How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love Chapter 292

“W-Why….”

 

When Karl turned around at the sound of someone falling, he saw Tommy lying on the floor, writhing.

 

Even the faint twitching subsided in an instant. He didn’t need to check to know— Tommy was dead.

 

The room fell silent. In the face of a life snuffed out in an instant, eyes filled with tension, fear, and shock all turned to Pan, as if by some unspoken agreement.

 

Gently stroking the head of the tentacle that had returned after carrying out his order, Pan murmured quietly—words that the dead man could no longer hear—answering the question Tommy had posed.

 

“Because… he was trying to kill her.”

 

No one wondered who “her” was.

 

“Your Majesty, it’s too dangerous! You must evacuate from here immediately!”

 

The imperial knights surrounded the emperor tightly to protect him from the giant wyvern that could kill a man in the blink of an eye.

 

Meanwhile, the emperor was losing his mind and shouting at the top of his lungs, demanding that the Marquise of Calvin be put down immediately.

 

In that situation, Karl was blankly looking down at the dead Tommy as if he were alone.

 

“Okay…. well, Tommy used to bully you a lot. I guess you wanted revenge or something.”

 

He was a little shaken, but that was all. He neither raged at Tommy’s death nor questioned why Pan had killed him.

 

The reason was simple—Karl had far more important things to deal with.

 

“If you’re done venting, then untie this. And hand over the bloodstone you’ve got.”

 

“I’m not done venting.”

 

“Hey, don’t joke around.”

 

Only then did the blade stand out in the sight of Karl.

 

He was still helpless, his hands and feet tied and the collar around his neck unremoved, and Pan was using a giant wyvern that was destroying buildings and killing people as if it were his own limbs.

 

Even so, Karl’s eyes did not waver as he glared at Pan.

 

“I’ll let it go just this once. Come here right now and untie this while I’m talking nicely to you.”

 

“You… you don’t even remember what you did to me, do you?”

 

“Oh, that’s real…”

 

Karl was suddenly furious at the thought of all that useless talk.

 

‘Resentment? Okay, that’s it. But there’s a time and place for them.’

 

All he had to do was break his restraints and kill the Emperor over there, and everything would be over!

 

“Did you really resent me for making your face like that? Then why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

 

“M–My face… I don’t care about that.”

 

He meant it.

 

To be honest, there were times when he was actually grateful.

 

Because of the fire Karl set to the orphanage Pan lived in, Pan was badly injured—and Asta had come to the tower to treat him.

 

Thanks to that, Pan was able to stay with Asta. Until Asta, pregnant with Pel’s child, left the tower to protect the child.

 

“I’m sorry I left you here alone, but if you come with me, you’ll be in danger too.”

 

At first, he resented her for leaving him behind. Why didn’t she take him with her?

 

But at some point, he started to blame himself.

 

If it weren’t for him, his sister wouldn’t have come to the tower. Then she wouldn’t have died.

 

Eventually, Pan began to have nightmares—nightmares of Asta dying while blaming him.

 

‘You killed me. It’s all your fault!’ 

 

‘I should have left you to burn to death in that orphanage!’ 

 

Pan suffered from that nightmare for a very long time, until recently.

 

But now he doesn’t have nightmares anymore.

 

He had decided to think like Karl or Tommy would.

 

It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t because of me.

 

“It’s… all your fault. If it weren’t for you…”

 

—Groaaar!

 

At Pan’s gesture, the giant wyvern opened its neck and let out a loud roar.

 

The oppressive force carried on the air was enough to make hair stand on end.

 

All the tentacles, except the one holding Marquise Calvin, raised their heads toward Karl as if ready to strike.

 

Only then did Karl, who felt a sense of crisis in that situation, unconsciously take a step back.

 

“You… you’re not serious, are you?”

 

“Everyone! Form up!”

 

The wyvern might be targeting Karl now, but no one knew when it would change its target.

 

The Imperial knights tried to shield the Emperor and help the emperor escape.

 

But instead of appreciating their devotion, the Emperor shouted:

 

“Forget me—save Marquise Calvin! Hurry!”

 

“I’ll take responsibility! Take His Majesty to safety! Quickly!”

 

“You dare disobey my orders! You are all to be put to death!”

 

Even though he had lost his mind, the emperor had knights to protect him, but Karl had no one.

 

Even the shackles could not be removed, so Karl was left helpless before the sharp fangs of the giant wyvern.

 

“Y-You. Think carefully. If you kill me here, how do you think you’ll be safe?”

 

“My… my goal from the start was to kill you.”

