RAMHM Chapter 77

Even Though We're Not Family

The winter forest path—cold and damp as if ghosts might emerge at any moment. Between the two men building a wall of murderous intent, only the vapor of their breath existed. Novian sneered as he stared directly at Rhodness's cracked expression.

"So the one who stole your love. The one responsible for Adrienne's death at the Grand Ducal Estate. All of it—all of it—originated from that brother you're so desperate to protect."

Rhodness's breath grew labored.

'Adrienne heard this.'

The truth that the fundamental cause of her sudden misfortune came from none other than his own brother, Bardenaldo. That's why she'd looked at him with such stricken eyes.

"And you think if you're with Adrienne? That killing me will end everything and bring happiness? No."

Learning the truth wasn't the end. Only a new beginning. Novian's voice seeped like poison into Rhodness's mind. Now it was Novian—with his half-dead face—who wore the expression of a reaper about to deliver death, not Rhodness.

"Either take Adrienne while pretending not to know the truth. Or accept the truth and let Adrienne go. Those are your only two choices."

A devil whispering to Rhodness: 'You're the one who can never have Adrienne.' His damned half-uncle clearly wore such a face.

The moment he recalled Adrienne shedding tears, saying she'd been deceived by Novian and that's how things had come to this—Rhodness's throat constricted. A flash of impulse to pierce through the heart of this devil bastard whispering that he could never have Adrienne, to erase him from the world entirely.

Sensing the change in his eyes, Novian also gripped his sword tightly. Clang! The swords clashed in an instant. The sharply engaged blades—pathetically, only Rhodness's remained in its master's hand. Against Rhodness, whose entire body was a weapon, Novian—years removed from battlefield glory—was no match.

"Kuk—!"

"Just die. You son of a bitch."

Rhodness viciously grabbed Novian's collar with one hand and pierced through his shoulder with his sword in one stroke. No matter how dizzy his head became from talk of Bardenaldo, his determination to kill the devil before his eyes didn't disappear.

"You, in...sane..."

"You're the insane one. Filthy bastard keeping a mistress while having Adrienne."

"Kuk—!"

"Why not claim my brother ordered you to keep a mistress too."

The long sword piercing his shoulder moved steadily downward as Rhodness's savagely grinning face added pressure to his hand.

"How dare you sell out my brother? Don't you understand why he abandoned you? If you'd conspired together to that extent, why would my brother have cast you out?"

With his body pierced, feeling the blade heading toward his heart, Novian hastily grabbed the sword with his hands. But it was futile. In Rhodness's flashing red eyes—determined to kill—not a shred of mercy showed. He was a demon of the battlefield, a monster incarnate.

"Tell me, hm? If what you say is true, why didn't my brother save you?"

The blade was descending to carve out his heart when it stopped.

"Rhoan! Rhoan! Stop!"

Only then did Rhodness's ears—intent on killing the devil in the most agonizing way—register the sound of horse hooves, the knights' armor, and Bardenaldo's wheezing as he ran breathlessly.

The light vanished from Rhodness's eyes as he'd been grinning savagely and applying pressure. The moment he raised his head and met Crown Prince Bardenaldo's desperate gaze. Bardenaldo's pale, gentle hands—having run at full speed—grabbed Rhodness's arm and pulled it desperately toward himself.

Novian's voice, groaning in pain, rang in Rhodness's head like mocking laughter.

"Rhoan! Rhoan! Are you all right? Uncle, are you all right?"

Rhodness—his body forced upright like a puppet on strings—looked at his brother.

"What is this, Rhoan! This isn't what I asked of you, is it?"

Bardenaldo's face had gone ashen as he ceaselessly whispered to his uncle, asking if he was all right. Simultaneously, he ordered the knights who'd accompanied him to summon a physician.

"I told you not to handle it directly yourself, to leave it to the First Order of Knights! If it looks like you're personally dragging down your uncle with your own hands..."

"Brother."

Bardenaldo's voice—which had been scolding him in a low tone—cut off abruptly. Rhodness's voice was excessively ominous.

"Did you urge that bastard to bind himself with Adrienne?"

Bardenaldo's eyes—which had held a stern light—widened. His hesitating gaze turned toward Novian, wheezing as he tried to staunch the blood pouring from his shoulder.

"Is what that bastard said true?"

"Rhoan, that's..."

"I asked if it's true!"

The Crown Prince's eyes grew even wider. It was the first time he'd seen Rhodness so furious with him. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the Crown Prince's eyes grew somber. Then several knights approached to support Novian for treatment.

"Anyone who touches my prey dies miserably."

At Rhodness's low growl, the knights turned pale.

"Rhoan, there are too many eyes watching. For now, let's treat Uncle and I'll gradually..."

"Right now. If I don't hear it immediately, you'll return to the palace carrying only Uncle's severed head."

The moment Rhodness drew a dagger from his clothes, Bardenaldo's gentle face hardened like stone. His patience didn't last long. Rhodness threw the dagger at Novian without hesitation.

