God was not on my side. As if telling me to wake up quickly, a ray of sunlight coming through the curtains brightly shone on my eyes.

‘Ah. Damn it.’

I could have slept a little longer, but why did the sunlight have to come this way? Yawning and slowly sitting up, I saw the messy bed, reflecting the commotion of last night. The blanket was crumpled here and there, and Zachary, who was sprawled out, had his arm extended towards me.

‘You sleep so soundly…’

Seeing his face sleeping peacefully as if nothing had happened, I couldn’t help but smile wryly.

Recently, I came to understand the struggles of parents trying to put their child to sleep. Putting a person to sleep was a difficult task in many ways.

I got out of bed with a face full of fatigue and stood by the window with a glass of water.

In the garden, there was a fountain that had been brought in yesterday to celebrate my coming of age. I tried to dissuade them, asking what this fountain engraved with my name was doing in this historic mansion, but this time, neither the Duke nor my mother backed down.

‘What the hell is that side by side?’

Of course, I thought it was a monstrosity.

Beyond that, there was a memorial fountain commemorating Erhan’s birth, which was at least a little cooler. Erhan’s birth memorial fountain was very elegant and well-suited to the Serpentine family, but my fountain was filled with numerous flowers, reflecting my mother’s taste.

“Oscar, my baby. Why does your face look like this?”

Suddenly, I remembered my mother’s face from yesterday morning, as she repeatedly stroked my cheeks with concern. Come to think of it, it had been almost a year since I started this secluded life. Since I showed my face at the Raven family’s banquet for three hours. During that time, I had somehow reached adulthood, but the period had not been smooth.

In fact, it was just called seclusion, but I was living a much busier life than before.

Whenever I had time, I studied magic, and to hide it, I even had to study current affairs. Not to mention checking Zachary’s condition every day, I also exchanged letters with outsiders while being mindful of the Duke.

Seeing my condition deteriorating day by day due to a schedule that was too much for my body to handle, my mother was extremely worried, but my growing emaciation was not simply due to a busy schedule.

It was because I had more things to worry about regarding Zachary.

In other words, just like…

“Zachary, does it hurt a lot?”

Right now.

I barely held on to my half-asleep mind at the groaning sound that was heard again.

And I gently shook Zachary’s body, which was curled up and suffering.

“Try to pull yourself together, okay?”

Although a little sunlight had seeped in, it was still early morning before the sun had fully risen. The room was still dark, but after taking a sip of water, I couldn’t go back to sleep.

It was because of Zachary, who was holding his head and groaning.

“Huk, heok.”

Zachary pants and suffers in pain. When I carefully crouched down in front of him, he reached out to me as if he had been waiting. In an instant, my upper body was pulled into Zachary’s embrace. It felt like I had become a trapped beast. Zachary’s limbs tightly bound me, making it hard to breathe, but I struggled to reach out and wrap my arms around his back.

“Yeah, it’s okay.”

He rubs his forehead, drenched in sweat, against me. It may look like a child having a tantrum in his sleep, but having watched him for months, I knew this wasn’t a simple sleep tantrum.

His large body hugs me as if crushing me. It’s so hard that it’s suffocating, but the reason I can’t push him away and have to endure it is because I knew that the Duke had engraved a new magical formation on him again today.

“I’m here. It’s okay, it’s okay…”

Tightly, Zachary hugs me as if clinging to a lifeline and swallows his pain. All I could do for Zachary like this was just this comforting pat.

A lot had happened to us since the day Zachary’s spell was broken.

Although the Duke didn’t separately call me to interrogate me about the dismantling formation, it was the beginning of all the arrows being directed at Zachary. As I had expected, the Duke would often call Zachary to check if the spell had been broken and engrave a new magical formation.

The problem was that there was nothing I could do. I wanted to break Zachary’s spell every time it was engraved, but just figuring out the identity of the magical formations the Duke engraved each time was already overwhelming.

‘He’s suffering too much.’

I wiped Zachary’s sweat-soaked forehead with a pitiful expression.