 

“I’m the tower’s successor! If you kill me, the Master won’t forgive you!”

 

“The… the Master is also one of my targets.”

 

“What…?”

 

Karl’s eyes widened in disbelief.

 

It was equally unbelievable that Pan had betrayed him, but upon reflection, it wasn’t entirely impossible. After all, he had done things to deserve it.

 

But the Master? Why? Pan had always been so loyal.

 

‘No…no….’

 

The person Pan respected most in the tower…

 

“Don’t tell me… ‘she’ is—!”

 

“I’ll kill you… and then bring down the tower.”

 

The hand holding the bloodstone rose high.

 

Before the wyvern even received the command, its eyes glimmered with killing intent.

 

“The tower that killed Sister Asta…”

 

It deserved to be destroyed.

 

With that whisper, Pan’s hand swung down— the snake-like head and countless tentacles lunged toward Karl, mouth wide. He squeezed his eyes shut.

 

But at that moment.

 

—Crash!

 

The bloodstone in Pan’s hand shattered halfway through the motion.

 

No, it wasn’t just what he was holding in his hand.

 

Even the bloodstones he had kept in his bag, which he used to give orders to other monsters, were shattered and spread out as red fog.

 

“What….?”

 

—Groaaaar!

 

Amidst the red fog, a giant wyvern let out a scream-like roar.

 

Every time the giant wyvern writhed, buildings and the ground would shatter and collapse with a loud bang, a crack, a creak.

 

“Run away!”

 

“The monster is going berserk!”

 

Dozens of magic stones embedded in the giant wyvern’s back flashed and emitted light beyond the red fog.

Typical symptoms of monster berserk.

 

—Groaaaar!

 

“Ahhhh!”

 

As the wyvern finally spread its massive wings and took to the sky, two figures fell from beneath it—

 

One was Marquis Calvin, who’d been bound by the tentacle.

 

The other was—

 

‘So this is how I die?’

 

As Pan plummeted from high above, he saw the rubble of the building the wyvern had destroyed.

 

‘If I hit that, I’ll die.’

 

But even with that thought, death didn’t scare him.

 

If anything, he felt almost relieved.

 

‘Sister Asta….’

 

Pan closed his eyes, clutching the pendant he had placed in his pocket tightly in his hand.

 

A terrifyingly peaceful smile spread across his lips.

 

* * *

 

Kana came to her senses right after she was transformed into a doll.

 

‘What? Why isn’t my body moving? I can’t make a sound either!’

 

The only good thing was that her eyesight and hearing were still awake.

 

No, she didn’t know if that was really a good thing.

 

“Oh my, the magic bounced off Kana?… It’s better this way. I was wondering what to do with that kid.”

 

Their eyes met—she was certain of it.

 

But unlike usual, Ran’s gaze towards Kana was cold.

 

“She’s just a child. What could she possibly have done wrong…?”

 

“Do you feel guilty when you are swatting a mosquito or a fly buzzing in your ear? No, right?”

 

Kana heard every word Ran said, but she couldn’t understand the meaning.

 

No—that wasn’t true. Just like when Raenel and Leonhard had told her the truth, she was trying not to understand.

 

‘Ran, it’s me, Kana! Save me!’

 

In Raenel’s arms, Kana looked at Ran and shouted earnestly.

 

But Kana’s voice did not reach Ran, and at some point her vision began to spin around.

 

‘Ugh, I feel dizzy.’

 

She didn’t know what on earth had happened, but the surrounding scenery had suddenly turned into mountains.

 

It was a place Kana knew—the mountain outside the tower.

 

Sometimes, though only occasionally, she would come here on picnics with her dad, Ran, or Pan.

 

But even though the mountain was vast, the area Kana was allowed to roam was limited.

 

“There are a lot of really, really scary monsters here. You don’t want to get hurt, do you? You must never go outside the fence.”

 

No matter how wide it was, a room was still a room.

 

If she was going to run around, Kana wanted it to be under an open blue sky, on soft earth covered in green grass, with the scent of flowers and trees filling the air.

 

But the freedom given to her was far too limited. So whenever she returned to the tower after a short picnic, she would always dream—

 

‘Someday I’ll sneak over that fence. I’m going to explore this whole mountain!’

 

But this wasn’t how she wanted to cross that fence, nor how she wanted to see the parts of the mountain she’d never been to before.

 

Unable to move even a finger, carried in Ran’s hand in the form of a doll, Kana sobbed and wailed.

 

‘Please stop, return Kana to her original form.’

 

But the words that came out of Ran’s mouth were completely different from what Kana had expected.

 

* * *