Sunlight finally heralded a new day.

The endless screams and shrieks ceased, and the wafting smell of blood had also faded.

Sezh could see some soldiers cleaning up the bodies and wiping away the bloodstains. Regardless, she didn’t know how the coup finished up. Raytan had told her not to leave her palace.

She came out again after a long time and fortunately found Kaen alive.

Realizing that something unusual was happening, Kaen said she left the palace to look for Sezh. However, the castle was so full of soldiers that she couldn’t even get close to the Emperor’s palace.

As such, she rushed back to Sezh’s palace, thinking that Sezh had returned there already because of the situation.

“P-Princess…. Are you okay?”

Poor Kaen was shaking and trembling. Her complexion was pale, making her appear overwrought.

It’s understandable. It would be a miracle if a person could still keep their mind intact in this situation.

“I… am okay. Kaen wasn’t hurt either, right?”

Kaen nodded then spoke again in a cracked voice.

“What will happen now…?”

“….”

“I went out to look at the situation when I saw soldiers guarding our palace…”

It seemed that Raytan had left some of the enlisted men behind, just in case something happened.

“And I saw— I saw it. The soldiers moving Princess Lillian’s…. body….”

‘Soon, Bern will bring the knights! He will come and cut Raytan’s neck and yours as wel—’

Suddenly, her ears replayed Lillian’s excruciating voice.

‘Ugh—’

The breath Lillian exhaled…

The blade digging into her chest.

The image of Lillian’s corpse lying on the floor like a rag.

Sezh closed her eyes tightly.

“No matter what happens to Princess Lillian’s body…. If…. No, I don’t want to believe that— but… If so….” Kaen rambled.

Sezh listened quietly to her murmuring, then answered in a small voice.

“… I don’t think that will happen, Kaen.”

“What….?”

“I don’t know what will happen in the future, but at least for now….”

There was no way for Sezh to know what would happen in the future. Nevertheless, Raytan already said so. He said he would not kill her no matter what.

“Nothing… will happen.”

Sezh made a slight frown and touched her shoulders. The feeling of the hands that had firmly held her was still vivid. And that sensation gave her goosebumps.

“You look so exhausted, Kaen. Just go back and…. rest a little bit.”

“No, I’m not. And I don’t know what else is going to happen. I have to be by your side and protect you, Princess.”

“I’m okay,” Sezh tried to reassure her.

“And it’s because I’m tired too. If I notice anything strange, I’ll call you right away. So Kaen, rest a little too, hm? What if you fainted? Then you can’t stay by my side.”

If Kaen continues to be persistent like that, she will collapse at any moment. Besides, Sezh needed time. Time to think alone. So, after persuading her several times, Kaen finally complied.

Sezh heavily sighed as she was the only one in the room now. Standing in front of the window, she suddenly wanted to turn her head to look outside. Before she knew it, snow was everywhere. Sezh didn’t anticipate encountering this year’s first snow like this.

She then stared at her bedroom with a blank face.

The last sight of this exact bedroom right before her return was how it was wet with blood. On top of that, it had been decorated with the stumps of the maids’ dead bodies on the floor.

“I couldn’t stop anything… I couldn’t…”

Why was she still alive?

She failed to stop Luna’s death, nor did Sezh prevent Yerena from killing Lize. And it was the same with the coup. In the end, nothing was different.

…Except for the fact that she was still alive now.

“Now… what’s going to happen to me?”

Even though she had just reassured Kaen, Sezh also didn’t have a clue about what was to come.

She was slaughtered during the coup in the past. Therefore, there was no way she knew what happened after that.

Also…

“That wind was….”

Sezh looked down at her hand with a blank face.

The window had broken and shattered.

The wind had blown violently.

Her body had trembled and felt hot.

“I couldn’t have done that.”

She’s been practicing up until now, but she had never made such a strong one before.

It was just a coincidence. Sezh believed so.

“First of all… We have to think about what will happen next…”

Sezh reviewed all the facts she collected one by one. First, the Emperor and Lillian had already died. Those were things she had seen with her own eyes. And presumably, all the other royal family members would have died too.

“Then Brother Bern…”

Sezh was a stranger to politics, but she was sure about this one thing. To complete the coup successfully, the first priority is to eliminate the Emperor, and the second one is Bern.

“Back then… What happened to Brother Bern?”

