The terrible dream continued to haunt Felix as if accusing him of a crime.

Perhaps because these were things he had seen while under the influence of drugs, he was observing this trivial dream as it unfolded.

Another scene appeared. He was about eleven years old at this time.

He stared blankly at the sack placed at his feet.

The sack grew larger and larger. As the size of the pets Felix raised grew larger.

At first, it was a hamster. Then it became a rabbit, and soon he raised other mammals.

He was certain that what was in this sack now was the fox he had secretly treated without his father knowing.

Squeak.

Felix clenched his fist as he heard the whimpering sound of the fox struggling inside the sack.

“Fel, you’ve put in a particularly different child this time.”

“…Yes.”

“Taming a wild animal behind your father’s back. How remarkable.”

At that time, Felix had taken care of the injured fox for a long time.

And after finishing the treatment, he had driven it away, but the fox seemed to remember Felix and would sneak into the mansion.

Each time, he would give it food but coldly send it back outside.

In the end, the fox was caught like this.

“By the way, what’s this fox’s name?”

Felix looked into his father’s eyes, which were subtly revealing the identity of the animal in the sack. The expectation visible above those bright red pupils was utterly disgusting.

He had known since the time he took the life of his first pet. That what his father desired wasn’t truly loyalty.

It was a kind of sadistic pleasure in seeing someone helplessly submit and have their spirit broken.

“It has no name.”

“Why didn’t you give it a name?”

It would be painful to kill if he became attached. So he deliberately didn’t give it a name, and after feeding it, he would drive it away mercilessly each time.

Felix couldn’t answer that question and just stared blankly at the knife in his hand.

If he turned his head, he could see his father’s excited red eyes.

“Because it’s not mine.”

“Hahaha.”

Whether Felix’s words displeased him or he saw it as resistance, Duke Le Pelique raised one corner of his mouth and sneered at him.

“You’re trying hard. Even if you didn’t give it a name, if it was tamed by you, it’s yours.”

“……”

“The pitiful one takes after its mother.”

At the Duke’s cold words, Felix lowered his gaze once again.

“Take care of it. Your father is expecting it.”

Felix looked around immediately. At eight years old, five including himself had survived. But now, only two remained.

Felix already realized that his half-brother had cut the carotid artery of his own dog and was now staring blankly at him, covered in blood.

“If Peron becomes the young duke, your useless mother will be next in this position, Fel.”

Felix then turned to the fox he couldn’t even name.

“Won’t you open the sack?”

“No.”

Because he couldn’t bear to open it.

He had to take the fox’s life just like that.

He felt something die in his heart at that moment.

After that, he no longer gave any affection to pets. And taking lives no longer felt like such a big deal.

As if a part of his heart had fallen ill and lost sensation, he could no longer feel anything. As if he had fallen ill with guilt and his senses had become dull.

Time passed like that.

It was on a day when he turned twelve years old.

“Protect this mother! Stay here!”

This was the Duchess’s room. Felix had to come to comfort his mother, who would call for him and wail every dawn.

“Mother, Father has gone down to the estate for urgent business.”

From some point on, his mother clung to him like this more frequently.

“Are you saying it’s okay if I die?”

Slap!

Perhaps because her hand was delicate, it wasn’t very painful even when he was slapped.

Felix sighed, thinking it was less painful than being hit with a whip.

“Mother……”

“Do you know how miserable I was when I conceived you? Because of you, I had to marry against my will! How can you do this to me!”

“Father is on his way down to the estate. He won’t target you.”

“I heard Peron killed his own mother!”

“……I heard.”

“Do you think you’ll be any different? You’ll be just the same!”

Now only two heirs remained in the Duke’s family.

Felix, born to the legal wife, and Peron, born to a woman who had been the Duke’s mistress before Felix’s mother came.

Peron, who turned fifteen first, sacrificed his mother’s life to prove his loyalty to Duke Le Pelique.

Felix and the Duchess were also present at that time.

After that incident, the Duchess called Felix every day to protect her.

“Are you going to kill me too? Are you going to offer me up as your father says?”

Felix didn’t know how to answer when he read the fear reflected in his mother’s eyes.

But what was clear was that this indescribable emotion boiling in his chest didn’t seem to be fear.

