The stillness of the royal palace was stifling. Under the towering ceiling, a cold darkness stretched over the carpeted halls. With every step up the stairs, the serpentine body that had swallowed the windows flickered into view. Though the chandeliers rained down radiant light, the castle felt hollow, desolate—eerily abandoned.
Aster’s power must have already swept through the palace, for every person Ressas encountered appeared entranced, their minds clearly under a spell.
Though he had decided to use force, Ressas wasn’t desperate to die just yet. He tried to follow Seiyad’s instructions as much as possible, subduing people only as necessary as he moved. But he could sense their attempt to delay him, to bind his steps—and it made his chest tighten. If Aster escaped like this, the fight would drag on, and Ressas had no intention of bearing prolonged risk.
The silence that had blanketed the palace like a dead thing was torn apart just minutes later. A woman’s scream ripped through the air from a distance, followed by the sound of many footsteps. Turning his body in the direction of the noise, Ressas swiftly ascended the staircase several times.
When he reached the floor where the audience chamber lay, a gruesome scene from the past flashed in his mind—the ghastly wreckage where everyone had died. Just as that haunting image clawed its way to the surface, a child came running from the audience chamber.
The child, barely five years old at most, darted from the corridor’s corner, his face soaked in tears. The moment the terrified boy spotted Ressas, their eyes met. That brilliant golden hair, unmistakably inherited from the royal line, and the same violet eyes as his own—Ressas knew at once. The boy was his younger brother, Lyley.
The second-born and the youngest—whom Ressas had never even spoken a word to—must have recognized him too, for the boy held out his arms and whimpered,
“P-Please help me…!”
Perhaps caught off guard by a brief wave of relief, Lyley stumbled and fell. As the boy tumbled to the ground, a woman burst out behind him. The woman who sprang from around the corner looked deranged, her long black hair disheveled. A silver tiara clung precariously to her tangled locks. It was their mother—the queen.
“Lyley, run!”
The queen’s frantic scream echoed down the corridor as a swarm of people surged after her—maids and knights tangled together like a mass of limbs, all lunging to kill. One maid seized the queen roughly as she shielded Lyley with her body. The queen staggered backward from the impact and, just then, spotted Ressas. A desperate gleam flickered in the violet eyes identical to his own.
“Ressas! Protect your brother!”
Her voice, raw and wailing, reverberated through the corridor. The name he had never once been called in life—why did he only ever hear it in moments like this? Fighting the sick churn in his chest, Ressas dashed toward them. As the maids pinned the queen, the knights drew their swords, ready to finish her off.
“Hurry, child! Run, now!”
Spurred on by her screams, Lyley crawled forward. True, they shared blood—but until this day, Ressas had never once heard his name kindly spoken by either of them. Letting them die here would have meant little to him. As he had told Seiyad, even if someone killed his mother, he wouldn’t hold a grudge. She was blood in name only, less than a stranger.
And yet, he hesitated. Could he really expect to receive Seiyad’s love if he let them die like this?
The habit of striving—desperately—to be someone worthy of standing beside a man so just and upright flared to the surface. In the end, Ressas released his power once more.
The moment that searing sensation flared inside his body, a transparent ripple swept through the corridor. A crushing aura pressed down on the space. Everyone stopped in place, eyes widening in shock.
The maid holding the queen screamed and let go, and the knights lowered their swords. The queen tore herself away from the frozen attackers and gasped, clutching Lyley tightly.
“Are you hurt, child?”
“I-I’m okay….”
Lyley, still trembling, answered bravely. Then he looked up at Ressas, lips quivering. With tear-drenched eyes, the boy whispered,
“Thank you… for saving me….”
At his murmured thanks, the queen finally looked at Ressas. Whether it was the shame of groveling before the son she had ignored for twenty-one years, Queen Leana hardened her expression and clutched Lyley tighter. Her stiff lips twitched, and she turned away as she spoke.
“If you had this power, why didn’t you act sooner? While the palace fell to ruin—what were you or the Tithers even doing…?”
To mask her shame, the queen reached for blame.
Ressas might have accepted criticism of himself, but not of the Tithers. His pale face turned cold as he looked down at her.
“How proud you must be, Mother—to owe your life to the very child you’ve spent your whole life loathing. The boy you thought more disgusting than a passing insect simply because he lacked power as a Guide… that same boy just saved your precious second son. And you. And yet you lie there, graceless and unashamed, still calling yourself Queen. It’s almost pitiable.”
At his even tone, Queen Leana’s face flushed crimson. Her shame-filled gaze trembled behind fluttering lashes. In her arms, Lyley looked between his mother and his older brother with sorrowful eyes. His small hand tugged at her.
