He opened the window and stepped out onto the balcony as he spoke. It was obvious that he was avoiding answering the question, but I decided to let it go. If he didn’t want to talk about it, I wasn’t going to force him. 

He was just below the balcony, the guards buzzing about. Even though the sun was setting, they were still busy. Almost all of them were carrying boxes wrapped in brightly coloured paper, which they carried back and forth between the dormitories. When I saw the colourful wrappings on the boxes, I felt like I understood the reason. 

“It seems that Karial has begun to send invitations to every family.” 

Given the family’s prestigious status, they wouldn’t just send an invitation card. To maintain their dignity, they would probably include expensive gifts. That too was a way of showing off their wealth. 

Zetak stood on the balcony, watching the servants below for a long time. Even after the sun had fully set and the magical orbs along the path lit up, he remained motionless. Was he perhaps thinking of the things that had happened between them in the past? And how he would take his revenge in the future? 

Come to think of it, there was no sign of Karial in the future I saw. Her silver hair would have been easy to spot if she had been there. Or perhaps she was buried among the corpses and I hadn’t noticed. 

“What are you going to do with her?” 

Zetak turned to look at me, but there was no trace of emotion in his eyes. There were only two main ways he could take revenge. The first was to expose her secrets publicly and have her executed, cementing her family’s place in history as one of the worst. The second was to end it quietly himself, with Zetak personally taking her life. The latter seemed a better way to deal with his personal rage. 

He didn’t answer, but I had a feeling the second option was more likely. If he intended to expose them publicly, he should have been busy gathering evidence by now. But he’d done nothing of the sort. He hadn’t followed Karial, hadn’t tried to find out her secrets. The only impression I got was that he was hiding his claws, silently waiting for the right moment to strike. 

“Even before I entered the palace, Karial’s mother visited me regularly.”

That was the secret he had been reluctant to share. Although it wasn’t much of a secret, considering it was something that could easily be guessed, he had always avoided talking directly about his past. But now he brought it up himself. Perhaps it was because he knew he didn’t have much time before he had to return to the demon realm. 

“As you’ve probably heard from Karial, her mother used to give me medicine. For… experiments, that is.” 

Even the word ‘experiment’ seemed to hurt him. His expression was blank, his voice calm, but his eyes were heavy with a mixture of anger and hatred, dark and simmering beneath the surface. 

“If you don’t want to talk about it, don’t force yourself.”

Zetak looked at me and then replied, “It’s fine.” His voice was calm, and though it was subtle, it almost seemed as if the corners of his lips lifted slightly. 

“I took the medicine she gave me every day until Your Highness cast me out. If I hadn’t been cast out, I’d probably still be taking it. She said I’d have to take it for the rest of my life. If that had happened…” 

“I couldn’t have killed her.”

He revealed the secret without a moment’s hesitation. This was probably the truth that Zetak had been trying to hide all along. Suddenly, I remembered what the administrator at the Administrative Palace had said – when a body is covered in wounds, it’s usually a murder driven by intense hatred. 

At the time, I dismissed the idea, especially when the Administrator suggested it could be a crime of passion. I hadn’t linked Zetak to the incident either, because I wasn’t sure if the woman Yuria had seen at the orphanage was really Karial’s mother. 

But now it was clear that the woman from the memory was Liri – or Yuria. And she was also Karial’s mother, and the very person Zetak was seeking revenge against. 

“Your Highness hasn’t asked me what kind of experiments were done on me.”

“It’s all in the past. I imagine it’s something you don’t even want to think about, so I won’t bring it up.”

He looked at me with an expression that seemed complicated. Although his face remained blank, his eyes seemed to carry a faint smile. At the same time, they looked like he was on the verge of tears. He lowered his gaze to his hands, which were covered in snake-like scales.

“When I was thrown out of the palace and left on the streets, Karial came to see me.”

