Valentine took one step closer to Liam. A familiar face was visible beside her foot. A vassal who used to report about the territory’s accounts beside his father in childhood.

“The tribute demanded by Gabrienne this year is larger than expected. We’ll need to find a way to increase salt production to meet it…”

Taking another step forward, her high heels instinctively crushed the lifeless bodies scattered across the space, leaving no room to tread. After recalling that memory-bound image, her violet gaze fell blankly on a corpse that couldn’t even muster a final scream.

“The nanny was still alive until now. Ah, not anymore.”

It was an unnaturally cheerful voice. Splash… The sound of blood droplets splashing everywhere was amusingly similar to the sound of puddles on a rainy day.

“Now, I wonder if you’re satisfied.”

“…Tina.”

Liam watched Valentine approaching him slowly, calmly. A clear voice flowed through the tragedy.

“You… made me like this.”

For a moment, Valentine stopped her steps. Valentine’s gaze, lifting her head, took in Liam sitting in his seat.

Pain flashed for a moment in that beautiful gaze. He could clearly read it now.

“Are you blaming me again?”

“I’m not blaming you…”

Liam held his aching head. The world was red even when he closed and opened his eyes, and the smell of blood stung his nose even when he took deep breaths.

Yes. If you’re following the cause and effect, Liam made it this way.

Not Valentine.

But–

“Since meeting you again, I’ve never been more rational than now.”

Surprisingly, it was true.

The moment he knew Valentine was Valentine. When he reached out to Gwenael, when he faced her at the grave, the nightmares he faced every night… All those days were unlike himself, but in this blood-scented scene, Liam existed purely as Liam.

“You… said it. That I could have it if I killed for it.”

Liam looked down at his fingertips. Tremble, tremble. The muscles that had been strained from wielding the sword hundreds, thousands of times today convulsed red.

“I…”

Along with the muscle spasms, his voice shook.

“Until now, I never even thought that way…”

That he didn’t even have the courage to do it.

The unspoken words shattered between his teeth.

He lifted his head again. She was close now. But not coming any closer, just one step’s distance.

A relationship where they couldn’t casually fall into each other’s arms, nor could he freely pat the head of the one in his embrace.

That was the relationship between Valentine and Liam, the Blumir siblings.

“You, you’re the same.”

Suddenly Liam raised his hand. His constantly trembling index finger pointed at her. The small figure standing proudly before him felt like a giant.

“Though I was jealous of everything around you, the thought of having to kill because I didn’t want to lose you…”

It had never existed at all.

The reason he couldn’t voice these words was because even he couldn’t distinguish whether they were true or false.

It felt too false, given the tragedy he committed unfolding before his eyes. Yet, it was also too true, because he had genuinely never considered it. Liam’s heart seemed to dwell in a distant place, one even he could not reach or understand.

So now he could only ask one thing.

“What… what did you do to me?”

“It’s not enough to say I did something…”

She looked around. A strange delight gathered in her violet gaze.

“I just asked for the reason. ‘Why’ you killed me.”

…That’s right. That was it.

Just like now, when asking about the cause of what Liam had done. What Valentine did to Liam was really just one thing.

“I guessed the reason for your actions, and you couldn’t even deny what I said. Why?”

Her red lips curved up crookedly. It was unmistakably a sneer.

“It must have been the voice of your heart crying out somewhere inside you. How flustered you must have been to hear it spoken from my mouth.”

Everything ultimately stemmed from Liam’s self-doubt that he carried.

It wasn’t a matter of right or wrong. Liam always doubted the true intentions lurking within himself.

Though his mind told him it was for her sake, wasn’t it, in truth, an emotional matter? Hadn’t he resented her so deeply that he wanted to kill her for not choosing him?

He loved her more than anything in the world. But as much as he loved her, did she even think of him at all?

Yes, in the end, Valentine had been right.

Liam called out to Valentine, his voice trembling, on the verge of breaking.

“…Tina.”

“What?”

Every night, he had dreams. Dreams where she, covered in blood, questioned his sins. Like a swamp, the abyss of guilt he tried but couldn’t escape from tightened around his ankles and dragged him into the depths.

