2026-02-11 19:14:50Each word fell like a knife stabbing into Kieran’s heart.
“I belong only to you,” Catherine wrapped her arms around Laxon’s neck. “Your lover. Your fiancée. And your future wife.”
Hearing that, Kieran lowered his head slightly, not in defeat, but because he needed a fraction of a second to steady his suddenly erratic heartbeat.
So that was why.
Her awkward smiles. The reasons she always kept her distance. The looks he once thought were shy… were actually disgust.
How foolish he had been. He, who could read killing intent from the slightest shift of a shoulder, yet failed to see through the lies of the woman who claimed to love him.
Slowly, Kieran lifted his face again. His expression had returned to being flat. Almost unshaken.
“What does all this mean?” he asked calmly.
Laxon raised an eyebrow, as if amused that Kieran could still stand straight after being humiliated like that.
“What else do you think?” he replied casually. “You’re always smart, Kieran. Don’t tell me you truly know nothing? From the very beginning, you were just a pawn. You’ve always been the family’s obedient dog…”
Laxon’s gaze hardened.
“When a pawn no longer has value, and an obedient dog is no longer useful, what do you think should be done?”
Silence enveloped the rooftop. The night wind blew softly, brushing the hem of Kieran’s coat. Beneath the dim spotlight, Laxon remained seated casually with Catherine on his lap, as if enjoying a private show.
His gaze traced Kieran’s face, observing even the slightest change, like a child waiting for his toy to crack.
Yet all he saw was calmness. Flat, controlled, unreadable. Boring.
The corner of Laxon’s lips lowered slightly. He had always hated that, an expressionless face that never begged, never cried, as if it never truly shattered. Since childhood, Kieran had been nothing more than a tool. The family’s servant. A stepping stone to solidify his position as the rightful heir.
And tools should know their place when they are no longer needed.
“I’ll give you two choices,” Laxon finally said, his voice light as though offering a dinner menu. “Jump… or die by my hand.”
He leaned back more comfortably.
“The choice is yours. Choose carefully. Your time is short.”
Kieran understood his meaning without further explanation. To be removed, erased, eliminated, it was the same as death.
Ironically, he was not afraid of death. Five years of training that had nearly taken his life countless times. Five more years walking among bullets and other people’s blood. He had stood on the edge between life and death too many times to consider death something frightening.
However… it would be a pity if he died now.
Slowly, he lifted his face and looked at Laxon with a gaze calmer than before.
“How is my mother?” he asked.
That was all he wanted to know. The only person who had ever given him warmth. The only light in the gray world that had forced him to grow up too fast.
Unconsciously, his gaze shifted to Catherine.
Whatever the truth behind the act… his feelings had been real. In those years filled with blood and cold orders, Catherine had been a pause, like a sleeping pill and a sedative.
Noticing the direction of his gaze, Laxon immediately pulled Catherine closer to his chest, his arm wrapping possessively around her waist.
“Oh?” Laxon smiled crookedly. “Still caring about someone else at a time like this?”
He stared at Kieran for a few seconds, then spoke in a light tone that felt even more cruel.
“As a reward for your services in cleaning up all the Viremont family’s filth and helping solidify my position, I’ll give you a gift.”
He paused briefly.
“Your mother has been dead for years.”
The world seemed to stop.
“You—” Kieran’s voice broke off, not from fear, but from sudden loss and realization. Yes, he had pushed this possibility away from his mind countless times, but who would have thought this was the truth?
Laxon lifted his hand slightly, signaling him to be silent. And irritatingly, his body truly fell silent.
It was a reflex Kieran had planted within himself. The reflex of a subordinate toward a superior, the Viremont family.
No matter how much he hated them, his body had been forged to obey. As if there were an invisible button pressing down on his consciousness.
Laxon smiled in satisfaction at the sight.
“That’s why we kept sending women to you. To make sure you stayed attached. To make sure you had a reason to return and remain under control.”
He gently stroked Catherine’s hair.
“Unfortunately, out of all the bait we sent… you ended up falling in love with mine.”
“Tsk. How pathetic.”
Kieran did not respond. His mind was blank. Completely blank.
His mother had been dead for years, and all this time he had been killing with the belief that one day he would be useful enough to be allowed to see her.
He had been living in a lie. Deceived, used, toyed with, and now?
What could he do? Nothing.
Slowly, Kieran stood upright. His back straight, his face once again devoid of emotion.
He turned to look at the city below, glittering with lights. Life went on. People laughed, unaware that someone above this building had just lost everything.
“Alright,” he murmured softly. “It’s all over.”
Before anyone could react, he moved. With speed and agility honed over years, he climbed onto the concrete railing in one smooth motion.
He glanced at them one last time, at his half-brother, at the woman he once loved, at the family that had never truly considered him human. Then he extended his hand as if reaching for something unseen.
By the time the others reacted, Kieran was no longer in front of them.
“He actually jumped?!” Laxon exclaimed, immediately confirmed by the man who had been standing closest to Kieran’s previous position.
