Chapter 124

Cut (5)

“You’re arresting me…” Rocus muttered through his teeth. Every time the muscles in his neck clenched, blood dripped down his skin.

He glared at Lily with sullen eyes. Like he did to the soldiers. He had the momentum to even beat her right away.

“Me, your brother? My sister, who has the Isles surname, the same as me!”

“I am a de Winter now, Rocus.”

He cursed.

This younger brother was ignorant of the feeling of being depressed for the rest of his life.

In this place known from the outside world as a domain of demons. How was it possible to step forward with such bold courage?

A stupid daughter. It was because she thought that because of her blood, she was foolish.

It was a half-truth.

“That’s why you’re betraying us? Is that what Father would want you to do? So you could be the best duchess possible?”

He could not have imagined that his sister had become such a different person. Rocus turned his head and let out an angry breath.

His chin kept trembling. The more he did, the more the blood dripped from his neck.

Lily’s nervous pulse accelerated.

“If that was the case, Dandelion should have been put in prison. He did many bad things too. Huh? Are you going to punish him here?”

Lily frowned at him as if she didn’t understand the meaningless comment. “Why is Dandelion mentioned here?”

Rocus paused. It was because he had only now realized the shocking fact that his sister knew nothing.

“No matter what you say, I… As the hostess of this territory, I must strictly enforce the law of the territory. I hate to hurt you, but you shouldn’t have hurt my people either.”

“Ha! Your people!”

As he looked at the stone wall, his neck twitched continuously. He swallowed the words he couldn’t say out loud.

The sister he knew was not such a woman.  This was way beyond normal.

As Tristan said, the half-monster, the duke, must have possessed his sister.

“Not a mongrel bastard who is a fake duke… No matter what my father said, you should have married that low-ranking nobleman. He was seventy years old, but he was still a decent human being.”

Rocus, who turned his head and looked straight ahead, was terrified. He quickly closed the distance towards Lily.

Whether the blade ripped through his neck and burrowed into the flesh, he went straight like an inanimate object that knew no pain.

“Rocus!”

Valks reflexively pulled back his sword little by little. In front of the duchess, it was impossible to cut her brother’s neck.

“I understand. You’re not sane right now. You’ve been married three times. Every night you have to spread your legs for the mongrel. Any woman would go crazy.”

He cast a shadow over her face, staining his throat with crimson blood. “Let’s go back home. Then everything will be fine. What is the Isles fund? It will work out somehow. You can now go back and take care of Antonio.”

Lily’s eyes seemed to flicker.

Seeing the blood dripping down her brother’s neck, all of her worries were blown away.

Let’s go home.

“I-I don’t want to.”

“I don’t care about how you feel.”

The words seemed to transport her to a frozen lake. Just imagining it made her bones ache.

Violence disguised as consideration.

“I’m not going.”

“You are.”

“Don’t come close to me.” She shuddered.

There was a moment of silence that felt like eternity. There was only the noise of rain hitting the stone walls from outside.

Her slender arm trembled as she put the gun to her brother’s forehead.

The unfamiliar metal object was quite heavy in her hand. The fear of what she was doing to her younger brother was something she could not have even imagined in her dreams.

Rocus also couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The bright green eyes lost focus and trembled uncontrollably. “That… you know what you’re holding, Sister?”

“I know. So back off.”

“Madam, that’s…” Valks glanced at Lily with the gun in her hand.

He wouldn’t have thought that she would be holding on to it.

Rocus was the eldest son of the Isles, and Valks belonged to the knights of de Winter.

The barrel had a smooth curve covered with gold leaf, and a gold ball was attached to the end.

“About you here… Things can be solved. So back off.”

“Shoot.” Rocus had a crazed look in his eyes. “Shoot me!”

Bang!

The roaring noise and the smell of gunpowder hit her.

Lily’s arm bounced upwards in the recoil.

“Madam!” Valks, bewildered as to whether she knew how to fire, lowered his sword in an instant and looked around at Lily.

Lily’s body eventually tilted backwards. She barely caught herself.