* * *
Mad laughter filled the audience chamber.
“You thought I’d just die quietly?”
Between wheezing breaths, the emperor rasped darkly, his voice a sinister crawl.
“At the very least… I’ll take what you cherish most.”
The serpent crawling along Felix’s body slithered up to his throat.
A creeping dread silently tightened around his windpipe.
“You think I’ll let that happen?”
Felix, sensing the imminent danger, still snapped back.
He wanted nothing more than to ram his sword into the emperor’s throat, tear him limb from limb so he could never utter Lowell’s name again.
But he hesitated—something told him… it might already be too late.
“Haha… Bark all you want, it’s already too late. Count Clarke personally handed over his own child. If I don’t send the signal within an hour, they’re under orders to torture and kill him. Though… by now, it’s probably down to thirty minutes.”
Felix heard the phantom buzzing of hundreds, thousands of insects gnawing at his ears.
Even as his rational mind reminded him not to panic—there was no proof the emperor spoke the truth—the buzzing only worsened.
‘Focus, Felix! Are you really going to crumble over an empty threat?’
The crown prince’s tone turned cold, firm.
Felix’s worn-down magic, frayed by constant strain, swayed with his turbulent emotions.
Anyone could see he was teetering on the edge of losing control.
‘Count Clarke fled the moment things turned south, and we’ve lost track of him ever since. Did he plan to use Lowell as a hostage before we could react? But even so… they captured him far too quickly.’
The crown prince frowned. He knew the Clarke family had secretly cast tracking spells on Lowell.
Yet despite that, they’d supposedly seized him in mere moments.
It shouldn’t have been possible to breach the estate’s defenses or overwhelm the guards so swiftly.
‘Unless… they always knew exactly where Lowell was.’
The crown prince, piecing together the troubling puzzle, opened his mouth to explain—but the emperor beat him to it.
“If you don’t believe me, I’ll show you proof. They should be arriving any moment.”
“Who…?”
“They’re bringing me a lock of his hair… and a finger.”
A surge of Felix’s dark magic filled the chamber, coiling like a storm.
His magic bristled violently, ready to pierce the emperor’s heart.
The crown prince watched, prepared to let it happen.
‘Originally, I planned to poison him slowly under the guise of treatment, then frame a noble. But if he dies now, so be it. Forcing confessions and forging letters will take time, but having him alive isn’t strictly necessary.’
Such ruthless calculation didn’t suit a son watching his father’s death approach.
“If I die, Lowell Clarke dies too.”
The emperor’s final, desperate shout froze Felix’s magic mid-strike.
The emperor, realizing just how narrowly he’d escaped death, trembled visibly.
“If you want him to live—kill the crown prince here, repent for your treason, and take your own life.”
The emperor, having brushed against the banks of the River Styx, recognized Felix’s hesitation and regained his arrogance.
The crown prince’s expression twisted with barely suppressed frustration.
“Don’t be reckless. The so-called ‘proof’ hasn’t arrived. Nothing is decided yet.”
Even as he spoke, the crown prince subtly adjusted his grip on his sword, ready to defend himself against Felix’s rage.
But Felix’s blackened eyes, clouded with hatred, finally wavered.
They left the emperor and locked onto the crown prince.
“Even if it’s true… Do you really think they’ll let the hostage live? There’s no point listening to him.”
It was a misstep—assuming Felix’s reason was returning.
In an instant, Felix’s magic-clad blade hovered inches from the crown prince’s throat.
One slight movement, and he would’ve been wounded.
“Felix, get a hold of yourself.”
“That was a warning. Watch your mouth.”
Felix brushed past the crown prince, advancing on the emperor.
The storm of his dark magic stirred the black magic circle etched beneath the audience chamber’s carpet, sending fierce winds howling.
The crown prince wanted to shout a warning—but instinct told him, no matter what he said now, it would only provoke Felix further.
“If Lowell is even slightly hurt, no one here will leave alive.”
Despair rippled like a wave from Felix’s shadow.
His previously polite, almost deferential tone turned rough, and his voice carried the chill of a curse.
Just from that, it was clear there wasn’t a single lie in his words.
“Send the signal to save Lowell. Now.”
“Y-You think they’ll listen to that kind of demand?”
A sword imbued with killing intent landed atop the Emperor’s hand.
Merely touching the blade left a deep gash, and the wound festered as Felix’s dark magic gnawed into it.
“Aaargh!”
The Emperor screamed, overwhelmed by the pain of the dark magic writhing through his flesh like razors.
“Killing you is easy. The real question is how much torture you can endure before you finally die.”
Felix’s movements grew increasingly merciless.
The Emperor realized with horror that he’d provoked a far greater lunatic than he expected.
Felix’s magic, moving like tentacles, dragged the Emperor’s skin up his arm, bringing pain with every touch.
“A-A demon…”
“Yes. Unless you’re curious just how far a demon can go, I suggest you move. Do that, and I’ll gladly kill the crown prince—or you—in the easiest way possible.”
Still restrained, the Emperor screamed in terror and gagged from nausea.
Yet, the fear of sending the signal to release Lowell only to be slaughtered afterward made him grit his teeth and endure the torment.
It was a complete reversal from earlier.
Meanwhile, the dark magic circle beneath them devoured Felix’s power like a starving beast, the vibrations in the floor growing stronger by the second.
At this rate, they weren’t destroying the magic circle—they were practically opening a path for monsters to flood in.
The Crown Prince quietly calculated the right moment to intervene against Felix.
But Felix, on edge and hyper-aware, had already read the Crown Prince’s intentions, leaving no opening.
The atmosphere in the room teetered on the verge of snapping, the tension unbearable.
Then, a knight standing outside knocked on the door.
“Y-Your Majesty! Prince Zephyros Maia has arrived!”
What stood out was how both the Emperor and Crown Prince brightened the moment they heard the name.
The Emperor even managed a fleeting smile, forgetting his pain, while the Crown Prince exhaled as if relieved by good news.
“Let him in.”
With the Crown Prince’s permission, Felix, still pinning the Emperor down, watched Zephyros enter.
Zephyros, sweating heavily as he rushed inside, faltered at the chilling atmosphere.
“I—I’ve brought it! That item, give it to me now!”
The Emperor clung to Zephyros like a man grabbing a lifeline.
Felix’s eyes fixed on the paper Zephyros carried, and through it, a glimpse of unmistakable hair—Lowell’s hair—peeked out.
“What is that?”
Felix’s voice trembled with rage.
Losing Lowell, his anchor, left him utterly unbalanced.
“P-proof! That Lord Lowell is safe!”
The moment Zephyros spoke, the room’s mood shifted.
“Kgh… What… what do you mean by that?”
Groaning from pain, the Emperor looked betrayed beyond belief.
“You’re too late.”
In stark contrast, the Crown Prince sighed in visible relief, as though he’d been waiting for this.
“He asked me to deliver this to the Grand Duke.”
At those words, Felix practically flew from the throne to Zephyros, as though in a trance.
Zephyros, startled by how quickly Felix closed the distance, nearly fell backward but barely held his ground.
“Give it to me.”
Felix’s trembling hands opened the envelope.
Inside, along with neatly cut strands of Lowell’s hair, was a letter in familiar, precise handwriting—the same handwriting Lowell used in the letters he sent daily when they were in the capital.
* * *
