Aden’s face was obscured by deep shadows as he stood against the rosy sunset.

Kedilen frowned as he looked up at him, then slowly tilted his head and rose from his seat.

Why did this man come here? As that thought briefly crossed his mind, Kedilen noticed how clean Aden’s gun barrel was.

Guns that used gunpowder for firing developed a lot of soot at the end of the barrel.

Especially with hunting rifles, which used a lot of black powder, it was normal for there to be even more black stains.

Did he not catch any prey? It seems like he didn’t use the gun at all.

“Catch a lot?”

Kedilen shook his head at the voice that suddenly dropped during his puzzled thoughts.

As if to prove it was a fruitless hunt, he spread his palms and shrugged, eliciting a dry laugh in response.

Kedilen shouldered his gun, calmly swallowing Aden’s mockery that no longer seemed to matter.

“But what brings you here? It seems you haven’t caught anything yet.”

Kedilen glanced at his empty hands, rolling his eyes, and let out a chuckle.

“If you go back like that, you’ll probably be ridiculed. I recommend taking at least one, anything will do.”

“Thanks for the concern. But there’s no need to bring anything back.”

“Well, if that’s how you feel, I won’t insist further.”

Whether he gets mocked or not was none of his business anyway.

Thinking of how he had boasted earlier about bringing the biggest catch to Ludmila, now wasn’t the time to worry about others.

“Then, I’ll be on my way.”

Kedilen gripped the gun strap tightly and gave Aden a short bow in lieu of a farewell.

“Marquis.”

Aden’s voice came not long after he had taken a few steps.

As Kedilen was about to turn his head at the strange atmosphere brought by the calm voice, he heard an ominous click.

With a chill running down his spine, Kedilen slowly turned around and saw it.

“Stop.”

The spotless hunting rifle was aimed precisely at him. The sunset had lowered further, covering the sky like a red carpet.

As the deepening darkness cast deeper shadows, obscuring Aden’s face, only the glinting gun barrel and eerie golden eyes stood out.

Beast.

Though human, those eyes targeting him were clearly those of a predator eyeing its prey.

Amidst the silence, only the faint rustle of leaves in the wind reached his ears, while even breaths had disappeared, leaving only a thick tension in the air.

“W-What are you doing?”

Kedilen, terrified by the golden eyes fixed on him, managed to force out his voice.

A simple joke. Or a misunderstanding. It didn’t matter which. He just needed to lower the gun while smiling.

But Aden didn’t smile, only staring at him like a predator eyeing its prey.

In the tension that made his hair stand on end and his throat go dry, Aden shouldered his gun and slowly closed and opened his eyes.

His now clearer golden eyes shone brightly in the darkness.

“Did you meet Ludmila?”

“That…”

As the voice flowed from his lips, Kedilen’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Though brief, Kedilen seemed to grasp much from his words, and after pressing his lips together, he painfully opened them.

“So it was you.”

His stiff feet took one step towards Aden.

“Duke. You were the one who stole Ludmila away.”

He had thought something was strange. Even if Ludmila had planned to run away, it was clearly odd that they couldn’t find a single trace despite deploying so many rangers and continuing the search.

Ludmila was an ordinary noblewoman.

Even with her status as an imperial illegitimate child, that didn’t help erase Ludmila’s traces.

Then what remained was that someone had helped her.

The foolish nanny didn’t have that capability. And other nobles wouldn’t risk taking in Ludmila.

‘…I should have realized this sooner.’

There were few places in the empire beyond his influence.

One was the imperial family, and another was Havertz. Those barbarians.

The imperial family had no reason to take Ludmila, so I should have thought it was Havertz from the start.

Kedilen’s eyes narrowed for a moment with a sense of dismay, but as the gun barrel pointed at him glinted again, the scattered tension returned.

“…I won’t say anything.”

Aden tilted his head at the sudden declaration of silence.

“If you let me go, I won’t tell anyone that you took Ludmila. I won’t make an issue of it, and there won’t be any disadvantages to Havertz because of this. Rather, in recognition of safely protecting Ludmila, I’ll include Havertz in the supplementary budget plan scheduled for this summer.”

The only way to bind Havertz was money. Knowing this clearly, Kedilen played his surest card.

He was the Minister of Commerce. Though not comparable to the Finance Minister, he could exert some influence on the supplementary budget and had authority as well.

“So please lower your gun.”

Thinking he could surely overcome this situation, Kedilen demanded with a confident attitude.

