CH 72

Kyle is no longer the respected Second Prince of the imperial empire. Now, he is dressed in cheap and rough prisoner clothes, his vision covered by a pitch-black blindfold, only able to hear the sound of the wheelchair rolling.

He has become a complete cripple now. The prison doctor informed him that his legs were shattered too severely, with the nerves connecting to his spine completely dead. Even the medical pod couldn’t heal his legs. He would have to rely on a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

But all of that doesn’t matter anymore. He has been counting the days, and today is the tenth day, the day of his execution.

Kyle’s eyes are covered, yet it seems to heighten his other senses. He feels as if he is being pushed into a closed room by the prison guards. How does he know it’s closed?

It’s because the echo of his wheelchair resounds in the confined space, and Edward’s filthy pheromone intensity is so overwhelming that even in this damned sealed room, Kyle can’t escape it.

“They won’t even allow me to see Mother Consort before my execution?” Kyle bleakley questioned Prince Edward. Prince Edward looked at his once proud and confident brother, now wearing a gloomy and pale expression, resembling a dying struggling beast that howled but lacked any intimidation.

“The King’s command has never changed,” Prince Edward replied with an inexplicable statement and fed Kyle a capsule to swallow.

At first, Kyle wanted to resist, but then he realized he was a dying man, and there was no point in resisting.

Either Edward gave him a poison to swallow or a painkiller to alleviate the suffering later. Regardless of which, he was powerless to stop it.

In the monitoring room of the execution chamber.

The empire still retained the death penalty. Each destined prisoner entered a sealed room, which housed the tools for the execution. Eight cameras were installed in the corners of the room to ensure the execution process went flawlessly. The prison guards attached electrocardiogram patches to the destined prisoners, ensuring that the execution would be foolproof. 

Everything was too calm…

Si Huaixi’s eyes revealed a hint of confusion as he looked at Prince Kyle, resigned to his fate in the execution chamber. The monitoring screen showed no issues.

But the biggest doubt was that not even Kyle’s Mother Consort accompanied her own son on his final journey.

King Edmund came and left briefly because Queen Vanessa fainted from heartbreak. 

The only remaining member of the royal family staying here with Si Huaixi was Prince Edward.

Yet, during the trial, Si Huaixi noticed Prince Edward’s significant concern for his brother, Prince Kyle.

It was because of this that the silent and composed Prince Edward, who was witnessing his childhood companion being executed before his eyes, raised suspicions.

The execution began.

Electric currents surge through Kyle’s body, and in the monitoring room, they can see his heart rate on the electrocardiogram fluctuating intensely, nearing a point and abruptly ceasing, steadying into a straight line.

The execution chamber fell into a grave silence as life slipped away from the condemned.

Prince Edward, with his calm sapphire eyes, casually lit an electronic cigarette, the smoke veiling his mysterious gaze as it danced through the glass window, reflecting Kyle’s silhouette.

Prince Edward’s tone, though detached from human emotions, was unexpectedly gentle as he spoke to Si Huaixi, who sat across from him, facing the lifeless body of his recently deceased younger brother. “Kyle won’t bother you anymore. I appreciate you becoming a member of the Odysseus Royal Family. I have been looking forward to this for a long time.”

Si Huaixi instinctively frowned in disgust.

Apart from Queen Vanessa, the attitude of the so-called royal family members was strangely cold.

Kyle Odysseus showed no signs of life when he used his psychic power to check, and it seems that this matter has been completely settled.

Si Huaixi left.

He walked alone on the streets.

Finally, he took revenge for Brother Pei and the child who was supposed to be born.

However, as the fleeting sense of satisfaction from avenging Brother Pei faded, his heart felt as if a hole had been hollowed out.

The obsession with avenging Brother Pei vanished, leaving behind an worn out emptiness, like a desolate and littered beach.

Powerless and confused, he stared at the endless horizon, feeling lost and directionless.

With squinted, stinging eyes, Si Huaixi looked at the directional sign at the intersection.

He stood there for a long time.

Lost and wandering in this hollow world without Brother Pei.

Si Huaixi returned to the apartment where he had once stayed with Pei Zhaozhou.

He recalled Brother Pei, his smoking figure, his smoky, golden eyes that sent shivers down his spine.

He attempted to smoke one of the cigarettes Brother Pei had smoked before.

The curtains were drawn shut.

The room was dim and devoid of light, as if light couldn’t penetrate its darkness.

Nicotine smoke filled the air, suffocating the lightless room.

Occasionally, a narrow beam of light squeezed through the swaying curtains.

Cigarette butts piled up in the ashtray like a small mountain.

Si Huaixi’s eyes turned dark and blue, devoid of any radiance, like sinking into a cold and suffocating sea, awaiting decay and depletion.

It was suffocating.

It reminded him of Brother Pei.

Si Huaixi’s eyes reddened from the pungent smoke.

As he inhaled the strong nicotine smoke into his lungs, it felt as if every breath was filled with the faint scent Brother Pei used to carry. But as he exhaled the smoke, it felt as if something vital had been sucked out of his body.

Si Huaixi lowered his gaze, his hand caressing the two silver rings in his hand, and from his heavy chest to his throat came a low, bitter laugh.

So empty.

Even this room felt empty.

Perhaps Si Huaixi hadn’t been in the palace for too long.

Half a month?

A month?

Si Huaixi stayed in the apartment where Pei Zhaozhou’s traces remained, forgetting the passage of time and the bustling crowds outside.

A call from the original owner’s mother, Queen Vanessa, came through.

“Xixi, your birthday is coming soon. Your mother and your brother have been preparing a birthday banquet. Can you come and see if you like the decor in the hall?”

