* * *
Inside the pitch-black basement cell, Joel struggled for a long time to wake the Crown Prince.
“Your Highness… Please, open your eyes, okay?”
But no matter how much he shook his shoulders or called out desperately, the Crown Prince did not wake up. Joel even screamed in a fit of rage, “Carlyle, you idiot! Wake up!” but it was equally useless.
The Crown Prince remained motionless, looking exactly like a corpse. Joel, who had been trying everything to wake him, eventually slumped over in exhaustion.
Joel stared at the hourglass floating mockingly around him.
The sand was now less than half of what it had been when he first saw it.
The sight of the few remaining grains of sand falling downward made him feel like he was going to cry from fear.
In his urgency, Joel grabbed the clock and turned it upside down, but of course, that didn’t change the direction the sand fell.
He had sold his very soul with the vague hope that the Crown Prince would find a way, but at this rate, even that last hope was gone.
Then again, seeing as the Crown Prince had been trapped here this whole time, it was obvious he didn’t have the power to solve this situation either.
He felt like a fool for not realizing that sooner.
“Why on earth did you do such a thing…”
Whether in the past or the present, Joel had never once wanted the Crown Prince to die for him.
All he had ever wanted from the Prince was a tiny bit of sympathy.
He felt so resentful toward that face, sleeping so peacefully after having caused such a mess.
Was he really supposed to just stay here and watch the Crown Prince be devoured by that ‘John’ guy? Joel didn’t have the confidence to watch the Prince die.
When he was negotiating with preacher John, he had firmly resolved that he would never sacrifice the baby’s soul, but now that he had the Crown Prince right in front of him, his heart wavered.
Even though he knew he shouldn’t think that way, John’s cunning whisper—that he could always have another baby—kept ringing in his ears.
“No, I still can’t let the baby be taken.”
Joel, who found himself glancing at the contract John had left behind, snapped back to his senses and muttered as if scolding himself.
It was too early to give up. He could no longer rely on the Crown Prince to save him, but he couldn’t just sit idly by and wait for John to take the Prince’s soul.
At the very least, he had to try to fight back against John.
Realistically, it seemed like there was nothing he could do against a man like John who used magic, but Joel made up his mind to do his best.
He began to search the surroundings for anything that could be used as a weapon.
Fortunately, there were two swords hanging at the Crown Prince’s waist. Joel naturally picked up the longsword, which looked more threatening.
However, the longsword was much heavier than Joel had expected. Panicked, Joel remembered then that he had never properly learned swordsmanship.
Using the longsword seemed impossible.
Still, unable to let go of the idea, Joel tried to pull the sword from its scabbard, but he lost his grip on the handle and almost hurt the Crown Prince.
Eventually, he had to give up on the longsword.
The second weapon he picked up, a dagger, fortunately fit perfectly in Joel’s hand. Joel swung the dagger back and forth a few times.
The dagger looked decorative and the blade was dull; it didn’t seem like it would be much help against John.
Still, holding something that could be a weapon gave him a small amount of comfort.
“With this, somehow, I’ll…”
Kill him? Joel thought, lacking any confidence.
As he gripped the dagger tightly, wondering how to attack John to at least deal some damage, a suspicion suddenly crossed his mind.
Thanks to John turning back time, many things became “things that didn’t happen”—in other words, “things that never were.”
He himself, who should have died a month ago, was still very much alive.
His stepfather, who in the past had been caught in a fake pregnancy scam and had much of his wealth confiscated, was now living well and prospering.
So, how could the fact that the Crown Prince made a deal with a demon still be valid?
The time had returned to a point before the contract was even made.
As Joel pondered this, the basement door suddenly creaked open.
Joel hurriedly hid the dagger in his sleeve.
“My son.”
Fortunately, the person who pushed the basement door open was Sir Bennet.
Joel felt internally bitter toward his father, who had truly left him behind and vanished just because John told him to, so he asked in a sharp tone, “Father? What are you doing here?”
“I heard from Leader John that you are being unnecessarily stubborn. He told me to come help you make a wise decision.”
