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The tips of her fingers were cold. Her voice sank slowly.

“Just know that if you try to stop me now, I won’t hear you out.”

The smile she gave looked as fleeting as fluttering flower petals, weak and faint like a crumpled leaf. Ioste wondered why that look of hers reminded her of the princess. Perhaps once the princess awakens… would she look like Auresia?

“Don’t look down on the emperor. You and I have lost much of our strength. Don’t forget about all the strength you had spent for the consorts.”

Ashley Rosé, who had not smiled for a long time, looked just like her mother.

“Please don’t let down your guard even during his final moments. That will be the last piece of advice I will leave you with.”

Ioste and Auresia, both women but also comrades in arms for more than 10 years now, had gathered all their hatred and resentment together. Though Ioste would be leaving the other woman even without ever finding out her desires, she sympathised with her. She believed that Auresia thought the same too.

“All the best facing death.”

Auresia flashed a wide smile before kissing Ioste’s frigid fingers. Upon each of the three rings Ioste was wearing on that hand, Auresia placed a kiss. Without a shred of impurity in her gaze, her kisses felt rather pious.

‘Ioste. This poor woman…’

A kiss from a templar was extremely meaningful. This was a gift from a close comrade as her final hopes for her safety.

“I hope you achieve what you set out for.”

Auresia refused to say till the end that the coup would ultimately fail.

***

“How cruel can you get?.”

A languid voice tickled the ears of the woman gazing upon the spot Ioste had just been sitting on before she left.

“Is something the matter? Your Highness?”

Auresia turned her head. There stood a black-haired man whom she hadn’t realised had arrived.

“Nothing. I was looking around.”

“…..”

It was Castor.

“I just found it interesting watching a woman not try to stop her comrade in arms for 10 years from walking to her death. I enjoyed the sight.”

A gust of wind soon rustled the man’s long black hair that was falling behind his shoulders. Some stray strands of hair struck his cheek and chin weakly. Castor curled his golden eyes.

“What a horrible person you are. Don’t you think so too?”

His enchanting voice, as if set on melting her ears, seemed to be encouraging her to admit it.

“If you’re planning on irritating me, please stop. Your Highness, the Crown Prince.”

Auresia pulled on only one corner of her lip. She was smirking.

“Because there is no possible way it would affect me.”

In spite of Auresia’s monotonous response, Castor’s eyes only curled even more.

“How boorish. Aren’t you being too cold?”

Castor strolled towards Auresia before sitting across from her.

“You could’ve told your comrade a little more than that. Aren’t the two of you supposed to be comrades bound by the same emotions for Father?”

Even amidst his mumbles, the gaze he directed towards Auresia was as calm as ever.

“Hm, you’re not as affectionate to your comrades as I initially thought. Well, just as I expected from an alliance of trash coming together only to clean up the worst trash.”

Unlike how she was in front of Ioste earlier, Auresia was now a lot more coquettish. It was only natural Castor knew what she was really like when he was already aware of the facade she wore in front of the emperor. Still staring at Auresia, Castor twisted his words.

“Why didn’t you tell the 6th Queen the truth?”

“What do you mean?”

“The fact that I’m not going to do anything about Julian’s coup. I’m sure you already know about the promise I made with that child.”

“There’s no point telling her.”

“I’m sure she would have liked it though?”

With her gaze lowered, Auresia smirked.

“… Was I supposed to also tell her that the coup will fail even without you there to stop it?”

The dying emperor still had a card up his sleeve. She could’ve never understood the magnitude of the emperor’s viciousness. Why hadn’t Auresia herself ripped him to shreds yet? She hadn’t been able to make a move for the longest time because she hadn’t been able to find a way past the emperor’s final move. And so was Castor. That was why even if she were to tell Ioste the truth, Julian wouldn’t have been able to find a way past it either.

Auresia slowly raised her head.

“Your Highness.”

Castor slowly shifted his gaze to face her. His gaze was brimming with listlessness. And annoyance. That gaze of his was not an unfamiliar one to Auresia. The Crown Prince gazes upon everyone the same.

“Does Your Highness still hate the emperor?”

“Yes.”

“Do you hate Julian?”

“Yes. What boorish questions.”

With an uninspired look, Castor deadpanned.

“So, we are still comrades.”

Auresia sneered. The emperor was obsessed with Auresia. He had managed to make it seem like it was love. The emperor’s son, the Crown Prince. Funnily enough, the only person this man was obsessed with was her own daughter, Ashley Rosé.

“Ah. Right. Comrades.”

A comrade that was barely an empty shell of her past self. No longer looking at Auresia now, Castor smiled.

