The birch forest shrouded in fog was gloomy beyond dark—downright eerie. A chilling wind from an unknown source made my body tremble. I rubbed my arms against the cold as I walked.
This place, where not a single ray of sunlight existed, resembled the Void I had seen before. The trees had withered, drained of vitality, and wild beasts that had exhausted all their life force lay scattered on the ground, mummified corpses. As I walked through the endless forest, I thought:
‘What an unpleasant place.’
The Void that Deus had created was certainly an unpleasant space, but it couldn’t even be compared to this place. The entire space felt filled with malice. How long had I walked, exhaling white breath?
What an unpleasant ability.
At the familiar voice coming from behind me, I turned my head. A man wearing a pitch-black robe was staring down at me blankly. My body froze at the murderous intent I felt from his golden eyes.
Without hesitation, the man grabbed my throat and immediately squeezed it shut. My feet dangling in the air flailed briefly before I struggled to reach out and pull back the robe the man had pressed down over his face. If my eyes weren’t mistaken, this face was definitely…
* * *
“Next question!”
I slowly opened my eyes to Rowena’s cheerful voice. I remembered hearing that Rowena, a noble young lady of House Valentine, had also been invited to the ball, and we had boarded a carriage together since we were heading the same way anyway. It seemed I had dozed off on the way to the imperial palace. Rowena, who hadn’t noticed I’d woken up, continued what she was saying.
“If you encounter an old man trembling in fear after meeting a monster in the wilderness, what should you do?”
The expression of Deus, who was holding me in his arms, instantly became serious. Rowena, waiting for an answer, counted the seconds by making a ‘tick-tock’ sound with her mouth. Feeling rushed by that sound, Deus answered quietly.
“Cut off his breathing so he no longer has to be afraid?”
“Oh, come on. How can you cut off his breathing? Why isn’t helping him even an option?”
“Ah, my mistake. This one was really a mistake. Give me the next question.”
“If you had to make an equivalent exchange between Ash’s life and the lives of ten citizens, which would you choose?”
The expression of Deus, who had been breaking out in a nervous sweat, became relaxed as if nothing had happened. Chuckling and muttering ‘Does she think I’m an idiot…,’ Deus answered as if it were obvious.
“Obviously Ash. Actually, Ash and I promised to make about ten children together. So choosing Ash is the smart choice. That way I’m saving eleven people.”
“Don’t casually talk about future plans we never agreed on.”
I snapped in a tired voice before shifting my stiff body. I had definitely been sitting separately when we boarded the carriage, but when I opened my eyes, I was somehow in Deus’s arms. Rowena asked in a puzzled voice.
“Did you have a nightmare or something?”
“Pardon?”
“You were sweating and looking distressed the whole time you were sleeping.”
Deus and Rowena’s gazes landed on me simultaneously. The moment I saw Deus’s face, the sensation of being strangled vividly came back to me. At my ominous expression, Deus muttered.
“Do you have a fever? That’s strange, you were definitely fine this morning.”
My heart pounded at Deus’s action of reaching his hand toward my face as if to check my temperature. The murderous eyes I’d seen in my dream momentarily overlapped with Deus’s eyes. In a sudden surge of fear, I roughly swatted away Deus’s hand as it tried to touch my forehead.
Smack.
A cold silence descended inside the carriage. A chilling aura flowed across Deus’s face, which had been relaxed just seconds ago. I frowned as Deus roughly grabbed my chin and said:
“Let go, don’t touch my body without permission.”
“Open your eyes nicely.”
“Who are you to make a fuss? You’re not even my parent. Whether I open my eyes nicely or fiercely, what does it matter to you?”
“Who was it that called me daddy while bawling their eyes out?”
I glared at Deus, who was smiling irritably, then firmly stomped on his foot. Deus, whose foot had been stepped on, grabbed a fistful of my hair hard. Then he suddenly bit down hard on my nape.
‘This crazy bastard!’
At the unexpected attack, tears welled up in my eyes and I let out a scream. I pounded my fists on the back of Deus, who had laid me down and was gnawing on my nape. I hit him with all my strength, but it was even more frustrating that he didn’t budge at all.
Rowena, who had been watching that horrific scene, shouted in a firm voice.
“Stop!”
Deus and I froze with our limbs entangled. Rowena, who had been smiling gently with her hands on her knees, said as if troubled.
“Look, I’m pregnant, you see. Conversations that seem bad for prenatal care are a bit…”
“Ah, right. I apologize.”
After awkwardly apologizing, I roughly pushed Deus away. Deus, who for once obediently moved back, looked at me expressionlessly. At that awkward moment, Rowena grabbed both our hands.
“Come on, you two shake hands and make up. Quickly.”
Our hands were forced together by Rowena’s intervention. I glanced at Deus, who was still expressionless, then sighed. Right, apologizing would be the right thing to do. It was true that I had overreacted a bit because of the nightmare.
“Sorry.”
