Kai first heard that voice ten years ago, in the year he turned fourteen.

It was an unremarkable day. He had sat through tedious lessons for half the day, and as usual, he was thoroughly beaten by Melissa in sword training.

Until he turned fifteen, Melissa was taller and stronger than Kai. Naturally, it was Melissa who excelled in swordsmanship, while Kai was the one who consistently faced defeat.

“Ben, when will I ever be able to beat Melissa?”

A dejected Kai sniffled as he stroked Ben’s soft mane. He had resolved many times not to cry, but his tears wouldn’t listen.

Perhaps because he had seen his father sighing at the sight of him, he felt particularly miserable that day, and Melissa was even more unbearable to look at.

The master had assured him that in a few years, his height would far surpass Melissa’s, but no matter how he looked at it, that seemed unlikely.

Kai had never managed to beat Melissa at anything in his life. Not in swordsmanship, not in academics, not even in their parents’ affection.

Some days, he wished Melissa would disappear, while on others, he found comfort in her presence.

Melissa was unlike other noble young ladies. She always kept her hair short like a boy, wore trousers, and spoke roughly.

Because of this, Kai had thought Melissa was a boy until she turned ten.

One day, he poked at Melissa’s budding chest, teasing her about why she was gaining weight only there, and he received a severe scolding from his father. Only then did he realize that Melissa was a girl.

In a sudden burst of frustration, Kai kicked a small stone on the ground hard.

“Ouch.”

Even though it was just a small pebble that hit his foot, his bruised thigh throbbed with pain. It was where Melissa had struck him with the wooden sword.

“Damn Melissa.”

Today was one of those days when he hated Melissa. After plodding along on Ben for quite some time, the sun began to set, and he found himself quite far from the main castle.

Suddenly frightened, Kai tried to turn back, but Ben wouldn’t listen. Ben stood stiffly, looking off into the distance as if terrified.

“Ben, what’s wrong?”

That’s when it happened.

“Ben, what’s wrong?”

Someone echoed Kai’s words exactly. A chill ran down his spine. It was an ominous voice. Kai quickly drew his wooden sword, preparing to fight, and shouted while scanning his surroundings.

“Who’s there!”

He shouted with as much courage as he could muster, trying not to tremble, but,

“Who’s there.”

That strange voice mimicked him, as if it was mocking Kai.

The voice came from inside the gloomy castle. It seemed clear that some coward was hiding and teasing him.

Just as an angry Kai was about to muster the courage to enter Verdura Castle with his wooden sword,

“Your Highness. You must not go that way.”

A guard who had been secretly following him suddenly appeared and blocked Kai’s path.

“But, someone is over there…”

“There’s no one there, Your Highness.”

The guard was firm. Standing in front of Kai, he showed no intention of moving aside. Kai, who had been secretly scared, pretended to give in and turned back.

But until the moment he left with the guard, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone who disliked him was watching.

After that day, invisible beings occasionally appeared in Kai’s room, mimicking his words. Some days, he could feel their breath very close by.

Sometimes on the back of his hand, sometimes by his ear, and sometimes on the nape of his neck.

They remained invisible. It might have been less frightening if he could see them. The beings he had imagined as a child were all bizarre and terrifying, haunting Kai every night.

Whenever he heard the voices, Kai would startle and run out of the room, not returning to his own room that night. Eventually, rumors spread throughout the imperial palace that the prince was possessed by ghosts.

Kai decided to pretend he couldn’t hear those voices after seeing his mother crying silently because of him.

After losing her younger child in an unexpected accident, his mother would startle at the slightest thing.

Sometimes to the point of being excessive, she would coddle Kai, but now that rumors were circulating that her only remaining son was possessed by ghosts, she was on the verge of breaking down.

“Mother, I don’t hear any voices anymore.”

“Really? Oh, thank God, truly thank you.”

His mother hugged Kai tightly, sobbing and offering prayers of thanks to God, while those beings, pressed close to Kai’s side, mimicked Kai and his mother’s words, giggling.

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Oh, God, thank you.”

Although his whole body bristled with goosebumps from the beings still hovering around him, Kai endured it. He couldn’t let these invisible things make his mother waste away with worry.

“Of all places, here.”

Kai was displeased that the place Ben had led him into happened to be Verdura Castle. By that point, the voices chattering in his ears no longer bothered him at all.

If he pretended not to hear them and simply ignored them, they would eventually quiet down. At most, he could think of the repetition of his words as just an echo.

Besides, lately, he hadn’t been hearing them at all.

“That kid’s here again. But he’s changed a lot, hasn’t he?”

“You’re right. He’s really grown up.”

“Can he see us now?”

“No, I don’t think so. He doesn’t notice us even though we’re right in front of him.”

