The night in broad daylight began like that.

Such a day that reveals all aspects one doesn’t want exposed, blazing hot like the sun.

As I quietly gazed at the window reflecting all of that, the once bright earth was dyed with darkness.

Only then does the man release me as usual.

Only then did I finally utter the words that had been circling in my head.

“I’m sorry, but could you help me one more time?”

He looked at me with eyes no different from moments ago.

“What.”

His eyes smiling profusely are clearly benevolent, but his firm lips are not at all.

The atmosphere the man’s face gives off always stands in such an unpredictable place.

But he’ll listen.

For this man, something like this… should be nothing.

My plan to see this man’s distorted end had failed, and now I no longer thought of seeing such things, I just needed him to grant my final request.

Because I didn’t want to place a heavy burden on my heart as I exit this stage.

Because I wanted the connections I made in the capital to be smiling at the end.

“There’s a project I must complete before leaving.”

The man looked at me with an inscrutable expression, saying nothing.

“But I’m short on funding. So… I’ll ask this one last time.”

After barely spitting out the words I had carefully contained, I finally raised my head towards him.

The moment I saw the man’s face filling my vision, my breath stopped.

His face was colder than ever before. Unbelievably so.

With such a face, he whispered cruelly.

“Why should I.”

“…Pardon?”

“I said, why should I. I think I’ve already paid you all the price I owed.”

The man, who had neatly donned his suit over his body, took out a medicine bottle and placed it on the table.

Tap tap, the sound of tapping the bottle was ruthlessly uniform.

I step outside, leaving behind the woman who trembled but did not collapse in the end.

After committing yet another vicious act no different from usual.

As if nothing had happened.

On the way out, Tiobe’s report is added.

That the woman collapsed and couldn’t get up for a while.

I know why the fellow is giving me such a report.

It’s a question of whether I really had to go that far.

Yes. Anyone would see me as a madman.

What reason is there to crush that woman again.

She’s a woman who will soon leave my side anyway.

After deciding to release her from us, I’m back to square one.

Heh, I laugh. Even acting like this now is a sickness of its own.

As I board the carriage, a gentle rhythm sets in and the Marriott Hotel fades from view.

The woman’s shadow flickered over the receding window.

The figure, surely still sitting there, wavers and flutters, reflected by the sun.

Even her shadow is as delicate and pitiful as she is, making me feel like a sinner.

Sinner. Who’s the sinner now.

The woman’s eyelids, which habitually appear when she lies without being able to hide it, were calm today.

Unlike when she whispered that she loved me, the woman’s plea for help was sincere.

How desperate she was.

So much so that I couldn’t help but say I would give her everything.

There, deeply embedded, was the woman’s determination to use me thoroughly until the very end before leaving.

Of course, I know.

That in her situation, she had no choice but to do so.

Miss Fiocel, who is already acting as my fiancée, has been busy cutting off all of the woman’s lifelines one by one.

My uncle is also greatly contributing to that.

It’s not that I hadn’t thought about covering that sponsorship money myself.

If I were to provide that, the issue of my uncle’s poison would now be a thing of the past.

Ah, of course, since the woman has gotten everything she wanted from me, she might even stand as a witness.

Everything could end smoothly and neatly.

So throwing words like “why should I” was actually closer to impulsive.

In the end, I wanted to see what the woman would do when pushed to the extreme.

Would she really kill me, I was quite curious about that.

I pushed the woman away callously to make such a pointless and useless confirmation.

Ah, of course, at the very bottom of it all, this filthy and irreverent heart also existed.

That you won’t be leaving this capital with any sense of relief.

When you leave this capital, and me, you should carry at least one heavy and large stone.

Even after that day, the woman regularly came to see me and spent time.

Like that, as if it were a daily routine.

Though it’s only a few times, meeting once a week, it feels like months have passed in terms of time.

Seeing the woman gradually wither away like a dying patient was not a pleasant thing.

Since that day, her pale face, devoid of any emotion, was steeped only in a sense of duty.

Even in the moments when I roughly swept her up to break that, the woman was trying her best not to show even the slightest movement.

The subtle strength of her hands holding onto me gradually grew stronger, as if resisting.

And so today too… the woman came to my domain again.

Rustling fallen leaves scattered over the carriage she alighted from, and the sun at the center of the clear, high sky illuminated the scene.

Only after emerging from the shadows did the woman’s face slowly reveal itself.

Contrary to the prediction that she would surely have a pale face again, her clear face bore a subtle expression.

‘I must have seen wrong.’

Or today might be that day.

My heart beats quite strongly waiting for the woman.

Like a pubescent kid waiting for their first love.

Despite waiting for the woman who might have come with poison.

Is this something to make my heart beat so fast?

Finding myself ridiculous, a sneer colors my lips at that moment.

As always, the woman entered right on time.

But…

The woman’s eyes were just as I had glimpsed.

Above eyes that had lost all hope and light, devoid of even a thread of emotion, numerous feelings were densely packed and entangled.

Eyes resolute to the point of determination were looking up at me without the slightest movement.

This woman probably doesn’t know. How obvious the eyes I’m making right now are.

How ridiculous my slightly trembling eyelids are.

With that pale face, getting paler with each passing day, wasn’t it resignation she had done?

Was there a cute betrayal nestled in there?

No. It would be strange to even call it betrayal.

This woman… from the beginning, she never cared about someone like me, so it was a matter of choice from the start.

And I lost in that choice. Feeling disgustingly.

The first defeat I taste in a life where I’ve never been defeated before is quite bitter.

Yes. So you might be the god of death who has come to take my soul today.

The man was as rough and massive as a wild horse, no different from usual.

That’s why once I enter the room, my mind becomes completely empty.

It was like an obvious ritual that had continued until now.

His hands play me at will, making it impossible to do anything but look at him intently, so anyone would be like that.

Even though it’s been repeated so many times, everything feels like the first time every time, and the man who is excessively skilled is inevitably overwhelming to me.

The problem was that today, I became clearly conscious despite this.

I wish everything would be emptied as usual, but God never listens to my wishes.

The swirling sensations reverberated through my whole body and painfully rang in my head, awakening my consciousness.

Each time, the poison hidden in my clothes vividly came to mind.

Over the past time, that poison I carried like a charm was actually my only escape route.

Now, I even think that it might be the last chance given by God.

Especially now that I’ve made up my mind to kill him.

I tried and tried dozens of times to find another way.

But in the end, the place I came back to was again the starting point.

If this man has to die, or if others have to be harmed, the choice among them was as good as decided.

I hated and hated this man who never once granted what I desperately wanted from beginning to end.

So perhaps this is fortunate.

As the clock turns and turns, bringing me to this hotel on another weekend, all fate eventually finds its predetermined orbit.

Watching the man pass by me after I’ve bathed and head to the bathroom, my heart leaps.

Swoosh―

As the sound of water wets my ears, my heart pounds wildly to its rhythm.

I try to tell myself countless times that I don’t need to feel such emotions since this man has easily killed me thousands of times.

On my way here, I imagined killing this man dozens of times.

Though I never dared to open the end of that terrible scenario with my own hands.

My hand trembled as I took out the poison given by Count Altun.

After jabbing the entrance wrongly several times, the syringe that finally found the right entrance sucked in the poison.

Swoosh―

After a while, the sound of water stopped and a thick blank spread over the space.

The man’s dressing time, which was quite long today, was perfect as if God had helped.

The man who came out at the end of it strode over with his long legs.

And as always, he picked up the glass.

That glass containing the poison.