Even If It Means to Break - Chapter 13

Hill did not answer, but it seemed he had heard her reply in her silence. A suppressed laugh slipped out.

“Then that makes it all the more disgusting and humiliating, Hillstein.”

The voice was laced with cold mockery, each syllable sharpened with contempt. Why did he hate her so deeply? More than the reason he wanted to kill her, that question gnawed at Hill.

The boy yanked the sword back, wrenching her neck as if he meant to snap it, and ground out his words.

“After letting so much blood be spilled for nothing, you still go on living inside that pitiful little kindness of yours.”

“……”

Fresh blood flowed. Neither of them seemed to care.

“You’ve always been like this. Always. No matter how many people sacrifice their lives to carve out an opportunity for you, you cling to shallow sympathy and a fragile conscience, scrambling only to stop the small tragedy right in front of you.”

His low voice brimmed with tightly packed emotion.

“Do you have any idea how many people risked their lives to create the chances you threw away? Tens, hundreds of sacrifices. And you turned your eyes from them, letting yourself be shackled by a handful of cheap compassion.”

Among those who lost their lives during your second escape… my elder sister was one of them. You don’t even know her name.

If only you had doubted once more. If only you had been thorough one more time. If only you had closed your eyes and stayed cold just once more—

She might still be alive.

The boy seized Hill by the hair. She couldn’t bring herself to offer a single excuse. It wasn’t only because her crushed throat could barely draw breath, but because she had no right to speak.

She knew her own hypocrisy better than anyone.

After letting out a long breath, the boy erased his emotion and pronounced his verdict.

“He has decided that you are no longer worth keeping alive.”

“……”

“For him, it was a late decision. He should have done this long ago.”

Perhaps even the master of iron and blood weakens when faced with blood ties. The boy muttered so softly it was almost inaudible, then tightened his grip. The blade bit deeper.

She had lost so much blood that her thoughts slowed. A ringing filled her ears, her vision turned dizzy. Even breathing was a struggle. With a mind starved of air, she thought—

Is this where she dies?

She had little attachment to life. Wasn’t this a life Aill had given her as a bonus? Truthfully, she had dreamed of death every day, wanting to be freed from that heavy last wish, to run.

Good. If it can end like this.

At last… I’ll see you again, my beloved Aill.

“He ordered me to end your life immediately….but my anger won’t be satisfied by that alone.”

Her clothing was pulled taut.

“You’re already living like livestock, violated daily by your enemy. Think of it as selling your body to take revenge on him.”

Hill let his words pass over her like the wind. All she thought about was death. Death, the most brilliant rest. Even if she fell into hell, it could not be more miserable than this wretched life.

“Should I violate you while you’re alive, or take a dead body? I wonder what expression the mad king will make when he learns another man defiled his woman.”

May he despair more deeply than I did when I lost my sister. May he sink into the abyss of eternal suffering.

As if reciting a solemn prayer, the boy spread her thighs. It seemed he meant to violate her before killing her. It didn’t matter. Hill only prayed that it would end quickly, that she could fall into death’s embrace.

A short dagger appeared in the boy’s left hand. With a single motion, he sliced away the cumbersome hem of her clothes, then pressed the blade to the string of her undergarments and whispered,

“You’d do well not to try anything foolish. I could subdue someone like you with a single finger.”

It was a meaningless warning. The death she had longed for was finally here, why would she struggle now?

The boy moved his hand slowly. When the honed blade touched it, the string snapped pathetically. The loosened fabric slid down. As he looked at her with numb eyes, he reached to his waist.

Please—let this end quickly. Let me sink into rest. That was the thought drifting through Hill’s fading consciousness—

When suddenly, a chill raced through her.

Every hair on her body stood on end. A sharp rush of wind swept over her head. It was impossible in the depths of this building.

She heard the sound only after she flinched in shock.

Hiss— The sound of air being cleaved.

No, not just air. The presence that had been poised to pierce into her body abruptly vanished. A long shudder crawled up her spine. Hill opened her eyes on reflex.

Drip. Drip. Red blood that was not her own fell to the floor.

Her fogged mind snapped into clarity, her legs trembling. Then came a familiar, ominous sound. A restrained groan forced down.

Before she could even lift her head, a voice rang out.

“So that’s why those rats were stalling for time.”

Blood dripped from the blade of a chillingly white longsword.

“This was the trick they were trying to pull.”

The boy pretended to stumble and hurled his dagger, but it never even touched Hill. Its path deflected with a flick of the man’s wrist. He stepped forward once.

Blood burst from the boy’s mouth.

The man walked until he stood directly in front of Hill. He bent down, utterly unconcerned that the boy was still alive. His mouth twitched as he looked at the multiple slashes across her throat. Then he bit down on his own fingertip.

Red blood welled up.

Hill weakly lifted her hand in protest, but it was only intention. She was too drained from blood loss to move properly. Without a word, the man smeared his own blood over her wounds.