Only once his vision had cleared did Yihyeon realize who the man was.
Edwin…… Winter.
It had to be. Blurred as his vision was, the fact that he was the Edwin Winter Yihyeon had seen in the photograph inside Yuan’s pendant remained unchanged.
Why…….
Yihyeon fought through the searing pain and tried to make sense of the situation. The fact that he was still breathing in this state might have been close to a miracle in itself.
Yihyeon thought back to the demon realm, which had been nothing like this place. The punches he had swung with every last drop of strength he had. The spearhead that had driven down, destroying everything around it. His body had creaked under the strain as he wrung out power beyond his limits, without a single thought for his own survival. He had assumed that even if he made it back alive, his body would not be in one piece.
But he hadn’t anticipated this.
Had the flow of dimensions been warped as the Gate dissolved?
No — right now, whatever the reason, it didn’t matter.
Yihyeon forced his mouth open, desperate to convey something — anything — to the man before him.
“I, am…….”
But what poured out next was not words. It was blood. Yihyeon coughed up blood that rose from somewhere deep in his throat, entirely beyond his control. Even breathing was barely manageable, and for a time he had no choice but to let the blood come and try to steady himself.
About Yuan…… I have to tell him.
As the one who had been at his side at the end, he had to tell Edwin — his family — about Yuan. About having met him. About holding out together until the very last moment. About how, in the end, Yihyeon had survived alone without being able to save him.
Tormented by a pain worse than anything physical, Yihyeon tried somehow to open his mouth. He had just barely managed to expel the clot of blood blocking his throat and was on the verge of parting his lips when the man who had been standing there like stone came forward and lowered himself onto one knee before him. Those cool blue eyes swept over Yihyeon’s blood-soaked state before meeting his gaze. Eyes deeper and colder than the photograph in the pendant simply watched Yihyeon in quiet stillness.
Eyes that looked like a raging sea — or a frozen, silent winter sea — flickered faintly for just an instant.
“Pathetic. So this is the result of all that willfulness.”
That was all. He did not wait for Yihyeon’s mouth to open. The words he spoke as he rose to his feet were:
“Restrain this criminal and prepare to escort them to the capital.”
It was something Yihyeon had not anticipated at all.
What?
“They defied an imperial order. They must confess their crimes before the Empire’s Sun.”
Yihyeon’s body was forcibly hauled upright by those around him. His limp, powerless frame was lifted like a doll in their hands and left to hang there.
Yihyeon couldn’t make sense of this situation at all. It seemed clear that Edwin was mistaking him for Yuan — but there was no way to understand why he was treating Yuan as a criminal.
“Wait, I am…….”
Yihyeon pushed back as weakly as he could manage and spoke to him.
“My, story, first, cough——!”
Being misidentified, in itself, was something he supposed couldn’t be helped. Every aspect of Yihyeon and Yuan was identical, as though copied — everything except the way they carried themselves. Now, with blood-soaked clothing reduced to rags, it might have been close to impossible to tell them apart at all.
On top of that, there was a strong chance these people didn’t even know that parallel worlds or other dimensions existed. Without explaining what had happened in the Gate, it would be difficult to clear up even the misidentification — the notion that he wasn’t Yuan.
No — he didn’t even know if they would believe him.
In that moment, Yihyeon could not hold back the rush of emotion that surged up and shook off the hands restraining him. He poured out every last drop of strength remaining in him and moved toward Edwin, who had begun to walk away.
Is this really how someone treats a spouse?
Even if Yuan had committed wrongdoing, as Edwin claimed — Edwin Winter, of all people, should have checked on Yuan’s wellbeing before passing judgment. That was, at the very least, the bare minimum of consideration owed as a spouse. But the retreating back of the man who had turned away was cruelly indifferent.
At that cruel indifference, Yihyeon felt a chill as though his blood had run cold — and fury — both at once. Had all the years Yuan had endured come to this? Only to be treated this way?
“Edwin Winter!”
Yihyeon called his name sharply and reached out for his coat. The moment he grabbed hold of the fabric, Edwin stopped walking and turned to look at him. Blue eyes, met at close range, held a faint but widened quality as they took Yihyeon in. As though startled, his large frame went rigid at the single touch of Yihyeon’s hand.
But then Edwin coldly shook off Yihyeon’s hand. The bloodstained hem of his coat fluttered briefly before going still, and he removed the coat without a moment’s hesitation. This was harsh terrain where bitter cold cut through skin and bone.
