It's Too Late for Regrets - Chapter 7.5

Rayan’s green eyes flashed sharply.

 

After looking at the woman he had always considered his mother, then examining the servants lined up in the hallway one by one, he finally turned his gaze to the long sword hanging on the inner wall of the office. With a much clearer voice than before, he spoke out.

 

“You are right, Aunt.”

 

Rayan finally straightened his back.

 

“I have to act. As the lord of this duchy.”

 

“Yes. That’s a good decision…”

 

Kyra nodded with a pleased face but suddenly stopped, feeling a strange discomfort.

 

Her nephew’s green eyes now had a different light than before. Kyra had never seen those eyes.

 

Rayan suddenly turned his back to her and walked into the office. His steps sounded cold and heavy.

 

Even though he was moving away, the sense of pressure only grew stronger. Kyra took an involuntary step back.

 

“Ra-Rayan?”

 

“I’m naturally far from being an ideal leader.”

 

A chilling sound of a blade being drawn scraped the air.

 

In the cold, frozen hallway, his low voice echoed strangely loudly.

 

“I have no choice but to handle ‘things’ my own way, Aunt.”

 

Under his messy silver hair, his green eyes shone fiercely.

 

Those were the eyes that only appeared on battlefields where thousands of swords and arrows flashed like lightning.

 

Eyes filled with madness.

 

“What… what are you trying to do… Rayan!”

 

Kyra’s eyes showed shock. In her nephew’s hand was a clear sword.

 

Eleanor’s sword. The sword soaked in the blood of thousands of Jenaire knights and barbarians. The silver blade flashed threateningly.

 

Rayan stared at his reflection in the blade for a moment.

 

His usually neat hair was all messy.

 

The whites of his green eyes were full of red blood vessels, sometimes appearing red.

 

His whole body felt like it was not his own.

 

He had never thought he would feel this burning blood not on the battlefield.

 

Nor had he ever thought a day would come when he would use Eleanor’s sword to cut down the people of the duchy.

 

If his father saw this, he would call him crazy.

 

But what did it matter? The dead cannot come back to life anyway.

 

A sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth. Rayan gripped the sword tightly and stepped out of the office.

 

Seeing his expression, Kyra stepped back another step, but soon her back hit the wall.

 

She called her nephew with a cracked voice.

 

“Rayan. Calm down. This is your home.”

 

“My home…”

 

“And I am your aunt. You’re not really planning to cut me, are you?”

 

There was a tremble in Kyra’s voice. She gasped and whispered to Rayan.

 

“Who raised you, Rayan?”

 

“…”

 

“If you know gratitude, you shouldn’t do this to me. Put the sword down.”

 

Instead of answering, Rayan took a step, then two steps closer.

 

The distance closed quickly.

 

The cold from the silver sword wrapped around Kyra, then passed right by her.

 

Only then did Kyra realize she had been holding her breath. She gasped, trying to exhale.

 

“Kuh!”

 

A rough groan came from beside her.

 

“…!”

 

Kyra turned her stiff neck and saw the old royal doctor grabbed by the collar in Rayan’s hand.

 

“Ugh, co…ld…”

 

The doctor’s face grew pale as his air was squeezed out.

 

Rayan stared at him with frozen eyes, then tightened his grip and pushed the old man hard against the wall.

 

The terrifying force lifted the doctor’s feet off the ground halfway.

 

“Your Highness… Your Highness…”

 

“You know, don’t you? Lynox, Ines’ condition, her illness.”

 

“Surely…”

 

“And that the Menent tea is poison to Ines. You kept giving it to her for years.”

 

Rayan’s usual voice was not like this. He was normally a cold man with a low voice.

 

Expressionless. Dry and cold tone.

 

Hard to read his feelings.

 

“But you never showed any problem to me. You lied.”

 

But the man holding the sword now seemed like a completely different person from the grand duke they knew.

 

Raw emotions stormed wildly across his sculpted face.

 

The green eyes held clear killing intent.

 

“Yo-Your Highness… co…ld…”

 

The doctor’s eyes began to tear up. His wrinkled face showed deep fear.

 

Rayan asked in a voice burning with heat.

 

“Who ordered this?”

 

“…!”

