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Chapter 137
“Shione, please.”
Ludwig pleaded.
“Look at me. Please?”
Shione, turning away, did not so much as glance at Ludwig again.
Desperately, Ludwig clung to her.
He tried everything to win back her heart, but no amount of pleading or appeals could break Shione’s cold demeanor.
Exhausted by the endless stalemate, Ludwig finally grew angry.
“Nothing changes just because you act like this. In fact, wouldn’t it be wiser to try to use me? I’d do anything for you.”
“Wiser?”
“Yes, wiser.”
“And what would change if I used you?”
“Something would change. You don’t even know what I’m capable of.”
“You sure talk a lot of nonsense.”
After that, Shione ignored Ludwig even more thoroughly.
Frustrated by her impenetrable attitude, Ludwig left her alone, but ultimately, he was the first to give in.
“What do I have to do? Shione, tell me. Please.”
“Give up on me.”
“That’s not an option.”
“Then I have nothing to say.”
“Why are you angry at me?”
Ludwig could not understand Shione at all.
“Why am I angry?”
Shione felt the same way.
“Not only did you change my life however you pleased, but now you don’t even know why?”
Her hatred was cold and sharp as ice.
“You want to fix our relationship?”
Her icy eyes left Ludwig unable to reply.
“It’s already too late.”
“……”
“If you wanted me to love you, you should’ve dealt with me instead of that Mordane guy.”
Ludwig painfully countered, looking at Shione, who didn’t even call her own father ‘father.’
“If I had dealt with you, would anything have been different?”
“At least I wouldn’t have hated you.”
Yet they both knew.
Even if they returned to that moment, their choices would remain the same.
Ludwig could not tolerate even the slightest harm coming to Shione.
But Shione would not have stopped hitting her father, even if it meant dying by his hand.
After all, eliminating her father had always been Shione’s lifelong wish.
So there was no way she could forgive or love Ludwig for siding with her father and ruining her plans.
“It’s not too late. Use me. I’ll let you use me as much as you want. Take revenge on Halbern however you like. I’ll help you.”
“Help? You? How exactly?”
Shione sneered.
“My poor little brother is already in that man’s hands, having his brain twisted by his strange education. What could you possibly do to help?”
Once something is broken, it cannot be undone.
Like crumpled paper never fully smooths, like broken glass always leaves marks, Shione could not protect Valer.
“What exactly can you do?”
Even for Shione, who could manifest unusually strong abilities, finding her brother in the hidden world—an invisible realm unknown even to the perpetrator, a place where even qualified people needed training and courage—was impossible.
Ultimately, her father would ruin her brother.
Her precious treasure, the one she had cherished and never let go of.
All she could do was hope her brother would make good use of the arrangements he had prepared for her.
Even if she tried to explain this despair, pain, and sorrow, that man would never understand—but Shione still told him.
“You should at least know what you’ve destroyed.”
So he would never spout such presumptuous nonsense again.
“I swore my brother, at least Valer, would not have to live like me.”
“……”
“You ruined it all.”
Shione’s voice trembled slightly.
“I hate you.”
“……”
“And I pity you.”
Ludwig, holding onto a rotten vine without realizing it was rotten, was genuinely pitied by Shione.
“Even if you die, you’ll never get even a shred of my heart.”
One single mistake.
A catastrophe born from diverging choices.
A man wanting to turn back, a woman who does not look back.
The outcome was already determined.
“Then I’ll take the shell at least.”
“Go ahead. If you can.”
From that moment, Lock Castle began to turn ruthless.
Shione was a woman who, if she died, would never bend, and Ludwig wanted her at any cost, even if he had to break her.
Since she already hated him, it didn’t matter if she loathed him further.
As long as Shione remained by his side.
Whether it was him or Shione who had gone mad, he could not tell.
Ludwig knew he wasn’t normal, but he couldn’t name the overwhelming feeling inside him.
Was this love?
He didn’t know. But if he couldn’t have Shione, he felt he would die.
The unrelenting thirst showed no sign of subsiding, and his obsession with Shione only grew.
He should have understood what it meant that a clever and intelligent woman had decided to turn his world upside down.
The more Ludwig tried to break Shione, the more she broke him.
Sometimes, a completely broken Ludwig clung to her again.
“I did it because I love you.”
“Love?”
Shione laughed without hesitation.
“Is that what you call love?”
“Shione.”
“You don’t love me.”
“……”
“You just love the illusion of yourself thinking you love me.”
Shione. My Shione, who can never be caught.
They were consumed with hurting each other, leaving everything around them in ruins, yet neither could stop.
Even as his heart was tortured, Ludwig could not let go of Shione.
He felt he would die if he did.
One day, while both were entrenched in deep-rooted hatred, Shione suddenly disappeared.
She often hid herself using Halbern’s abilities, but she had never been gone this long.
“The Duchess has disappeared. Pursue her immediately.”
The order was given, but Ludwig did not take it seriously.
‘She’ll be back soon.’
After all, Shione could only go so far. She could not leave the Southern Empire without his permission.
It did not take him long to realize this was not just an outing—it was a runaway.
It took a full year to find Shione.
In a remote, unfamiliar village at the far eastern edge of the Southern Empire.
She was gaunt from hardship, but even so, Shione remained fiercely beautiful.
“Let’s go back, Shione.”
With the cliff behind her, Shione smiled faintly. Ludwig’s expression stiffened.
She drew a black dagger from her embrace. The ominous energy emanating from it made Ludwig squint.
“……What are you doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing?”
“Stop, Shione. What on earth are you…?”
Shione pointed the blade at herself, smiling faintly.
“You will take nothing from me. Not even my shell will be yours.”
From that day, Ludwig’s world went dark.
She was truly an extraordinary woman.
She had done exactly what she declared she would.
Shione had not simply stood by and let him act against her?
That woman?
She was the one who threw him into the abyss.
She left only the dagger and disappeared.
Nothing else remained. All the items she brought vanished, and only the things he gave her remained untouched.
“I thought she left nothing behind and disappeared completely.”
Truly, nothing.
“But she left something for her brother.”
Her beloved brother.
Even the daughter who looked exactly like her.
She was an unforgivingly formidable woman.
With fiery eyes rolling through the muck, Ludwig could not bring himself to like Valer.
A little sister receiving Shione’s abundant love, unlike him.
“You’ll have to roll in the muck too.”
Yes, it was jealousy and anger.
After long insomnia and poor condition, Ludwig closed his eyes for a moment.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes. I’ve also brought Arelleene’s blood.”
A fragment of the Pyatal royal protective stone, proving she was his biological daughter.
Arelleene’s blood.
Ludwig had high hopes. If he could just prove she was his daughter, he could take Arelleene away from Valer completely.
Or so he thought.
“I-it’s not reacting.”
The fragment showed no sign of resonance.
“Could it be wrong?”
“No. Even a single drop of blood should trigger it.”
This meant…
Arelleene was not Ludwig’s child.
“Ha… Shione.”
A massive, unexpected betrayal hit Ludwig, and he laughed bitterly.