Edwin handed the removed coat to a subordinate and approached Yihyeon. A large hand came up toward Yihyeon’s face and briefly grazed his cheek. Where that hand was headed was Yihyeon’s forehead.
“Yuan.”
Edwin faced Yihyeon with eyes that held not a single trace of warmth. The only emotion legible beyond those deep blue irises was one thing — disillusionment.
“I hope you will stop conducting yourself so crassly. If you shame me any further, I will withdraw what little feeling I have left for you entirely.”
Tap — his fingertip came to rest against Yihyeon’s forehead. In that instant, Yihyeon felt a helplessness as though every muscle and nerve in his body had lost its function, and he crumpled without resistance. It felt as though every sensation in his body had been severed from him — as if none of it were his own — to the point where he couldn’t even feel pain.
People who rushed to him after caught and pulled him upright. Yihyeon hung limp, unable to move so much as a finger, like someone hauled out of water.
This was not solely due to what his body was going through. Right now, he had almost nothing left in the way of the will to resist.
“……Take him and have him treated.”
Edwin looked Yihyeon over briefly, then turned away once more and began to leave. Yihyeon watched that retreating back with vacant eyes, restrained as he was.
Over that retreating figure, Yuan’s final moments rose like a double exposure in his mind.
Along with the words Yuan had left behind.
Along with that sorrowful confession — that he could never be forgiven.
“Is it all right to leave Yuan as he is?”
At the words of his retainer Hakin, Edwin’s brow furrowed. Edwin’s gaze settled briefly on the coat Hakin had collected. A vivid bloodstain against the white fabric.
Yuan’s condition was clearly serious. His entire body was covered in blood, and he had been coughing it up right after emerging from the rift.
But that was not reason enough to spend precious time remaining at Yuan’s side.
“I told them to treat him. What more is there to do beyond that?”
Hakin had trained at Edwin’s side from the time Edwin had awakened his powers as a boy, following his father who had served as a knight of the Winter family. As they trained and grew, the two had spent a considerable stretch of time together. As a result, Hakin had come to hold a position as one of the most capable knights in the Winter family — and as the retainer Edwin trusted most deeply.
He had witnessed alongside Edwin every last thing — the unjust marriage Edwin had endured, and all the harm Yuan had caused after becoming the consort of the ducal manor.
Turning coldly away from an injured spouse in front of him was an inhumane way to behave as a nobleman — but even this was something closer to leniency on Edwin’s part.
Simply grabbing hold of his coat had been enough to push his temper past the point of control. The feeling of something filthy having touched him had driven him to remove his coat even in this bitterly cold, harsh terrain. Everything Yuan had left him with was a curse and a wound.
By now, even breathing the same air in the same space was a burden.
“Hakin. You understand the gravity of what has happened this time.”
With everything Yuan had done up to this point alone, Edwin was no longer in a position to extend further leniency. There was no shortage of people who had been harmed by someone blinded by their own self-interest.
His retainers — and going further, Million as well — were among his victims. And that wasn’t all. Yuan’s reach had extended into political circles too. It would have been better if it had stayed to business contacts. Whenever someone was met in a private capacity, he would move behind the scenes and inflict enormous damage on the families of those who had gotten close.
Naturally, the Winter family had been sidelined from political circles. Now, unless they were long-standing acquaintances, most noble families would not go anywhere near Edwin.
In a mere three years, Yuan had broken the Winter family from within and without. And now, he had gone and meddled without permission in the Winter family’s longstanding duty — suppressing rifts.
Keeping watch over the great rift in the west and suppressing rifts was the Winter family’s longstanding duty — and the very thing that sustained the family’s continued standing.
Yuan knew this as well, which was why — even when he expressed dissatisfaction — he had never actually obstructed Edwin’s campaigns. At least, that had been the case for the past three years.
But in the end, he had stretched his hand to the duty itself. That move had been more than enough to sever Edwin’s last thread of patience.
Hakin was certainly not unaware of this. But Hakin opened his mouth with a troubled expression.
“Of course I understand…… but Yuan resolved the rift alone. It was a rift whose estimated danger level was unmeasurable — one projected to cause considerable damage. Yuan’s acting unilaterally is indeed a problem, but the fact that he resolved the rift deserves recognition.”
Edwin’s brow furrowed for a moment. Hakin’s point was not without merit. As he said, the danger level of the rift Yuan had suppressed was unmeasurable.
