“Huh?”
For a moment, I forgot even the situation and jerked my head up—the head I’d been bowing as pitifully as possible—startled by Zachary’s curse. My eyes locked with his again. His pupils flickered as if momentarily shaken, but in the next instant he glared at me viciously.
“Zachary?”
Had I mistaken him for someone else?
Was this really Zachary? The way he treated me now—his tone, his expression—was nothing like the Zachary I had known for seven years.
The biggest difference was his eyes.
In Zachary’s dark navy irises boiled a blood-red hatred, as if he truly despised me. No—“hatred” was too mild. His gaze burned so blue it looked crimson.
If I make it out of here alive, it’ll be a miracle.
My legs trembled from the sheer force of that raw fury. My eyes squeezed shut on their own.
I was the type who froze helpless when a petty thug bullied me. Now the protagonist of this entire world loathed me this much—how could I possibly endure barehanded?
I shivered, bracing for imminent death.
“You abandoned me.”
Zachary’s voice tore through me.
“Was just being by my side that disgusting to you?”
What was he saying? My ears rang. I couldn’t understand his words. I couldn’t even react—just froze like an idiot. Meanwhile his wrath poured down on me, his voice seething.
“I told you over and over I wouldn’t go! How many times did I beg you? I said I wouldn’t get in your way, I said just let me stay by your side!”
“…?”
“And what—because you’re getting married now, I really felt like such a burden that you had to throw me away? Answer me, Oscar. Say it straight with your own mouth!”
“…???”
Was this a dream? My eyes popped open despite myself at the absurdity.
Zachary’s face was twisted with rage. And yet, those jewel-like navy eyes glimmered beneath the firestorm’s light, making him look even more tragic.
But his beauty only distracted me for a moment—my head filled with confusion.
Who abandoned who?
Me, abandon you?
Abandon? I went to the ends of the earth to set you free—why scold me for casting you aside?
The very idea of “abandoning” was nonsense. I had never possessed him, never raised him—so how could I abandon him?
I tried to read his intentions through his face, but his fury did not waver.
In those eyes glaring at me, I saw my own bewildered face reflected. And then—suddenly—a thought crossed my mind.
…Could it be the brainwashing hasn’t fully broken?
At first, seeing him burn my house, curse at me, and speak informally, I’d assumed the curse was gone. After all, as long as the spell bound him, he couldn’t harm a member of the family.
But then… if he were free, wouldn’t he have rushed to return to his true life? Why come all the way back here? Why confront me, of all people, demanding to know why I drove him out? It did seem like the curse lingered.
After all, the layered enchantments of our family were strong enough to make even condemned criminals piss themselves in joy just at our presence, like obedient dogs. Spells woven over generations. How could my clumsy, half-learned skills unravel them perfectly?
But in the novel, didn’t Zachary awaken and escape on his own?
His actions were so far from the original that nothing made sense. My mind swirled with questions, but I opened my mouth to explain the truth anyway.
“I… I didn’t abandon you. I set you free. Besides, from what I can tell, you’re still not fully—”
“Brainwashed?”
“Ugh!”
Zachary suddenly seized my hair. He yanked so hard that a strangled cry burst from my throat.
As I whimpered and curled up in pain, his grip slackened a little. But my dazed body was so sensitive that even the smallest pain was unbearable.
He leaned in close, his voice low and cutting.
“Do you still think I’m under a spell?”
…That’s exactly what it seemed like.
But my condition was only worsening—I couldn’t respond calmly. Sacred fire or not, burning wood still made smoke. I coughed and hacked, my vision going dim.
And then—
“Oscar!!!”
The desperate cry snapped my clouded consciousness back.
“Oscar! Where are you!!”
That voice—no matter how I heard it, it was my stepbrother Erhan’s. Was I hallucinating at death’s door? Yet it didn’t fade—the shout for me echoed from the distant hall.
“B-Brother… cough, cough!”
I couldn’t call out loud. Unlike Zachary, who seemed fine in this smoke, my frail body could barely produce a voice.
And worse, under Zachary’s glare, I didn’t dare call again.
If I’d been stronger, maybe I could’ve shaken Zachary off and run to Erhan. But no—this cursed body had never once been of any use.
So this is really how I die.
I gazed desperately toward Erhan’s voice, then went limp. I was sure I’d die here, unable even to tell him where I was.
“You were always like that.”
Zachary’s voice dropped low.
“You were so eager to get rid of me, but you always clung to him. You don’t even share blood with him, and you don’t even know the way he looks at you.”
“…What?”
That I wanted to get rid of him quickly?
A surge of injustice rose in me.
It wasn’t that—I just wanted to free him from the curse sooner so he could live in peace. How could he twist it like that?
And clinging to Erhan? And Erhan’s eyes on me—what about them?
Erhan was the only reason I survived in that house without any standing at all.
To avoid being bullied or cast out, I had to please him. So I had spent my miserable childhood jingling bells at him, clapping at his words, groveling, fawning, playing the clown.
“Cough! Cough, cough!”
But instead of explaining, all that left me was another fit of coughing.
I really was about to die. My eyes streamed, my nose ran—I couldn’t even open my eyes properly. I hacked and writhed, and Zachary’s grip loosened.
In that instant, I lunged, pulling him toward me.
He flinched at first, but whether because of lingering spells or sheer habit from years of serving me, he came without resistance. I pressed my wet face into his shoulder and gasped.
It hurts so much. I really am going to die.
My consciousness flickered in and out. My body shook with the terror of death drawing near. I knew he must despise even touching me, but my arms clung to him regardless.
“Za… Zachary. Zachary.”
Even knowing he had come to kill me, the plea slipped from me.
“Please… let me live.”
I was dying.
Punish me if you want—but couldn’t we at least get out of here first?
This place was impossible for someone sickly like me. Zachary still seemed caught in the spell, obsessed with me. I had to use that to get him out of here and then, later, root out the remnants of the curse.
“My… breath…”
I was at my limit. Air wouldn’t come.
As my eyes rolled back, I instinctively tightened my arms around the only warmth I held. My head lolled backward.
Zachary suddenly clutched me tight. His lips pressed to mine, breathing air into me. His hand patted my back.
I had feared he might fling me aside. But he didn’t.
As expected of the novel’s protagonist—kind, gentle, Zachary. The Zachary who might have grown straight and true if not for our family’s curse.
I really should have freed him sooner.
The regret was brief. In that familiar, unexpected warmth, my body went slack.
And I remembered the root of all this—the fire consuming my bridal home on the eve of my wedding.
The day it all began.
“The King has entrusted someone to our care. The sixth prince of the Holy Empire—Zachary Thaddeus.”
The day a future calamity walked into our once-peaceful household.