On days like today when a new magical formation was engraved on his body, Zachary would always have nightmares.

While having nightmares and unable to bear the pain, he seeks human warmth, and if that warmth is not there, he jumps up and frantically ransacks the room. At first, I tried to hold Zachary down and soothe him when he was thrashing around, but it seemed to be a kind of sleepwalking disorder. When he woke up, he had no memory of the outbursts he had caused.

On days when he had nightmares, Zachary would often get seriously injured, and a few times, he even suffered quite severe injuries. Although it was a dangerous situation, there was a solution. I realized that when Zachary was suffering from nightmares, if I hugged and comforted him, the outburst would subside after a few minutes, but I only discovered this after spending several months with him at night.

‘I was really surprised at first.’

One night, Zachary suddenly came to find me.

“Young Master, it hurts so much.”

How could I send Zachary, who was standing barefoot at the door and shedding tears, back to the servants’ quarters?

I thought I had a big responsibility for Zachary turning out like this. Because I clumsily broke the spell, Zachary couldn’t even think of leaving the mansion. The Duke periodically engraved magical formations to keep him… There was no way I could push Zachary away in this situation.

“Sleep here tonight.”

Perhaps because his trauma was triggered, Zachary kept seeking me out on days when a new magical formation was engraved. In the end, I ended up giving him one side of the bed to take care of him.

At first, it was awkward, but after spending several months like that, at some point, it became familiar. At some point, Zachary would lie next to me without asking for permission anymore, whether a magical formation was engraved or not.

It was awkward and embarrassing to share a bed with someone after sleeping alone all this time. However, they say humans are creatures of adaptation, and at some point, I also became accustomed to Zachary’s warmth.

‘It must hurt.’

Above all, there was no time for personal thoughts. I had long forgotten the thought that it was strange to fall asleep and wake up together because I was busy comforting Zachary, who was suffering and having outbursts every time he had nightmares.

Every time the Duke engraved a new magical formation, I tried to dismantle the spell. However, after going through various trials and errors, I realized.

‘The time it takes to engrave a new one is faster than the time it takes to dismantle it.’

The Duke was a skilled one, and I was a running one. No matter how fast I ran, I couldn’t keep up with the speed at which the Duke engraved the magical formations. After all, how could I win against someone who had spent his entire life drawing magical formations?

But I couldn’t abandon the suffering Zachary either. In the end, I found myself in an ambiguous situation where I neither properly dismantled the magical formations nor gave up.

“Ah… ah.”

It seems like he’s having a hard time today. I immediately stopped my thoughts at Zachary’s groan and checked his condition.

As expected, there was a newly engraved magical formation on his shoulder today. When I lightly traced it with my fingertips, Zachary let out a rough breath.

“I’ll bring a cold wet towel.”

The skin touching my fingertips was hot.

This won’t do. Today, the fever seems particularly severe. On days like this, I need to cool him down with a cold wet towel, so I tried to get up from my spot. I slowly withdrew the thick arm and sat up, but…

“Ugh…”

Thud, I had no choice but to lie back down on the bed with a groan. Zachary, who had instantly pushed me down on the bed and straddled me, had eyes that still seemed hazy, as if he hadn’t woken up from a dream yet. Just as I thought his blue eyes seemed to be slightly glowing, Zachary suddenly lunged at my neck.

I reflexively pushed Zachary away while inhaling sharply, but it was no use. It hurt. The bite marks from last time hadn’t even healed yet, and he was doing it again.

His solid teeth nibble on my neck relentlessly. When he bites into the soft flesh and I let out a painful groan, he gently licks it with his tongue as if gauging my reaction.

“Ah, ugh.”

After persistently tormenting my neck, he slowly moves down and bites the area around my collarbone. Even though there’s no flesh to bite because I’m skinny, Zachary is relentless. His black hair tickles my chin. But it’s not just my chin that’s ticklish.

“Euk, Zachary, gently…”

I felt a tingling sensation in my lower abdomen. The feeling of my toes curling is unfamiliar.