“…What?”

“You said before. If I was curious about how His Majesty desired you, held you… what words he spoke?”

“……”

“Even if I don’t want to know, how could I not be curious about the time I couldn’t approach?”

As his words continued, Valentine’s lips moved momentarily.

“I’ve always thought and thought again. What His Majesty looked like when he stayed in your nights.”

That was Liam’s desire, wandering between loyalty and love.

“Was His Majesty gentle and kind even when holding you? Did he leave you powerless with his irresistible charm and actions, just like the personality that draws everyone to him? Or… did he take you somewhat roughly, forcing his will upon you?”

His self-muttering, tinged with a sorrowful cry, dissolved into the blood-soaked sanctuary steeped in grief. Liam’s voice, lost and aimless, gradually faded into silence.

“How did he make you happy like that… In what way did he make you smile and cry?”

How should I, to you─

“How did he act… to have your heart? What aspects of him… did you love?”

Was I loved?

“Until the end…”

Her disappointed lips finally twisted. A bitter sneer squeezed through the slightly opened gap.

What had Valentine hoped for from Liam?

As if he were still her brother, as if they still shared the same name, as if he were the one she loved most in this world as a fellow human. Valentine swallowed the words that lingered at the tip of her tongue and quietly muttered,

“Was that what you were curious about?”

Still crossing the line permitted to them, Liam, standing too close, nodded. All Valentine could leave was an utterly empty question in return.

“What do you think it was like?”

“I don’t know. I can’t know.”

A time he dared not even imagine. With feelings that seemed to melt himself away.

“Just, if it were me…”

The hand gripping his beloved’s cheek trembled. His blood-stained fingers slipped.

“I might have made you cry a little less.”

A bloody fingerprint was etched on her pure cheek. Like an indelible brand, leaving an eternal mark.

“If it had been me… wouldn’t I have tried to protect you peacefully? That’s the only thought I keep repeating.”

Valentine blinked once. Her quiet voice resonated through the place where countless breaths had faded.

“Even with all those feelings, you’re still making me cry, even now.”

Yet the cheeks of the one whispering those words were dry without a single drop of moisture. The look in her eyes as she gazed at Liam was not the crying face he knew.

Everything had changed. Had transformed. Everything.

The time they built up, the past too.

Therefore,

“I don’t know the answer you want!”

“……”

Valentine’s lips quivered at the outburst. Ah, this is a face Liam knows well.

When she doesn’t get what she wants. When wishes and reality go in opposite directions. It’s the expression that fully shows disappointment and sorrow.

“Still, I wanted you. Only you. Even though I knew it was madness!”

The desire that escaped while trying to turn away from her disappointment and sorrow was painfully honest.

“You’re all I have. My love for you is second to none!”

So there was a time when it was okay just to watch from behind. There were definitely days of wishing, hoping, and praying only for true happiness.

But when did that moment shatter…

When exactly did it break?

Liam looked at Valentine with trembling eyes.

He doesn’t know what Valentine wants now. He can’t even guess. It was beyond the realm of what Liam could understand.

To Liam, she was always Valentine. Not a person, not a sister, not a woman — just Valentine. His unreachable sanctuary that must never be defiled.

That dazzling sanctuary moved slowly. That impossibly heavy head moved. Nod, nod. That beautiful golden hair swayed.

“…Alright, I understand, Liam.”

Her voice was somehow wet. It was filled with an emotion he couldn’t name, directed at the one who had kicked away even his last chance.

“No matter what you say, no matter what excuses you make, one thing remains unchanged. I couldn’t live without you, but you lived just fine without me.”

In their childhood, the two who were always together had the same thought. You won’t let me become an adult alone.

They grew up together, and both walked their own paths. Sometimes side by side, sometimes with one ahead. But whether someone was ahead, one always watched the other’s back while the other followed with trust.

But in the end, all that trust was simply broken.

“That’s…”

“You know better than anyone what this means.”

Liam’s hand fell to the floor. The hand that had futilely grasped at air now wandered lost.

Yes… In the end, that is the truth. That’s all there is.

