章 20: Chapter 19: Was he abandoned ?
The unknown assailant gulped as billowing killing intent poured out of from young Ruwel Hart.
Uwaaaaaaah…
The baby's crying intensified as he extended his hands towards the couple on the opposite sides, trying to reach them.
His pale cheeks turned rosy from the excessive crying.
Drop by drop tears escaped his eyes as the baby twisted in discomfort.
The assailant seemed to have tightened the grip on the baby to the point of pain.
But Ruwel showed no signs of rescuing the baby.
The phantom of Kai tried to interfere even though all of them acted as if they were not there.
"Hey ! What are you doing to a baby ?"
Kai said aggrievedly.
As he extended his hand towards the shoulder of the assailant, his hand passed right through him.
'So I really am a phantom here.'
He though dejectedly.
He kept staring at the crying baby but directed his attention when he saw movement from the corner of his eyes.
"If… if you d..don't let me go, I will kill your child."
The assailant started to threaten pathetically.
His voice that shook at the start regained confidence as he more words came out of his mouth.
Even though, he threatened to kill the baby, all Ruwel did was stare at the assailant like a beast waiting to devour prey.
'Why isn't he moving ?'
Phantom Kai's face twisted in distress.
Ruwel Hart.
He was a very well-known man even in other kingdoms.
Kai sometimes wondered when he saw Ruwel's prowess in the battle.
If original Kai was really his son, how did he end up separated from that family ?
In the original novel he read, there were some words mentioned about original Kai's guardian.
In the book, it was mentioned that Kai was raised by the guardian knight of his mother.
"I… I'll s...surely kill this child if you don't let me go."
The assailant threatened once again.
Flash !
A glint of steel flashed as a dagger flew through air and buried deep into the kidnapper's throat.
Blood gushed out from the wound and splattered across the frightened baby's face.
His crying only intensified as he plummeted to the ground along with the kidnapper's body.
"No ! He'll get hurt."
Phantom Kai's hands stretched out involuntarily as if he wanted to catch the baby.
Fortunately, the baby was nestled in the arms of the kidnapper and didn't plumet to the ground.
Huuu...
Kai sighed in relief and turned towards Ruwel only for his heart to drop.
His breath got stuck in his throat and his heart constricted as he watched with wide eyes.
Young Ruwel was turning away from the meadow with his mother's body in his arms.
He spared the baby no glance and started to trudge along the forest path, turning his back to little Kai.
To him, it was as if there was no baby there at all.
The hope that was ignited in his heart as phantom Kai watched young Ruwel killing the kidnapper was shattered the moment he showed no hesitation to abandon him.
It was never about rescuing his child. It was all about getting revenge for the woman he loved.
Euuuaahh…
Phantom Kai turned towards the baby that was abandoned among the corpses of his kidnappers.
As agony and sorrow battled in his mind, Kai found it hard to breathe.
"So he was abandoned as a baby. But why ?"
Why would anyone abandon a baby like this ? What did a baby do so wrong ?
Helpless and confused, Kai could only watch like a by-stander, not interfere.
The space he stood on started to vanish. Cracks like spider webs appeared and the world around her shattered.
Suddenly her distant mind was thrown into another memory.
Pain drummed into his head at the fast pace and he grew dizzy.
He clutched his head and closed his eyes until the pain subsided.
This time when he opened his eyes, what greeted him was so different from the lush meadow that it stood out so much.
Phantom Kai's breath hitched as he met desolate green eyes.
A dark and dreary room, with the smell of dirt and grim assaulting phantom Kai's nostrils, his eyes pained by the darkness of the room.
'No, it was more like a cell for a prisoner.'
Phantom Kai realized when he saw the iron bars barring the person inside prison, from the outside world.
But what mattered to him was the starved and tortured figure he saw inside the cell.
The brown hair so dark that it looked black and green eyes that reflected no hope, a face so pale he looked sick and translucent.
It was the face of original Kai, the one he had disguised himself into using the magical tool.
He remembered that face so vividly because Kim Su-bin saw the same face on the cover of the novel.
Phantom Kai passed through the bars and entered the cell the moment he heard the steps of a person heading towards the cell.
Soon the dark silhouette of a person stood in front the cell.
The prison that no light reached inside cast a shadow on the person who motionlessly watched him.
Kai in the memory tensed and watched.
That Kai's eyes widened in shock when the moonlight filtered through and fell on the face of the other person, illuminating his frame.
Oliver Neid. The secretary of the first imperial prince.
He watched the prisoner with an expressionless face.
'What is this ? What's going on ? Something is going on here that I can't understand yet.'
Thoughts raced across phantom Kai's mind as he watched the memory vigilantly and attentively.
His suspicions were confirmed when a malicious smirk crossed Oliver Neid.
It was so unlike the behavior he exhibited around the imperial prince, it gave phantom Kai chills.
Phantom Kai had a vague feeling that Oliver's innate nature wasn't this.
It was like a demon had crawled into Oliver's skin and occupied his body.
"Are you enjoying the prison life ?"
A smug and an arrogant voice mocked the Kai in the memory.
"You must be so sad since people around you abandoned you without a thought."
A saccharine sweet tone dug the wounds hidden deep in memory Kai.
"From your beloved crown prince, to your friends Enzo and Raphael seemed to have forsaken you."
Oliver smiled with a hint of a sneer hidden behind it. He slowly leaned towards Kai as he retrieved a dagger from his inner pocket of the suit.
"Tell me, how does it feel to be truly alone in this world ?"
