The wind and flames danced like tiny fairies, swirling above the girl’s body before transforming into a warm breeze.

The girl’s color returned, and her lips moved slightly. “Mom…”

“…”

Leah unconsciously gripped the girl’s small hand tightly.

‘What did this child do to deserve such suffering?’

Amid her sympathy, anger welled up inside her.

‘Why must we suffer like this when we’ve done nothing wrong?’

She saw her past self in this small girl caught up in circumstances beyond her control. Though the details differed, wasn’t she herself also entangled in events that nearly killed her before she became a mage?

‘The ones at fault are those damn Trows and that Archaik.’

He must be the one who sent the Snake Knights to interfere with their pursuit, who ordered innocent people to consume potions made with dragon mana.

Leah clenched her fist.

She felt like grabbing him by the collar and spitting in his face if he were standing before her.

‘Imperial Prince Archaik Oken…!’

At that moment, responding to her unexpected summons, her mind violently resonated.

[Leah Piert! My mage! Dragon’s Holy Maiden!]

Leah’s body crumpled suddenly.

“My Lady!”

The scream-like cry barely reached her ears before her consciousness was forcefully pulled elsewhere.

***

‘How dare you! How dare you!’

A boy shouted in a high-pitched voice, struggling desperately.

His strained voice held no dignity whatsoever. It was merely the voice of a terrified child.

‘Ugh, hic.’

Sobs that didn’t sound like his own echoed off the stone walls.

‘How dare you lay hands on the body of an Imperial Prince!’

Despite shouting with all his might, he couldn’t escape the rough hands of the adults rushing toward him.

‘Just stay still.’

Someone muttered irritably.

The boy gasped for breath, pinned face-down on the floor. His small heart raced with humiliation and fear.

‘Hold his arm properly.’

‘Hic, sob, Your Highness…’

‘Idiot, step aside if you’re going to hesitate.’

Someone pushed others away, pressing a knee into the boy’s back while securing his wrist to the floor. Seeing the knife approaching his arm, the boy shook his head frantically.

‘No! No!’

Each time he struggled, his cheek scraped against the cold stone floor. It hurt and he was terrified.

‘Save me, please save me, Father!’

‘Just stay still, will you?’

‘Can’t you even properly restrain one child?’

Unlike the knights, these unskilled hands made multiple wounds on the boy’s arm.

‘Argh!’

‘The blood, catch the blood! Quickly!’

They paid no attention to the boy’s screams.

‘Should we cut the artery?’

‘Are you crazy? You want to dispose of a corpse after using it once?’

‘True, we should keep the supply vessel alive since we don’t know if real dragon eggs will respond.’

Supply vessel.

It was the most horrific term he had ever heard.

A hopeless prince. A useless prince whose only merit was being born early. Common trash of the imperial family.

Though he had done nothing wrong, people called him that simply because his mother came from a low background.

Still. Still, he was a prince.

Even when his father the Emperor pushed him into this mad magical den, telling him to prove his worth as a member of the imperial family, the boy believed.

That he was a prince.

But now, humiliatingly pinned down, having his blood drained, being called a “supply vessel”—now the boy realized that to the Empire, to his father, to these magic scholars, he was nothing more than livestock.

‘The test subject has awakened!’

Those were the first words the beast heard upon hatching from its egg.

But what bothered it more was another sensation. The warm blood that had been poured over the eggshell and now covered its head.

It felt strange.

‘Stop it, I don’t want this!’

The screams of a young human who smelled like that same blood came from nearby. Amid the confusion, suddenly an immense pain struck.

‘GROOAR!’

It howled and tried to shake free, but its body was already bound by restraints. The human who had pierced its heart with a thick needle muttered:

‘Indeed, a dragon heart…’

‘How much mana flows in this blood?’

Greedy voices.

I’ll kill them. I’ll kill all these lowly creatures!

It was a dragon, the strongest living being. How dare these insignificant humans treat it like their tool!

The young dragon, writhing in pain and wounded pride, met the eyes of the young human collapsed nearby.

The young human’s lips moved.

‘You’re in the same situation as me.’

At that moment, the space where Leah stood changed.

Flames burning red in all directions. It was the place she saw whenever Archaik appeared in her dreams.

Leah’s eyes wavered. She was confused.

‘What was that just now?’

A young dragon and boy being tortured as experimental subjects and tools.

This wasn’t what she had expected. She didn’t want to see it, didn’t want to believe it.

But she could understand.

‘Could this be… Imperial Prince Archaik Oken’s past?’

She truly didn’t want to believe it, but her intuition told her this was the truth.

Archaik’s constant remarks about hating humans. Weren’t those words connected to the scene from the past she just witnessed?

‘What madness did those Oken Imperial bastards inflict on a child and a dragon?’

As she shuddered at the thought, she became pensive.

‘But something feels off.’

She sensed a strange incongruity.