“After you left… Do you think I lived in my right mind?”

Liam covered his face with trembling hands, overwhelmed by emotions he could never voice—not even to Amaryllis.

“When you were there, and I was there…”

His hand slid down, leaving streaks of blood etched across his face.

“When there was only you, and only me.”

His thoughts drifted to the past in Blumir, a time when Valentine held only Liam’s hand, when his gaze followed only Liam’s back. That distant time Valentine had just spoken of—the time when he said he had to protect Blumir.

“I’m still living in that time, Valentine.”

His hand slid powerlessly under the chair. After all that past, what remained was only broken, shattered humans.

“I’ve never imagined a world without you. Not even once.”

“Yes, it’s mutual. I’ve never imagined a world without my brother either.”

Brother.

Hearing the word he hadn’t heard in so long, Liam suddenly lifted his head.

Because of their past, they never thought they would face a crossroads.

But the worst crossroads existed, and they eventually walked separate paths. Like how winter follows spring even in the deep sea, the end of the crossroads was only divergence. The end of the adoptive siblings who once thought they were each other’s everything was only sorrowful.

“But I left, and you stayed. You didn’t even think of following me.”

Valentine finally took one step closer, crossing the distance they thought would never be breached. Her still white and transparent hand caressed Liam’s blood-stained cheek.

Her face slowly tilted toward him. Soft hair tickled his shoulder.

“So now, I’ll give you one last chance.”

“Chance?”

“A chance to speak everything honestly.”

A faint hope sparkled in her eyes as she looked down at Liam.

He knew what Valentine wanted. She had something she wanted to hear now. One single correct answer she wanted to hear directly from his lips.

But Liam didn’t know, couldn’t even guess what Valentine wanted. What dreams she had. Unlike her, who read his heart so easily.

An apology? An excuse? Or a pretext.

I don’t know, I don’t know.

Liam’s parted lips trembled. No words flowed out.

“……”

“Liam.”

Her low, sunken voice was gentle. A voice that bewitches people.

“Hatred, resentment, love, dislike — all of these are only possible if there’s heart. If you were truly outside my consideration, I wouldn’t even hate you. You’ve experienced it these past few months, haven’t you?”

Complete indifference.

Liam knew too. That fighting was better than being ignored. Because when people ignore people, it truly means their heart has left.

There was a touch tapping his cheek. Lips approached his ear. He could feel her cold, sunken breath completely.

“So be honest about your desires now. While there’s still a chance I might pretend to listen to your heart.”

“My… desires…”

Liam looked around blankly, as if in a daze. A cruel world, painted entirely in blood, stretched out before him. And in the center of that crimson chaos, she stood—pure, and white.

Like a new bride, pure white…

That dazzling light confused his heart. As if enchanted, Liam reached out. Approaching the not-so-distant space, narrowing the gap that could never be crossed, he caressed her cheek. A dizzying red mark remained on her white cheek.

He embraced her small head. The touch pulling her to him was still trembling.

After passing through their long entangled time, crossing the distant years, their lips met.

The sensation of touching the person he had wanted so much for the first time in his life was cold. Her chilly breath tickled his lips. Yet it was sweet. So enchanting that his confused heart melted in an instant.

He could see her pressed cheek, her violet eyes still watching him without movement. Her delicate golden eyelashes trembled slightly.

She showed no particular resistance. Indifferently, as if nothing was happening. She merely received it.

There could be no clearer expression of rejection. The sweet sensation vanished into emptiness in an instant. What remained for him was just something formlessly cold.

The evening moon settled on the bloody sanctuary. Moonlight reflected in drying pools of blood illuminated the world peacefully.

Did even the sky shame his blasphemous love? The moon hid between gathering dark clouds. The softly shining light completely vanished.

“Tina.”

Compared to his long yearning, their contact was too brief. Liam held Valentine’s delicate cheeks. Then followed,

“…Belle.”

A name unfamiliar to both of them. At last, Valentine reacted.

“Why are you calling me that?”

“At times like this…”

Liam stammered.

“I wonder what His Majesty would do.”

Was she a bit surprised at those words? Her distant violet eyes wavered. A delayed response was heard.