Hot blood splashed on his whole body. Raytan looked down at the Emperor’s dead body with an expressionless face. Blood still spilled from his severed neck, and the man’s old body was now limp and motionless.

What was in front of him was just a piece of meat, not something to be called an emperor or anything else.

Raytan scoffed.

And right after that…

‘…I’ve told you many times, right?’

Raytan turned his head at the unknown voice.

Someone he didn’t know was standing there. It was a man wearing armor and holding a sword. He had a long scar on his cheek that looked carved in by a blade.

And… he had blonde hair with blue eyes.

‘I mean, everything is good as long as it’s taken in the right amount.‘

He could clearly see a smirk on the man’s face.

“Ugh…”

Raytan suddenly suffered a headache again. He staggered as he held his sword. Meanwhile, the man started to approach him.

‘If you had just listened to that, I wouldn’t have gone this far either…’

“You… Who the hell are you?”

Raytan breath was rough and heaving while looking at the man.

The man, already within Raytan’s reach, pulled out his sword with a smiling face.

Raytan clenched his teeth and swung his sword at the man, but it didn’t work at all.

Instead of beating in the man’s head, the blood-covered sword only smashed the vase behind him. Following that, he heard a series of breaking and cracking sounds.

Raytan tried to slash him like a madman again, but he didn’t cause the slightest damage.

‘In Denhelder, there is no need for any other God but me.’

The man said that in a frigid tone, then raised his sword and jumped at Raytan.

‘Die, Raytan.’

A sharp sword rushed toward his neck.

“Hah…!”

Raytan gasped heavily, then collapsed to the floor. However, that was the end. He didn’t feel any pain afterward. When he looked up, there was nothing to see.

“Kheu… Kheukh…”

It felt like his head was going to split. Raytan clenched his teeth and shut his eyes tight.

Why does this keep happening?

And… what did he mean by saying ‘God’?

Also, he called him Raytan too…?

At that exact moment, Raytan staggered.

It was because he suddenly became aware of someone’s presence behind the curtain.

“…”

Raytan slowly stood up then lifted the veil.

No one was there.

Instead, he only saw the opened door of a secret passage carefully hidden all this time. However, there was also a familiar ribbon that caught his eye. Raytan bowed his body and picked it up.

He knew the owner of the ribbon.

***

‘Behind me… Go behind me. The place I have already prepar—’

Sezh finally figured out why the Emperor told her to hide behind his bed.

Behind the curtain, there was a secret passage. The passage, which started from the Emperor’s bedroom, led to the back gate of the main palace.

“Huff, huff….”

It seemed like she didn’t have any power to run anymore. After exiting the passage, Sezh stopped and breathed heavily. She lost her ribbon, causing her hair to be unruly. Sezh’s entire appearance was messy. Regardless, it was something she couldn’t afford to worry about now.

“All of these…. How….”

Everything… was confusing.

As Sezh remembered, the time of the coup before her return was not today. It should have been a few more days ahead.

Besides…

‘Shall I tell you a secret, Carta?’

The things Raytan said as well…

Now, Sezh realized that her guess was correct. In the end, everything had already been planned from the start. Both the coup and Lize’s death. However….

‘I am not your son.’

Along with Raytan’s voice, a bird-shaped mark flashed through her mind. Now she knows why Raytan was always wearing bandages there even though he wasn’t hurt, and she now knows that he already knew everything from the start.

‘Mother never forgot about something you describe as ‘mere’, Carta. Mother’s mother and my grandmother’s mother would also never forget how you all persecuted us.’

What does Raytan mean about the persecution that has lasted since long ago?

‘The woman who betrayed God and the girl she gave birth to— You all did the same thing to them. Even after such a long time, you all still continually track them down over and over. Then after you find the woman’s bloodline, you kill them again and again…’

“This… I have never heard… Any of this.”

‘You brought the last of that bloodline to Denhelder. With your own hands.’

The last of the bloodline he talked about was obviously Lize. The only one of that bloodline who survived the ongoing persecution.

Something suddenly came to her mind.

‘The Iyont Empire was a good place to live, but I didn’t stay there because I wanted to. It was the place where I ran away again and again.’

Lize said that to her a long time ago.

‘But in the end, it turned out like this. I came to Denhelder. It was hard at first, but not anymore. Now I think everything was fated. It’s the reason why I came here, so….”

“She planned this revenge…. From a very long time ago….”

‘…Damn fucking blue eyes and blonde hair. It’s not just you, Sezh. I’ll kill all the blondes with blue eyes.’

So that’s why Raytan said that when he cut off her head in the past?

The scattered puzzle pieces were steadily coming together.

And the last words Lize said that she couldn’t understand before…

‘Princess, I… will tell you a secret.’

Lize also said the same thing to Sezh. And the secret that Lize told her…

‘People think that it was His Majesty who gave Raytan his name, but that’s not true. It’s me who asked him for that. Do you know why?’

