“Your, Your Excellency….”  

Sophia barely held on to the string of reason and gently pushed Killian back.  

Killian silently took a step back without a word, but his gaze remained fixed on Sophia.  

Meeting his gaze, Sophia pondered.  

‘Is it possible to break off the engagement with that man?’  

The thoughts that had kept her up all night resurfaced as she looked at his face.  

Breaking off the engagement seemed like the immediate answer, but the cliché of breaking off an engagement held her back.  

But would it be foolish not to even attempt it, just because she was worried about clichés?  

Would it be okay to subtly give it a try?  

“Your Excellency, about our engagement…”  

Sophia cautiously pricked at the situation, as if poking a needle into a water balloon to prevent it from bursting.  

Killian, with his usual expression, seemed to be waiting for her next words.   

“Well… would you consider breaking off the engagement…?”  

“Breaking off the engagement?”  

Kilian’s brow furrowed nervously. In an instant, an alarm bell rang in Sophia’s head.  

“Um, br-breaking off… Shall we proceed with breaking off!?”  

Sophia straightened her back and forced a polite smile.  

However, there was not a hint of a smile on Kilian’s face.   

To compensate for the situation, Sophia raised the corners of her mouth, but her cheeks trembled with nervousness.  

Damn it, damn it, damn it…  

‘I knew, I shouldn’t have said anything!’   

Reversing the cliché was impossible.  

There’s no exception to the first rule of romance.  

How on earth do I escape from that obsessed man?  

I’ve dug my own grave. The moment I possessed this body, I just laid in the coffin.  

If only I had remembered the original work a bit earlier, I would never have got involved. 

Sophia felt like her head was spinning.  

At that moment, Kilian crossed his arms and looked down at her.  

And then…  

“Break.”  

He uttered a short word.  

“Yes…?”  

“Break.” (T/L: To be honest, this is the most confusing part to translate. I tried my best to translate this, hope it is reader-friendly.)  

Break? Could it be that he really wants to go through with the breakup?  

Startled, Sophia looked up at him, and he waited silently for her response.  

She broke into a cold sweat, blurting out whatever came to her mind out of confusion.  

She hadn’t prepared any contingency plans, like breaking off the engagement.  

“Break, break, break…”  

“If you talk about breaking…” With a blank mind, the only word that comes to Sophia’s mind is “breaking off”.  

As she stammers to find her words, Killian’s eyes narrow as if examining her.  

“Break… Breaking off… the engagement…”  

It’s a crisis.  

A chaos of emotions.  

Sophia was laughing yet crying at the same time.  

Then, Killian’s mouth lifted slightly, as he nodded in her direction.  

With that, he moved closer to her, his long slender hand reaching for her.  

As his hand touched her cheek, Sophia shrank back, feeling a shiver down her shoulder.  

“No need to break off the engagement, Sophia.”  

His brushing touch felt cool.  

Without any further explanation, Killian conveyed his decision.  

“You don’t understand anything.”  

As if hinting at something, his voice echoed in her ears. (T/L: Probably breaking engagement and directly marrying, kekekeke)  

Sophia nodded her head as if bewitched by the voice that fell low as if suggesting.  

As her restless heart beats anxiously, her gaze falls downward, landing on his waist.  

‘That yesterday’s wound…’  

A faint trace of blood can be seen on his black vest. It’s subtle enough to go unnoticed if one doesn’t pay close attention, but it’s undeniably soaked in darkness.  

Killian notices Sophia’s gaze lingering on his waist, he quickly covers it with his coat. 

‘Since early yesterday morning, it seems like you were working at the police station…’  

There wouldn’t have been much time to properly treat the wound.  

“Well, then, I’ll head back now.”  

“Are you not going to call a doctor?”  

Sophia asked Killian, who was about to leave.  

“What do you mean, a doctor?”  

“The wound…”  

“What wound?”  

Kilian shamelessly pretended not to know.  

“I told you to forget about it.”   

His voice seemed to echo in her ears.  

Sophia couldn’t understand him at all. How could he act like he is not in pain when he was obviously hurt?  

It was frustrating, really.   

“…If you end up worse, I won’t know.”  

As Sophia glared at him, Killian chuckled.  

“You have such a sharp tongue…”  

He commented on her tone.  

‘Who are you to point out my tone? Your behaviour was wrong!’  

As much as she wanted to say it out loud, she couldn’t bring herself to do so. However, she couldn’t bring herself to say it aloud.  

“It seems like you also had a restless night; it might be good to rest for a bit.”  

Kilian said that and left the study. Once he was gone, Sophia leaned against the wall, feeling drained. 

