# 2
“I don’t think all half-demons should die. There was Marcus, too… but our Ersen won’t do.”
With vacant eyes, he offered a gentle smile.
The Grand Duke was in despair rather than anger.
“Magic depletion. I knew you were sick, so I just left you alone until now. I never thought you’d try to drag us all down with you, Ersen.”
“…No, ah, no. It’s not like that.”
How wonderful would it be if you, who cares nothing for your own pain, could confide in me?
I once thought that.
That even if I was insignificant to you, I wished I could be someone you were comfortable with.
“What’s not like that?”
For the first time, he revealed his true feelings to me without reservation.
Because I was a presence he simply couldn’t endure.
“Or what if it’s not? It means nothing now anyway.”
I stared blankly at the hatred he displayed.
“You should have been satisfied when we recognized half-demons as imperial family. Then you would have lived longer.”
He finally condemned me to death with indifferent eyes.
Faintly recalling a fragment of a smile I had once so desperately yearned for from him.
How could I possibly defy him?
How could I, the main culprit who ruined everything, dare to?
The price for indulging in a sweet, selfish dream and forgetting reality was too great.
***
He didn't kill me easily.
My blood and tears splattered again and again on his angelic, radiant face.
When I screamed, he laughed.
It wasn't the warm smile I had longed to see even once, but a face filled only with emptiness, rage, and murderous intent.
Looking at him, I bowed my head countless times.
Escaping should have ended in fantasy.
I didn't know how to be happy, and yet I acted exactly as I had fantasized.
Without truly knowing, I presumed to understand the original story and twisted other people's lives as I pleased.
They died because of me.
‘I should have known my place.’
I prayed.
To a god somewhere. To whoever sent me here.
Please, please, take all this misfortune away.
I was wrong. I was wrong.
If you grant this, I will never, ever again desire more than I deserve.
As I pleaded thousands of times, my breath stopped.
And then I opened my eyes.
On the bed in the room of Prince Ersen in the abandoned palace.
## 01. Return
The thin gray blanket slid off.
I got up from the bed, stared blankly at the blanket, then suddenly lifted my head.
“Birdsong?”
One by one, things became clear.
The air I breathed, the quiet room, the faint birdsong vaguely heard from outside the window.
I suddenly contorted my face.
Like a child on the verge of tears.
“…A dream? Is it a dream? No. It can't be.”
The tears that had long since dried up finally didn’t come.
Instead, I started wandering around the room, muttering like a madman.
I could walk on perfectly healthy legs. The temperature on my soles was chilly. I had thought of this palace as a freezer, but now that I was back, it felt warm.
The unique air of a place where people live–.
Thump!
“Ah.”
My instep, which had bumped into the bedside table as I walked unsteadily like a newborn deer, hurt.
“Hng….”
I could only cry from my throat, but I cried.
Unbearable sorrow filled my chest, then left a cold trail and disappeared, repeating the cycle.
Ah. This is reality.
"Not yet... gasp... nothing has happened yet."
This is a reality where I haven't done anything, so nothing has happened.
Since I hadn’t slept under a blanket in my own bed since the first day, everything has truly, completely returned!
I knelt right there and prayed to God.
Even if I didn’t know if it was a real god, from now on, He was my god.
“Thank you.”
After expressing my gratitude about ten times, I swore to Him.
“I’ll really do well. I won’t ruin anything. Truly, nothing at all.”
I wouldn't wish for anything.
***
“That person hasn't been seen much lately.”
“What person?”
Late at night.
Two or three old palace servants in the Second Imperial Prince’s palace, called the Cold Palace, were chatting in the kitchen.
“Why? What if he’s listening somewhere and suddenly jumps out and causes trouble again?”
“Indeed.”
The topic of conversation was a person they hadn't seen for the past few days.
Second Imperial Prince Ersen Meyer.
Born with the proud surname of the Meyer imperial family, but in truth, a being who could be said to be lower than anyone else in the empire.
The person himself seemed unaware of why he was being neglected, as he had no memories before the age of seven, but no one else would be ignorant of it.
That he was the child of the demon Eris.
“Anyway, even though he’s small like a scabby dog, his temper is like a mad dog, I tell you.”
“Watch your mouth, man.”
“What does it matter? He hasn't been coming out of his room lately anyway. It’ll be fine.”
