Facing his sister’s blind and unwavering conviction, Seiyad felt a chill run down his spine. The suffocating grip that once tethered him to Aster—something he had barely escaped through death—was now wrapped around Cecilia’s neck like a noose of destiny. It was eerie. It felt as if some unseen force was determined to keep their family eternally bound to Aster’s side.
“Cecil, you should check your compatibility with the other members of the royal family. The Guide doesn’t have to be just the Crown Prince. Someone else might actually be a better match for you.”
He hadn’t yet found hard proof, but Aster’s Purification was undeniably abnormal. Just days ago, he had doubted himself, suspecting that his rampage might be hereditary, passed down from their mother. But now that he knew the incident had been fabricated, he felt even more convinced that Aster had triggered his rampage.
“I already went through the testing after I entered the palace yesterday. None of the others had any effect. Only the Crown Prince eased my headaches and calmed my body.”
Seiyad’s brow furrowed. Much like the way each noble house tended to pass down similar innate powers, compatibility with a Guide often followed hereditary patterns. It wasn’t rare for a single Guide to be responsible for every Tither in one lineage. Unfortunately, it seemed Cecilia was one of those cases.
He knew Purification was nothing more than a ritual, yet the mere thought of Aster laying hands on Cecilia made his blood run cold. When he considered the possibility that she might undergo something even more invasive than what had been done to him, a murderous instinct surged within him.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
To anyone else, his expression likely seemed no different from usual—but Cecilia read him instantly.
“Do you not want me here? You still don’t want to see me, do you?”
And Seiyad, too, saw the emotions behind her words. Though her face appeared just as cold and composed as his, beneath it, he saw anxiety and fear. He shook his head and gently took her hand. Her black eyes finally revealed their emotions, trembling faintly.
“Of course not. It’s just that the situation is unpleasant. Cecil, the Purification ritual can stop wherever you want it to. If the Crown Prince ever tries to push you beyond what you’re comfortable with, then immediately…”
“Oppa, it was just holding hands. That’s all. He barely used any power, so there weren’t any major side effects either.”
Cecilia’s voice carried relief, as if comforted by his concern. Watching the subtle change in her expression, Seiyad suddenly felt a strong desire to say the words he’d never managed to in their past life. The circumstances were far from ideal, but she had returned to his side. It was a chance to undo his regrets.
“Cecil, I didn’t take the time to understand your fear. Like you said, we should’ve relied on each other and stayed together. But I failed to see what truly mattered. I’m the one who abandoned our family. So I owe you an apology as well. I’m sorry, Cecil.”
She listened quietly, biting her lip before replying in a low, steady voice.
“No… Oppa, you were trying to protect me. That’s why now, I’ll protect you.”
Hearing those words from the sister he had finally regained only made him more certain—he couldn’t afford to lose her again to a rampage. Seiyad waited for her to calm down, and after some hesitation, spoke again.
“You said you were tested with everyone in the royal palace.”
“Yeah, Oppa.”
“Did you test with Prince Ressas as well?”
At that, Cecilia’s face turned noticeably cold. Her eyes burned with hatred as she snapped back.
“No. I’d never associate with someone like him. Everyone who helped put him in that position is connected to Mother’s death. Even if I was cut off from the world, I know that much. I don’t want to touch the son of Queen Leana.”
She spoke the very thoughts Seiyad had been entertaining. What had once been speculation for him was now confirmed reality. And her feelings—he understood them completely. After all, it was exactly how he had felt just the day before.
She was right. Everything she said was right.
Yet, unlike in the past, Seiyad’s rage had softened in the face of his own guilt. Seeing Ressas still made his skin crawl, but to place trust in Aster, who manipulated people like pawns, would be far more foolish.
At the very least, Ressas had never tried to control him. He simply asked Seiyad to use him however he needed.
The image of those violet eyes staring at him from afar, never daring to approach, filled him with discomfort. Even if angering Ressas had been a natural reaction, something about it felt wrong.
“Tell me exactly what the Crown Prince said to you, Cecil.”
“…He said Nir’a really was at the festival plaza. And that Sirkhan Shildras silenced the witnesses and branded our mother as insane. He said he heard it from knights who were there and willing to testify.”
It was a similar story to what Seiyad had heard from Kurthu—but with some notable differences. In Jasper’s memories, people acted as if they hadn’t seen Nir’a at all. Queen Leana was one of them. Her testimony had helped drive their mother to execution, and her brazen demeanor made Seiyad want to kill her. And yet, she was also the one who had stepped in and stopped their mother from dying on the spot.
Everything surrounding Ressas had wounded Seiyad deeply. His shameless lie about trying to save her, and the way he defended Zion, had made Seiyad sick with disgust.
But ultimately, those were Seiyad’s emotions. What mattered now was stopping a greater evil and preventing future sacrifices of the innocent.
And in all this, Ressas alone had committed no crime. If anything, his flaw was being hopelessly naive and overly fair—if that could even be called a flaw.
“It’s true that Shildras orchestrated everything. It’s true that Queen Leana was involved in our mother’s execution. But Prince Ressas is not aligned with them. Cecil, you can’t trust the Crown Prince. He’s someone who might bend you to his whims. He sees us as tools—nothing more.”
“That’s not what I saw in my dream.”
Just as Seiyad was about to warn her about Aster’s Purification, Cecilia cut in with firm resolve. The moment she mentioned a dream, Seiyad recalled her past visions—things she had predicted that had come true. He needed to hear her out.
