Chapter 3) The Monster with Crimson Eyes

 

By then, Escariel was no longer a kingdom at war.

It was a kingdom already lost.

Flames devoured the royal palace as the last surviving knights fought desperately against the Imperial Army. Their resistance was fierce, but hopeless.

Fire consumed the once-magnificent halls, staining the night sky crimson, while fresh blood dripped from the swords of advancing soldiers.

Yet amidst the chaos...

Only Kallis's crimson eyes remained perfectly still, fixed on a single destination.

 

The Empire's elite troops hurried after him.

As though he already knew exactly where he was going, Kallis found the entrance to the royal family's hidden passage without the slightest hesitation.

 

Cassian clicked his tongue in quiet admiration.

Dragonkin truly are something else.

Kallis never ceased to amaze him, but discovering a secret passage known only to the royal family...

That deserved genuine applause.

 

Kallis continued forward, following a faint, elusive light.

It flickered just beyond his reach, appearing one moment and vanishing the next, drawing him deeper into the palace.

Ever since crossing the palace gates, something else had been bothering him.

His heart.

It had been beating with an unfamiliar rhythm, faint but unmistakable.

His brow furrowed.

 

For years, his life had been painfully simple.

Obey.

Kill.

Conquer.

From the day he became the Emperor's hound, nothing else had mattered.

He had long since forgotten what it meant to be swayed by emotion.

Which was precisely why this strange sensation irritated him.

He hated it.

 

"My lord!"

One of the advance scouts sprinted toward them, breathing hard.

"We've located the princesses!"

At those words, the crimson glow in Kallis's eyes sharpened.

For a fleeting instant, he looked less like a man...

and more like a predator that had finally caught the scent of its prey.

Even Cassian felt his body tense.

Kallis spoke without hesitation.

 

"Take the princesses alive."

His voice was cold enough to freeze the air itself.

After a brief pause, he added,

"Kill anyone who stands in your way."

The order rang through the passage.

In perfect unison, the Imperial soldiers drew their swords and charged forward.

A heartbeat later—

The shrill clash of steel echoed through the narrow corridor, reverberating across the palace as the battle truly began.

 

 

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Within moments, the hidden passage became a living nightmare.

Blood pooled across the stone floor.

The narrow corridor filled with the metallic scent of fresh blood as swords clashed again and again, their sharp cries echoing off the walls.

One by one, the screams grew shorter...

Until all that remained were ragged gasps and dying breaths.

 

The princesses clung desperately to one another, trembling.

Covering their ears did nothing to silence the screams.

Closing their eyes couldn't erase the horror unfolding around them.

Though they held tightly to one another, none of them believed they could survive what was coming.

Despair slowly settled over their tear-streaked faces.

 

Watching the soldiers of Escariel fall one after another...

Astina couldn't shake the feeling that she was witnessing the kingdom's final moments.

Unable to bear the sight any longer, she squeezed her eyes shut.

At last, Sir Edwin stepped forward.

The commander of the Royal Knights drew his sword, and the kingdom's elite guards formed ranks beside him.

 

Diena caught his hand before he could leave.

"N-No... Edwin, please!"

Her voice broke.

"Don't go."

Edwin turned to her, his expression impossibly calm.

"Your Highness..."

He gently squeezed her trembling hand.

"Run."

"Don't look back."

"No!"

Tears streamed freely down Diena's face as she clung to him.

"I can't... I can't leave you!"

"How am I supposed to live without you?"

For a long moment, Edwin simply looked at her.

 

Then, as though committing her face to memory...

He cupped her cheeks with bloodstained hands and kissed her deeply.

When their lips finally parted, he rested his forehead against hers.

"Diena..."

A faint smile touched his lips.

"I love you."

It was the first time...

he had ever called her by name.

Diena's eyes trembled.

She suddenly realized—

Those words might also be his last.

 

Diena could only watch as her fiancé gently slipped his hand from hers.

His broad back never wavered as he strode toward the battlefield.

To her tear-filled eyes...

it already looked stained with blood.

 

The tide of battle shifted almost instantly.

The narrow passage worked in Escariel's favor.

Every time Sir Edwin's blade flashed through the air, another Imperial soldier fell. The title of Commander of Escariel's Royal Knights had never been earned through reputation alone.

Beside him, the kingdom's finest knights fought with desperate determination, refusing to yield a single step.

For the first time since the invasion began...

Hope flickered.

Perhaps...

Just perhaps...

They could hold the passage.

 

Then—

Everything changed.

An overwhelming presence swept through the corridor.

Crimson eyes.

Cold.

Relentless.

Predatory.

The mere sound of his footsteps was enough to make the air itself feel heavier.

 

Every instinct screamed the same warning.

Run.

The royal knights unconsciously retreated.

"Stand aside."

