RAMHM Chapter 106

You Kill Him

When the tear-wet lips parted, the lovers who'd shared their first kiss had no time for reunion. Rhodness was the one who pulled away first, unable to process the miraculous situation. For a moment he looked dazed as if walking through a dream, then slowly examined the woman standing before him again.

Deep golden hair rippling in the chandelier light. As his lips lifted away, eyelids rose quietly to reveal pale green eyes sparkling brighter than any gem, gazing up at him. Though somewhat pale in color, to Rhodness's eyes the most beautiful lips in existence glistened slightly with moisture that was unmistakably his. A disease-like tingling surged beneath his thoroughly twisted heart. Simultaneously something that wasn't quite tears seemed to strike upward from his core. It was Adrienne. Adrienne. The Adrienne he remembered—and far more radiant and fragile than his memory—stood before his eyes.

"An."

The one who'd stabbed Bardenaldo with a pale face. The one who'd pressed their lips together as if this were the world's final moment—it was Adrienne. His chaotic mind had been bleached pure white from the moment Adrienne toppled Bardenaldo and stepped on him. The mass that had thrashed wildly in his chest instantly hardened as if doused in cold water, then distanced itself as if it weren't his own. Rhodness lowered his head again, drawn toward Adrienne's lips that had touched and parted so vividly. Yes. Let this be the world's final moment. Truths he couldn't bear, the true heart of the family he'd devoted his life to...

The conventional questions—are you really Adrienne, did you reclaim your body—never emerged at all.

Rhodness simply wanted to pull close the waist of the woman trying to hold him, wanted to believe the words she'd said to him. It was desperate. His submerged eyes closed quietly, and Rhodness's head tilted to the side as hot tears fell below. But the demon underground wouldn't leave them be.

"Damn... it..."

Just as the two people silently feeling each other's breath were about to touch lips again, the Crown Prince who'd been briefly quiet began struggling frantically to rise. Rhodness completely erased his dazed expression and pulled Adrienne close, immediately hiding her behind himself. Though he'd been at the hall for the Emperor's birthday and couldn't carry weapons, his murderous intent to protect Adrienne was honed sharper than any blade.

"F*ck, have I lost my mind? What did I just see? Uncle... Uncle!"

Unable to pull out the dagger embedded in his back, Bardenaldo's face twisted in pain. Barely managing to rise to his knees, he finally faced Adrienne standing behind Rhodness and Rhodness positioned to protect her. No answer came from Novian. Adrienne, glaring at the Crown Prince, felt Novian's gaze clearly fixed on her cheek but ignored him to the end. Thud—Novian's strength finally gave out belatedly and he sank to his knees on the cold floor. The sound of gasping for held breath scattered through the air instead of an answer.

"Adrienne."

Rhodness's voice carried a certain coldness as it dropped heavily to the floor. Adrienne looked up at Rhodness's broad back, his hand gripping her arm tightly.

"Thank you."

"!"

Rhodness, suddenly alert, conveyed his gratitude briefly and quietly.

"Everyone... conspired... to deceive me! Everyone!"

As Bardenaldo began spouting nonsense based on his own misunderstanding, Rhodness's grip on Adrienne's arm tightened. Adrienne immediately understood what it meant.

"Rhoan...!"

"I have to be the one to kill him."

No sooner had he whispered it quietly than Bardenaldo reached out to tear Adrienne away from Rhodness. Blood dripped steadily down his arm from his bent, pain-wracked back. Foolishly, it was an action filled with the bizarre certainty that the younger brother standing before him wouldn't harm him. Before Bardenaldo's hand could pass him and reach Adrienne, Rhodness shoved his cheek with an audible thwack. Though it was more of a sideways push than a slap to the cheek, the destructive force was tremendous. His combat-honed skill not only instantly pushed Bardenaldo away but simultaneously retrieved the embedded dagger. Blood gushed from where the blade was pulled free.

"Rhoan!"

Adrienne's cry briefly pooled at Rhodness's ear before falling away. Bardenaldo sprawled where he'd been knocked down, then felt the approaching killing intent and pushed off the floor with bare feet, retreating. Where he fled was merely in front of Novian.

"Uncle... Uncle, Uncle!"

Still no answer came from him. Novian's gaze remained directed past Rhodness holding the blood-painted dagger, toward Adrienne. Having bitten his lower lip hard while spitting curses, Bardenaldo etched into his bones the enormity of Rhodness walking slowly toward him. Rhodness didn't even need to try to be threatening. Like a small beast sensing overwhelming power superiority, Bardenaldo's body trembled involuntarily.

"Red eyes..."

Seeing those eyes like surging lava, engulfed by the terror of drowning in them, Bardenaldo finally resolved to drag Rhodness to hell.

"Red eyes will bring the nation to ruin!"

The death throes of a beast sensing danger were tragic.

"Second Prince Rhodness, who'd hidden his claws! Repaying grace with enmity! Trying to lead the nation to destruction by killing his own brother the Crown Prince!"

