At the same moment, Valeria Domain.
“Rip out all the tiles! I said this wasn’t the right color!”
“Replant the landscaping trees! Line them all up with arborvitae!”
Elian stormed through the construction site like a man possessed. Two days since Calix had left. He was trying to overcome the pain of separation through financial therapy.
“My lord….”
Hans the butler watched Elian with pitying eyes. In front of the construction site stood half of the Black Lion Knights that Calix had left behind, looking thoroughly awkward. Even though their lord had departed, they were following orders and guarding Elian like shadows.
“Ha.”
Elian let out a hollow laugh looking at the knights. Their steadfast loyalty only made him angrier. Because they were traces Calix had left behind.
“Leaving money, assigning bodyguards. What, are you planning to keep watch to shut me up? This is a perfectly complete farewell notice, isn’t it?”
After Calix left, Elian had checked the vault. 500,000 gold, gleaming with a golden light. That enormous sum — enough to live off without working a day in his life — felt to Elian like nothing more than a miserable settlement payment.
“Fine. The man may be gone, but the money remains. Alright, I’ll spend it without a shred of restraint.”
Elian seized his coin purse.
“With this money, I’ll turn my domain into the finest resort in the empire. Make that bastard beat the ground in regret!”
Elian poured money like water. The domain residents whispered among themselves that the lord had finally lost his mind from the shock of heartbreak.
“Huu….”
After screaming himself out, Elian returned to his office and collapsed into his chair. The empty office. The world was far too quiet without the man who used to sit on that sofa over there, picking fights at every turn.
“Damn it.”
No matter how much money he spent, no matter how frantically he worked, the hole punched through one corner of his chest refused to fill. He stood up to grab a shovel and head back out to work. That was when it happened.
Ding―!
Ding―!
Ding―!
An unusual red warning window, unlike anything he’d seen before, flooded his entire field of vision.
[WARNING: Connection with primary Mana supply source (Calix) is unstable!]
[Status: Grand Duke’s life force rapidly declining / Mana reversal / Psychological collapse imminent]
[WARNING: If the Grand Duke dies, System functions will cease.]
“…What?”
Elian shot to his feet. Life force rapidly declining? Psychological collapse? He was perfectly fine when he left—
“What on earth has this man been doing over there!”
Elian’s hands trembled. He had told himself it was over — that he’d gotten what he was owed — and tried to forget. But the moment he saw the word death, his mind went completely blank. The lonely figure of that broad back, leaving with nothing but a cloak draped over his shoulders, flickered before his eyes.
“God, seriously! If you’re going to leave, at least stay healthy — why are you out there getting hurt and causing trouble!”
Elian flung the shovel aside. This was no time to be preserving his pride.
“This is… right, this is warranty service!”
Elian shouted at himself.
“If the human mold, human boiler, human siege weapon I built breaks down, my reputation takes a hit! Honoring the defect repair period is basic business ethics!”
He immediately opened the System Shop. Taking a carriage now would be too late. What’s the fastest option? No matter how many points it costs, it doesn’t matter.
[Purchase: Grade S Dimensional Leap Sled (Single-Use)]
― Description: Tears through space and transports you to your destination at ultra-high speed.
― Price: 10,000 BP
“Purchase! Buy it right now!”
Elian’s eyes blazed. Just wait, Calix. I don’t know who broke my boiler, but I’m coming to collect the repair fee.
***
That night, Drachenberg.
The condition of Calix, imprisoned in his bedroom, was at its worst.
Both wrists had been wrenched up above his head toward the headboard and bound tightly by dark violet mana chains conjured by Eden. His fingertips had gone white from the chains cutting into his flesh, and between his forcibly spread arms, his defenseless upper body was exposed without reserve.
The powerful binding magic Eden had cast didn’t permit so much as a single finger to move. Inside his body, cold energy that had lost all control was running rampant — so severely that swollen blue veins stood out visibly beneath his pale skin, as though ready to burst.
“Ngh….”
“Beautiful.”
Eden sat perched on the chair beside the bed, gazing down at Calix writhing in agony. In his hand was a fountain pen fitted with a sharp nib. As Eden channeled mana into it, the nib glowed searing red, radiating a threatening heat.
“I’ve come to proofread in person, Your Highness. The parts written incorrectly must be corrected.”
Sssss―.
Eden pressed the heated nib against the torn fabric of Calix’s shirt and burned it away. With a smell of scorching, the tattered cloth fell away to the floor. Calix’s exposed pale chest had gone blue from the rampaging cold energy within.
“Let’s see. I’ll have to rewrite from the very first sentence.”
Without hesitation, Eden plunged the hot nib into the flesh just below Calix’s collarbone.
“GAAAH!”
Calix screamed. It felt as though a heated needle were piercing through his ice-cold skin. The smell of burning flesh rose along with acrid smoke.
Eden smiled as if enjoying himself, and began engraving mana-imbued words into the skin.
