When he stopped by Bridehit’s quarters to meet him, the man was already gone. The matter with Ressas had taken longer than expected, so Seiyad had also left the ducal residence. Just as he stepped out through the main gate, he came face to face with Cecilia, who had been waiting for him outside.
“Oppa!”
The moment she saw him, Cecilia jumped down from her horse and ran toward him. Seiyad, who had just been about to mount Luna, paused and opened his arms. Her silver hair flying as she rushed into his embrace, Cecilia wrapped herself around him. Holding her slender body close, Seiyad gently stroked her hair.
“Cecil.”
As he spoke her name, Cecilia looked up at him with a face full of guilt. Unease flickered in her dark eyes.
“Are you okay? I heard you were hurt. Did His Highness Aster give you a Purification? I was so worried when that useless Ressas prince—who doesn’t even have healing powers—took you away. I wanted to go see you, but they told me I couldn’t interrupt the Purification… I waited the whole time without sleeping.”
He remembered how Cecilia had been wary of Ressas before he lost consciousness. It was their fate to never be able to truly like each other. But after everything that happened last night, with his trust in Aster nearly shattered, Seiyad felt the need to persuade her.
“But Cecil, you felt it too. His Highness Ressas’s Purification is unlike anything else. You were there when it happened.”
Cecilia couldn’t refute that. But a deep-seated anger clouding her heart seemed to blur the facts and twist the situation. She deflected the conversation.
“That doesn’t matter. We have His Highness Aster on our side anyway. I don’t get why you’re taking his side. You used to say it yourself—Ressas has nothing to do with us anymore. He’s a Shildras now.”
She was right. Seiyad had once decided to hate Ressas, consumed by a rage that dwarfed anything his sister could feel. But while those dark emotions blinded his soul, he had missed many truths.
“His Highness Ressas…”
Seiyad carefully chose his words. The day he learned the truth about his mother through Kurthu, Ressas had confessed that he had begged Zion to spare their lives. Back then, Seiyad had thought it a perfect lie, but Zion’s behavior now made him wonder if it might have been true after all. Zion truly believed that Ressas and his father were the ones who had saved their lives.
“He was the one who asked Zion to leave us alone. I also thought he was on Zion’s side, but it’s more complicated than that. You saw it yesterday too, didn’t you? He said the Duke of Shildras saved us.”
“That’s all nonsense.”
Cecilia snapped.
“Maybe not for me, but you’re a Tither, Oppa. The royal family wouldn’t be dumb enough to kill a Northern Tither. Even if someone did ask them to, they wouldn’t have gone through with it. And no one could’ve taken down a powerful Tither like you anyway.”
“I was just a child back then, Cecil. I had no idea how to use my power. If the former Duke of Shildras or someone else had gotten involved, eliminating us wouldn’t have been difficult. Tell me—exactly how much did the Crown Prince tell you?”
Seiyad’s firm tone made Cecilia falter. After hesitating for a moment, she answered in a small voice.
“He said the previous Duke of Shildras laid a trap to steal Mother’s position. That everything Mother said was true. That the Duke conspired with Queen Leana. Oppa, Ressas is the Queen’s heir. He’s the child of our enemy.”
What she believed now was what Seiyad himself had once thought in a past life. As he listened to her speak, he couldn’t help but feel that Aster had deliberately reinforced these beliefs in him as well—so that he’d never be able to truly face Ressas. So that even looking at him would fill him with hatred.
“His Highness Aster left something out. Queen Leana wasn’t aligned with the former Duke. She genuinely believed in what she saw.”
If Aster truly intended to reveal the full truth, he would have disclosed that Queen Leana and the others were mentally indoctrinated at the time and could no longer perceive Nir’a. But judging from what Cecilia had been told, it was clear Aster had concealed that crucial detail—just as he had with Seiyad.
“How do you know that?”
“Because I also found a witness who remembers that day differently. I’ll arrange for you to meet them later. Just trust me. Cecilia, His Highness Aster may be our guide… but he’s dangerous.”
Seiyad met his sister’s gaze. She was the one person he wanted to protect above all else, his only family. But he couldn’t be certain how much he could trust her. She had been apart from him for so long, and it was Aster who had persuaded her to come here.
“Cecil, I’ve always wanted to protect you. I understand now what you meant back then. I regret the times I was blinded by other things and neglected what was truly important—you. So just as you once told me, I want you to remember that what matters is that we trust and rely on each other.”
Cecilia stayed silent for a while, lips pressed tightly together. Then she gave a small nod.
“…No, I was wrong back then too. I didn’t trust what you were saying, but you were still believing in Mother’s words even then. Watching you fight yesterday… it made me think a lot. I’ve never been so scared in my life. And you’ve been facing that kind of fear alone all this time. The truth is, what made me angry was realizing that I left you to deal with it by yourself.”
Though she still seemed uncomfortable speaking of Ressas, she swallowed her feelings and met Seiyad’s eyes.
“So I’ll listen to you now. But I need you to explain something to me. Why is His Highness Aster dangerous?”
Until now, Seiyad hadn’t been entirely sure, so he hadn’t shared this with her. But now, he felt the time had come.
