Time of the Blind Beast - Chapter 65

He’s returned.

Only now did it become clear why the door had been left open. The servants, stunned by the sight of Ezekiel returning in one piece, must have forgotten to lock it.

His heart plummeted.

He had expected they would meet eventually, but never imagined he would walk through the door so boldly like that.

Sweat pooled in the hand holding the rifle.

What should I do—should I shoot him here?

Can I hit him in one shot from this distance?

If I fail to disable him instantly, then it’ll certainly be my turn next.

The moment Akenaus imagined Ezekiel returning fire with a rifle, he shuddered with dread. He didn’t want to hesitate, and yet he kept hesitating. There was no guarantee he’d succeed on the first try, but Ezekiel surely would. Wherever he aimed, it was certain he would pierce through with a single bullet.

He shouldn’t have come in alone. He should’ve brought the security unit. Then they could’ve overwhelmed him with sheer numbers.

Father, could Father be home?

Akenaus hurriedly scanned the mansion. No matter how deep his grudge ran, as long as their father was under the same roof, Ezekiel wouldn’t dare point a gun at his older brother.

No, for now, getting out of the mansion came first. Since he had returned secretly, it was safest to quietly slip out through the garden and plan the next move.

But by the time he thought of a way, it was already too late.

Ezekiel turned toward him, with a composed look as if he’d known all along that Akenaus was hiding there.

It was a strange intuition. Even at a distance where facial features were hardly visible, Akenaus instinctively felt that Ezekiel’s deep blue irises were staring directly at him.

His mind went blank.

Though his thoughts stopped completely, his hand moved of its own accord.

Akenaus raised the rifle and pulled the trigger. He couldn’t even remember if he had aimed properly.

Bang!

A deafening blast exploded in his ears.

Cracks split across the landscape of the world.

Then, shards of glass, dulled and clouded, filled his vision as they came crashing down. The enormous windows, built wide for garden viewing, shattered and sent powerful tremors through the house, causing the mansion’s prized beautiful windows to fall one by one in fragments.

The roar that overwhelmed his hearing was, strangely, akin to dead silence. Akenaus had never realized that before.

For a moment, time seemed to stop.

He stared blankly, unable to comprehend what he had just witnessed.

“I’m not even surprised anymore.”

Suddenly, heavy footsteps rang out. At the sound of a voice steeped in weight, Akenaus flinched and looked up.

“Every time I come home, the welcome is always like this.”

Ezekiel had already approached, looking down at him with a face devoid of emotion.

The shot Akenaus fired shattered the glass but caused no casualties. With a trembling barrel, it was an expected outcome. A gun with a clear target never shakes. Judging by his aim, Akenaus never had a chance of hitting him.

“…How are you even here when I’m standing right here!”

This was the best he could do—pathetic flailing.

“Why wouldn’t I be here just because you are?”

Ezekiel sneered.

“I’m returning to my own home. What, am I supposed to sneak in like a thief?”

It hadn’t been difficult to catch word of Akenaus once he stepped foot in Claris. Wasn’t he hiding out under the protection of a bodyguard unit and mooching off his mistresses? It was painfully obvious what he was running from—so much so that Ezekiel didn’t even bother to laugh.

If that’s how the older brother behaved, then as the younger, he had no intention of betraying expectations.

Ezekiel gave a slight nod of his chin. “You must’ve thought I’d use cowardly tricks like hiding behind others, but you’re dead wrong. I came here today to settle this. No 37th Regiment, no bodyguards—let’s not dirty this family feud with outsiders. You and I will end this here in a duel.”

“…What?”

“If you’re holding a rifle, hold it properly.”

Ezekiel adjusted the rifle Akenaus was holding haphazardly.

“You’ve got bullets and powder, don’t you? Load it.”

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. Shoot.”

A clear conclusion.

“If you can kill me, then go ahead and do it.”

At Ezekiel’s calm tone, Akenaus shot him a look of disbelief.

“Shoot you?”

“Yeah, because I’m going to shoot you.”

In a flash, Ezekiel lowered the rifle slung over his shoulder, loaded it in the blink of an eye, and aimed it at Akenaus.

