Lian gently pressed his thumb against the back of Hailla’s hand. Startled, she flinched and tried to pull her hand away, but she wasn’t strong enough. Flustered, she shouted out.

“Stop trying to pull something!”

“Pull something.”

Rethe always used that word to describe Lian. She often expressed her contempt by accusing him of trying to deceive Hailla. Hailla blurted it out without thinking, but surprisingly, it fit the situation well.

“Where did you even learn to say that?”

Lian’s long, neatly kept fingers lifted a few strands of Hailla’s hair and twirled them with amusement. He smoothed them out gently with a familiar touch. When his fingers brushed lightly against the nape of her neck, her shoulders shrank instinctively.

“I don’t know. I’m going to wash up first.”

As soon as she saw the stream, Hailla rushed over. Since their house had no bathroom, bathing like this was the only option. Ever since Lian arrived, they had naturally fallen into a routine of taking turns to keep watch while the other bathed. For Hailla, who always bathed nervously, it was a relief.

Of course, they never saw each other’s bodies – they just stood guard behind the bushes. Though… there was that one time she accidentally saw his. Thinking of that moment, her face flushed red. His body had been so firm and so different from hers. Although it had small scars here and there, it was smooth and well-toned. The memory alone made the back of her neck burn.

“I’ll just sit here.”

Lian smiled, the corners of his eyes curling. Ah. That was exactly how he’d smiled when their eyes met by chance while she was bathing. He looked relaxed and self-assured, as if he already understood everything.

Whenever he made that face, Hailla didn’t know how to respond. She would just duck her head and nod, feeling embarrassed even though she didn’t know why.

Splash.

Hailla sank into the cool water, the heat in her body dissipating. Her slender figure swam through the stream. Since the water wasn’t warm, she had to wash quickly to avoid catching a cold. After scrubbing thoroughly, she stood up.

Just then, a noise came from where Lian was keeping watch on the side of the stream. With half her body still exposed, Hailla quickly ducked back into the water, her heart pounding with alarm.

Lian moved swiftly towards the source of the sound. Something in his hand gleamed in the moonlight.

***

Had someone come to fetch water and lost their way? Hailla trembled at the thought. It was cold. She hoped that Lian would quickly drive whoever it was off. While the rustling continued, she quickly got dressed.

After roughly drying her hair, she headed towards the commotion. Lian was pinning someone down, covering their mouth and straddling them. The boy underneath him was flailing wildly, but he didn’t have much strength. As she approached, Lian glanced back at her and tucked whatever was in his hand into his coat.

It was a dagger.

“… You …”

“Oh, just in case.”

He spoke as if it were no big deal, but Hailla’s face stiffened immediately. What did he plan to do with it? Despite her serious expression, Lian merely shrugged. She moved closer to see who was pinned beneath him. He had probably tackled them without question, but still — just in case.

“Oh, this kid…”

“Waaaaahhh!”

Just as Hailla opened her mouth, the boy threw Lian off and ran away. He was so frightened that he didn’t look back, even though he was missing a shoe from his right foot. Hailla watched him go, then jabbed Lian in the side with her elbow.

“Nice job.”

“What do you mean?”

“You let him go on purpose. I know that kid. He’s the second son of Mr Demi, the fruit vendor.”

“He must have taken a wrong turn. He seemed really scared. I’ll take his shoe back to him later and apologise.”

The conversation ended there. Not thinking much of it, Hailla shook the water droplets from her hair. Then she glanced over at Lian, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the ground. His gaze was fixed on the direction in which the boy had run and his expression looked unfamiliar.

“You should wash up, too.”

When she took his hand from behind, he returned the gesture. Glancing at her wet hair, he walked over to where the towel was and placed it on her head. Resting his hand gently on top of it, he slowly brushed away the moisture clinging to her hair. Only once it had mostly dried and no more water was dripping did he go and bathe himself.

The news that the boy they had met that day had died came a week later.

***

The air was silent.

In the damp inner chamber of the cave, Lian wiped the blood from his dagger. His hands were slick with thick, red liquid, yet he showed no sign of disturbance.

“I told you to leave the eyes. They’re worth money.”

For a Marquis of the Empire, his tone was unusually casual. He nudged the groaning man on the floor with the tip of his boot a few times. Lian had asked him to help with a ‘retrieval’, but his old friend didn’t seem particularly interested. Lian crushed the eyes he had gouged out underfoot and calmly finished cleaning his blade.

