Is this a twisted possessiveness towards me born from the side effects of the spell, or a desire for revenge to isolate me from the world? But there was no need to question such things now. He had already committed murder. Moreover, he harbored murderous intent towards those around me.

I recalled the description from the original work. Zachary, looking no different from an evil spirit covered in blood from head to toe.

On his face, driven mad by divine punishment for his indiscriminate slaughter…

Blue light, remnants of uncontrolled holy power, pooled like a sheen of water in the corners of his eyes, just as I had seen moments ago.

Until now, I had made every effort to prevent his rampage. Had all that struggle been for nothing?

‘In the end…’

We had finally stepped onto the trajectory of the original story.

I backed away, my face pale. In that state, I kept shaking my head.

‘I… I ruined everything. It’s all my fault.’

Now that we had moved closer to the original story, there was nothing more I could do. There was someone else who could save Zachary. Recalling the original work, I muttered:

“This isn’t right… It shouldn’t be me by your side, but someone else. Zachary…”

“…Someone else?”

“Yes, someone else.”

My incompetent presence by his side would only have a negative influence. I shouldn’t be next to him. For the sake of countless lives and this world. And above all, for Zachary’s sake.

“Someone else, who?”

He gripped my shoulders with fierce strength. Seeing his crumpled face, looking like he might pounce at any moment, a thought suddenly struck me.

‘If I confessed that I liked you…’

I squeezed my eyes shut.

‘Would you try to kill me, saying I’m disgusting?’

Or would you be satisfied, your twisted possessiveness fulfilled?

‘Then what about us?’

What would become of my relationship with Zachary? Though it’s already a mess…

“Answer me.”

Zachary demanded an answer from me. Unable to hide my wavering expression, I opened my mouth slightly before firmly closing it.

Would he believe me if I told him that there exists a destined partner who can save him? That there’s someone arranged for him and this world, so he should leave quickly. But it didn’t seem like he would believe me even if I said it.

“Ah-“

Meanwhile, Zachary’s anger had reached its peak. Whatever he had imagined, he glared at me with a face flushed up to his neck and said:

“Are you telling me to find someone who spreads their legs better than you?”

I raised my head, my face deathly pale.

“…What?”

“That’s right. Suddenly telling me to go to someone else. Am I so disgusting now that you don’t even want to mix bodies with me anymore?”

Zachary sneered.

“Looks like you’re determined to get rid of me.”

With each word Zachary spoke, the wounds only multiplied.

“But you know what? I’m already more than satisfied with you, Oscar.”

Though they were words meant to mock and torment me, for some reason, the more he spoke, the more shattered his eyes became.

“No, more than satisfied – overflowing, even. So even though you’re always thinking of abandoning me, I… even then, I… like a beast knowing nothing, I just kept thrusting my cock into you, and came here.”

After a moment of silence, Zachary spoke in a subdued voice.

“Not knowing you would abandon me.”

I absolutely couldn’t bear to hear him say I had abandoned him.

“Ah, no.”

The night I spent with Zachary before he left was about to fade. It wasn’t to abandon him…

Until I reunited with Zachary, what sustained me was the memory of that night. His face as he confessed he liked me, and every memory of the moment I held him tightly were invaluable to me.

My vision blurred. I didn’t want to show a crying face, but I couldn’t stop the tears. Each of his twisted words and actions kept clawing at my heart.

“Why are you crying?”

Zachary roughly pulled my face towards him.

I didn’t want to show my face to him, but our eyes met in the end.

“Why are you crying?”

In the end, tears I couldn’t swallow flowed down my cheeks. Lacking the courage to face the changed Zachary, I closed my eyes and tried to compose my emotions.

If I looked at Zachary’s face now, I would end up confessing everything. My weak inner self whispered to reveal all the truth and find relief. Just like how I once wanted to stay in Serpentine, not wanting to send him back to the Empire. But I knew I shouldn’t, and didn’t want to.

I wanted to keep the fact that we were characters in a book hidden until the end. He wasn’t just a being made of letters. He was the prince of the Holy Empire with such intense vitality that it felt like I would burn up just looking at him. My feelings for him were also living, breathing emotions.

As I cried silently, tears falling steadily, I felt his hand gripping my chin loosen.

“Are they so precious to you?”

He spat out, as if dumbfounded.

“If only you had cried like this when you met me…”

Zachary, who had been staring at me briefly, was about to leave me behind. My vision was so blurred with tears that even my hand reaching out to him was unclear.

He strode firmly towards the door as if he would never return. There was no hesitation in his steps. Suddenly, an overwhelming anxiety swept over me.

“Ah, no.”

Perhaps he was about to carry out what he had just said. Uncontrolled holy power flickered throughout Zachary’s body.

If he left now, it felt like he would do something terrible. I rose unsteadily, a complete mess.

“Zacha, ry. Zachary.”

With a clank, knights in white armor immediately followed behind Zachary. With that sight, the door slammed shut.

I stared blankly at the closed door. Zachary’s back, which I had seen last, was so unfamiliar.

Only then did I realize that I had never properly seen Zachary’s back before. Every time, he had looked at me, never showing his back to me. He never turned away from me. To me, he…

“Ugh.”

At that moment, I felt something surge up from inside. At the same time, a cough burst out, and after hacking for a while, I roughly wiped my mouth.

‘…Blood?’

There was pitch-black blood on my hand.

The unusually dark clot of blood was strange, unlike usual.

‘Could it be…’

Suddenly, the holy power that had emanated from Zachary flashed through my mind. Looking back, my whole body would ache whenever I encountered holy power. Even spitting out such black blood… But I couldn’t be sure. I didn’t know much about holy power myself. I stared at my hand stained with black blood, then turned my gaze blankly towards the window outside.

And the next day, and the day after that… Zachary didn’t come to see me.

I couldn’t even go outside. It was the beginning of my confinement.

***

Last night, Celestia had a nightmare. It was a dream where people who had become corpses, submerged in pools of blood, were wailing. After waking up, Celestia recalled those who had met miserable deaths. Naturally, her footsteps led her to a place in the imperial palace where the massacre had taken place.

Celestia stood on the damp red earth where all her subordinates had perished, then raised her head.

“Ha…”

How many nobles and knights had sacrificed their lives for her… As she recalled the numerous deaths with a deathly pale face, she suddenly looked up at the sky and gritted her teeth.

‘Zachary.’

They say a drowning man will clutch at straws, but this wasn’t right. No matter how desperately she needed power, this wasn’t the way to obtain it.

“How long has it been since you set foot on your homeland, and now you’re trying to return right away?”

Not knowing that what he held was a merciless blade…

“Zachary.”

Celestia recalled the day she had willingly entered the jaws of the monster.