To My First Love, With Regret (Libenia) – Chapter 42

Author: Piki

“Don’t let him die.”

Mikey rolled the unconscious duke onto his stomach so blood wouldn’t block his airways and shoved torn cloth into his mouth to stop the bleeding. Meanwhile, Ethan silently stared at the piece of flesh in his hand—then dropped it to the floor.

A black boot stomped and crushed the red tongue. Only then did Ethan exhale a long breath, as if finally relieved, and pat his subordinate on the shoulder.

“Let’s go.”

The moment Mikey hoisted the duke over his shoulder like a piece of game, the damned old man clinging to life regained consciousness and groaned. Ethan showed kindness to the man who would be his companion for the next few days.

“Duke, we’re going to spend quite a lot of time alone together. If you entertain me, I’ll tell you something you’ll definitely want to hear before you die.”

He took a drag from a fresh cigarette before revealing what kind of gift it was.

“About your son’s final moments. A story only I can tell.”

While they brazenly kidnapped the patient, there wasn’t a single rat in the corridor—and no one dared to peek out.

The nurse on duty alone at the station pretended not to see them, as if they were ghosts. Of course, she also testified to the police that the patient had vanished without a trace.

Thus, the Duke of Kentrell disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a crushed tongue.

Two weeks later, Eve was delivered a skeleton wrapped in a foul fish wrapper. She knew they were her father’s remains because they’d also sent a finger with bits of flesh still attached in a jar of formaldehyde.

Eve wanted to send a thank-you note for such kindness, but unfortunately, there was no return address.

Thus, the sixteenth Duke of Kentrell, Henry Sherwood, died. His successor, the seventeenth Duke of Kentrell, became Anthony Sherwood. By law, his son—but in reality, the seed of the filthy devils he had hated and despised until his final breath.

For Ethan Fairchild, who didn’t know this fact, the duke’s death wasn’t the end. It was only the beginning of the revenge on which he had staked everything.

A luxury sedan, polished to a gleam, stopped before the old castle church where a holy wedding ceremony was to take place. Ethan, watching the groom step out from the back seat from a distance, crushed his cigarette between his teeth.

That sick, perverted bastard actually went through with it.

He smirked at his own thoughts and ground the half-smoked cigarette under his heel.

We’re not even lovers anymore—so why should I care if she’s with that perverted bastard or not?

He only sighed when Mikey held a light to a fresh cigarette, exhaling with the smoke. Distractedly staring through the haze at the groom surrounded by guests receiving congratulations, he asked his subordinate:

“Is there a word that means ‘uninvited guest who came not to celebrate’?”

“Boss, if you don’t know, how would I know?”

“Because I’m the one who got into university through the back door.”

At this self-deprecating remark, Mikey couldn’t find anything to say and just mumbled. “Kingsbridge” was one of those triggers that drove the prince of the criminal underworld into a rage—and it was best avoided. Fortunately, this time the young boss changed the subject himself.

“What about a word meaning ‘husband who came to watch his wife marry another bastard’?”

Cuckold?

Mikey had no desire to attend Christmas dinner as a skeleton, so he wisely kept his mouth shut.

Is he planning to hit every trigger there is today?

The young boss would be playing on these triggers like drums for a while—and to avoid getting hit by a stray bullet, one had to be extremely careful.

“I never went to university, so I wouldn’t know.”

“As if I, of all people, hire gangsters based on their diplomas.”

“I would have liked to go to university. But they didn’t have a smuggling economics department or alley diplomacy major, so I didn’t bother.”

“Ha… Mikey, how am I supposed to live without you?”

Ethan laughed and looked away from the crowd. Turning, he saw the endless green fields of early summer spread out at his feet.

“White Cliff Hall.”

The mansion that lorded over the entire field hadn’t decayed at all—even after standing on the cliff for over a decade, battered by winds. But he had decayed.

“Bountiful Eden. Built on the corpses of the defenseless.”

Ethan found his past self laughable. Believing this was paradise that no one dared encroach upon.

Paradise? Devil’s lair.

No one dared encroach? He had spent ten years slowly eroding the roots of the Kentrell dukes. The fact that the Sherwoods hadn’t collapsed yet was solely due to the she-devil guardian of this family—who turned out to be remarkably tenacious.

