“The king has kidnapped the prince, and the Holy Empire is currently in turmoil due to a dispute over the throne. They said that the disappearance of one prince wouldn’t make much difference, and since there’s no need for negotiations, they told us to deal with him.”

What kind of nonsense is this?

It was absurd. Regardless of the empire’s turmoil or the abundance of princes and princesses under the emperor, the disappearance of a legitimate prince couldn’t possibly go unnoticed.

My mother looked at the duke with disbelief, as if questioning whether he truly believed what he was saying. The duke himself, despite his loyalty to the royal family, seemed quite disturbed by the message he conveyed.

“What’s the reason? Why tell us to handle this, and what are we supposed to do with him here?”

My mother seemed to have caught on, but her face expressed a mix of disbelief and understanding. If the king bypassed other prominent families and specifically entrusted this to the Serpentine family, his intentions were clear.

Our family was known for using bizarre sorcery but rarely resorted to taking lives.

Instead, we destroyed minds.

If the Serpentine family was tasked with handling the prince, it was evident the king didn’t intend for us to kill him.

“…The king thought it amusing to have the prince of the Holy Empire become a puppet of Serpentine, spending his life under our control.”

But was the term ‘bestowed’ really appropriate for such a situation?

Even though the king used the term ‘bestowed,’ I couldn’t imagine using such an expression even in jest, but it seems the duke’s loyalty is indeed profound. To be tasked with handling a dangerous individual who could potentially bring about repercussions, and to call it a ‘bestowal’?

‘Is it really okay to meddle with the prince of the empire?’

Even though the Holy Empire’s reputation might not be what it once was, they still have enough power to bring down a kingdom. Looking at the bigger picture, the emperor’s sudden loss of consciousness due to illness and the ensuing succession struggle might have preoccupied the empire for now. But this could provide a pretext for an invasion of our kingdom in the future.

“My brother went mad over a woman and insisted on…”

Could my mother, who comes from royal lineage, quietly overlook such a mad situation? She couldn’t hide her dismay, placing her hand on her forehead. And her mention of a woman – could it be that the rumor is true?

‘The king once coveted the empress of the Holy Empire.’

There was a rumor. Before she became the empress of the Holy Empire, the king of Solaris had been smitten with her. He courted her after a chance encounter but failed, and he was deeply troubled when the woman he admired became the emperor’s consort.

However, this was such an old tale, with no clear evidence, it was almost like grasping at straws. And people stopped even whispering about it, fearing retribution from the king.

“Jealousy has its limits, what madness is this? Are you in your right mind? You know what it means to have the prince of the empire kidnapped and held here. Even if we all keep our mouths shut—”

The look of utter disbelief on my mother’s face suggested that the rumor might indeed be true.

“I must go and speak to him myself.”

“Adel.”

The duke looked at her in alarm. As he shook his head, warning her against confronting the king, my mother scowled and turned her head away sharply.

“He’s your brother.”

“It’s been ages since our relationship soured.”

I was reminded that the current king was my mother’s brother. Their relationship had been strained ever since he had practically forced her into marriage here, especially after he started to show animosity towards me.

Amidst the duke’s restlessness and my mother’s anger, I felt out of place.

‘Why did he have to tell us this?’

Even though the duke had opened up to us over the past nine years, I wished I had remained ignorant of this fact.

How fearful and uncomfortable it would be to think of the empire from now on.

“Uh…”

Just then, the prince seemed to regain consciousness and let out a faint groan. My mother flinched and turned to look at him, and both the duke and I followed her gaze.

“Where is this…”

The young prince looked utterly disheveled, indicative of the many ordeals he must have endured en route here. His face was dirtied like a vagrant from the streets, and then, beneath the dust-covered eyelids, bright blue eyes were revealed.

“…!”

Confronted with those blue eyes, I was rendered speechless, my face frozen in astonishment.

It wasn’t merely the blue eyes that shocked me. I knew theoretically that the direct descendants of the Thaddeus Empire’s royal family, with strong inherent divine power, were born with deep blue eyes. However, my astonishment stemmed from something else.

