It's Too Late for Regrets - Chapter 10.4

Rayan gave his son the squirrel less than ten minutes after entering the forest.

 

Of course, he didn’t allow the child to touch the wild animals running all over the forest with bare hands.

 

“Tell him to wash well when we get back to the mansion. Only then can he touch it.”

 

“Okay…”

 

“Alright, that’s enough. Let’s go back.”

 

Caesar watched sadly as Rayan handed the lively squirrel to Kian.

 

Rayan was only planning to grant his son one wish, so he stopped giving in and turned the topic coldly.

 

He no longer cared about catching game for the offering.

 

But before he fully turned away, he noticed something beyond the trees and bushes.

 

A bright blonde hair shone painfully even from afar.

 

Edgar, who was pulling his bowstring toward the prey on the other side of the forest, sensed a gaze and glanced sideways.

 

Across the thick bushes, the two men’s eyes met.

 

A cold wind cut between them from a distance.

 

After a brief silence, Edgar slowly lowered his bow.

 

Rayan stood still and watched his cousin’s white horse approach him.

 

They came close enough to see every slight change in each other’s expressions.

 

“…It’s been a long time, brother.”

 

Edgar spoke first.

 

Rayan smiled faintly at the greeting. It wasn’t really a long time—they had just sat opposite each other at the nobles’ roundtable meeting a few days ago.

 

Of course, Edgar didn’t mean it that way. His lips curved softly.

 

“To meet like this in the hunting grounds… it feels like almost ten years.”

 

Edgar used formal speech.

 

As if recalling the old days when their cousin bond was strong.

 

“It feels like just yesterday I was following you everywhere here… time really flies.”

 

“…”

 

“Don’t you think so?”

 

They had practically grown up together since the cradle. Their childhoods were so intertwined that removing each other would leave almost nothing.

 

Even though they couldn’t see each other much after the illegitimate child rebellion in Eleanor and the seven-year war with Jenaire seven years ago, it was the same. Rayan relied mentally on the Crown Prince in the home country, and Edgar fully trusted the Duke at the front lines.

 

They had been that close once. Now, they were worse than strangers. Years ago, in the summer before Caesar was born, Rayan began seeing Edgar as a rival. Their relationship twisted into a perfect cross with no way back.

 

“Caesar, you should greet His Majesty.”

 

At that flat voice, Edgar’s eyes dropped. A small child, almost hidden behind Rayan’s body, was looking at him over his father’s arm.

 

Surprisingly much like Ines, her son Caesar smiled brightly and bowed his head.

 

“Your Majesty, the Emperor, the Sun of the Northeast!”

 

His lively greeting was cut short by a small cough, making the boy frown slightly.

 

Every time Edgar saw that child, meaningless thoughts caught him.

 

Was it because the boy didn’t look like Rayan at all?

 

If Ines had become Crown Princess as she intended in Jenaire, that boy might have been his son…

 

Such thoughts. Edgar barely pulled his lips into a small smile.

 

“…Seems like he caught a cold. You should have stayed in the tent.”

 

“I’m fine, Your Majesty. I like coming out more!”

 

Rayan patted his chattering son’s back and glanced behind Edgar.

 

‘Earlier, from a distance… it seemed Edgar was riding the same horse.’

 

At the same time, Edgar, responding to Caesar’s chatter, thought the same thing.

 

‘Good I took him out of the forest. Otherwise, we might have run into that person again.’

 

Since some time ago, whenever they saw each other, the same woman came to mind.

 

Rayan was the first to say he wanted to leave.

 

“I’ll head back now. The prince is tired.”

 

“No, I’ll go with you to the entrance.”

 

Edgar smoothly refused the offer and turned his horse toward the entrance. Knowing his cousin well, he also knew what Rayan was thinking.

 

If he let Rayan return to the tent alone, he would surely go after Ines again. He didn’t want that.

 

Though Ines said she no longer needed the Duke and would not return to him…

 

Edgar, who had watched her closely, knew Ines was still a little aware of Rayan.

 

She had left too much with Rayan Eleanor: a beloved son, lost memories, and even lingering love and hate.

 

Edgar didn’t want to see Rayan shake Ines again.

 

“I have to leave the game at the tent anyway.”

 

Rayan briefly looked at his cousin but quickly looked away.

 

“Do as you like.”

