Backstage Trap - Chapter 14

To climb the ranks of the organization, you had to deliver the heads of your comrades to the boss.

Killian had killed thirteen of his own before earning a seat among the executives, proving his worth through one successful operation after another.

Eventually, there would be no one left above him. But to reach that point again…He would have to do it all from the beginning.

Just thinking about everything that lay ahead gave him a headache.

Still, there was one small consolation.

The moment he returned to the past, Killian had already taken care of one subordinate who had tried to kill him.

In his previous life, he’d trusted that man for years, only to turn his back and end up with a knife buried between his shoulders. A scar that had remained until the day he died.

Now his back was smooth and unmarked….But he had no intention of sharing information that might benefit the woman standing before him.

‘No matter what, I’ll still have to crawl through all that b******t again.’

Though, it would probably be easier this time.

Even so, he could still almost smell blood clinging to his hands. The thought left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Killian lowered his eyes to the black leather gloves covering his hands.

Around this point in his life, there had been so much bloodshed that he’d begun wearing gloves almost every day.

The habit had stayed with him ever since. Even on the day he died, he had been wearing them. As he drifted into thought, Lucia’s quiet voice reached him.

“…Responsible?”

“That’s right.”

“I’m not the kind of man who does favors for free.”

Killian considered what he ought to take from her.

‘Judging by the way things are headed, she’ll marry that brat again. Maybe I’ll just take this estate and everything that comes with it.’

Not that he particularly wanted it. Perhaps he’d have been interested if she were the woman from ten years later.

But the Lucia standing before him now held little appeal, and her family’s wealth meant even less.

‘As if that amount of money is worth caring about…’

In the future, he would rule an underworld organization with strongholds spread across thirty-six provinces.

Like the film studio he’d built, the Celestial Heaven Hotel was little more than a respectable name to show the public. The real money came from somewhere else.

To a man like him, the fortune of a refugee noble family was hardly worth mentioning.

He only thought about demanding payment because that had been his way of surviving for as long as he could remember.

Lucia quietly repeated his words.

“…Someone who never gives favors for free…”

Something seemed to catch in her mind. She looked at him as though she wanted to say something. Killian tilted his head, silently telling her to go on.

“Back then, in the elevator… you said you’d help me…”

“That was a whim.”

A faint, feather-light voice. Killian answered with a crooked smile.

“Then… what about giving me your coat?”

“That was a whim too.”

“…And taking the bullet for me?”

“…”

There was a moment of silence.

Truthfully, Killian himself had never imagined he would throw his own body in front of a bullet for a woman. After returning to the past, he’d spent nearly a week doing nothing but drinking because he couldn’t make sense of it.

He stared at Lucia for a long moment before deciding to stop thinking about it.

“Don’t overcomplicate it. It really was just a whim.”

With one gloved hand, he lightly tapped her cheek.

Unlike the woman he’d known ten years later, this Lucia still had the soft, youthful face of a girl. Her cheek yielded beneath the pressure, pliant and warm.

Apparently pleased by the sensation, Killian continued pressing at her cheek while speaking lazily.

“If you were the version of yourself from ten years in the future…I might’ve told you to repay me with your body.”

“My… My body…?”

“What? Were you actually going to? What a shame. Sorry, but young girls aren’t my type.”

Lucia’s eyes trembled. Killian answered as indifferently as ever. She still looked barely old enough to have reached adulthood.

“Tch.”

He frowned, visibly dissatisfied.

“So don’t start thinking you can seduce your way out of this.”

“I never thought—”

“…Though revenge is always sweetest.”

Lucia hurried to deny it, but before she could finish, Killian glanced over her shoulder and cut her off.

“I hate losing.”

“…What do you mean by—”

He stepped closer.

The bitter scent of tobacco drifted toward her, mixed with gunpowder and the rich aroma of aged wood. Beneath it all lingered that same crisp winter scent she’d noticed on the rooftop.

The intoxicating combination made her head spin.

“Open your mouth.”

The man lifted Lucia’s chin.