It's Too Late for Regrets - Chapter 7.6

“Your Highness, have mercy…!”
If you want something, you have to hope for it.
The sword he swung showed no hesitation at all. His brain and eyes seemed to burn fiercely with uncontrollable anger.

“Who is the true master of this country.”
“Your Highness!”
“You all must see clearly what happens to those who betray their master. Every one of you.”

His face and voice were about to burst from the burning rage, but his mind was cold.
Wherever he passed, a pool of red blood grew.
The bodies of those who had committed the worst crimes against Ines, pointed out by Berry, increased one by one until he reached the stairs after passing through the hallway.
It was truly a perfect scene of slaughter.

Desperate screams, begging for mercy, and the cries of those crawling on all fours over the blood-soaked floor filled the Duke’s mansion.
From downstairs, urgent footsteps of knights echoed.
“My lord. What is happening…?”
“Step aside.”

The knights who hurried up after hearing the noise met Rayan’s eyes and silently stepped back.
They had never seen their lord so disturbed even while fighting barbarians who tore people apart and ate them.
Rayan felt the sensation of flesh being cut through his sword clearly. Even as his vision blurred white with anger, he thought:
What would Ines say if she saw this?
Would she be afraid?
Maybe she would look at him with the same hateful eyes he gave her. Ah, but that would be fine.
I don’t care what insults or curses she throws at me.
I just want to see her one more time. Just once more, to hear her.

Suddenly, something caught his foot. The poorly fallen portrait of his father was lying at his feet again.
His father, who had hated illegitimate children all his life.
He remembered his father’s will—he warned that the family would be ruined by such disgrace and ordered no illegitimate child be allowed into the mansion.
In the end, it came true.
Ines was dead, and the Duke’s mansion had returned to its original state.
And now, the one ruining the family was himself.

Rayan looked back down the blood-covered hallway. It was dark like night, even though it was daytime.
His green eyes reflected black despair.
He deeply realized an obvious truth. Even if he swung his sword now,
Even if he vented his boiling emotions in despair,
Even if he regretted it now…
It was too late.
Too late.

Drops of blood fell from the tip of the sword onto the smooth marble floor.
Standing in the middle of the fearful eyes of the survivors, Rayan let out a nervous laugh.
It’s all too late.

“…Murderer.”
Kyra, sitting at the end of the hallway, glared at him. She shouted like a scream.
“You will never be proud, even if you die by your father’s hand! The ones your father personally hired, who have devoted over 20 years to Eleanor…!”
“…”
“You are a murderer, Rayan Eleanor!”

Did he not know that until now?
While protecting Eleanor, the only pillar of the setting sun Lezan, and ignoring all the affairs inside the Duke’s mansion, did he just sit back and do nothing?
It’s funny. The heads of the Jenaire knights and Torgen barbarians he had cut down must number in the thousands.

Rayan slowly turned and walked.
He crossed the blood-red hallway in an instant and lowered himself to sit before Kyra.
Their eyes met.

“Aunt.”
Rayan whispered, still feeling the heat on his burning cheeks.
“Did you treat Ines this way too?”

“…!”
“I’m asking if you wanted to kill her so badly, Aunt.”

“Ra…ion.”
Kyra trembled from the overwhelming pain. Rayan’s voice too carried a growing tremble that was hard to bear.
The woman in front of him was like a mother. Rayan asked in a voice that burned white after all the rage died down.

“Did you envy Eleanor that much?”

The huge budget that disappeared without a trace went entirely to Kyra and her son, Bernen. It was used to build forces unknown to him in his own country.

“Answer me, Aunt.”

Kyra did not answer. Her green eyes were full of fierce resentment as she glared at him.
There was no trace of remorse or regret in her eyes.
Was this woman really the mother who had comforted him for over 15 years?
The tears of pain he had shown only before her since childhood suddenly felt empty.

“Ha.”
He chuckled softly, then burst into loud laughter.
“Ha, hahahaha…”

What have I been doing all this time?
Rayan moved his lips with a twisted face, neither laughing nor crying.

