Chapter 6 · If You Want to Die, Cut Me Down First

The top of the tower was utter chaos.

A blade-like wind howled and swirled through the broken railing.

Dark red blood seeping out from beneath the piled bodies had clotted black along the grooves in the floor.

A scene where the metallic smell of blood had swallowed even the air itself.

In the middle of that gruesome sight, Isadel was calmly wiping the blood off her blade onto the hem of her dress.

“Haa…”

At her composed demeanor, showing not the slightest guilt or even weariness, the imperial guards felt a chill run down their spines.

“D-Deposed Princess, drop your weapon and surrender!”

One soldier shouted as if squeezing out his voice, but the hand holding his sword was trembling pitifully.

Isadel roughly swept back her wind-tangled hair with the tip of her blade and raised her head.

Cold eyes flashed above her blood-smeared face.

“No.”

At her firm refusal, the soldiers’ faces turned pale.

The pride of being the imperial guard had long since been trampled along with their comrades’ bodies.

With every step backward, a sticky sensation transmitted through the soles of their boots.

The blood clinging to their feet seemed to whisper that it was their turn next.

“H-Hurry and drop your weapon and surrender!”

At the guard repeating the same words, Isadel furrowed her brow irritably.

‘How dare you give me orders.’

Orders were hers to give, not to follow.

Isadel lightly ignored the guard’s shouts and climbed up onto the railing.

One wrong step and it would be the end.

But instead of looking down, Isadel closed her eyes, feeling the reddened sunset and the wind.

The fierce evening wind savagely shook her hair and the hem of her dress.

At the sharp sensation brushing her cheek, an absurd sentiment suddenly welled up.

‘It’s March… and it’s still cold.’

This year, summer felt especially slow in coming.

Isadel slowly opened her eyes again and looked down.

The world below was dreadfully serene.

Though the master had changed and the season had turned, the imperial palace remained in place as if nothing had happened.

The laughter of servants and nobles passing through drifted faintly on the wind.

Everything was as it was.

Only she had changed.

Only she seemed like a stranger forever cast out from this world.

She had stood at this edge prepared for death.

She had believed no lingering attachment remained.

The things she had loved, the things she had tried to protect, were flowing on without her as if nothing had happened.

That fact was unbearably bitter.

As if she had never existed in this world from the beginning.

Just as hot tears were about to well up, a composed voice suddenly flew in.

“What are you doing up there?”

At the leisurely voice, Isadel hastily swallowed her tears and turned her head.

Through the ashen-faced guards, Erhan revealed himself.

At the sight of him, Isadel’s brow twisted horribly.

Unlike herself, who had lost her original color under the dark red blood, Erhan was dressed so cleanly it bordered on fastidiousness.

The contrast was so vivid it made her sick, turning her stomach inside out.

‘You’re the one who massacred my family, so why am I the one covered in blood?’

* * *

Once the soldiers withdrew, only the two of them remained atop the tower.

Two shadows with their backs to the blazing sunset stretched long across the floor.

It was Erhan who broke the silence first.

“Are you really thinking of jumping?”

“You think I can’t?”

“No, if it’s you, you’d more than do it.”

Erhan answered nonchalantly.

At that, Isadel sneered and extended one foot into the air.

“Then watch closely. How I die.”

Below the dizzying height, the hem of her red dress fluttered in the wind.

At that moment, Erhan’s leisurely eyes wavered without mercy.

“Don’t do anything foolish. Jumping from here won’t kill you. You’ll only end up lingering in a far more painful state.”

Isadel looked down.

It was barely thirty meters to the ground.

An ambiguous height for guaranteeing certain death.

“Who knows. Doesn’t seem much different from now.”

“Don’t do anything reckless. You can’t die anyway.”

“Don’t make assumptions. Rather than be addicted to the likes of you, I can die a hundred times over. No, I will die.”

Isadel spat firmly.

It was no empty threat.

Rather than be addicted to a Hwa-in, lose her sense of self, and continue a life that was not truly living, death was better.

No matter how painful the death, she did not care.

That was why, over the past week, Isadel had attempted every possible death.

She had tried to swallow poison, tried to hang herself with torn bedsheets, tried to slit her wrists with shards of broken dishes.

But every attempt had been thwarted, one after another.

And she had ended up opening her eyes again in the western tower every single morning.

It was all Erhan’s doing.

As he had warned, he had no intention of letting her die for even a single moment.

Every time Isadel desperately threw herself into the wave of death, Erhan fought against the rough current and dragged her back to the shore of life.

Everyone she had loved was gone, and all that remained for her was a life barely sustained by the hand of the man she hated.

Could there be a more cruel punishment?

To want to die but be unable to—it was so absurd it was almost laughable.

Erhan, who had been silently gazing at Isadel, suddenly let out a laugh.

“…Why are you laughing.”

“I was just wondering if you were really the kind of weak person who would choose death over something like this.”

Isadel’s eyelids trembled finely.

“What…?”

“Then take that venom of yours and pierce my heart instead, Isadel. Grab a glass shard like last time and come at me. Hiding behind death is far too cowardly.”

“You madman…”

A vivid fury settled in Isadel’s eyes.

Watching her, Erhan pulled the corners of his mouth up even further.

To the proud Isadel Lacent, there was no insult harder to endure than the words ‘weak’ and ‘cowardly.’

Erhan knew that better than anyone, and his provocation struck precisely at her reverse scale.

There was only one reason he went this far to provoke her.

He had to somehow get Isadel down from the railing.

If she really jumped from there, even he could not stop it.

Isadel gritted her teeth as if her molars would shatter and spat out.

“You’re really rushing your own death.”

“Yes, so try to kill me. I’ll gladly oblige.”

“You think I won’t just because you say so?”

Erhan tilted his head and asked.

“Then what is the reason you cannot cut me down?”

Isadel slowly curled her faintly trembling hand into a fist.

The reason she could not recklessly cut him down was clear.

Hwa-in power.

The overwhelming authority that could bring hundreds to their knees without lifting a finger.

The chilling terror she had witnessed at the coronation ran down her spine once more.

He was a man who, if he so chose, could control her like a puppet and hurl her from the tower.

No matter how blinded by vengeance she was, Isadel was not foolish enough to leap into a fight with no chance of winning.

As if seeing through her thoughts, Erhan took off the jacket he was wearing and casually tossed it to the floor.

Then he picked up one of the fallen soldiers’ swords.

“Come down and let’s fight properly. Sword against sword.”

“Don’t bullshit me. You think I don’t know you’ll use your Hwa-in power?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t use it. I swear.”

Isadel snorted.

She should not rashly trust the words of that man who bewitched people with sweet talk.

Sensing Isadel’s hesitation, Erhan drove in the final nail.

Erasing the leisurely smile from moments ago, with a face more serious than ever.

“Then how about this. If you win, I’ll die here. Gladly.”

“……”

“So if you want to die, cut me down first.”

The howling of the wind filled the silence for a while.

Isadel doubted and doubted again what other scheme might be lurking behind that slick face.

The sincerity of the Hwa-in was originally like a sweet cup of poison—the moment you let your guard down and took a sip, it was already too late.

She must not be fooled by such shallow tricks.

She must not waver at that man’s eyes—Isadel repeatedly urged herself.

But even if this was a trap he had set, she had no intention of backing down.

After all, there was no other option left to her.

“Fine then.”

Isadel gripped the railing and lightly dropped to the floor.

“You said it yourself.”

The moment she landed, she snatched up a sword and swung it.

Clang!

The two blades clashed head-on.