“You saw it yesterday—you received a Purification from His Highness Ressas. So next time you get one from His Highness Aster, compare it. You’ll feel the difference. Cecil, I believe his Purification is what drives Tithers into Rampage.”
Cecilia’s eyes widened. She glanced around warily, then leaned in and whispered,
“Oppa, that’s an incredibly dangerous thing to say.”
“You remember the future you saw. You said I would end up killing countless people. The only possible explanation for that is Rampage. If you remember that the Crown Prince was always my guide… then how else can you explain why I still went berserk even after receiving a Purification?”
“That’s…”
Cecilia fell silent, unable to find a proper counterargument. Seiyad decided to give her time to think it over at her own pace.
“This is your ability—we both know you understand it better than anyone. For now, head into the forest and assess things for yourself. Cecil, His Highness Ressas isn’t the enemy you believe him to be.”
Seiyad spoke as he mounted his horse. Cecilia looked up at him, eyes narrowing slightly. She studied him for a long while, then spoke in a voice tinged with concern.
“Do you… completely trust His Highness Ressas?”
He couldn’t answer that. Especially not after hearing the words Ressas had slipped to him in secret. Despite a growing instinct that Ressas might be the key he had been seeking, it was the sense that Ressas knew something that left his heart in turmoil.
Everything Ressas had done stemmed from his feelings for him. Seiyad still believed those feelings were nothing more than desire—but if, putting that desire aside, what Ressas said was actually true…
Then the questions were endless.
If Ressas in his past life had loved him just as he seemed to now, yet forced himself not to hope, what had he truly felt during those times when he treated Seiyad with such contempt?
And if Ressas already knew about Aster’s powers at this point… then surely he would have concluded that Seiyad’s Rampage was caused by Aster. If so, why hadn’t he said a word about it back then? Why had he killed him instead, without leaving even a hint?
The doubts were endless. How did Ressas come to know these truths in the first place? What secrets lay behind the man who now acted so differently from the way he had last winter, pretending to know nothing?
And yet, above all, what gnawed at Seiyad most was the moment Ressas, even while claiming to have loved him, had still looked at him with such loathing—and killed him.
Though it was something from a past life, a fate that hadn’t occurred in this one, the more Seiyad thought about Ressas, the more he found himself reliving the day his life had ended.
It was what made it impossible to trust his feelings.
“I don’t trust anyone, Cecil. I’m simply doing what I must to protect you and everyone else.”
That was the only answer Seiyad could give, as if reminding himself.
By the time they arrived at the forest, everyone else was already there. Despite his late arrival, none of the knights gave him strange looks. On the contrary, even the knights of Shildras turned to him and gave respectful nods when Seiyad appeared. Aster’s knights were even more deferential.
“Welcome, Your Grace.”
Their polite bows and seemingly devoted demeanor made Seiyad frown slightly as he dismounted. The one who personally stepped forward to take his horse’s reins was none other than Adena, the captain of the knights.
“We were just waiting for you, Your Grace. Are you well?”
“…Yes. Where is His Highness?”
Before Seiyad could even finish asking, Aster emerged from a tent with Bridehit by his side. Spotting Seiyad, he immediately brightened with a broad smile.
“Ah, there you are, my star! Perfect timing—I’ve prepared something just for you.”
Seiyad’s gaze met Bridehit’s. While Aster wore a cheery smile, Bridehit’s expression was grim. His face, shadowed with guilt, avoided Seiyad’s eyes. Something felt off.
“Now that everyone’s here, I’ll explain what we’re here to find in the forest.”
Aster’s gaze turned toward the Shildras knights. Among them stood Zion, whose face was visibly worse than yesterday. Pale and drawn, he endured Aster’s gaze. Stella and Nova stood unusually distant from him, tense as they waited for Aster to speak.
“Duke Bridehit here knows the forest very well. As you all know, Nir’a is a remnant of the devils that once threatened humanity in the distant past. For centuries, Nir’a—no matter how fearsome—was something a Tither could easily eliminate.
“But as you all saw yesterday, the Nir’a we faced was different. It was powerful—so much so that we were nearly placed in mortal danger. It resembled a servant of the Devil himself.”
The expressions of the knights shifted to fear. Many of them had witnessed firsthand the monstrosity they could not fight with mere human strength. Seiyad quietly observed their reactions, trying to gauge what Aster’s real game was.
“That such a thing would happen in the South of all places—it doesn’t sit right with me. And then, I recalled something… something very important that I recently learned. A matter concerning the former Duke of Shildras.”
Aster turned and locked eyes with Seiyad. Suddenly, yesterday’s words resurfaced in Seiyad’s mind.
“There’s something delightful waiting for you tomorrow. I’ll gift you the house of the man who killed your mother—as a token of affection, Eid.”
It couldn’t be…
“Just days ago, I discovered the truth—that the former Duke of Shildras was the one who broke the seal and unleashed the Devil.
“This is connected to the tragedy that befell the previous Duke Axid several years ago.”
The moment Aster finished, murmurs erupted throughout the crowd. Seiyad instinctively glanced at Zion.
Zion’s eyes flew wide open as he stared at Aster, stunned—then his face twisted with fury as he shouted:
“That’s slander!”