 

Whether Edgar accompanied him or not, Rayan could easily find a chance to meet Ines without Edgar noticing.

 

But the relaxed air and sharp tension between the two men broke the moment they reached near the tent.

 

Countess Irope, seeing Edgar get off his horse alone, asked with surprise.

 

“Oh my, Your Majesty. Where is Celia?”

 

“…”

 

At those words, both Edgar and Rayan froze.

 

Edgar sharply asked the countess,

 

“Didn’t Lady Irope return to the tent?”

 

“Yes. I thought she was with Your Majesty… Hey, Clara. Have you seen Celia?”

 

Edgar frowned and hurried toward the tent. Rayan stood frozen.

 

As soon as he heard Ines was not there, Kian, who had been quietly settled in the leaves like black smoke, moved quickly.

 

Caesar, who hadn’t moved either, started walking behind him like a snake.

 

But the boy was quickly caught by Rayan.

 

“…Come here, Kian.”

 

His father’s voice pressed down coldly on his head.

 

Rayan held the boy and glared at the ground where he stood.

 

Seeing faintly the grass pressed in the shape of a magic seal, he knew what to do.

 

“How arrogant…”

 

At the sound of gritting teeth, Caesar flinched.

 

Then Kian, who scanned the entire dark forest, melted into Rayan’s shadow.

 

Rayan formed his human shape again and handed Caesar to him.

 

“Take him to the mansion. Lock it down. Lock up all the sorcerers. Those arrogant fools, daring to think otherwise…”

 

The golden light shining at Rayan’s feet quickly turned pitch black. Kian was a little surprised.

 

A very powerful magic was being cast somewhere—the oldest darkness, the magic that summons Kian himself.

 

Kian’s new form began to shake. He quietly asked Rayan,

 

“Shall I go and kill?”

 

“…No.”

 

The green eyes flashed again with deadly intent.

 

“I will do it myself.”

 

With that fierce words, his figure vanished in an instant.

 

 

Ines didn’t understand what was happening.

 

She fell back suddenly onto a tree root, twisting her already painful ankle, but had no time to care.

 

“I want to go back…”

 

The one who suddenly pressed her face close and then pushed her down was a woman.

 

A woman wearing a black robe with the hood pulled low. Her thin body wrapped in thick robes.

 

The woman begged in a cracked voice.

 

“I’m sorry. I was wrong. I just… I just envied that seat beside you. I was jealous of you…”

 

“Hey, what are you even saying…? Who are you?”

 

Ines couldn’t understand any of the rambling words.

 

The delicate chin under the hood was wet with tears. The line of her jaw and lips seemed strangely familiar.

 

A sudden chill ran down Ines’s spine.

 

“No… it can’t be.”

 

The woman trembling, sitting before her, gasped and spoke with tears mixed in her voice.

 

“I thought if I became you, he would love me…”

 

“…Slowly. Slowly. Tell me clearly.”

 

Ines grabbed the woman’s arms, trying to calm her wildly beating heart.

 

“Who is ‘he’?”

 

The trembling stopped. The woman, head tilted, suddenly lifted her face.

 

Her lips twisted slowly and said one word:

 

“He’s crazy.”

 

“…”

 

“When I said he was crazy, I should have realized… Then I wouldn’t have wished for that…”

 

When Ines reached out to comfort her, the woman gripped her arm tightly with incredible strength.

 

She shouted, as if coughing blood,

 

“I knew at a glance. I knew at a glance I wasn’t you…!”

 

Ines vaguely understood what the woman was trying to say.

 

The scattered words formed a single assumption.

 

Ines raised the hand that was not held by the woman.

 

Her hand, trembling, held the edge of the woman’s hood that covered half her face.

 

‘That man. You. He knew at a glance….’

 

Rayan Eleanor. The one who noticed discomfort the moment he saw her.

 

The woman’s hood slipped back slowly.

 

Her face, pale and shocked beyond human, appeared before Ines.

 

“…”

 

Ines was speechless and stared at her blankly.

 

Her long black hair tangled wildly.

 

Her face twisted by fear, anxiety, impatience, and desperation. Her gentle eyes shining with tears—blue eyes.

 

She was the one who had spent the last month reading every capital newsletter and secretly sending people to search.

 

Ines—her own body.

 

More precisely, the woman who had opened her eyes in Ines’s body.

 

“…Lia.”