A gentle whisper brushed coolly against his forehead. Like a moth drawn to flame, Seiyad, who had clung to the stability the Guide provided, slowly blinked his eyes open.
“I truly can’t understand what my star is doing today. Have you forgotten that bastard is the filthy bloodline of Shildras, Eid? Wasn’t it the Shildras family that drove the former Duchess Axid to death and disgraced the honor of the North?”
As if he genuinely didn’t understand, Aster tilted his head. The hand that had been stroking Seiyad’s hair came down.
“Ressas is nothing more than a vermin that doesn’t need to be killed, but also isn’t worth keeping alive. You know better than anyone that he’s the son of that vile Queen Leana, unworthy of bearing Solias’s name.”
His gaze turned cold as he caressed Seiyad’s cheek with the back of his hand. The smile that had gently adorned his face vanished.
“So tell me.”
A pale hand reached out and gripped Seiyad’s chin. Seiyad lowered his eyes, quietly watching the blue veins pulsing along the white hand. It was a grip he could’ve easily shaken off with a turn of his head—but he left it be. It was a kind of proposition. A truth forged over long years—that Seiyad could not defy Aster. That unspoken truth allowed this to continue.
“Why were you by his side today, and not mine?”
His muddled mind, dulled by pain, finally returned to clarity at those words. He had momentarily forgotten. Just how possessive Aster was with what belonged to him. A man who had served faithfully as his hound for so long suddenly choosing to protect the bloodline of Queen Leana—of all people—would be unthinkable to him.
Though he’d known it, he’d still lost his composure under the onslaught of an unexpectedly fierce backlash. The experience of going berserk had left Seiyad briefly incapable of rational thought.
Right now, turning his back on Aster was not an option. Not until Ressas fully awakened. Aster was still necessary. Even though Ressas had proven himself to be an unusually powerful Guide, it remained unclear how compatible his resonance truly was with Seiyad’s. Until that was confirmed, the prudent course of action was to avoid greatly offending Aster.
Scolding himself, Seiyad opened his mouth, trying to defuse the situation.
“…Since it was a Ritual of Invocation presided over by Your Highness, I didn’t want any unnecessary disruption.”
Forcing himself to ignore his frenzied senses, he fished for a line he might’ve said in the past.
“Even a useless prince could’ve stirred up talk.”
“True. But in the end, those words will fade. It would’ve been better if he’d died this time. The fewer traces of Leana’s bloodline left, the better it is for this kingdom.”
The hand gripping his chin tightened. Seiyad stayed silent, feigning ignorance. A heavy silence pressed down on them. Aster chuckled faintly before releasing him.
“Whatever the reason, this alone is hard to overlook. Leave. The purification ends here.”
Damn it.
He’d known it wouldn’t pass easily, but he hadn’t expected this—not with the breeding season just beginning. Drawing a sharp breath, Seiyad furrowed his brows. A crease of pain carved its way between his even, straight brows.
“…Your Highness.”
A growl slipped out. The resonance that had momentarily calmed under Aster’s influence now surged wildly, filling the entire room. But even seeing Seiyad become more beast than man in an instant didn’t faze Aster. He only smiled kindly.
Tither’s power didn’t work on Guides. While Tithers could use their abilities to pressure Guides, any harm done to one would provoke an equal backlash. That was why only members of the Solias royal family could wield Tithers. Tithers needed Guides—but Guides had no such need. They were merely tools desired to protect the kingdom.
“To push me away like this now… the timing couldn’t be worse. Can you not delay the punishment for later?”
This was how Aster punished Seiyad. Whenever he displeased him, Aster would threaten him with a gentle blade. Because Seiyad’s resonance didn’t align with the royal bloodline, only Aster could release him from the pain.
He had forgotten, after so long without this treatment. Back when he was young and had just come under Aster, it had been a frequent occurrence. But ever since he had fully submitted to Aster, the prince hadn’t treated him this way again.
“I know it’s not unbearable. You’ve received the necessary treatment, so leave now. Spend the night thinking of me, and repenting for your sin.”
Seiyad swallowed his ragged breath. With Aster taking this stance, there was no room left for persuasion. He knew this in his bones, even from futures that no longer existed.
“When I can feel that you’ve thought of me enough, then I’ll grant you peace.”
With a languid smile, Aster propped his chin on his hand. Seiyad stared quietly at him for a moment, then rose from his seat and bowed. Suppressing the sensation of his insides tearing and scraping, he exited Aster’s chamber. Blood dripped from his clenched fist, dotting the corridor and marking the path he walked.
As Aster desired, Seiyad was not granted rest. The sounds within the castle bled into him, constantly stirring him up, and he was plagued by pain that felt like needles scratching at his veins. The migraine pounding in his skull made it feel like bursting his head open might be a relief.
But it was still bearable.
He sat facing his mother’s portrait. Her pale, cool face showed no trace of pain. Only the faint furrowing of her dark brows now and then betrayed her discomfort.