Like a beast on the verge of death raising all its senses to perceive danger, Bardenaldo detected the sound of the outsiders Rhodness had called struggling to open the door to this secret room he'd entered countless times.

"That rumor was true! I shouldn't have even pretended to love you! The moment that rumor becomes reality, our mother will wail underground! My foolish, foolish younger brother!!"

Crushed by the suffocating killing intent, Bardenaldo screamed until blood seemed to spurt from his throat. An unnamed emotion about Empress Letina drifted like fog across Rhodness's submerged eyes, but that was all. At the brief wavering, Bardenaldo's expression brightened as if discovering light in endless darkness—but it didn't last. Because he clearly saw thicker tendons rising in Rhodness's hand gripping the dagger. The complex emotions rippling in Rhodness's eyes could no longer raise their heads, crushed by rage. Bardenaldo instantly intuited it. Those were the eyes of someone who would eliminate the enemy before him even if it meant his own death.

"No. No. I'm Mother's hope. I'm Mother's glory! Rhoan! Deceived by a lowborn woman, your own brother...!"

That's when it happened.

"Rhoan!"

Miraculously, someone blocked Bardenaldo's front. Golden hair rippling like waves spread both arms to block Bardenaldo and face Rhodness. The sharp sword energy instantly subsided, and Rhodness's painfully contorted face turned toward her.

"...Move aside."

"Don't stain your hands with meaningless blood. He's someone who deserves elimination, but if he's someone whose death by your hand would torment you, then don't."

Adrienne shouted while trembling violently.

"Whatever regrets there may be. I have to be the one to eliminate him."

Rhodness ground his teeth as if he couldn't follow her words this time. Bardenaldo had trampled his life. Knowing the younger brother's love for his older brother, he'd used him, pushed the woman he loved most in life to another man. Not enough with that, he'd killed that woman to keep her by his side. Though Rhodness hadn't directly heard Bardenaldo's confession of killing Adrienne, he could viscerally feel that his brother was deeply involved in her death. If he'd been even slightly late, if Adrienne had died once more by Bardenaldo's hand? Just the thought made rage surge as if his head would explode. When he'd struck down Novian. From the moment Novian unhesitatingly pointed to Bardenaldo, his lifeline, Rhodness should have watched Bardenaldo more coldly. Should have suspected Bardenaldo more strongly. He should have. Even if he couldn't restore Mother's glory... The instinct that he absolutely had to eliminate Bardenaldo, who was deceiving not just Adrienne alive before his eyes but this entire nation, struck him like lightning and dominated him.

"I can't leave Brother like this."

Red eyes lead the nation to ruin. Perhaps that rumor was correct. If he killed and eliminated the brother he'd loved longer than Adrienne, his heart would wander in hell for the rest of his life, and Mother would wail underground. But could he just close his eyes and pretend not to know? Close his eyes, cover his ears. Was it enough to install even this kind of brother as Emperor in the name of Mother's will?

'Would Mother have truly wanted such a thing?'

Rhodness shook his head. Even if people who didn't know the truth pointed fingers at him, he could no longer tolerate leaving Bardenaldo, who threatened the revived Adrienne.

"Let me end it."

He scraped out the words to Adrienne like a plea. Even the regret of killing was his portion. Adrienne didn't need to worry about such things. Adrienne bit her lip hard, holding back surging tears. Rhodness had already stained his hands with much blood. The nickname 'Ronteaux's Problem Child' was just an image he'd created himself hoping his brother would shine brighter. Adrienne knew that the pride of having fought for this nation had shattered in an instant, and guilt that she'd been hurt by his brother's sins was consuming him. Adrienne slowly approached Rhodness. She cupped the face of the one shaking his head telling her not to come closer, and kissed him again. The hot, rough lips trembling—it transmitted completely to her lips. Pressing her forehead to his, Adrienne spat out:

"There's someone else who should kill him."

Adrienne turned toward Novian, who was watching them vacantly. The night-sea eyes she'd once loved endlessly rippled violently the moment their gazes met. Adrienne gently brushed off Rhodness's hand trying to grasp hers and walked steadily toward Novian. Then she threw down in front of the kneeling Novian the dagger she'd personally retrieved from Rhodness's hand. With a clang of metal, Novian's frozen face shattered.

"You kill him."

"!"

Beneath Novian's finely trembling eyes, thin streams of tears flowed. Adrienne continued coldly:

"If there's someone tormenting you, I'll behead them, whoever they are."

Adrienne's voice was chilling yet eerily tender at the same time.

"You definitely said that to me."

Like Novian had that day. Novian's long fingers gripped his knee tightly.

"So keep your promise. You said you were a man who keeps promises. That you'd make me happy?"

You definitely whispered it. That you'd behead anyone who tormented me, whoever they were.

"So then..."

Adrienne spat out again as if chewing the words, lifting her chin.

"...You kill him."