Killing Your Sweet Breath - Chapter 9

Chapter 5.1

Van approached Winter, extending his hand to her as she remained seated on the floor.

Winter frowned, glaring up at him as he stared down at her with a gentle smile on his face.

Why the reaction, Winter? Didn’t I warn you there would be a familiar face?

His eyes seemed to say.

“I gave you enough hints.”

Ignoring Van’s outstretched hand, Winter slowly pushed herself up off the floor, resuming to her full height.

“Ian. How long has it been since the fall of Ruhen, and yet you still show me such respect? It is too much. Get up, right now.”

Ignoring Winter’s command, Ian remained in his loyal posture, his expression unwavering.

“Ian and I are now working together.”

“Did you lure him in the same way you did with me?”

Winter’s accusation caused Van to press his lips together and gently turn his head. His gaze shifted to Ian, who remained kneeling.

“No, my lady, I willingly committed myself to House Helgram.”

Only then did Winter notice the Helgram seal on Ian’s uniform coat.

A golden-eyed raven stared back at her with a peculiar expression.

“So, you’ve joined the Helgram knights.”

Winter confirmed calmly, but she couldn’t shake off her sadness.

To think that Ian, who had once been a knight of Ruhen, was now serving another territory. It filled her with indescribable sorrow.

Especially since Ian had been one of Ruhen’s special knights.

As an orphan, Winter’s father had taken him in as his squire and trained him, even going as far as to request the emperor to dub him personally.

“You don’t seem very happy. Shouldn’t you be glad to see your mentor who taught you how to wield a sword?”

Even though Van’s words grated on her nerves, it was true. He had been her mentor.

“All the more reason for you to stand up if you serve another lord now. My father would have never taught you to act this way.”

“I am forever a knight of Ruhen.”

Ian insisted, making Winter chuckle softly.

Was everyone in this estate mad? How could a knight pledge loyalty to a disgraced and fallen family in front of their current lord?

Van’s demand for marriage in exchange for revenge, alongside Ian invoking Ruhen’s name while discussing loyalty, struck Winter as entirely absurd.

“Van, it looks like House Helgram is doomed. There’s not a single sane person here.”

Even as Winter insulted his family name, Van merely shrugged his shoulders.

“There’s a difference between you and him. I don’t need his loyalty.”

Winter was left speechless. Van spoke as if that were self-explanatory.

What differences existed between Ian and herself in Van’s eyes?

If the goal was to kill the emperor, wouldn’t shared feelings of hatred and revenge suffice?

Why demand loyalty from her but not from Ian, while also demanding that she become his possession?

In the midst of her confusion, one thing was clear: Ian had also joined Helgram to seek revenge on the emperor.

Ian was knighted at eighteen, and by the time he turned twenty, he was summoned to his first battle at the frontier by the emperor.

But as soon as the battle was over, his unit heard the news of Ruhen’s collapse.

When they returned, they stared at the charred remains of the castle and wailed as if they were survivors of a fallen kingdom. Despite having survived due to their honorable service, they wept with guilt, soaking the ground of Ruhen with their tears and feeling like traitors.

For more than two weeks, Ian had collapsed in front of what had once been the castle’s drawbridge, his chest heaving with sobs.

One night, Winter had hid in the distance, watching him through tears as the moonlight shone on Ruhen’s seal on his knight’s cloak.

“Winter, take a walk with Ian. I’m sure you two have a lot to discuss.”

Winter managed to slowly bob her head up and down. Though it was infuriating to agree with Van, she did want to take a walk with Ian.

* * *

The back garden of the Helgram estate was filled with red roses. The thorny rose vines climbed the building’s high walls, almost as if they were watching over the two of them.

Winter thought the roses suited Van perfectly. Drawn in by their beauty and scent, one would only see the blood smudged on the hidden thorns once it was too late.

She knew it was foolish, fully aware of the thorns, yet she was still playing into his hands.

Revenge against the emperor.

She was wavering over the absurd idea of marriage for that sole reason, and now, he had brought Ian to the table as well.

Regardless of his loyalty as a knight, how could she, a true descendant of Ruhen, ignore the opportunity for revenge when someone unrelated to her family was stepping forward to claim it?

Even knowing it wouldn’t end beautifully, her heart was leaning toward it, as if bewitched.

“As unfaithful as I may sound saying this, I never imagined you would be alive, my lady.”

It was Ian who broke the long silence.

“It was sheer luck.”

Winter’s brief reply was enough; Ian did not press any further.

He didn’t have to see it to know the pain she must have endured, having lost her family and surviving alone.

“You must be curious why I became a knight of Helgram.”

Ian answered Winter’s question calmly.