When he came to his senses, his hands were already stained with blood.

“Y-Your Highness? While serving the Emperor… why on earth…! Kuhk!”

Zachary cut off the breath of the person writhing on the floor. He stared blankly at the severed neck spewing blood.

He had killed many. It was the first time he had killed so many people in such a short time. Behind Zachary, reeking of blood from head to toe, came the sound of a door opening.

Zachary looked blankly at Celestia, who had rushed out barefoot without even changing her clothes. She gazed dazedly at the scene before her eyes.

“Ugh!”

Celestia hastily covered her mouth at the pungent, fishy smell. Her shocked eyes twitched finely. The faces of the people brutally murdered by Zachary’s hands were all familiar.

Zachary, staring intently at Celestia’s face that looked about to burst into tears, slowly approached her.

“Welcome, Sister.”

“You, what is this…!”

“You must have enjoyed yourself. You got everything you wanted by using me.”

Zachary smiled brightly.

“So I also used some of your people a little. Just as you did.”

On the blood-soaked crimson earth where no one was left alive.

“That’s alright, isn’t it?”

All of Celestia’s subordinates lay dead.

“How dare you do this to me…!”

“Shouldn’t I be the one saying that? You’d better focus on preserving your life.”

Celestia collapsed to the ground as if fainting. Holy knights who had sworn allegiance before Zachary’s immense holy power surrounded her.

At Zachary’s nod, Celestia was subdued by the knights. She was dragged and placed on the imperial throne. The only seat where the Emperor could sit. Forcibly seated on the throne she had once so desperately desired, Celestia screamed, shedding tears of blood. But Zachary didn’t even flinch.

After throwing Celestia onto the throne where she could clearly see the corpses of her cherished subordinates, Zachary washed himself endlessly. He washed and washed until not even a trace of the blood smell could be felt before coming out of the water.

However, no matter how much he washed and applied fine perfumes, the bloodstains that clung like shadows wouldn’t disappear. With every step, Zachary felt as if blood-soaked hands were rising to grip his ankles. If he looked back, countless bloody footprints would be stamped along the path he had walked.

But it was alright if traces of sin remained deeply. It didn’t matter what price he had to pay.

“For you to welcome me personally like this, young master, I don’t know where to put myself.”

Finally, after going round and round.

“…Zachary.”

I’ve come to stand before you.

Ah, Zachary was elated. The moment he stood before Oscar, he realized a thirst he hadn’t been aware of until now. The instant their eyes met, it felt as if a drop of water had fallen on his heart, twisted and parched like a drought. Goosebumps rose, making his hair stand on end.

Only now did he feel truly alive. Yet even though he had brought Oscar, for some reason the thirst wasn’t quenched but intensified.

“L-listen, Zachary. I, who have studied sorcery, might be of some use. I’ll help you. While you stay here, I’ll somehow resolve the remnants of the spell left in you. Then you’ll be free too. After that, you can… do whatever you want with me. I’m from the family that tormented you for years and used you as a servant. Just let me break the spell first, and then you can do whatever you want…”

For Zachary, every moment with Oscar was like hell, then…

“…Whatever you do, I don’t mind. It was always alright with you.”

Like heaven, then…

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

With just a single word, he was plunged back into the mire.

His heart changed dozens, hundreds of times a day. Resentment, hatred, and affection mixed in a chaotic mess. Oscar was lovable, and that’s why the moments when Oscar pushed him away felt even more terrible.

‘Would it all end if I just died?’

Sometimes, watching Oscar sleep deeply, Zachary was overwhelmed by all sorts of impulses. If he broke this slender neck and then followed in death. Would all the emotions tormenting him disappear then?

‘But…’

In the end, he couldn’t strangle Oscar’s neck. Zachary tried countless times to strangle Oscar in the dim dawn, but only gained the realization that he could never kill him.

‘Am I going mad?’

He couldn’t understand the cause of all these cruel and terrible impulses. If he were in his right mind, he would never even imagine killing Oscar. His mind was being eroded by the voice whispering endlessly in his ear to kill Oscar and find peace. Zachary looked down at the sleeping Oscar with blank eyes.

He didn’t know what to do. Where had it gone so wrong? He wanted to go back to the Serpentine mansion. Back to when he called Oscar “young master.” He didn’t mind suffering from any spell.

But their relationship sank irretrievably, like falling into a swamp.

