I Regret The Kindness I Gave You - Chapter 87

“How dare a mere slave kill my beast? Beat that thing immediately, thrash it until it dies!”

Naturally, the noble master’s anger at the ferret’s death was to be expected.

That day, Rude, who most detested being in water, had his head dunked underwater while being whipped, and inevitably the creature called a ferret was branded as something he wanted to kill in his memory.

A beast with a pathetically small body acting ferociously without knowing its place, and an arrogant prince trying to play king when he had no right.

The moment he put a beast and a human on the same level, Rude laughed out loud, dumbfounded.

It’s not even funny. How remarkably similar they are.

“…I’ll have to kill him…”

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to stand the itching in his body. Rude muttered ominously.

He had already slaughtered Magnus in various ways in his mind. But imagination alone is never enough.

Now he felt he could only sleep soundly after being thoroughly drenched in Magnus’s blood in reality.

However, before he could count all those methods, Merche pulled Rude’s consciousness out of his thoughts.

She spoke softly, with a sweetness that would rot the teeth of anyone who saw it.

“Rude, there is a place I need to go with you. I need your help.”

“…My help?”

He was not unaware that the coquettish request was a trap.

Why do you look like that, what did you hear and what thoughts are making you look like you’re dying?

He clearly saw through the ploy to block the questions he should rightfully pour out and push him down another path.

“Where do we need to go?”

But what could he do? There are traps in this world that cannot be avoided even if one knows about them.

Rude became a well-trained beast and handed the leash to his master.

I need your help, there’s somewhere I want to go with you…. He had no strength to refuse these kinds of words.

And so when Merche uttered the name Sano, Rude decided to accompany her in an instant and stood up.

Although he had received unfavorable treatment from Tereze’s eagle for slitting too many eagle throats during the last competition.

Nevertheless, he finally mounted the eagle that was shaking its feathers in disgust and set his direction.

The destination was Sano. The place where Christine, whom his master cared for and cherished, was staying.

Tereze was certainly clever.

She thoroughly hid her nighttime outing even from the nanny who had been with her since birth, and moved stealthily so that no servant’s eyes could see the bird taking flight.

But she was still an inexperienced child. At least to her mother.

Before her daughter had even crossed the main territory of Aquila riding her divine beast, Lena Aquila noticed that secret flight.

And the intentions hidden within, while deceiving her mother.

Lena Aquila could know her daughter’s own schemes without even having to see them.

She had carried her in her womb for a full ten months, and raised her close by for over twenty years.

How could she not know? Everything about Tereze Aquila was entirely what she had taught her, whispering in her ear until she was sick of it.

So it was all the more dangerous. If Tereze truly intended to lead Merche Venenum to protect Sano, she would surely be caught by the ankle.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to work hard. Fly as fast as you can to the limit. You must fly without resting for even an hour until you reach that far eastern land.”

She gently stroked the feathers of her eagle after ordering the departure of all the knights and the eagle corps.

Of course, non-stop flight was unavoidably difficult.

The journey to the east was by no means easy, as even her divine beast, which had never shown signs of fatigue on most long flights, slowed its wing beats and exhaled labored breaths.

But breaking through such adverse conditions, the Aquila forces finally reached Sano. It was just as dawn was breaking.

“Head of the family. When would be a good time to begin the attack?”

“…In the Aquila way. We must act as Aquila does.”

“Pardon?”

Lena turned to look at the knight commander who was asking back with a blank expression.

“What are you waiting for? As always, as my Aquila has done to its enemies. Burn Sano to ashes completely. So that no one inside can survive.”

Isn’t that the Aquila way?

Lena’s bright red hair fluttered behind her smiling face as she urged.

She tilted her head to look down again at her bright red painted nails.

Nails that had been dyed blue in the not-too-distant past. A young girl with such blue eyes, possessing the power of royalty.

“…That’s not enough.”

Merche Venenum cannot defeat Prince Magnus. Prince Magnus’s power is stronger. Therefore, this time’s choice is…,

No. I’m not wrong. I’m right.

Lena erased even the last lingering hesitation that had persistently clung to her hand.

Then she lowered her gaze to look at the peaceful spruce forest spread out wide below.

What an ironic combination, it’s laughable. Aquila’s power is fire and Sano’s power is healing, but Sano’s divine tree, not even a divine beast, is a spruce.

