“Please spare me! Please, I beg you, spare my life!”

The terrified cry of nine-year-old Crown Prince Maxwell echoed back. He needed to run, but his feet seemed glued to the ground, unmoving.

The sharp arrowhead aimed at Maxwell’s heart. And the tall man pulling the bowstring.

“Please spare me, Your Majesty the Emperor… Grandfather!!!!”

Maxwell knelt down and pleaded with his forehead pressed to the ground.

“Stand up.”

The stern voice of Maxius, the 26th Emperor of the Helterd Empire, pierced through the cold air of the late autumn mountain.

That day, the Emperor had taken his grandson, Crown Prince Maxwell, on a hunting trip to a nearby mountain. Upon reaching the middle of the mountain, the Emperor dismissed everyone who had followed and set out on a horseback ride with his grandson alone.

The Emperor’s love for his grandson, who had lost his parents, was well-known. The Emperor’s entourage watched the two departing for their ride with fond smiles, not following behind.

After his first son, the former Crown Prince, met a tragic end by a black leopard, the Emperor had crowned his grandson, not even a year old, as the new Crown Prince. And he had protected his grandson so that no one could covet his position.

Neither his second son Gustav, nor his youngest son Eric born to the new Empress, could aspire to Maxwell’s position as Crown Prince during the Emperor’s lifetime, such was the Emperor’s affection for his grandson.

At least on the surface.

Young Maxwell’s hands trembled unconsciously as he followed his grandfather, sensing that today might be his last.

The Crown Prince knew. His grandfather did not love him. No, the Emperor’s feelings towards him were not even love-hate, but pure hatred.

Outwardly, he played the role of a loving, doting grandfather.

But when alone, the Emperor’s gray eyes were filled with hatred and contempt for his young grandson. The harsh abuse disguised as education and training grew worse day by day.

He had to act like a weak and timid child who felt dizzy just from riding a horse, just to avoid his grandfather’s gaze.

He had to hunch his back and shoulders to appear shorter, despite his rapidly growing height, and deliberately skip meals to suppress his muscles that were developing faster than his peers.

He always kept his eyes, a different color from his grandfather’s and cousins’, downcast to hide them.

He couldn’t understand why. Why he, my protector, my grandfather… hated me. Despised me.

The only thing he knew was that one day, he would die by his hand.

And Maxwell could tell. That today was that very day.

Towards the young grandson kneeling on the ground with clasped hands, begging,

“Stand up!”

The Emperor’s voice, devoid of any mercy, echoed loudly, piercing through Maxwell’s ears.

Maxwell stood up, putting strength into his collapsing legs as if giving up on everything. As his back and shoulders, always hunched and withdrawn, straightened up, the nine-year-old child’s body resembled that of a young man.

He raised his red eyes, which he had always been so eager to hide, and met the Emperor’s gray eyes directly.

A calm voice, no longer trembling, flowed from his red lips.

“Please tell me the reason. Why do you hate me? Why do you want to kill me? Can you not grant me that much on my final moment?”

“This is precisely the reason.”

The Emperor’s eyes blazed as he shouted, running his aimed arrow over his grandson’s body.

“Your filthy blood that cannot be hidden no matter how much I try to trample it! Look at your body. You try to deceive, but I can see it all. Do you think that’s the body of a nine-year-old raised gently in the palace? Look at your uncles and cousins, and your young uncle Eric. How different your body is from theirs!”

Maxwell was too shocked to speak. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white and shouted. It was his first act of defiance towards his grandfather.

“You hate me because I’m a bit taller than them… because I have red eyes instead of their gray ones? I am just as much your grandson! I am the son of your first son!”

The pent-up sorrow poured out like a flood.

“Do you want the Crown Prince position? I never wanted it in the first place. All I wanted… was only your love, grandfather. In the palace where no one loved me… I just wanted to be loved by you. So why do you hate me so much? Why do you despise me enough to want to kill me?”

“Ha! How could I not hate you? Because of you who inherited that cursed blood… Do you know who I lost? I lost my most beloved son!”

Maxwell took a step back from the Emperor who was shouting incomprehensible words.

He lost his most beloved son because of me? That makes no sense.

I’m just a nine-year-old Crown Prince who has never even been outside the palace, unable to do anything. The only son the Emperor lost is my father, Crown Prince Luca. Father was killed by a black leopard.

Maxwell’s face turned pale as he looked at his grandfather spewing incomprehensible words.

“I know that my father died protecting my mother and me. But is that reason enough to hate me so much? I was not even a year old!”

“Foolish boy. I’ve told you the reason, yet you don’t understand at all.”

The Emperor’s bloodshot eyes sank with a terrifying madness. His mouth twitched mockingly as he pulled the bowstring.

Maxwell, who had given up on the thought of escaping, bared his chest to the drawn bow aimed at his heart. I will never run away looking frightened in front of you. He tasted the metallic blood from his bitten lower lip.

Maxwell’s red eyes stared unwavering into the Emperor’s ashen ones.

“Eric has turned five, so I no longer need a shield. I put you on the throne because hastily crowning Eric as Crown Prince before the Empress’s faction gained power could easily make him a target. Now that I’ve crushed all the opposing factions that supported you, you’re no longer useful.”