Since the troublemaker who usually roamed around obstructing work was nowhere to be seen, their mouths gradually loosened.
The palace servants talked for a while about how lucky the demon’s child was, and how he didn't know his place, and became a little agitated.
“Someday, I’ll just finish that human…”
“Don’t beat me to it. I’m first.”
“What nonsense. Even if he looks like that, he’s still a prince right now. If you touch imperial royalty, you’ll be executed, not just exiled.”
“Hmph, the day will come when we can give him a good beating. Just you wait. Looking at how things are going, it might be soon.”
When one palace servant spoke chillingly, the others also smiled meaningfully.
Yes, Ersen Meyer’s days of living in luxury as an imperial prince were numbered.
The bloodline of Eris, the demon who dared to take the emperor by force.
The crystal ball that judged imperial blood had shone, so His Majesty the Emperor had no choice but to accept the demon’s child as imperial royalty.
But that was only possible because Ersen had no power.
‘His Highness Theodore would never let that bug survive until his awakening ceremony.’
Anyone with imperial blood awakens at the age of twenty-two.
Upon awakening, their existing unique magic would evolve, or they might even gain new unique magic.
Fortunately, Ersen Meyer was not born with unique magic, but there was a possibility that he might suddenly gain dangerous unique magic at his awakening ceremony.
Because he inherited that demon’s blood.
Even if he possessed any magic, it wouldn't be a threat to the throne, but there would be no reason to keep a dangerous element alive.
Thus, everyone whispered that Ersen would die before he turned twenty-two.
Perhaps, if there were no unforeseen circumstances, the Emperor would make it happen by fabricating a crime.
“Isn’t it common knowledge that His Majesty abandoned the Second Prince?”
“Ahem. Speak softly. Softly.”
The Emperor merely kept the child alive and gave him the status of a prince, but gave him nothing else.
They could tell just by their own presence here, couldn't they?
Ever since Eris died on Ersen's seventh birthday, only those who had suffered at Eris's hands had been assigned to this palace.
Furthermore, those with bad characters were preferentially assigned, and the incidents that occurred within the palace were overlooked to a certain extent by everyone.
“Just you wait. It’s coming soon.”
The palace servants nodded meaningfully.
Honestly, they were all waiting for their chance.
Of course, they hadn’t just suppressed their resentment towards Eris all this time.
The dignity maintenance fees allocated to Prince Ersen all went to them. The prince was only provided with the minimum necessities to avoid public criticism.
And that’s not all. They had routinely tormented the child from the age of seven until he turned twenty.
It didn't matter to them that Ersen himself was not guilty.
They were only disappointed that Ersen’s personality was not ordinary enough to torment him as much as they wanted.
If he ceased to be imperial royalty, then they fully intended to see his handsome face twisted in agony.
“Well, that’s something to see when the time comes.”
The gloomy atmosphere gradually shifted to another topic.
“Haven’t things been strangely more convenient lately?”
“What sudden nonsense is that?”
“No, ahem. Like the water being heated in advance…”
“Oh, now that you mention it. It’s past time for me to get my medicine, but why do I still have medicine left?”
“What’s with these guys? Did you make a contract with a fairy or something?”
Laughter, cheerful as if the recent foul gossip was a lie, flowed out.
The head chamberlain, who had been quietly listening to their conversation from outside the kitchen door, left with an expressionless face.
He was the only one who had been in this palace since Ersen was born, so he hadn’t participated in tormenting the child, but he had never actively stopped them either.
He intended to continue doing so, as he always had.
‘However, those brutes won’t live long either.’
He couldn’t know if the Emperor’s true intentions were really as they said.
After all, assigning such palace servants to this palace could be done by middlemen without any specific imperial command.
Just seeing that other matters were overlooked while actions that caught the Emperor’s eye were restrained, he knew that a middle manager was involved in this.
But the head chamberlain, even if he knew, wouldn’t do anything.
For he was a father who had lost his child to Eris.
He couldn't do more for Eris’s child than adequately manage the palace…
He believed that this daily routine would remain unchanged.
But the next afternoon.
The head chamberlain encountered an unexpected situation.
He saw the prince, who had been unseen for so long, subtly slip a handkerchief that a maid had dropped into her apron pocket and then leave.
“…?”
The next day, he witnessed an even stranger sight.