BID Chapter 2

“Uh?”

For a moment, forgetting the situation, I raised my head that I had been holding down in an attempt to appear pitiful. I was startled by Zachary’s swearing. Our eyes met again as he pushed me back. He seemed momentarily shaken by our eye contact, his pupils flickering slightly before glaring at me fiercely.

“Zachary?”

Had I mistaken him for someone else?

Was this really Zachary? The way he was treating me now, his tone, his expressions – everything was so different from the Zachary I had known for the past seven years.

The biggest difference was in his eyes.

In Zachary’s deep blue eyes, there was a boiling red hatred, as if he truly despised me. No, calling it mere hatred was an understatement. His gaze, staring at me, seemed almost red rather than blue.

‘I’ll be lucky to get out of here alive.’

Trembling with vivid anger and hatred, my legs shook involuntarily and my eyes clenched shut.

I was already frightened and helpless against any random tormentor, and now the protagonist of this world hated me this much. How could I, with just my bare self, withstand this?

Shivering and sensing my impending death,

“You abandoned me.”

Zachary spoke as if chewing on the words.

“Was it so horrible just having me by your side?”

I doubted my ears. I couldn’t understand what Zachary was saying. I couldn’t react at all and just stood there, frozen like a fool. Meanwhile, Zachary continued to pour out his anger in a furious voice.

“I told you so many times that I didn’t want to leave, that I wouldn’t interfere with your affairs, just to let me stay by your side!”

“…?”

“Why, now that you’re getting married, did you really feel I was a burden and wanted to get rid of me? Tell me, Oscar. Say it with your own mouth!”

“…???”

Is this a dream? His unexpected and nonsensical words made my tightly shut eyes open involuntarily.

Zachary’s face was contorted with emotion. Even so, his jewel-like blue eyes, now overlaid with the reflection of the fire, looked more mournful.

But as captivating as his beautiful face was, my mind was filled with questions.

‘Who’s talking about abandoning whom?’

Me, abandon you?

And why does he keep accusing me of abandoning him when I did my best to help him escape?

The very notion of ‘abandoning’ was absurd. I never owned or raised him, so how could I have abandoned him?

Wondering if his words were just nonsense, or if there might have been some misunderstanding, I tried to read his intentions from his expression, but his angry face remained the same.

Reflected in Zachary’s resentful blue eyes was my bewildered face, clearly confused. While contemplating, a hypothesis suddenly crossed my mind.

‘…Could it be that the brainwashing isn’t fully undone?’

Initially, seeing Zachary set fire to my honeymoon home and swear at me in informal speech, I naturally assumed that the mind control spell had been broken. As long as he was under control, he couldn’t harm anyone from the family.

However, it was strange that he came all this way back after being released, and his accusations about being kicked out of the mansion made me think maybe the spell wasn’t completely lifted.

After all, it was a spell cast by our family, skilled in sorcery for generations, designed to turn even condemned prisoners into dogs that would wet themselves with joy upon seeing our family. I, with my limited exposure to sorcery, could not have possibly undone it properly.

‘But didn’t Zachary awaken and escape by himself in the novel?’

Zachary’s behavior, entirely different from the original work, left me with many unresolved questions. My mind was a mess, not knowing where to begin, but I decided to explain the truth first.

“It’s not that you were abandoned, you found freedom. And from what I see, your brainwashing isn’t completely…”

“Brainwashing?”

“Ugh!”

Zachary suddenly grabbed my hair. He gripped it so tightly that an involuntary cry of pain escaped my lips.

As I groaned in pain, hunching over, the grip on my hair loosened slightly. However, my condition was getting worse, and even the slightest stimulus was uncomfortable and painful. As I lay there in pain, Zachary leaned in close and spoke.

“Do you still think I am under a spell?”

…It certainly seems that way.

My condition was deteriorating too rapidly to calmly express my thoughts. Even if the flames were created by sacred power, a burning house produces smoke. I couldn’t respond properly and my vision blurred as I choked on the smoke. Just then…

“Oscar!!!”

My fading consciousness was snapped back into focus by a desperate shout.

“Oscar! Where are you!!”

I kept hearing what sounded unmistakably like the voice of my stepbrother, Erhan, who should be in the Serpentine house. Thinking I was hearing hallucinations as death approached, I listened intently. But the voice calling for me from afar in the corridor continued, proving it wasn’t just in my head.

“Br-brother… cough, cough!”

I couldn’t respond loudly. Unlike Zachary, who seemed unaffected by the harsh smoke, my frail body couldn’t even produce a proper voice.

Not to mention, I was wary of Zachary, unable to call out for Erhan anymore.

If I had been a bit stronger, maybe I could have shaken off Zachary and gone to find Erhan. Damn this useless body, never being of any help until the end.

‘I’m really going to die here.’

With despair, I looked towards where Erhan’s voice was coming from and then let my body go limp, thinking I would die here without being able to signal my presence.

“You always did that.”

Zachary’s voice deepened.

“Wanting to get rid of me as soon as possible, yet always sticking close to that bastard. Not even from the same womb, and you don’t even know how he looks at you.”

“…What?”

He thought I wanted to get rid of him?

I felt slightly wronged.

It wasn’t that I wanted to get rid of him, but rather I struggled to give him freedom as soon as possible from the suffering caused by the spell. How could he interpret it that way?

And me sticking with Erhan? What about the way Erhan looked at me?

‘Being close to Erhan was the only way for someone with no standing like me to survive.’

I had to be in Erhan’s good graces to avoid being harassed or kicked out of the family!

So, I had spent a miserable childhood dangling bells for Erhan’s amusement, clapping, acting sweet, and performing silly antics…

“Cough! Cough, cough!”

But instead of excuses, only coughs came out of my mouth.

I felt like I was really dying. Tears and mucus ran unchecked, blurring my vision. As I coughed violently and struggled, Zachary loosened his grip.

Seizing the opportunity, I quickly extended my arms and pulled Zachary towards me.

He flinched momentarily, then complied, perhaps due to the still lingering effects of the spell or maybe out of habit from serving me. I buried my wet face in his shoulder and gasped for air.

‘It hurts so much. I think I’m really going to die.’

My consciousness flickered on and off. My mind was foggy, trembling with the fear of the imminent death. Although I knew he would hate being touched by me, my body desperately clung to Zachary.

“Za, Zachary. Zachary.”

Even knowing he came to kill me, a desperate voice escaped me.

“Please, save me.”

I’m dying.

I’d welcome his scolding, but can we at least get out of here first and talk later?

Given my frequent illnesses and frailty, I couldn’t possibly endure such a harsh environment. Zachary seemed to be still under some compulsion, obsessing over me. So, I needed to use his brainwashing to escape from here first and then properly find and undo the remaining traces of the spell.

“I can’t… breathe…”

It was my limit. I couldn’t breathe properly anymore.

As my eyes rolled back, I reflexively clung tightly to the only warmth I had in my grasp. My head felt heavy as it tipped backward. Zachary then hurriedly embraced me, breathing into my lips and patting my back.

I had feared he might just discard me, but Zachary didn’t.

True to his role as the kind and gentle protagonist of the novel, the Zachary who would have grown upright if not for our family’s sorcery.

‘I should have released him earlier.’

With this brief regret, as I slowly relaxed into the familiar warmth, I remembered.

The origin of all these events, the day before my wedding when the honeymoon home was set ablaze.

So it was.

“His Majesty the King personally requested that someone be educated in our house. That person is the sixth prince of the Holy Empire, Zachary Thaddeus.”

The day that a potential disaster walked into our peaceful family.