If he had followed Valentine as she said. Then… would she have believed even a little of what Liam had said until now?

“I was foolish to expect anything from you. How pathetic of me to seek salvation and peace. I won’t free you by my own hand.”

Valentine left a self-mocking whisper. Her violet eyes blazed as she looked at Liam.

“You just… die.”

Like a curse, those words had bound Liam. Valentine tilted her head and muttered into the air.

“Let’s go, Lu. There’s no reason to stay here anymore.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than a black gloom descended on the blood-red world. The gradually gathering gloom took the form of a man.

The man, who didn’t even look once at Liam, took Valentine’s hand. Soon, Valentine disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared, together with the black man.

“……”

Liam blinked a couple of times in the space where Valentine had vanished. The only breath remaining in this space was his own.

Liam blankly stared at the hell he had created. His eyes took in the corpses scattered on the floor, the faces contorted in agony. Though it was a cruel massacre by his own hands, he felt nothing.

No guilt, no anxiety, not even sorry.

Just…

“Follow… your… back…”

Mumbling stupidly, Liam finally burst into empty laughter. Heh, heh…..

The reason he didn’t follow Valentine was ultimately just one thing. Because he couldn’t let anyone take this place where their parents lay — the place Liam protected and Valentine protected.

So in the end, as Valentine said:

To avoid losing it, he killed everyone to possess it.

He tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. The moonlight reflected off the chandelier’s glass hanging from the high ceiling. Though the world was completely red, the ceiling mural remained perfectly pure.

“Liberation…”

At that ambiguous word, he finally realized. That perhaps… Valentine wanted Liam to ask for forgiveness.

She might have given him one last chance to speak of his transgressions, recite his sins, ask for punishment and beg forgiveness.

But…

“Ah… Tina.”

If my existence has been a curse and a source of sorrow to you…

Now, as I choke on regret and gnaw on the weight of my faults, I won’t dare seek forgiveness or atonement.

Liam slowly raised his blood-stained sword, his hands trembling. In this moment, the only thing he had left in the world was himself—an empty, hollow shell.

With the very sword that had taken her life, he knew there was only one path left.

This blade, which had stolen her heart, would now pierce his own.

‘My rose bloomed too far away.’

Liam drew a hollow smile. His spring that would never come finally breathed its last in his chest.

The sword flashed in the moonlight. The determined hand moved without hesitation. Solely to take his own life.

“Duke Blumir!”

At that moment, the tightly closed door burst open.

Along with someone’s shout, soldiers poured in like a tidal wave.

They rushed in instantly and struck Liam’s arm, making him drop the sword. Splash, the dull sound of something falling into liquid.

Liam surrendered himself to their hands without much resistance. Those who restrained him pushed his head down. His nose was pressed to the floor. The dizzying smell of blood pierced his nostrils. Dried blood clung sparsely to his disheveled hair.

Splash, splash… Someone parted the soldiers and moved with graceful steps. The sound of shoes rubbing against the floor was eerie. A black shadow fell over Liam.

“Well, well…”

Baptiste de L’Isle-Adam, the head chamberlain, stepped into the unfitting tragedy. He was the Emperor’s closest aide who rarely moved unless absolutely necessary.

After letting out a low sigh, Baptiste looked around. He remained dignified in the space that could only be described as chaos. While some soldiers secretly swallowed their nausea at the horrific sight they’d never seen before, Baptiste simply turned his head to stare at Liam.

“You’ve made quite a spectacle.”

As he said, the red world was nothing if not spectacular. It was truly a bloody sanctuary.

Having lived through Astaire’s time, even Baptiste, who was used to such things, didn’t want to look at this sight. Though he maintained a calm facade, he couldn’t help feeling sick to his stomach.

“This is truly… a tragedy I haven’t seen in a long time. The state of the Blumir mansion in the capital was rather better than this.”

Baptiste muttered calmly while frowning. That place had been quite a headache to clean up, but this place would probably be twice as difficult. At least with Gabrienne, there weren’t as many dead people comparatively.

Eventually, Baptiste crouched down. He grabbed Liam’s chin and turned his head to meet his gaze.