If he had only known the location, Brukisel would have let it slide. Rumors about the secret passage were already rampant. But since the High Priest knew the full method of operation, he couldn’t just leave him be. Silencing was necessary.
‘I just need to give him what he wants and be done with it.’
The High Priest couldn’t easily hide his desires. He was transparent and easy to read, so Brukisel thought what he wanted would be equally simple.
‘How audacious—he said he liked me.’
There had been someone before who said the same thing and asked to spend the night together. Just recalling it made Brukisel grimace with disgust and displeasure.
Brukisel looked the High Priest up and down. A soft body that seemed unaccustomed to rough work. Fingertips so neat one would wonder if he’d ever brewed his own tea. His sparkling golden eyes and lemon-colored hair that fluttered even in a gentle breeze often drew attention from afar.
Honestly, by objective standards, he was rather pretty. But Brukisel couldn’t even imagine touching his skin. If the High Priest propositioned him for bed, Brukisel’s head already ached thinking about how to reject him.
An ordinary imperial citizen wouldn’t make such a request of him. The problem was that this High Priest couldn’t be confined to the category of ordinary.
‘I’ll have to offer something else to substitute for that desire.’
To find a substitute, he’d need to converse with the High Priest more than necessary. For Brukisel, who wanted to send Jes away immediately, even the thought was exhausting.
“High Priest, forget everything you just said. If you do that, I’ll grant you one thing you desire.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Brukisel silently loosened his cravat. In one corner of the office was a purple sofa he occasionally used when severe headaches struck. Brukisel only wanted to fulfill the High Priest’s wish and quickly kick him out.
Rou stared at Brukisel’s nape as if entranced. That thick, strong-looking neck, those masculine shoulder lines—it was truly the ideal physique Rou envisioned. At Rou’s blatant gaze, Brukisel sent him a mocking look. His prediction hadn’t been wrong this time either.
“Th-then tell me what makes you happy.”
“…What?”
However, Rou’s request was unexpected. Since he’d been staring at his nape with a flushed face, Brukisel had naturally assumed they’d be heading to bed, so he was a bit surprised. But he soon shook his head as if utterly fed up.
‘The happiness nonsense again.’
In a way, it was remarkable persistence. No one before or likely ever again would obsess over his happiness like this High Priest.
“You didn’t like the gift I gave you, did you? Right? I have no idea what I should do to truly make you happy.”
“Well, isn’t that obvious? As if something given by the High Priest of the Kaine Religion would please me.”
Brukisel said this with a sneer.
“Why?”
Rou was genuinely curious. He wondered what on earth had happened to Brukisel to make him hate the Kaine Religion this much. He wanted to hear what circumstances he’d faced. He wanted to understand Brukisel.
“Why do you hate Goddess Kaine so much?”
The smile disappeared from Brukisel’s face. Those red eyes gleamed. He stared at Rou, wondering if he was mocking him, but he couldn’t find such intent in that clear face. The High Priest truly seemed not to know the reason.
“Didn’t Het tell you? He seemed ready to give his life if you asked.”
“It’s Brukisel’s matter, so I want to hear it from Brukisel’s mouth.”
Brukisel glanced at the black bottle on the desk. The high-ranking nobles who had participated in central politics since the previous emperor’s time knew the reason for the current emperor’s hatred. So as long as the High Priest continued participating in high society, this story would reach his ears eventually. Trading such information was profitable.
He was also curious about how the High Priest would react. He’d heard the man was so full of love and kindness. What expression would he make after hearing this story?
“Do you know that the previous emperor was a fervent believer in the Kaine Religion?”
“N-no.”
He’d heard the High Priest could recite ancient myths fluently. It was surprising he didn’t know even this.
“…Were you holed up in some backwater village?”
“Well… I was in a place somewhat cut off from the world.”
“He was known to the world as a devout believer, but in truth, his faith bordered on madness.”
Brukisel paused briefly like someone hesitating over how much to say. But he soon decided he didn’t want to bother choosing his words carefully.
Brukisel’s childhood was peaceful. Though not the empress’s son, Brukisel, born to a favored concubine, was permitted to enter the Main Palace before turning ten. His mother, the imperial consort, cherished Brukisel, and the emperor fulfilled his duties as a father.
But that was all before the emperor became obsessed with the Kaine Religion.
“He believed that if all Shadow blood was eliminated, spring would come to the north. He thought the absence of Goddess Kaine’s abundance in the north was entirely the Shadow’s fault. Without considering that Shadow power flowed in his own body too.”
When speaking of the previous emperor, that meant his father. Yet for discussing a deceased family member, his tone was excessively dry.
‘Don’t humans have great attachment to family?’
