*Phew…*

Alex sighed in relief as he walked down the same hallway that he used to go to his mother’s room.

Right now, he was walking back to his room after preventing the inevitable for a while.

[You know she wasn’t satisfied with that answer, right?]

Just then, an illusionary blue screen materialized in front of him, with those texts written over it while the same thing played in his head.

‘I know, but that is the best answer I can give her. I can’t tell her the whole truth for now…’

Alex muttered, his expression serious, as he knew a better way to tell his mother about everything; now, however, was not the right time for it.

‘And I wanted to look into you as soon as possible…’

But then he added, his tone taking a drastic turn, excitement, and desire clear in his voice, causing Sophie, who was sitting on the throne, to almost fall off it.

[Y-You what—! W-What did you say you want to do again?]

The suggestive tone in Alex’s voice was clear to her, and that was why her body turned fidgety and her voice turned panicky.

Alex’s words about showing her who the real boss was echoed in her head.

{H-He won’t, right?}

It wasn’t that she would hate it; she was fine with it—she was unbelievably fine with it.

The problem, however, was that she needed to explain things about the system, and after sex, she wouldn’t be able to do it.

She could still remember the kind of monster Alex was in bed as if it were yesterday, and just thinking about it made her pussy tingle, but just then…

‘Hahaha.’

Alex chuckled, his expression on the outside breaking, almost letting out a chuckle, but he controlled it.

He didn’t want to let it out in this grim atmosphere; he just walked with his head down.

The air was still heavy as people were still mourning for their dead children, so Alex, just like any other terrified child who had seen all that go down, walked silently.

[W-What are you laughing at?!]

Sophie, on the other hand, frowned, stammering as she questioned Alex. The moment she heard Alex’s chuckle, she knew that something was off.

‘Silly girl, I was talking about looking into the system, which is technically you.’

Alex shook his head inwardly as if he were not the one who intentionally said it like that to get Sophie riled up.

Just like Sophie, he didn’t forget his words from before, and he was going to teach her a lesson, but not right now.

For now, he would make do with just these light teasings.

[Y-You!!]

Sophie, who was still wondering what Alex was going to do and how he would do, couldn’t stop her face from letting out smokes of embarrassment as she heard Alex’s words.

She was left speechless.

‘Don’t ‘y-you!!’ me, I’m not the one to blame for your dirty mind, naughty girl.’

Alex, mimicking her words in the exact same way she spoke, chuckled, enjoying the emotions he could feel from Sophie, at least that would give him the idea of when to stop.

[You are the smaller one here! Don’t call me girl!]

Sophie couldn’t take it, so she raised her voice, and Alex, who knew that it was now the time to stop, raised his hand.

‘Alright, alright, I’ll stop it now.’

He knew that it was his fault for riling her up, but she deserved that much, so when he heard the frustration in her voice, he stopped.

[Hmph!]

Sophie, however, just huffed, as if angry, but in reality, she was just trying to divert her mind from sex, as she knew that thinking about it would just rile her up more.

“Young master.”

It was then that Alex heard a voice and turned back, only to find James walking toward him, his face stained with tear marks, clear that he had cried a lot. And why would he not? His lover died in that attack from Lucious.

Only James was lucky enough to survive, and that too because he had to wash Alex’s clothes, causing him to be a bit late for the ceremony.

“James.”

Alex, who saw the guy’s expression, sighed, and a bit of guilt hit him on the inside.

Instead of saving the girl, couldn’t he have asked his mother to save James’s lover?

It had slipped his mind at that time because, in his mind, James’s lover wasn’t really that important; he didn’t think what kind of effect it would have on the guy who had been taking care of all of his needs since childhood.

“Let me do your bed; you must be tired.”

James spoke before he walked forward, moving toward the door of Alex’s room, not wanting to engage in any conversation right now.

Alex, on the other hand, just clenched his fists.

How could he forget such an important thing?

Was it because of the memories he had gained?

Did it make him so detached that he didn’t care about those who weren’t connected to him directly?

He wasn’t really bothered by these memories before, as he could tell that it was for the better, but now he was a bit confused.

{Alex…}

Sophie, who could see this, was able to guess what Akex must be thinking, she knew him well enough to understand him.

Her anger, which she was using to divert her mind from her need for sex, dissipated, replaced by worry for Alex.

*Inhale**Exhale*

But Alex, feeling Sophie’s emotions, broke out of his thoughts and took a deep breath.

‘Look at the positive side.’

He thought to himself, thinking about the things he achieved by doing whatever he did.

He saved the empire from heading toward its downfall, and he stopped the problems that would’ve come his way.

So, it was all good, he got more than he lost.

‘Sorry, James.’

With a mental apology to James, he followed the guy, walking into the room and looking at him as the guy dusted his bed.

Alex could hear the low sobs that left the guy’s lips from time to time, but he didn’t point it out.

He could’ve just told the guy to go rest and that he would do it himself, but he didn’t, as he knew that even in this situation, where the guy had yet to overcome his grief—he couldn’t even stop his tears—he came here, just to do his bed.

This showed something.

James was his shadow, the person who was supposed to take a mortal attack for Alex if need be, so he wanted to show that he was still just that.

No matter what kind of situation it was, he would always be Alex’s shadow, and that is what he wanted to show Alex.

‘I see it, James, I see it.’

Alex spoke again, not out loud, but on the outside, his eyes focused on the guy’s back.

‘But you should know this: I don’t like seeing my people suffer. This was my fault, and I apologized for it, but it won’t happen again.

Not again would I let any of my close ones cry tears of grief.’

With that thought, Alex took a silent vow, staring at James as he bowed his head and walked out of the room.

He walked to the door, and as James walked out, he locked it from the inside and went to the bed, ready to go through his system interface, wanting to know what it was about.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep