ISMCFC 14

Episode 14

What would happen if Hares really did come over to me, pull me into his arms affectionately once again, and try to comfort me?

I would probably lose all sense of my place and cling to him like a child, begging him to love me.

Yes. There were things I disliked about the way Hares acted as though he were my older brother, but the reason I had never rejected it was that, deep down, I wanted that kind of relationship.

Someone who would stand firmly by my side, more than anyone else, like family.

I had dreamed of having someone like that, too.

I knew that part of the reason you were so determined to protect me was because you pitied me for growing up with practically no parents.

It had all started with pity.

Even your desire to become someone like family to me came from that. After all, I had never truly had a family of my own.

And with your warm heart, I knew that if I clung to you now, you wouldn’t be able to turn me away.

But would I be happy if I forced you to give me your heart that way? Wouldn’t I only end up rotting away inside, painfully aware every single day that what we had wasn’t love?

That was why I clutched Killian’s clothes and shook my head.

Seeing me resist so fiercely without even looking at his face, Hares abruptly stopped in his tracks.

And for some reason, Killian opened his mouth and laughed.

“I heard you said yesterday that you were rooting for the two of us.”

“……What?”

Hares looked utterly bewildered, as though he couldn’t understand why Killian would bring that up here.

Of course, I was also secretly startled, wondering just how much Killian had heard.

Hadn’t he acted as though he knew nothing?

‘Ah. This man really does have a nasty, underhanded personality.’

Once I thought about it that way, it was easy to guess that Killian had known everything all along and had simply pretended otherwise because he found it amusing.

Killian also had a rather vicious streak. He was the sort of person who would deliberately bring up the one thing that would make his opponent angriest and hurt them the most.

“To be honest, I’m rather fond of Lize, too. Isn’t she adorable? Like a puppy that can’t survive without its mother. Just look at her. She’s even clinging to a man like me, seeking comfort.”

At those words, I hurriedly tried to pull away from him.

But Killian didn’t release the arm he had wrapped around my shoulders.

He continued speaking in a low voice, smiling as though even my resistance was adorable.

“When she was crying earlier, the way she looked…… For the first time in my life, and I mean this sincerely……”

“……”

“It turned me on.”

My eyes widened at his words.

That was definitely not a compliment.

Why the hell was Killian suddenly turned on by me?! Had he gone mad?

I was already emotionally shaken to the point of being a complete mess, and now I was beginning to regret how easily I had let my guard down around someone as dangerous as Killian.

‘He said he still had a lot of lingering feelings for Eve. So it can’t be true.’

Eve was still there. Killian still liked Eve.

He liked her enough to swear he wouldn’t touch her until she wanted him to. And when she said she wanted to experience the world, he had even been willing to let her go for a while.

Even though he could have had her so easily.

” hic.”

I was so flustered that I involuntarily let out a hiccup.

In response, Killian deliberately patted my shoulder even more gently, displaying a kindness whose intentions I couldn’t begin to fathom.

“I wanted to sincerely thank you for supporting us, my dear Lize’s friend.”

At those words, Hares, growing increasingly agitated, ground his teeth and spat out a string of harsh words.

“Ha. I clearly told you yesterday not to toy with her, and now you’re pulling something like this……!”

“I’m not toying with her. I told you, didn’t I? I’ve genuinely taken an interest in her.”

“I’m not Lize’s friend. We’re as close as family. So even if you want Lize, I absolutely do not want the two of you to get together……”

As Hares tried to argue, Killian smiled and interrupted him.

“Don’t worry. If I marry Miss Chelsier, I can become family, too, can’t I?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

Hares had finally abandoned even the pretense of speaking politely. He shot back impatiently and hurried toward us.

Meanwhile, I was still doing my best to escape from Killian’s arms.

At that, Killian abruptly let me go and said,

“What do you mean, what am I talking about? It’s simply the rather unfortunate news that I’ve become interested in Rize Chelsier, a puppy who has lost her owner.”

Killian looked down at me and wiped the corner of my eye with his thumb.

Then he gave me a languid smile.

I instinctively sensed danger.

