Tamed Monster - Chapter 56

His vision, blurred from excessive bleeding, suddenly cleared. The sight was so astonishing Kuinan smirked, then twisted half his face into a hideous mask.

It was roughly human in shape but distorted and misaligned.

“Ah, I haven’t eaten a human in a while, so I can’t perfectly imitate it yet.”

The monster grumbled—soon to devour Lancart and use his form to fulfill grand plans.

Lancart shivered.

“…”

The monster’s plan might just succeed, bringing humanity’s ruin. Any human would be furious and ready to kill monsters in this situation, but oddly, Lancart felt no intense revulsion.

After all, he was already doomed, and protecting others seemed pointless.

The five knights dragged in alongside were already dead. Lancart no longer needed to answer the monster’s questions, yet he still responded faithfully, as if answering loyally to the Crown Prince.

Had he truly been loyal?

Reflecting now, it seemed doubtful. Even whether he loved humans was unclear. His life had been a series of routines; his half-brother committed cruel acts with an angelic face; the rejected woman; the mother he was forced to love; fleeting connections—all tangled in his mind, filling him with deep disgust.

He wished they were all dead.

Suppressing the surge of desire, some bitter hatred remained, and his lips moved on their own.

“Can I ask one favor?”

Suddenly, to his enemy who looked at him so familiarly—as if a friend—he made a request. It was the first time in his life.

“What is it?”

With shining eyes, he poured out his anger.

“My wife. You kill her too.”

He directed his unfounded hatred toward her. Since he was doomed, he didn’t care how absurd his tantrum was.

The woman had done nothing wrong. Yet he simply hated her. Her weakness, her noble love and sacrifice for family—it all mixed into a form he despised most instinctively.

Her strength despite weakness reminded him painfully of his mother, making her all the more unbearable.

“Why?”

The monster asked innocently. Lancart said nothing—there was no reason he could give.

“…”

“She must be quite annoying, huh? Now I’m curious—what kind of woman is she?”

The monster pretended to be curious but likely had little real interest in human women. It only pretended to care to use her as a pawn. Knowing this, Lancart deliberately twisted his face, as if provoked.

“…At least break her. Make it so she can never smile or be happy again.”

She wasn’t happy anymore anyway. Lancart couldn’t stand seeing her joyful while he lived in hell. On the surface, he justified it as she couldn’t be happy alone. The hidden truth was he had chosen her as his target for resentment.

He remembered his mother’s occasionally innocent smile from childhood, overlapping with images of Sylvia.

He didn’t resent his mother—he loved her. Yet sometimes when looking at Sylvia, he saw his mother who had made him live like this. Unaware of his conflicting feelings toward his mother, trained strictly by Rossa, he avoided facing those emotions and chose instead to hate his wife.

The monster hummed thoughtfully, tilting its head. Lancart snapped out of his thoughts.

“Breaking things is my specialty anyway.”

Though planning to kill him, the monster feigned distraction, unwilling to reveal the truth. Lancart nodded, as if that sufficed.

“You have a nasty temper.”

“…”

“I’ll stop killing you now, human. You’ve been in good company these past few days.”

Clink — The monster revealed a sharp claw. Watching the deadly weapon grow from its hand, Lancart slowly closed his eyes.

This wasn’t his true wish, but in the end, he deceived himself until the very last moment. He hated himself most—more than his wife, more than his mother.

“Farewell.”

Before he could even feel the pain, the once-celebrated noble knight met his death.