“But you wouldn’t have been certain. You don’t move without certainty.”

“…Certainty?”

You think I kept watching you just because of such certainty?

Reizen closed his eyes quietly while maintaining a faint smile. A damp voice, as if laden with rainwater, flowed through his teeth.

“I was giving you a chance. A chance to come back to us.”

Because we were friends.

A hotel on the outskirts surrounded by forest on all sides, with lights on 24 hours a day. With such extensive grounds, the building was divided into several structures.

The hotel had 4 different addresses in total.

Reizen had given each of his companions a different address. And among them, the address that was leaked and where Rael’s letter arrived was…

“Sion.”

Only the address he had given to him.

With Reizen’s soft call, Sion’s gaze wavered. His shadowed face was swollen as if he had been hit somewhere.

Even with a gun pressed to his head, Reizen showed not the slightest disturbance. He didn’t even appear resentful or angry at the betrayer.

He was just quiet.

Dark and cool like an endlessly deep sea, which made it all the more terrifying.

“I thought Selheim’s spy could become my spy, you see.”

But it’s different when someone aims for a ‘life’ rather than just leaking information or causing disruption from the middle.

Reizen’s blue eyes froze coldly.

“It was you.”

The hand holding the gun flinched.

“The one who killed David.”

All color drained from Sion’s face. His pale lips convulsed before twisting up on one side. He responded casually, like in the old days when they were friends.

“So what if it was me? Does it change anything about this situation?”

His face seemed to ask if Reizen was really curious about such trivial things when Sion’s bullet would soon pierce his head and end it all anyway.

Sion laughed coldly with tension, his fingertips trembling. Though he acted more rational than anyone, Sion was the one most shaken.

Reizen spoke with a sunken gaze.

“It changes things.”

“What changes? You’re going to die anyway…”

Suddenly, the rattling wind at the window stopped. As the curtains that had been whipping around the room settled, Erich and Whilton simultaneously loaded their guns aimed at Sion from within.

Click, click, the sounds rang out in succession.

Surrounded, Sion’s hand wavered greatly as he aimed at Erich. Watching Sion, Reizen slowly rose from the sofa.

Erich bit his lower lip, seemingly quite shocked to see Sion pointing a gun at him. If anyone had pulled their trigger without restraint just now, it would have become a bloodbath.

But it was two against one.

Sion’s breathing gradually became rough. Though his gun was aimed at Erich, no matter which of the three he killed, he would certainly die here himself.

The intelligent Sion couldn’t have missed this fact.

“…”

A suffocating tension flowed.

Beads of sweat formed on Sion’s forehead.

Erich wore a pained expression, while Whilton aimed precisely at Sion with emotionless eyes.

And Reizen…

Had quietly drawn a revolver from his waist and aimed it at Sion. Now it was 3 against 1.

Reizen’s voice rang out frighteningly low.

“At least.”

Sion drew in a sharp breath.

“If you hadn’t killed David.”

The end of Reizen’s usually firm voice cracked slightly.

“You could have come back to our side.”

Which meant he could never be on their side again.

“Damn it…!”

Just as the agitated Sion turned toward Reizen with desperate intensity, someone among the three had to do it anyway.

Reizen looked straight at Sion with his blue eyes and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Blood spattered across the man’s face in dots. Eventually, a streak of blood like tears ran down his white cheek. Reizen’s brow twisted in grief.

* * *

The Military Academy’s drama club, Echo.

After leaving the imperial palace at age twelve carrying his mother’s urn, Reizen entered the academy.

His mother was from Gerion, considered the lowest among commoners, so there wasn’t a single adult relative to take care of him near the capital.

But for a child of his awkward age, being out on the streets was perfect for meeting death. So he chose the military academy dormitory.

It was a place where poor commoners’ children enrolled to avoid starving to death, or like Sion, noble children who couldn’t inherit titles being second-born or later came to study.

If one achieved military merit here, it was a golden opportunity for social advancement, so it was a place where they could dream even the faintest hope.

But for Reizen, who was already a prince, such dreams held no meaning. Dreams? He had no hope either.