“It was a nightmare. Remember what I said a few years ago? That you’d end up killing a lot of people. What I saw in my dream picked up exactly from that moment. Prince Ressas killed you, and then things started spiraling out of control. As if it had been waiting for that moment, Nir’a went berserk and broke free from the forest, even slaughtering people in broad daylight. Eventually, the royal palace was overthrown, and everyone—including the Tithers—lost their lives. Even the Crown Prince…!”
Cecilia gripped Seiyad’s hand tighter, her face pale as snow.
“And the only one who survived that hellscape was Prince Ressas. Oppa, isn’t that strange? How is it that he, of all people, was the only one who remained unscathed while everyone else died? Just a few years ago, he was utterly powerless, a pathetic nobody!”
At her words, Seiyad recalled the vision that had struck him so vividly—the one where a colossal serpent tore through the palace and devoured Ressas. It seemed Cecilia had witnessed the same thing.
What he had believed to be a solitary hallucination was apparently shared with her. And that realization further strengthened his conviction that his reversal of time had something to do with Cecilia.
If Cecilia’s power was tied to time, then such a possibility was not out of reach.
He had never considered confessing this to anyone else, but with Cecilia, he felt safe enough to reveal the truth. After a moment’s hesitation, he made up his mind and asked,
“You said you gained a new power after dreaming, right, Cecil? Then… was it you who turned back time?”
Cecilia blinked. Her eyes held confusion as she stared at him, then cautiously repeated,
“…Turned back time?”
It was hard to tell whether she was just being careful or if she truly didn’t know. Seiyad steadied himself and, in a calm and deliberate tone, confessed everything that had happened to him.
“What you saw wasn’t just a dream, Cecil. Four years from now, I was executed after killing people in a terrible rampage—just as you said. That’s why I can say this with certainty. My rampage was caused by the Crown Prince. You must stay away from him.”
“No, Oppa.”
Cecilia denied it fiercely. With a deeply concerned expression, she wrapped both hands around his.
“There’s no such power in this world. Just like I awakened new abilities, maybe you’ve inherited something through my dreams instead. Reviving the dead belongs to the domain of the gods. We’re beings who borrow power from the moon, nothing more. That kind of divine authority doesn’t exist. Oppa, you just had a nightmare about the future. I was just as devastated when I saw that dream, too.”
Cecilia didn’t seem to be hiding anything. Seiyad studied her face in silence for a few more seconds before eventually nodding, as if in resignation.
Believing something like this was what truly made one seem unhinged. Cecilia was probably right.
Even as he thought so, a vague weariness swept over him. It wasn’t the kind of story someone could easily believe. Even he struggled to fully accept it himself. Expecting others to understand was foolish.
Come to think of it, the only one who had believed him right away was Ressas. Looking back, Ressas had always been strangely compliant and cooperative whenever it came to matters involving Seiyad. That in itself was unnatural. Or no—maybe not. After all, that same Ressas had stubbornly defended Zion no matter what. So he wasn’t always that way.
Clearing his head, Seiyad decided not to confuse his sister any further. For now, he would just observe. There might be powers at work even Cecilia herself wasn’t aware of, and until he could find definitive proof that Aster’s energy caused rampages, he didn’t yet have a strong enough argument to persuade her. For now.
“Alright.”
Seiyad agreed quietly. Seeing how she kept stealing glances at him as if afraid, he softened his voice to soothe her.
“It must’ve been my mistake, then. What matters now is resolving what’s right in front of us. Get some rest first. Does Uncle know you’re here?”
“Yeah. I told him I was heading to the palace.”
“Then it’s best to rest for now. You’ve come a long way.”
“It’s really not that far.”
Cecilia, beginning to relax, finally regained some color in her face. She readjusted her hold on his hand, and with a resolute look, whispered,
“To restore the name of Brosius, I’ll do anything to help you, Oppa.”
Her determined expression overlapped with the image of her from their past, and Seiyad couldn’t wholeheartedly welcome her words with joy. He already had a clear idea of where that path would ultimately lead.
Back then, he hadn’t known any better—but now, Seiyad was fully aware that this road was the wrong one. That’s why he wouldn’t let Aster have his way.
If what Aster wanted was for Seiyad to stay by his side, then Seiyad would stay—just to witness his downfall with his own eyes.
And the way to achieve that was to make Ressas the Crown Prince.
Avenging their parents could come afterward—something Seiyad would handle on his own.
Stomaching the presence of those around Ressas was repulsive, but not impossible. Seiyad had endured far worse in his life. Holding out a little longer to achieve his goal was an easy price to pay. If it meant getting what he wanted, he’d gladly wade through filth and deceive even himself.
After all, his true goal was to prevent his own rampage. If that was a predestined fate, then the only way to escape it would be to destroy the forest before it reached him. And if, along the way, he could elevate Ressas and topple Aster, then that would preserve everything he wanted to protect.
He had to use Ressas.
Since Ressas himself had granted him that opening, Seiyad had made his choice. He would cast aside emotion, place no expectations on him, and form a symbiotic alliance solely for the sake of his objective.
Ressas’s goals made no sense by any rational standard. But if he wanted to keep playing house and pretending to care, Seiyad would gladly let himself be borrowed—and exploit him right back.
Yes. That’s what he would do.