I unintentionally stiffened at his words. Although I’d ordered him to be treated before he was sent away, divine power was no cure-all. Physical pain doesn’t just disappear. He probably couldn’t even stand properly because of the pain. He wouldn’t have been able to escape and could only watch as Karial approached him.

“You asked me how I would take my revenge.”

He looked out over the balcony. The sun had set and the servants had disappeared, leaving only the faint chirping of insects to fill the still air. 

“I’m going to gouge their eyes out.” 

Of course he would. After all, she was the one who had blinded him. 

“I’ll cut out their tongues.”

So it was she who cut out his tongue. I had suspected as much. Who else would go so far as to seek out an outcast child and cut out his tongue? 

“I will open her belly and tear out her entrails.” 

I hadn’t realised my fists were clenched. He had spoken only a few words, but they were enough to paint a vivid picture in my mind of how he had been killed – much clearer than I wanted it to be. 

Marienne had said that after Zetak had been cast out, she had sent people to rescue him. But all they found at the scene were bloodstains. Since he’d already been treated by a priest, there shouldn’t have been any bleeding. Most likely, his tongue had been cut there. 

Karial must have given an order to one of her servants, and it was probably Rey who forcibly lifted Zetak. He probably couldn’t even move his body properly due to the aftereffects of the torture I had inflicted on him. They must have forced his mouth open, grabbed his tongue and cut it off with a knife. Even under such pain, he probably couldn’t resist. Bleeding profusely, he was probably dragged by these women and placed in a cart. 

He was then taken to another place where he was finally killed. There his stomach was slit open and his intestines pulled out by Karial’s own hands. 

“You have no idea how I felt when I was dying.” 

I remembered the words he had spoken long ago. Zetak had said them with a blank expression on his face, but his eyes had looked as if he had been crying. It wasn’t just that he had died in pain. He had probably endured cruel words from Karial as he lay dying – words that hammered home the reality that he had been cast out by me. 

I understand now what I meant to him then. To die mocked by someone you despise, to hear truths you would rather deny. Could he have died a more miserable death? 

He must have hated me for making him suffer like that. As for Karial, there was no question. I know I have no right to be angry with anyone else. After all, if you trace the cause of all this, it ultimately leads back to me. A burning sensation stirred deep within me. 

“That’s enough.”

A voice suddenly interrupted me, pulling me out of my thoughts. 

Zetak let out a small sigh. 

“I didn’t say those things to see that look on your face. I think I told you not to dwell on unnecessary thoughts.” 

“You’re right.”

You even reduce your own death to something trivial, all to lessen my guilt. How can someone’s heart be so gentle? For a moment I mistakenly thought so. But the moment I saw his eyes, I realised how foolish that thought was. Gentle? Him?

“Your Highness, don’t interfere. If I don’t do it myself, I won’t be able to sleep from frustration. I will repay her for what I’ve endured over the years – tenfold, a hundredfold.”

His voice was calm and collected, but his eyes were anything but. While he had buried much of his hatred for me, the same couldn’t be said for his hatred for Karial. I could see the tension in his hands as they gripped the balcony railing, his fingers digging into the brick, crushing it under the sheer force. 

Though his face remained calm, the rage seething inside him was anything but. Only when the edge of the railing crumbled under his grip did Zetak look down at his hand, frowning slightly at the damage. 

“If I wanted to kill Karial now, I could do it anytime. But in the end I’d be caught and executed. That’s not revenge.

“I will come back alive. I’ll come back, kill her and live a good life for everyone to see.”

He stepped off the balcony and walked towards me. He took my right hand in his and stared at it intently before speaking.

“There is much I have yet to do.”

“…”

“And I need to fix this hand too.”

He murmured, slowly running his fingers over mine. The nerves in my hand had long been dulled, and such a light touch registered no sensation.

“You said earlier that a young demon, less than ten years old and without a fully formed consciousness, could be used to repair my arm.”

“Do you remember that?”