Not particularly sure why he lived, but not wanting to die horribly like his mother, he continued life as if merely sustaining it.

Every day was gray.

He was always alone, and unlike his time in the rose maze, he never ran or played around.

He didn’t know it then, being young, but looking back later, it was severe depression.

“You all know you must join at least one club, right? If you don’t get a club stamp by this week, you’ll fail, so keep that in mind!”

A young teacher shouted in a booming voice. At the academy, while food and lodging were free, you would be expelled if you didn’t maintain a certain level of grades.

Moreover, the grade requirements were very strict if you wanted to stay in the dormitory long-term.

While Reizen was always at the top of his class in exams thanks to his exceptional intelligence, trivial things like club activities ate away at his grades.

‘Club…’

Just thinking about it was unpleasant, what should he do?

One had to hang out with friends and do regular activities to submit reports every quarter. This was probably education meant to develop methods of cooperation on the battlefield.

For Reizen, who had not even a speck of social skills, it was the worst situation.

The young boy passed by the bulletin board holding his book with gloomy eyes. Then he spotted a noticeable notice on the board.

<Our club doesn’t require you to do anything>

There was a condition attached that said ‘Only if you’re good-looking,’ but for someone who knew he was handsome from the start, it was the perfect condition.

Summer, at fifteen.

That was why he joined the drama club.

When he arrived at the drama club room and opened the door, a boy wearing his uniform unusually neatly turned around.

Sion Clark.

Brown hair and brown eyes.

He had an ordinary appearance but was the somewhat particular-looking third son of a noble family.

“I came to get a club stamp.”

When Reizen spoke with a frown, Sion bluntly said, “Oh, you’re that guy? The voluntary outcast.”

“What?”

Is that something you say to someone’s face?

But well, it didn’t matter what anyone said. Reizen’s goal was the stamp, so he just needed to get that and leave.

When he held out the paper the teacher had distributed and pointed at where to stamp it, Sion climbed up on stacked chairs to look down and laughed coldly.

“Hey, do I look like the club president to you?”

Why does he pick a fight with everything?

He was a bastard with a really terrible first impression.

Reizen was about to just turn and leave.

He thought he could just get the stamp somewhere else. That’s when Roana Florence, the club president, came bouncing into the room with a broad smile.

She was a girl with such severe mania at the time that it was hard to handle. Just being next to her briefly, she talked so much it would hurt your ears.

When Roana Florence saw Reizen, she rejoiced with an expression like she might faint from joy.

“Wow! Finally such a handsome guy in our club!”

“…”

“Want me to stamp? Where? Your face? Arm? Lips? I can stamp anywhere. Wow, you’re really, really handsome! I know this might be inappropriate to say when we just met, but will you date me? Hm? Hm?”

It was unbearable. Reizen, who was passive and quiet by nature, felt stress that made his insides turn within 10 seconds.

And seeing this, Sion opened a book and appeared to be uninterested. Later when they became friends and Reizen asked what the content was about, Sion said he actually didn’t know either. He said he just pretended to read because he felt awkward…

How much Erich and Whilton teased him about that story afterward.

David got his forehead stamped with the corner of the book while criticizing Sion’s social skills.

The club room was always noisy. Everyone was either a commoner or a noble abandoned by their family, so they lived using each other as guiding lights.

And even after becoming adults…

Together. Still.

Reizen walked down the corridor, dragging his tired body drunk on alcohol. The unfamiliar old mansion and his blurry vision made it impossible to walk any further.

The world seemed to spin around him, and his face kept burning hot as fever raged inside.

‘I need to go back.’

His chest felt so tight he couldn’t get up to walk.

Reizen tore off the buttons of his blouse near his chest. Then, unable to find his bearings, he staggered and collapsed in the corridor. He leaned against the wall and hummed a song they often sang in the drama club.

The humming spread softly through the hotel corridor.

After a while, sensing someone’s presence, he looked up to see a woman looking down at him. Reizen stopped singing and smiled, blinking slowly.

“…Roana.”

The woman before his eyes must be her. There was only one woman in the club – Roana Florence.