There was no such thing as a normal person among those who stood at the pinnacle.
And that rule applied to my father, the Grand Duke of Messiah, as well.
“Impressive. I wonder how far you can endure on your own.”
“Ah…… goo.”
I flailed about, desperately trying to stabilize the Sacred Flame that had begun blazing fiercely once again.
“Y-Your Grace, Sigmund’s condition is getting worse again……!”
“It is fine. This much is still within what I expected.”
The Grand Duke said that as he stopped the Second Wife.
As I struggled to stabilize the Sacred Flame, I could not help but be dumbfounded.
‘So this is the kind of man the Grand Duke of Messiah is.’
He had not lied.
It really was still within what I could handle.
In other words, he was testing me.
Testing the upper limit of my talent.
To think he would do this even to a newborn baby.
What made it even more bewildering was that it was not as though the Grand Duke lacked affection for me.
His eyes held love for me alongside the madness.
‘What an incredible way to show affection.’
I gave a hollow laugh inwardly and circulated the Sacred Flame through my breathing.
It was ridiculous, but it was also true that this was an opportunity I would never get again.
‘Let’s see how far I can go.’
With that decision made, I focused on moving the Sacred Flame.
And so, a strange tug-of-war began between the Grand Duke and me.
Whenever I adapted to the Sacred Flame, he would release even more of it as though he had been waiting, increasing the pressure on me.
“You can endure even this?”
FWOOSH!
How many times did that repeat?
The longer that bizarre tug-of-war continued, the less pain I seemed to feel.
‘No, more precisely…… breathing is getting easier.’
And that was not all.
I could feel the Sacred Flame gradually moving according to my will.
I was beginning to understand how I should guide it.
This was not something I could have realized merely from the breathing technique I had watched and learned in my previous life.
‘Incredible.’
This was an experience that could only be learned from the Grand Duke, the person most skilled at handling the Sacred Flame in this era.
The precision and efficiency were on an entirely different level from what I had learned through observation alone.
And that led me into a new realm.
FWOOSH!
The Sacred Flame was no longer confined within my body.
It manifested physically and flowed out with my breath.
“Haha!”
Delight flashed in the Grand Duke’s eyes when he saw it.
“Surely you are not about to reach the Sacred Flame Physique from this alone!”
“Goo.”
Ah, I see.
So this was the process of reaching the ‘Sacred Flame Physique.’
My exhaled breath was scorching hot, but my body was adapting and evolving to withstand the heat of the Sacred Flame.
Perhaps because sweat was streaming down my body, the Second Wife cautiously asked the Grand Duke, “Y-Your Grace, what exactly is happening to Sigmund?”
“Do not worry too much, my lady.”
The Grand Duke removed his hand from me as he spoke.
“This child’s talent seems far greater than I expected. Merely from the brief guidance I gave him, he is already beginning to step into the Sacred Flame Physique.”
“……!”
“At this level, perhaps there truly is no need to worry about the ember.”
“……What?”
Despite the Second Wife’s question, the Grand Duke did not explain any further.
He merely stroked my face lightly.
“Ah, goo…….”
“I shall come by often for the time being.”
“Ah……!”
Only then did the Second Wife let out a breath of relief and place a hand over her chest.
The Grand Duke stroked my face once more before rising to his feet.
“So do not worry too much. I have no intention of allowing this child to die.”
A smile appeared on the Grand Duke’s lips as he looked at me.
It was the gentle smile of a father.
But beneath it lurked a faint trace of madness.
“I am also curious just how far he can go.”
“Ah, goo…….”
Damn it.
So he intended to keep testing my talent from now on.
***
The fever did not subside for several days after that.
It hurt like hell, but at least it had been worth it.
I had learned just how exceptional this body was.
‘So this is Messiah’s physique.’
Thanks to the Grand Duke visiting my room every day and overseeing me, I had also grown accustomed to the breathing technique.
I had reached the First Stage of the Sacred Flame Physique, so I could have been satisfied there.
But I had no intention of doing that.
‘I can go further. There’s no way this is the best I can do.’
And beyond that—
‘At this point, shouldn’t I be able to start moving my body?’
It was not exactly the kind of thought a newborn less than a week old should be having.
But I could not help being curious.
‘Can’t I walk? Seriously.’
Of course, I could not do it with my body alone.
The method I had thought of was simple.
‘Why not use the Sacred Flame as a skeleton and stand up?’
In other words, rather than thinking of it as moving my body, I would think of it as moving the Sacred Flame infused throughout my body.
My problem right now was that I had too much Sacred Flame anyway.
Right.
Let’s do it.
If it went wrong, the Grand Duke would come and help me.
With that thought, I concentrated the Sacred Flame into my legs.
‘Oh, it works.’
Rather than feeling as though I was moving my legs, it felt as though I was moving the Sacred Flame infused into them.
“Goo.”
By coincidence, no one was in the room.
Considering either the Second Wife or a maid was almost always beside me, this was the perfect opportunity.
Right now!
I abruptly pushed myself upright, and my body stood proudly atop the bed.
‘Yes. This is it.’
People were meant to walk.
Besides, the more I forcibly consumed the Sacred Flame for something like this, the less strain it placed on me.
Now, should I try walking?
One step, two steps…….
“Goo…….”
Thump!
But after only a few steps, I collapsed face-first.
Still, that was enough.
I had already gotten a sense of what needed improvement.
‘Once I grow a little more, I might even be able to use it to accelerate my physical growth itself.’
The faster I grew, the better.
While I was making plans to myself, the Second Wife returned.
“Sigmund, were you good while I was gone?”
“Goo.”
I giggled as though nothing had happened.