But that woman wasn’t an obstacle to his grand plan—she was an indispensable tool. Remove the true obstacle—the young duke—and the Kentrell family would be his.

Ethan’s gaze shifted to the white lighthouse at the edge of the cliff, connected to the mansion by a winding road. He thought the sea breeze carried to him his grandfather’s voice—the voice he missed so much.

“If you only look at the summit, you’ll never reach it. You’ll be overwhelmed by the goal and give up on yourself.”

Yes, the Captain was right. Not rushing, step by step. He had walked, crushing enemies one by one—and now the summit was right before him.

The final chapter of my revenge begins.

When the black sedan—undoubtedly carrying the bride—drove out of the mansion and headed toward the castle, Ethan tightened the knot of his loosened black tie.

Time to trample the devil’s paradise.

And first, he would turn this holy wedding into a vulgar nightmare.

Eve’s sister taught Tony. She said that by tradition, a male family member takes the bride by the hand, leads her to the altar, and hands her over to the groom.

After explaining this, she asked:

“Tony, can you do that?”

Of course he could. He had turned nine last month.

But he didn’t want to.

Even though his sister said she would still live here after the wedding, he still didn’t like it. He didn’t know why himself.

If I’m not there, they can’t get married, right?

An hour before the wedding, Tony hid in Mother’s bedroom. Because Mother was always on Tony’s side—even when his sister scolded him—and his sister, who didn’t get along with Mother, would never come in here.

Mother wasn’t in the bedroom. Here’s my chance. Tony snuck into the walk-in closet, opened the wardrobe, and started fighting the ugly monster dresses with a clothes hanger.

Bang! Bang-bang!

He fought so hard he got out of breath. Dropping the hanger, he sat on the carpet. Breathing heavily, he saw himself in the mirror. His pale hair—which Mother had forcibly styled with pomade, making him look like that stupid doctor he couldn’t stand—was now sticking out in all directions.

Much better. He ruffled it even more with his hands. At that moment, the door to the bedroom opened quietly from outside and closed with a dull thud. Then came whispers.

Is Mother here?

Tony peeked out of the closet. And immediately froze. Because Mother… was kissing Dr. Callas—Tony’s doctor.

“Mmm… uhn…”

Mother is kissing another man—not Father. But adults say only people who love each other kiss.

You said you loved Father…?

Maybe—since he was dead—she could love someone else now.

But didn’t Dr. Callas love Eve? That’s why he was marrying her today.

But Dr. Callas hadn’t knelt before his bride, Eve—he had knelt before the woman who was supposed to become his mother-in-law and started kissing the ring on her finger. The same wedding ring she had never taken off, even after her father died.

“Swear that bitch won’t seduce you.”

“Chantal, my only wife is you.”

Eve’s groom was deceiving Eve.

With her mother.

Tony suddenly hated Mother. He’d never liked his sister’s fiancé anyway—but now he felt sick at the sight of him.

So, quite unexpectedly, he gained a reason to hate his sister’s wedding.

Maids bustled around the bride seated before her vanity, attending to her adornment. But the bride herself—on the most important day of her life—was, as usual, listening to the butler’s report on the estate’s affairs.

“I’ve prepared the list of tenants received so far from the military.”

The whole house was in turmoil not only because of the wedding.

Eve’s homeland, Mercia, was constantly either at war or in a ceasefire with its neighbor, Conschtantz.

When Tony was born, there had also been a war—which had lasted four years and ended in a ceasefire only about five years ago.

She wanted to believe this peace would last long, but earlier last year, her old friend—Crown Princess Helena—had been killed by rebels linked to Conschtantz, and the fragile, ice-like ceasefire had collapsed.

When Eve became a woman who had lost her honor due to kidnapping and imprisonment by the man who killed her brother, Helena had cut all ties with her. So she couldn’t call her a friend anymore—but as one woman to another, she pitied her.

The life of a woman born into a ruling family begins as a tool—and ends as a tool.

Every time the men started complaining that they were just studs for continuing the bloodline, Eve could barely suppress a sneer.

Does a man give birth to a child?

It’s women who continue the bloodline—by bearing the heir.

The only thing they produce is excrement. Useless good-for-nothings with nothing but long tongues.