Chapter 43
“Are you all right?”
“I’m… fine…”
Khalid let go of Luna’s wrist after checking her condition, his hands having taken hold of it. Why was the Grand Duke so rough when touching a lady? The wrist that had been grabbed stiffened slightly.
Luna didn’t notice that this was just his blunt, unconcerned manner. Because of that she showed him a face she hadn’t wanted him to see.
Her pale face, reflected in the moonlight, flushed as if feverish. Her brows and the corners of her eyes trembled in a small, helpless way, and her watery eyes shook as if they were about to spill tears.
Her lips, bitten as if on a rose, exhaled a faint, feverish breath, and the expression—like she was restraining anger—looked strangely sensual.
Khalid widened his eyes slowly and, committing that sight to memory, knitted his brows hard.
“I understand. You must hate him. If you wish, I’ll help you execute him myself.”
“Eh?”
Luna swallowed dryly, her throat hot as if some raw shame had been exposed.
“The commander is dead, but Count Mond is outside. He must disgust you more than I do. Tell me how you want him punished. I’ll make him taste something worse than the nightmares you endured.”
Count Mond’s deeds were indeed horrible, but to pass judgment—kill him?
Only then did Luna remember the head of the commander that had flown off. Right… you are that kind of man.
A man who casually bears the weight of life and death without hesitation. To him, whatever is evil must be punished.
She wanted the Count to be unhappy for the rest of his life as well. But she didn’t want to take a life that easily with a single word.
She suspected he wanted her to do the same…
“Do you really have to kill him? I’d be satisfied if he lived in prison for the rest of his days.”
Luna hesitated a long moment, then spoke. Khalid paused briefly at her answer, rubbed his temple, then said firmly:
“Are you saying that sincerely with that miserable look on your face? How kind-hearted of you.”
“……”
“What if he’s released on bail? He could bribe the instructor, or at a noble trial he could publicly expose that you’re an illegal purification mage.”
“……!”
Luna couldn’t say anything. Just imagining it happening made her bite her lip and tremble.
She was the most incompetent person here. Looking back coldly, she had been unable to do even a little on her own—only receiving help.
She had become complacent because she was by his side, and in a situation that demanded ferocity she had run away.
‘I’m afraid my hands will be stained with dark red blood like yours someday. I’m afraid that will eat me from the inside.’
Khalid looked at the pale Luna with cold eyes.
I knew from the start you were like this. What are you so afraid of in front of me? All you have to say is that you’ll leave it to me. You just have to give me the sunshine you don’t have.
His large hand moved without feeling and gently shaded her gemlike eyes.
Khalid lowered his head and, close to the woman’s ear, pressed a steady voice into her.
“Close your eyes and cover your ears for a while. Stay quiet until I tell you it’s over. If you disobey again, you’ll regret it.”
Khalid glanced up at the sky, which looked like dawn would break soon, then stepped away and passed the waiting Hast. He then glared at the beasts kneeling on the ground.
A few hours earlier they had done something monstrous; now some of them seemed to have forgotten, their shoulders trembling as they whimpered.
“Even villains fear death, huh? How laughable.”
Khalid sneered at Count Mond.
“What a stupid old fox.”
He murmured briefly, then bent down, grabbed Mond by the scruff of his head, and hoisted him up.
“Ugh!”
What had turned this worn-out old man into a frantic moth to the flame? His sullied honor? Revenge for what happened before? Or…?
The silver-haired man’s pale-blue eyes blinked slowly. The faint floral scent that had lingered faded, and his grip tightened as if plucking the beast’s fur.
‘How dare the likes of you covet what’s mine?’
Sharp shadows carved Khalid’s face against the moonlight. With that half-smile he was a cunning predator; his sharpened claws and fangs exuded a suffocating killing intent.
The Count must have felt it—his spine prickling as sweat bead after bead ran down.
The man before him only sneered, and yet the terror in his gaze almost made him faint.
Count Mond squeezed his eyes shut. He’d heard the massacrer was drenched in the black blood of beasts, called the Black Demon. Had he known his true nature, he wouldn’t have been so foolish.
He’d seen almost no trace of the Grand Duke at the noble council—why was the Grand Duke in the east?
How on earth was a supposedly untroubled minor noble’s daughter entangled with this man?
His pleasant life twisted in an instant. If only he’d noticed the sweet words sooner, the tragedy could have been avoided!
“Damn it!!”
Rage erupted from the Count’s chest. Cursing and obscene words filled the yard.
“Have you lost your mind? Make your choice.”
“Even the Grand Duke—aren’t you afraid of repercussions?”
“Burn to death, or be left in the beast-forest. Which would you prefer?”
Khalid, expressionless beneath his deliberate indifference, described sadistic deaths with no change to his face. Nothing awaited him but death after excruciating pain.
The Count’s pupils trembled as he shouted.
“Then just cut off my head!”
Thud!
“Ugh—!”
Khalid seemed to resist the urge to do exactly that; instead he slammed the old fox’s head into the dirt.
Bound by rope, Count Mond convulsed and vomited filthy fluids—truly an animal unworthy even of being skinned.
“Do you know you almost broke her ankle and nearly killed her? I’ll pick what to do with you. The same forest will do.”
“You heartless bastard! Do you think I’ll just die quietly like this?!”
The Count, certain he would have his limbs torn off and slowly savored by beasts, raged wildly—his head planted in the dirt, his body pathetically shaking. He wept, sneezed, and finally soiled himself; he smelled like a pest.
“Hast.”
“Yes.”
“Take him away.”
“Yes!”
Khalid’s brow showed no sign of relaxing as he removed his hand from the Count and slipped off his dirty glove.
The execution was over. He would not grant the easy death of rest.
Hast nodded and, with a troubled face, moved to hoist Count Mond up.
“Di—di—dieee!!”
“……?”
At that moment—
Sometimes pushed to the edge, humans could display superhuman strength. The Count, once a promising swordsman, made a desperate last stand. No matter how vile his nature, he could muster one threatening blade of qi.
With a shriek, Count Mond grabbed a loose branch on the ground amid his bound struggles.
Though difficult, sword-qi could be channeled through a medium. In an instant the Count squeezed out a black, massive blade of dark energy like a congealed thought.
“Aaaaargh!!”
Madness in his eyes, the Count poured that sword-qi in one direction and plunged forward.
He wasn’t heading for the Grand Duke who had treated him this way, nor for the captain who would drag him away. His target was the temporary barracks where the woman who would die with him was staying.
“Dieee!”
In the blink before his strike, his eyes met the beautiful woman—Luna.
Luna froze like a hunted herbivore, her neck stiff and her legs trembling so she couldn’t move.
In that vile pest’s head filthy lust boiled over. With all his strength he wanted to kill her. To die together and steal her soul—his last wish before the end. To be with that woman.
“Ugh.”
Count Mond exhaled that irredeemable desire in a short, hot breath.
Screech—
Then Count Mond’s end was decided. The instant his flashing blade met its mark, his head was severed and dropped to the ground in an empty heap.
Crash!!
“Aaah!!”
Everything happened in a flash.
Khalid plunged his sword between the Count’s qi and Luna. For someone who couldn’t wield sword-qi, the lethal aura drenched in blood that clung to Khalid’s blade stopped it dead.
The accursed, evil sword-qi split in two and fanned outward on both sides of the two people. The roar and gale shook the entire barracks.
Khalid turned, his back to the blast, and pulled Luna into his arms until the shock passed.