Kallis's voice was calm.

Almost indifferent.

Edwin tightened his grip around his sword.

"I cannot."

He steadied his breathing before planting himself firmly in Kallis's path.

"You will go no farther."

Kallis regarded him in silence.

His crimson eyes were breathtaking.

Beautiful...

in a way so merciless it sent chills crawling down one's spine.

Finally, he spoke.

"I see."

 

Edwin moved first.

His sword shot forward like a streak of silver.

Clang!

Steel collided with steel, sending sparks exploding through the darkness.

Already exhausted, Edwin refused to slow down.

One strike.

Then another.

Then another.

His relentless assault forced Kallis backward step by step.

Even the Imperial soldiers found themselves holding their breath.

Within the cramped corridor, Edwin's blade became little more than flashes of silver too swift for the eye to follow.

He gave everything he had.

Everything.

Yet...

Kallis never changed expression.

Those crimson eyes remained perfectly still.

As though he were merely watching a child swing a wooden sword.

 

Then—

A single silver arc cut silently across the darkness.

For one impossible heartbeat...

No one understood what had happened.

Then Edwin's head slowly separated from his body.

A crimson fountain burst into the air.

The strike had been too fast to block.

Too fast to evade.

Too fast...

Even to see.

Diena couldn't even blink.

"NO!!"

Her scream tore through the corridor.

She lunged toward him, but Bellona wrapped both arms around her, desperately holding her back.

"No! Diena, don't!"

"Let me go!"

She struggled wildly, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face.

"Edwin!"

"EDWIN!!"

Her cries echoed through the burning passage.

The elegant, graceful princess everyone admired had vanished.

All that remained was a woman whose world had just been torn apart.

 

Astina had never seen her eldest sister break like this.

Never.

Beside her, Luena trembled uncontrollably.

"I... I can't..."

Her voice dissolved into a whisper.

The horror before her was more than her gentle heart could bear.

Her knees gave way.

And she collapsed into unconsciousness.

 

Astina stood frozen.

The greatest knight in Escariel.

The man Diena loved.

The hero she had secretly admired—

A man who had always reminded her of the noble Grand Dukes from the romance novels she adored.

 

He had died...

With a single stroke.

So easily.

So impossibly fast.

In novels, death was always tragic.

Beautiful, even.

Reality was neither.

Reality was grotesque.

Cruel.

Merciless.

A wave of nausea surged through Astina.

She doubled over, retching onto the cold stone floor.

Only then did Bellona's words return to her.

"Cold, handsome men only seem romantic in novels."

She had been right.

The monsters that existed in the real world...

were never beautiful.

 

With practiced indifference, Kallis wiped the blood from his blade.

Then his crimson gaze swept across the four princesses.

Diena.

Bellona.

Luena.

And finally...

Astina.

 

His eyes stopped.

For a long moment, he simply looked at her.

Astina, still wiping tears and the taste of sickness from her lips, slowly felt his gaze settle over her.

A violent shiver ran through her body.

She couldn't breathe.

The instant those crimson eyes met hers...

She was certain.

If that beast decided to kill her—

she wouldn't survive.

 

Kallis took a slow step forward.

Then another.

Astina wanted to run.

She wanted to scream.

She wanted to do anything.

Yet her body refused to obey.

She stood rooted in place, completely consumed by the overwhelming presence before her.

He was impossibly tall.

Cold.

Terrifying.

His bloodstained hand slowly reached toward her.

She couldn't even inhale.

Rough fingers stained with fresh blood gently lifted her chin.

The cold, sticky warmth of another person's blood brushed against her skin.

 

"..."

Without a word, Kallis studied her face.

Young.

Beautiful.

Still carrying the last traces of girlhood.

Then why...

Why couldn't he look away?

He had followed that faint, mysterious light through the palace.

And somehow...

it had led him here.

To her.

What did that mean?

For the first time in years—

A question lingered in his mind without an answer.

 

Astina couldn't think.

Couldn't move.

Couldn't even blink.

She could only stare back into those crimson eyes.

He looked at her with the calm intensity of a predator studying its prey—

As though memorizing every feature.

 

Every breath.

Every heartbeat.

Every fragile inch of her.

When...

When will this end?

How much longer do I have to endure this monster?

She wanted to curse him.

To strike him.

To push him away.

But terror swallowed every thought before it could become action.

The smell of blood.

His ice-cold hand.

The dying soldiers.

Her sisters' desperate cries.

Those crimson eyes...

Everything blurred together.

The world tilted beneath her feet.

 

The last thing Astina saw before darkness claimed her...

was the impossible red of Kallis's eyes.

Those eyes...

They're driving me insane...

Her consciousness slipped away.

She collapsed onto the cold stone floor.

And for the first time—

Kallis watched her fall.