“Call Hector Hunt.”

The servant’s face turned ashen at Kaisis’ words.

The story of how he had attended the grand council and crushed the ministers, and used magic to press Marquis Louis to the floor was known to almost everyone in the Imperial Palace.

And Hector was undoubtedly the Grand Duke of this country.

Unless it was the Emperor, he wasn’t someone a Crown Prince could summon at will.

“I, I… Ugh!”

Before he could finish his words, the servant floated in the air, clutching his neck and struggling to survive.

“When did I give you permission to speak?”

“Kugh- kuk.”

The servant’s face turned red as blood rushed to it, and he reached out his hand, begging for help.

But Cedric, who was guarding the office door, avoided his gaze.

Bang–!

With a dull sound, the servant’s body was thrown against the wall and rolled on the floor.

“Clean it up, I didn’t kill him.”

As if he were dirty trash, Kaisis gestured at the sprawled servant with his chin.

“Everyone get out.”

Some time had passed after that.

Hector, who had received an urgent call from the head servant, arrived and entered the empty Crown Prince’s palace.

“You came faster than I thought.”

Kaisis waved his hand cheerfully towards Hector.

Hector’s brow furrowed without restraint.

“Why don’t you try to at least pretend to hide your dislike?”

“Why should I do that?”

“Because it’s treason against the Imperial family?!”

“It doesn’t violate the covenant.”

“Ha, if you’re so arrogant now, what will you do when I become Emperor?”

Contrary to his words, Kaisis’ lips were stretched into a long smile.

“I’ll give you the treatment befitting of a covenant partner.”

Was it because he couldn’t read his thoughts?

Or was it because of that indifferent expression and arrogance?

When Kaisis was with Hector, he felt like his blocked airways were clearing up.

“Your business.”

Hector said with an expressionless face. He was standing without stepping even one foot inside the office door.

Kaisis exhaled softly and brushed up his hair.

“Why don’t you come in and sit down first?”

“Your business.”

A short and direct question.

Hector’s straight red eyes were urging an answer.

After moving his lips for a moment, Kaisis said,

“… I felt suffocated.”

“……”

The dry gaze slowly moved to look at Kaisis with his pale complexion.

Recently, the Emperor’s seizures have been more frequent.

It would mean that even Kaisis’ magic could no longer prevent his death.

Eventually, Hector’s hand, covered in a black glove, cut through the air.

Then all the windows in the Crown Prince’s office opened at once.

Whoosh–

The cold wind that poured in through the open windows brushed past Kaisis’ cheeks.

Hector turned around and walked out just like that.

Kaisis, who had been blankly staring at the door Hector had left through, burst into laughter.

“Hahaha-“

Opening the windows when he said he felt suffocated.

It was truly an idea very much like him.

Then, as the laughter subsided, Kaisis licked the inside of his cheek, seemingly regretful.

“He doesn’t even say ‘that’s all’ anymore.”

He used to say it when they first met.

“I guess his insensitivity is getting worse. At this rate, he’ll soon be wearing a mask.”

Kaisis smirked as he watched Hector crossing the garden beyond the window.

Pheromone insensitivity.

And distrust in humans.

“Interesting.”

Both are lacking in something, after all.

“If it’s you who kills me… I think it would be quite nice in the end.”

Kaisis’ gaze followed the receding shadow for a long time afterwards.

* * *

“After the Emperor passed away, Kaisis sought me out every day.”

What, this is totally bromance.

On the bed.

Charlie, who was listening to the story while nestled in Hector’s arms using his arm as a pillow, slightly furrowed her brow.

“What’s wrong?”

Hector tilted his head at Charlie’s unexpected reaction.

“It just… seems like he really liked you.”

Hector immediately made a sour face.

“Me?!”

“No, Kaisis liked Hector.”

At those words, Hector’s expression became even worse.

Charlie hurriedly changed the subject.

“Then how did you feel about Kaisis?”

“I…”

Hector fell into thought.

