Chapter 89
It was then that another customer entered the small shop where only the two of them had been.
A middle-aged man who looked like a father and a little girl came in.
The man walked straight up to the ticket counter and brusquely addressed Jeffrey, who was loitering there.
“If you’re not going to buy anything, step aside.”
“Ah….”
Embarrassed, Jeffrey stepped back, and at the same moment the man’s daughter picked up a long lollipop from a display and walked over.
“Daddy, I want this one.”
“Wait just a second. If this hits, I’ll buy every candy here for you.”
The man answered in a kindly tone, bought twenty raffle tickets all at once, and began checking the numbers on the spot.
While he did that, the girl quietly set the lollipop down and looked up at him with shining eyes.
Her dreamlike gaze showed just how important the man was to her.
‘I hope she wins,’ Jeffrey thought, secretly rooting for the man as he turned his body — and then froze.
“Brother?”
Ravian, who had just finished paying for cigarettes, had shifted his gaze this way and was staring at the father-and-daughter pair.
‘Is he curious too? Whether that girl will be able to buy every candy here today?’ Jeffrey wondered.
But Ravian’s expression was cold, not one of casual curiosity.
It felt less like watching to see if they won and more like observing an outcome he already knew.
“…Damn it!”
The man suddenly shouted harshly, startling Jeffrey.
The girl flinched and opened her eyes wide.
“Daddy….”
“Damn it, you worthless—! Let’s go home!”
It looked like every ticket had lost.
The man shoved the twenty tickets into the trash can and grabbed the girl’s arm.
She went along meekly, showing no sign of resistance.
Jeffrey watched in a daze.
“Hey… Brother? Where are you going?”
He hurried out after Ravian, who had abruptly stormed out of the shop, but Ravian was already gone.
“Ravian! Where did you go?”
As Jeffrey peered around looking for him, he suddenly spotted the girl standing alone across the way.
“Um, excuse me….”
Hoping against hope, he approached and the girl looked up. Her big eyes trembled with worry.
“Have you seen my daddy?”
“Huh? Actually, I’m looking for my brother too… Didn’t he go out with your father earlier?”
“He did, but my daddy suddenly disappeared….”
The girl trailed off and looked down at her arm.
There were clear hand marks on her thin wrist — where her father had gripped her.
“Um, did your daddy disappear somewhere while you were passing through here?”
“Yes. When I looked to the side, he was suddenly gone.”
“I’ll go find him. Would you wait here for a bit?”
Dark clouds were rolling in overhead, rumbling with thunder.
The girl nodded, and Jeffrey hurried into the cramped alley behind the shop.
“What on earth are you thinking… ugh!”
He had just turned the corner of the narrow lane when—
Bang!
Something came flying and fell at his feet.
It was the man — the girl’s father.
His face looked intact, but for some reason he was bawling like a child.
“Wh-what happened? Why are you like this… hic!”
Tears and snot running down his face, the man begged, then screamed.
“Why am I like this?”
Ravian was crouched over, roughly stomping on one of the man’s thighs.
“Exactly — why should I be like this? Why are you like that?”
“P-please spare me, I have a young daughter….”
“You’ll wonder about your child forever, won’t you? Why are you only capable of something like this? Huh?!”
“Aah!”
“Stop it, Ravian!”
Frozen in shock, Jeffrey rushed forward and grabbed Ravian.
“Stop it, Ravian! You’ll kill him!”
“…Hey. Aren’t you going to let go of this?”
Ravian’s absinthe-colored eyes turned on him, chilling and fierce.
Jeffrey swallowed hard. He already knew he couldn’t overpower Ravian.
But still—
“Why are you doing this again…?”
Sir Geoffrey — the youngest prince of Systania and scion of Normand, Jeffrey — suddenly began to whimper like a child.
As thin rain began to fall and his light platinum hair darkened in color, for a moment Ravian’s face twisted at the sight of his brother’s tearful, pained expression, which strangely overlapped with another image in his mind.
He sighed and removed his foot from the man.
“Get out.”
The man slumped against the wall and stumbled out of the alley.
Jeffrey stared at him blankly for a moment, then snapped back to his senses and took off after Ravian, who was already slipping down the opposite street.
“Brother, are you okay?”
“No.”
Ravian replied curtly. The hand clenched in his pocket was trembling.
“I have other business. You should return to the palace.”
“But—”
“Here, take this.”
Ravian, who had been walking ahead, suddenly hurled something.
Jeffrey instinctively caught it, opened the case, and was surprised.
“What is this? Earrings?”
“A congratulatory gift. The king’s expecting a baby.”
“Oh my God, when did that— Thank you, brother. Next time you should—”
“With him having a child too, maybe he’ll be more lenient now, or maybe he won’t. I can’t tell.”
Ravian’s voice carried a heavier meaning, and Jeffrey stalled mid-stride, his excitement dampened.
“It’s complicated. Our majesty still holds a grudge against his brother-in-law….”
“If he’s already punished his brother, why does he have to go after a snot-nosed nephew? Before I go and thrash some wretch while you whine, what about your wife who wants to kill the baby? How about handling her?”
“…Fine. I’ll try to persuade her since we’re expecting a child too.”
“Good. Now go.”
Ravian stuck a cigarette in his mouth. A bitter, self-derisive smile flickered across his face.
It used to be he wouldn’t even notice things like this, but now they irritated him; he cared about things that had nothing to do with him. People say when someone changes suddenly they’ll die—but even though he was doing things that seemed like death sentences, the boiling anger in him showed no sign of fading.
He thought of the tramp they’d just roughed up — the pathetic figure sobbing and begging to be spared for his daughter’s sake. That pitiful image overlapped with the memory of Leopart, who had talked nonsense about wanting a restart.
‘What pathetic creatures,’ Ravian thought.
He found his sudden change in himself laughable, but even more ridiculous were those fools who believed what they held in their hands would never change.
What was most laughable, though, was the letter he’d received upon arriving at the hotel.
The sender was Diana.
Her short, dramatic handwriting was so like her.
[Ravian. If you have even a little pity left for me, meet me once before you leave. There’s something I must tell you in person. No one but you will understand.]
“You never change.”
He snorted.
He had a visceral aversion to both Leopart’s stupidity and Diana’s venomous tongue. He had no idea how much Diana had figured out about the events of the past few days, but she was as skilled at wrapping herself in the mantle of martyrdom as she was saturated with self-love.
It had been the same when Anna died, and it would be the same now.
He had no intention whatsoever of listening to Diana’s appeal, playing the poor victim and pitiable mother — especially after everything she’d done and allowed: dressing Nina in Anna’s dead clothes, forcing diet control on his sister, making her watch, and a hundred other things.
He knew exactly what Diana wanted; and knowing that made him all the more certain that Diana, Leopart, and even himself would never get what they wanted.
There were people who deserved to get what they wanted.
“…I’ll go to your daughter, not you.”
Without a shred of regret he threw the letter into the fireplace and left.