“…You should consider it a blessing of fate that you saw Millian’s death with me.”
“Ra…”
“Consider it the greatest blessing of your life that you don’t end up like them, lying broken.”

He touched his forehead, feeling it might crack, and stood up.
A knight quietly standing by helped him as his balance almost collapsed.
With a rough, sandpaper-like voice, he ordered, barely able to speak.

“Take her away. Lock her in the lowest cell of the underground prison in the mansion. Don’t give her anything, not even a drop of water.”

Each word was painfully stuck in his throat like a thorn.
Rayan pressed his bloodied hand against his hot eyes. The knight, startled, added hastily.
“B-But Your Highness, she might not survive if—”
“I don’t care. Whether she rots underground, starves, or hangs herself—”
“…”
“There must never be a day when Aunt leaves prison alive.”

Kyra looked up at him with shocked eyes.
“Rayan, you…!”
“Take her away. I won’t say it again.”

Not killing Kyra right now was Rayan’s limit.
“L-let me go, let me go!”
Kyra screamed at the top of her lungs, struggling as the knight dragged her away. Rayan did not look back.

Something dark grew near his heart. The name of this new darkness he felt was self-loathing.
Only then did Rayan realize that he had lost more than just Ines.
He had lost his wife, his mother, the trusted advisor he believed in, and most of the people who held up the Duke’s mansion.
But maybe none of those had really belonged to him from the start.
He was just mistaken, thinking they were his without a problem.

He was the king of all the duchies inside Eleanor’s borders, the ruler of the vast northern continent and western wilderness, but he was not the master of this small mansion.

“Let me go…!”
Her screaming grew quieter and weaker.
Rayan’s hand holding the sword handle slowly lost strength.
The clear sound of the sword hitting the marble floor marked the end of the disaster in the Duke’s mansion.

Caesar was sitting by the door, holding his breath.
The black darkness all day covered the child’s ears and eyes.
Unable to see or hear anything, Caesar waited quietly for Kian to let him go.

But after more than four hours of being held, the child’s patience wore thin. He complained quietly.
“Kian. How long do I have to stay like this?”
[…Just a little more. It’s still noisy outside.]
“Why do I have to stay like this? I want to see Mom…”

Kian had told him yesterday. Mom didn’t go to a place where she could never be seen again. The darkness calmly reassured the child with a few words.
So Caesar held back his complaints and waited quietly.
The child was good at waiting. Whenever he wanted to cry in sorrow during his short life, his mother had gently pressed her finger on his lips with a desperate look.

[…It’s all done now.]
Kian released the child after the sun went down and night returned.

Caesar sighed as his vision cleared. Only a single candle lit the cold room.
The child moved his stiff body awkwardly.
“I want to go now, I…”

But Caesar froze again at the sound of footsteps outside. Step, step.
He recognized the footsteps immediately because he always listened carefully.
It was his father.

Caesar remembered his father’s face, which he had seen a few times after his mother disappeared.
He was still a little scared, but his mother seemed to want him to get along with his father.
Then he must not run away like that day in the garden when it was raining.

The footsteps stopped right behind the door. The darkness covering Caesar’s shoulders slowly seeped back into his body.
Caesar wiggled and stood facing the door.
But there was no knocking. He tilted his head in confusion and reached for the doorknob.
Of course, he could not reach it. The child bounced a few times on the spot but gave up and waited quietly for his father to open the door.

“…”

Rayan heard the sounds of his young son moving restlessly behind the door.
His hand on the doorknob did not move.
When he last saw Ines before she died, he hesitated for a long time in front of this door too. He let out a bitter laugh, knowing nothing had changed.

Slowly, he withdrew his hand and brought the back of it to his nose.
The smell of blood still faintly clung to his skin. He had washed off all the bloodstains and changed clothes…
Should he just leave?

But Ines’ last words echoed in his ears.
“Please promise, Your Highness. You will protect our child. We removed everything that could threaten Caesar today.”

The testimony of the maid Berry went on endlessly.

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