Fierce flames rose over the building. Black smoke devoured the surroundings frighteningly. The fire spread in a straight line along the street like a cigar. Even the street trees, still damp, blazed like kindling.

Trees that had stood their ground for over half a century shook their bodies painfully. As sparks flew and caught on passing pedestrians, crowds began screaming and fleeing in all directions.

The area around the hotel was chaotic. Flames blocked the hotel entrance along the oil-soaked road. As bombs hidden inside the hotel continued to explode one after another, building fragments rained from the sky. People’s screams added like a topping to the mayhem.

Selheim waited. His blue eyes remained fixed on one spot.

‘Mel will come out this way.’

The emergency stairs on the 5th floor where Melissa was hadn’t been bombed. They had deliberately created an escape route, so unless the hotel mercenaries were stupid enough to forget their daily path, she would come out through the back door.

She absolutely must.

Selheim bit the tender flesh inside his mouth. He stared at the side door without blinking once. But no matter how long he waited, the door showed no signs of opening.

‘Surely nothing’s gone wrong?’

Could she have died, unable to escape inside?

Growing anxious, he tried to get out of the carriage. The guard knight blocked his path, shaking his head.

“Your Highness, there are too many watching eyes here, and it’s dangerous.”

This knight usually tried not to go against his wishes, but today he spoke directly, clearly judging it truly dangerous.

“Move.”

Selheim pushed past the knight and surveyed the surroundings. Among the chaotic crowd, he could see several of his knights hiding their identities.

Selheim was born with an exceptional memory. Since childhood, survival meant being able to distinguish at a glance who was loyal to him and who wasn’t. So while he might not know their names, he remembered almost every face after seeing it just once.

This included the Empress’s knights as well.

“Ah.”

Mother.

Selheim smiled coldly and ordered the knight.

“Go inside and bring Mel.”

“But…”

As the knight tried to object, Selheim drew the gun from the holster on his back and shot the man hiding on the right. The man, shot instantly in the head, collapsed where he stood.

He was one of the Empress’s knights.

“Or should I go myself?”

Selheim smiled serenely as his eyes took in the storm-like flames.

“If you truly care for me, you should follow my orders, not my mother’s, Karon.”

The knight’s eyes widened in surprise when Selheim called his name. After meeting Selheim’s serious gaze, the knight selected some men and sent them inside.

Selheim stopped in front of the burning building. The sky was completely black. The air that choked his throat entered his lungs, causing chest pain. Gray ash fell like rain. The ash drifted down onto Selheim’s silver hair, leaving stains.

He held out his palm to catch the ash falling like flower petals. The gray powder crumbled as soon as it touched his palm.

“Your Highness, we should move…”

The flames crept along the vines, rippling at Selheim’s feet.

If you die here, what will I do, Mel?

He didn’t want to even imagine such a scenario, but now he couldn’t help it. If Melissa couldn’t make it out of the hotel, he felt his own life would become meaningless.

‘Did I… love you this much?’

Enough to want to die without you?

‘This is… this is too unfair, Mel.’

We spent the same time together, so why am I alone?

Why, just me.

Have to suffer like this?

Selheim’s blue eyes wavered with the flames. When he tilted his head up, the devilishly burning flames exhaled wind. His long silver hair swayed submissively.

“Your Highness!”

The knight shouted. As he rushed toward Selheim like he was unable to wait any longer, just then.

“Selheim!”

Mel?

He turned reflexively at the familiar voice. The flames roared higher. A boom echoed from far away. Building debris was falling from the sky.

He sprinted toward Melissa at full speed. Never in his life had he run with such passion. As Crown Prince, everything had been at his feet as long as he stayed alive.

From birth, he lacked nothing.

Just one thing, the arranged marriage needed Duke Grey’s protection. But now even that past felt resentful. She, who became his half-brother’s wife, was so beautiful at the wedding.

She should have stood beside him, rightfully welcomed. Yet seeing her trembling without pride as the wife of a mere half-prince was disgustingly disappointing.

So he tried to hurt her with cruel words.

He tried to punish her.

But in the end, the punishment he gave her came back to him.

‘Melissa.’

I wish I had never met you.

Selheim ran and embraced Melissa. The falling debris pierced into Selheim’s back.

* * *

“Selheim!”

Young Melissa ran up and grabbed Selheim’s hand. It was a natural touch, like holding an older brother’s hand. Selheim looked down at the small hand still carrying baby fat and smiled faintly.

Not yet ten years old, Melissa chattered like a lark. She prattled on about what the new aunts and uncles who came this social season were like, and without being asked, she rattled off about grandfather and Rael’s fight.

Words he would normally find annoying to hear were different when she spoke them. Melissa was the exception to everything.

Just when did she become so precious?

Even trying to find the origin, he couldn’t point to a specific moment. She was precious from his first memory to his last. It was a fate too old for Reizen to intrude upon.

‘I should have killed him then after all.’

In his hazy memories, Selheim recalled the scene of Melissa protecting Reizen. It remained shocking as it was the first time she had taken someone’s side in the Rose Maze.

“There’s no need to go this far!”

The women of the Rose Maze would try to climb above their station whenever they could, so he merely trampled them.

Reizen was the same. Other children would cower after being trampled a few times, but Reizen was different from the seedling.

Cut him down and he’d grow back, cut him again and he’d grow back again.

Like a weed, he was too tough to uproot. That’s why he tormented him more persistently, grinding him down. That’s why Melissa couldn’t stand by and blocked Reizen’s path.

That’s when he realized.

Ah, Mel hates this kind of thing.

She had been holding back all this time.

So he tried to be kind. He wrapped himself in packaging, acting out the perfect image she wanted while treating Melissa gently as befitting the Crown Prince.

All that remained was time.

If time had just passed safely, we could have been together…

‘It’s all because of that bastard Reizen.’

Since he made contact with Duke Grey, the empire’s foundation began to shake.

Selheim’s eyes flew open as soon as he regained consciousness in bed. Though bandages were wrapped around his torso to stop the bleeding, blood immediately seeped from his shoulder when he moved.

“Your Highness. You must not move.”

The royal physician had come to examine his condition. But Selheim immediately put on his formal uniform with epaulettes and left the room.

The last glimpse he had of Melissa was like before. He must have let his guard down since he’d rushed to save her. He remembered her pale face, crying at the sight of blood flowing from Selheim before he lost consciousness.

Fool.

I wasn’t saving you, I was capturing you.

‘Our Mel is… still so naive.’

Selheim walked down the temple corridor, his face stripped of any smile. The waiting priest bowed deeply with a terrified expression.

“…Begin.”

At his brief command, the priest climbed onto the platform. The knight holding a rifle to the priest’s head accompanied him.

Melissa lay beautifully on the platform prepared for the funeral. Selheim looked down at the woman sleeping in the coffin with gentle eyes and wiped away the ash on her cheek with his finger. When her soft skin touched his hand, it finally felt real.

That he would finally possess Melissa.

This is how it should have been from the start.

I shouldn’t have sent you to Reizen in the first place.

Regardless of how you thought of me, I should have just taken you.

“I stepped back too much, Mel.”

I wanted you to get treatment because I didn’t want to see you broken. I hoped that when you returned after resting your mind there, you would warmly welcome me like before.

But since we only grew further apart, I’ll stop pretending to be a good person wrapped in packaging.

Mel, just break.

Break, shatter, and crumble by my side.