“Cough, cough…!”
The place where I had hidden after kidnapping the protagonist was an abandoned research lab that closely resembled an underground bunker.
It was located in a dilapidated village, quite far from Catena, the empire’s capital.
‘The Grand Duke provided this hideout himself!’
Because it had been abandoned and neglected for a long time, the environment was absolutely horrendous.
Layer upon layer of black dust was a given, and mysterious objects hardened like stone rolled around the floor.
I didn’t know what had happened here in the past, but the place felt as though it were cursed by God.
‘Did they perform… some kind of taboo experiments here?’
Whatever they did, I just hoped everything had been completely wiped out when the lab was shut down.
“Cough…!”
Perhaps because the environment was so foul, just walking down the hallway made me burst into violent coughs as if I were about to spit blood.
My eyes stung so badly that tears began to prick.
‘How on earth did he walk around in here?’
When I hadn’t regained my memories and was living purely as Enoch, I used to walk through here without a care.
Does regaining my memories bring back my own sense of self instead of Enoch’s, causing my body to react this way?
‘But if that’s the case… the power and the curse are still exactly the same…?’
Gently pulling aside my collar to check my chest, the stigma of the curse was vividly etched into my skin.
My mana and physical abilities were unchanged too.
If I were to be ambushed suddenly, I felt capable of reacting just as I would have when I was the memoryless Enoch.
‘Is it because my psychological state changed?’
Enoch couldn’t feel pain very well. But I could.
‘Right. That must be it.’
After quickly coming to a conclusion, I hurried my steps.
‘To think he brought a twelve-year-old child to a place like this!’
There was something much more urgent than that right now.
The room where Enoch had confined the protagonist was located deep inside the laboratory.
Perhaps because it was a room used by fairly high-ranking researchers, it was relatively clean, and some non-petrified furniture remained.
It showed he had still put some modicum of care into housing the protagonist, but…
‘Either way, this must be a living hell for a kid who used to live in the Imperial Palace!’
For a precious Imperial Prince, wouldn’t this alone be enough to traumatize him?
I could feel my survival rate plummeting in real-time.
“Phew…”
Walking as fast as I could without spilling the food, I arrived in front of the door.
I had rushed over out of sheer anxiety, but standing right before the door made me inevitably nervous.
Out of the past nine rounds, this was the very first time I had regained my memories on the first day of the kidnapping.
In the 1st round, it was when I was being dragged to the execution grounds.
In the 2nd round, it was when the hideout was discovered and I was arrested…!
Though the starting point of the regression moved up slightly with each turn, the 8th round had still started on the very last day of the kidnapping.
I had wondered how many more times I would have to die just to hit the halfway mark, so I hadn’t expected the timeline to be pulled forward this drastically in the 9th round.
‘And that additional notice popped up too.’
I didn’t know the reason behind it, but this round was clearly an opportunity for me in many ways.
A chance to deviate from the original work and survive without dying!
‘I really hate dying.’
Being born human and dying is naturally a terrifying thing, but I had already died eight times.
One would think I’d grow numb to it after experiencing it so much, but that wasn’t the case at all.
The moments I met my death were still vivid.
‘For now… let’s get on his good side.’
After relaxing my facial muscles, I knocked on the door gently. Tap, tap.
“I’m coming in.”
Naturally, no answer came.
No person was visible on top of the bed, which was reasonably clean and in decent condition.
There was only a round lump rolled tightly inside the blanket.
‘Doesn’t he suffocate sleeping like that?’
He was probably doing it out of fear.
Making deliberate footsteps so as not to startle him, I approached the bed.
At that, the round lump flinched violently before starting to wriggle gently.
Before long, a small head poked out slily from the pile of blankets.
Deep honey-blond hair that looked like melted honey, paired with luminous amethyst eyes.
No matter how you looked at him—from the front, the back, or even while doing a side roll—he was undeniably royalty.
He was also the one born with the deepest, most vivid manifestation of the imperial family’s traits in nearly fifty years.
The protagonist, who had poked his head halfway out, shrank back slightly upon spotting me.
Keeping only his luminous amethyst eyes peeking over the blanket, he stared at me, repeatedly looking up and casting his gaze down.
By the looks of it, he seemed terrified.
‘But… he’s calmer than I thought?’
Right now, the protagonist was a mere twelve years old.
In Korean terms, he would be a fifth grader in elementary school.
Usually, at that age, being stuck in an unfamiliar place with a stranger would make a kid cry or scream… anyway, it should be hard for them to just stay still, right?
‘Come to think of it, I feel like the protagonist was always quiet.’
Actually, that part of my memory was fuzzy.
While the facts that I had transmigrated into a novel and what the title of that novel was came back clearly, the memories of living as Enoch before regaining my awareness didn’t return in great detail.
It felt distant, as if I had simply watched a movie.
‘I suppose that’s why I can maintain my own sense of self without being swallowed by Enoch’s life.’
Anyway, perhaps because of that, I couldn’t clearly recall what kind of time Enoch—who had only moved according to the flow of the novel—and the protagonist had spent together, or how the protagonist had reacted back then.
I only had a vague impression that he was surprisingly quiet and that it wasn’t too bad.
However, everything that happened after I regained my memories was perfectly clear.
The sensation of my head being severed, the air on the day I was dragged to the execution grounds…
‘Which is exactly why those memories aren’t helpful at all.’
In any case, if I wanted to survive, I had to maintain a good relationship with this kid.
Though I didn’t know if that was even possible given that I had already kidnapped him…
It didn’t seem like a bad idea to test things out one by one.
Worse comes to worst, if I die, I’ll just regress again anyway. Ha.
‘Then someday, I’ll be able to survive and return to where I came from.’
I didn’t know if a way back existed, but surviving was the priority right now.
After setting the food on the table, I approached the bed once more.
Then, in what I considered to be my most polite voice, I spoke.
“Your Highness, please have your meal.”
Perhaps it was quite effective, because the protagonist, who had been stealing glances at me, now stared at me intently.
He slily lifted his head, which had been half-buried in the blanket.
With that, the protagonist’s face was fully revealed.
‘He really is beautiful!’
At a glance, one might mistake him for a girl.
However, looking closely, his features were distinct and beautifully shaped; he possessed a face that would undoubtedly grow up to be incredibly handsome.
What do people call it?
Prettysome (Pretty + Handsome)?
‘Ah.’
