Part 2 Chapter 104
Ryan started to turn his head.
“Ryan!!!”
Diana shouted desperately before he could look back.
She was terrified that her children would enter his sight.
He paused, smirking. “What’s wrong? Can’t stand seeing your kids die?”
“…”
Could she? No. She couldn’t.
Diana had always been selfish, never a model mother. Her children were never the first thing on her mind—
But they were still the most precious part of her life.
She had carried them for ten hard months, raised them for over ten years.
They were the only real bond she had left in the world.
In a peaceful life, she might never have given up her own life for them.
But now, stripped of everything, no longer afraid of death, with only her ability left to offer—
she was someone who could make that sacrifice.
“They didn’t do anything wrong,” she said quietly.
Ryan laughed coldly. “Being your children is their sin.”
“That’s not fair.”
“It is here.”
His smile faded. His voice turned flat.
“You know what? I’m God now.”
Diana said nothing.
“There’s no law or justice here. If I want to kill, I kill. If I want to crush, I crush.”
Tears slipped down her cheek as she shut her eyes.
“If I kill them right now, no one will stop me. You know that better than anyone—you lived that way yourself.”
“Please… don’t. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Should’ve said that sooner.”
He straightened.
“Promise me you’ll keep them alive,” she pleaded.
“You’ll see for yourself. Behave, work hard, and you’ll hear news from them once in a while.
You’ll need to stay alive if you want to know whether they’re still breathing, won’t you?”
“…Fine.”
“Good. Take her away.”
The guards grabbed her.
“Mom!”
A small girl’s voice called out—the youngest.
“Don’t come here!” Diana cried back, her tear-soaked eyes blazing red.
Ryan watched her go.
He wondered what she was feeling—probably shame, fear, and the wish that her children wouldn’t remember her like this.
When she was gone, he finally turned to the children.
Jeremy bowed deeply, comforting his sobbing sister.
Their mother would live—not happily, but alive.
“Get them inside, it’s cold,” Ryan ordered the guards.
He noticed the next prisoner being dragged in and pulled out a small dagger.
***
It was his fourth brother, Gabriel, covered in scars beneath his prison clothes.
Gabriel grinned. “Excited?”
“Very,” Ryan said dryly. “I heard you actually enjoyed being tortured.”
He clicked his tongue. “You’d hurt yourself if no one else was around, huh?”
“Didn’t know it before, but yeah. Feels good. Maybe you should put me in the same cell as Diana—
if I die, I can’t feel that pleasure again. Tragic, right?”
Ryan frowned. “Do you even know what sadness is? You think that’s sad?”
“Sure.”
He sighed. “Funny thing is—you’ve only got one crime. Murder. Just one.
But you still managed to break our family record. The last assassin in our line killed the most people in the empire—until you beat him.”
“Thanks,” Gabriel said, grinning.
“Not a compliment, you psycho.”
“Ahahaha!”
Ryan shook his head. “Make up for the ones you killed. Go heal people. You don’t even have to stay locked up—I’ll give you a warm basement room to work in forever.”
Gabriel exhaled. “You know that’s pointless.”
“Yeah. Just asking.”
“I’ve spent my life doing something that doesn’t suit me. Don’t even know why I got this ability.”
“Neither do I,” Ryan muttered.
“Cold out here. So, will you do the first torture yourself?”
“No. If you won’t work, you’ll die here.”
As long as Gabriel lived, no new user of the Fountain of Purification ability could be born.
“Your power’s useless to you but precious to others. You have to die for the next one to appear.”
“Ah, I see.”
Gabriel shrugged. “Alright then. I’ve done enough bad things. Make it slow. Painful.”
Ryan groaned, almost in tears.
“How am I supposed to punish a monster who enjoys pain?”
“Ahahaha!”
“What would hurt you most?”
“What do you think?”
“What kind of death would actually make you suffer?”
“Guess!”
Ryan’s eyes went cold.
〈Instant Death〉
Gabriel’s eyes went blank, and he collapsed.
Ryan stared down at the body.
“…This is the best I could do. Right?”
The dead man didn’t answer.
Snow began to fall again, one flake landing on Gabriel’s golden hair.
Ryan looked up.
“Phew.”
The snow kept falling from the gray sky.
“Finally… it’s over. This cursed family.”
The day he finally ended the bloodline of Bassenberg.
***
Later, on the ship returning to the mainland—
Ryan and Bania lay flat on a soft bed in a luxury cabin.
“It’s finally over,” Bania said.
“Yup.”
“Doesn’t it bother you?”
“Nope~ not at all.”
“You actually made those kids see their mother in a prison uniform.”
“But she’s alive, isn’t she?” Ryan said, smirking. “If I hadn’t used the kids, how else would I make her work?”
Bania just sighed.
“And the kids will be fine. I told them the truth—they’ll know why their mom’s being punished.
They won’t grow up hating us. I even let her live. Honestly, I’m a saint.”
“Sure you are,” she muttered.
He turned thoughtful. “You know what I’m curious about now?”
“What?”
“Fatherhood.”
“Huh?”
“I wonder if I’ll ever feel that. Probably different from what I feel for you and Alex.”
“What made you think about that all of a sudden?”
“Watching Diana break in a second when she saw her kids. I didn’t think someone that selfish could have a weakness.”
He chuckled softly.
“Why make a weakness for yourself though? Better to just live alone forever.”
“Don’t curse me!” Ryan protested.
At that moment, Nike came in.
“Yo. Done with your little parenting trip?”
He dropped onto the couch, exhausted.
He’d been busy comforting Diana’s children—teaching them, calming their crying.
“I still don’t get why you had to take things that far,” Nike said tiredly.
Ryan shrugged. “Well, the empire’s sick population is about to drop in half, and Vania won’t have to overwork anymore. Sounds like a good trade to me.”
“…Yeah, good job,” Nike sighed.
Ryan stretched his arms dramatically. “All done! Now for my reward—happiness!”
“You’re not happy already?”
“Maybe I’d be happier with a Belzer heir?”
Bania groaned. “Ugh, not this again! You just want to find a woman to marry, don’t you?”
“Hey, maybe it’s destiny! The empire needs talented new blood, right?”
He flopped back onto the bed. “I’m already twenty-nine. Will I ever get married before thirty…?”
Bania ignored him, clearly used to the whining.
Nike, ever kind, said, “You will. Someone meant for you will appear—and maybe, before you turn thirty, you’ll hold a child in your arms.”
And unbelievably—he did.
Ryan stared down at the tiny baby cradled in his trembling arms.
“Abuah!” the baby babbled.
Ryan Belzer, age twenty-nine, that autumn—
just as Nike had said, he held a child in his arms before he turned thirty.
