You are at the End of the Downfall

Though they should have been bound by the same laws of human physiology, the Grand Duke of Lusenford ignored all natural laws.

The Crown Prince’s ankle shattered in his grip. After carelessly tearing off one leg and tossing it aside, the Grand Duke removed the other leg as well, then looked down at the Marchioness of Schroz who was now covered in her son’s blood.

The son, having lost both legs in an instant, spoke with a pale face as blood poured from where his legs had been.

“I’m truly sorry, Kaela. This should have been handled according to imperial law, but it seems there’s been a great misunderstanding. I apologize, Grand Duke.”

His son, drained of blood and turning from white to blue, looked like a corpse. The Grand Duke tossed another leg to the floor with a thud. The Marchioness’s blue-gray dress was stained dark with spreading blood.

“This is impossible. I’m truly sorry.”

“The Marchioness seems very upset, but if she would listen to me calmly, I think she might feel better,” said the Grand Duchess of Lusenford in a small voice.

“No. This can’t be happening. Call a doctor. Have the Grand Duchess treated,” ordered the Crown Prince, hanging limply like a doll with only his upper body in the Grand Duke’s grip.

“No need. It was just for a moment. I don’t need treatment.”

“You can’t just stay like that with your knees on the cold floor. Quickly, call a doctor!”

The Marchioness of Schroz watched this horrific scene, barely able to breathe.

“Mother, please apologize quickly. No matter what mistake the Grand Duchess made, you cannot handle things this way in the royal palace.”

The seemingly dead son turned his eyes sharply toward the Marchioness of Schroz, scolding her.

“As an adult, you should have reasoned with her and scolded her with words. You went too far.”

“Hiiieek!” The Marchioness of Schroz let out a choking sound as she watched her limp son with bulging eyes draw nearer.

“Mother!”

Someone was shaking the Marchioness violently. “Huk!” When she came to her senses, she blinked while breaking out in a cold sweat.

The one shaking her was the Crown Prince, standing perfectly fine with both legs intact. All the blood that had filled the room and the carelessly torn-off legs had vanished without a trace.

Though the scene had been too vivid to be a dream or hallucination, when she regained consciousness, it was as if nothing had happened, and everyone was looking at her strangely.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

The Grand Duke spoke. The Marchioness of Schroz flinched at his voice full of authority and absolute power.

“It seems all the noble ladies here are quite shocked. Perhaps we should let them rest for a moment? I will also attend to my wife. Your Highness, please look after things here.”

Gregory, who felt embarrassed and ashamed because of his mother who had caused trouble but stood there blankly without apologizing, and who felt terribly sorry towards Kaela and Peon, suddenly thought:

Could it be that the Grand Duke of Lusenford came this way with him because he knew this would happen?

“Very well. I’ll leave it to you.”

“I shall see you shortly.”

The Grand Duke, who had been holding his wife rather than restraining the Crown Prince, bowed his head and immediately turned to leave. As soon as he left, the Crown Prince turned an angry face toward his mother.

“Mother, are you in your right mind? Are you determined to ruin my future? Don’t you understand the situation? You should have shown some restraint!”

The Marchioness of Schroz’s lips trembled before she collapsed in her seat.

“Oh my!”

“Marchioness!”

While the maids rushed to support the Marchioness, Crown Prince Gregory closed his eyes tightly with a sigh. This incident would surely reach the Emperor’s ears.

****

“Your Highness, I’m fine. Please put me down.”

Although Kaela called and pleaded with him several times, Peon ignored her. He was guided to another quiet room where he set Kaela down and personally examined the condition of her knees.

“Lift your dress a bit.”

Sir Renard quickly turned to guard the doorway.

“I wasn’t sitting there that long.”

“Lift it.”

Kaela reluctantly lifted the hem of her dress. Her knees were bright red. Peon, with an expression that clearly showed he was suppressing his anger, carefully placed his hand on the reddened skin.

“Does it hurt?”

“I’m not sure. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine – it’s already bruising.”

“Your Highness, Marchioness Schroz also struck the Grand Duchess’s cheek with her fan,” Cecile carefully reported.

Peon, his pupils dilated, gently stroked Kaela’s soft cheek.

