Please get me out of this BL novel...I'm straight!-Chapter 228: ’No More Hesitation’

Heinz’s fingers tightened around the frames of his glasses, the metal biting into his skin. His breath came slow, controlled—too controlled. A practiced veneer of calm, masking the storm raging beneath.

’Kill them.’

The thought slithered through his mind, dark and commanding, coiling tighter around the burning embers of his fury. These wretches. These pathetic creatures who dared to invoke his father’s name as if it held any worth. As if the man they worshiped had been anything but a failure.

’Destroy them all.’

The firelight flickered in their wide, eager eyes, reflecting their blind devotion. Fools, clinging to a corpse of a cause, to a kingdom that no longer existed. It would be so easy—so, so easy—to show them the truth. To carve it into their flesh and let their dying screams be the lesson they should have learned long ago.

’Let them see who I am. Let them choke on their hatred when they realize the king they despise stands before them.’

His heartbeat drummed against his ribs, heavy and unrelenting, matching the rush of blood in his ears. A sick part of him—the one buried beneath years of restraint—wanted to indulge. To see their faces twist in agony, to watch their pathetic hope crumble beneath the weight of his wrath.

And he could do it.

One word, one command, and Azure would descend upon them. In mere moments, these traitors would be nothing more than broken bodies, their spilled blood steaming against the cold earth. He could drown their defiance in crimson, paint the dirt in ruin, tear apart their feeble resistance like paper in a storm.

But—

A face flickered through his mind.

Stubborn. Frustrated. A little naïve, but undeniably determined.

Florian.

Heinz’s grip faltered.

’Why?’

Why was he thinking of that now? Why was that face—so damnably sincere—intruding on his thoughts? Florian’s belief, his conviction that this place could still be saved, that there was something worth salvaging—why should that matter?

It didn’t.

’He’s just a pawn. A means to an end. Nothing more.’

Heinz exhaled sharply, fingers twitching. And yet...

Augustus moved.

Subtle. Barely noticeable. Just a flick of his fingers. But Heinz saw it.

And then—

Kane bolted.

His hand closed around Florian’s wrist.

For one breath, Heinz’s blood ran cold.

What—

He took a step forward, his instincts screaming—but hands clamped down on him. Fingers dug into his arms, his shoulders, his coat—gripping, yanking, pulling him back.

"Bastards," Heinz snarled, struggling against them, but they had numbers, they had weight, and they were desperate. He wrenched his arm free, only for another to take its place.

’Fuck.’

His hesitation had cost him.

He heard Florian’s sharp gasp. Saw the blood—fresh, trailing down his temple, dripping faster than before. Saw Kane’s grip tighten, his fingers tangling in Florian’s hair, yanking his head back.

Ah.

Something inside Heinz snapped.

His body moved before his mind did, muscles coiling, ready to rip them apart—

But then—

The villagers moved too. Hands plunged into their pockets.

Something glinted in the firelight.

Mana stones.

Magic.

His throat burned with a curse. His pulse thundered, his stomach twisted. He had wasted time. He had hesitated, let his thoughts tangle and stall him. And now Florian—

A flicker of fear surged through his gut. He crushed it beneath rage.

Fury erupted inside him, raw and consuming. His breath turned sharp. His vision narrowed, darkened. His limbs trembled—not with fear, not with hesitation—but with the sheer, unrelenting pressure of something vicious clawing its way to the surface.

’This is why emotions are such bullshit.’

They thought they could take him down. They thought they could take Florian away from him.

They had no idea what they had just unleashed.

His fury twisted, sharpened into something lethal.

Something indiscriminate.

Fine.

Heinz exhaled slowly, the rage within him simmering to a boil, controlled yet on the verge of spilling over. His fingers curled around his glasses, his grip tightening just for a moment before—

He slid them off.

The shift was instantaneous.

A cascade of long, midnight-black strands fell past his shoulders, freed from their illusion. His once-muted eyes bled into a deep, violent crimson, gleaming like embers in the firelight.

And just like that—

The laughter, the sneers, the resolve in their expressions shattered.

The fear came first. A flicker, quick and sharp, flashing through the eyes of the nearest villagers. Their bodies stiffened, their fingers trembling over the mana stones they clutched so desperately.

Then, the recognition.

Augustus faltered, his breath caught in his throat. His weathered face, once so full of smug certainty, slackened into something wide-eyed and stark. His lips parted, barely able to shape the word that clawed its way out.

"Y-Your... Majesty?"

Ah.

There it was.

That delicious moment of realization.

Heinz’s smirk curled at the edges, slow and deliberate, his head tilting ever so slightly as he watched the horror bloom across their faces. His chest felt light—thrumming with something dangerous, something intoxicating.

Fear.

It had been so long since he’d seen it like this. Pure, unfiltered terror, stripped of arrogance, of resistance. How pathetic. They had barked so loudly just moments before, filled with self-righteous fury, filled with the conviction that they could stand against him.

Now, they trembled.

"Go on," Heinz murmured, his voice smooth, inviting, dripping with amusement. He raised a brow, gesturing vaguely with his glasses still held loosely between his fingers. "Repeat what you just said. Please."

Silence.

The flames crackled, devouring the village that had already crumbled around them.

The villagers exchanged frantic glances. One of them swallowed thickly, their grip on their mana stone faltering. Another took a half-step back, barely perceptible, but Heinz caught it.

Cowards.

His smirk deepened.

"What’s the matter?" he prodded, his voice lilting with cruel amusement. "Surely, you were bold enough to say it before. Come now—don’t let me stop you."

No one moved. No one spoke.

He could feel their fear now. Could see the way it slithered into their veins, seizing their limbs, clouding their certainty.

This—this was how it should be.

This was where they belonged. Beneath him. Powerless. Helpless.

"Nothing to say?" Heinz chuckled, slow and mocking. He shifted his weight forward slightly, watching them flinch. "How disappointing."

’I’ll end this quick.’

Then he’ll grab Florian and go home.