If I Could Live Again

CHAPTER 28

A small room was dimly lit with the light only shining at the center of it. The princess, laying down at a bed, couldn’t sleep a wink.

“You’re a pretty wierd baby”, Cain kept on poking the baby’s cheeks.

“What if I try to torture you infront of my brother? Not only will I be able to hear you cry, I’ll be able to see my brother’s devastated face”, he chuckled.

“Young master?”, a man entered the room in a hurry. Cain threw a knife at him which he dodged immediately. However, the boy appeared behind and grabbed his neck with force.

“What did I tell you all before entering my room?”, Cain’s bloodlust crept behind the man.

“I-I’m s-sorry, y-young master”, the man began coughing out blood.

“You didn’t answer my question!”, Cain began crushing the man’s neck that eventually killed him.

“Young master, he was just trying to deliver the news that our employer was killed”, another man was waiting by the door.

“Oopssss, is that so? But still, he dared enter my domain without my permission”, Cain released the lifeless body.

“What a bummer! Right, princess?”, he smiled at the princess while stroking her cheeks with his bloody hands.

“It seems that you’re useless now since my employer died”, his eyes began to darken.

“Shall we go meet my brother and bid your last goodbye?”, he picked her up and went outside.

Nero was now able to sense his brother and immediately notified the royal family. As soon as Nera heard the news, she ran towards the direction where Nero was going as well. The queen didn’t wait for anyone to accompany her. She soon arrived and saw the boy she eagerly wanted to bury alive.

“Ehhhh? I wanted my brother to be the one--”, Cain was stopped abruptly when Nera attacked him without a second thought.

“Where’s my child?”, Nera kept attacking.

“Oyyyaaaaa, scary monster!”, Cain only mocked the queen while running away from her.

“You little brat! Once I grab you, I’ll bury you 6-feet underground alive”, Nera was already fuming with wrath.

“Brother!!!!”, Cain smiled as soon as he saw Nero arrive at the scene. He stopped atop a tree and sat down calmly.

“If you don’t go south, my queen, you won’t be able to see your child”, Cain grinned.

“Why would I believe you?”, Nera scowled.

“Time is ticking, Your Highness!”, the boy was amused by the troubled queen.

“Wait! Your Highness, don’t believe him”, Nero stopped her highness.

“What choice do I have, Nero? He has the only clue we have”, Nera whispered to him.

“Let me catch him and ---”, Nero suggested.

“But by the time we’re done, my child will be dead, Nero. While we’re busy torturing him for information, my child is suffering. I will take this slim chance that my baby is there”, Nera gritted her teeth.

“That’s right! SOOOOO, you better go now, your highness. My brother will be useless since I placed an anti-magic amulet in her”, Cain was beginning to get excited.

“You have to rely on your intuition as a mother or else, your kid will be D-E-A-D. Now off you go!”, Cain laughed maniacally.

Tch

Nera left immediately without heeding the words of Nero. She went straight to south but couldn’t find a single baby. She searched every nook and crannies but couldn’t find her. Her hopelessness soon overwhelmed her and end up with a mournful cry that echoed throughout the entire forest. For someone who was strong yet couldn’t protect her child, the thought of it hit her hard.

As Nero was about to follow the Queen as soon as she left, he was stopped by Cain.

“Notice me, brother! Look only at me!”, Cain shouted at him.

“I don’t have time to play games with you, Cain”, Nero brushed him off.

“If you’re not going to play with me, brother. I’m going to kill her”, Cain revealed a baby sleeping beside him. Nero’s eyes widened. He made a huge blunder.

How can he make such a mistake? Did he underestimate his brother too much or was he too lenient that he was strong enough that he didn’t consider other possibilities?

“You’re going to play with me now?”, Cain sweetly smiled at him but Nero kept on looking at the baby. He knew how capable Cain can kill even if she was a still a baby. A single blink and her life might be gone.

“BROTHER! Why do you keep looking at the baby?! Look at me!”, Cain was extremely furious at him that he used his strings and attached it to the baby. Nero transported towards the princess to snatch her but Cain manipulated the strings to dodge his brother.

Cain used force to throw the baby into the air as hard as he can before his shadow was bound by Nero. With such an unexpected event, Nero unbound him to run towards the princess but the situation was reversed. Cain bound his brother with an anti-magic amulet.

“PRINCESS!!!!”, Nero shouted as the baby was flying into the air.

“That’s enough of you looking at her. Only look at me, dear brother”, Cain buried his face to the ground.

“I very much like your horrified face. Do it more”, Cain smiled wickedly.

Nero wasn’t able to see as the princess flew towards the direction of the Forest of Rever where her survival seemed dire. As Nero was struggling to set himself free, his brother was suddenly thrown sideways. The queen went back to them with her mind in complete disarray.

“Your Highness!”, Nero approached her but was attacked instead.

‘Sh*t! The queen’s gone berserk. I need to restrain her before she tries to rampage any town’, Nero thought to himself as she looked at her eyes that seemed too empty. He had a harder time dealing with this. It was easier to kill someone rather than restraining them. If she was not the queen then everything would have ended seconds ago.

“Ooppsiiieee. This is out of my scope. I’m outta here. Good luck! ‘Till we meet again, brother”, Cain smirked as he left his brother alone fending the queen.

As Nera was about to attack him again, she was constrained by the King.

“That is enough, love”, Callahan whispered in her ears. The King carried her as she lost consciousness afterwards.

“Nero, lead the army and look for my daughter. I want her back”, Callahan deployed them.

The princess was about to roughly land unto the ground but was repelled by a barrier. She was softly settled down by a wind magic.

“Arraaaa?! A baby? This is unexpected”, Aurora the Oracle appeared. She picked her up and went inside the cottage.