But misfortune always comes unexpectedly.

“How amusing.”

It was old news that Havertz was not in a good financial situation.

With Ludmila’s help, that issue had already been mostly resolved, and things were only set to improve from here. Havertz was no longer swayed by money.

But not many knew this news, and Kedilen, who was losing influence in the business world, was slow to get information.

He was not in a position to hear that Havertz was expanding business by joining hands with Bill Edit.

“If you could have stepped up like this before, why didn’t you? It’s absurd to see you reaching out now as if doing a favor, unable to break old habits.”

At his plainly drawn line, Kedilen was certain that he had no intention of letting him go.

Why? Though he wondered, asking now would be meaningless.

“What… what do you want from me?”

“Your life.”

“Why are you doing this to me?! What wrong have I done?!”

His voice, filled with indignation, echoed hollowly through the empty hunting grounds.

Though he had led a life with many enemies, Aden was not included among them.

They weren’t on good terms, but not enough to point a gun at each other.

The golden eyes silently gazed at his eyes clouded with confusion.

Kedilen’s strength drained away as he bit his lip. Just when things seemed to be working out after meeting Ludmila, why…

“Do you feel wronged?”

“…”

“But you know what? Someone has been harboring such resentment in their heart for the past few years. So fiercely that they wished for your death.”

“That’s…”

A voice like a sob flowed from his lips that wouldn’t part, but ultimately no words followed.

Watching this silently, Aden raised his hand to the trigger.

“Well then, farewell.”

With those final words, the trigger was pulled. Along with the gunshot, birds flew up from the quiet forest. Night had begun to fall.

Clearly, this was not part of the plan.

He had checked several times that there was no one around and had created this place by driving away those who tried to enter.

No one knew that he and Kedilen were here.

It was none other than Ludmila who appeared at this definite place where Kedilen’s death could be clearly staged as suicide.

“…Stop.”

A red flush bloomed on her pale cheeks.

Her rough breathing indicated that Ludmila had run all the way here.

However, one thing that was difficult to understand was that Ludmila was blocking Kedilen’s front.

At the moment he pulled the trigger, Aden barely raised the gun barrel to the sky as she jumped in front of Kedilen.

If he had been a little late, not only Kedilen but also Ludmila could have died horribly, pierced by the lead bullet.

Aden frowned deeply at the horrific scene he could only imagine.

“Ludmila… what are you doing now?”

“That’s what I want to ask.”

Undaunted by Aden’s chilling golden eyes, Ludmila responded with clear red eyes.

“What is this you’re doing now?”

“Can’t you see? I’m trying to hunt.”

“What did you say?”

“That man is a beast. Not human. This is a place to hunt prey, and since a beast is roaming around unharmed, there’s no problem with me hunting it.”

“…Are you serious?”

Ludmila asked in a deflated voice, as if bewildered by the quiet question.

Meanwhile, Kedilen, who had been lying on the ground, regained his senses and carefully stood up.

His eyes were filled with confusion and joy at the fact that his wife had thrown herself to save him from the brink of death.

And that became a reason to provoke Aden’s anger.

“Why on earth are you doing this?”

“Because that man must die for all these shackles to end.”

“This is not the solution.”

“No, this is the most certain method. Look around. There’s no one here but us. And in a hunting competition, it’s not strange if someone dies. Amateurs holding guns and hunting beasts, misfires can happen. Moreover, a gun is the most fitting tool for someone in despair to commit suicide.”

“Aden…”

Ludmila uttered his name as if sobbing and shook her head.

“This is not right. This…”

“Step aside, Ludmila. I’ll kill him, so don’t worry about it.”

“But Aden, this is unacceptable.”

“No, it’s entirely possible.”

Despair filled Ludmila’s eyes at his stubborn attitude.

The more this happened, the more Kedilen hid behind his wife, and the closer the two got, the more Aden’s face contorted as if denying that he was wrong.

“Aden, please, please don’t do this. Please…”

“Why? Did meeting that man alone bring back forgotten memories? Or are you favoring your husband?”

“You know that’s not it. Aden, such actions are not…”

“You wanted this−!”

A sharp voice flew towards Ludmila as she was about to continue speaking, pleading to Aden with her hands clasped.

Surprised, Ludmila raised her head and barely swallowed a groan at the golden eyes looking at her.

“What…”

“Didn’t you ask me? That man…”

Aden’s gun barrel pointed past Ludmila to Kedilen standing behind her.

“You asked me to kill your husband.”