Before the Villains’ Ending

“I don’t care what Your Highness does with anyone. Useless doubts disrupt plans.”

“Then tell me why are you saying this.”

A moment of silence filled the air. Margaret didn’t give any answer to his question, and Calix wasn’t anxious, because the expression the woman in front of him was making and what that face was saying was very clear.

I’ve seen that look before.

Yes, he saw it somewhere clearly. She bears a striking resemblance to Florencia Eilish in the position of a bystander.

Calix Hamel realized.

Margaret Eilish wasn’t even seriously considering his situation in the first place.

“…Your Highness, do whatever you want. Eilish won’t betray you. Well, the justification for standing by the sidelines is enough.

Regardless of Calix’s reaction, she spewed out a series of words and turned around.

A dry cough was heard, evidently out of courtesy. Contrary to the public reputation of being sickly, her posture was as straight as a queen’s.

Calix did not listen to her advice.

He wanted to ignore her because he was a person who was true to his feelings, and he firmly believed that his heart toward Beatrice would not turn elsewhere.

He was bizarrely blind. Calix pondered over the feelings that even existed now.

When Beatrice, who had once been more important than his life, stood side by side with the prince and told him to give up everything, he finally collapsed.

The feeling of being denied took the reason for his existence.

‘… Tsk.’

How did it go after that?

He remembers killing quite a few people. The exhaustion of morality and the experience of numerous wars led to massacres. But even that was not successful.

In the end, all that was left was Beatrice’s disappointed face, the crown prince’s triumphant ridicule, and the conclusion of his own execution.

It felt like something was breaking. The feeling of helplessness that followed was literally overwhelming.

Calix did not resist all the way to prison.

And after everything was over, Margaret, who was standing in front of his prison and looking at him…

“Mel.”

Calix rolled the nickname of Margaret, which he had never spit out in front of her.

Yes, at that time, Margaret looked at him with a unique expression and offered him medicine.


‘You did your best. Well done, really.’ It was as if she was saying that.

***

“Are you going to wait any longer?”

The guard’s voice broke the silence. Calix woke up from his thoughts and looked ahead in a futile silence.

He also noticed the guard standing next to him, who was looking at him with sympathy

He gritted his teeth.

She didn’t come today. Maybe she’ll come tomorrow.

The next day.

He suddenly remembered the stupid question he had asked three days ago.

Wasn’t the disease cured?

Calix laughed out of embarrassment. Margaret’s coughing was now continuing like a habit. Even though he knew that he seemed to have been momentarily blinded by his desperation.

Come now, what’s the use of all that?

“This time….”

Calix Hamel suddenly recalled that the restraint that tied him up was ridiculously sloppy.

Heavy restraints were meaningless in front of his ability. It wasn’t even a weak ability that could be suppressed with control magic tools.

Calix shook his head, estimating the time left until his execution day.

It’s not long. Two months is not a long time.

‘I missed you.’ Calix erased that thought and thought about something else for a while.

If, as she had advised him, he had taken painkillers and gently endured this damn life, she would surely praise him, saying, “You’re surprisingly obedient.”

He rolled his unfocused eyes and looked across the empty room.

‘Don’t be silly.’ He smiled weakly and laughed at himself. In the end, the futile daydream faded with his memories of the past.

Calix remembered the first day he was imprisoned in solitary confinement. At that time, he laughed, thinking that he had only been locked up like this when he was abused as a child.

At the time, he had no hope of wanting to live any longer. He had been like that all along until Margaret called him Mr. Hamel and patted him on the head.

After the changes took place over time, he quickly adapted to the routine. Completely uneasy without it.

I wanted to feel the touch of patting my head casually. He was desperate for a voice that eased the silence by asking how he was doing.

But he couldn’t just wait forever. His own execution was less than two months away.

Calix did not know how important their relationship was for Margaret.

‘If you have left me, if I have been betrayed twice. If you left…’

He raised his mouth between the dark walls. His voice, steeped in frenzy, was dry and raspy.

“That’s not allowed.”

Until I die, you can’t leave.

‘I can do that for you, Margaret.’

The black eyes were completely closed. It felt like my reason was being gnawed away in solitude.

Calix continued in a cool voice.

“If you don’t come… .”

He didn’t have to give up on life. For the first time since he was imprisoned, Calix thought he wanted to break these flimsy bars.

At the same time he thought that, there was a faint, cracking sound. The restraints began to crack and slowly distort. It was ridiculously easy.

The guard didn’t hear the sound properly.

It was a place with many loopholes.

That day, Calix Hamel decided to escape from prison for the first time.

***

Taylor Knight was an uncharted genius. At least when it came to assassination and taijutsu, he had great talent. To the extent that some possessors of this ability could easily be surpassed by him.

A man who can kill people without a sword. A genius who can successfully assassinate five people with a single needle. Even within the guild, there were many words of praise for the young man. It’s just that he didn’t attach much importance to it.

Even though he was called Master, the man who called himself his father always repeated the same words.

Do you hear voices praising you?

‘You have to live up to expectations. You can do this much, can’t you? If you do that, I’ll let you have dinner. But if you don’t…?’