Blue eyes, the Thaddeus Empire, a prince, divine power.

“I am Zachary Thaddeus, prince of Thaddeus. If you release me now…”

Blue eyes, the Thaddeus Empire, a prince, divine power…

‘Zachary.’

Why hadn’t I realized it?

Knowing this simple setting, how could I not have recognized it?

I knew of him, and I was familiar with descriptions of those blue eyes. They shone endlessly blue when touched by light and subtly changed when he used his divine power before returning to normal.

I even knew what he was about to say next. So, his following line would be:

‘Just spare my life.’

“Just spare my life.”

Chills ran down my spine as I couldn’t take my eyes off the bound figure.

As I stared blankly, the long banner symbolizing our family caught my eye behind him. I gazed quietly at the serpentine emblem and murmured to myself.

“Serpentine…”

Yes, the name of this family.

It had felt vaguely familiar when I first heard it, but I hadn’t thought much of it then.

Memories of occasional déjà vu and a strange familiarity with this world, despite its foreignness, since my arrival here, flowed through my mind like water.

‘Solaris royalty has brick-colored hair and amber eyes as a sign of pure bloodline. There were even instances of inbreeding in the past to preserve this trait… The royal family glorified it as a symbol of golden authority.’

These settings, familiar from somewhere.

‘The Serpentine family, known for its bizarre sorceries and symbolized by the winding snake, has always had a particularly hostile relationship with the Holy Empire, as many consider their practices an affront to the gods…’

Why had I not realized this until now?

I felt like I might scream if I just stood there. I backed away, covering my mouth with a pale, shocked face.

“What madness is this? This place is so displeasing. Are you very shocked, Oscar? Shall we go outside together?”

Seeing my pale face, my mother looked worried and gently suggested we leave.

Normally, I would have promptly responded to her suggestion, but now I could only mutter to myself in shock.

“…”

The title of a novel.

The name of the book that contained all these settings!

‘Is this the world of that book?’

I had believed I was simply reincarnated, so there seemed no reason to compare my past readings with my current life. Who would suspect their second chance at life to be a world from a novel?

I truly believed… I had been given a new life in a new world. Perhaps this belief suppressed any suspicion that this could be the world of a book.

But the greater issue lay elsewhere.

Even if I was in a book’s world, I had lived happily for 14 years. This place was no longer just a book’s world to me; it was my second life.

So, the mere fact of being in a book’s world shouldn’t have caused such despair. The reason for my utter dismay was something else.

The Serpentine family I was now part of.

There were a few brief lines about this family at the beginning of the book.

The content was mostly what I already knew. Eerie, dark, practitioners of sorcery and curses.

But they had meddled with the prince of the Holy Empire.

“…Zachary.”

Zachary Thaddeus, the protagonist, gets kidnapped and mentally shattered by them.

‘We all die.’

After his awakening, the entire Serpentine family is annihilated.

The scenes describing their gruesome deaths were vivid enough for me to recall in detail.

My beautiful mother is skinned alive, the duke is torn apart and disintegrated to the point that no trace of his body remains. And the heir? Erhan is devoured by insects, and I…

“…am chopped to pieces with a meat cleaver.”

The second son of the Serpentine family, a mere extra without even a name in the book, is brutally dismembered with a dull kitchen knife, inadequate for cutting through bone, and dies while still alive.

“Ugh, urk.”

“My goodness, Oscar?!”

I felt like vomiting. I might faint or collapse any moment.

As I collapsed backward, unable to maintain my balance any longer, I could hear my mother rushing towards me and the duke calling my name in alarm. But in my falling state, my gaze remained fixed on one thing. The young boy, kneeling in the center, had eyes of such a deep blue they almost appeared black.

This young child would later shred the Serpentine family to pieces for their sorcery and torture inflicted upon him. He was destined to become the male protagonist of a dark fantasy novel, ultimately turning Solaris into a sea of flames and wreaking havoc on all who tormented him.

‘Zachary Thaddeus.’

The future of the protagonist spelled nothing less than a death sentence for me.