“Keep refusing. If you do, I’ll kill everyone in order, starting with your wife and ending with your siblings.”

Zachary grew angry every time Oscar rejected him. It was an expression of his twisted heart.

“Zacha, ry. Zachary.”

Zachary wavered dozens of times a day.

When Oscar called his name and reached out his hand, a strange feeling kept welling up. He felt like he would go crazy with love at the sight of Oscar desperately seeking only him.

But at the same time, the fact that he had no place in Oscar’s heart came to mind again. He wanted to pour out his frustration, asking why Oscar wouldn’t give him his heart while calling him in such a plaintive voice.

Why did you abandon me? Aren’t you still planning to abandon me and return to your loved ones even now?

Will you really never give me your heart until the very end?

He wanted to ask everything, but in the end, he couldn’t. Because if Oscar affirmed it, everything would end.

One day, while suffering from strangely intense anger and impulsive emotions, Zachary finally realized.

‘Madness…’

It was the price for the slaughter he committed with holy power. He recognized that he was breaking down, but there was no way to solve it. It would be best to reduce the use of holy power, but he hadn’t found ‘that’ yet.

He could only hope to find it before he went completely mad and lost control of his body. After that, maybe… he might be able to return to how things were before. Even knowing it was a foolish and vain hope, Zachary couldn’t help but harbor a futile expectation. Because he didn’t know any other way to turn things back.

“O, scar?”

This wasn’t what he wanted. Not at all.

To think that Oscar would die because of him.

He looked down blankly at the limp body that had lost consciousness. Then he hurriedly took off his outer garment, spread it on the floor, and moved Oscar to lie on it. Zachary put his ear to Oscar’s chest.

…Thump, thump.

He heard the faint sound of a heartbeat.

Fortunately, Oscar was alive. Only then did Zachary release the breath he had been holding without realizing it. A desperate breath flowed out, like someone on the verge of suffocation.

The peacefully sleeping face was covered in blood. Zachary began to wipe Oscar’s face very carefully with trembling hands.

“Oscar…”

“…”

There was no answer. The blood had already started to dry, making it difficult to wipe off properly. The bloodstains seemed to keep spreading.

“You knew.”

Zachary muttered in a rough voice.

“You knew.”

The look in Oscar’s eyes as he gazed at him before losing consciousness remained etched in his mind, refusing to disappear. Even the desperate gaze that seemed to say not to listen to any words.

Oscar knew. The fact that Zachary’s holy power was killing him.

But even so, Oscar had never said a word about it.

Why? For what reason?

Amidst the questions blooming painfully, he lifted Oscar’s hand, which seemed about to lose its warmth at any moment, and pressed it against his cheek. Like when he was young and sought comfort under that hand with his ailing body, he crumpled his large frame and repeatedly rubbed his cheek against that hand.

But unlike then, there was no hand to caress him. Even though he held it desperately, it kept going limp. Zachary grabbed that hand over and over again, and then…

“Why…, why on earth…”

Finally broke down.

There was a ringing in his ears. He couldn’t breathe from the pain that felt like his heart was splitting. A groan mixed with crying escaped through Zachary’s teeth.

‘You… were afraid I would get hurt.’

Kind Oscar, why are you so gentle? To me, who was killing you… Oscar’s kindness, cruel in its gentleness, tore him apart.

“What have I been doing all this time…”

After coming to the Empire, he knew that Oscar’s physical condition was gradually worsening. Oscar, who had been sickly since childhood, often fell ill and had many unknown chronic diseases. Every time Oscar coughed up blood in front of him, Zachary wanted to drain all the blood from his own body and give it to him. He wanted to transfer his tenacious vitality to Oscar instead. That’s why Zachary tried his best to find ‘that’.

It was the Elixir, a sacred object passed down in the Holy Empire, said to be able to revive even the dead.

There was only one reason why he frantically searched for the Elixir, which supposedly only those of imperial blood could use.

If he could just find it, Oscar would no longer need to fear any illness. If the Elixir could make all the diseases tormenting Oscar disappear. If he could save Oscar.

“Not knowing that I was the one killing you.”

Wishing that even once, Oscar would look back at him with kind eyes and say thank you. Willing to beg if necessary, hoping that Oscar’s eyes would hold him…

Not knowing that the shadow of death cast over Oscar was his own, Zachary had run like that.