Chapter 78 - The World Against Him : Part 2

Axel suddenly vanished from everyone's sight in the blink of an eye. The drop of black tears was the only proof that he was there.

Right before he disappeared, Axel had a sorrowful look in his mismatched eyes. Rune was the last person that he saw, staring at her with hopelessness. The world seemed to slow down a little as he looked at her for the last time with sadness.

He was a criminal. There was no need for her to feel bad for him.

But deep down, there was a pang in her chest. It spread like bugs that clawed in her skin. It ate her heart slowly, choking her. She believed it was because of the betrayal. Of course, it was because of the betrayal. What else could it be?

"Well, that was an interesting play." A dangerous voice broke the silence.

Everyone's eyes moved to him now as they realized there was still a dangerous person within them. No one dared to speak, wishing that the mercenary would not recognize their existence.

"I told that naive boy already that no one would accept a murderer like him." The mercenary muttered, looking like he was talking to himself.

He let out a sigh and clicked his tongue. Kiaran ran a hand through his hair, causing it to cascade back down to his forehead. "He didn't listen to me and even tried to run away to just be with you. His beloved best friend and all that bullshits."

He finally looked at Rune. The ocean eyes were too deep, hiding the malice within them. "He even went against me just for you to be okay, protecting you from the shadow."

The red-haired girl tried to hide her trembling hands and faced the mercenary with her head held high. She wasn't going to back down easily and tried to stand high on her ground, it seemed.

Too bad Kiaran owned the ground already.

"But I know you would hate him when he told him who he truly is." He shrugged and formed a hidden smirk behind his mask as he continued. "We need character development for the play, right?"

Rune's mouth formed a frown as she gritted her teeth. Two hazel eyes narrowed at the criminal with tight lips accompanying them. She stayed silent at his taunt and waited for him to finish.

"I was waiting for the time when you would ditch him and push him away right when he told you everything like a naive child that he was," Kiaran continued, taking the challenge Rune had given to him. A challenge of when she would break her high ground.

"-but I have become impatient." He huffed, tilting his head at Rune with glinting blue eyes. "So I sped the process for you and him."

She gritted her teeth at him. Rune clenched her fists that the nails turned white.

Kiaran smiled almost genuinely at her. "You're welcome."

The mercenary took the knife that had fallen on the floor and fiddled with it. "Axel needed to know that he did not have anyone in his life."

He pointed the knife at her. "Not even you that he cherished the most."

"Right, what is the saying again? A little heartbreak for a bigger purpose?" He brought his black-gloved hand to his chin, pretending to think. "Yeah, that is."

"You are-" He pointed at her and closed one of his eyes, circling the knife around her head from his vision. "-the perfect candidate for the little heartbreak."

"It was dumb, really." He taunted again, pushing her into her limits of staying quiet and calm. "-for how fast you would turn a blind eye to him while he sacrificed everything for you."

Rune opened her mouth to speak but quickly shut it down again. There was no purpose to answer his taunt. It would only make him win the situation.

Kiaran's face darkened as he threw the last taunt. "It seems like you're as pathetic as your father." He grinned at her. Even though Rune couldn't see it, she could see the blue eyes that told her that he was smirking. "The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree anyway."

"Don't you dare talk about my father like that." She finally took the bait and went into Kiaran's manipulative cage willingly.

Ah, she already broke off her high ground and went mad. That was boring.

"Oh, you lost. That was anti-climatic." Kiaran sighed and looked away from her to the wall behind her. "You're no fun."

He stared at the wall with eyes that waited for something to happen, eyes that knew too much of the situation he was in. "Stage one complete. Now we are moving to stage two-"

Kiaran raised his eyebrows and tilted his head again. "In five, four, three, two-"

The wall suddenly broke down into pieces, crumbling. It created a big hole that soon revealed a bunch of police cars behind armed police officers.

"Mercenary!" A familiar blond shouted with anger more than usual. Two green eyes furiously shot daggers at him.

"....one." Kiaran ended his counting down with a clap. His mouth formed a happy grin, and excitement filled his dark eyes. "Just on time, police boy! Bravo!"

But then the excitement turned into a serious one with a killing intent aura that surrounded him. Valerian let out the same aura, not wanting to lose in another fight with the criminal.

In a swift move, the mercenary let out a gun, pointing at the lieutenant as Valerian did the same thing right at the same time. The two sworn enemies faced each other again after a month with the same intention as before.

"Let's dance again, shall we?"

Before the two enemies fell into a long last battle, everyone started to run. The rest of the police helped them to evacuate while Kiaran and Valerian tried to slice each other's throat.

One did not want to kill, and one wanted to.

You would be surprised to know that the one who wanted to kill was the lieutenant instead of the mercenary.

But don't get it wrong, it was not like the mercenary did not want to kill because he had a tender heart; he just did not want to dirty his hands. It was troublesome and disgusting.

Aster and Rune ran side by side as the police led them into a safer place. Both of them were too preoccupied with their own thoughts. Each of them had their own worries about the same topic.

Rune shook her head when someone asked if she was hurt or not. She just let her eyes drown in silence, ignoring the blond that had been staring at her for a while now.

Aster offered a bottle of water and forced it into her hand. "That was a bitch move, Rune."

The words caused the red-haired girl to look over at the Edelweiss boy. She showed a slight confusion by frowning at him.

"Saying stuff like that to Axel." The green eyes met the hazel ones with disgust. "You're more of a loser than him."

"He is not just a loser." She ventured, spreading her hands defensively. "He's a criminal, a murderer, a monster!"

Aster put a towel over her shoulders and turned his back on the girl. "He's your best friend." The blond uttered that with a lingering venom as he walked away from the frozen red hair.

✵✵✵✵✵✵

"Not a while ago, the mercenary had revealed the identity of the infamous mute murderer." The woman on the television stated, showing a picture of a boy with a white mask.

The room was dim as a 16-year-old girl sitting on a couch, watching the news in a daze. The only light that shone in the room was from the television itself. The curtains were closed, and the door was locked. She wanted to be alone.

There was another pang in her heart again as she continued to watch it. She must have been hurt by the betrayal. The murderer had been lying to her for years, pretending to be weak when he killed countless people behind her. She did not even want to say his name anymore. It left a bitter taste in her mouth.

She wasn't feeling any guilt at all.

She wasn't sad that their friendship was over.

She wasn't sad that she lost him.

She wasn't sad that he was gone now.

She was fine.

She didn't-

Ah.

Rune noticed the warmness and looked down to her thighs to see tear stains that kept falling down from her face. She was crying.

The mercenary was right. She was pathetic.

A white knight crying for a prince that had turned out to be a monster. She was protecting the wrong person all this time. Maybe she was never a white knight in the first place.

Maybe mother was wrong.

"It was surprising for a boy at such a young age to be the criminal that killed more than a person could ever do. Further investigation for Axel Vergessene will-"

Rune grabbed the nearby glass on a table and threw it into the chattering box, breaking it as it crashed with the glass. The water caused the television to short circuit and freeze right when Axel's picture was on the screen.

The red-haired girl let out a sad chuckle and let herself break into a fit of unstopping sob.

She was truly pathetic.

✵✵✵✵✵✵

Right at the same time, a boy sat on top of an abandoned building and buried his face on his knees as he hugged them. He tried to divert his focus from all the billboards around the building that kept showing his face.

He was feeling the same pang in his chest as his ex best friend.

Pathetic, really.