Thought It Was ‘The End’, Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 186

Harrison, bound and on his knees, sat beside the unconscious Kaitlyn with a vacant expression.

The royal guards, who had been his comrades just yesterday, acted as though he was invisible.

Well, what else could she do but turn away?

There was nothing to say to a traitor who couldn’t even be pitied.

The same went for Lloyd.

He’d been caught off guard and his shoulder pierced in the ambush, but that was simply a result of his own lack of skill, so there was nothing to complain about.

It was just that a traitor who pretended to serve someone while giving away his heart seemed pathetic, especially to someone like him who also lived as a tool.

Betrayal happens the moment one’s heart is taken.

Whoever Harrison’s true master was, that person had surely understood his servant’s heart better than he himself had.

Seeing through Harrison’s lukewarm desire to turn a fake into something real, they had accepted his pointless betrayal.

And that was why they hadn’t used him, despite his presence there.

Whether it was out of a wish for the tool’s happiness or just simple abandonment depended on how you saw it.

At least, Lloyd had accepted Adeline’s attempt to prepare for a future without him as her way of discarding him.

He couldn’t accept it, nor did he want to.

‘Of all people, she wanted to throw me away to that bastard Lucian?’

She might as well have tossed him in the trash…

He was so furious he couldn’t keep his eyes closed.

As Lloyd’s eyes shot open, Lucian remarked that Adeline probably knew about Lloyd’s past.

After all, wasn’t that why she’d asked him for help?

Waking up to Lucian’s face was awful enough, but his every word only soured Lloyd’s mood further. He’d wanted to run over, yell, and confront her the moment he saw her face, but when he did, all his anger melted away.

‘What happened to your face?’

Though she’d intended to discard him, the moment she saw him alive, she screamed his name at the top of her lungs, even as a blade pressed into her throat and wounded her.

Tears spilled from her eyes in front of Shane, despite her attempts to hold back.

“Lloyd!”

He’d been so angry, yet with that single word, he forgave everything.

The awful fish soup was just him being petty.

Without Adeline, Lloyd would cease to exist as well. That was the life he’d chosen for himself, his pride.

‘Brubewein’s royal family will probably just be replaced.’

And the kingdom itself would become a vassal state of the Green Windsor Empire.

The Brubewein princess was already imprisoned in the dungeon.

Since they’d officially held her accountable for poisoning the Duchess of Blanchard, they couldn’t pretend nothing had happened.

The Empress wouldn’t permit the sword she’d drawn to be returned without results, so something had to be resolved.

‘If only she had targeted the Saintess from the start, things wouldn’t have come to this.’

If Kaitlyn had focused on Genevieve as her goal, everything would have been simpler.

If she had just ordered Harrison to assassinate Genevieve from the beginning without sidestepping, then even if it had failed, it might have ended without dragging the Kingdom of Brubewein into the mess.

But Kaitlyn had chosen Adeline as a way to torment Genevieve, as if simply taking her life wasn’t enough to satisfy her.

That twisted desire for revenge ruined everything.

Adeline, who had returned alive, was a soft spot for many.

Shane Blanchard, of course.

The Bertrand family, Edwin, Genevieve, and even Lucian all watched carefully, alert for whatever Adeline might do next. Daring to touch her had been akin to stirring a hornet’s nest.

‘Only Shane Blanchard had lost his mind before, but now they all have.’

Lloyd looked down at the top of Harrison’s head and spoke.

“Do we really need noble hands to dispose of a useless tool?”

Harrison’s broad shoulders flinched.

“If you need help, just say the word.”

“…The Saintess wants my life, so I can’t give it to you.”

“Well, I’d say that’s a luxurious whim.”

Lloyd looked down at the silent Harrison, then shrugged his shoulders.

The ship had docked.

The Bertrand family, waiting on land, pulled Adeline into an embrace the moment her feet touched the ground.

As she tried to soothe her mother, who had burst into tears, Adeline could only sweat nervously, unable to offer either excuses or comfort. She kept her mouth shut, not saying a word.

‘Because of her stinky fish breath.’

Lloyd smirked mischievously.