‘Helix said Archaik was a dragon.’

The memory she just saw was different.

‘Then shouldn’t there only be dragon memories? Why are there prince’s memories too?’

***

Imperial Prince Archaik Oken waited in quiet fury.

His mage, called the Dragon’s Holy Maiden.

‘If she’s the Dragon’s Holy Maiden, shouldn’t she prioritize dragons?’

Reality was the opposite. His mage’s mana was being filled with another’s, making their connection increasingly faint, and she barely thought of him.

‘Leah Piert.’

He felt anxious. Would he lose her like this?

Would he have to let her break free from him, stick close to that Helix or whatever his name was, and live like she didn’t know him?

That couldn’t happen.

He desperately wanted to rush to Peiren and kidnap her, but it would be useless if that Helix was truly a Guardian.

‘Just once.’

The Imperial Prince waited with the mindset of a spider that had spun its web.

If you think of me. If you just get caught. Then I’ll snatch you with all my might.

***

And when she finally thought of him, Archaik didn’t hesitate to pull Leah into his consciousness.

But perhaps he used too much force.

Leah’s consciousness headed toward the deepest part of his mind that he had buried deep, toward his most painful memories.

She had discovered the humiliating past he never wanted to show anyone.

Archaik’s footsteps were hurried as he approached Leah, who was lost in thought, but his mind was heavy and confused.

Unable to contain his boiling anger, he grabbed Leah’s arm. Startled, she jumped.

“Let go…!”

Her reaction was slower than usual. Archaik looked down at her with his black eyes.

“Did you see?”

“…”

Leah’s eyes reflected him. A man with dangerously gleaming eyes was cornering her. She couldn’t turn away and stared back at him.

“So you did see.”

He said through gritted teeth.

“Disappear along with what you’ve seen.”

Archaik brought his hand to Leah’s neck.

“Guh!”

She stopped breathing at the sudden pressure choking her throat. Watching Leah struggle with her face turning bright red, Archaik felt conflicted.

Should he kill her now? Should he just kill her?

Kill her and return to a world filled only with worthless, hateful humans?

“Ack!”

“I always tell myself.”

Archaik whispered regretfully as he ran his hand along her neck. His nails scraped against her goosebump-covered skin.

“Before seeing you.”

Archaik said.

“That this time I’ll kill you for sure.”

That he wouldn’t waver if he killed her.

“I could order you to be disposed of without seeing you, but I always promise myself I’ll kill you after seeing you.”

He pressed his lips to the tip of her ear. It felt like the touch of a cold snake.

“How foolish of me.”

A sneer formed on the Imperial Prince’s smooth face.

Indeed. It was foolish. Nevertheless, his instincts blazed fiercely, urging him.

To capture this woman. That he would be doomed if he didn’t possess her bright light.

“Now I understand. It’s because you’re the Dragon’s Holy Maiden.”

“…”

Archaik’s fingers lifted her chin.

“Ask me to save you.”

He whispered, “Ask me to save the suffering humans.”

Leah’s tightly closed lips parted.

“…If I ask, will you listen? Even though you hate humans so much?”

“Kuhehe.”

Archaik curled his body and let out a laugh. It was the refreshing, self-deprecating laugh of someone whose inner thoughts had been exposed.

“Yes, I hate humans.”

Golden flames rose in the Imperial Prince’s black eyes.

“How could I like humans who did such things to me and my covenant partner?”

“…Even if you can’t like them, you could leave them alone.”

At Leah’s words, Archaik gave a cold smile.

“They’ve done too many wrongs to me for that.”

“The humans who wronged you and the humans you’ve harmed are different.”

“Are they really different?”

Imperial Prince Archaik Oken spat cynically.

“All humans are ultimately similar. They don’t know their place, they crave great power, and they’re arrogant.”

“…”

Archaik whispered to her, “But if you ask me to save them, I will.”

“…You’re the one who did this.”

Golden heterochromia flickered in Archaik’s eyes and disappeared.

“What do you mean?”

“The fake medicine. The epidemic. The potion.”

In response to Leah’s precise words, he gave a hollow laugh.

“Even as the Imperial Prince, I can’t control disease.”

“…You’re a dragon.”

Archaik’s eyes changed.

“You.”

His black pupils turned golden. A fierce aura emanated from his entire body.

“If you know that, you should call me ‘my lord.'”

Archaik grabbed Leah’s neck as she struggled to breathe under the pressure.

“How disrespectful.”

It was I who awakened you as a mage. The mana filling your veins is my power.

Archaik’s thoughts pierced directly into Leah’s mind.

“Did you think it was your ability?”

The flames rising from his hand mockingly singed the tips of her hair. The fire clung to her like a snake’s tongue, gradually burning her collar and hair ends.

“Let go…!”

Holding tightly to the twisting Leah, Archaik growled.

“Call me ‘my lord.'”