SWWYV CHAPTER 165

Chapter 165

Even though he already knew, he asked to confirm it.

Nicholas laughed with a look of despair.

“It’s exactly who Your Grace thinks it is.”

Nicholas already knew about the relationship between the Empress and Killian.

“She ordered me to kill Lady Sophia. I don’t know why, but Her Majesty never explains her reasons. I just follow orders.”

“Nicholas Wesker!”

Killian, furious, grabbed him by the collar.

“Forgive me, Your Grace…”

Nicholas couldn’t meet his eyes and looked down.

“If I had known you were the Black Moon, I wouldn’t have come this far…”

Nicholas’s voice trembled.

As a member of the Rosarphi, he followed the Empress’s orders like a dog.

It was up to the Empress to decide what was right and wrong.

Since she was the Empress of the Empire, he believed that any orders she gave were for the good of the Empire.

At least, that’s what he convinced himself.

He realised that the Empress had ordered other Rosarphi members to kill Fideut and Percel, but he rationalised that they were threats to the Empire’s safety.

He thought the same about the Black Moon.

The Empress judged him as a threat to the Empire, and Nicholas believed her completely.

Because he had to believe her.

Because he couldn’t survive without following her.

He thought Fideut, Percel, and the Black Moon were all black forces threatening the Empire.

The Empress said so, and to him, she was justice. She healed his brother and took him in.

But that day, his belief wavered.

‘Why you…!’

On the day of the founding festival’s martial arts competition, in a secluded part of the palace, he encountered the Black Moon.

Nicholas realised then.

The Black Moon’s sword, his movements, his physique, and even his briefly familiar voice.

‘Your Grace…?’

The Black Moon, who had hesitated upon seeing Nicholas’s face, couldn’t kill him in the end.

Neither could Nicholas.

Killian hesitated, and Nicholas could have stabbed the Black Moon’s heart as the Empress wished, but he didn’t.

He only cut his thigh and pushed him away.

He was confused.

‘Why would Your Grace…?’

Nicholas genuinely respected and followed Killian.

Even though he got the position of vice commander thanks to Beatrice’s influence, he was content because of Killian.

The Killian he knew was a just person who never acted without reason.

Even if they had different opinions, Nicholas had never failed to understand Killian’s decisions.

But the justice of the Empress he followed and the justice of the Killian he respected clashed head-on.

And Nicholas began to doubt that what he believed might be wrong.

If… I was merely being used for the Empress’s personal gain?

When Killian visited him during his convalescence, Nicholas instinctively looked at his thigh first.

Though he appeared uninjured and composed, Nicholas, who had been with Killian for a long time, knew better.

Killian was adept at hiding his injuries, and he could easily conceal a wound Nicholas had inflicted.

That’s why he could tell Beatrice about the ‘Black Moon’s wound.’

Because he believed Killian could hide such a wound.

‘Now that I think about it, the military police reported an injury on the Black Moon’s waist…’

The Killian he knew could pretend as if nothing had happened.

Nicholas had observed Killian closely for a long time and knew this.

But Nicholas also knew that just because he acted unbothered didn’t mean he was in no pain.

He couldn’t bear to face Killian.

Your Grace must have seen his face and known he was Rosarphi.

Nicholas used the pain from the wound on his chest as an excuse to avoid Killian’s gaze and closed his eyes.

‘I could have caught the Black Moon… right before my eyes…’

He tried to act as if he didn’t know, but his voice trembled.

In the end, he couldn’t finish the sentence and closed his mouth.

Killian stood silently in front of Nicholas for a long time.

He didn’t know how much that silence weighed on Nicholas’s heart.

‘Your Grace, Liam…’

‘…I heard.’

Pretending not to know each other’s identities, the twisted time they spent together was oddly distorted.

‘Why doesn’t Your Grace ask me anything?’

Nicholas thought he might get angry at him for being in a different location than ordered during the founding festival’s martial arts competition.