It was then Sezh realized that Bern’s whereabouts were unknown.

It was the same before her return. It was only her guess that Bern had already been killed by Raytan in that past.

If Bern is still alive, he would be Raytan’s greatest threat.

Sezh didn’t know about other people, but Bern Rowain was not the type of person to back down. Even more so, when the person who staged the coup was Raytan.

“…”

Her chest suddenly became stuffy.

Sezh sat down on the bed, biting her lips anxiously. Then, as usual, she held the frame of Luna’s portrait in her arms and closed her eyes.

‘Scared…’

‘I’m scared, Luna.’

Her honest thoughts rose to the tip of her tongue, but Sezh tried hard to swallow it back.

She knew it well. Even if she was dreadfully terrified now, the unchanged future was a solid fact she should accept.

And if those words came out of her mouth… She wouldn’t be able to overcome the mounting agitation from creeping into her.

‘I hope you don’t cry.’

Suddenly, Sezh recalled what Raytan had said to her the day he gave her the portrait.

‘Even if one day you hate me, even if someday you don’t even want to see my face….’

And the words he uttered in his palace.

‘I want you to know my sincerity. I hope you will never get hurt and cry. That’s what….’

That ‘someday’, did he mean it to be today?

However, it was ironic. Sezh…. didn’t hate Raytan.

She could understand why he thought she would never want to see his face again. The haunting fear she felt was real.

Sezh rolled around her bed and decided to fall asleep.

***

The Imperial Palace was occupied by Regent soldiers.

With the exclusion of Sezh, no member of the royal family survived.

There was nothing to worry about because those considered as the possible heirs of the next generation were all first on the ‘to-be-murdered’ list.

The victory was perfect, except for one thing.

“So, you couldn’t find him.”

“I apologize.”

The soldier bowed his head.

The frigid atmosphere thickened as Raytan kept silent with his expressionless face.

Raytan wasn’t expecting it either: The fact that last night Bern would be away from the Imperial Palace.

After exiting Sezh’s palace, he headed straight to Bern’s palace. However, the owner of the palace was nowhere to be seen.

Raytan found a possible reason.

Duke Liran, Yulia’s father and Bern’s grandfather, was one of the men Raytan killed. The Liran family, who suddenly lost a figurehead, needed Bern’s help because the grieving Yulia couldn’t function to manage things. Hence, Bern was expected to fill the void.

In order to organize the legacy and other trivialities left behind by the Duke, Bern had left the Palace just shortly after Raytan had confirmed that all the Imperial family members were in the Imperial Palace.

“Send the soldiers everywhere in the entire empire. And sweep the borders.”

“Understood.”

After that short reply, the soldier gave his farewell bow with considerable politeness as if he was talking to an emperor.

Watching the large ornately carved door close, Raytan slowly began to walk towards the front of the main hall.

Raytan afforded the sealed documents a glance filled with scorn. After that, he unhesitatingly scattered all of them to the floor.

His steps then headed towards the innermost part of the main hall.

A large hand reached the detailed wall of jewels without hesitation.

Not long after that, a groove opened with a tiny clicking noise. In it laid what Raytan was searching for: a scepter.

He picked it up and subsequently sat on the throne.

He cast his crimson eyes over the entire main hall.

The place looked completely different from usual.

All the things of Denhelder, big and small, were decided here. Meetings were also held here every morning. On the splendidly spread red carpet, there were always priests, people of the Imperial family, and nobles with their heads bowed to the Emperor.

However, it wasn’t like that today.

They were all lying on the floor, cold as a corpse.

Raytan’s dry lips curved into a smirk.

“They were servants who knew their good manners.”

As always, his tone was cold.

‘Become an emperor, get everything. Kill the bloodlines of those who persecuted us, and enjoy the things we were supposed to enjoy.’

Lize’s revenge was fulfilled.

Tonight, the descendant of the woman, kicked out without even having her baby’s umbilical cord removed, finally massacred all the bloodlines of those who persecuted them, and now…

He will enjoy the things he should have enjoyed.

Raytan, who smiled lightly, then stood up from his seat. Following that, he stepped on some corpses as he left the main hall.

—Die, Raytan.—

The unknown, aloof voice seemed to keep hovering around his ears, but Raytan tried to ignore it.

He just wanted to believe that with everything now over, everything will restart fresh again….

The same thing wouldn’t happen anymore.