Chapter 872.2
Baris widened his eyes in shock, and Davey, who had been listening silently, let out a hollow laugh, his eyes closed.
‘A father sent the head of someone his son loved?’
The woman had been a childhood friend who had stood by Maximus’s side, bringing him meals as he trained and sharing in laughter with him. Her name was Roina.
“Next to her severed head was a letter. Although the box was soaked with blood, the letter was somehow pristine white. It felt like it was mocking me with its purity.”
The letter said that Maximus no longer had the right to smile, to be happy—not after disgracing his kingdom by losing the tournament. If he wished to avenge Roina, he was to grow stronger and prove himself in the next tournament.
It wasn’t motivation; it was pure cruelty, an order designed to break him by his one and only father.
The severed head of the woman he loved didn’t smile at him or cry for him. It simply lay there, frozen in silence.
But the punishment didn’t end there.
The king declared Roina’s baronial family as traitors and annihilated them, sparing only Roina’s younger sister, Loisa. She was forced to become a servant. He placed her by Maximus to serve him—a constant reminder of his failure.