# Chapter 45
Without time to deeply consider what had happened, Levi headed to the adjacent room.
Though it was called the adjacent room, the distance between the doors was quite far. While this was inevitable given how spacious the rooms were, for Levi it only intensified his frustrating impatience.
As expected, the soldiers who had been guarding Raziel’s room were also lying dead.
Looking at the blood-soaked doorway, Levi reached out but hesitated momentarily.
“As long as you wish to die, I will not let you leave this room.”
Raziel had said that, yet Levi had ignored him and come outside. He wasn’t supposed to come out “as long as he wished to die.”
Opening this door would prove that he had disregarded Raziel’s words. Though this might seem trivial to some, to Levi, who had no one to depend on besides Raziel, it was absolutely crucial.
While he hesitated—
Bang—!
Another loud noise came from inside. Without further thought, Levi immediately flung the door open.
It was an extremely spacious room that would have resembled a vast hall if not for the numerous pieces of furniture and the bed. Though Levi’s room was certainly large, it was much smaller compared to this imperial bedroom used by the emperor.
“Ugh…”
A small groan was heard from somewhere in the vast room. Levi could instantly grasp the situation just by turning his head toward the sound.
Someone in black clothes had cornered Raziel against a wall and was holding a sharp dagger to his throat. Raziel, whose life was being threatened, had a slightly contorted expression, and bright red blood was streaming down from his right shoulder, staining his white nightclothes.
Seeing this, Levi immediately rushed at the assailant attacking Raziel. Before the dagger could cut Raziel’s throat, Levi forcefully pushed the attacker away and extended his right hand toward him. The movement was so quick that the assailant seemed about to be caught by the black hand.
Just before his fingertips touched the attacker, Levi suddenly trembled and stopped his motion.
“From now on, you don’t have to kill anyone.”
Raziel’s words echoed in his ears. The trembling that started at his fingertips spread throughout Levi’s entire body.
‘I…’
Levi just stared at the attacker with endlessly wavering eyes.
With the moonlight at his back, the attacker seemed to sneer slightly from within his black hood. Taking advantage of Levi’s hesitation, he instead grabbed Levi’s black hand firmly.
“No…!”
Levi, shocked by the thought that the attacker would collapse powerlessly and die, was surprised to see him standing perfectly fine, contrary to his expectation. Not only that, the attacker pulled him sharply and threw him to the floor.
“Ugh!”
Levi felt a dull impact on his back and the back of his head as they hit the floor. Usually, Levi would have prepared himself by using breakfall techniques or twisting his body, but he was so startled this time that he collapsed limply, manipulated by his opponent.
Even then, Levi looked up at the attacker who was pinning down his black hand with wide, shocked eyes. The attacker was covering the red mark with his bare palm, without wearing Etlun leather gloves or any other material that could block Levi’s ability.
Levi was too surprised by the attacker’s unaffected state to even think about pushing him away. When the attacker removed his hood, Levi’s eyes widened even more.
Though a black mask covered his face from the bridge of his nose to his chin, Levi could clearly recognize the attacker’s hair and eyes.
Brilliant golden hair, golden eyes.
He had heard that it was extremely rare for someone to have the same color for both hair and eyes. As one of those rare individuals himself, Levi naturally recalled the face of the person who possessed both golden features—the only golden-haired, golden-eyed man clearly remaining in his memory.
Moreover, someone immune to his ability.
That was rare beyond rare. The only people known to be unharmed by the black hand were Kalvern, Raziel, and the golden-haired, golden-eyed man. Levi had heard that Kalvern was killed by the Delos Empire, and Raziel was still in the same room.
So who was the remaining golden-haired, golden-eyed man?
As Levi’s confusion grew, he spotted the dagger from earlier. It was rising as if to stab straight into his neck, and he noticed a familiar pattern on it.
It was identical to the dagger that Kalvern had first given him as a gift, the same one he had dropped in Grand Duke Verdit’s bedroom during the assassination attempt.
Only then did Levi become certain of the attacker’s identity.
“Ion…?”
