Chapter 137
…Drip.
Kuinan watched with interest as the woman disgraced herself. This was the same woman who had collapsed so pitifully before the monster that mimicked her son, collapsing in front of her son’s wife, no less.
The sight of her red face, burning with humiliation, pleased him enough that he took his time before slowly lifting his right arm.
“…H-hiic!”
It was the honest shape of a monster’s arm—large, inhuman. He had to compress that massive limb into this small human shell every moment of the day; no one could imagine how uncomfortable it was.
Still, it was less inconvenient than shrinking something else.
He tapped the woman’s head lightly with it.
Thud. Thud.
“P-please!”
“What was that, Mother?”
He sneered as he spoke.
Behind him, Sylvia staggered upright, clutching her neck, and approached him slowly. Kuinan pretended not to notice her presence. He wondered if she would try to stop him.
“Why do you keep making things so troublesome for me?”
He gripped the woman’s head as though he might crush it, asking out of genuine curiosity. He thought perhaps fear would force a proper answer out of her.
But instead of answering, the woman’s mind went blank with terror. She simply trembled, the stench of urine spreading around her.
Even if she were to die here amid this chaos, no one would suspect Kuinan in the guise of the Grand Duke. On the contrary, she would be branded the criminal, the one who had brought armed men into the castle and attacked its staff.
“Hmm? Because of you, my possession almost got damaged.”
“Ugh… hhk…”
“And my insides are a mess too. Do you even know how f*****g awful this substance is to a monster? I may look fine, but my stomach is truly—”
Mid-sentence, blood trickled from the corner of his lips.
He frowned at the metallic taste filling his mouth. Conscious of Sylvia’s presence behind him, he wiped his lips casually and bent to retrieve the fallen vial.
“Here.”
The remaining bottle of poison.
He extended it toward Rossa as though offering medicine.
She swallowed hard. Now she knew he wasn’t her son and that he was a monster wearing a human face. She didn’t dare scream at him anymore. Instead, she turned desperately to Sylvia for help.
Kuinan let out a short laugh.
Begging the very person she had tried to kill moments ago. Begging someone she had hated for years.
Did she have no pride? Even monsters as creatures driven purely by desire, didn’t live this pathetically. At least not the competent ones.
He chuckled under his breath, then glanced back at Sylvia. His eyes settled on the wound at her throat.
“Are you alright?”
Her voice didn’t tremble. She seemed truly steady.
An ordinary human woman might have fainted or fallen into critical condition by now. It seemed feeding her his blood every day had been more helpful than he’d realized.
A faint swell of pride rose in him. But she didn’t look grateful. Not in the slightest.
His lips jutted out slightly in irritation.
So she still hated him that much. Even after watching him drink the poison without hesitation, did that stir nothing in her?’ He couldn’t voice such petty resentment aloud. He needed to resolve this quickly so he could lay her down to rest.
He uncorked the vial.
As he removed the brown stopper with careful fingers, Rossa collapsed forward, sobbing.
“P-please! I’ll do anything—anything!”
A woman who submitted to violence in the moment, only to forget its terror once she turned her back. Stupidity was incurable.
As Kuinan reached out, Rossa finally cried out Sylvia’s name, begging for help. Only then did Sylvia break her long silence.
“Why?”
“W-what…?”
“Why should I help you? If my husband weren’t standing here like this, I would be the one holding that bottle to you.”
She made her position clear.
She was not on Rossa’s side.
She stood with the monster.
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