Having unexpectedly ascended to the throne in place of his deceased cousin, Emperor Maximus had to be wary of the various factions of elder nobles due to his weak support base.

The reason Maxwell was able to maintain his position as Crown Prince was because the former Emperor’s faction, which supported the deceased Crown Prince and the abducted Crown Prince’s consort, held the greatest power at the time.

As if tired of exchanging words any further, the Emperor drew his bow without hesitation.

At the moment he released the drawn bow,

“Grooooar!”

A large black object, appearing suddenly in Maxwell’s red eyes, pounced on the Emperor in an instant.

The arrow shot by the Emperor lost its direction and flew vertically towards the sky, falling limply in front of Maxwell’s feet.

The black beast that had been roaring atop the fallen Emperor slowly turned its head to look at Maxwell. It was a black leopard, designated as a demonic beast in the Empire.

The enemy that had killed his father and abducted his mother. With anger boiling in his veins, Maxwell drew the dagger at his waist. He quickly spread his long legs and assumed a fighting stance.

He was determined to avenge his parents. As the beast watching Maxwell took a step forward towards him…

Whoop, a clear whistle sound was faintly heard from somewhere. The black leopard approaching Maxwell slowly stopped its movement.

At that moment, red eyes entered Maxwell’s red eyes. Strangely, the red eyes did not show any killing intent.

His heart ached at the beast’s seemingly sad gaze. It was an absurd thought. Maxwell shook his head vigorously and readjusted his stance. But suddenly, the entire forest before his eyes began to spin out of sync.

Thud.

Maxwell lost consciousness and collapsed onto the grass.

“Crown Prince Maxwell, have you regained consciousness?”

“Oh, thank the gods!”

As he barely managed to lift his heavy eyelids, familiar faces came into view. Though he didn’t know how he had returned, Maxwell found himself in the Emperor’s tent prepared at the hunting grounds.

“H-How…?”

As Maxwell squeezed out his voice to ask, Sir Jacob carefully opened his mouth.

“Do you remember? What happened in the forest?”

Maxwell closed his eyes again and shook his head.

He had shaken his head because he didn’t know where to start or how to explain, but the gathered people seemed to think he had lost his memory due to shock.

“What about grandfather…?”

Now he will surely kill me.

As Maxwell asked in a low voice, as if resigned, Sir Peter bowed his head and answered.

“He had a riding accident… and passed away. Your Highness, it seems you witnessed the scene and collapsed from shock, losing your memory.”

“Your Majesty the Emperor, your servant pays his respects.”

Sir Peter lowered his longsword to the ground, then knelt and bowed his head towards Maxwell. Following him, the knights and soldiers gathered in front of the makeshift bed all knelt at once and paid their respects to their new sovereign.

Maximus’s fierce hands began to squeeze Maxwell’s neck tightly.

The space between his thick eyebrows narrowed as his closed eyelids tensed. Cold sweat beaded on his prominent forehead, and his head shook left and right as if shuddering.

Thick veins popped out on the back of his hand gripping the bed sheets, and a beast-like rumble leaked through his clenched molars.

‘This is a dream. A terrible dream.’

Emperor Maxwell struggled to wake from the dream, but his body had already begun to be sucked into a deep swamp.

The recurring nightmare.

“Kuheheheuk…”

He tried to push away grandfather’s hands, but his sleep paralyzed body helplessly began to sink below the ground.

“Huaaah…!”

Maxwell sprang up from the bed, wrapping both hands around his neck and exhaling rapid breaths. Not only the pillow, but even the bandages Arabel had tied were soaked with cold sweat.

The Emperor, brushing back his black hair that clung to his forehead with sweat, staggered as he got up from the bed.

He grabbed a water bottle and gulped it down at once to quench his burning thirst, but far from being satisfied, it only constricted his throat and lungs, to no avail.

Nausea rose from the stuffiness and queasiness. Maxwell stumbled on his long legs to open the window and went out onto the balcony to breathe in the cold air.

Although he inhaled the cold air deeply, his head still ached as if it would split, contorting his handsome face.

As his senses began to develop as keenly as an animal’s, all the stimuli around him pressed down on him. Especially the various rotten smells wafting around made it difficult to even breathe.

A pained groan escaped between Maxwell’s lips. It was a precursor to transforming into a monster.

Though still far from a month away, on nights when he had nightmares, the beast inside him would invariably rage to break free.

He couldn’t lose here. Grinding his molars, Maxwell clutched his head with both hands. The beast roared, clawing at Maxwell’s tired soul to get out.

As his mind faded from the agony…

Suddenly, a sweet and cool fragrance wafted gently, purifying the rotten stench around him. The clean, clear scent of flesh began to soothe his sensitive sense of smell.

The headache that had left him unable to think straight began to fade away. The Emperor slowly raised his head and silently observed the dark area below the balcony.

A small figure walking quickly towards the castle gate entered his red eyes, rimmed with a golden border. As she moved away, the scent of flesh also faded. Once again, the surrounding stench tormented his sense of smell and constricted his lungs.

Soon, a large hand with thick veins rested on the balcony railing. In an instant, a tall, sleek silhouette leapt over the balcony railing and landed lightly three floors below.