Chapter 10: Second Engagement – (3)

Ilia offered the vacant rooms in the mansion to me and my brother.

‘She’s really changed.’

Originally, Sebastian alone should have greeted us, and it should have been Sebastian who showed us to our rooms.

But for some reason, this time Ilia personally guided us.

‘Normally, it wouldn’t be such a strange thing…’

But because I had already experienced this once before, even the smallest change felt significant.

Because of that, my attention was entirely focused on Ilia.

It’s not like I never paid attention to her before, but today I was more conscious of her than usual. 

Perhaps that’s why Ilia noticed my gaze and approached me.

“Do you have something to say to me?”

“…No, not really…”

I trailed off.

The situation where Ilia initiated a conversation with me felt incredibly awkward.

Especially since Ilia, with her 15-year-old face, was doing so, it felt even more so.

Ilia gave me a suspicious look.

I couldn’t tell what Ilia was thinking about me, but for some reason, it felt like she was treating me as a pervert.

‘Well, if someone keeps staring at you, it’s natural to think that way…’

I felt wronged.

Of course, it’s not like I’ve never had those kinds of thoughts about Ilia, but at least today, I hadn’t.

However, explaining that would only make things more awkward, so I kept my mouth shut.

I just silently watched Ilia walk away with a complicated expression.

“Aren. If you stare so intently at a woman you’ve just met, it might make her uncomfortable.”

What killed me twice was my brother, the romanticist of the century.

“…It’s not like that.”

At my words, my brother snorted and said,

“Sure, sure. My proud younger brother Aren has never held a woman in his life.”

You’re a virgin, aren’t you?

At my brother’s remark, I stepped on his foot.

Unfortunately, my attack didn’t faze my brother, a sword master.

“Ticklish, keep striving.”

‘…’

Why do the words that used to flow past me now feel so painful?

But unfortunately, my brother’s words were true, so I could only glare at him without retorting.

“…”

Feeling a gaze, I turned my head and saw Ilia looking at me and my brother.

“You two seem close.”

“Well, we are brothers.”

My brother, perhaps sensing the mood, coughed and said that.

“…Brothers.”

For a moment, Ilia’s eyes darkened.

The sticky emotion within them was all too familiar to me.

I couldn’t help but know who Ilia was thinking of.

Ilia’s father, Liam Rigmond.

A man who once bore the surname of the imperial family, Eried, and was the brother of the current emperor.

And Liam Rigmond, he lost his life to my brother.

Just a few days ago.

There was no evidence.

But the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming.

Even though Ilia was not yet an adult, she could still figure out who killed her father and mother.

That was true both before and after the regression.

Because there was no other reason for her to harbor such dark emotions.

Ilia, even in this life, held anger towards the emperor.

And that anger would only grow stronger from today onwards.

There was no need to explain why.

A trumpet sounded from somewhere, and I, my brother, and Ilia all turned our heads to look out the window.

A golden carriage bearing the imperial family’s emblem was approaching the Rigmond mansion.

At the sight, the three of us silently stepped outside and took our positions.

Kneeling on one knee, bowing our heads deeply, and extending one arm.

The target, of course, was the emperor who descended from the carriage.

Risen Eried.

The emperor who had ascended the throne just a month ago, and the man who had killed Ilia in the previous regression, had set foot in the Rigmond mansion.

“We greet Your Majesty.”

Following my brother’s words, Ilia and I also spoke.

“Raise your heads.”

At the emperor’s command, I slowly lifted my head to look up at him.

Golden eyes.

Those were the eyes of a ruler.

Different from the countless yellow eyes, these were the eyes symbolizing the imperial family.

Just looking at them was enough to feel the pressure, but those eyes weren’t directed at me.

The emperor’s eyes were solely fixed on Ilia.

One second, two seconds passed, and finally, after ten seconds, the emperor spoke.

“It saddens me deeply to come here under such unfortunate circumstances.”

But the emperor’s eyes were cold.

A gaze so cold that not even a hint of sadness could be felt.