“I don’t know.”

It was disgusting. Taylor curled up on the bed covered in white cloth. It seems that it has been a while since he realized that praise and envy were meaningless. And he felt lonely.

He reminded himself of the fact that being an assassin was originally a solitary job and then abandoned it.

It’s been four days since Margaret hasn’t come.

He had several seizures, the white sheets were replaced three times, and putting a cloth on the bed in prison was ridiculously luxurious, but in Taylor’s case, it was given to identify the bloodstains of self-harm, a sign of seizures. He had nightmares exactly twice.

“Mel.”

Taylor murmured softly in a cracking voice.

She said the reason she couldn’t come was not because of anyone. Taylor didn’t believe it, though.

‘I’m just busy.’

He buried his face in the pillow. Anyway, Margaret didn’t seem to be lying.

It didn’t matter how Margaret Eilish felt for him. The only thing Taylor could say was that Margaret really cared about him.

Whether it’s sympathy or empathy. Whatever the reason may be.

At least in his judgment, she didn’t fake her feelings.

There was no desire or sincerity to do so, and there was no reason for Margaret to pretend to care about him.

So she had to come. The eyes that were shaking when he put out his injured hand were clear. Margaret would come. Unless she hates him, she must.

‘If she can’t come, all I have to do is to find the culprit and eliminate it.’ Taylor murmured again.

“My Mel…”

***

Two months ago, Florencia Eilish threw an envelope at the Guild, offering a 2 billion gold commission.

The ripple she caused was huge beyond imagination. Glachies – the name of the guild immediately became loud.

2 billion gold. Considering that the guild at the peak of the underworld earns 300 billion gold every year from all kinds of illegal activities such as drug trafficking and contract killings, the scale was large enough to be evaluated as the highest price ever for a single request.

The master was worried, the executives discussed aloud among themselves, and the guild members at the bottom started to get excited without knowing how to do it.

The contents of the request were to kidnap Beatrice Mary Rosen.

Taylor laughed. The moon-shaped seal at the end of the letter was obviously that of Florencia Eilish.

The request was selfish. This was the reason the master was thinking about approving it.

However, Florence was a fairly well-treated customer in the guild, and the guild eventually concluded that it would not mind a large sum of money.

Therefore, as soon as the acceptance of the request was decided, the entourage was selected from among the senior executives.

“You will do it.”

Master said so. Taylor did not decline.

Taylor, who was quick-witted by nature, easily found a connection with Calix in this selfish request. The conclusion was obviously a rebellion.

If you cut off the tail, your end would have been obvious. However, Taylor knew that he was the only one who could do this without difficulty.

In addition, Beatrice was also an interesting woman.

Taylor accepted the request with an insensitive expression.

Perhaps if it hadn’t been for that damned Castiel Reload, his mission would have been perfectly successful.

“You have no intention of killing me.”

Beatrice had said that when she first met Taylor. He laughed, no one was not afraid of death. So, he laughed at her.

It was then that the strange desire to conquer grew, wanting to see her blue eyes collapse. In addition, the bad relationship between her and Florencia was also an interesting spectacle.

When he met Beatrice, Taylor first became interested in something other than murder.

It was truly a feeling that even he could not understand.

Taylor watched Beatrice’s face contort in fear as she tied her limbs and forced her to kneel.

He was happy to confess the truth. What Taylor felt was unmistakable ecstasy, until Kestiel Leerod swung his sword and struck him in the stomach.

“Crazy bastard. He must have taken drugs and gone crazy.”

Kastiel cast contempt at the laughing man in a cool tone. Taylor was subsequently detained with the traitors.

“…Alcatraz.”

On the day of his imprisonment, he clutched his hair as he recalled the name of the solitary cell in which he was confined. When he found out that Castiel Reload wanted to eradicate the entire Glachies, Taylor’s punishment decided by the Master was life imprisonment.

It was a pretty good business for the preservation of the throne that ruled illegally.

‘Useless.’

Master said so. Taylor clenched his fist on the bottom floor of the underground prison, where there was no light except for a torch hung in front of the iron cage and a spark of bars that flashed when electricity worked.

He rose to the position of executive officer in a short period of time, starting at the bottom. It was because the way things were handled was brutally neat.

According to the master’s instructions, even the same guild member was killed and eliminated. The man with such coolness and cruelty to the world leader behind him was a treasure.

In addition, since it was difficult to find subordinates with that level of loyalty, it was natural for Taylor to become the second in command under the direct management of the Master.

The orphan from the slums was given constant doses of mind-destroying drugs and became his adopted son with the position of second in command of the guild with the condition that a magic tool that stopped the relief effect of the drugs was implanted into his body all the time.

And as soon as I fail, I’m treated like this.

Taylor gasped.

Alcatraz was literally the perfect lock room. There was no need to say anything because it was a run built not only for mental torture, without the possibility of rehabilitation.

He was thoroughly isolated, and his feelings toward Beatrice and the enemies toward the guild were crushed like stone powder and became invisible.


What remained was the seizure desire to kill someone and the degree of side effects caused by the tool.

‘Ah, if I had to find something to call emotion… ‘

I miss you, Margaret.