All their happy memories together were now completely shattered. She missed the times when they had picnics together in the fields as children. When she would take a big bite of her sandwich and offer it to him saying it was delicious, Selheim had looked just as happy then…

Now she was afraid that his happiness seemed to have gone to a place even more distant than Melissa.

She couldn’t handle him anymore.

It felt like she would never be able to look at this man and smile again. Perhaps without realizing it, as a child she had unconsciously liked him.

She had counted the days until she would become his bride and smile happily, and during puberty, her heart would flutter imagining secretly kissing him.

He had been precious to her.

That’s why it was unbearably painful that this precious relationship was completely broken even while suffering such terrible things.

If only, Selheim, it hadn’t been you.

Then it wouldn’t have hurt this much.

Now even our good memories, all of them…

The man who had trapped Melissa between his legs pulled down her panties. His long silver hair fell forward onto Melissa’s body.

“Stay still. Okay?”

His hand firmly pressed down on Melissa’s resisting lower abdomen. And at that moment… the door suddenly opened.

Ah. It felt like everything was over. Melissa was too afraid to look to the side. But she couldn’t help but know who the man was at the edge of her vision.

The man standing holding the doorknob stared at the couple on the bed for a moment.

Selheim’s hand that had been pulling down her panties stopped, and he greeted her husband with a demonstrative smile.

“Welcome, Reizen.”

Melissa squeezed her eyes shut.

What would he think of her lying n*ked under another man. The moment Reizen’s name was called, she felt a despair like sinking into the deep sea.

It felt like being trapped deep underwater.

Though the bed was still, she had the illusion that the room was spinning round and round. The world spun wildly with her at its center. Her head was clearly going strange. Maybe she was gradually going mad.

Melissa frowned and covered her crying with both hands. She wished her breath would stop right now.

Hoping that when she opened her eyes, everything would have been just a dream.

“Your High-!”

Then Whilton’s voice was heard.

“Your Highness!”

Someone fired a gun. The sound of a single gunshot rang out.

* * *

When he was young, roses bloomed abundantly below the castle in spring.

It was Reizen’s oldest memory. He would hang from the window frame watching noble ladies pass by in front of the rose maze.

“Mother.”

They looked nice laughing cheerfully as they walked, seeming so happy about something. As they smiled brightly among the flowers looking so lively, he wondered if his mother would get better too if she went there.

“Mother.”

Reizen approached his mother who lay motionless in bed and shook her.

“Can’t we go out for a walk together too?”

Young Reizen flopped down on the bed and pestered her. But no matter what he did, his mother remained as still as a corpse.

After getting bored of pestering her like that, he would go out to play alone, and when he came back in, she would have her back turned, so he would just feel relieved that she hadn’t died.

When young, Reizen always wondered.

Why those ladies’ expressions were always bright.

While the women and children living in the rose maze lived with dead expressions, the noble ladies walking among the flowers always looked radiant.

As if light only reached there, while here there was only darkness.

His mother said, “Don’t go far, Reizen.”

Her hand gripping his shoulder tightened.

“If you meet His Highness the Crown Prince, make sure to greet him, but try to avoid him.”

“The Crown Prince… is he my brother?”

His mother shook her head violently.

“No. Absolutely not.”

“But we have the same father.”

“That’s…”

His mother’s expression twisted sadly. The woman who was skinny from not eating well looked so fragile she seemed like she would collapse and die at any moment.

He felt that twelve-year-old Reizen was even stronger than her. Though Reizen didn’t fully understand everything his mother said, he generally followed it.

Still, in this palace, they were the only two who cared for each other.

Though his father was the Emperor, he had never seen his face since birth. He just thought it was because he was such a high person and too busy.

‘Still, since I’m a prince, he’ll come find me someday.’

It was around when such vague hopes and expectations were disappearing. He met Selheim in front of the rose maze. He had other siblings surround Reizen and beat him badly.

