Chapter 131
“I will open it, Your Highness!”
The knight whose name was called hurriedly retrieved a key from his waist and unlocked the iron-barred window.
As soon as the lock on the iron bars clicked open, Sophia rushed inside.
“Killian…!”
Sophia cupped Killian’s cheek, who was hanging in chains, with both hands and lifted his head.
His breath felt shallow, almost fading.
With trembling fingers, Sophia wiped away the blood that clung to his eyelashes and called his name again.
Then, his closed eyelids struggled to open.
“… Sophia.”
As her name flowed from the blood-filled lips, Sophia finally burst into tears that she had been holding back.
“Release the Grand Duke immediately.”
Mikhail, seeing him, commanded the soldiers.
“But, Your Highness. The investigation is still…”
“Don’t make me say it again.”
When Mikhail clenched his fist and looked at the knights, the knights of Orhelin released the shackles of Killian, who was hanging in chains.
At the same time, Killian’s body collapsed weakly to the ground.
Sophia caught him with both arms.
Although she staggered under his weight, she managed to hold on.
Sophia slowly sat him down on the cold floor and checked his condition.
There were wounds all over his body, so she couldn’t dare to touch him.
As his position changed, the wounds seemed to be aggravated, and Killian bit his lip, trying to stifle a groan.
“Call the royal physician.”
Mikhail commanded, and the knights, as if resigned, did not question the order and left to carry it out immediately.
Mikhail looked at Killian in complete disrepair. But he did not dare to approach him.
‘What have I done…’
Mikhail pressed his forehead and clenched his jaw so hard it seemed like it might break.
He loathed himself for having doubted Killian even for a moment.
He resented the previous night when he had justified his inaction and turned a blind eye, allowing this to happen to Killian.
While Killian suffered so much, Mikhail had sat in his room, doubting and hesitating.
If it weren’t for Sophia, he would probably still be sitting there, contemplating and pretending to bear all the world’s burdens alone, while Killian lay there dying.
Overwhelmed by a flood of emotions mixed with guilt, he couldn’t bring himself to face Killian.
“Lady Sophia… I must go upstairs for a moment to hear from the knights.”
Thus, Mikhail decided to flee, unable to confront his guilt for the moment.
He needed to find a way to atone for his sins, wherever it might be.
“But, Your Highness…”
“No one else will dare come down here. The physician will arrive soon, so please take care of Killian for a while.”
After consoling Sophia, Mikhail turned his gaze to Ian.
“Sir Ian. I have a request, so come with me.”
At Mikhail’s words, Ian looked at Sophia.
Ian paid no attention to Killian’s condition.
Whatever happened to that bastard was none of his concern.
But Sophia drove him crazy.
His chest burned with an intense feeling.
Ian felt he now understood one more reason to be angry at Orhelin.
Killian was a murderer, and yet gentle Sophia continued to defend him.
To sympathize with Killian, to give him her heart.
Ian couldn’t intervene.
A wave of immense emotions surged within Ian.
“Damn it…!”
Unable to control his surging emotions, Ian stormed out.
He felt he had to somehow take it out on Orhelin’s bastards.
Mikhail watched Ian stride purposefully upstairs.
He then told Sophia to wait a bit and followed Ian up.
Mikhail’s heavy footsteps echoed through the underground prison, gradually fading away.
With everyone gone, Sophia felt frightened.
She sat there, holding the dying Killian, unable to do anything.
The oppressive space around her suffocated her.
With trembling fingertips, Sophia tried to brush aside the strands of Killian’s hair stuck to his face.
Then, Killian weakly pushed her hand away.
His limp body shifted slightly on the cold stone floor.
As his bloodied arms touched the cold stone, his muscles twitched.
With each movement of his muscles and skin, his tortured wounds twisted and tore open.
It was a scene so agonizing to watch with open eyes.
“Killian, please, don’t strain yourself…”
“Why… are you here?”
Struggling to rise, Killian lifted his head.
Sophia flinched involuntarily.
His red eyes glared at her with a cruel intensity.
Her heart sank at the sight of those unfamiliar eyes.