“Ha, a wise decision?”
How could throwing one’s child’s soul as food for a demon be called a ‘wise decision’?
When Joel questioned him in an aggressive tone, Sir Bennet spoke as if trying to soothe him.
“My son, you can always have another baby. And if saving the Crown Prince’s life requires that sacrifice, it would be an honor for that child as well.”
“Is that so? We can just have another baby? Then, Father, if you were in the same situation as His Highness, would you have said the same thing to my mother? To sacrifice me to save your life because you can just have another baby?”
“Th-that is…”
Sir Bennet, who had heard from John that the soul in Joel’s womb was a fetus less than three months old and naturally thought it wise to save the Prince, was momentarily speechless.
From the perspective of Joel’s father, sacrificing the fetus seemed obvious, but when he put himself in the Crown Prince’s shoes, he couldn’t give an answer easily.
No, actually, the answer was all too clear.
He, too, would have chosen to die rather than sacrifice his child.
But even so, he couldn’t let Joel make that choice.
Sacrificing the Crown Prince to save a three-month-old fetus was a path leading straight into a bed of thorns.
There was no guarantee the Imperial grandchild in Joel’s womb wouldn’t be miscarried, and even if the child were born safely, there was no certainty the Emperor would recognize it.
To Sir Bennet, the safety of his own child, Joel, was more important than anything else.
Sir Bennet hid his misery and tried to persuade Joel again.
“…Joel, my child. But this case is different. The baby in your womb is smaller than a finger…”
“No, Father. Just because this child is only the size of a finger doesn’t change anything. I feel the same way as you. And since we’ve met, I have to ask: what on earth were you thinking, selling your soul to that scammer?”
When the direction of the blame suddenly shifted, Sir Bennet looked flustered.
Joel knew his father followed John blindly, but once the dam of his suppressed emotions broke, his resentment began to pour out uncontrollably.
“You call John a great savior? A guy like that asks for souls?”
“…Joel, but to me, Leader John was salvation itself. If I couldn’t meet you and your mother after death, I had no reason to exist anymore. And Leader John said that since you missed your mother so much, it would benefit you too if he could let you meet her, even if it meant sacrificing my worthless soul…”
“Father, I need you too! Why don’t you understand that!”
Joel cried out, sobbing.
He hadn’t had the luxury to worry about it because the Crown Prince was missing, but the fact that his father had handed his soul over to John was also a huge shock.
“And if you can’t meet me and Mother, why is there no reason to exist? You should be repenting in the fires of hell and asking God for forgiveness! Even if there seems to be no chance of salvation, you should endure for the sake of the family waiting for you, hoping for a miracle. If you truly loved me and Mother, shouldn’t you have thought at least once about what we really wanted before giving up your soul?”
It wasn’t even certain if he would go to hell or not, yet choosing eternal extinction out of self-pity was ultimately a selfish choice born of self-love.
Joel had never wanted such a sacrifice from his father.
And it would be the same for his mother.
Joel felt so resentful toward his father for irresponsibly throwing away his soul.
“Still, I heard Leader John turned back time and saved you. For this father, that alone is reason enough to serve him.”
Sir Bennet, who had responded to Joel’s resentment with silence, finally spoke in a stubborn tone.
“And because of that, the Crown Prince is about to die. Do you think other people will feel the same way? That it’s a relief the Crown Prince died and the troublemaker Joel of the Lucas family survived? I highly doubt it.”
Joel criticized him bitterly and wiped his tears.
He didn’t even have time to list his grievances to his father anymore.
He grabbed the hem of his father’s trousers and pleaded.
“Father, if you really want to help me, please, I beg you, go up to the surface and bring the 4th Knight Order here.”
“What are you going to do once they are here?”
“We have to fight John. We can’t just let the Crown Prince die like this.”
It was uncertain whether his father, who had flown into a rage just because he called John a scammer, would actually do it, but his father was the only place Joel could turn for help right now.
Joel appealed to his father’s paternal love.
* * *