Without any emotions, he snarled, “People would be better off making deals with anyone other than the two of us.”

His smile was faint and half-hearted as if he was growing irritated with everything. This was the expression he wore whenever he killed someone.

“What do you desire, Your Highness?”

“The fall of the Empire.”

Castor deadpanned.

“So do I. Still.”

Castor, who had been gazing off into the distance with his arms crossed, slowly turned his head to face Auresia.

‘She seems to be plotting something. ‘

Castor concluded rationally. He could tell just by sitting there. It was as if she thought everything had become trivial and she had become desensitised from everything. Was it strange? No, what he considered normal might be considered strange by others.

But even Castor found Auresia’s actions that seemed to be both out of her love for her daughter and set on driving her away from herself close to incomprehensible. Did she really love her daughter? He wouldn’t know since he never understood love.

‘Ah.’

The fact that her daughter was sent to another country at such a critical time to bring back evidence of a brewing coup. Even if she managed to bring back evidence, there was no telling when the emperor might kill her off for fun. She might even be immediately sacrificed to the crystal the moment she returned.

‘Though I wouldn’t let that happen.’

Castor smirked coldly. So what if no one could understand him? The madness spewing out of him could no longer be understood by anyone. He was in the middle of the incomprehensible madness no one understood which was why he became fixated. And yearned. For Ashley Rosé.

“You’ve just made your daughter’s enemy as your comrade and yet you’re the same as ever.”

His black hair cascaded past his seat like a blanket of night sky. Castor tilted his head languidly before he turned his golden eyes relaxedly towards Auresia.

“Are you alright with this? I’m sure you know how much your daughter loathes me.”

Auresia smiled, pulling the corners of her lips up instead of answering. At the sight, Castor lost his interest as soon as it came. But there remained one reason why he could never take his eyes off this woman.

Those eyes.

Eyes that were the same colour as that of Ashley Rosé. For a moment, Castor wondered if he would be content if he gouged those eyes out and kept it. His blade would only touch those eyes. But he shook his head. He still needed her as a pawn.

His madness would sometimes erode his reason. Controlling that balance was beyond his means.

“Ah… Things are going to be boring for a while.”

Ashley Rosé was not here. Castor let out a long sigh. It was the roar of a listless beast. But even that sigh was faked.

Auresia glanced at Castor. His slow blinking golden eyes were directed towards the blurred horizons. They were the same colour as that of the emperor. Staring at that brilliant golden light, she felt nauseous.

“I had regressed. Castor was the one who killed me.”

Just as Castor mentioned, to Ashley, he was an enemy she loathed. Just as the emperor was to Auresia. But instead of expressing ignorance, Auresia chose to face him with a smile lingering in her lips.

“All children are lovely. Everyone deserves a motherly figure. You too, Auresia”

At one point, Auresia thought she would feel nothing if Ashley Rosé were to die. So, she tried to abandon the child who was still in her womb. But the moment she gave birth to her. The moment the child gasped for air as if she was drowning.

“This child is a templar. However, she has no divinity. My queen.”

It had struck her like a bolt out of the blue. She wanted her to die and she really was dying but why? Before she could understand why, Auresia travelled to the City of Beasts to plead with the 2nd Princess, Eris. It was beyond her comprehension. No, from that point, she had wanted her child to live and witness the fall of the Empire instead of dying.

“Your Highness. I gave that child a chance to make a choice.”

Auresia desired for the fall of the Empire. That had been her long cherished wish. And that would never change until the day she died. Even if her daughter were to get in her way. Auresia did not love Ashley Rosé.

But she changed her mind again when she met the six-year-old Ashley Rosé.

“Even though you had given birth to me, you have no obligation to love me.”

She wondered why. The moment she heard those words, Auresia began loving her. She didn’t love her because she was her daughter. It was her love for her person.

“Being a mother… is not something natural to you.”

It was because she heard those words from her own daughter. Something no one else could say. Her five-year-old daughter had confessed that she was not of this world.

“Please pardon me when I forget this happened.”

Comets were said to be the ends of dying stars. Auresia had long been a comet running towards its death. Nothing could change her. But a long time ago, Auresia chose to change her mind and gave her a chance. If her child wanted to change everything that had gone wrong, she would set up the stage so that she could take a leap to do so.

‘My child, it’ll be all up to you.’

Having lost his interest, Castor soon left. Outside the window, something came to mind as Auresia stared at the fading shadows. Was he aware? Of his current self.

The man who had turned into a monster because of the emperor was now giving his everything for one person. That was exactly how the emperor treated Auresia. What disgustingly dirty blood they had.