As I rested comfortably in the Second Wife’s arms—
“Ah, so this is where you were.”
An all-too-familiar voice suddenly reached my ears.
Thump.
It was a voice engraved into my soul, one I could never forget.
It sounded much younger than I remembered, but there was no mistaking it.
I forced myself to turn my head and saw a boy.
A boy with the same golden hair and green eyes as me.
‘Schubert Messiah……!’
The First Young Master of Messiah.
The tyrant who had held my leash in my previous life.
My mortal enemy from that life.
***
“I wanted to see the youngest, so I came to visit, Stepmother.”
Schubert approached me with an innocent smile.
“Welcome. Would you like to hold him?”
The Second Wife smiled brightly and readily handed me over.
There was no helping it.
Schubert was undeniably the eldest son of the Grand Duke of Messiah and my elder brother.
“So this child is Sigmund.”
Our eyes met.
I had lived like his slave for more than a decade.
That was why I could tell.
Behind those seemingly gentle eyes, hostility and murderous intent were boiling.
“As I said before, I would like to maintain a good relationship with both Arwin and Sigmund.”
“I see.”
“Our mothers may be different, but we are still siblings who share the same father, are we not?”
He could spit out such blatant lies without even blinking.
In my previous life, he had said the same thing while ordering me to betray Arwin.
Still smiling, Schubert placed a hand on my forehead.
“His fever is quite high. I heard he has not been well…… Is he all right?”
“Yes. He is gradually getting better.”
“That is a relief.”
Schubert’s eyes curved coldly.
At that moment, pitch-black energy emerged from his fingertips.
I could only laugh hollowly to myself when I saw it.
‘That bastard…… Isn’t that a curse?’
And it was no ordinary curse.
It was undoubtedly one classified as top-grade even by the Ducal House of Ralke, known as the progenitor of black magic.
They were also called Ralke’s Secret Arts.
I had heard there were around ten of them…….
Come on.
‘There’s no way it’s actually that one, right?’
Whoosh!
The curse was immediately absorbed into my body.
Naturally, it did not begin rampaging right away.
‘I can feel that it entered me, though.’
For now, I should act as though nothing was wrong.
I needed Schubert to lower his guard around me completely.
“Goo.”
He continued smiling innocently, as though he had done nothing at all.
But I could see it.
That smile seemed to say he was looking forward to the day I would writhe in agony from the curse.
‘Ah.’
What a piece of trash.
But I was relieved.
He was exactly the same as I remembered.
For a moment, I had worried that perhaps there had been some unavoidable reason behind what he did.
There had been nothing of the sort.
“Goo.”
And so, rather than despairing or raging over Schubert’s little stunt, I smiled.
“……You’re smiling?”
Apparently, he did not like my reaction, because the smile disappeared from Schubert’s lips.
“Young Master Schubert?”
But at the Second Wife’s call, he calmly put the mask of a kind older brother back on.
The displeasure vanished from his face, replaced by a thoroughly benevolent smile.
Then he withdrew his hand from me and took a few steps back.
“Babies really are adorable. I sincerely hope…….”
He smiled broadly as he finished, “that Sigmund remains healthy.”
***
“You are smiling, so it seems you are feeling much better.”
The Second Wife, who had no way of knowing I had been cursed, looked at me and sighed in relief.
Thump.
‘Damn it. It really is.’
But inwardly, I cursed.
What he had injected into me really was one of Ralke’s Secret Arts.
It was not hard to understand why.
Ralke’s Secret Arts possessed tremendous power.
‘That means he’s seriously determined to kill me.’
It was a curse subtle enough that an ordinary person would never even suspect it.
He had probably learned that the Grand Duke kept visiting to examine me and obtained one of the Secret Arts from Ralke because of it.
The Grand Duke would notice most ordinary curses.
But it did not matter.
It was not as though I had no way of dealing with this.
‘Still…… this unpleasant sensation feels familiar.’
I searched through my memories, trying to identify the source of that discomfort.
‘Damn it, no way……!’
The repulsive sensation spread toward my heart and head of its own accord.
And this feeling of something trying to seize control away from me—
It was unmistakably the thing that had been engraved into my soul.
‘!’
There was no way I could fail to recognize this curse.
After all, this was the very curse I had suffered from in my previous life.
The damned curse that had forced me to betray the Commander with my own hands and kill her.
implanted certain keywords into the victim’s mind and made them incapable of refusing the commands of the person who cast the curse.
It was vicious beyond measure.
‘You fucking bastard.’
I clenched teeth that had barely even come in yet.
To think I would be afflicted by that disgusting curse in this life as well.
It was deeply unpleasant, but unlike in my previous life, I did not despair.
I already knew the curse well because I had experienced it once before.
Moreover—
‘This time, I have Messiah’s body and the Sacred Flame.’
Unlike in my previous life, this was still only in its initial stage.
I immediately stopped breathing.
FWOOSH!
The Sacred Flame began rampaging once again.
“Ah, goo.”
……Damn, this really fucking hurts.
But I was not the only one suffering.
What was the Sacred Flame?
Was it not a primordial divinity possessing immense ‘resistance to demonic power’?
A curse like this could also be considered a form of demonic power in the broader sense.
- ……?!
Of course, an ordinary child this age would never be able to move the Sacred Flame and do anything about a curse.
But I was different.
No, more precisely, my Sacred Flame was different.
‘The Ember of Ruin.’
It was the infamous Sacred Flame that tried to devour even its own master.
If it would devour its master, then a curse went without saying.
Before long, unable to withstand the power of the Sacred Flame, the curse began shrieking.
-SCREEEEEECH!
Got you, you bastard.