“You really are a sight to behold.”
A clear, melodic voice, like a chirping bird, echoed through the dungeon.
Count Lucas, sprawled on the floor, barely managed to open his eyes.
The voice, which he remembered as always being cowed and timid, was now brimming with confidence and even a newfound dignity.
“My goodness… Who could have predicted that you, who once enjoyed such power that even His Majesty the Emperor couldn’t touch you, would end up in such a miserable state? Even a sewer rat crawling through the pipes wouldn’t be as foul and filthy as you are now.”
Step, step.
Slow and light footsteps drew closer.
When the intruder finally stood before the bars, Count Lucas recognized the fair face revealed beneath the torchlight.
“A-Ah, son. Joel, my dear youngest…”
‘Youngest’?
Not just the youngest, but ‘dear youngest’?
Joel watched with a look of utter contempt as his adoptive father scrambled to his feet in delight.
This man had never once treated him like a child for the past three years, yet he remained a person who made one feel revolted until the very end.
“My boy, let me see your face.”
The Count reached his grimy, dirt-stained hand through the bars, attempting to grab Joel’s leg.
Joel took a step back, ensuring that the filthy hand could not touch him.
Up close, the misery of Count Lucas’s condition was even more apparent.
He was bedraggled from not washing for a long time, gaunt from the harsh interrogations and torture, and not a single patch of skin visible through his tattered clothes remained unscarred.
After waving his hand uselessly a few times, the Count gave up on catching Joel and gripped the bars tightly instead.
He spoke to Joel in a sickeningly sycophantic tone.
“My youngest, you didn’t forget this unworthy father and came to visit. Thank you, truly… I begged the Crown Prince to let me see you just once, but he was cold and would not listen.”
Having lived in the palace for a long time, the Count knew that the Crown Prince had not yet acquired the same cold-heartedness as his father.
He believed that if Joel—the Prince’s young and spirited lover—pleaded with tears, the Prince would grant anything.
His only path to survival was to cling to his adopted son, Joel.
“You wanted to see me? Why?”
“That’s because…”
Joel looked directly into his adoptive father’s eyes, which were sparkling with a false hope.
“Surely, you aren’t planning to use me to save your life? The existence of the demon has been revealed to the world, and everyone knows what schemes you’ve been plotting with him for twenty-five years. Do you still cling to the hope that you can live?”
Joel looked down at his greedy adoptive father as if he were an insect.
He thought to himself that even a ‘fool’ like him wouldn’t be as stupid as this man, believing there was a way out after committing treason of all crimes.
However, in the next moment, contrary to Joel’s expectations, the Count began thumping his forehead against the floor.
“I know, I know! I have committed a truly great sin. How could I have the face to ask for my own life? It’s not that.”
“What are you… S-stop that.”
Despite Joel’s protests, the Count slammed his head against the ground several times.
Finally, with a face smeared with blood from his broken forehead, the Count looked up at Joel.
“Yes, I deserve to die a thousand deaths. But my boy, your brother Isaac is innocent… I will take all the sins I’ve committed with me, so please, just save that child. If you ask the Crown Prince yourself, he will surely listen.”
The last wish of the once-coveted Count was not his own life, but the salvation of his son.
Begging for his child’s life, the Count looked as desperate as any other father.
Looking down at him, Joel felt his heart waver for a moment.
‘But…’
He could not grant his adoptive father’s wish.
This was a matter involving the prestige of the Imperial Family.
Saving Isaac would set a precedent of showing mercy to impure forces that committed treason.
Joel braced his heart, recalling how harshly his father had treated him over the last three years.
“I can’t do that.”
When Joel shook his head firmly, the Count gripped the bars and shouted in a desperate voice.
“Joel!”
“If you wanted to save your son, you shouldn’t have committed such acts. Or you shouldn’t have had children at all.”
Despite Joel’s rejection, Count Lucas clung to his feet and begged a few more times.
However, Joel’s cold attitude remained unchanged, and the Count finally realized that persuading him was impossible.
“Then why did you come here! Did you come to mock the miserable state of the man who abused you for three years?”
Joel didn’t even flinch at his adoptive father’s outburst. In truth, he had come for that very reason—to mock him, resent him, and perhaps even slap his cheek a few times if his anger didn’t subside.
But seeing his adoptive father fallen so low, that hostility vanished.
Now, Joel simply wanted nothing more to do with such a vermin-like person.
“You ungrateful brat! Do you not hear me? Say something! If I hadn’t adopted you, would someone like you ever have had the chance to catch the Crown Prince’s eye?”
To his adoptive father, who was shaking the bars as if to break them, Joel finally spoke in a calm tone.
“First of all, the reason I came here was to tell you that I forgive you.”
“Forgive?”
Hearing Joel’s words, the Count let out a hollow, incredulous laugh.
It was a reaction Joel had expected.
Even so, it would have felt much better if his adoptive father had actually wanted to hear those words.
Hiding his bittersweet feelings, Joel followed suit with a crooked smile.
“I’m not forgiving you for your sake, you know. I’m doing it for mine. Regardless, I forgive you.”
The Crown Prince had already taken revenge on his behalf.
His grievances had been fully exposed during the investigation, and seeing his adoptive father in such a pathetic state cleared away any remaining resentment.
Joel wanted to be free from his father’s shadow now.
He would bury his young, pitiful, abused self here as well.
It was time to settle the scarred past and step forward into a brilliant world.
“And second, if you hadn’t adopted me, I would have been united with the Crown Prince much faster. My reputation wouldn’t have been ruined under your lead, and His Majesty the Emperor wouldn’t be opposing our marriage like he is now.”
“Ha! How could you? Do you think the Crown Prince would have liked a leech like you?”
“It was the Crown Prince who fell in love at first sight with that ‘leech.’ And I’ll continue to use that leech-like persistence to stay in his heart, so don’t you worry.”
And honestly, Joel felt it would be okay even if the Prince’s heart cooled later.
Come to think of it, it didn’t matter to him whether the Prince liked him or hated him.
Of course, it was better to be loved, but his own feelings were more important.
Joel knew very well that he loved the Prince dearly.
Even if the Prince grew tired of him in the future, his own love would remain unchanged.
One thing he had learned while away from the Prince was that he wasn’t generous enough to leave for the sake of the Prince’s happiness.
Whether he was hated or despised, Joel wanted to stick by the Prince’s side, and there was no safer means for that than marriage.
“Do you… do you think you can be happy alone after abandoning me? You and your child will meet the same end as I did!”
To his cursing adoptive father, Joel sneered and turned away.
“Well, I’d tell you to watch and see if you’re right, but I can’t. Because you’re being executed tomorrow.”
The sounds of the Count’s shouting grew distant until they vanished completely as Joel stepped out of the dungeon.
He came face-to-face with the Crown Prince, who had been anxiously waiting for him at the door.
“You’ve been through a lot. Well? Did you say everything you wanted to say to your father? You aren’t hurt anywhere, are you?”
The Crown Prince asked, checking Joel over.
His emerald eyes, resembling brilliant greenery, sparkled tenderly.
Joel felt a sudden surge of affection and burrowed into his embrace like a young puppy.
“What is it? Did… did something happen inside…?”
“No, nothing.”
The hand stroking his back was indescribably gentle.
The idea that the heart of a Prince who cherished him this much would change seemed impossible.
Joel smiled brightly and walked alongside him.
On Joel’s face, the shadows of the past could no longer be found.
It was the end of an ill-fated relationship that was both short and long.
