The Savior Who Bites My Neck (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 15

Hester’s words made Sinclair’s face harden with a crackling sound, as if it were a leaf that would crumble at the slightest touch.

“If you knew that and still chose to marry my brother, that too is truly astonishing.”

Hester let out a sharp, mocking laugh directed at Sinclair, then continued.

“The two of you seem quite close.”

“…….”

“I never dreamed my brother was such a man without ambition. Or perhaps… did you first fall for that girl?”

How childish, like first love, Hester chuckled.

“You’re surprisingly romantic, brother.”

“Yes, that’s rather me.”

Sinclair, who had been silently listening to Hester, slowly began to move his lips.

“And I also find it astonishing, Hester. How can you go around imitating such noble manners, yet still use the vulgar, crude word ‘girl’?”

Ah. Sinclair let out a short sound, as if he had just realized something.

“That must be your true nature.”

There’s a saying that the words a person speaks reflect their character, Sinclair smiled.

“Perhaps I care for you so much that I’ve begun to imitate even your speech.”

“If you’re going to imitate, why not do it boldly?”

Sinclair stepped closer to Hester and looked down at his face.

“Stop hiding behind others like a child, too cowardly to do anything yourself. Do something, step forward.”

“…….”

“Of course, you’re not the kind of person capable of such a thing. Just like your mother.”

This time, Hester’s face turned cold, just as Sinclair’s had moments before.

Though the brothers bore similar faces, there was not a trace of warmth in their gazes toward each other.

Only sharp, needle-like malice, as keen as a finely honed blade, shimmered between them.

“You remember well how your mother died, don’t you, Hester?”

Sinclair’s words were correct. Hester still remembered vividly—the image of his mother, slain by Sinclair in broad daylight, right in the heart of the imperial palace.

“So, pay closer attention to your tongue.”

Sinclair slowly extended his hand and gently, almost tenderly, adjusted Hester’s disheveled clothing.

“If you don’t, I might just kill you next.”

“……So now you’re threatening me, insulting my mother with her life as leverage? How dare you, brother…….”

The mocking, playful tone was gone. Seeing Hester truly enraged, Sinclair laughed loudly.

“I wouldn’t threaten anyone. I’m rather poor at it. I just act first—without any warning.”

“…….”

“And you seem to have forgotten something. There’s no need to say she was ‘insulted.’ Your mother killed my mother, and I killed yours. That’s all. In fact, I’d say that was quite gentlemanly.”

“What do you mean…….”

“At least I didn’t kill you.”

Sinclair tapped Hester’s neck lightly.

“Though of course, who knows what might happen in the future?”

He was the kind of man who could do it—any moment, even in a few minutes, or a few days. Hester knew this all too clearly.

Hester, his face ashen, instinctively took a step backward.

But it was no use. For every step Hester retreated, Sinclair took three forward—until Hester found himself pressed against the wall, with nowhere left to go.

“I didn’t think you’d tremble this much. You’ll be wetting yourself soon. How pitiful.”

“…….”

“In that spirit, let me offer you some advice.”

Sinclair’s golden eyes glinted.

“First, if you’re going to challenge me, give it everything you’ve got. Even then, your chance of winning is less than half.”

“…….”

“If you want to end up like your mother, feel free to charge me recklessly anytime.”

Sinclair sneered again.

“And second: never speak the name Elaina Asweld again. As you yourself said, I’m a vulgar, crude man with very little patience. That’s why I thought of it.”

“…….”

“If your lips utter Elaina’s name again, no matter the reason, I will cut your throat.”

Hester’s lips trembled at the chilling warning.

“I know very well how much you care for me. So don’t make me kill my beloved brother with my own hands. Wouldn’t that make me too sad?”

Despite the cruel words, Sinclair’s face looked calmer than ever.

In fact, he even tapped Hester’s shoulder, as if finishing the task of straightening his clothes.

“Now then, go tell His Majesty everything I’ve just said.”

