At dusk, the stars were sparse, and all was silent save for the occasional mournful cry of crows.
Black Wolf Castle, library.
Xian lay sprawled on the wooden floor, looking utterly dejected.
Ilith knelt properly beside him, her expression solemn, though inwardly she wailed, Ahhh, how much longer is Your Highness going to lie on the floor?! I don't dare sleep in the hammock either. My legs are about to break.
The girl cried out in her heart.
Ever since entering the library, His Highness had barely read two books before lying down on the floor. To avoid being disrespectful, she could only obediently kneel beside him.
"Sigh," Xian softly sighed from the floor.
He had originally come to the library to read and relax, but the dense words on the pages eventually seemed to turn into just two words in his eyes—"eat people."
Whenever he recalled splitting Hoke's head in half with his sword, along with the sensation of blood spraying everywhere, Xian's hands trembled uncontrollably.
Having witnessed that hellish scene, he had been consumed by fury and unhesitatingly chosen to let every thug in the brothel die.
But now that he had calmed down, guilt, nausea, self-reproach, and all manner of negative emotions surged back into his heart.
"People really are contradictory creatures," Xian said with another heavy sigh.
When one was weak, one hated oneself for not being extreme enough. When one was extreme, one loathed oneself for being too self-centered. In the end, it seemed that no matter what one did, inner peace remained out of reach.
Yet Xian knew very well that, according to Berg, if Black Wolf Territory truly counted as a good place within the Sossia Kingdom—and in the whole world—then tragedies like the Red Rose Brothel might not be everywhere, but they