“Huff, huff….”

‘It’s because he’s a monster. A monster that I created.’

Sezh’s hands trembled.

“AAAGH—”

Sezh, who stood staring blankly, startled due to the screams from far away.

“I have to come to my senses.…”

Sezh spoke to herself in a shaking voice.

“First…. First, let’s find Kaen…”

The first person that came to her mind wasn’t her mother, Yerena, but instead Kaen.

Sezh didn’t want to lose her loved one again.

“Then… With Kaen…”

‘With Kaen….’ Sezh pondered.

Can they even get out of this place?

Even before her return, she was captured in her endeavor to escape. Sezh observed the situation of the Imperial Palace. Ghastly soldiers were everywhere.

“Nope…. Now isn’t the time to be stupid.”

First, she has to do what she can do now. Swallowing her dry saliva, Sezh clenched her fists and began to walk towards her palace.

***

The Imperial Palace was in utter havoc.

Everywhere, screams pierced one’s ears, the foul smell of blood permeated through the air, and corpses piled up like luggage.

Fortunately, thanks to her routine of visiting Lize and Raytan’s palace over the past few years, she knew a path where people rarely crossed.

“Huff, huff….”

As soon as she arrived at the front of her palace, Sezh sensed something strange.

Her palace was like an isolated island.

She couldn’t hear any ringing screams, clashing metal noises, or anything. The soldiers were also nowhere to be seen.

‘By any chance…. Am I too late….’

Sezh’s body quivered as she entered her palace. Despite that, it looked like she was worried for nothing. The place was silent in every way.

Walking down the long hallway, Sezh ceaselessly called out Kaen’s name. However, it didn’t yield any result.

Perhaps she had already run away or was hiding somewhere else.

“Kaen… Please…”

Looking numb with fear, Sezh kept scanning her surroundings. However, someone unexpectedly approached her out of nowhere and grabbed her hair.

“Akh!”

Terrified, Sezh screamed as she lost her balance. She then looked up at the felon who did such an action.

“This…… damn girl……”

It was Lillian.

“Sis-sister…?”

Lillian appeared very messy. Her tangled hair was like a bale of straw, and there was blood splashed all over her expensive dress. It seemed she had been running away.

“You knew it would be like this.”

“What— what do you mean.…”

“You already knew everything! The fact that Raytan guy would do something like this!”

“I really didn’t know…”

“Don’t lie!”

“Aggh!”

“People are dying in the entire Imperial Palace. Do you think it makes sense that only your palace is silent?!”

“T-That….”

“Since you’ve gotten along well with that petty thing, you’re safe! That’s why he told you everything in advance and requested for you not leave this palace!”

That was ridiculous. Sezh certainly never heard about Raytan’s plans face-to-face.

“The Imperial Palace is filled with soldiers, except for your palace!”

Only then did she know why Lillian was hiding there.

Sezh’s palace, located on the outermost edge of the Imperial Palace, was very close to a shortcut leading outside. It wasn’t too far to reach by foot. On top of that, forget about a riot, you couldn’t see a single soldier in Sezh’s palace where Lillian hid. Therefore, it was fathomable for Lillian to have such suspicions.

“You ungrateful bitch!”

Lillian aggressively kicked Sezh in the stomach.

“I’ve already told everyone before! You both should have been banished from the Imperial Palace!”

“Euk— Ugh-Euk-!”

Lillian, who gripped the back of Sezh’s hair tightly, continued speaking with her face heated up.

“You must be very confident, huh? But this will end here! Soon, Bern will bring the knights! He will come and cut Raytan’s neck and yours as wel—”

Lillian couldn’t finish her words.

She looked down at her chest without even being able to let out a groan. Sezh did the same.

It was a sword.

A sword that pierced through Lillian’s back to her chest.

“Huh, huh, huh….”

Blood began to spread across Lillian’s chest like spilled ink. However, she didn’t seem to understand what was happening.

“What… is… this…?”

Lillian tried to feel her chest with a petrified face.

Not long after, the sword pulled out, making an unpleasant sound.

And over Sezh’s pale face, a dark shadow fell.

“As you said, it would be nice if Bern brought the knights here, Lillian.”

“Ugh…”

“Then he will be able to see you in this shape. Isn’t that so?”

Raytan grabbed Lillian by the hair as if he was tidying a piece of garbage. He then tossed her to the side, and her hair unfurled on the floor without any strength.

And soon, it stopped moving.

The dark red blood flowing from Lillian’s chest spread onto the floor. The accumulated blood flowed to Sezh’s feet.

Blue and crimson eyes stared fixedly at one another.

“…Sezh.”

“B-Brother Raytan?”

“Where are you going?” Raytan asked in a cold voice.

It was like in the past before she returned to being twelve years old….

When with his own hands, Raytan cut off her head.