A faint name slipped through Levi’s lips. At this, the attacker flinched as if caught doing something wrong, then his eyes curved slightly as if smiling.
Suddenly, with gleaming eyes, the attacker brought down the dagger toward Levi’s throat.
“Levi!”
Raziel, who had been clutching his wounded shoulder, kicked off from his position toward Levi and the golden-haired attacker as Levi helplessly exposed his neck. Just before the attacker’s dagger could pierce Levi’s throat, Raziel inserted his black hand between them, narrowly blocking it.
“Ugh!”
As the dagger pierced his hand, Raziel grimaced in pain, then immediately pushed back against the blade. Meanwhile, Raziel’s red blood, flowing along the blade, dripped onto Levi’s face and neck.
The attacker, pushed back by Raziel’s strength, released the dagger. As a result, the sharp dagger remained deeply embedded in Raziel’s palm, nearly to the handle.
Raziel glared at the attacker while shielding Levi with his body. The tremendous killing intent from both Raziel and the attacker pressed heavily on the air in the bedroom.
The attacker moved first.
He gave one fierce look at Levi, who was sending questioning glances from behind Raziel’s back, then immediately ran toward the window. Though Raziel chased after him, the attacker leapt out of the window as if flying. Despite falling from a high floor, the attacker used a nearby straight tree to land flexibly and then disappeared into the darkness.
After glaring at where the attacker had vanished, Raziel turned and hurried to Levi.
“Levi, get a hold of yourself.”
Raziel comforted the dazed Levi, wiping his blood-stained face with his left hand, and forcibly turned Levi’s wavering eyes toward him.
As Raziel tried to raise his right hand to also cup Levi’s face, a faint groan escaped from him. Only after seeing his groan and the droplets of blood falling from the black hand before his eyes did Levi regain his senses.
“Raziel, you’re bleeding.”
As Levi was panicking, unsure what to do with the black hand that had a dagger embedded in it, Raziel suddenly pulled him into an embrace with his left arm.
“Why did you rush in when you could have gotten hurt?”
His voice was quite different from his usual cold, monotone.
“But…”
The sound had been loud enough to hear from Levi’s room. All the soldiers guarding outside the room were dead. How could anyone remain quietly in their room in such a situation?
“I’m fine even if I get hurt. I won’t die.”
“Whether you die or not, getting hurt is still painful.”
“It hurts, but I won’t die. I recover quickly even if I’m injured. So there’s no need to protect me.”
Raziel separated Levi from his embrace with a slightly angry expression.
“Unless you enjoy pain, don’t get hurt. Put your body first.”
“…?”
This was incomprehensible to Levi. No matter how severely he was injured, he would heal in a day or two, and even if it was painful, he only had to endure until the wound healed.
That’s why Kalvern had used him carelessly like a consumable item. His subordinates also treated him like a mere tool, and they considered it natural.
That’s why Raziel’s reaction was difficult to understand.
“I brought you here to protect you, not to use you as a weapon or shield.”
Protect? Me?
The more he heard, the less he understood, but his heart began to race violently. Feeling breathless, Levi unconsciously placed a hand near his heart.
“Why…?”
He had to ask. No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with an answer, so he had to ask.
Raziel gently wiped the blood from Levi’s face with his white sleeve, as if he didn’t care about soiling his nightclothes.
“How could I not protect my only brother whom I’ve finally met?”
His heart pounded strangely. The word “brother,” evidence of a connection to someone, confused Levi. For Levi, who had always been manipulated and used as a tool by others, the meaning of Raziel’s words and actions was not insignificant at all.
Whether aware of Levi’s feelings or not, Raziel turned his head toward the window. The window through which the attacker had escaped was wide open, allowing the cold outside air to flow in.
“You seemed to call out a name earlier.”
Levi, who had been absorbed in contemplating Raziel’s words, felt his mind go blank upon hearing this.
“Do you have someone in mind?”
Levi was too preoccupied with lowering his confused eyes to notice, but Raziel’s eyes, unlike moments before, were cold and sharp as they gazed at him.