“So, we’re taking this one?”

At the underground market hosted by House Ludain, human organs were a commodity. Even if someone could afford treatment at the temple, donor organs were always scarce. So, nobles bought and sold them on the black market. The royal family and the temple stood behind it all, quietly allowing the trade.

Verdian, the current Marquis of Ludain, had never participated directly in the trafficking. However, upon hearing that Lian — the duke’s son who had cut ties with his family — was handing over a corpse, he came in person out of curiosity.

“Not yet. If it spoils any further, you won’t get the full price.”

He knew exactly how Lian had made his money after abandoning his family. Lian captured wanted criminals with heinous records, severed their limbs and tendons, and sold them to brokers. The brokers would then slaughter the animals and sell the meat on the black market.

Half of the money earned this way went into the pocket of a girl. Lian had taken up residence in an old, crumbling house that she owned. What was her name? Hailla? Verdian vaguely recalled Lian reluctantly handing him a cheap, clumsily made biscuit recently and mentioning that name.

“Doesn’t matter.”

A few drops of blood stained his cheek as he smiled sweetly — a grotesque sight. Caught in thought, Verdian paused when he saw Lian’s face, but shrugged it off. The job had always just been to collect the corpse.

“There are things more important than money, you know.”

Hailla taught me that.’ Lian murmured these words as he removed the gag from the man whose eyes had been gouged out. The man immediately vomited and gasped for breath. Despite his eye sockets being hollowed out, he still didn’t understand why this was happening to him. All he could do was scream silently in his mind.

“Ugh… p-please… have… mercy…”

The man groaned as he crawled blindly towards the voice, bowing his head. Blood-tinged saliva dribbled from his mouth with every word he tried to utter. It was a pitiful sight, yet no one present felt any sympathy.

Lian inhaled deeply as he listened to the man groan. The metallic scent of blood filled his lungs, which he found satisfying.

“Sorry, That’s not an option.”

“Ah—uh, no, please…!”

“You’ve been following Hailla around lately, haven’t you? I saw you peeking through the window. We made eye contact, didn’t we?”

“Yes… I’m sorry… please…”

Lian recalled the way Hailla’s n*ked body must have appeared to that man just hours earlier. Her br*asts were full and round, like droplets of water, her waist softly curved, and her golden hair cascaded over it all. She looked so ethereal, so heartbreakingly beautiful, she could have been mistaken for something otherworldly.

It had been the first time Lian saw her like that—and just the sight alone had overwhelmed him. He’d been so aroused, he’d cl*maxed without even touching her. He imagined that man must have felt the same.

Hailla had no idea, but this man had been stalking her for a month. There was evidence everywhere—signs he had been lurking around her home, trying to track her every move. But more than anything…

“You followed an orphaned girl before, didn’t you?”

He had a known history—kidnapping, raping, and murdering orphaned women. He probably thought he had covered his tracks well, but plenty of people in the city had seen him. He wasn’t caught—not because he was clever, but because those who knew simply chose to stay silent.

Lian couldn’t bear the thought of someone like that getting close to Hailla. He wanted to strip away everything that bound her and take her somewhere safe, far from the filth of this world.

But first, he had to deal with the scum in front of him.

Verdian had suggested they pluck out his eyes and sell them, but Lian couldn’t stomach the thought of Hailla’s n*ked image being reflected in someone’s eyes—eyes that might end up who knows where. No, they needed to be destroyed completely.

And once that was done, the only thing left was to end the man’s worthless life and cut off every last connection he might have had to Hailla.

“Be quiet. It’ll be over soon.”

Lian held the struggling man down and grabbed his p*nis, which was flaccid at the time. She took out the blunt knife she had prepared in advance and cut it off. The squeaking sound echoed through the cave. Verdian grumbled that it was disgusting, but didn’t take his eyes off it, instead smirking.

“Aaaah! Ah! Aaah!”

“So noisy. Guess I made the right choice not doing it there.”

The child hated the sound of screams. Lian slowly cut off the p*nis and snickered. By the time it was finally completely detached, he was almost out of breath.

He grabbed the man by the hair and forced the severed p*nis into his mouth. Then he stuffed a cloth into the man’s mouth to stop him spitting it out and gagged him again.

The man’s trachea was blocked, and a strange sound echoed through the cave. The man would probably suffocate within a few minutes. He was dying, choked by his own p*nis. There could be no more miserable death.