ash Benio!
“I led the soldiers that day. I have always stained my hands with dirty blood for you, all because of that promise…”
That promise, the promise to eventually get what he wanted!
“All I wanted was Siani Felicite. Knowing that, why did you…”
Ash’s voice, which had been locked up, grew stronger.
“At least this time, you should have kept your promise. Why did you try to take away my last hope! Why!”
-You useless child. In the end, you lost to that devil. You let that sl*ve take everything from you.
“Stop it, stop…”
The hallucination, whether it was reality or a nightmare, deafened Ash’s ears.
-You’re my disgrace and the same of Benio. End your life with your own hands right now!
“…Why me?”
–Keugh!
“Why me!”
At the same time, Ash reached out into the air as if trying to strangle someone.
“You should die. Right? Please, just get out of my life already!”
Then he muttered as if brainwashing himself. “I must survive.”
The original Ash would have committed suicide here to preserve his remaining honor.
“I need to hear Siani’s answer.”
But he wasn’t like that now. He couldn’t die until Siani came back to him. He would never die.
“There must be a reason.”
–Keuugh!
Ash watched as the vision of his father crumbled in his hands and muttered. “Because for Siani, there’s only me.”
His eyes, now devoid of color, were empty.
“The only one Siani can love and rely on is me.”
So Siani would come back to him. Just as she always did.
“Siani will come to save me. She will come to hold me like she did when I was a child.”
Just like the day when he was first slapped by the grand duke and the day he had to kneel and beg all day.
“Siani, Siani. Right?”
This time too, definitely, without fail!
Just as his breaths became irregular.
“…Siani?”
Ash, who had been covering his face, quickly lifted his head. He sensed someone’s presence beyond the barrier.
“Siani, you’ve finally come. Right?”
Crawling to the bars, he desperately grabbed them.
“Siani! You’ve come back, right?”
You came just as I thought you would.
“Siani, I knew you would come to save me. Yes, you wouldn’t abandon me.”
Yes, you wouldn’t just leave me like this.
With a face full of joy, he continued to mutter to himself. But,
“Still haven’t figured out your place, have you?”
Ash’s gaze froze at the voice that bore down on him.
“You… how did you get here?”
The eyes he met in the darkness were disgustingly brilliant blue. There was only one being in this world with eyes of that color.
“I came to give you a final farewell.”
“You monstrous b*stard.” Ash glared at Redian and gripped the bars tightly. “What did you do to Siani? Where is she? Bring Siani to me. Now!”
Redian was definitely smiling. He even seemed genuinely amused by the current situation.
“Bring Siani to me!”
Ash wanted to stab Redian in the neck right now.
“Bring Siani to me. It’s my last request.”
“…”
But instead, Ash hunched his shoulders and begged him.
“You see with your own eyes how wretched I look trapped here.”
He was pitiful and desperate as if there was no way he could lower himself more than this.
“If you could show Siani how pathetic I am, wouldn’t you enjoy that too?”
“…”
“I can do anything. If Siani wants, I could lick her feet like a dog.”
“…”
“Please. Let me at least ask for forgiveness for all the things my father did.”
“Well.”
But then,
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
Redian, who had been quietly listening, finally opened his mouth.
“Do you think I don’t know?”
“…What?”
“You killed him with your own hands.”
“…!”
“Your father, I mean.”
Redian remained composed while Ash’s face instantly hardened.
“How do you know…”
“I had no intention of killing your father so easily.”
Redian remembered the moment his arrow pierced the grand duke’s head. From the beginning, he had no intention of letting the man die easily from a single arrow. Moreover, since it was Siani’s judgment, he believed that the final breath should have been taken by her. So he had deliberately aimed away from a fatal spot…
“Father, Father! Please open your eyes!”
“You acted quite well.”
“…”
“Well, I guess being killed by his own son’s hand was a fitting punishment.”
“Ha…” After a long silence, Ash let out a hollow laugh. “Cruel b*stard.” His face, which had been groveling on the floor and begging, was gone… “Yes, I did it.” Ash’s expression had turned icy. “I pretended to weep over my father’s corpse and pushed the arrow you shot deeper.”
In the end, the grand duke’s pathetic death was a collaboration between Redian and Ash.
“If I looked more pitiful, Siani might notice me, right? She even saved a b*stard like you, so why not me?” Ash’s lips twisted. “It was a chance to get Siani’s sympathy. How could I miss that opportunity?”
“…”
“I can do anything now. I can fall even lower than that underground you rolled around in, Redian Hyu Rixon.”
Ash really meant it. Even if he had to sink lower than this prison cell, it didn’t matter. As long as he could capture Siani’s gaze again!
“Goddess doesn’t love anyone, you know. She only sympathizes with them.”
“And so…”
“Keugh!”
But Ash could no longer move after those words.
“You’re not allowed.”
It was because Redian stomped on his shoulder, which was hanging from the bars, with his foot.
“Sympathize? Who cares.”
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