I should have been in bed, finishing up my treatment and basking in the glory of victory. But, instead, I found myself standing before the wide-open door of Emil’s room in the infirmary. There, sitting up in bed and covered in bandages, was the arrogant prince I had just defeated. Though, he didn’t look very prideful now. His expression was wistful, and his eyes were far gone.

That face makes for one hell of a before and after.

I braced myself and stepped towards the room. There was something on my mind that desperately needed to come out—and I needed it out immediately.

“Hey, you can’t go in there,” one of the prince’s guards barked. He held out his arm, blocking the entrance to the room.

Emil slowly glanced over, a flicker of curiosity in his empty eyes visible for a moment as they met mine. Vacant blue pools quickly overtook that glimmer of interest as he looked away. “Let him through,” he mumbled.

The guard relaxed and stood aside, allowing me into the room.

“Shut the door,” Emil ordered his men. They obliged.

I pulled an empty chair up from the corner and sat beside my injured foe.

“Are you here to embarrass me further?” Emil hissed, wasting no time cutting through the tense silence.

“No.”

“Then get to whatever it is you’re here for and get the hell out. I’m sick of you.”

I growled. “I’m pretty sure I just kicked your ass. You don’t get to act tough or give me orders. Just sit there, shut up, and listen.”

He glared at me, but, to my surprise, obeyed without protest.

“Look, I keep thinking about the things I said out there. About your mother, I mean.”

Emil ground his perfect teeth so hard I felt a phantom pain in my own mouth. “I don’t need or want your pity.”

“I don’t pity you. You’re an awful person and the spirit of karma told me to tell you that you had that beating coming for a long time.”

“Oh, is that right? Then what is there to say?”

My eyes hyper focused on a random spot on the wall. I needed some kind of anchor as I searched for both the right words and the patience to deal with the insufferable royal.

“When the fight was over, I started to wonder if I should feel bad for the way I taunted you. But no matter how much I think about it, I can’t say I regret what I did. I did what I needed to do to win. And you know what? It felt good, too.”

Emil huffed and tapped his thigh impatiently. An insincere smirk bent his lips at the corner, damming up his obvious desire to retort. Nonetheless, he shook his head but remained silent as I continued.

“But despite that, I keep getting this nagging feeling somewhere between guilt and frustration. Now that I’m sitting here, I think I know who to blame for all this inner turmoil.” I shifted my gaze back at the prince and he met my eyes dead on. “My parents.”

Emil looked hopelessly confused. “Huh?”

“My parents drive me insane. I wouldn’t be in this situation right now if it wasn’t for my dad’s insipid forgetfulness. And my mom, well, she won’t ever let me hear the end of it unless I do the best I can. She threatened to beat me with a shoe if I didn’t defeat you, actually.”

“Make your point, Watanabe. I care nothing for your ridiculous familial tales.”

“The point is that I couldn’t care less about you, LeClair. But I’ve been taught to do the right thing, whether I want to or not. I didn’t care for Cynthia, either. Yet, I pulled her out of that burning car like an idiot and wrecked my whole life in doing so. All because I haven’t shaken my parents’ programming quite yet. Yeah, that has to be it. And if that’s how I’ve been programmed, the sad wretch sitting in front of me must have been programmed even worse.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Speak plainly or end this torture you’re inflicting upon my ears, Watanabe.”

I groaned. “I’m saying that you’re an asshole, LeClair. But if you’re going to be an asshole, you should be one because that’s what you want to be, not because your mother made you this way.”

An unreadable expression presented itself on Emil’s face.

“As much as I can’t stand you, I’ll say that no one should have to deal with what you endured. You seem like a leader, not a follower. So, letting your life be dictated by your horrible mother seems like a waste to me.”

The prince looked a bit surprised. His blue eyes widened before shutting tight, and he chuckled in cynical fashion. “You ruin my life and then turn around and try to give me some kind of arrogant pep talk? I don’t get you.”

“Ruined your life? A little dramatic, don’t you think?”

“As you pointed out, Watanabe, that match of ours was internationally televised. The whole world now knows about my troubles with my mother thanks to your taunting. My reputation is shattered, and so is my kingdom’s.”

