Chapter 7 – Part 4

Outside the mansion, Evan kept touching his lips.

He could still feel the lingering warmth on his lips. He also painfully felt that he had crossed a line he shouldn’t have.

Things must not flow as they did before the regression; he clenched his fists, feeling like he was ruining things with his own greed.

Now, unlike in the past, he had a clear goal.

To lead the war to victory so Anne could be safe.

If the war’s outcome couldn’t be changed, he needed enough time for her to seek asylum.

To do that, he had to head south, away from Calohas, where the Vanessa family resided.

That meant he really couldn’t get closer to her. Evan had to acknowledge this.

In truth, Duke Evan Davis had no intention of being swept into this wretched war again.

If he didn’t want to join the war directly, he could just provide adequate funding and handle various administrative tasks.

The Davis family’s finances were overflowing to the point of excess, unlike other families.

The problem was that he had purged his own father. This act made him seem like a dangerous rebel to some.

Living as the emperor’s hound wasn’t enough to compensate for this.

Evan recalled the time before his previous life when he had met the emperor before going to the battlefield.

* * *

“Will you depart for the battlefield?”

“I intended to do so without your saying so, Your Majesty.”

Evan responded coldly, with a bitter smile.

He was not intimidated at all, even in front of the emperor.

“Really? I thought you were quite eager to live….”

“……”

“So I thought about how to persuade you.”

That cunning old man. Evan stood upright before the emperor, maintaining the minimum courtesy.

He knew the emperor was the superior one. And Evan was the most loyal hound among all the previous Dukes of Davis.

The emperor sometimes lavished luxurious gifts on Evan, who wasn’t even his own son.

Evan often called those gifts “slave marks,” though.

The still not fully grown Ailon stood behind the emperor like a backdrop.

The emperor’s gaze, which always looked at everything with disdain, sharpened. The moment he met those eyes, Evan realized.

“I will go.”

“Oh, you knew what I would say?”

“…You’re worried that the man who killed his father and took his place might covet other positions as well, aren’t you?”

In other words, it was a death sentence.

The emperor responded, avoiding Evan’s cold gaze that peered through his golden hair.

“Of course not.”

“Ha, I’m glad you still need me, Your Majesty.”

Evan laughed bitterly with a complex expression. How long would he have to repeat this charade?

He was beginning to wonder what benefit came from maintaining this duke status.

Still, like a living puppet….

Although the emperor denied it, Evan knew he would have to lead on the battlefield in place of the emperor’s cherished crown prince.

He had no attachments to life, but pretending to was not a big deal.

The servants who had met him in the separate house during his childhood still remembered him as a frail young master, starving for love and struggling to survive.

Matching their expectations was no big deal, he thought.

“Evan.”

When Evan heard the voice of Ailon Terossa standing behind the Emperor, he chuckled and replied.

“Yes.”

“I… I am truly sorry. I… I…”

The Crown Prince’s face showed regret mixed with an apologetic expression. Evan approached Ailon indifferently.

A father who loved his son too much and a weak Crown Prince who would lead the Terossa Empire. It was a truly foolish combination.

Those who had not experienced tragedy were endlessly weak and foolish.

Evan bit his lip and spoke.

“As the Crown Prince, you must never apologize to anyone. No matter how unfortunate it is, you must remain colder than anyone else. You need to display such a cynical attitude that others would call you a tyrant.”

“Evan.”

“As of today, our childhood connection is over. From now on, we are just the Crown Prince and the Duke. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Ailon hurriedly tried to grab Evan.

But he dropped his hand under the sharp gaze of his father from behind. It felt like he was about to vomit.

And so Evan left the place and headed to the battlefield.

* * *

The place Evan headed to after leaving Anne at the mansion was Bailey Street.

This was the place where Anne Riley had come to procure medical supplies before her return.

As soon as he arrived on the street, Evan looked at the alley with a serious expression.

The piles of trash and the stench were still the same.

It had an oddly unpleasant smell, like rotting corpses.

Anne Riley must have come here many times.

Mostly to get medical supplies, but also to fetch Evan’s gun from the hideout.

Clutching his irregularly beating heart at the memory of her death, Evan moved his steps.

Walking alone through the dark alleys where he once walked with her, Evan sank into deep melancholy.

“D*mn it.”

The heavy curse that slipped from his red lips was drowned out by the surrounding commotion.

A fight was underway in this dusky back alley.

“You bastard!”

“Hey, stop fighting. What’s the point of this fight!”

“This guy started it! We were all quiet, and he couldn’t stand it, saying the empire was doomed and laughing!”

Evan did not stop his steps. Such quarrels were common among the citizens of the empire.

With the war dragging on for years instead of ending quickly, some people thought it would be better to lose and stop fighting.

A drunk man with a crumpled face shouted loudly.

“You vermin, you don’t even know how incompetent the top brass of this empire is! It’s not worth explaining to you!”

“Hey.”

“Why pick a fight? Soon this empire will be finished.”

At those words, Evan’s steps halted.

Slander against the imperial family.

It was a serious crime. Proving this, everyone was frozen at the man’s words.

If not reported, they would be punished as accomplices. Knowing this, the man’s reckless talk was like declaring, “I want to die right now.”

Evan pulled down his hood and looked at the man’s face. He had a long scar near his eye.

He looked physically strong, and the sword he carried was quite valuable.

“Given this, you could be considered a knight of a fairly reputable noble family.”

At Evan’s low mutter, the man looked at him. His brown eyes wavered greatly for a moment.

The man, now anxious, partially hid his face with his hood and shouted.

“What do you know!!”

“…Where are you affiliated?”

Evan frowned and picked up a broken bottle from the ground. The man, now more agitated, approached Evan.

“You bastard!”

“I’ll ask again. Where are you affiliated?”

“…No affiliation. I’m not a noble.”

“Even if you’re not a noble, wasn’t there a family you worked for?”

At those words, the man turned pale. Despite openly slandering the imperial family, he still seemed loyal to his former masters.

At the unusual behavior, Evan raised an eyebrow.

“Reckless.”

As Evan was about to move on, not wanting to waste any more time, the man spoke in a completely different tone.

“I… I… No… I’m sorry, I’m sorry. My words have nothing to do with the family I served.”

The man, speaking politely, eventually knelt down. Everyone silently watched his actions.

Though no one spoke, they all understood the man’s feelings.

They were dissatisfied with the ongoing meaningless battle, and they had lost faith in the war’s justification long ago.

“I could execute you right now, but let me ask one thing.”

“……”

“What makes you so certain that the empire will fall?”

The answer did not come easily.

In the long silence, Evan bit his lip, recalling the demise he had experienced.

Before his return, Evan had witnessed the fall of the empire firsthand, so he couldn’t easily punish the man for his rude words.

Because the man was right.

With a complex feeling, Evan passed by the man, intending to continue his way.

A desperate voice echoed in his ears.

“Could your lordship consider my words as not the rantings of a madman?”

The man’s voice was now very polite and concise, perhaps speaking as a knight.

“Alright.”

“In that case, we need a secret place where we can talk alone.”

Evan nodded slightly at his words. For such a place, it would be best to go to that building.

Taking the man who proclaimed the empire’s downfall to the place where he had his first kiss with her, what would the changed future hold…?

He felt a little scared.