“Killian…?”
Sophia asked, confused and unsure of the situation.
Killian clenched his hand on the floor and muttered as he lifted his head.
“You… always meddle unnecessarily and mess things up.”
Spitting out blood beside him, his voice was different. Cold, emotionless, and irritable.
Sophia looked at him with bewildered eyes.
She couldn’t understand why he was acting this way.
She suddenly felt scared. What if he knew? That she was a transmigrator.
Because of her, his future had changed, leading to this situation. What if he found out?
She altered the story through her transmigration, and Killian suffered torture he didn’t deserve.
It all felt like her fault.
Trembling with fear, Sophia’s lips, stained with blood, quivered chillingly.
“Do you still… not know?”
Sophia felt like she could stop breathing under Killian’s hostile gaze.
Then, leaning closer, Killian whispered into Sophia’s ear.
“You’ve been deceived…”
His harsh, gravelly voice mixed with a metallic tone brushed against her ear like a cold wind.
Deceived…?
“In truth… I killed them all.”
Killian chuckled as he spoke.
A short, bitter laugh echoed in Sophia’s ear.
“That mad murderer… is me.”
His confession made Sophia’s eyes widen in disbelief.
She couldn’t comprehend what he was saying.
Did you kill them all? But it was Rosarphi who killed Marquis Fideut and Viscount Percel.
It was the Empress, wasn’t it…?
“Amusing… that you believed every word I said without a shred of doubt.”
Killian smirked at the bewildered Sophia.
Her emerald eyes had once deeply trusted him.
But Mikhail and Orhelin’s knights weren’t present.
It would be okay to tell the stupid fiancée this truth. (T/L: Man, so much pain!)
“It was quite entertaining to play with you…”
Killian sneered cruelly.
“Growing up in an attic… you knew nothing about how the world works.”
Even after seeing him return wounded every time the black moon appeared, she had believed him like iron.
Could anyone be that naive?
Ordinary people would have doubted long ago.
“Or maybe… did you hope I could be your savior?”
Like a prince on a white horse, someone just and splendid, rescuing her from that old, dirty attic?
Did she want to rise in status as the fiancée of a duke and enjoy wealth and glory?
“Living in a fairy tale world, aren’t you…”
Killian murmured with a mocking tone.
“There are no princes on white horses in this world, Sophia.”
He lifted his red eyes to meet Sophia’s gaze directly.
As if trying to awaken her foolish mind with a useful piece of advice, Killian mocked Sophia’s clear emerald eyes.
Each dagger he threw pierced her heart one by one, and as he expected, tears welled up in her emerald eyes.
Sophia lowered her head as if trying to hide her tears.
“… If you understood, then leave it at that. I don’t want to see you whining like this.”
When Killian spoke dismissively, treating her like a bothersome insect, Sophia’s small shoulders trembled visibly.
At that moment, a tear rolled down onto her lap.
Simultaneously, Killian felt a pang in his own heart.
His hand instinctively moved towards her trembling shoulder.
But realizing belatedly, he withdrew his hand and let it drop to the floor.
Yes, that’s right. It’s for the best.
Everything was going as he had planned.
‘I can’t let you get involved with me any longer.’ (T/L: I’m not crying.)
Despite postponing the breakup, it seemed they had reached this point anyway.
Killian worried about Sophia facing an uncertain future.
What would happen to her if he was branded a traitor?
Could his sins somehow extend to harm Sophia?
He couldn’t bear to see Sophia hurt or killed because of him.
That’s why he needed to sever ties with her, even if it meant saying harsh words like this.
Struggling to contain his throbbing chest, Killian finally tore his lips apart with great effort.
“…If the opportunity had arisen, I might have killed you next.”
Perhaps that would have been the case.
The Empress knew I loved you, so maybe she would have used you against me as a threat.
“Killian…”
Sophia’s choked voice, soaked with tears, shook him.
Her voice triggered a surge of warmth in his chest.
If he continued listening to that voice, he feared he would once again lean weakly on her.
T/L: Man, this chapter is saddd. Ughhh!!! My heart.
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