Chapter 171
Chapter 171
12.14 – He made you like this, right?!
editors: alamerysl & Macabre
It was nighttime. Murphy was called in as backup for the negotiations. Although she had already given up on Kent and his mother completely, when the child that she had raised knelt in front of her and begged her for the last time, she had no way to harden her heart and drive him away.
This was Murphy’s first time meeting Ivan. She felt a little helpless – if she had met this child at any other time, perhaps she would have liked him. But now, this child had already been destroyed, and even if the poison could be cured, his personality had already become warped.
Murphy’s spiritual power could cover the entire capital, so Kent asked her to take them to the palace.
Although she was very powerful, casting a net and searching through still required a lot of energy. But before Murphy could even begin, the two people they were looking for materialized in front of them.
The atmosphere became rather awkward. Murphy slowly adjusted her posture and resumed her high and mighty stance. She opened her mouth to say, “Since the people you wanted to see have already arrived, I won’t disturb you any longer. I’m leaving.” She was unwilling to be further involved in this matter. If anything happened to her, the royal family would truly be doomed. Murphy had not lived for so many years for nothing, and although her appearance belied her age, her experience was genuine.
Xue Ling spoke lightly, “It’s better if Your Highness Murphy stays. In case something happens here, you can serve as a witness.”
Murphy’s steps paused. Now that Xue Ling had said this, it was obvious that something big would happen tonight.
“I’m not going to meddle in tonight’s business.” Murphy sighed helplessly. “Since it’s like this, could Your… Excellency give the royal family a way out?”
Xue Ling’s voice was lazy. “I was never enemies with the royal family. But I will not let these two people go. Since Your Highness Murphy has said that you will not interfere, then this matter will naturally not involve the royal family.”
After obtaining this promise, Murphy stopped speaking. This world had always been one where strength was respected. In the face of absolute power, the royal family could not say anything more and could only maintain their silence as a way of self-preservation.
Kent gave Murphy an obscure, profound look. He was very clear about Her Highness’s character, and knew that she was always thinking for the sake of the royal family. But no one would have anything good to say about the other side after being so obviously tossed aside.
Ivan glanced hesitatingly at Xue Ling. He didn’t know why, but he now had an inexplicable fear of the other party. “Oliver…” Kent placed an arm around his shoulders and pushed him forward, signaling for him to speak slowly and not be anxious.
Ivan closed his eyes and finally summoned up the courage to say, “Oliver, can we have a proper talk? I know I was wrong before, I shouldn’t have given you that curse and gone against your wishes, but I really have no way to do anything to Kent, you know? I really love him, and I also really love you. Both of you are important parts of my life, and I can’t afford to lose either of you. That’s why I came up with that kind of solution…”
“Oliver, we no longer have a contract between us. You’ve already punished me severely with your departure. I was very heartbroken, too. I can accept that you want to get your revenge on me, but don’t do anything to Kent, okay?” He looked at Xue Ling, and for a moment, there was a flash of honesty in his eyes. “Kent indeed did something unforgivable to your parents, but he didn’t know who they were… He was just a child who wanted to give his mother the best. Since you miss your parents so much, you should be able to understand Kent, right?”
Xue Ling sneered, “He wanted to give his mother the best, so he deliberately planned to kill my parents. That’s true, demonic beasts have no human rights and were born to be hunted by human beings. So there is nothing wrong with me taking his life as an offering to my parents, right?”
“It’s not like that.” Ivan quickly retorted, “Oliver, you’re misunderstanding my words. My meaning is that vengeance has a way of rebounding upon oneself. If you keep trying to get revenge like this, the situation will only snowball from generation to generation.”
“What, are you going to have a son for him?” Xue Ling’s expression was indifferent. “There’s no point giving birth to one. I’ll strangle it once it’s born.”
Ivan’s eyes were red. Why was this person like this? Why were his words all useless? They didn’t have any common viewpoints at all, and he only knew how to fight and kill. How could he have thought that Oliver was just like a gentle elder brother back then!
“Oliver! How can you say that? No matter what, children are innocent! “
“Yes, and I am innocent, too.” Xue Ling was already turning a little impatient. Ivan’s tone and attitude remained unchanged, and he didn’t like those Holy Saint-type words of his at all. An eye for an eye was his method of conduct. “Let’s not talk anymore nonsense. Aren’t you innocent too? Then why did the Queen poison you?”
“This…” Ivan’s own logic came to a stop here. “Maybe the Queen just thought that I wasn’t suitable for Kent. No matter what, she was doing it for Kent’s sake.”
Xue Ling felt that Ivan’s logic was about to move even him. Looking at Ivan’s expression that seemed like he was about to cry, he was really amazed at how much of a Holy Saint he was; he was really the type who would offer themselves up for death just to prove their innocence. “Fine then, I’ll give the two of you a choice.” He pointed at the two of them, and lifted up two fingers.” Tonight, only one of you will survive.”
His tone was so indifferent that it seemed that he was not talking about murder, but about a simple game. “If Kent lives, then you will die of poison. Or, if you kill him, I’ll have my love dispel your poison, and ensure that you can live on safe and healthy for a long time.”
Kent’s expression was very ugly: “You were lying to me back then when you said that you were retaliating against me for him?” He thought that Oliver still cared about Ivan, but now, he was making this kind of demand, saying that only one of them will survive tonight, and the choice was not even in his hands.
“I said many more things before saying that it was for his sake. Did Your Highness the Crown Prince ignore them all?” Xue Ling curved his lips, “Or did you think that poisoning by someone who has nothing to do with me would make me angry enough to kill you?”
