3. Liam de le Blumir Part 1 – Blasphemous Love (2)

The servants lined up to greet their returning master. They stood in a neat, orderly line.

The door opened, and the master stepped into the mansion. The servants bowed.

“Welcome home.”

They called out in unison. The butler approached his master. As the servants straightened up, they sensed something strange.

The sound of the front door locking was oddly jarring. Then came the sound,

Scraaape…..

The eerie noise of heavy iron scraping against the red carpet.

Their master, a former knight, was always with his sword. But in these peaceful times without war, a sword was merely a decorative piece that slept in its scabbard except during training.

However, today the rarely-seen blade wasn’t silver. It was stained dark red with dried blood.

Still, there had been a hunting competition today, so it was understandable. It could be beast blood he left unwiped.

The master’s neatly flowing long black hair clung to his sweat-covered face. His soulless eyes scanned those gathered in the entrance.

As if possessed by something…

A chilling sight.

He didn’t feel like their usual master. A silence fell where even breathing, even heartbeats seemed audible.

As always, the butler approached his master to take his outer garments and called out to him.

“Your… Grace?”

“Ah, Marius.”

The master spoke the butler’s name. Though it was the same voice they always heard, it didn’t feel like their master’s now.

A different aura than this morning. His particularly gaunt face and increasingly fierce gaze gave off a strange chill.

His empty blue eyes scrutinized every corner of the butler’s aged face. Then he muttered something incomprehensible.

“If Valentine were here, she would have been called ‘Your Highness.'”

“Pardon? That’s…”

The butler’s words trailed off. Marius was a butler who had long taken care of the Blumir mansion in the capital city of Gabrienne.

He had lived in Blumir during his childhood and had little connection with Valentine, who stayed at the Pendragon grand ducal residence in Gabrienne. He wasn’t close to the previous Duke and Duchess who occasionally visited Gabrienne either, so it would be correct to say he had served only Liam.

Nevertheless.

“Her Highness Duchess Valentine was the last blood relative of Blumir.”

He was not Liam’s man.

But a thorough servant of Blumir who would walk to Valentine’s side at her gesture.

Despite serving Blumir for so long, living for Blumir, even though Liam now bore that name.

“Yes, that’s right…”

─I, myself….

In truth, nothing belongs to Liam.

Yes, it all belongs to Valentine, who has already departed this world.

‘Then perhaps, it would be better to kill.’

Like an auditory hallucination, like a command, the echo resounded.

Liam’s lips twisted into a crooked smile.

“That’s… natural…”

─I didn’t know I was such a petty human being.

The blood-covered sword in Liam’s hand slowly cut through the red carpet and swam through the sea of air. The slow and elegant movement was so beautiful, like a sword dance, that no one could predict what would follow.

The servants, mesmerized by the bloodied sword tip, watched only the blade. Just as they thought the movement was particularly enchanting—

A bloody trajectory flashed under the chandelier light. Toward the servant who had long followed Blumir.

Swish! The sound of air being sharply cut rang out. The blunt sword sliced through the aged human body. Blood splattered instantly.

The butler died without even screaming, his eyes wide open as his body crumpled to the floor. The thud of a falling person was unexpectedly hollow. Splat, crimson blood spattered onto Liam’s cheeks.

The servants blinked stupidly at the sudden event. It was a moment when reality couldn’t be recognized as reality.

Each drew in their breath. The faint bloody afterglow approached their nostrils. Then they alternately looked at their sword-wielding master, the blood marks on his cheeks, and their superior collapsed on the floor. Then,

“Mr. Marius!”

A delayed reaction occurred.

The terrified servants rushed to the deceased butler. They listened for breathing, checked for a pulse.

No breathing. No pulse. No one knew how to handle such a sudden event.

Amidst the commotion, the sword flashed again. The smell of blood grew stronger. Another servant collapsed on top of the dead butler.

Only then did the servants, slowly beginning to comprehend the situation, step back hesitantly. Screams erupted.

“Ky, kyaaah!”

“Your Grace, what is this…!”

The questioning voice melted into the screams. The knight’s sword dance, once it began, showed no sign of ending.

People scattered in panic. Lives faded one by one in the entrance hall that had instantly become a scene of carnage. The scent of death seeped into their lungs.

“Y-Your Grace…”

The last remaining maid stepped backward. Her young face was covered in others’ blood and her own tears.