Kaela was delicate. Her skin was so sensitive that Peon was always extremely careful when handling her. When would a noble Grand Duchess ever have had to kneel? No, she had kneeled once before.

Before her confinement, when she was dragged in to hear charges for crimes she hadn’t committed, she had knelt before them. She must have knelt for even longer then, probably getting bruises. She probably couldn’t walk properly then either, just like now.

Since he bore guilt, he silently applied the medicine that the doctor had hurriedly brought, gently spreading it.

“Be careful not to let your knees come into contact with anything. It should heal in a few days.”

The doctor bowed and left. He probably didn’t want to stay long either, as the Grand Duke of Lusenford, who normally inspired vague fear in ordinary people, looked particularly unsettling.

“Kaela.”

Cecile, who had quickly brought water for Kaela, discreetly stepped back to join Sir Renard by the door. Peon closed his eyes with a devastated and pained expression.

“Last time, we had coordinated everything with the Empress’s quarters and all related departments, but it seems there were some changes. The Empress’s head maids apparently said something to the Marchioness about that…”

This wasn’t a topic Peon was particularly interested in. He just listened quietly without interrupting since Kaela was speaking.

“The Marchioness misunderstood and thought I was behind it all. It’s fine.”

“If it was fine, were you planning to stay on your knees forever?”

If he hadn’t noticed and brought Gregory, Kaela might have continued kneeling, perhaps for the entire day. If Cecile hadn’t mentioned it, she wouldn’t have even said anything about being struck on the cheek.

“I wasn’t doing it thoughtlessly. It’s clear to everyone that I’m innocent, and while the Marchioness has done many problematic things, in the current situation, it’s better to be the wronged party.”

Kaela wasn’t ignorant of palace affairs. After taking a sip of water from Peon, she quickly continued.

“We’ve already fallen out of favor with His Majesty once. We were summoned to the Monster’s Garden, remember? The Marchioness is His Highness the Crown Prince’s mother and officially appointed by His Majesty the Emperor as the chief supervisor, while I’m just someone who checks in every four days. So we need to let ourselves be the victims for now, and sort out right and wrong later.”

Peon had already been forced to drink poison for the “crime” of making the Emperor have to “request” his participation in overseeing the engagement ceremony. Kaela absolutely could not confront the Marchioness.

“Yes, if that’s what you think, that’s what you should do. But why didn’t you send a maid?”

Peon sat in front of Kaela’s knees, looking up at her with a completely crushed expression.

“You have me. You know I can resolve things.”

Indeed, he had resolved everything smoothly without any issues.

“If I hadn’t come, you would have stayed on your knees until the end today. You wouldn’t have been able to walk properly.”

She would have stayed quietly seated until the very end, not offering a single explanation, until the Marchioness was thoroughly intimidated.

“You could have called for me.”

But she didn’t. Cecile was the most senior maid who had served Kaela from Ostein through Craine to Lusenford. She had frequented the palace with Kaela many times and would know exactly what to do in situations like this.

Renard also knew well that the Grand Duke must be called if anything happened. The fact that these two remained quiet meant that Kaela had stopped them.

“You hate being in pain.”

Though she hated pain so much that she had secretly obtained a painless poison to die with, despite hating it so much, she was enduring pain again.

“You shouldn’t do things you hate, so why didn’t you call me?”

She always drew clear, rigid lines and solved everything alone. Since her husband had never helped before, she handled things herself. He knew this.

He understood well, having only pushed the Marchioness of Schroz to the brink of madness while carefully observing Kaela’s reactions.

Knowing this, he wore a human shell and pretended to be human. He was restraining himself from crushing all the squirming insects that were trying to bite Kaela.

“You’re busy, so you can’t worry about me.”

Because he’s busy. Her husband was always too busy to meet, and didn’t pay attention to the Grand Duchess. So naturally, she wouldn’t call or bother him no matter what happened.

It was the natural result. So natural that there was no need for him to suddenly talk about pain or anything else. Honestly, it was absurd to be in pain. Despite knowing this, Peon swallowed the rising pain again.

“I do care.”

His response was terrible.

