I Killed The Main Characters

Leo von Velden sat alone in the dimly lit confines of his quarters.

The weight of recent events pressing down on him like an unrelenting storm.

The flicker of candlelight cast long, wavering shadows on the stone walls.

Yet they offered little solace to the turmoil in his mind.

His gaze was fixed on the floor.

Though his thoughts drifted far beyond the cold, confining room he occupied.

Princess Elara.

His sister.

Experience tales at empire

He clenched his fists, his breathing uneven as the memory of the cemetery's possession resurfaced.

It had happened in the heart of the academy—a sacred place of learning turned to chaos.

At first, he had been sure Professor Caelan was behind it all.

Caelan, the sharp-eyed instructor who had once served as a royal tutor at the Imperial Palace.

He and Elara had a troubled history.

Their encounters marked by tension and mistrust.

Caelan had always been cold and exacting, his disdain for Elara poorly veiled.

And Leo, as her brother, had hated him for it.

So when the possession occurred, it was natural—almost reflexive—for him to suspect Caelan.

But then, in the aftermath of the cemetery incident, the truth had surfaced, leaving him more shaken than vindicated.

Caelan was dead.

Not just dead—murdered in the most brutal, horrific way imaginable.

His body had been found in another side of the cemetery.

Limbs severed and scattered.

His throat slashed deeply enough to nearly decapitate him.

The wound across his torso was so grotesque it appeared almost ritualistic.

The image of Caelan's mutilated corpse haunted Leo.

Although it was in a blind bag being taken out of the academy along with the dead knights.

If Caelan wasn't the one behind Elara's possession, then who? And why?

What piece of the puzzle was he missing?

"...But if he was the one behind it...only a psycho would kill themselves as well..."

"But from the looks of how his body pieces were found, someone definitely brought an end to him..."

"...Self hired assassination maybe?"

The room seemed to close in around him.

The walls narrowing as his thoughts spiraled deeper into confusion.

He reached up, rubbing his temples in frustration.

His mind replayed the events, seeking answers in fragments of memory.

That was when his fingers brushed against something in his blazer pocket—

A folded piece of parchment.

Leo frowned, pulling it out.

For a moment, he stared at it in confusion, the edges of the letter worn but the folds crisp.

He didn't remember putting it there.

His thoughts flicked back to earlier that day.

To the shadowy figure he'd bumped into near the faculty building.

Dressed in pristine attire, the man had carried a walking cane and moved with an air of effortless authority.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Leo hadn't seen his face, only the briefest glimpse before the figure disappeared into the crowd.

At the time, he'd thought little of it—

A mere stranger passing by.

But now, as he unfolded the letter, unease coiled tightly in his chest.

The parchment was blank at first glance.

Save for a single line written in elegant, deliberate script.

---

"Princess Ellara killed the First Prince of the Empire..."

---

The words slammed into Leo with the force of a hammer.

And his entire body went rigid.

He read the line again, his hands trembling, hoping—praying—he had misread it.

But the words didn't change.

They stared back at him, stark and unyielding.

The First Prince.

Their elder brother.

"..." Leo muttered, his voice barely audible over the pounding of his heart.

His thoughts raced, each one more desperate than the last.

This had to be a lie.

A cruel, malicious ploy by some unknown enemy.

Elara could never… she would never—

His breath hitched, and his grip on the letter faltered.

It slipped from his trembling hands, drifting to the floor like a dead leaf.

In his haste to stand, his knee struck the edge of the table, sending a porcelain inkpot toppling over.

It shattered against the stone floor, black ink pooling around the fragments.

The sound was sharp, jarring in the oppressive silence of the room.

Yet Leo hardly noticed.

His wide, disbelieving eyes remained fixed on the letter where it lay amidst the broken shards.

"This..."

He whispered, his voice cracking.

He staggered back, his mind reeling.

A murderer?

His hands clenched into fists, his nails digging into his palms until they nearly drew blood.

"No. It couldn't be true..."

And yet…

Doubt wormed its way into his mind, insidious and relentless.

The timing of the possession, the cemetery incident.

Caelan's death—it all felt too connected to be coincidence.

Was there something about Elara he didn't know?

Something she had kept hidden from him?

His knees buckled, and he sank onto the edge of his bed, his head in his hands.

The weight of the letter's accusation threatened to crush him.

Had he failed her?

As her brother, as her protector—had he been so blind to her struggles that he hadn't seen the darkness creeping in?

Or was this simply a lie meant to sow discord and mistrust?

The broken inkpot lay forgotten on the floor.

The spreading stain mirroring the chaos in his mind.

Leo's thoughts were interrupted by the faint sound of footsteps outside his door.

A knock followed, hesitant and muffled.