"Your Highness!"

"Your Highness! Your Highness!"

The knights standing awkwardly nearby turned pale and rushed over. The dagger that had been heading for Novian Trovika's throat embedded precisely in Bardenaldo's shoulder. Bardenaldo had thrown himself in the way.

Rhodness felt as if all the blood racing through his body was draining out. Bardenaldo—groaning from the thunderbolt pain and clutching his shoulder—shook off the knights and knelt before Rhodness.

Rhodness stood frozen, watching the scene as if viewing an illusion. The pitiful scene of this nation's small sun kneeling before the Empire's greatest problem child, his younger brother.

"Why on earth... why go this far?"

"Please. Spare Uncle's life. It's this brother's wish. I'll tell you everything you're curious about. Please..."

Bardenaldo—his face contorted in pain—began pleading desperately. If only he'd said it wasn't true. If only he'd claimed one word of injustice. Then he could have cut down Novian Trovika without regret and covered it up. Bardenaldo's pleas and requests burned Rhodness's heart pitch black.

Inside the carriage where only awkward silence pooled. Bardenaldo—head bowed like a criminal—finally spoke when the capital's entrance became visible in the distance.

"It's all my fault, Rhoan."

Bardenaldo lifted his face that had been buried in his hands. A wet face shining in the moonlight, lips gone pale. Rhodness slowly blinked as he took in the shoulder roughly bandaged over clothes in succession.

"I didn't know your first love was that desperate. I wasn't in my right mind then either. The West was stirring up the Empress to establish Epero as Crown Prince, and the East couldn't stand being pushed back by the West."

The trembling Crown Prince's voice circled inside the carriage, but Rhodness only stared blankly at Bardenaldo's excuses without reaction.

"I thought you just found the Princess pretty, that it was a childish desire to possess her."

At the pitiful excuse, Rhodness squeezed his eyes shut as if to reject reality.

"...Even though we're not family."

Below his closed eyes, a hoarse sound mixed with mockery and sighs scattered into the air.

"Even though we're not family, she was the first person who gave me such comfort."

Because she was pretty. Childish feelings. It hadn't been an encounter that could be summarized in just a few such sentences.

"Aside from Mother and you, Brother, she was the first... the first who gave me such comfort... the first I wanted to keep by my side."

Young Rhodness first saw Adrienne when he was around ten years old. That day was one of the saddest days of his life.

'Glory to the departed! Glory to Ronteaux!'

'Glory to the departed! Glory to Ronteaux!'

His mother—Empress Letina—her body surrounded by beautiful flowers, lay in a glass coffin. Though over a month had already passed since this lavish funeral began, Rhodness couldn't accept reality.

'Your Highness, you absolutely must not cry.'

His nanny spoke quietly yet sternly from behind. Young Rhodness wanted to say 'Mother died, how can I not cry?' but with Bardenaldo and even royal family members who'd come from afar keeping their mouths firmly shut and proceeding through the funeral impassively, he too kept silent.

Occasionally among the mourners, a noblewoman would dab at tears, but not a single person wept aloud. Rhodness barely endured the surging grief, and when Bardenaldo briefly left his position, he frantically searched for a place to hide.

The moment he concealed his small body behind a large statue, tears burst forth. His mother—criticized for bearing a prince with ominous eyes—had loved him regardless of surrounding gazes. Bardenaldo was the same. No matter what people beyond the palace walls said, he'd been a beloved youngest son and younger brother.

'Huuuuung—!'

Biting his lower lip until it bled as he shed thick tears for a while, he suddenly covered his mouth at the sound of sorrowful crying coming from somewhere.

'Adrienne...!'

'Huuuung!'

The voice crying sorrowfully didn't come from his own mouth. Rhodness had frozen, thinking his sounds had leaked out, then peeked his head out from behind the statue, startled by the girl's and man's voices that followed. Under the bright sun he'd so bitterly resented, a girl with golden hair shining even more brilliantly was crying sorrowfully.

Her small head in its black bonnet trembled, and as if unable to help the pouring tears, the girl kept wiping them away with her small hands. Even when a boy who appeared to be her brother urgently offered a handkerchief and embraced her to console her, it was useless.

Anyone watching would think the girl's mother had died. Even the attendants who'd earnestly insisted she must never cry to maintain the royal family's dignity smiled awkwardly, as if they couldn't dislike her when she cried so sorrowfully.

'Adrienne, what rudeness is this before Her Imperial Majesty?'

'But... sob... but... hic...'

When someone who appeared to be her father sternly reprimanded her in confusion, the girl mumbled while trying not to cry. Burying her face in her small hands, the girl cried like that for a long while before finally leaving the funeral hall cradled in her brother's arms.

Rhodness stared blankly at the funeral hall entrance until Bardenaldo returned to his post, following the afterimage of the disappeared girl with his eyes. Was it because someone had cried fully in his stead? Rhodness didn't realize for quite some time that he was no longer crying—too shocked to notice.