“…….”

“That’s the only thing you can do. I won’t take even that pleasure from you. I’ve already taken your mother.”

Sinclair gave Hester a faint smile, then walked away, leaving the frozen, doll-like Hester alone.

[To check on you out of concern, I came to see—and I already knew the girl, didn’t I? Long ago, when you secretly met her outside the palace, hiding your rank and name. Then, because of you, she lost her legs.]

……Hester had no right to say such things. Not even a single syllable of Elaina Asweld’s name should have passed his lips. He shouldn’t have even used the phrase “the girl I knew.”

[Don’t leave me alone…] [While I’m still your wife, I want to do what I must do.]

Elaina’s youthful, pleading voice echoed in Sinclair’s ears, alternating with the slightly lower, more subdued tone he had heard earlier in the villa.

[Help me, Len!] [Sinclair helped me too, and he avenged me. I insisted.]

That thin, pale leg.

[I was told there was no hope.]

The image of her trapped in a massive crack, utterly motionless.

[And now that you’re an adult, they said it’s even harder to reverse.]

It’s not only her broken leg that cannot be undone. I know. I know.

I know!

Darkness settled over Sinclair’s golden eyes, once bright as the sun.

Guilt. Self-reproach. The darkness named regret—always surging like a tidal wave, opening its jaws like a beast to devour him.

But Hester was wrong.

I do not love Elaina.

This is only guilt. So sometimes, I wish I were dead. So this pain. So this feeling of never having grown beyond that time—all of it is because of that.

Sinclair repeated it to himself like a mantra, as he always had since parting from Elaina.

[This is the timeline separator]

Surprisingly, life in Sinclair’s villa was utterly comfortable.

Elaina spent much of her time not in the cramped, dusty, insect-infested attic, but in a luxurious bedroom.

The meals were the same. Instead of moldy, half-eaten, hardened meat, she ate carefully prepared dishes—thanks to the maid Sinclair had sent.

The thing Elaina did most in the villa was sleep—as if dead.

It was absurd. But the fear, terror, loneliness, and tension that had piled up over her entire life like autumn leaves on a street had finally loosened, like a rubber band stretched too long and now slack.

Perhaps that was why it felt as if she were catching up on all the sleep she had never gotten.

Sinclair had said she didn’t need to prepare for anything, but still… was it truly alright to continue like this?

She would have lied if she hadn’t worried—but no news had come in for five days now.

‘The banquet is only two days away…’

Staying in the villa was comfortable, but conversely, it meant she had no way of knowing what was happening outside.

Still, she felt she had to do something. So Elaina decided to reorganize the belongings she had brought from the Asweld household.

She would set aside the things she truly wished to keep, and discard the rest without regret.

But there was one object whose value she couldn’t determine—whether to keep or discard.

It was the ring.

The one Len had once given her.

“…….”

In the villa’s parlor, alone on the sofa, Elaina silently gazed down at the orphaned ring.

If I said I never wanted to throw it away, that would be a lie.

She had once tried to throw it into the river, bundled in a box. She had even hurled it onto the street.

Yet she could never bring herself to cast it into the water. Again and again, limping along the filthy streets, she picked it back up herself.

Without tiring. Many times.

What exactly do I want?

What am I hoping for?

From this ring, now devoid of any meaning.

Elaina’s blue eyes shimmered with emotions too complex to name—sadness, resentment, longing.

“Haa…….”

As Elaina, like Sinclair, still found no answer, she sighed as she always did.

Then, from outside, came the sound of someone knocking on the door.

“…….”

Instantly, fear flashed across Elaina’s face.

Sinclair would never knock—he would simply walk in. And if the maid had returned from the palace, she would have spoken politely first, as she had done every day for the past several days.

Then who…?

As Elaina stood frozen in terror, the knocking grew louder. Pressed by the insistent sound, she finally rose from her seat.

And slowly, she approached the door.

……And the visitor to the villa was someone Elaina had never expected.