“……”
“My sleep was rough, so without realizing it…”
As I was calmly apologizing, before I could even finish speaking, Deus grabbed my hand and this time bit down hard on the opposite side of my nape. I thrashed and screamed again at the hair-raising pain. Rowena, watching the brawl resume, turned around with a resigned expression.
“I should get some sleep too before we arrive.”
* * *
In the end, Deus only stopped his attack after making me cry my eyes out, then naturally pulled me back into his arms. The concept of push and pull didn’t seem to exist in this bastard’s head in the first place.
After arriving at the ballroom, Kiss appeared just in time and took Deus away as if he’d been waiting. Judging by how Deus, who normally wouldn’t leave my side, obediently followed Kiss, the two of them must have coordinated something separately. In the end, I headed to the ballroom alone with Rowena.
“The instincts of beastmen are truly frightening. Even I, for example, lose my mind whenever I see something sparkly.”
Rowena’s gaze landed on the crystal chandelier hanging in the air, glittering. I naturally snatched the glass from Rowena’s hand as she tried to drink champagne. Rowena, muttering ‘Right, I’m pregnant,’ smiled awkwardly and continued.
“You know that saying, right? That crow beastmen are as calculating as they are clever. When I was young, I hated that saying so much that I tried to live less calculatingly somehow… but in the end, I followed my instincts.”
“……”
“What happened in the carriage earlier is probably for a similar reason.”
Rowena said that since Deus was currently having difficulty controlling his instincts, the habit of biting the napes of other animals to establish hierarchy when in tiger form was coming out. She advised that it would be better to just stay still, as struggling would only stimulate Deus’s aggression.
“What if I get bitten to death?”
“Mmm, well, that’s not entirely impossible either.”
I could feel the young ladies from noble families gathered in groups glancing toward Rowena. She had a beauty that definitely stood out in the bustling ballroom. Rowena, who had been pondering something, continued.
“The tiger clan is sensitive to hierarchy because of their strong aggression, and their possessiveness is strong too. It’s accepted as established fact that they were able to subdue all the regional powers thanks to that innate instinct, but…”
“……”
“There are scholars who see other possibilities.”
My eyes widened at Rowena’s words. I moved closer and asked in a lowered voice.
“Other possibilities, you mean…”
“The power the tiger clan possesses is certainly formidable, but there’s history that can’t be explained by that alone. Think about it. Thousands of years ago, there were hundreds of regional powers on the empire’s land. The tiger clan isn’t even an old family historically, yet they easily unified all those forces.”
“……”
“It’s such an absurd thing that this thought suddenly occurs to me.”
Rowena’s eyes, speaking of ominous things, were filled only with a thirst for knowledge. Rowena, glancing around, pressed her shoulder against mine. Then she said in a whisper-like voice:
“What if the imperial family made some kind of contract with the Primordial Evil?”
The Primordial Evil, which grants any wish but ultimately brings ruin to the one who makes the wish. My body froze at the hypothesis that the imperial family and the Primordial Evil might be closely related. Rowena, seeing me freeze so openly, burst out laughing and poked my cheek.
“Ash has absolutely no talent for politics, you’re terrible at managing your expressions.”
“…That statement denies the authority the imperial family possesses. If anyone finds out you’re thinking such things, your head will fly.”
“I’m not afraid of losing my head. There’s only one thing I fear.”
When House Valentine presented a new magical formula to the academic world, they nearly faced complete annihilation. Their formula was too progressive and destroyed the existing order. Rowena, quietly thinking about something, added a beat later:
“Being distant from the truth.”
Through several crises, House Valentine ultimately proved that their formula was correct. In Rowena’s eyes was pride toward her family, which pursued only truth as an absolute value even amid persecution.
‘History that can’t be explained by powerful strength alone…’
As I was lost in thought, the surroundings suddenly grew quiet. The nobles who had been chatting in groups instantly fell silent.
With the sound of the door opening, what appeared was an existence once called the imperial family’s shame. The darkness the empire hid, and a power that disrupted all order by mere existence.
Deus’s face, devoid of any playfulness, overflowed with nobility and intimidation. Even the old elders who had been wearing arrogant expressions the whole time hesitated and stepped back. It wasn’t just because of the large physique and outstanding appearance that couldn’t be hidden despite wearing a deep-colored silk uniform.
“It’s like…”
One noble with a flushed face muttered in an enraptured voice.
“Looking at a sun burning black.”
Without anyone instructing them, the nobles knelt one by one or bowed their heads. I recalled the Ancient Language that Kiss had once asked me to interpret. In fact, that sentence was part of a poem written by an unknown bard, a famous passage that everyone living in the empire knew.
‘The king of the new era needs a vessel.’
Just as one cannot look directly at the sun, no one met Deus’s eyes. Deus’s gaze, indifferently surveying the courteous nobles, landed on me.
Instead of bowing my head or kneeling like the other nobles, I met his gaze at the same eye level. I clenched my fists tightly as I looked at Deus smiling faintly. For some reason, an ominous sentence filled my head.
‘A vessel that can fully contain the Void he possesses.’