“I mean… I don’t think I said—"

“It doesn’t matter how much you said,” Emil interrupted. “You said enough. Besides, my reactions made it clear there was truth to your provocations. Even the slightest hint of dissension in the royal family would draw those opportunists in the media to us like vultures to a corpse. But this level of trouble? Forget it. They’ll harass me about this for the rest of my life.”

I just stared at him.

“The walls of that castle have seen a great many things. There’s no shortage of weasels that will be willing to share all they’ve witnessed to the media now that they’ll feel emboldened. My father’s long list of jilted mistresses will surely have a field day. And that’s to say nothing of the many servants we’ve all mistreated.”

“It sounds like this is something that was bound to come out no matter what.”

“Maybe so. But hypotheticals are irrelevant when you lit the fuse yourself, Watanabe. The floodgates are open now.” His demeanor hovered between resignation and anger with every word. “Years of abuse, affairs, and utter disgrace will be unearthed, article by article. And I’ll be forced to relive it all as the world eats it up like the latest celebrity gossip.”

“…”

He grabbed his phone from his bedside table and held it up to me, revealing seventeen missed calls. “My mother has been calling my phone nonstop since the conclusion of our battle. It’s easy to ignore an incessant electronic, but confrontation with her will be unavoidable once I return home.” He set his phone down and averted his gaze. “One little battle has changed everything forever.”

If someone had asked me if I cared in the moment, I wouldn’t know what to say. I knew full well that if I had been sitting in his place, licking my wounds and lamenting my loss, Emil would still be all too happy to take advantage of Cynthia and make the whole world bear the burden of his traumas. If he even bothered coming to visit me in that scenario, it probably would have been for the sole purpose of spitting in my face again. For that reason, I almost wanted to smile listening to how broken his life was about to become. But then I realized that wasn’t the reality I found myself in. Somehow, I existed in the reality where I defeated him, and I did so by destroying his life.

I had come to see him because some part of my conscience was tugging at me, but maybe the truth was that I actually came to spit in his face too. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe what I said to him, but maybe I also wanted to twist the knife one more time while I was at it.

I don’t know.

What was there to say?

I just sat there like an idiot, watching him unravel.

“Tell me, how does it feel to be born a worthless nobody and still have your actions impact the course of the world?”

He asked me that not with venom, but with clear envy.

“Don’t answer that. Whatever stupid answer you give will only sicken me. Besides, I’ve already given you too much credit. You’re still a worthless nobody. The only reason someone as weak as you defeated me is because of the hold that disgusting woman has over me.” He clenched his fists. “It’s for that reason that I cannot protest your earlier words. It’s time for change.”

“I guess it is. I don’t know what else to say.”

“Say nothing. Listening to you talk hurts more than any physical wound. Get out.”

I shrugged and stood up. “Happily. I said what I needed to.”

“One more thing,” the prince began. His eyes locked onto mine with a new intensity. “It confounded me during our duel, but I know now how you found out about my situation with my mother. Thus, I have two requests. First, tell that conniving slimeball Eli that we will never speak again. Second, you, Shinsuke, are not allowed to be defeated until you eliminate him from this gauntlet. Have I made myself clear?”

I knew it was a matter of time until he put two and two together about Eli, and there’s no way Eli himself didn’t realize that he would figure it out. But I guessed he was okay with that.

“Crystal,” I replied.

“Good. I have nothing more to say to you.”

With that, I left Emil’s room. The nagging in the back of my mind had ceased at last, but the permanence of my actions was not lost on me. Emil’s life and the future of Gliyrhiel would be forever changed by a few words passed through my lips during that fight. It was a weird feeling, one that I hadn’t fully processed. I decided to leave it up to a future version of myself to work through. The current me had too many problems still left to deal with.

Emil’s life was his and my life was mine.

Right?

I returned to my room and finally got the remainder of my wounds treated. His job now complete, the doctor left the room, allowing me a peaceful moment alone at long last.

Well, that’s what I thought. But just as soon as the door had shut behind him, it swung open again.

In the doorway stood another visitor.

Cynthia Rose von Eisenhardt.