What was contained within was regret.

‘You crazy bastard.’

The emperor regretted that Ilia hadn’t died, that she hadn’t been in the carriage with her parents.

A gaze devoid of any humanity.

Ilia must have felt it too, as she began to tremble.

It wasn’t fear.

It was anger.

Ilia, struggling to hide it, opened her mouth.

“…Please follow me.”

“Let’s do that.”

The emperor, with an unpleasant smile, began to follow Ilia, and my brother and I also started walking.

The place Ilia led us to was located at the back of the mansion.

Two wooden coffins.

No one could mistake what they signified.

The coffins of Liam Rigmond and Seria Rigmond.

“Gruesome.”

The words the emperor uttered upon opening the coffin.

They were too emotionless to be words spoken by a bereaved family member.

The emperor sat silently in front of the coffin for a while.

To others, it might have seemed like the emperor was mourning his deceased younger brother, but…

‘He killed him with his own hands, there’s no way he’s mourning.’

Knowing the truth, the scene was utterly repulsive to me, so I turned my head away.

‘…Ah.’

I accidentally made eye contact with Ilia.

She had also turned her gaze away from the emperor.

Caught off guard, we didn’t look away.

It was better to awkwardly look at each other than to watch the emperor’s disgusting display.

Without speaking, Ilia and I realized we shared the same thoughts.

Perhaps because of that, the way Ilia looked at me changed.

It was an indescribable look.

If I had to define it, it was perhaps curiosity.

I wondered what Ilia was thinking as she looked at me, but I couldn’t ask, so I tried to read her thoughts through her eyes.

Unfortunately, that didn’t yield much, and Ilia, perhaps feeling burdened by my gaze, turned her head back to the emperor.

I also turned my head, following Ilia.

The emperor was still sitting in front of the coffin.

Occasionally, he would reminisce about the past, but despite the content, his voice was so cold it induced discomfort.

That dissonant time lasted for an hour, and when the emperor finally stood up, I could see his expression.

The corners of his eyes were red.

As if he had been crying.

Feeling the nausea rising within me, I turned my gaze to Ilia.

It was pitch black.

Not her appearance.

Ilia’s eyes were pitch black.

What kind of emotion could produce such a dark light? 

It was a sticky emotion that made me wonder.

Fortunately, Ilia managed to retract that gaze by the time the emperor approached her.

“Is the funeral over now?”

At the emperor’s question, Ilia answered in a choked voice that it was.

Like a typical funeral, this one had also lasted three days, and the emperor had only arrived on the final day.

Naturally, all who were supposed to come had already come and gone, leaving only the emperor.

Now that the emperor had finished his mourning, it was time to send him off.

“Now…bury them.”

At Ilia’s words, the servants lifted the coffins and slowly lowered them into the pre-dug graves.

Ilia gazed sadly at the two coffins for a while.

By then, the area around her eyes had turned red.

“Please…allow me a moment to say my final goodbyes.”

Ilia spoke to the emperor in a trembling voice, and the emperor nodded in response.

The emperor slowly turned his steps, and my brother and I followed him.

“Such a sad affair, isn’t it?”

My brother and I remained silent, but the emperor continued speaking as if it didn’t matter.

“First my elder brother, and now my younger brother has passed away like this. Truly a sad affair.”

For some reason, I thought the emperor’s words might be sincere.

If so, the emperor was an even more cruel figure.

Knowing sorrow, yet willingly committing slaughter for the throne.

The emperor gazed at the sky with sad eyes for a moment before turning his head.

“Now, let me tell you why I called you and your brother here.”

A familiar scene.

I remembered hearing the same words before the regression.

It was hard to believe that these were the words of someone who had just been mourning his younger brother’s death, they were so cold.

“I will accept your proposal.”

Those words meant only one thing.

“Let us proceed with the engagement between your brother and my niece, Ilia.”

The story of the engagement between me and Ilia, proposed by my brother to prove his loyalty to the emperor.

The emperor had accepted it.