There was a woman he loved.

She smiled as she looked at him. He was drawn in by her gentle smile, which reminded him of a willow tree.

She was simply irresistible.

That deep and pure attraction was so ordinary that watching the sunsets and the moonrises seemed more refreshing.

So he chased that woman. Ignoring the cracks that occurred to that woman each step he took.

Rather than ignoring it, it’d be right to say that he had no time to care about it.

He was so fixated on getting closer, that he wouldn’t have time to care about those tiny fragments of gold.

By the time their distance narrowed, the woman had nothing in her body that wasn’t broken.

Still, she smiled. Still, she was in his hands.

That was all that mattered. He thought to himself.

He was content with whatever form she had as long as she was in his hands. Wouldn’t it be fine if he just trimmed the broken parts?

As his mind raced with that idea, Ravia said.

“I’m the one who tried to kill you.”

The moment Tidwell realised the deception behind her smile, the woman that he had held dearly shattered into pieces.

A broken piece is just a broken piece no matter how many times you pick it up.

Then his surroundings cleared up amid the overwhelming despair.

He stood there and watched the woman smash her whole body.

His mind spiralled back to all the omens he ignored as he inched closer to her.

That selfishness and arrogance. The greed that brings about destruction. The ignorance that couldn’t discern lies from truth.

And so he was thrown into the wilderness once again.

The place where the old king’s cries were drowned in the wind.

In a desolate place that people destined for tragedy have to endure. From afar, he could hear Lady Macbeth screaming.

“This hand! This unwashable bloodstain! Is there anything more frightening than watching a body turn into a corpse by my own hand? Aaagh…I’m scared!”

The cries and screams of lunatics in the middle of nowhere.

Only then did the man realise that he held a fragment that could easily be blown away by wind.

I killed her.

I…..

“…ster, Young Master! Are you awake?!”

Tidwell opened his eyes. It was strange to see people still screaming even after waking up from his dream.

He had no idea of the situation he was in, but he regretted that he was still alive.

The moment Tidwell tried to close his eyes, he heard the conversation between the butler and the head maid.

“…my Lady is still in critical condition…”

“…let’s call all the doctors in the capital…”

He hadn’t fully grasped the conversation, yet his body reacted first. It wasn’t until Tidwell sat up that he began to process what he heard.

My Lady is still in a critical condition.

Let’s call all the doctors in the capital.

All those words pointed to one thing. So he unknowingly mumbled out words.

“Is my sister….alive?”

The distressed butler nodded his head.

Ravia is not dead yet.

That meant Tidwell should not die, too.

Tidwell understood the feeling he had when he waited by Ravia’s bedside.

It was vanity.

* * *

Despite his long and monotonous dream, Tidwell was said to have only collapsed for a couple of hours.

-I suddenly heard a scream, so I went upstairs to find out. Do you know how shocked I was to find the Young Master collapsed in the Lord’s office?

The butler who found Tidwell was quick-witted.

Ravia was the reason why the Lord’s office was open even though it was supposed to be closed.

-I gave her the key because she said she wanted to clean the late duke’s belongings after the funeral was over. I also thought it’d be good for her to sort out her mind…

Ravia took the key, but it was Tidwell who was found injured and collapsed in the room.

Feeling strange, the butler approached the window to tidy the room, only for him to see the tragedy.

-I really didn’t know that she’d make such an extreme choice.

-…Yeah, me, too.

-Young master, too, were you trying to stop her? How could you do that in such a condition…

The butler eventually choked up and shed tears, unable to get a word out. It was not surprising considering his gentle and kind personality.

For the butler, Leontine was not simply a job. It was a place where he had lived his whole life and where he placed all his heart.

-As impudent as this might sound, I thought of My Lady as my own granddaughter. My sons and wife passed away a long time ago…so I gave my all to protect my master and my lady. And we’re about to lose both of them in a matter of days….

The butler said Leontine was his whole life to him and so was Ravia.

Since the collapsed man wouldn’t answer, the butler had to save Ravia to answer his question.

He said it would really have been left unanswered had she fallen over the fence, but she narrowly survived by landing on the ground.

This was only the extent of how much the butler could save her life, but there was no way he could treat such serious injuries, so he contacted all the doctors in the capital.