Rou realized that Brukisel’s hatred toward the Kaine Religion was related to the previous emperor.
“So he thought that by offering a sacrifice with the strongest Shadow power, Goddess Kaine would turn her gaze to the north.”
“Ah… surely not.”
The former emperor, obsessed with Goddess Kaine, believed that eliminating Shadow blood would bring spring to the north. Furthermore, he became fixated on the idea that he must offer a sacrifice that had inherited Shadow blood most strongly. All the imperial family members had black hair and red eyes. But none had hair as jet-black or eyes as blood-red as Brukisel’s.
Moreover, Brukisel was the only one not born to the empress. The imperial consort pleaded with the emperor, but the sacrifice had already been decided. An altar began to be built for that day.
The altar rose so high it seemed to reach the sun, visible even to Brukisel confined in his room. Beautiful stones from various regions would be used to kill him.
On the day summer began, Brukisel was led by guards to the altar. The empress had already fainted when Brukisel walked atop the altar. Brukisel closed his eyes. He only wished for this entire situation to end quickly. As his vision darkened, a gleaming silver blade entered his sight.
Brukisel bled but didn’t die. The previous emperor stabbed Brukisel’s heart over and over, and Brukisel coughed up blood, but his Shadow ability kept bringing him back to life. The blood flowing from Brukisel’s heart endlessly streamed down the altar steps.
And the imperial consort, having witnessed her young son offered as a living sacrifice, hanged herself in her bedroom and returned to the goddess’s embrace.
He remembered there had been retainers who initially tried to stop the emperor. Among them were those who, unable to bear seeing the emperor’s son suffer such a fate, helped Brukisel escape. But there were no suitable places for a young, powerless prince to flee. Brukisel was dragged back to the Imperial Palace.
Moreover, after seeing their comrades beheaded, they began closing their mouths one by one for their own safety. They seemed to hope Brukisel would die and be used as a sacrifice so peace would come to the continent.
“At first, I prayed to the goddess to save me. Because the emperor had forced faith upon me, it seems I still had a bit of belief left in me.”
Brukisel spoke self-mockingly.
“After realizing my prayers wouldn’t reach her, I wished for death. Only by dying could I escape this daily, continuing torment.”
“Brukisel…”
Rou wanted to comfort Brukisel. But at the same time, he realized that comfort wasn’t what he desired. What he wanted wasn’t something soft and warm like comfort or consolation.
“And next, I prayed for this altar to collapse and kill everyone prostrated below. But the goddess didn’t answer any of my prayers. Looking back now, there’s no way she’d answer a Shadow’s prayer, yet I wonder why I was so desperate.”
Below the altar, the imperial family prostrated themselves in prayer. Brukisel despised his relatives. He wanted to kill them all.
Those so-called siblings, those bastards who were supposedly blood relatives—not a single one stood up for him. Brukisel still clearly remembered those red eyes watching him. They were simply relieved it wasn’t them lying atop the altar. They were hypocrites no different from the emperor.
The emperor said:
‘My son. Since you were born into the imperial family, fulfill your duty. This blade is poisoned, so this time you’ll surely be able to return to the goddess’s embrace.’
That benevolent voice was laughable. Brukisel, soaked in blood, mocked the emperor. The goddess wouldn’t turn to look at him for doing this. The previous emperor’s lifelong wish was to reach the goddess’s paradise, but someone committing such slaughter could never enter such a place.
Perhaps noticing Brukisel’s mockery, the emperor thrust the blade with more weight than usual. Just because the wounds healed didn’t mean he couldn’t feel pain. Brukisel shuddered from pain so intense his mind grew faint.
His chest burned as if on fire. The searing pain slowly spread, throbbing all the way to his hands and feet. Brukisel realized death had approached one step closer.
‘This time I might really die.’
Brukisel approached the boundary between life and death. As he was about to take one step into death, a powerful force pulled him back. What guided his hands and feet was pitch-black Shadow. Brukisel grasped it, and simultaneously, dark power began bursting forth from his body.
When he opened his eyes on the altar, a festival was already in full swing below. Thanks to the wine poured along with congratulatory words from retainers and the imperial family, the emperor was already drunk. Musicians played desperately to avoid displeasing the emperor, as did the dancers.
So. None of those intoxicated by the party noticed the Shadow creeping down the blood-dark altar.
The collateral imperial family members began losing consciousness one by one. When knights rushed over to rouse them, their faces were already stained with blood. Seeing blood flowing from every orifice, the retainers and knights began backing away.
The emperor instinctively checked atop the altar. The corpse that should have been lying there quietly was nowhere to be seen. Rising dread made him stumble to his feet.
