* * *
[Hey?]
I felt something tapping against my cheek.
I swatted at the nuisance in my sleep, trying to make it go away, but it persisted.
“Ugh…”
Just let me sleep a little longer!
I pulled the blanket over my head.
Finally, the annoying tapping stopped, and I was just about to drift back into sleep when—
[How can you sleep right now!!]
“……!!”
It was like a thunderclap went off in my head.
I jolted upright, looking around.
Had something exploded nearby?
But no, everything looked the same as usual.
‘What the hell…?’
Was I having a particularly vivid dream?
Thinking I could sleep a little longer, I flopped back down, only for something to suddenly slam into my forehead.
‘This feeling…’
It was familiar.
Sure enough, when I looked up, I saw a divine beast’s egg, having headbutted me and now sitting steadily on my pillow.
“Oh, it’s you?”
This little guy never bothered me while I was sleeping, though.
The egg wobbled in place.
Was it angry?
Or did it want divine power?
Maybe both?
‘You’ve gotten pretty bold, huh?’
I was annoyed about being woken up, but it was cute, so I let it slide.
I cupped my hands, and the egg immediately jumped into them.
I breathed a thin stream of divine power into it, like I always did, but the egg suddenly wiggled from side to side.
“You want it thinner?”
No.
“Stronger?”
Yes.
This little thing was as fickle as ever, but what choice did I have?
I increased the intensity, but the egg demanded, “More! More!”
In the end, I poured so much divine power into it that even my vision blurred from the bright light.
‘Whoa, this is kind of insane.’
It felt like my life force was draining out of me.
My heart started to ache.
“Hey, hold on…”
I couldn’t even finish my sentence before the damn egg jumped in excitement.
‘You know what? Fine. Let’s just go all in and see what happens.’
I acted immediately.
Summoning every last drop of divine power I had, I blasted it into the egg.
A brilliant blue light filled my vision.
“Ugh, I can’t… do any more.”
I let go of the egg and collapsed backward.
With my eyes shut, I noticed something odd—it was quiet.
Was it satisfied?
Peeking open one eye, I saw the egg still standing firmly on my bed.
‘Huh?’
Its smooth surface had changed.
A thin but unmistakable crack had formed.
“Hey! You—!”
I sat up in shock.
So this was why it woke me up and demanded divine power?!
But instead of its usual smug attitude, the egg was strangely still.
Carefully, I reached out, and it leaned into my hand.
[Be careful.]
A short but clear voice echoed in my head.
∗ ∗ ∗
“You’ll have to eat in your room today, Young Master.”
Mila, who usually came to wake me at the same time every day, said something unexpected.
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Well…”
Just as Mila hesitated, someone knocked on the door.
I asked who it was, and the response was—
“It’s me, Sei.”
Raizen.
The moment I heard his voice, my heart started pounding.
Mila met my gaze, nodded, and stepped aside.
As the door opened and Raizen entered, Mila left, closing the door behind her.
The sound of the latch clicking shut felt unusually loud.
“H-Hyung? What are you doing here this early?”
I stuttered like an idiot.
Embarrassed, I cleared my throat and looked at him again.
He didn’t seem any different from last night.
Still filled with that same, unwavering certainty.
Raizen glanced at something.
His gaze landed on the birthday gift he had given me yesterday, still sitting unopened.
“You haven’t opened it yet?”
“Uh?! Oh, uh… that’s…”
Yesterday was exhausting.
My emotions alone made my head feel like it was going to explode, and if I had checked Raizen’s gift, I knew I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at all.
So I put it off for later.
Who would’ve thought the guy would show up first thing in the morning the next day?
“I was so tired yesterday that I planned to check it but ended up falling asleep.”
Raizen nodded at my hastily made excuse.
“You can take your time with the gift.”
He spoke gently as he stepped closer.
The smaller the distance between us, the harder my heart pounded.
It felt like I was on the verge of developing arrhythmia.
“Sey.”
“Yeah?”
“A horde of monsters has appeared in Belmon.”
Belmon… Isn’t that a fishing village on the western frontier?
