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It happened in a blink of an eye – I couldn’t stop it.

Lucas was at a loss of words and fell silent like a son-in-law who had cold Sprite thrown on him.

Everyone seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.

Even me. As if I was suffering from an irreparable injury from a major accident, my head felt faint and dizzy for a moment.

Soon after, my gaze met Hugo’s, who was off in the distance and had turned into a statue. His mouth was wide open.

He had a distant look in his eyes, like a person whose soul had left his body.

‘Where are you going alone?! Come back here!’

Claudia stressed several times that Hugo was pure and simple and didn’t know how to act in unexpected situations. Her words reverberated in my mind.

At that instant, I realized why Hugo had so desperately dissuaded me from telling Claudia who was behind the incident.

‘But you never told me it was like this!’

I desperately looked at Hugo, but he just shook his head with a stunned expression.

‘I don’t think he’s ever witnessed Claudia like this.’

The current situation wasn’t something we could easily back out of.

A slap to the face would have still been unreasonable, but at least we could have glossed over¹ it and said, ‘Oh, I accidentally hit you while I was raising my hand!’ However, there was no real excuse for a fist…….

Now that I thought about it, she previously declared that she would bend their joints in the reverse direction.

‘Don’t tell me you placed that on the to-do list for one day, Chloe. Something tells me you will really do it……. Oh, my head hurts.’

I was the one who told Claudia to be angry, but I never meant like this.

I should have firmly told her that violence should never, ever happen.

‘Of course, I fully understand why you want to beat him up since words don’t work on him.’

I tried to catch my breath² and quickly racked my brain³ to figure out a way out of this mess. I was so overwhelmed by the situation that I became a fool and couldn’t think properly.

Perhaps the reason you slapped Felix on the cheek that day was to gain momentum for this situation.

‘Undeniably, your skills have improved from that time. You have grown up.’ I laughed inside.

I decided that this situation was impossible to deal with and fell half into despair.

Lucas staggered, spitting blood on the floor as if his mouth had torn. His cheeks, which had been as smooth as a sculpture, turned red and slowly began to swell.

“Y-Your Majesty! Are you all right?”

“I’ll call the doctor immediately!”

The escort knights made a fuss and looked down at Claudia with a hostile gaze. At the drop of the order, they would immediately take her into custody.

“……..it’s all right. Don’t worry, everybody back off.”

At that moment, Benjamin, who watched Claudia’s behavior silently, burst into suppressed laughter.

Lucas aimed his fiery gaze precisely at the man whose mouth was covered and shoulders were trembling.

Despite the suffocating atmosphere, he continued to split his sides⁴, laughing without any worry.

“That’s why I kept telling you to think about it first before taking action.” Benjamin mocked his opponent with a voice full of ridicule as if he was just a spectator.

Did you step back because you predicted this to happen?

In the first place, it wasn’t because he was on guard but rather because he anticipated it and wanted to watch the situation.

He was really no joke⁵.

‘Indeed, we have to watch out for that bastard.’

With that in mind, I tightened the black veil I was wearing more firmly.

Claudia, the troublemaker, looked relieved after having beaten Lucas up.

And like a person belatedly enraged, she spoke grimly, trembling all over.

“I can’t believe you dare to appear in front of me with that brazen face.”

It was definitely……. method acting⁶.

Claudia was very accurately embodying her reaction to Felix’s death.

Thanks to that, the chances of them discovering the truth were now significantly lower. But, the chances of Claudia being dragged into prison for degrading and injuring a member of the royal family increased exponentially.

Lucas’s reptile-like gaze, which scrutinized her in silence, slowly narrowed.

It looked ridiculous, but only his eyes were alive.

The red eyes rippled with distinct emotion. It was surprisingly close to joy.

He crookedly raised his unsightly, swollen, and torn lips. Then he muttered in a crazy voice, wiping the blood from his mouth with his fingers, “At last, you notice me.”

What?

I doubted my ears for a moment.

‘Oh, do you like being beaten up?’

You’re saying you didn’t care if your face was injured as long as you received attention from her?

Did your mental age stop at a level where you enjoyed being tormented by the people you liked?

I fully understood Claudia’s horrified expression. It was becoming extremely tiring how consistent he was, and even communicating with him was awful.

I didn’t know where the male protagonist’s thoughts were flowing from. Andromeda⁷?

If that was the case, I should give up trying to understand him any further. He probably left his brain there.

“That’s why I wanted to see you alone. If I put you in jail right now, no one will blame me, since you made an excuse for me.”

Lucas chuckled and then slowly lowered his head until his blood-soaked lips were next to her ear.

“No matter how much you change, my Claudia will always be sweet.”

He spoke as he tugged the veil away from her eyes. He was immersed in ecstasy and seemed like he was about to go crazy with joy at the current situation.

But Claudia didn’t seem frightened at all.

Instead, since she had already punched his face, she now grabbed Lucas by the collar and shook him.

There was a buzz of panic everywhere.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t know who drove my brother to his death?”

It was a blazing, sulfurous rage.

Lucas’s face was brimming with joy and enthusiasm at the fact that the Claudia he was facing no longer concealed her feelings at all.

It was the expression of a child who was delighted to receive attention.

Without even thinking of hiding the curved corners of his mouth, he approached closer and murmured, “So?”

It was a quiet voice that only those of us who were standing nearby could hear.

“Since you know all about that now, I am willing to accept all your contempt and anger.”

I thought of interrupting, but Claudia struck more aggressively than I expected.

“I will never forgive you.”

She was so firm, steady, and strong. Even if she was viciously stabbed, it wouldn’t have penetrated her.

This would have been unimaginable in the original novel.

