Rotten fruits

“Congratulations on your revenge, Angelica. .... How do you feel now?”

Brad asked, unconcerned that his father had been slaughtered in front of him.

He walked around to the front of Angelica, who was still standing in the position in which she had crushed Count Calcifer, and bent down to look at her face.

Angelica took a single look at her fiancé, who was looking into her face with interest, and muttered to herself.

“It’s not as emotional as I imagined it would be. It’s boring....No, it’s not. Is it empty?”

Count Calcifer was the man who had refused the call for reinforcements from his allies, the Ilkas, and had sent Angelica’s family to their deaths as a result.

It was the first time she’d ever had to avenge the deaths of her family, but Angelica’s heart was strangely calm.

“Isn’t that what revenge is all about?”

“No, it isn’t. It’s not that revenge is empty, it’s that it’s not enough that it ended so easily.”

Angelica thinks.

She’d like to see more resistance.

“How can a traitor to a vicious Empire be as weak as this?....Shouldn’t the enemy be stronger and more powerful?

It is unforgivable that the man who killed her family should be of this calibre.

It is a shame for the family that the house of Ilkas has been destroyed by such a trifling little villain.

“I wonder if my feelings will ever be satisfied until the Empire is destroyed. I will not be satisfied until I have destroyed the enemies of the kingdom, the enemies of the House of Ilkas.”

“Is that so?　My bride is a greedy girl if she treats my family, the largest noble family on the eastern border, as an appetizer.”

Smiling, Brad took Angelica’s hand.

He kissed her bloodied right hand and slowly dropped to one knee to the floor.

“Oh, my dear bride, Angelica, the Red Angel of Death. I will see to the end how your vengeance will end.”

“To the end....”

Angelica looked down at Brad with a cold stare as he knelt down and sang as if he were proposing to her.

Then she flips her right hand and puts a dagger to his neck.

“....!”

“You do understand right? You are one of the Counts of Calcifer. You’re one of my enemies.”

“....Yes, I’m one of your enemies. I’m one of the people who took your family from you.”

He grabbed Angelica’s right hand and pulled her towards him.

The thin point of the dagger plunges shallowly into his neck, and a stream of blood trickles down.

“I’d be happy to be killed by you. The only thing I would like is for you to kill me with a kiss instead of this tactless blade.”

“........ disgusting.”

Angelica’s bandaged face twisted into a grimace as she brusquely shook off her fiancé’s hand.

Brad laughs at Angelica’s physiological disgust and wipes her neck with his sleeve to remove the blood.

“....Brad. I’m going to let you live because you’re still useful. I’ll kill you last. If you want to see me avenged, I’ll kill you after I’ve finished with all the enemies of the kingdom.”

“I’m honoured. I’d be very happy to be there for you in your final moments.”

“Well, then you’d better make yourself useful to me before I kill you. I’m going to blow you up so cleanly that you won’t be able to see a trace.”

She then walks away, leaving Angelica to her own devices.

The locked door is opened and Brad’s men, who had sealed off the room, enter at the same time as Angelica.

Covering their mouths and noses with clothes, they take their cleaning tools and begin to clear away the remains of the massacre, as they had been instructed to do in advance.

Brad stood and watched Angelica’s back with euphoric eyes, then picked up an apple from the fruit platter on the table.

The apple was a little old, perhaps a servant’s mistake. It was overripe and the skin was discoloured.

But Brad didn’t hesitate to take a bite of the ripe fruit and chewed the flesh off the skin.

“.... Fruit and women taste best when they’re rotten. You are much more attractive than you used to be. My dear, dear Angelica.”

A lovely woman who grew up nourished by loyalty to her kingdom and corrupted by revenge.

Brad Calcifer’s lips twisted into a crescent smile at the thought of his beautiful but terrible bride.