But those things couldn’t cure a dying person.

Tidwell knew this fact very well from his experience juggling life and death in the underworld.

What was needed the most right now wasn’t a doctor.

It was a miracle.

He needed a miracle.

And Tidwell knew someone who was the closest to that miracle.

* * *

The sound of firewood burning in a quiet room.

The girl leaning against the window took her eyes off the book.

It was because her peace was disturbed by an uninvited guest.

Rette narrowed her eyes and sounded upset.

“I never invited you, Herod.”

“Do you think there’s a place in Orpheus that the head of Orpheus can’t enter?”

The uninvited guest was cocky. He was as shameless as his red hair.

Rette stared at Herod for a moment before she sighed and closed the book that she held in her lap.

“So you’ve come here to break the silence between us?”

“You also come to me often when you have some business. Think about it, why can’t I do the same?”

Rette was uneasy with his playful remarks. There were only two things that prompted Herod to act strangely.

Either he was very drunk, or he was upset enough for him to lose his cool.

Hoping it would be the former, Rette asked.

“Are you drunk?”

“Sorry, but I’m sober.”

“Then, why?”

“Duke Leontine is dead.”

Unlike his playful tone earlier, his voice this time was as cold as a frozen lake.

“…What?”

“Just as you heard. I heard they held the funeral today.”

The fact that there was a funeral meant that it had been some time after the death. So it must not be Herod’s first time learning about Duke Leontine’s death. Though she wondered if maybe he lied about the death.

But her doubt was quickly put to rest. This was because Herod wrinkled his forehead and said,

“I couldn’t attend because I have no real contact with Leontine on the outside. At least that confirmed that it wasn’t a fake death.”

So he was dead, after all? Rette slowly mimicked Herod’s expression.

“What’s the cause of death?”

“Carriage accident, or so they said. But that can’t be possible. Tidwell killed him to hide the Dark Flower.”

Herod shrugged lightly as if thinking it was something natural.

Rette also knew that Herod had leaked Dark Flower information to the emperor in order to corner Tidwell.

Also the fact that Ravia used it to expel Tidwell from Leontine.

It was something she heard directly from Herod at the Marquis Callister’s banquet.

-That woman asked me to watch Tidwell’s back.

-Tidwell’s back?

-Yeah. In return, she said she’d tell me about the Spring user. I can’t believe I got pulled into this mess because of this fucking summer user.

-I wonder if Tidwell ever knew that his sister was so sincere about him.

Herod laughed self-deprecatingly as he said that.

As he said, he was extremely disturbed by the fact that he got pulled into this simply because of a summer user.

The most important thing was that Herod agreed to accept Ravia’s offer regardless of the risks.

Because he was sure that Ravia would be the winner of this chaotic game.

But the situation has changed. It is no longer about Tidwell’s expulsion, but Duke Leontine’s death.

Tidwell took the victory. It was obvious where the tip of his blade would be pointed next.

Rette clasped her fist without realising it. White bones protruded from the back of her small hand.

“Ravia….what about Ravia Leontine?”

“She is still alive because she attended the funeral. Though I can’t comprehend how she can live under the same roof as her father’s killer. I didn’t even get the chance to greet her because of Tidwell’s tight security. Fuck!”

When Herod burst into rage, the fire that had been burning near him blew out at once.

It was because all the firewood had rotted and left nothing to burn.

Rette realized only then just why Herod came to her. The reason why he was so enraged.

His body had recently become more infirm. It meant he could no longer sit back and wait for the spring user to come to him.

Sweeping his hair up with both hands, Herod muttered with a psychotic look on his face.

“I have to steal that woman at whatever cost. I can’t stay like this, no way…!”

But suddenly it was noisy outside.

“You are not allowed to do this!”

“You can visit during the day–ugh!”

A loud, dull sound followed by the sound of hasty footsteps. Even those who were unaware of the situation could tell that there had been an intrusion.

The sound got closer and closer. Maybe there weren’t enough night security guards to stop the intruder.

Bang!

The door slammed open, revealing a familiar face. A dashing face that made one doubt if he was the one behind the commotion.

“Herod. Let’s talk.” Tidwell said.

He looked like a strangled man, or a madman.