My people searched, yet they found nothing.
With Athena’s methods, protecting someone had always been effortless.
Even I could only dig up a few scattered clues, yet even those few were enough to shatter the emotions I had struggled to hold together.
Five years ago, on the night I nearly lost my life, Athena had not been there.
I believed she had taken people to avenge me. But no, she had only been a few steps away, tangled in the arms of another man.
So the betrayal had begun that early.
When she swore she could never betray me in this life, her body and her heart had already strayed elsewhere.
I endured the sudden ache tearing through my chest, my grip tightening around the bloodstained knife, and I drove it hard through the screen.
Deep affection had long been broken; between us, only hatred remained.
The child had not even been sent home, yet her people could no longer stay still.
They came after me. The door flew open, and at once he rushed in, a dagger raised and thrust straight toward my chest.
“Bastard! You dared go after my child, I’ll kill you!”
I tilted my head instinctively, dodging the strike.
But the blade couldn’t be avoided. It scraped across my arm, leaving a long, raw cut.