“Call me from now on. Or at least don’t stop the maids who would tell me.”

His request was a mess too. That’s why Kaela didn’t answer immediately, lost in other thoughts. She was clearly thinking of solving things alone. He was someone who would be better off not existing for Kaela.

“Call me, please.”

Kaela reluctantly nodded.

“Yes.”

Still not an informal “mm-hmm.” The younger sister who had stayed docilely by his side was gone. The woman who had given him the only genuine smiles was no more.

Watching Kaela’s reluctant nod, Peon suppressed the violent power threatening to surge up and sweep away the entire palace. Kaela dislikes it. Kaela would be scared. He mustn’t.

No matter how hard he pretended to be human, wearing that shell, now even that shell couldn’t contain him and was tearing and burning away, revealing his true nature.

“I will. So please… don’t frighten the Marchioness of Schroz.”

After hesitating, Kaela spoke firmly, as if having made a resolute decision.

“I’m already restraining myself plenty.”

He had to somehow force on the tattered human skin from head down and pretend to be human.

“…You already did it.”

Because Kaela, without fear, looked at him clearly and demanded that he be human.

“That was nothing – that’s how much I’m holding back.”

The gently smiling man became increasingly elegant to the point where his existence in this world seemed questionable.

Though his carved face hadn’t changed, it became increasingly perfect, while simultaneously his existence seemed horrifically fractured and abnormally tangled.

Yet he was beautiful. Without realizing it, she couldn’t take her eyes off him, so cruelly beautiful that she might give up her life to him completely in a trance.

“Get some rest.”

Rest? She had work to do. She needed to review the mess the Marchioness of Schroz had likely made, appease the head maids guarding the Empress’s quarters, placate the Marchioness too – there was so much to do, but her eyes slowly closed.

Peon lifted the instantly sleeping Kaela and quietly paced the room. Since she was the type to think only of returning to work as if nothing had happened after such an ordeal, he needed to let her sleep at least a little.

Kaela would take a short nap until the Marchioness of Schroz was sufficiently terrified to reconsider her attitude towards Kaela, and until she replenished her strength for that stubborn work that simply couldn’t be stopped.

From far away, the Crown Prince’s shouts were so loud they reached Peon’s ears.

“What will you do when this reaches His Majesty’s ears! It probably already has! I understand going after Kaela. I know why you’re doing this, Mother. I know it’s for my sake! But you need to use proper methods!”

Peon was quite irritated by Gregory. While harboring an inferiority complex and being wary of him, he still planned to somehow break him, yet called Kaela so familiarly.

More than anything else, his attitude and way of addressing Kaela bothered him. Just like his cousin Isidore Dakiten.

He wanted to rip out the Crown Prince’s spine right then, but had to be satisfied with tearing off his legs in front of the Marchioness. Because Kaela had told him not to.

She was still the only one for Peon.

She was the only one who could look at him clearly without going mad with fear or showing severe rejection after seeing his true form. Because she had experienced enough terror to willingly throw herself toward death.

He looked down at Kaela sleeping in his arms.

‘But to you, I must be…’

Just a natural disaster that should never have been encountered. She had many people around her to love and be loved by, so he wasn’t her only one.

He sat crumpled beside Kaela, forcefully maintaining an increasingly distant human appearance, awkwardly pretending to be human.

He held his too-light wife tightly. When told to kneel, you knelt. If told to be hit, you would have been hit, and if told to drink poison, you would have drunk it, right, Kaela?

Even afraid of pain, you would have endured it firmly. Because you’re always ready to die. Because you want to be free in death. Well, with a husband like this, it’s natural.

The clear sky instantly turned black. Peon held his wife tight and trembled with his only known fear and anxiety. Having lost too much, with those losses too horrible, he didn’t want to lose anything more. He wouldn’t lose anything.

No matter how much Kaela pushed him away, he would hold on tight and kill even death itself. He had already transcended time anyway, catching up to her.

If she wouldn’t take care of herself, he could take care of her instead, and he could prevent incidents like this in the future. Peon trembled with the anxiety and fear that would forever dominate him, holding her tight.

A faint warm southern flower fragrance, which might disappear at any moment, emanated from within his arms.