Anyway, it doesn’t seem like he intends to kill me right away… right? 

 
* * * 

After Viscount Percel’s funeral, a serious internal meeting began at the military police station. However, they still couldn’t pinpoint the culprit.  

“It’s a problem because the two incidents have nothing in common.”  

The faces of those attending the meeting were grim.  

They needed to find the motive for the murders, but they couldn’t figure out the motive of the “Black Moon.”  

Unlike the famous nobleman Marquis Fideut, Viscount Percel was a lesser-known noble from a remote area.  

They lived in different regions, and their backgrounds were also different, so there was no connection between the two victims.  

Moreover, the methods of murder were different.  

Poisoning and shooting were completely different methods.  

“It’s not a criminal who is only targeting weak individuals…”  

If it were random serial killings, they would typically target women, the elderly, or children, the vulnerable. But that wasn’t the case with the Black Moon.  

Marquis Fideut and Viscount Percel were not young, but they were healthy men in their 40s.  

Especially Marquis Fideut had a robust physique among his peers.  

It wasn’t suitable for them to be targets of indiscriminate crimes.  

“Could it be hatred and resentment towards the nobility?”  

“It’s possible, but… if they went as far as entering Marquis Fideut’s mansion to commit the murder, there must be a clear motive, wouldn’t you think?”  

As a lively debate unfolded, Killian remained silent, quietly listening to the remarks of his subordinates.   

It was an expression that seemed to be thinking a lot.  

“What’s certain is that the Black Moon either lives within the capital or frequently visits it,” a member of the military police who had confronted the Black Moon stated.  

The Black Moon was highly familiar with the geography of the capital, and both incidents had occurred within the capital.  

“Wouldn’t it be possible to quickly identify someone with that level of skill within the capital?”   

At Nicholas words, Killian nodded in agreement.  

“First, let’s investigate all the regular army soldiers, knights, rogues, mercenaries, vagabonds, and labourers within the capital.”  

In the meantime, Killian had been thinking of obtaining information about Rosary seed from the Fraus family.  

As the tasks were assigned, the members dispersed and busily went about their responsibilities.  

Nicholas sighed as he watched them move around busily.  

“We’re just a month away from the founding festival, and yet…”  

The timing was unfavourable.  

“Didn’t the preparations start early this year for the 500th anniversary of the founding of the empire?”  

This year’s National Foundation Day celebration was expected to be especially grand. Surely, even the nobles from different regions would come to the capital to attend the royal ball.  

Various stalls and items announcing the festivities would line the streets, and fireworks were also planned.  

With such a significant event ahead, the serial murders needed to be resolved promptly; otherwise, it would be troublesome.”  

“While it hasn’t been officially announced as serial killings yet, I’m concerned that there might be another victim before the founding festival,” Nicholas expressed his worry.  

Kilian nodded in agreement with Nicholas’ words.  

They couldn’t welcome the founding festival in this atmosphere.  

At that moment, a member of the military police entered the conference room.  

“Your Excellency, a letter has arrived from the Ruchtainer Knights.”  

“From Ruchtainer?”  

The member handed Killian an envelope with a wax seal on it.  

Killian furrowed his brow slightly as he opened the letter.  

“What could this be about? From those esteemed knights?”  

“They want to hold a friendly competition.” 

“Really? Suddenly?”  

Nicholas’s expression turned sour.  

These days, the military police’s atmosphere is so severe, really. Anyway, it’s all about them and their interests.  

They returned from resolving the border conflict last winter, and now they have leisure time to plan their own entertainment according to their schedules.  

“They suggest holding a special founding event in celebration of the 500th anniversary.”  

“Hah! That’s amusing. They must think they’ll win, right?”   

Nicholas scoffed and grumbled in discontent.  

It seems that the subtle sense of rivalry between the military police and the Ruchtainer Knights has caught fire.  

As they were often referred to as the “two swords protecting the empire” and frequently compared to each other, the military police and the Ruchtainer Knights were often pitted against one another.  

As the rivalry grew, the two groups constantly stood in opposition to each other.  

There were many reasons for the mutual dislike between the military police and the Ruchtainer Knights.  

At the beginning of the establishment of the military police force, when they took some skilled knights from the Ruchtainer, it left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Ruchtainer Knights.  

Those who abandoned the knights and joined the military police were sometimes referred to as ‘traitors blinded by good conditions’, ‘abandoning their pride’, those who lacked the qualifications of knights’, or unable to adapt to the knight’s tradition’.  

On the other hand, the military police saw the Ruchtainer Knights pretending to be noble, as contemptible and despicable.