 

Kyra’s face turned pale at those words. She glared at the doctor over Rayan’s shoulder as if ready to tear him apart.

 

If he answered, you would die by my hand.

 

Her mouth moved, but the choking man did not understand it.

 

However, Rayan didn’t seem interested in forcing a confession.

 

There were no more questions.

 

When Kyra barely calmed her pounding heart, Rayan slowly said,

 

“Alright. I see. There’s no reason to hesitate.”

 

Rayan glanced over the old man’s face and body, then the long sword in his hand. His green eyes showed a strange emotion as if judging something.

 

Without hesitation, he grabbed the man’s collar and threw him to the ground.

 

“Kuh!”

 

Thud! The doctor’s body rolled helplessly on the floor.

 

Rayan stepped on the doctor’s shoulder with one foot to stop him from crawling away.

 

With a flick, the long, heavy sword turned in his hand like a thin pen. The sharp, blue blade pointed downward.

 

Rayan gripped the sword again and looked back at Kyra with a smile.

 

“You’ve never seen how I dealt with threats to Eleanor, Aunt.”

 

“…”

 

“You will see now.”

 

Kyra’s breath caught again.

 

But until then, she still believed.

 

Rayan was the child she had raised carefully, shaped by her own hand.

 

He was cold and indifferent, but he never once defied her.

 

So, even though she knew in her head that Rayan Eleanor was a war hero, she never truly realized he could kill someone.

 

But Kyra’s belief shattered the next moment. The sword came down mercilessly.

 

Crack. The sound of flesh tearing and bones breaking broke the silence instantly.

 

A gasp. Dozens of people breathed in at the same time. The nearby maids screamed. Kyra did too.

 

“Rayan!”

 

Despite all the noise, Rayan twisted the sword stuck in the doctor’s heart.

 

“You… crazy… you madman!”

 

After confirming the light faded from the dead doctor’s eyes, Rayan pulled out the sword. Dark red blood gushed out.

 

Rayan kicked the shattered body.

 

Thud. The corpse fell on the bloodstained floor.

 

“Your Highness, please calm down!”

 

The servants standing in the hallway all knelt down at once.

 

Calm down? Rayan used the sword tip to lift the chin of the nearest maid.

 

The maid looked up at her master, trembling with a face that seemed about to faint.

 

“Who brought that tea to Ines that day?”

 

“I-I-I don’t kn-know…”

 

“You were one of Ines’ personal maids. You don’t know. Tell me. Or…”

 

Fear was clear in the maid’s eyes. A dangerous smile appeared on Rayan’s lips.

 

“Do you want to die?”

 

Finally, the trembling maid pointed at a fellow servant lying flat on the opposite side of the hallway.

 

The pointed maid screamed sharply.

 

“It wasn’t me, Your Highness! I—I didn’t do it! I only followed Lady Kyra’s orders…!”

 

“What…!”

 

Kyra reacted to that.

 

Rayan glanced at her, then lowered his gaze to the maid kneeling by his feet.

 

He already knew. That Kyra tried to kill Ines.

 

Rayan didn’t feel the need to pretend to be surprised.

 

“So you knew. But you didn’t tell me.”

 

That was enough reason. The silver sword flashed once again.

 

A terrible silence fell.

 

This time, no one dared to scream.

 

The maid who was pierced through her back slid down quietly.

 

The royal doctor who gave poison and the maid who brewed that tea both met death quickly.

 

“T-This… this is…”

 

Kyra trembled with rising fear.

 

Her teeth chattered.

 

It should stop here. But the green eyes she glanced at still gleamed with madness.

 

“You. Come out here.”

 

At the owner’s heated voice, someone hesitantly stepped forward.

 

A few years ago, she was Ines’ personal maid, but Kyra had demoted her to underground cleaning—Berry.

 

Rayan commanded in a dark voice.

 

“Confess everything you know about those involved.”

 

“Your Highness…”

 

“Anyone who brewed that tea even once.”

 

“And anyone who ever tried to harm Ines. Start naming the worst first.”

 

Berry clenched her fists tightly. During the years she stayed by Ines, with Kyra’s silent permission, she remembered everything done to Ines.

 

Finally, the young maid raised her trembling hand.

 

Those pointed out by Berry turned pale.