Liam took one step closer. The maid collapsed onto the floor. Blood droplets spurted in the red world. The white lace of her skirt hem turned pink.

The maid looked up at Liam in bewilderment. Her master’s eyes were filled with madness. Trembling with fear, the maid clasped her hands and begged earnestly.

“P-p-please spare…”

Her plea didn’t reach the ears of the already insane master. Liam’s sword rose high. Under the bright chandelier light, the sword that had fed on others’ blood created a bloody spectacle. Swish! At the moment the sharp cutting sound scratched the world, the wide-eyed maid’s head rolled across the bloody floor.

At the end of that tragedy—

Liam stood alone in the blood-soaked world. As he took a step, splash, red droplets sprayed from the pool.

Once, twice… Taking deep breaths, Liam still looked up at the brilliantly shining chandelier. Like a priest of the sun god gazing at the sun.

He blinked endlessly. Then a hollow laugh burst forth.

“Ha, haha, hahaha…”

Liam roughly ran his blood-covered fingers through his hair. The madman’s eyes were piercingly blue.

“Valentine… Valentine.”

The one name he couldn’t let go bloomed on his lips. The one person who mocked him, ridiculed him, and showed him this answer.

Turning around, Liam stepped out through the wide-open entrance, leaving the bloody fortress behind. The real task that needed to be done was far away.

* * *

They say the Duke of Blumir killed everyone in his mansion.

The story of the tragedy at the Blumir mansion spread quickly.

When Lumière told Valentine this story, she giggled softly.

“Ah, how disappointing.”

“Disappointing?”

Lumière, who was sitting beside her playing chess, asked in shock. As if contemplating her next move, Valentine repeatedly picked up and put down a black pawn with her white fingers.

“If he had rushed straight to Amaryllis, it would have been more interesting.”

“……”

“The human was so timid that he couldn’t even dream of rebellion and only killed innocent people. I pity those who died unjustly.”

Though she said she pitied them, her attitude showed no mourning for the dead. Even Lumière could say nothing at that moment.

Lumière couldn’t comprehend how things had escalated to this point. It seemed that her request for Cassian to grant her Blumir, and the subsequent deterioration of relations between the Duke of Blumir and the Empress, had played a significant role. Yet, the exact chain of cause and effect remained elusive.

Above all, could these events truly justify such a sudden outburst—one that led to the massacre of one’s own people?

Lumière’s answer was a resolute ‘no.’ There had to be something more, something hidden, that Lumière wasn’t privy to.

Had Valentine orchestrated this tragedy, pushing Liam to commit such an atrocity? If so, since when? And for what purpose?

Unanswered questions swirled in Lumière’s mind, but since she couldn’t voice them, she shifted the conversation instead.

“…They say the Duke of Blumir hasn’t been seen in Gabrienne.”

“He must have rushed back to Blumir. After all, eliminating the domain’s retainers was his true objective.”

Having made up her mind, Valentine finally moved her pawn. She captured a white pawn positioned diagonally. Click, the wooden pieces collided with a rather cheerful sound.

Looking at the situation on the chessboard, Lumière asked,

“Is it alright to leave the Duke of Blumir be?”

“You know, Lumière. Have you ever heard this saying?”

“Which one?”

“Kill…”

Blumir’s retainers.

“Your enemies…”

With Liam.

“With enemies.”

Lumière, holding her bishop, flinched.

This didn’t apply only to Blumir’s retainers and Liam. Count Glastia had walked into hell because of Liam, and Gwenael, who harbored resentment because of this, was the catalyst that shook Liam’s heart.

Kill your enemies with enemies. As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my ally. Those faithful to each other’s desires might be allies today but could become enemies tomorrow.

However,

“Are your retainers also your enemies?”

“Of course. Those people quietly served Liam when he killed me. That’s how they betrayed me.”

Valentine’s eyes curved beautifully. It was the kind of smile that made one think she was doing the right thing at that moment.

“So isn’t it fair that the dogs who bit their master should also experience betrayal? Preferably by the person they chose.”

Dogs who bit their master.

There couldn’t be a more appropriate expression.

Lumière finally couldn’t contain her curiosity. Her lips moved timidly.

“Belle. May I ask you something?”

“Yes, anything.”

“I just can’t understand… how all this is happening.”

Everything from start to finish was just puzzling. Especially because it was Valentine, not Liam.

“It seems like all I did was say Blumir would become mine. Was that… enough to make the Duke of Blumir dig his own grave?”