"Your Highness?"

Came a voice, tentative and cautious. It was one of the palace attendants.

"Is everything all right?"

Leo forced himself to take a deep breath, schooling his expression into something resembling composure.

"Yes," he called out, though his voice was strained.

"I'm fine. Leave me."

There was a pause, then the sound of retreating footsteps.

Once the hallway was silent again, Leo let out a shaky exhale.

He leaned back against the cold stone wall.

His mind racing with questions he couldn't answer.

Who had left him the letter?

Why now?

And most importantly—what was he going to do?

Leo's gaze drifted to the fallen letter once more, the words burned into his memory.

"Princess Ellara killed the First Prince of the Empire..."

***

Maya Branthall paced back and forth in her dorm.

Her footsteps muffled by the thick carpet beneath her boots.

Her hands fidgeted at her sides.

Alternately clasping and unclasping as if grasping for a solution that wasn't there.

The room was dim, lit only by the faint orange glow of a setting sun filtering through the heavy curtains.

Shadows flickered along the walls.

Her mind was a storm.

A hurricane of emotions that refused to settle.

The curse on Noah Ashbourne was a blight, an anchor dragging them both into a darkness she didn't know how to escape.

For days, she had thought of little else—

She wanted to hate him.

Truly, she did.

But hate was a slippery thing, never quite fitting right in her heart when it came to him.

At least it seemed that way at certain times.

And yet, the engagement had been a disaster from the start.

A political gambit orchestrated by her family, the Brenthalls, and his, the Ashbournes.

An arrangement meant to seal alliances and strengthen their respective estates.

She had never wanted it, never asked for it, but rejecting it had never been an option.

Not with her family's future on the line.

She clenched her fists.

It wasn't fair.

None of it was.

She hadn't chosen this path, and yet she was the one forced to walk it.

Every step, every misstep—it all came back to Noah.

His wretched fate.

And the way it had become her problem too.

Her pacing quickened, her breaths shallow.

She had tried to think of ways out, hadn't she?

A dozen schemes, each more desperate than the last.

Break the engagement?

Unthinkable.

The political fallout would ruin her family.

Appeal to the court?

Useless.

No one cared for personal grievances when dynasties were at stake.

Run away?

Laughable.

She could never outrun the weight of her name, her duty, or her guilt.

Her guilt.

It sat heavy on her chest.

A constant reminder that she had considered—however briefly—abandoning him to his fate.

But that wasn't an option either

She couldn't abandon him.

She couldn't save him

She couldn't even save herself.

The realization struck her like a blow.

She froze mid-step, her gaze dropping to the floor as if the answer might be written there.

Hidden in the grain of the wood or the weave of the carpet.

But there were no answers, only the same suffocating questions.

'What do I do?'

The thought circled her mind.

Growing louder with every repetition until it was a deafening roar.

Her hands flew to her temples.

Pressing hard as if she could force the chaos into silence.

But it didn't work.

The storm raged on, a thousand conflicting emotions and misjudgments crashing against each other in a battle she couldn't hope to win.

And then, in the eye of that storm, a single, chilling thought emerged.

[Kill him]

The words came unbidden, startling her with their clarity.

She blinked, her breath catching as if she'd spoken them aloud.

But she hadn't.

Had she?

Her hands fell to her sides, trembling.

[Kill him]

The thought lingered, taking root, spreading like poison.

He was the cause of all this, wasn't he?

The curse, the engagement, the endless spiral of misery and doubt—

Every problem led back to him.

If he were gone, it would all end.

The engagement would be nullified

The curse would be silenced.

The Ashbournes would have no hold over her family.

Her chest heaved as the idea solidified, terrible in its simplicity.

It was the only solution left.

Every other path was blocked, every other option impossible.

But this… this she could do.

Her lips parted as if to protest the thought, but no sound came.

Instead, her mind filled with the image of him—Noah Ashbourne.

She had wanted to scream at him, to shake him.

To make him feel even a fraction of the anguish she carried.

But he never wavered, never broke.

And now, she realized, she didn't need him to break.

She needed him to disappear.

Her nails dug into her palms, sharp enough to sting.

She welcomed the pain.

It kept her grounded as her resolve hardened.

She wouldn't do it out of malice, she told herself.

This wasn't about revenge or anger.

It was necessity.

A clean cut to sever the tangled knot of their fates.

"I'll do it.."

She whispered, the words barely audible in the heavy stillness of the room.

Her voice shook, but her conviction didn't.

"I'll kill him...

...It's the only way."

For a moment, she didn't recognize herself—

The shadowed eyes.

The tense set of her jaw.

The weight of her decision written plainly across her face.

But there was no turning back now.

[Kill him]

It was the only solution left.