This time, the voices he heard were different. It wasn’t a meaningless echo but a clear conversation.

Kai quickly turned his head toward the source of the sound.

“Ah, you scared me. Can he see us?”

“No, look carefully. He’s looking elsewhere.”

“He might be cross-eyed, you know.”

“You think so? Hey! Can you see us?”

Esta jumped up and down in front of Kai, waving his arms. But Kai continued to look around, unable to see either Esta or Ark.

“Ah, he can’t see us.”

“Tsk. I got excited for nothing. Hey, but that stupid horse is eating all of Stella’s carrots!”

“What? Oh no! What should we do?”

The topic of conversation shifted to the carrots Ben was eating. Kai was completely bewildered. He hadn’t even realized that what Ben was burying his head in the ground to eat were carrots.

“Hey! Ugly horse! Get away! Those are Stella’s! You’ll be in trouble if Stella finds out!”

“I’ll go get Stella!”

“Hurry up and go. This stupid guy is just standing there while his horse is stealing.”

“We should tell Stella everything.”

The panting voices split into two directions. One was where Ben was, and the other was toward Verdura Castle.

Kai hesitated, unsure where to look, but quickly went to Ben. He couldn’t let any malicious energy cling to him.

A moment later, “Horse, get away!”

Something started pulling at the carrot Ben was holding in his mouth. Ben, who had been easily pulling out and eating carrots until just a moment ago, now whinnied as he struggled to keep hold of the carrot.

“Neigh!”

“Ben!”

Kai hurriedly pulled Ben back. If he left him like this, those invisible things might drag Ben into the ground.

But Ben wouldn’t let go of the carrot, and the invisible presence seemed to be struggling not to lose it either. Eventually, the carrot broke, and Ben munched and swallowed the part with the leaves.

“What’s going on there!”

Amidst the chaos, a woman’s voice suddenly rang out from behind, snapping Kai back to his senses.

The woman approached, panting as much as the voices had been, and glared at Kai with all her might.

The woman’s bright blonde hair shimmered softly in the moonlight. She seemed to have rushed out, wearing slippers and a robe. Despite facing a strange man while dressed only in her nightclothes, the woman showed no sign of embarrassment.

Properly speaking, a princess shouldn’t confront an intruder directly. But this woman even held something that looked like a weapon in her hand.

Kai closely examined the object she was holding with both hands, pointed in his direction.

It wasn’t a sword.

“You, who are you?”

Who was she again? Ah, Princess Stella. Kai recalled her face, smiling bitterly at the formal dinner. The woman who had once appeared entirely in black and white was now shining with vibrant colors.

Her voice was quite bold too. But what on earth was she holding? Kai found himself more interested in the weapon she had than in the woman herself.

A pickaxe?

What the princess was holding was a pickaxe, something typically used by farmers.

“Oh my goodness! My carrots!”

Stella, who had been glaring at Kai, was shocked to see that his horse had turned the carrot patch into a wasteland.

Kai, who had been momentarily dazed by the sudden appearance of the pickaxe, blankly watched as Stella rushed past him to where Ben was standing.

“What were you all doing? You said you’d protect them!”

The princess yelled somewhere below the ground. Seeing this, Kai’s eyes gleamed sharply.

Can she see them? Those things?

“The horse suddenly came in and ate them. We told it not to, but what could we do if it wouldn’t listen?”

“Esta’s right. That ugly horse just came in and ate them on its own.”

Stella heaved a deep sigh and then looked at the ground the horse had trampled, her face crestfallen.

“I was about to harvest them soon.”

Stella’s head, which had been whining, suddenly whipped around toward Kai, who was standing there dumbfounded. The woman glared at him with fiercely burning eyes.

“This is all because of you. How on earth do you manage your horse?”

“That’s right. It’s that person’s fault.”

“Yeah, the horse’s owner is to blame. The horse did nothing wrong.”

As soon as Stella spoke, two other voices chimed in agreement. Stella glared in the direction where Ark and Esta were, signaling them to be quiet.

Kai noticed that the owners of the voices were in the direction she was looking. Slowly, he drew out the dagger he had hidden in his clothes.

Finally, the opportunity had come to deal with those who had been tormenting him for so long.

Although he couldn’t see exactly where they were, he could easily deduce their positions based on the direction of the voices and the angle the woman was looking.

Ark, who had been talking to Stella, clapped his hands once as if he had just remembered something.

“Stella, by the way, that person can hear our voices.”

At the same moment, Kai threw his dagger with all his might in the direction of the sound.

However, his dagger didn’t strike the bodies of those creatures; instead, it hit something solid and flew off at an angle.

Clang!

What blocked Kai’s dagger was the pickaxe the princess was holding.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

She asked, glaring at Kai with a look that could kill him.