[TRASH]
The moment the first word was branded, violent memories Calix had forgotten came flooding back with brutal force.
〈Look at that. The shame of the imperial family.〉
〈A child discarded like garbage. He’d be better off buried and dead in the northern snow.〉
Memories of being cast aside like luggage in a corner room of the imperial palace in his childhood. The cold gazes that had been poured upon him reawakened alongside the heat of the nib.
“Yes — that unfocused look in your eyes suits you best.”
Having confirmed that Calix’s pupils were wavering, Eden moved the nib. This time, near his heart.
[SON OF A BITCH]
Sssss.
Alongside the agony of burning flesh, a second memory crashed over him.
〈It was from the moment you were born that His Highness the Crown Prince began to fall ill!〉
〈Cursed creature, gnawing away at his brother’s life. Ungrateful son of a bitch.〉
The curses hurled by nursemaids and servants. The moments he had been pointed at and told his very existence was a sin tightened around his heart. He wanted to deny it, to say it wasn’t true — but the words Eden was engraving were insisting that this was his destiny.
“You belong to me, Calix. You must live inside my writing, only according to the setting I’ve determined for you.”
Madness gleamed in Eden’s eyes. The lover from my past life ran away and abandoned me — but you, you can never do that. Even if I have to break you to keep you by my side.
“How dare you hold someone else in your heart? Do you think some rural lord could actually save you?”
Eden grabbed Calix’s jaw roughly, and carved the final, most cruel word deep into his abdomen.
[VESSEL OF MISFORTUNE]
“AAAAAH…!”
Calix’s body arched in agony, then crumpled limply. The humiliating words branded into his body pulsed with red mana, gnawing away at his mind.
Yes… this is what I always was.
The warm memories of his time with Elian grew increasingly faint. The warmth Elian had given him was nothing more than a fleeting illusion that had passed briefly through his life. In the end, he was destined to live in this cold fortress, a cursed body, Eden’s toy — and die miserably.
“You must forever, within this cold, crave only me.”
Eden’s face drew closer. Calix squeezed his eyes shut in revulsion and despair. He wanted to see Elian. He ached desperately for that voice — the one that grumbled but took care of him with warmth. But it was over now. The brands carved into his body and soul mocked that hope.
That was when it happened.
CRASH―!
With a thunderous boom, the enormous floor-to-ceiling glass window of Drachenberg’s bedroom shattered. As shards of glass scattered like fireworks, something came hurtling inside.
“WAAAAAAH!”
A gleaming sled scraped across the floor as it skidded in, then screeched to a halt directly in front of the bed.
“…?”
“…!”
Both Eden and Calix froze. From within a cloud of thick dust came the sound of coughing. The sled door opened and someone staggered out. Disheveled hair, torn clothes, and a nose gone red from the blizzard.
It was Elian.
“Cough! Ugh, seriously! What is wrong with the brakes! They said it was Grade S — I’m not letting the manufacturer off for this.”
Elian grumbled and looked up. And he saw what lay before him. Calix bound to the bed, and Eden on top of him.
In that instant, Elian’s eyes went cold and still.
“….”
He walked straight toward the bed. Eden cried out in panic.
“Y-you, who are you! How did you get in here!”
“Excuse me.”
Elian tilted his head to the side.
“What exactly do you think you’re doing to my precious treasure?”
“What? T-treasure?”
Eden’s expression went blank. But Elian paid no attention. Do you know how much that’s worth. My walls, my roads, my Ondol — it all comes out of him! How dare you try to damage my assets.
“Step aside. The mining rights belong to me alone.”
Without waiting for an answer, Elian planted his back foot. And then — a full body tackle. Quite literally, he hurled himself and slammed his entire body into Eden with full force.
“Ugh!”
Caught completely off guard, Eden rolled off the bed and hit the floor. Elian wasted no time climbing onto the bed and seizing Calix’s hand — who was trembling in agony.
“Your Highness! Snap out of it!”
It was warm. The moment Elian’s hand made contact, the rampaging cold energy receded as if it had never been there. The pain that had felt like it would tear his entire body apart vanished, and a familiar, longed-for warmth was transmitted through.
Calix opened bleary eyes. Is this a dream? But for a dream, the man before him was far too disheveled… and far too angry.
“…Elian?”
Calix murmured, as if he couldn’t believe it. The words branded into Calix’s body — seeing those wretched letters, Elian swallowed down the surge of emotion rising in his chest and, deliberately shameless, gave a crooked grin.
“Not a hallucination. Go on and touch — warm, aren’t I?”
Elian tightened his grip on the hand he held and declared loudly, as if making sure Eden on the floor would hear every word.
“I’m here for warranty service. Can’t have my cash cow disappearing on me.”
“….”
“And the call-out fee is very expensive, Your Highness. Brace yourself.”
Spring came crashing into the frozen fortress — and it came loud, calculated, and utterly shameless.