“Mother… please don’t be mean to Hyung-nim….”
The soft murmur struck something strange deep within Ressas. His mother had never let him speak to Lyley, never given them a moment to connect. Until now, he had never once heard Lyley call him “Hyung-nim.”
The only time he had seen his little brother this close… was when the child lay dead in their mother’s arms.
Whether the boy’s innocent words touched a hidden wound or not, the queen buried Lyley deeper into her embrace and glared up at Ressas. Her wounded pride flared behind reddened eyes.
“You should never have been born that way. You’re my child, and yet you’ve brought me nothing but disgrace. And now you dare act useful, as if that excuses everything? Just like your father… so selfish. Acting as though being a Guide makes you somehow noble…”
Ressas didn’t know what kind of relationship his mother had with his father—and he had no desire to find out. What he wanted to call out was the way she treated Tithers.
“But to me, Mother, you’re no different from Father. When I see how carelessly you treat Tithers, that’s exactly how it looks. All I did was save your life—yet you expect more, just like he always did.”
In that moment, the maids and knights moved in to assist the queen. She looked back at them, bit her lip, and reached out to them, deliberately ignoring Ressas. As she took the knight’s hand and rose with their help, Ressas scanned the people lining up behind her with a detached gaze—until his expression hardened. A face among the crowd caught his eye.
Without hesitation, he shouted toward the queen.
“Come to me. Now!”
But the queen shut her ears, unwilling to listen, and gripped the knight’s arm. The knight pulled her to her feet—and the instant she stood, Adena, who had been directly behind the knight, locked eyes with Ressas and smiled.
A chill swept over him in that brief instant.
Then, slipping through the gap, Adena drove his sword straight into the queen’s abdomen.
The pain furrowed her brow where moments before only shame had lingered. Her green dress soaked quickly with blood that streamed down to the floor as she clutched her stomach and collapsed. Adena calmly retrieved his sword, blood splattering across the face of a nearby maid.
“Kyaaaa!”
Horrified screams echoed through the hall as the maids recoiled and fell. The royal knights rushed in to seize Adena, but the resistance didn’t last long. As if triggered by some unseen force, their motions froze, and their eyes once again turned pitch black.
Seeing this, Ressas quickly pulled Lyley into his arms. The child blinked in confusion, not understanding what had just happened.
“You should be grateful, Ressas. Even if he’s just a half-brother, I stepped in for your sake.”
Aster’s voice rang out from behind. Cradling Lyley closer, Ressas turned his body to see Aster step out from the shadows, his longsword dragging along the floor. Just as he had appeared earlier, his face was gaunt and pale—but he wore a gentle smile. The golden hair and blue eyes Ressas had once so admired were now dulled and lifeless.
“Hyung.”
Ressas called out to him quietly. Even at the height of their opposition, he had never truly hated Aster. His heart remained still. Just as the Sun had said—even if Aster had made his choice, Ressas still remembered the Aster before the darkness took root. The one he despised was the Devil that had made this cursed cycle repeat.
“This is enough. So many have already died. You have nowhere left to run… please, stop now.”
“And if I stop here, do you think I’ll be able to keep living?”
Aster smiled faintly as he walked forward, dragging his blade along the marble.
“The only way out of this is for me to die. You know that. So, what, are you telling me to lie down and accept death right now?”
“…The god who stands beside me might still find a way.”
“Ahh, yes. Your noble Sun, of course. That reminded me. The moment that wretched power brushed against me, I remembered the past.”
Despite speaking of his own death, Aster was completely unguarded. Instead, it was Adena who stepped forward, leading the others as they surrounded Ressas.
Eyes narrowing, Aster looked upon Ressas from all sides.
“You took what was mine. The beautiful star that always stood by my side. You watched us like a filthy little rat—then you stole Eid and rewrote your fate to take my place. I treated you like a brother, even when your own mother threw you away—and you still had the audacity to steal my Tither…”
His blue eyes burned with loss and hatred. That vacant expression recited the past—one that had long weighed Ressas down with guilt.
His arms tightened around Lyley. Veins stood out across the back of his hand. He didn’t speak.
Seeing the tremble in his eyes, Aster let out a cold laugh.
I went from one angsty, unjust BL to another.
Ressas, you’ve fully won me over. I’m very glad that Leanna died miserably. And Aster bears responsibility for his own choices. Hate him if you want. You didn’t usurp anything. Seiyad always, always wanted to choose you over him.
Does Eid in his 1st life choose Aster?
Didn’t he always looking for Ressas in his 3 lives?