His eyes flashed aggressively and his original eyes bled into blood red.
He looked more like a demon than a human.
Despite all the mockery aimed at him, memory Kai remained quiet and merely glared at him.
This seemed to only aggrieve Oliver further.
He snatched a hand full of memory Kai's hair and tugged him towards him.
He brandished the dagger at his throat as if he would cut him down any moment.
Oliver's face contorted in anger as his lips curled into a snarl.
"I heard something very interesting."
With those words, his behavior changed in a blink of an eye.
As if his aggrieved behavior was merely a show.
Only the hand that was twisting memory Kai's hair painfully indicated his savage behavior.
Phantom Kai watched as the memory Kai gritted his teeth and endured the pain while he glared in cold fury at Oliver.
The side of the dagger's blade caressed memory Kai's face gently in a mockery of fake affection.
"I was worried because I heard you were badly hurt. You were bleeding from your stomach, right ? Did you get treatment ?"
Memory Kai's face twisted in anger at those words.
Seeing this reaction, Oliver laughed in delight like a maniac.
He drew his face close to memory Kai and whispered like he was telling him a precious secret that no other knew.
"Did you have a miscarriage ?"
Phantom Kai doubted his ears at those words.
"What did he just say ?"
Phantom Kai muttered in disbelief.
But those words seemed to be true if the way memory Kai's eyes flashed in pain and anger.
"It's sad but you will never be able to have a child again stuck in this prison."
Oliver's lips curled around those words and phantom Kai watched as memory Kai's eyes turned lifeless.
Oliver seemed to take great delight at this.
But suddenly memory Kai lunged towards Oliver and tried to snatch the dagger.
Caught off guard, he made a ruckus as he fell to the floor of the prison and lost the grip on the dagger.
Due to the clamor made by them, the people outside seemed to have heard the commotion.
Voices and footsteps of multiple people drew nearer and nearer and soon a handful of people reached the cell.
Out of all of them only the figures of Michael and Enzo were clear to phantom Kai. The other two people who came along with them were a man and a woman.
But their faces seemed blurry to phantom Kai.
'Why is it like that ? Is someone shielding them from my sight ?'
Phantom Kai tried to clear his vision and see their faces.
But every single time, their faces turned more and more blurry.
"What's going on here ?"
Michael's authoritative voice reached his ears.
"Thank goodness your highness came here. He was trying to kill me with that dagger."
Oliver turned from a vicious man to a righteous man in the blink of an eye.
His mood swings and acting gave phantom Kai shivers down his spine.
More than that what really worried him was the way memory Kai was staring at the dagger in his hands.
He had an ominous premonition.
"Kai, what's the meaning of this ?"
Michael turned towards memory Kai in anger when he saw the dagger in his hands.
"Your highness, don't be angry."
A feminine voice interrupted the imperial prince. Then she turned towards memory Kai.
"Why are you trying to kill Mr. Neid ? He's a righteous man who came to visit you because he was worried about you."
Hearing those words, only one thought reached phantom Kai's mind.
'What nonsense is she spouting ?'
He thought seething in silent anger.
Amidst all these accusations, memory Kai didn't say a word.
He merely stared at the dagger in his words. It was too eerie that even Michael noticed something was wrong.
"Kai…"
It was when he hesitantly called out to him that finally memory Kai raised his head.
But what met his eyes was the lifeless gaze of the prisoner.
Michael urgently tried to open the cell door when memory Kai turned the dagger he held in his hands inward.
Even Enzo and other man seemed to panic at this.
"No !!"
"Wait !"
"Stop."
Their outstretched hands were already too late to stop memory Kai when he stabbed himself in the heart.
Phantom Kai could only watch on as the memory Kai crumpled to the floor bleeding profusely from the wound.
But memory Kai didn't collapse onto the floor but into a warm and tight embrace of a man.
Michael knelt on the floor with Kai's body in his arms while Enzo and the other man surrounded them.
They stared stupefied as memory Kai's hair turned pearl white and his disguise was revealed.
"Wh…white hair."
Michael stammered ungracefully and only managed to snap out of the stupor when memory Kai coughed up blood.
"No. Kai, hold on"
Michael cried out in distress.
"You, heal him."
Enzo urged the woman standing outside the cell in horror.
"It's use..useless."
Memory Kai said with difficulty.
"Please don't say that. I am sorry, Kai."
Michael voiced out in distress.
"What use is your apology now ? I have suffered enough, haven't I ? I want to die on my own terms."
Kai smiled hiding his pain as he said them, like he truly believed the words he uttered.
The other man stood up and walked out of the cell to drag the woman inside.
"Heal him. I don't care what method you use. But heal him no matter what."
That man ordered urgently.
"I… I can't."
The woman stammered in fear when she was pushed towards memory Kai like a ragdoll.
"What do you mean you can't ? A saintess is capable of healing even a fatal wound like this."
That man yelled in fury that his voice echoed in the prison.
"I… I.."
Despite being yelled at, the woman could only stutter uselessly.
"She can't do it because she isn't a real saint."
Memory Kai's voice reached the others when they were about to fight among them.
Phantom Kai along with the others stared dumbfoundedly at him.
Memory Kai could only smile without humor.
クリエイターの想い 
Ocean_d
Ocean_d Hi guys,
Here's another update for you guys.
I hope you guys leave a comment and a vote while you enjoy this update.
I also wanted to thank DAN1864 for donating powerstones and maidsangwoo for leaving a comment.
Moreover, thank you all the readers.
Stay safe and healthy.
Regards,
Ocean_d.
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