Whether it was with objects or people, Hector had never defined his emotions.

Charlie quietly waited for him.

After a moment of silence, Hector slowly opened his mouth.

“At first… I think I didn’t have any thoughts.”

It’s just a relationship based on the covenant.

Nothing more, nothing less.

No, everything in the world was like that to Hector.

“Later, it became annoying. To the point where I wanted to kill him.”

That’s understandable.

Charlie nodded in agreement with his words.

Every time he entered the palace, he would provocatively open his harem and release pheromones, and he would send spies to interfere with Hector at every turn.

Kaisis didn’t hesitate to harm his own people either.

“Then… There was a day when I slept a little longer than usual.”

Hector said.

The day he realized he had fallen asleep for the first time in his life.

When he opened his eyes, he felt as if he had come out of a long tunnel.

Was that why?

“When I looked again, he seemed a bit funny.”

That day, Kaisis appeared very small in Hector’s eyes.

And perhaps Hector thought that Kaisis, while different from him, also had a similar aspect and was dreaming of a future of destruction, which made him feel somewhat pitiful.

Hector smiled faintly as he looked at Charlie in his arms.

“I once… wanted to eliminate the power of abilities from the world.”

Charlie couldn’t say anything.

Because in the original story, Hector had indeed done that.

“I wanted to end the curse of having to live to die with my own hands.”

With his red eyes, her silver hair sparkled like stars, and the bright moonlight made Charlie’s face appear even whiter.

Thinking that image might disappear like a fleeting mirage, Hector reached out and kissed Charlie’s hair.

“I believed it was right for me to shoulder everything and end it.”

The cycle of death.

There was a time when he believed that destroying it itself was the right thing to do.

“But suddenly, I began to question whether that was truly what I wanted.”

That day, he opened his eyes in terrible emptiness, like coming out of a long tunnel.

Hector had such thoughts then.

“Perhaps it’s not that I want to destroy everything and perish… Maybe I just want to start over.”

Charlie silently embraced Hector.

Knowing that he didn’t want to die, but desperately wanted to live.

“Charlie, I…”

Hector buried his face in Charlie’s neck and spoke like he’s forcing out his words.

“Sometimes I wonder if this is all a dream.”

What if he’s still in that long tunnel, and all of this is just an illusion he created?

What if when he wakes up, she won’t be by his side?

He’s so afraid of that, but if he says that, she’ll make that sad face again.

“I…”

Just as Charlie was about to lift her head,

Hector’s whisper left her speechless.

“I’ll do better.”

His voice, filled with longing, pierced Charlie’s ear.

“So please, stay by my side.”

His fingertips trembled slightly as they wrapped around Charlie.

Charlie gently patted Hector’s back and said,

“If I disappear, you’ll come looking for me, won’t you?”

Even if she stupidly loses her way.

Whether it’s the temple roof or a defense line made of all sorts of bizarre things blocking her path.

“You’ll break through it all and come find me, won’t you?”

Hector always did.

With his black cloak fluttering, his face like a killing machine, and his piercing gaze.

[Do I need something like that?]

He’d ask such a predetermined question and then offer his hand to go home.

“Hector.”

Charlie lifted her head to face Hector.

“From now on, I’ll take care of my health well and won’t get sick. So don’t worry about such things.”

Charlie could empathize with and understand Hector’s anxiety.

It feels as if Hector might vanish before her eyes at any moment.

Even though she was a powerless Zero, she had vowed to prevent his death.

Even if she couldn’t perform miracles, she promised not to let him face death alone and lonely.

“Besides, you’ll come after me wherever I am, right?”

Charlie shrugged her shoulders.

“That’s just how it is.”

Charlie’s confidently raised chin expressed the obviousness of it all.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Hector smiled, his eyes curving into soft crescents. The trembling had already stopped.

Soon after, his warm lips poured onto her small forehead.

“Wherever you are, I’ll come find you.”

Even if it means traversing a tunnel longer than death itself.