I was pleased with Claudia’s growth. I decided to be a bystander and silently listen to what Lucas was saying for a while.

“I will gladly comply.”

Oh, you liked it.

It turned out that Lucas was a pervert who was pleased with whatever feelings Claudia had for him.

It was best not to pay attention to such guys.

“I don’t care if you forgive me or not, so remember today clearly. You know who will be next.”

As soon as he uttered those words, his red eyes immediately settled on me. In an instant, a chill swept through me from head to toe.

He bound me up more tightly than a snake crawling around the bottom. He turned his back and left without hesitation.

It felt like a storm had beat me mercilessly. I couldn’t comprehend what the hell just happened.

“…….”

At first, I thought he came here to comfort the grief-stricken Claudia, but he ended up threatening her because she wasn’t as easy as he thought.

‘I don’t think he’s going to pull my heart out.’

On the contrary, it felt more accurate to say that Lucas had declared, “Let’s die together.”

It was a bizarre obsession that, if he could be with her, he would be able to run towards destruction and happily dance on the edge of a sword.

It was distinctly different from Benjamin, who saw safety as the top priority. Unlike him, who never moved unless he thoroughly calculated it, Lucas was always willing to give himself up to impulses.

So it was more eerie and dangerous.

At that moment, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Claudia. Dealing with just one of them would be distressing, but instead, there were three maniacs stuck together.

They were even different types of lunatics.

Now that I thought about it, out of all the crazy novels I read, I never once envied the heroine in this novel.

At that instant, Constantine, who had been silently watching Lucas’s words and actions, approached me.

With each step, his light-colored hair – tied up in a high ponytail – swayed from side to side.

He looked down at me with an icy look on his face, an expression commonly described in the novel.

It was a similar blue color to Felix’s, but the gaze was so rotten that I felt sorry for the comparison.

“You better get out of here. It’s not something you can handle.”

Who the hell was this jerk showing up so abruptly and making such a big fuss? I had no intention to fall in the first place, but it was too late to back out now.

“Killing you is as simple as breaking a child’s neck. It doesn’t mean anything. Please don’t let me carry out useless killings.”

That sentence meant he didn’t care if I died or not, however, he didn’t want to go against his faith because of something like me.

I didn’t know what faith he was holding onto, but he was, as I expected, a formidable nut job.

If I had tried to appease him, all my time and effort would have been in vain. As expected, my foresight was the best.

I watched Constantine’s back as he turned away to leave and flicked my middle finger at his retreating back. At the same time, I noticed that there was one person who still hadn’t left.

Benjamin’s relaxed gaze turned towards me. He did not follow the Crown Prince nor Constantine but instead stayed and stared at me.

When the effortless smile on his face disappeared, the first and last conversation I had with him quickly crossed my mind.

I reflexively stiffened my body like a wary cat. Then, he whispered with a satisfied look, “This is the result of your choice.”

“…….”

“It’s just a pity that I couldn’t show you what was at the bottom⁸ of him before he departed.”

If Felix really were dead and gone, his words would have pierced my heart⁹.

Considering the situation, he probably placed a dagger by the door and was delightfully anticipating my reaction.

He was probably hoping that I would shed bloody tears, scream, and pour out curses.

Benjamin was skilled at figuring out information from just words, so I couldn’t say anything rashly.

“You said that you started this with the determination to accept what was at the bottom, so let me be kind and tell you something….…”

He enjoyed tying up his opponent tightly so that they couldn’t move and enjoyed watching them twist and squirm with pain as he stabbed their wounds.

Now it was clear that he had approached me with a purpose. Therefore I could not relax my vigilance until he finished speaking.

“Felix Chamberlain. Although I didn’t know anything about him, one thing was exceedingly obvious.”

Now that it was useless, he could reveal it.

Benjamin lowered his gaze and wet his lips before revealing the truth that someone had secretly hidden.

“I’m certain he was lusting for you.”

T/N: >_< Sorry about the lack of regular posts and notice this month. (My motivation was pretty non-existent, so I had to focus that energy on studying…) But to make up for it, I’ll post the 3 chapters that managed to TL this week and get another 4-5 ready for next week, and the week after! (This way we’ll still be on track). The updates and my replies to all your comments will slowly trickle through. Thank you for your patience, everyone! Please stay safe, everyone, and take care!!

^{1. To “gloss over” something is to treat a serious problem/mistake as unimportant (so to try to ignore or make less of the situation.↩}

^{2. To “catch my breath” means to wait and rest for a moment when you have been very active so that you can begin to breathe more slowly:↩}

^{3. To “rack your brains” means to think very hard to solve a problem (or remember something).↩}

^{4. The proper idiom for this is “split your sides” which means to laugh at something a lot.↩}

^{5. If something is “no joke” then it is a difficult or serious matter and shouldn’t be underestimated.↩}

^{6. “Method acting” is a technique of acting in which the actor aspires to encourage sincere and emotionally expressive performances by fully inhabiting the role of the character. It is emotion-orientated where “classical acting” is primarily action-based.↩}

^{7. Andromeda (Galaxy/Nebula) is a great spiral galaxy in the constellation Andromeda and is the closest neighbor to our galaxy. It is located about 2,480,000 light-years from Earth.↩}

^{8. This makes reference to chapter 37 when Benjamin said, “In the rice field there lie the eyes of a hypocrite who deceives desires. If you peel off the smooth shell and dig down to the bottom, the essence will be the same monster as me.” (Irene had responded with “I began this with the determination to accept no matter what was at the bottom.”)↩}

^{9. If something “pierce(s) one’s heart” it means it leaves a deep, emotionally meaningful impact, especially sadness, pity, etc.↩}