Then his right-hand man said, “Young Master, Master ordered that he be killed quietly to avoid causing a commotion. If he jumps…”
“Shut up!” Laxon barked. “Who would’ve thought he’d rather die by jumping, huh? Tell the people below to clean up the scene.”
“Yes.”
However, just as Laxon stood with Catherine and was about to leave as quickly as possible, the sound of police sirens roared through the night.
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Latest Chapter
Chapter 009
The next morning, Kieran woke to a soft voice calling his name. He slowly opened his eyes. His mother was already standing beside the bed with a food container in her hand.“Wake up. Eat first, then we’ll take care of the administration and go home,” she said softly. Her tone tried to sound light, but the dark circles under her eyes were becoming more obvious.Kieran sat up slowly. He wanted to ask about the cost, how she had paid it, and where the money had come from. But when he saw her exhausted face and the faint, the question stopped in his throat. Even if he asked, he would not be helping anything right now.In the end, he simply accepted the bowl of soup and began eating quietly. This time, he finished it without leaving anything. His mother looked relieved to see that.Not long after that, the administrative process was completed. They walked out of the room toward the elevator. At the end of the corridor, several nurses and an administrative staff member were talking in some
Chapter 008
After sitting for quite some time, Kieran finally stood up. He walked slowly along the garden path, then reentered the hospital building through the side door.His steps were unhurried. A nurse who passed by him only glanced briefly and gave a small nod. A doctor coming out of an examination room even offered a faint smile, perhaps assuming the young patient was simply taking a casual walk to pass the time.No one was suspicious. Meanwhile, Kieran’s eyes moved subtly, noting every detail.In his mind, he spoke quietly to the system, “Create a detailed map of this building.”A few seconds later, transparent lines seemed to spread across his thoughts. [Data is being mapped…][Structures of floors one to three have been recorded.]Kieran did not change his expression. He still looked like a teenager leisurely spending his free time.Tonight, he would act.After feeling it was enough, he returned to his hospital room. The door was open. However, the moment he stepped inside, the room was
Chapter 007
The woman fell silent for a moment.“Just a small scrape. I accidentally fell in the kitchen yesterday.”Kieran stared at her without blinking. That was not a scrape. It was a grip mark. An uneven bruise, like the imprint of pressing fingers.From the original owner’s memories of this body, he remembered that his father often came home drunk, frequently asked his wife for money, and if there was none, he would beat her.The original owner of this body might have been afraid of his father due to childhood trauma, but the current Kieran was not. He even hated the old man, not much different from how he hated his father in his life before transmigrating.“That old man did this?” he asked flatly. He did not say the word father.His mother flinched slightly at his tone, then exhaled softly.“It’s nothing. Don’t think about unnecessary things. Just focus on recovering.”She finally managed to gently pull her hand away, then adjusted her sleeve again and tried to return to the original topic
Chapter 006
Kieran shifted his gaze away from the television screen a few seconds after the word suicide was clearly spoken by the news anchor. Without expression, he reached for the remote that the nurse had placed beside the hospital bed earlier and pressed the power button. The screen immediately went black, and the room returned to silence.All of that was indeed the past. Technically, it was no longer even him. However, feelings were not so easily severed.He did not want to know the details of the investigation broadcast on television because he knew it was all lies and the result of manipulation by his family.A light knock sounded at the door. A nurse entered while pushing a small trolley filled with food. The aroma of warm soup slowly spread through the room.“It’s time for dinner,” she said kindly.Kieran nodded slightly. He did not have much appetite, but this body needed nourishment if he wanted to recover quickly.After the nurse took the empty tray and left, the fatigue he had been
Chapter 005
The room returned to silence after the door closed. Kieran remained lying down, staring blankly at the window with its curtains half open. His aunt sat not far from him, occasionally checking her phone, occasionally looking at him with a gaze that still did not fully believe he was awake.But Kieran’s thoughts were not there. He slowly closed his eyes, trying to “feel” the existence of the spatial space again. He needed a test. Something small at first and inconspicuous.The water bottle on the bedside table? Or the plastic spoon from the meal tray?He could not recklessly experiment with trivial items like that. What if, after testing one object, the spatial space required a long recovery time? Wouldn’t he just be wasting it?Kieran drew a slow breath.Besides the storage function, what mattered more was the ability to double an object’s value. That meant whatever he put inside, if it worked according to the system’s explanation, would become an asset.He did not like uncertainty, s
Chapter 004
Not far from his bed, two women stood facing each other. Their appearance was simple, ordinary clothes that looked worn from long use, hair tied up without much care. They looked like most women one might meet at a market or a bus stop.However, the exhaustion on one of their faces was unmistakable.That woman, the mother of this body’s original owner, had fine lines that were too deep for her age. Her eyes were red and slightly swollen, as if she had cried too often over the past few days.The woman beside her, who was likely her sister, looked calmer, though the dark circles under her eyes showed that she, too, lacked sleep.Kieran watched them in silence for a few seconds. His chest felt tight, not from physical pain, but from feelings he could not ignore.“Mom…”His voice was hoarse, soft, almost like a breath. He could not hold back the sadness in his heart, after all, he had lost his original mother. And now he was calling someone “Mom.” Someone who could indeed be said to be hi
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