He thought Killian might question him directly or take his life for not handling it earlier.

But Killian did nothing, and that confused Nicholas even more.

He didn’t know why Killian was involved in things like the Black Moon.

He never clearly explained why they had to chase the Black Moon or why Fideut and Percel had to die.

‘I’m disqualified as vice commander…’

To think he didn’t even notice you were the Black Moon.

To face you like this with all trust shattered.

Using Liam’s death as an excuse, Nicholas confessed.

He thought he should resign from the vice commander position once he returned to the military police after his recovery.

At that moment, Killian asked,

“Have you found out anything about the Black Moon?”

Nicholas had to hide his trembling fingers.

“Is he testing me…?”

He wanted to confess honestly and ask Killian why he was the Black Moon. What was he planning that made the Empress chase after him? What was the story about the ‘illegitimate child’ he heard?

But he couldn’t acknowledge that he knew Killian was the Black Moon. He felt he had to keep it hidden for Killian’s sake and his own.

“Unfortunately… no.”

He struggled to answer with a lie.

“However…”

“However?”

“There was someone with the Black Moon…”

He saw it and reported it to the Empress. Nicholas confessed everything he had told the Empress to Killian.

Killian, pretending he wasn’t the Black Moon, continued to question him calmly.

“Any idea what the Black Moon’s goal is?”

Nicholas felt like Killian was probing him. His heart pounded, and he felt guilty. Nicholas shook his head at Killian’s question.

I don’t know.

I don’t know why he is doing this. But he learnt one thing from the Empress.

“…But if he came into the palace to do something, he might be targeting the royal family.”

“Are you suggesting treason, Nick?”

“…It’s not impossible.”

His heart clenched at those words, and he grabbed his chest tightly.

At least the Killian he knew would never dream of treason, but everything felt wrong.
He felt suffocated as if he had committed a crime, but he couldn’t understand anything. Neither Killian nor the Empress told him anything.

“Your Grace.”

He hoped Killian would resolve this frustration. But having already lost Liam and facing each other now, further conversation was impossible.

“…I’m truly sorry.”

I never intended to become your enemy.

As vice commander, I have sincerely followed and served you. He confessed, but Killian stood still, not looking back at him.

Then, without a word, Killian left him.

Afterward, Nicholas continued to submit to the Empress’s threats as usual.

Ah, threats. He had never felt the Empress’s words were threats before.

No matter how coercive, even when she subtly pushed him using his sister’s medicine, he only considered them ‘orders.’

But after facing Killian, the Empress’s words began to sound different.

What went wrong?

When he returned to the military police, much had changed.

The military police, which he had built with Killian, was in shambles and unrecognisable.

Killian had also stepped down from his position as commander.

The Empress appointed Nicholas as the new commander of the military police.

Although Nicholas had only ever wielded a sword, he understood the meaning of being handed a disarmed and powerless military police.

This is just throwing a leftover piece of meat to a hunting dog.

A piece of rotten meat at that.

It was only then that Nicholas began to realise he was on the wrong path.

He thought Killian needed to return to the military police.

“But Your Grace must remain in the military police…!”

“…Why?”

Why? Because it’s the military police you built. The military police shattered as soon as you left, so why do you look so indifferent?

Moreover…

“Why? If you leave the military police…!”

You won’t have the power to stand against the Empress. The people who will support you are there, so how can you leave?

But he couldn’t finish that thought.

“Sir Nicholas.”

The Empress tightened the leash around his neck, and he had no choice but to return to her. Then the Empress gave him a strange order.

After Estelle’s performance, give her water mixed with lemon juice.

It was an incomprehensible order, but it wasn’t dangerous, so Nicholas willingly complied.

If mixing lemon juice in water would secure his sister’s medicine, there couldn’t be a better task.

Thus, everything proceeded in a way Nicholas couldn’t understand.

“If Your Grace had spoken to me, I wouldn’t have come this far.”