“Let’s just kill your father instead.”

“……Mother.”

“Kill him. Then you become the Duke. Protect me like that.”

Those words planted in his mind a strange expectation that such a blasphemous act might be possible.

Felix at fourteen.

He was once again facing a large sack.

“Open it, my son.”

Felix, who had entered the punishment room, was surprised to see that the sack was too large even though he wasn’t fifteen yet.

The sobbing cry heard from inside the sack made him realize it was a woman.

His competitor, Peron, was standing one step behind, blankly observing.

As Felix untied the sack with uncharacteristically trembling hands.

“Hic……”

His nanny, bound all over, was looking at him while sobbing.

Seeing the nanny’s terrified eyes, Felix realized. That now it was really just one step away from his own mother.

That when he turns fifteen, he might have to kill his own mother like Peron did.

“Remember that this woman raised you with more love than your mother.”

It was at this moment that Felix finally realized.

That there was no choice other than what his mother had suggested.

It was on his fourteenth birthday that Felix decided to kill his father……

After the nanny died, the Duchess’s madness worsened day by day.

“Protect me, please.”

“……”

“Kill him for me.”

For his sobbing mother, Felix couldn’t leave the third floor.

At dawn, he had to come down to the Duchess’s room and stand guard with a knife.

He had to stay by her side even when she begged for her life while crying.

****

He wasn’t sure if he had woken from the dream.

Felix’s head was foggy and it was difficult to think normally.

The ringing in his ears was still bothersome, but amidst that, the clear voice seemed to penetrate through the ringing and be transmitted directly.

“Master.”

He realized the dream had ended when he saw Reniel’s eyes.

It was the dream he always saw when intoxicated by sleeping pills.

From eleven years old until now.

That wearisome past that clung to him so tenaciously and tormented him.

He found it utterly ridiculous.

Meanwhile, looking at those amethyst eyes that seemed to be worried, he felt his senses drifting away again.

Even though the room was dark with the lights off, that mysterious purple rippled beautifully in the moonlight.

The light aqua-colored hair that looked silver in dark places showed its fine texture even from the outside.

Whenever he saw that long, slender neck like a doe’s, he wanted to bite it for some reason, perhaps because he thought it would break easily if he held it in his hand.

If he bit it, there would be no need to break it.

And strangely, he felt an odd hostility towards the bite marks left on her neck. Even though he was told they were his own bite marks.

“Master, please give me the knife.”

“……”

“Master, you’re having a sleepwalking episode again, aren’t you?”

It was then that he fully accepted this was reality.

He realized that he had been wandering around holding a knife as if he had sleepwalking again.

When he heard Reniel’s words, he could see his surroundings. The room was in chaos. He must have swung the knife around, as the surroundings were in a terrible state.

Yet Reniel seemed untouched, as she was in a very calm state.

There was no sign of panic, and judging by how she was blinking her eyes as if slightly sleepy, she might have just woken up.

“How can you hold this?”

Felix was holding an enormous sword. It was a sword that would only be used on a battlefield, but he couldn’t understand why he had drawn it.

“Then put it down here.”

There was a strange force in those words that made it impossible not to listen.

As he threw the sword on the floor like that, a loud noise reverberated through the room. Reniel smiled with satisfaction and took his hand, saying,

“Did you have a bad dream?”

In his dazed state, he took off her ring while holding her hand. The moment their eyes met, he felt a strange thirst.

“No.”

So he explored Reniel’s lips.

“Mmph……”

Reniel didn’t resist the act.

She just flinched as if surprised, then slowly melted into his overwhelming movements.

When Reniel’s small hands pushed against Felix’s shoulders, he interlocked their fingers and picked her up in his arms.

Then he carried her to the bed and laid her down.

“Reniel, who do you belong to?”

Felix asked as if to suppress his anxiety. Reniel answered without much hesitation.

“I belong to you, Master.”

At that moment, he realized. Whether intoxicated or not, he had to hold a knife at this dawn hour.

To protect the person in this room.

And he realized that now Reniel had become that person. He laughed self-mockingly.

“Yes, you’re mine.”

Saying that as if to confirm.

Felix was under the illusion that he was dreaming a dream that felt like reality right now.