“W-wait! My gun isn’t even loaded yet…”

“That’s why I’m waiting.”

Under Ezekiel’s cold gaze, which allowed no excuses, Akenaus measured the bullets and powder with trembling hands. Still, he kept his mouth running nonstop.

“A soldier challenging a civilian to a duel—do you think this is just?”

“If there’s a weapon you prefer, I’ll accommodate.”

That made even less sense. Akenaus gritted his teeth and retorted, “If you shoot and kill me, do you think Father will forgive you?”

“That’s not my concern,” Ezekiel replied flatly. “Even this time, Father won’t have a choice.”

Just as he had once cast away his blind son, the Valdemaira family would have no choice between a disabled or dead child.

“I’m not a soldier trained with rifles like you.”

“You talk too much—”

Bang!

Akenaus abruptly pulled the trigger, cutting off Ezekiel mid-sentence. Though meant as a decisive blow, Ezekiel, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the muzzle, kicked Akenaus’s wrist the moment his finger moved toward the trigger.

“Agh!”

The rifle flew from his grasp, and the bullet shot off in a completely wrong direction.

It had been his first and last chance. Now unarmed, there was no way to counterattack.

It was a duel that never should have existed.

If it had been a fight to be won fairly with strength, he wouldn’t have blackmailed that woman into handing over poison.

Akenaus hurriedly scanned for an escape route. But there was no guarantee he could flee without being shot.

He lacked the strength to win, the nerve to seize the weapon, and the confidence to escape safely. The only one who held the authority to stop the duel—his father—was absent, and the servants were too intimidated by Ezekiel’s presence to intervene.

Slowly, Akenaus raised both hands. “If you’re demanding surrender… I yield. I admit it. So, please…”

It was an apology not worth hearing. Ezekiel ignored it and spoke, “The doctor who treated my eyes told me—if the poison had gone into my mouth instead of my eyes, I’d be dead.”

“Ezekiel, I was wrong—”

“I kept thinking it over. What should I do once I catch you and that woman?”

“Spare me—”

“You both need to experience what I went through. Don’t you think?”

Ezekiel lifted the rifle, clicked it into position, and aimed. As his hands lined up perfectly with Akenaus’s face, the latter screamed.

“But you came back fine!”

“I came back fine… Hah, is that how it looks from the outside?”

Came back fine.

As if that excused everything.

He had lost his sight without knowing why, suffered through agonizing pain even from the faintest light, and was eventually rescued by his subordinates. Unable to accept reality, he had turned to the hallucinations of opium, escaping only thanks to Rose’s blood and sweat.

Only after enduring endless treatments and surgeries had he returned home.

It took an entire year.

And in that year, the only good thing was meeting Rose and sharing those seasonal memories with her.

And now even Rose was gone. He had no idea where to find her.

“There’s exactly one thing I’m grateful to you for. Losing my sight and being driven to the North—that’s how I met her.”

As soon as he finished, the muzzle flashed.

“Gaaah!”

For a moment, Akenaus didn’t comprehend what had happened. His face, his head burned. It felt like being set on fire, or struck by lightning. His right eye throbbed unbearably, as if he’d been punched by a giant’s full strength.

“A-a-a-aagh!”

Groaning in shock, Akenaus groped at his face. Something felt off. Half of his face was hot and slippery.

He slowly pulled his hand back. His heartbeat quickened ominously. And when he saw the red blood soaking his palm, he screamed. Only then did he realize his field of vision had narrowed.

“My eye… My eye, you bastard, my eye!”

“A year of blindness.”

“What?”

“Run off to some remote place like I did, or rely on your countless mistresses—endure it for just one year. After that, I’ll end it.”

Taking a life instantly is too easy. After a moment of pain, eternal rest follows.

Ezekiel didn’t want that. There are regrets one can only understand through lived experience. He would make him repeat countless despairs, forcing him to see the depths to which a man can fall.

Click. The muzzle aimed again—this time at the left eye.

Akenaus screamed, “You call this not being a coward? You holed up in Derosa and conspired with Father!”