Though he couldn’t understand why they would do such a wicked thing, he was beaten without knowing the reason. That day his face swelled up round like a bird’s nest, and he returned to the rose maze especially early.

As he was about to turn the handle to open the door, he heard an unfamiliar sound. It was definitely his mother’s voice.

“Ah.”

His heart beat rapidly. He was so shocked he didn’t know what to do and unconsciously turned the handle.

He had planned to run to his mother and hug her as soon as he arrived. He wanted to cry his heart out in her small embrace about how the Crown Prince had crushed his face like this.

But the scene visible through the door crack was too shocking for the young boy to see.

A noble violating his mother.

The man thrusting his hips grabbed his mother’s hair and struck her cheek. With a smack! sound, she let out a cry.

As if a ghost had grabbed his feet, he couldn’t move from that spot at all. Then the woman crawling on her knees trying to escape discovered Reizen standing outside the door.

Their eyes met.

I’m stronger than him. I should save mother.

But somehow he was unbearably afraid. As her face twisted pale, it looked like both a smile and a cry. That day Reizen learned for the first time that a person could make such a despairing expression.

His breath caught.

If only he hadn’t known.

Taking small steps backward in place, he eventually… ran away in fear.

Unable to protect her.

He ran away.

He was twelve years old.

“Did you see everything?”

The noble smiled and stroked the head of Reizen who had collapsed sitting at the entrance.

Though it was the same dirty hand that had struck his mother touching his head, he froze pathetically. Something like sticky fluid was on his blonde hair.

He learned later that such things were common in the Emperor’s harem. Nobles coming to r*pe commoner women the Emperor had taken once and discarded.

Noble ladies would talk about it as if it were entertainment and look down on it.

“Never go to the rose maze, my lady. That’s where women mad for men live.”

Melissa Grey was always at the center of them. Though she spoke little and generally responded with smiles, in the end she didn’t deny it, so she seemed like one of them.

The rose maze was coincidentally on the path from the central garden to the temple. Literally on the path. It was a tall but shabby castle like a signpost saying the temple is this way.

So whenever Melissa and the noble crowd passed by, Reizen would always see her from across the lake. Whenever he saw the girl smiling gracefully while being praised by everyone, anger would well up inside him.

“Anyway, our Duke has done a great thing! He showed such dignity that commoners don’t even dare look up at us.”

He hated her for being a ‘Grey’.

“She’s… pregnant.”

As his mother’s belly grew larger.

“Oh my, Duke! Have you been well? Thank you for your help last time. As thanks, I at the hunting grounds…”

As the noble who had r*ped his mother kept flattering Duke Grey.

“Die…! Just die…!”

Every time his mother, who had lost her mind, would grab his neck whenever she could and chant for him to die, more. More. More. More. He suffered from guilt at not saving his mother that day and feelings of inferiority toward nobles.

Selheim had said:

“You’re only half, Reizen. Half your blood is that of beast people.”

But at some point he started thinking.

Am I really… the Emperor’s son? Is even half of me… really mixed with their noble blood?

Perhaps such doubtful thoughts and gazes were what killed his mother. His mother couldn’t accept the shame she had shown her young son.

She literally became insane.

When her belly had grown as big as a mountain making it hard to move, it was one spring day when it rained heavily.

Splat!

When he was entering the castle entrance, he turned around at the sound of something bursting. His eyes met his mother’s broken neck. Reizen fainted.

Now an adult, a projector played in front of Reizen’s eyes. The memories of the past that were still vivid flowed quickly.

It was exactly like that day.

When he opened the door, this time instead of his mother, his wife Melissa was lying under Selheim.

In that moment his mind went blank.

Unlike usual, there was no time to think about any calculations or aftermath. His eyes were faster than his head.

Whilton approaching him as he held the doorknob appeared to move slowly.

“Your High-!”

Reizen pulled out and loaded the revolver tucked at Whilton’s waist. There was no time for anyone to stop him. Because he didn’t hesitate even for a moment.

“Your Highness!”

Bang!