Queen Vanessa’s voice carried a tender and expectant tone.

“I am not your child. I am just an outsider. Your child died, a year ago.”

“…”

“Instead of holding a birthday banquet, perhaps it would be less ironic to hold a proper funeral for his soul.”

With eyes filled with loneliness and depression, Si Huaixi tore apart the facade of false warmth.

Queen Vanessa choked back her tears and forced a smile on the other end of the communication, trying to hide her pain.

“Xixi, you’re just joking with your mother, right?”

“He is dead, killed by someone.”

Si Huaixi’s blunt words stabbed straight into Queen Vanessa’s heart, leaving her in piercing pain as she clutched her violently contracting heart. Tears welled up in her beautiful emerald eyes, suffocating with unbearable sadness, her eye sockets turned red and swollen, and she broke down, sobbing uncontrollably on the other end of the call.

“…How could this be? How did my child die? It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have avoided it. He was also my child, and he should have grown up safely by my side…”

Queen Vanessa had long known that Si Huaixi was not her child. Despite their biological connection, there was never a magical bond between them as mother and son. They were always distant and polite when they were together, and it seems he must have realized this before confessing it to her.

Vanessa didn’t think there was anything wrong with Si Huaixi confessing to her, but she was deceiving herself. Since her own child was no longer here, she must have thought that the arrival of another child would fill the void.

But now she realized that she was completely wrong, absurdly cowardly. It was her step-by-step retreat that led to her child’s tragic death.

Queen Vanessa’s body fell to the ground, unable to get up. Her mournful cries caught the attention of King Edmund, who always kept an eye on her.

By now, Si Huaixi had already hung up the call.

The phone fell to the ground, emitting the beeping sound of disconnection.

King Edmund looked at the name displayed on the call with a complex gaze. Vanessa had his monitor on her phone, and he had heard their entire conversation…

But he felt wary of this mysterious son.

He had always maintained an observant and cautious attitude towards Vanessa’s insistence on getting close to Si Huaixi. He vaguely sensed Si Huaixi’s alienation and resistance towards the royal family, treating the entire empire with an outsider’s indifference.

And today, King Edmund finally confirmed it.

With a complicated mind, King Edmund comforted the grieving Queen Vanessa, silently acknowledging the fact that Si Huaixi had no attachment to the royal family or the empire.

A few days passed.

Crown Prince Edward solemnly spoke to King Edmund, “Kyle, he’s disappeared. All the guards who were escorting him to exile are dead.”

“The outside world thinks Kyle is dead. We used a fake death drug to temporarily suspend his vital signs during his execution, and then secretly sent him to a remote planet for surveillance and exile… If the Imperial public were to find out, and if his younger brother Si Huaixi were to find out about this, it would surely cause further chaos.”

King Edmund erupted in anger, “Is Consort Katie in the palace? Bring her here. Besides her and the Basalom family behind her, no one dares to defy my orders!”

“Alright, Father, I will go find Consort Katie and ask her,” Crown Prince Edward replied.

The Crown Prince looked grave because this matter was of great significance. He couldn’t casually send someone else, so he had to personally go to Consort Katie’s residence.

When he arrived there, Consort Katie was in her rose garden… chewing on rose petals.

Crown Prince Edward frowned, maintaining a composed expression, and said, “Consort Katie, Father has urgent matters for you to attend to.”

Consort Katie raised an alluring eyebrow, swallowing the remaining petals, and her Omega pheromones seemed to carry the scent of roses. She chuckled, “Oh, I see. Then I’ll go there later.”

Edward didn’t quite understand the casual release of pheromones by older Omega’s, nor did he understand Consort Katie’s habit of eating rose petals. He simply considered it a momentary whim of hers since everyone in the palace knew about Consort Katie’s fondness for roses.

“Then please go as soon as possible. Father is furious about the things you’ve been hiding.” 

Princess Katie’s eyes slightly darkened, and she said with a coquettish smile, “Oh, really.”

The location where the K108 explosion accident occurred has now become a restricted area, littered with a large amount of debris from the spaceship wreckage, posing a certain level of danger to the ships on their routes. 

This stretch of starry sky is desolate, resembling a remnant after doomsday. The scattered debris of meteorites around reflects the horror of the explosion, with surface scorch marks and traces of high-temperature melting.

Si Huaixi had searched this stretch of starry sky time and time again, but found no remnants of Brother Pei. He could only hold some dust lingering in the air as if it were the remains of Brother Pei and their prematurely deceased child, burying them in a tomb. 

The rain drizzled down. Looking at the familiar face in the photo on the tombstone, Si Huaixi’s pupils filled with a vacant pain. Was this an unending dream? Even though he had transmigrated into this world of the novel, he still allowed Brother Pei to die early in an explosion, making all his efforts in vain…

If Brother Pei didn’t meet him, would he live longer, like in the book, instead of being nothing but ashes, with even the grave empty? The sound of rain filled his ears. However, Si Huaixi felt the entire world terrifyingly silent, leaving only himself behind. It was still only him. 

Whether in the apocalypse or now. 

The rain continued for quite some time. His damp shoulders grew cold, long devoid of warmth. The ringtone of the phone rang particularly clear and loud amidst the rain. Si Huaixi looked at the name on the phone, his quiet gaze flickering, and answered the call. A weak male voice accompanied by coughing. It was the manager who had caused the death of the original owner.

“Si Huaixi, you’re still under my company. I heard your benefactor died early, so if you don’t want to pay the penalty fee, come to the address I’ve given you. I won’t mistreat you.”

Si Huaixi’s gaze sharpened. Suddenly, he remembered one thing that still remained unfinished in this world.

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