The loud gunshot made their eardrums tingle. Normally, a shot from Reizen, who had graduated top of his class at military school, would never miss.

“Rei, what, are, you, do-…”

It was Whilton who stopped it.

Whilton quickly struck Reizen’s hand to make the bullet go astray. As the aim point wavered momentarily, the bullet buried itself in an innocent wall.

“Let go.”

Reizen shook off Whilton’s hand and reloaded. Those empty eyes that held nothing in them spoke to his state of mind.

“Your Highness!”

Whilton was desperate. He kept talking beside Reizen saying he couldn’t break down here and to get a hold of himself, but Reizen’s eyes were dead.

He seemed to hear nothing.

Having finished reloading, he raised the revolver again.

During the time Whilton bought, Selheim had come right in front of Reizen. There was no need to aim. It was close enough that just shooting would hit.

Since he came seeking his own grave, there was no reason not to kill him. As Reizen aimed the loaded revolver, Selheim willingly smiled and pressed his forehead to the muzzle.

Selheim said:

“Shoot.”

Why was he so confident?

Melissa was crying on the bed, pulling up the blanket. And by now five guards who had heard the gunshot had rushed in and all aimed their guns at Reizen’s head.

“If you shoot, you, me,”

Selheim tilted his head slightly. Then one of the guards’ guns turned toward Melissa on the bed.

“And our Mel will all be buried together. The path to the afterlife is scary. We should go together.”

“Selheim.”

Rage boiled up. Just a little pressure on his finger would blow the bastard’s head off. Wasn’t this the moment he had yearned for his whole life? He wanted to splatter this guy’s brains. But.

“…”

The woman crying silently on the bed weighed on his mind.

He didn’t care if he died but Mel…

What sin had that woman committed?

His mother had been innocent too.

They had done nothing wrong. So shouldn’t he save her this time?

Reizen’s hand trembled finely with rage.

One wrong twitch of his finger and they could all die. He gritted his teeth. The killing intent that filled him to the top of his head couldn’t burst out and became resentment choking his throat.

Heat rose through his whole body. Blood vessels stood out all over as he became so angry his ears and neck turned red. Blood vessels burst in his wide open eyes that looked ready to kill.

Reizen’s chest heaved greatly.

Blue veins bulged all over his gun-holding hand too. Yet his damn hand wouldn’t move. Just as he thought about blowing this bastard’s face off and dying, seeing Melissa’s clear face crushed with tears made it impossible.

F*ck.

F-f*ck…

His whole face twisted like he would cry any moment.

It felt like his internal organs were twisting in his abdomen. While lava boiled in his chest burning him in real time, aah.

The revolver in his hand lowered very slowly.

Whilton watched this scene beside him unable to even breathe. Seeing the revolver gradually dropping down, he frowned sadly.

The strength completely left Reizen’s hand. Whilton saw the situation and retrieved the revolver from his hand.

Reizen slowly closed his eyes. He would be executed by firing squad for attempting to kill the Crown Prince. In this moment facing death, for some reason he worried about that woman.

Melissa Grey.

Because he knew how horrific it was to see someone die before your eyes.

If there was one regret, it was not being able to listen to her story longer. From what she wrote in the letter, it seemed she had so much to tell him.

A suffocating tension lingered. In this moment when no one in the room dared open their mouths, Selheim spoke with a cold expression.

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

Reizen slowly opened his eyes.

“I told you I’d repay you. Since you saved my life, it’s only fair that I save yours too, right?”

Reizen’s blue eyes stared directly at Selheim.

Selheim faintly smiled and patted Reizen’s shoulder as he passed by.

* * *

Melissa collapsed kneeling on the bed. The woman wrapped entirely in blankets clutched her stomach with both arms and silently sobbed.

She didn’t know what to do.

If there was a mouse hole she wanted to hide in it, but she didn’t even know where to go.

Though her eyes were open, her vision shook.

Her rapidly rising and falling breath stopped breathing.

Her widened eyes didn’t even blink.

Though no sound came out as her throat was blocked, inside was chaos itself. Ah. What, what should I do? What words should I say?

All her fingers and toes curled up.

She was scared to look at Reizen. Afraid of his reaction. It seemed like he would yell at her in anger or strike her cheek. Or he might completely ignore her and just leave…

Her tightly clenched fist on the bed trembled violently.

She felt like her life had ended.

She had wanted to stay by his side because it was Reizen. Since it was just a temporarily extended life anyway, it wouldn’t be too soon to end it now. Or if the man strangled her neck in anger, she was ready to close her eyes and accept it.

“Have you never once been suspicious?”

Melissa shook her head wildly. Pulling at her hair, she curled up tightly on the bed sheets. She bit and crushed her bleeding lips.

Why. How could I not have known.

Melissa was the one who had noticed Selheim’s two-faced nature earlier than anyone.

Being closest to him, there was no way she wouldn’t know that though he always faced people with a smile, there was another shadow underneath. But back then it didn’t matter.

She had the halo of being Miss Grey, and besides Owen, she was the only one inside Selheim’s boundaries.

Because no harm ever came to her.

Though she knowingly turned a blind eye to his wrongdoings, there were also times she tried to stop him.

But unlike when they were young with a five year age gap, as adults she just couldn’t catch up to him at all.

When Melissa tried to catch him, he was already standing far away.

“Every stigma carved into your body should all be me, Mel.”

She resented her ex-husbands. But on the other hand, she wasn’t unaware that Selheim was connected to them.

She just wanted to leave it as an eternally unresolved question because she wasn’t certain.

Rather, that would have been easier for her.

Then her heart wouldn’t have crumbled like this.

Melissa wanted to believe the past pain was just due to her ex-husbands’ evil hearts. She didn’t want to confirm with her whole body the dark side of the man she had once liked.

Stigma. Burns. Cuts. Blood. Pain. Threats. Hoarse voices. Screams. Hurt. Insomnia. Sadness. Yelling.

She didn’t want to know it was all from Selheim. He should have just remained as the twins’ problem solver, a brother-like figure, a decent fiancé. That was all…

A black curtain surrounded her. Black hands sprouting from all directions covered her mouth and nose and strangled her neck.

Intense adrenaline rushed through.

At this rate she would lose her breath in this distant fantasy.

The seizure controlling her breathing wouldn’t stop, and now she didn’t want it to stop either. She closed her eyes, blocking out her whitening vision.

“Melissa.”

Someone grabbed her shoulders to sit her up.

“Melissa Grey!”

He tightly embraced her limp body in his arms. Held her so strongly she might break.

“Breathe. Please.”

A hot hand stroked her head before tightly embracing her whole body again. She heard gentle touches and a choked voice.

The sound that had seemed distant as if underwater gradually came closer. He held Melissa and pleaded.

“Live. Please, you… live.”

Why was he so desperate?

Why did he keep making her unable to give up when she tried to stop?

“It’s okay.”

Tears spread across Melissa’s face as she lay limply in his arms.

“It’s not your fault.”

Ah. Her small lips parted in a sigh. As breath rushed in all at once, tears burst forth.

The woman who had been frozen unable to make even the smallest sound sobbed with rough breaths.

Her face was completely twisted. With sweat dried and hair stuck all over her body, she must look haggard and unsightly.

But what Reizen held and comforted wasn’t just her shell. It was the core that she thought she had lost somewhere, sometime, since some point.

The tiny soul that remained inside her stirred.

The crying grew louder and louder.

She buried her face in his chest, wailing like a child. Though she was panting out of breath, she couldn’t stop crying. Yet she kept being afraid that his feelings would be hurt.

She begged him. Please don’t abandon me.

“I’m, sorry…”

I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for everything.