* * *

“…Ha.”

‘Damn it.’

Swallowing back a curse, he rubbed his forehead, his palm slick with sweat.

‘Why am I dreaming like this?’

Ever since coming to this world, he’d occasionally had strange dreams.

Dreams of being struck in the head with a soju bottle by the man who called himself his biological father.

Dreams of that coward running away, leaving him paralyzed and helpless, unable to move a single finger, waiting for death.

In other words, nightmares that were absurdly vivid despite never having happened.

‘Why do they feel so real?’

It was infuriating.

To make matters worse, he’d been bedridden for three days with sudden pain, leaving him in an awful mood.

‘And yet that bastard Raizen didn’t even bother to check on me.’

This was why people said black-haired beasts could never be trusted, no matter how much kindness you showed them.

Feeling the need to wash his face with cold water, he carefully stepped out of his room.

As he passed the hallway, his gaze lingered on the room next to him, where Mila stayed.

‘Young master, I’m so sorry. I’ll be back soon. Truly, I’m sorry.’

Mila had suddenly taken leave to deal with family matters.

She hadn’t wanted to go, but he’d insisted she take time for herself.

‘She’s been by my side, nursing me the entire time.’

Something even his own parents had never done.

He felt grateful and guilty at the same time.

After staring at her door for a moment, he headed for the bathroom.

The dim hallway was faintly illuminated by the magic stone lamps embedded in the walls, their brightness lowered for the night.

Guided by their soft glow, he walked slowly forward.

“…?”

He thought he saw someone standing in the distance.

Squinting, he looked again.

There, near the stairs, a figure stood.

“Sh—”

He caught himself before cursing aloud.

Even though his voice should’ve been audible, the figure by the stairs didn’t move at all.

‘What is this?’

The silhouette seemed too small to be an adult… yet oddly, the darkness around that spot made it impossible to clearly discern the figure.

Still, only one name came to mind.

‘Raizen?’

With cautious steps, he approached, hoping he was wrong.

But as he drew closer, his suspicions were confirmed.

“Hyung…?”

Raizen stood frozen, half-turned away, like a statue.

He didn’t react to the voice, didn’t move an inch.

“…?”

And then he noticed.

What was that?

In the darkness devouring Raizen, something even more profound loomed.

Without thinking, I reached out and gripped it tightly.

It was round and sticky, and when I squeezed, it burst like a water balloon.

A viscous black liquid splattered across my hand.

The darkness surrounding Raizen disappeared as if it had all been a lie.

“Hyung? Are you okay?”

I asked again, and only then did Raizen look at me.

His body flinched as his gaze landed on my hand, covered in the black liquid.

It wasn’t doing anything, yet it was vanishing bit by bit, as though being washed away by some invisible force.

Raizen’s eyes widened.

“You, that…”

Finally, I started to understand.

“Is this… the thing I saw back then?”

Instead of answering, Raizen suddenly grabbed my hand.

His trembling voice followed as he stared at the slowly disappearing black substance.

“This… you caught it…?”

“Yeah. It felt weird, so I grabbed it, and it burst.”

“This is… that…”

Fixating on the black liquid, Raizen let out an unexpected laugh.

“Hahaha… haha…”

“Hyung, hyung?”

Is he seriously losing it?

“Hahaha! Hahahaha!”

Raizen burst into louder laughter, clutching his stomach as his entire body shook.

But soon, his laughter turned into sobs.

“…I am not.”

Tears dripped down from his bowed head.

Raizen spoke in a clearer voice.

“I’m not crazy.”

“…”

“I’m not crazy!!”

I silently watched Raizen as he laughed and cried.

‘Not crazy?’

No, you seem a little crazy right now.

But for some reason, I couldn’t look away from Raizen.

Was it the desperation emanating from him?

It felt like nothing could rival the despair and relief radiating from him—not even someone on the brink of death finding an oasis in the desert.

‘But what’s going on?’

I looked down at my now-clean hand.

Though the black substance had disappeared, the sticky unease lingered.

‘So this is… that thing.’

From what Raizen had said, it seemed that the black mass I grabbed and destroyed was the very thing.

The black mass—Raizen’s curse.

It had appeared when he was ten years old, visible only to him.

According to the ‘Raizen’s Bonus Chapter’, grabbing it or stabbing it with a blade did nothing; it vanished without a trace, as though it had never existed.

‘So that’s why he said he was cursed.’

Raizen’s demeanor when he said that had been unnervingly calm.

But now I understood.

Raizen hadn’t been worrying about whether he was cursed.

He didn’t have the luxury for that.

Maybe he had even preferred the idea of being cursed because the alternative was worse—because if it wasn’t a curse… then he truly was insane.

‘That’s what he was afraid of.’

A black mass only visible to him, vanishing without a trace if he tried to get rid of it.

Without anyone else to witness it, he couldn’t prove it existed.

I suddenly remembered Raizen’s reaction when we encountered the black mass in the palace.

“Did you see that just now? You too?”

“The black mass?”

“Yes, that thing.”

“What about it?”

“Until now… no one else could…”

The image of Raizen stammering without blinking remained vivid in my mind.

‘This proves I’m useful, doesn’t it?’

But even now, my body wouldn’t stop trembling.

This wasn’t the same fear as when I instinctively knew Raizen might kill me.

No, this was something else—like I had really screwed up.

‘This isn’t just proving your usefulness.’

I had done something Raizen himself couldn’t, and he had seen it. So now…

A sudden urge to run overwhelmed me.

If I didn’t escape, I felt I’d be forever tied to Raizen.

‘This isn’t what I wanted!’

I had only wanted to survive as a vague, unremarkable existence—not to become Raizen’s only something.

I wanted to flee back to my room, but my body wouldn’t move.

Raizen, who had been laughing and crying for what felt like an eternity, suddenly grabbed my hand.

His crimson eyes glowed eerily.

“You’re the one.”

“…”

“I only need you.”

‘No, no, that’s not it.’

I forced my stiff lips to move.

“Hy-hyung, I don’t… know what you’re… talking about…”

‘I don’t have divine power!’

I didn’t understand what had happened, and that terrified me.

Was it possible that Sean, a character briefly mentioned in the novel, actually possessed divine power?

But if that were true, why wasn’t it recognized in the original story?

Was it something that emerged because I was now in his body?

If Raizen found out I didn’t have divine power, or worse, that divine power didn’t exist at all—if he realized this was all coincidence and I was powerless…

‘How dare you deceive me?’

The low, ominous sound of Raizen’s voice echoed in my ears, and I imagined my head being severed.

‘Damn it, why is this happening?!’

I tried to pull my hand from his grip, but it was futile.

“Hy-hyung…”

“You don’t need to understand. I need you, and you just need to stay by my side from now on.”

This guy wasn’t listening to me.

For a moment, I wanted to scream, but that would only stir chaos in the mansion.

I reluctantly met Raizen’s gaze, and he smiled smoothly.

“Just as you said—we’re the only ones who matter.”

* * *