Fire and wood, there couldn’t be a more incompatible combination than this.

A faint bitter taste rolled on the tip of her tongue. But even that was just a fleeting regret she would soon skillfully erase.

“Burn it all. Kill those who resist, and especially if they are direct descendants of Sano, eliminate them for certain the moment you encounter them.”

With Lena’s order, countless flocks of eagles engulfed the sky of Sano. An inescapable inferno descended upon Sano’s trees.

If hell existed, it was right here.

Aileann Sano couldn’t take his eyes off the horrifically red scene even as he gasped for breath and fled.

He simply could not fathom the cause of this catastrophe.

Why on earth? What grudge could there be for Aquila to attack Sano so mercilessly like this?

Aileann’s mother, Alienor Sano, who had newly inherited the position of head of the family a few years ago, had just breathed her last before his eyes.

It was a terribly Sano-like end, pouring out her healing power while clinging to the divine tree that had turned to ashes until the very end.

“Huff, hah……”

As his father, who had met his end along with Alienor, had urged, Aileann hid in the family’s massive library.

The deepest part of the library.

He disengaged the locking mechanism of the secret space that had been strictly managed so that only the direct line of Sano could enter for generations, and twisted the doorknob with trembling hands.

“Huh…?”

“Lord Aileann?”

Surprisingly, there were already people hiding inside.

Two women crouched with their arms linked like close sisters called out to him in unison with surprised faces.

Perhaps because their appearance was a mess from fleeing in a hurry, it took Aileann a while of staring at their faces before he recognized who they were.

“Christine! Karin! You’re safe…!”

They were none other than Aileann’s close friend, Christine Ashtad, and her maid Karin.

On a winter day just over a year ago, when the Lupinus family head’s Comeo had personally made a request to enter Sano.

At that time, Christine could not see at all with her eyes, but she succeeded in regaining her sight while receiving treatment in Sano.

It was Aileann who, together with his mother Alienor, had healed her.

Aileann, who had been sickly since birth, was particularly sensitive, and most of the Sano bloodline or the servants who worked for them tended to treat him very affectionately so as not to upset him.

But Christine was different from them.

−You think you’re the only one who’s sick? No wonder you have no friends when you’re so prickly!

At the time, he was greatly offended by this harsh criticism he had never heard before, but strangely, the more they clashed, the closer they became.

Perhaps it was because he had met someone who wouldn’t yield to him for the first time.

No. In fact, it was because she too had been sick in the past, so she understood him better than anyone else, and he liked that about her.

“You, you’re safe…, I’m really glad.”

“Lord Aileann. I’m grateful that you’re happy I’m not dead and alive, but now is not the time for that. You know what’s happening outside, don’t you?”

Christine sternly rebuked him as he began to sob, falling into sentimental reminiscence.

“Don’t cry.”

“But, sob! Mother and Father…!”

At the revelation that Alienor had been killed in the end, even Christine, who had been calm, held her breath for a moment.

“The head of the family…”

“Yes. Mother has passed away. What should I do now? I, I don’t know how to do anything.”

“…What? Is that what you’re saying now, such weak words? What do you mean, what should you do? For the sake of the head of the family, you should endure this situation well and continue the family line!”

Christine glared at him angrily.

Just as she was about to lose her words to depression, she couldn’t bear to remain silent out of frustration.

But then, Karin, who was beside her, gently tapped their clasped hands.

“Young lady. I hear movement outside.”

At those words whispered as quietly as possible, the surroundings became eerily silent.

It’s okay, breathe. Even though she was actually trembling all over herself, Christine comforted Aileann, who was curled up in fear.

Thump, thump. The footsteps of someone they didn’t want to get closer regrettably only grew louder.

Who could it be? Perhaps another member of the Sano bloodline who knew of this place? Or a servant who had fled here after receiving help from the head of the family, like Christine and Karin?

Thud. The footsteps that had been heard stopped in an instant. And before they could cover their mouths to stifle their breathing, the door opened.

“…Ah. Aileann Sano. I wondered where you had gone, so you hid here.”

The first thing that reached their ears was a gentle voice that only sounded soft.

Although the tone was kind, filled with welcome and joy, it somehow seemed to have a fishy smell, and Aileann got goosebumps.