Why would monsters show up there?
“Monsters… all of a sudden?”
I’d heard that after the Demon King was sealed away and even his remnants vanished, monsters had retreated deep into forests or the abyss of the sea.
Occasionally, out of hunger, they would raid villages, but it wasn’t a frequent occurrence.
Suddenly, I recalled that right after I awoke from my long slumber, Duke Pantheon had been absent.
They had said it was because he was out on a monster subjugation mission.
That had felt odd at the time, so I looked into the statistics of monster attacks in the western regions over the past few years.
The incidents were so rare that I could count them on one hand.
It was enough to make me understand why Duke Pantheon had been paying close attention to past attacks.
‘The Duke said this was the work of dark sorcerers.’
If that was the case, then this incident…
“Brother.”
Once again, it was the western region.
The remnants of the fallen Roite Kingdom, suspected to be dark sorcerers, were blatantly causing disturbances there.
If this information spread, someone would inevitably say—
‘Isn’t this happening because the Seed of Calamity mentioned in the prophecy is in the west?’
And that ‘someone’ would be Duke Luavis. Of course, he wouldn’t make a direct move himself—he’d manipulate things from behind the scenes instead.
“I’m fine. But this time, I’ll be leading the subjugation myself.”
It was only natural. Raizen was the heir of the Pantheon Duchy.
Until now, he had been away studying at the Royal Academy, but that was no longer the case.
“I’ll be back soon. Don’t worry.”
“…Okay.”
Raizen was strong.
But… this was his first monster subjugation.
I couldn’t help but worry.
“Wait, brother.”
I quickly got up, intending to craft a holy relic in a hurry, but Raizen called out to me in a low voice.
When our eyes met, he pulled something out from his coat.
It was the pocket watch I had once given him as a birthday gift.
“Can you recharge it with divine power?”
“Oh… sure.”
He’s been carrying that around all this time?
The divine power I had infused into it had long since been depleted.
And yet…
I could feel the passage of time from the pocket watch as I held it.
It hadn’t been of particularly high quality to begin with, so it was to be expected.
But aside from a small dent at the top, it was almost completely undamaged.
It was clear he had taken great care of it.
I pushed down the lump in my throat and filled the pocket watch with as much divine power as I could.
‘Please, protect Raizen.’
I didn’t know if it would actually do anything, but I poured my sincere wish into it as well.
“Be careful out there, brother.”
Raizen took the pocket watch in silence and gave me a nod.
Then, kneeling halfway before me, he took my hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it.
“I’ll be back.”
His red eyes bore into mine.
Looking into them felt like being pulled in, but I couldn’t bring myself to look away.
“When I return… tell me your decision. What name you will live under from now on.”
As if entranced, I could only nod.
∗ ∗ ∗
A few days after returning to the ducal estate, Raizen departed for Belmon, leading the knights.
The very next day, every newspaper ran articles about the ‘Monster Wave.’
Not only did they cover the Belmon incident, but they also referenced previous occurrences.
[‘Monster Wave’ Observed in the West—Is This the Beginning of Calamity?]
[Why the West? The Mystery of the ‘Monster Wave’]
[The Young Duke of Pantheon Vanquishes the Disaster That Engulfed Belmon!]
Yet not a single newspaper mentioned that this was all orchestrated by dark sorcerers.
Most articles carried an obvious, unspoken implication—questioning why this was happening in the west—alongside pieces glorifying Raizen’s achievements.
[The Monster Attack on Belmon Revealed to Be a ‘Monster Wave’]
Despite his promise to return quickly, Raizen’s subjugation mission dragged on.
All I could do was pray for his safety while channeling my divine power into the sacred beast’s egg.
Several cracks had formed on the shell, but there was still no sign of the beast hatching.
Then, a letter arrived.
From that damned bastard.
[To Young Master Shane Pantheon,
Are you doing well?
A new year has dawned before I knew it.
Would you grant this old friend permission to visit, since I never even got the chance to properly wish you a happy birthday?
I trust you won’t refuse this time.
– Karon Luavis]
* * *