Killian had never been quite human, even by nature. He had been so empty and hollow inside that it had taken years of training to make him as outwardly normal as he was now.

But at his core, he was still a predator.

A psychopath, someone born with little capacity for empathy, whose instinctive desires and interests always took priority.

The more Hares attracted his attention, the more dangerous Hares would become—not me.

I had no idea why I had caught Killian’s interest, but somehow, I had.

As Killian himself had said, it was nothing short of unfortunate.

‘Of course, most of what this man says can’t be trusted, so this could just be another one of his games.’

I hurriedly spoke to Hares.

“Leave.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to talk to you right now. Just leave.”

I had to do everything I could to steer Killian’s interest away from Hares.

Without even looking at Hares, I stood stiffly in Killian’s arms and pleaded with him.

If anyone knew what Killian in the original story had done in the name of interest, they would have reacted just as I had.

If anyone interfered with something that had caught his interest, Killian would inevitably find a way to deal with them as he pleased, by whatever means necessary.

And in the original story, Hares even ended up losing one of his legs.

Hares, who knew nothing about any of this, simply called out to me.

His voice sounded like that of someone desperately holding himself back from dragging me away right then and there.

“Rize. Come here.”

“Go! I’m not doing this because of you. I’m doing it because of me! ……Just go.”

At my faint, trembling voice, Hares continued to hesitate for a while.

But eventually, I heard him turn around and leave the balcony.

As I listened to his footsteps fade, I cautiously lifted my head.

I wanted to see what kind of expression Killian was wearing.

And there he was, smiling beneath the moonlight as calmly as ever, as though he had never claimed to feel attracted to me in the first place.

“Well? Thanks to me, it seems your unrequited love has been thoroughly provoked into feeling jealous.”

“……You weren’t serious, were you?”

At my cautious question, Killian wore a perfectly composed smile. Then he gave a little nod and answered,

“Of course not. Do you really think I was serious?”

His gaze suddenly swept over me, long and slow, unbearably intense. Then he casually shrugged.

“Naturally, it was all a joke.”

Even though he said that, I couldn’t bring myself to feel relieved.

He was the man who had nearly beaten Hares to death.

“……I hope you’ll keep it that way and that your jokes will remain just jokes. In return, I’ll help you out once when you want me to, as long as it concerns Lady Lotesie.”

A pale halo of moonlight shimmered across Killian’s unpleasantly icy eyes.

His lips curled into a smile, his expression remaining as inscrutable as ever.

“Very well. Once the swelling around your eyes has gone down a little, I think it would be best for you to simply go home early today.”

As he spoke, Killian looked into my eyes.

The corner of his mouth curved upward at an angle, forming an arc like a snake’s.

But for now, there was little else I could do except nod.

‘I’ll just have to show him a stronger side of myself so that he loses interest in me……!’

At that moment, Hares closed the balcony door and stepped backward.

It was the first time.

‘Rize shouted at me.’

She had playfully given him orders, scolded him, and even raised her voice at him before. He had done the same to her, too.

But this was the first time she had genuinely rejected him like this.

And she had done it while in that man’s arms.

A vivid, unpleasant feeling surged up through his chest, rising all the way to his throat.

It was as though something were constricting his neck, something thick and suffocating that kept welling up inside him until he could hardly breathe. His brows kept furrowing unconsciously, and his breathing grew uneven.

He had thought that once he left, Rize would quickly pull away from that man named Killian, too.

But, unexpectedly, Rize seemed to have found comfort in his arms. She had continued their conversation obediently, almost as though she felt at ease there.

Killian had repeatedly lowered his head to look at Lize’s face. He had even leaned so close that it seemed he might kiss her at any moment.

Hares clenched his free hand into a tight fist.

The tips of his nails dug into the skin of his palm, hardened with thick calluses.

But his mind was so consumed with thoughts of that man that he couldn’t even register the pain.

What, exactly, should he call this feeling he had toward that man?

‘Ah, that’s right.’

He was getting on his nerves.

The thick possessiveness that seeped from that man’s words. The sharp, inexplicable something in his eyes, like a murderous glint.

And the fact that all of it was directed at Rize.