The “price” paid by a Tither varied depending on the strength of their power. Chronic headaches were a basic symptom shared by all Tithers, but the frequency and intensity differed. And the lord of the North always endured a pain that no one else could even begin to imagine.
Seiyad’s mother, the previous Duchess Axid, was the same. Normally a bold and spirited woman, she would always be haunted by nightmares during the breeding season. As the lord of the Frosty North, Serena had never shown that burden before others—but before Seiyad alone, she revealed its full weight. She had always hidden this side from her powerless husband and from her younger sister, who was far from a proper successor.
“Aaaagh—!”
With a single motion of his mother’s hand, countless pieces of furniture shattered. The young Seiyad, curled up on her bed, had witnessed her world crumble and rebuild itself thousands of times. When the pain became unbearable and she began to harm herself, it was Seiyad who had to stop her.
Once, he had asked her—why not simply go to His Majesty? His mother’s Guide had been the Emperor, and during the onset of the Hunting Season, the central royals always stayed by their Tithers’ side. The Emperor would spend every winter here when the harsh season began.
“Eid, I don’t want to be touched by anyone other than your father. Be wary of the euphoria they bring. Never forget who it is you truly love, and don’t let yourself be swayed.”
The former Duke had loved her one and only Covenant deeply. The coldly beautiful woman with her long silver hair would smile with a warmth unimaginable to others whenever she looked upon her beloved husband.
Born in the South, his father had served in the capital as a royal advisor. He was naturally gentle and warmhearted. His mother had developed feelings for him first—after encountering him during her visits to the palace—and after a long courtship, she brought him to the North.
The castle was always warm for the sake of his father, who had a frail constitution and couldn’t withstand the cold winds. Whenever they had to go outside, his mother would block the chill from reaching him. The couple was harmonious. And because it had been so good, it was all the more painful.
The required physical contact between a Tither and their Guide for purification eventually became a form of hell for his mother. She didn’t even want to hold hands with anyone who wasn’t the one she loved. The Duchess bore with it for as long as she could, until she was forced to receive purification as a matter of necessity—and this discontent displeased the King as well. The bond of trust that should have united Guide and Tither began to crack.
Could this be the reason why berserk episodes—supposedly rare—had appeared so frequently in their household?
Turning that vague suspicion into certainty, Seiyad looked again at the portrait. The silver-haired woman, confidently smiling, actually resembled his younger sister more than himself. Every time he saw that face, guilt crept in. He loathed himself for not being able to prove her innocence, for coexisting with the Shildras family despite everything.
And now, today—after experiencing death and facing this bizarre rebirth—his thoughts were in turmoil.
Was what she said… really true?
No one had believed her. And precisely because of that, Seiyad wanted to believe her. Even though she had the chance to escape, Serena chose not to. With eyes full of sorrow, she had looked at him and said:
“Shildras trapped me, Eid. You must protect your family. Your father, your sister—guard them from those people!”
Her bloodied hand had gripped the prison bars so tightly it looked like she’d crush them. That dying hand, that voice brimming with venom, had become Seiyad’s guiding star. And at the end of that path stood the Seiyad who had executed and killed more people than his mother ever had—by far.
He cut off the thought. His headache seized the opportunity in that moment of weakness and assaulted him. He had followed her final words, but in truth, he had already destroyed everything. He failed to protect his father, who had taken his own life not long after Serena’s death, before Seiyad could even act… and his sister—she had left this place.
Maybe that’s why he had clung so tightly to the desire to clear his mother’s name.
But now, everything felt uncertain. He didn’t want to dismiss her words as nonsense, yet he could no longer believe them without doubt. After going berserk himself, he couldn’t shake the thought—her symptoms had been eerily similar.
And yet, the reason he couldn’t completely write it off as madness was because of one particular thing she said.
“I never tried to harm His Majesty, Eid. I didn’t go berserk. I saw it—clear as day. A massive Nir’a trying to attack us even while the sun still hung in the sky….”
That statement… he just couldn’t ignore it. He tried to brush it off as a hallucination brought on by a berserk episode—but then, another memory surfaced.
“Someone claimed to have seen a Nir’a in the middle of the day at Takhan. That person went missing not long after. You’re the one who should investigate this.”
It had been a year before his death. At the height of their competition for the throne, Ressas had summoned Seiyad and said those words. So much had happened since then that the memory had faded, but curiously, it resurfaced now.
What had he said in response…?
He couldn’t recall exactly, but it must have been something like:
“Tell that bastard dog of yours to do it. The one who’d lick your boots if you told him to is right next to you. I don’t have time to waste on such nonsense.”
When Seiyad had said that, Zion had been standing at Ressas’s side. Duke Shildras himself, Ressas’s devoted Tither, and the beloved lord of the South. Zion had also been the one who played the biggest role in suppressing Seiyad—he had long been considered his greatest rival.
But around that time, Zion had made a name for himself in another way throughout the kingdom.
Ressas’s lover.
That was Zion’s other name.