Kent had nothing to say. In fact, Oliver’s intention to kill him had never changed. At first, he didn’t care. Later, he didn’t think that Oliver would be able to make a move against him. Frankly speaking, he never took the matter of killing Oliver’s parents seriously. After all, they weren’t human beings, they were just two demonic beasts. To him, killing two demonic beasts was no big deal at all. Instead, they should be grateful that they were valuable, and flattered that he had taken the time to catch them.
“Enough. Ivan, make your choice. Will you kill Kent and clear out all the accounts? Since you’ve given me such a curse, then it makes sense for us to reach a day where you pick up your sword and help me do what I can no longer do.” There was a beautiful smile on his lips. It made his entire face curve and had a kind of attractive charm. “Come on, Ivan, let me see whether you believe that your Kent is more important, or yourself?”
Ivan’s face was pale. He looked at Kent and retreated from his embrace, step by step.
Kent coaxed him and said, “Don’t believe him, Ivan. We can definitely still find a way to get rid of your poison without them.” He looked at Xi, the man who had been standing silently beside Xue Ling from the beginning. He had just noticed that in Xue Ling’s words, Xue Ling himself had no ability to dispel the poison. What he had said was that he would have this man do it for him.
“Your Excellency, I am a Prince of this country – the Crown Prince. I can give you anything you want, so could you please dispel the poison in my lover? Whatever Oliver is giving you, I can give you double!” Kent acted like a desperate person who was chaotically, anxiously rushing to find a doctor.
However, Xi barely even gave him a glance. He bowed his head and kissed Xue Ling’s forehead, saying, “When will everything be settled? What would you like to eat tonight?”
Xue Ling laughed, hugged his neck, then looked up at Kent and said, “What do you want to do? Buy him? Perhaps you could consider selling your body, but he might not necessarily want it~”
Ivan looked at the intimacy between two and asked Xue Ling, “Oliver, is that your new contractor? It’s because of him that you become what you are today, right? The Oliver that used to treat me so well, so gently… He would absolutely never be like this. It was him, wasn’t it?! He made you like this, right?!” The more he questioned, the more hysterical he seemed.
Xue Ling sneered then spoke coldly, “When I broke the contract with you back then, I made it very clear that we would only speak about forgiveness after I have killed your lover. We no longer have any relationship between us. Now, all you have to do is follow my words and do what I want you to do. As long as you do so, perhaps I can even consider forgiving you.”
He tossed a knife onto the ground and said, “Take this. It should be white going in, and red coming out. Be good, you’ll soon be able to live on. Don’t wait for me to lose patience; he’ll still die, but you… we don’t know what you’ll become~”
Ivan shivered. His expression was very strange; even if he had ten more brains, he would never have thought that he would come to this point one day. He didn’t know exactly why these things happened, but he had already run out of time.
His hair and eye color were darkening at a speed visible to the naked eye. Darkness was eroding the light elements in his body step by step and soon, his body would completely turn into a cradle for the darkness. He would become a devil, a wild being unable to live in the sunshine, banished to the boundless darkness.
Kent looked at Ivan for a long time and finally said, “Ivan, you know, I can’t die…” He gave Ivan a slightly evasive look. Now that things had reached this point, he had no way to righteously and solemnly tell Ivan to kill him. “I still have my country, my people… My mother and my friends… But Ivan, you only have me…” The meaning underneath his words was, could you die for me instead?
Ivan stared at him, stunned. In fact, according to his personality, if Kent told him loudly that he was willing to die for him and asked him to quickly kill him, perhaps he would cry and stab himself instead so that he could die a better death.
But Kent spoke like this.
If Ivan was the same Ivan from before who had not yet entered the Demonic Beast Forest, had not been betrayed, and stayed true to his Holy Saint heart instead of deceiving himself, he might really have thought about these things and died instead of Kent, but now Ivan had changed. He trusted Kent before, but Kent had taken off his own mask and spoken to him like this.
Ivan looked at him and said slowly, “Kent, even if I don’t make a move against you, you’re still going to die…” Xue Ling never said that he would give up killing Kent if Ivan died. He had always said the same thing; as long as Kent died, Ivan could live. He didn’t say the rest, but Ivan understood.
He now understood what Ololet had said to him in the Demonic Beast Forest. He knew how painful it was to die from losing the power of light bit by bit. He also understood how it felt to betray relatives, and even the people he valued most.
Ivan’s heart was filled with mixed feelings as he picked the knife up from the ground and looked at Kent, but the question from his mouth was directed towards Xue Ling, “If I kill him, will it end everything between us?”
“Yes.” As long as Kent and his mother died, all the wishes that the original owner of this body had would be fulfilled. After doing all this, as well as thoroughly changing Ivan’s character, Xue Ling could be completely certain that the story would no longer go back to the original plot line, so he could leave and probably never have to come back.
“Good.” Ivan’s reply was very soft. He stepped up to Kent, reached out, and touched Kent’s face.
“Kent, close your eyes. I promise you, soon, it won’t hurt at all.” He smiled the same way he had when Kent first met him, his smile very pure, very lovely. “Your country, and Her Highness Murphy, all that is yours, I will take care of for you… If I were to do it, it definitely won’t hurt very much. But if it was him, I can’t think of how he would torture you… This is for your sake, Kent.”
His eyebrows were bent from his smile and the curve of his mouth took on a delicate, strange edge. “So, Kent, go die.”
Ivan’s eyes were filled with the dizzying color of blood. Kent watched on in astonishment as it happened; his body wasn’t under his control, and he had no way to stop Ivan’s movements…
He had no idea that Ivan would really do it, and stab his heart with the knife. Red blood spurted onto Ivan’s face, and the awareness in his eyes slowly collapsed…
Kent’s last glimpse of life was seeing Ivan lose his mind, retreat a few steps, and fall into a pool of his blood.
A shrill scream rang through the palace that night.