“You are my most precious treasure. Do not worry, my dear. This father of yours will cure your illness, no matter what it takes.”

Count Felix Ideana had always been the kindest of fathers to his only daughter. For his frail child, he would do anything. And Luise loved him—respected him deeply.

At least, until that day. The winter of her fifteenth year.

“What is this…?”

Luise collapsed to her knees at the sight before her.

Behind Faradel Castle, bodies were piled like a hill. The corpses were so mangled their faces were unrecognizable, layer upon layer of the dead.

“I heard Lupus have been disappearing lately.”

The words of Shed, the slave who followed her, flashed through her mind. The missing Lupus of Ideana, they were here, lying dead.

‘Why… why is it exactly like my dream?’

Luise squeezed her eyes shut. Upon the mountain of death, her nightmare played out again in vivid projection.

She had always been haunted by dreams. Whenever her illness worsened, the nightmares would follow. Afterward, though her symptoms eased, she would spend nights unable to sleep, tormented by what she had seen.

Her latest dream had been about the sl*ughter of the Lupus. More precisely, she had dreamt of massacring them.

In the nightmare, her body broke free from her control and began to rampage independently. Her mind was dragged along helplessly, forced into submission by her frenzied flesh.

She cut down the Lupus mercilessly. Even when they resisted and drove blades into her body, she continued to kill them as they fled and screamed.

The pain of their weapons piercing her flesh was excruciating; she felt as though she would die from it.

But that was nothing compared to the overwhelming guilt of taking so many lives.

Even upon waking, every sensation lingered, clinging to her like chains. Her hands still felt wet with blood. Her ears still rang with their screams.

And yet, she told herself—

‘It was only a dream.’

A dream. Something that could be washed away with tears and prayers, leaving no trace come morning.

But now, before her eyes, was a reality that no amount of weeping could erase.

Luise wished desperately it was still a nightmare. There was no reason for so many Lupus to die. No plague had spread. No war had come in recent years.

‘I don’t understand what’s happening at all…’

At the same time, Shed Lupus’s face flashed through her mind.

“Pamen is missing. May I go search for him?”

Two days ago, he asked for permission to leave temporarily, saying that his sworn brother — Lupus in all but blood — had disappeared. She hadn’t seen him since.

Luise’s mind snapped into sharp clarity. Could he be among those mangled corpses?

She squeezed her eyes shut at the thought of the faceless bodies.

‘No. That can’t be. Shed is strong, clever…’

She wanted to believe that he had survived. That he wasn’t one of them.

But he was a lupus. A slave.

In Ideana, slaves were treated like beasts. They were thrown into battle as mercenaries and used as bait or shields for the knights.

She was no different. From the age of ten, he had been sent to bloody battlefields as a boy soldier, repeatedly narrowly avoiding death.

At any moment, he could be cut down by a powerful blade.

Whenever the slaves returned with spoils from the front lines or the hunt, Luise’s first thought was always to check if he had made it back alive.

Yes, he was a slave, and she was the daughter of Count Ideana.

She knew she should never have…

“Luise, what are you doing here?”

A familiar voice cut through her thoughts. Luise turned her head.

“…Father?”

“How did you come outside the manor grounds?”

Count Felix Ideana stood before the stinking pile of corpses, looking irritated as though they were nothing but a nuisance.

“What… what is all this?”

Luise, still collapsed on the ground, asked her father.

Not long ago, she had told him of the Lupus disappearances after hearing it from Shed. She had begged him to look into it.

“You’re so kind, Luise, to worry for the slaves. Since you ask so earnestly, I’ll see to it.”

That was what he had promised her.

“….”

Felix said nothing now. The silence that settled over the blood-soaked ground felt like hands tightening around her throat.

“Please… say something!”

The stench from the corpses grew heavier, making her nightmare sharpen, as if it had been reality all along.

Felix lowered his eyes, as though weighing something in troubled thought.

“Yes… there’s no need to hide it any longer. It’s time you knew.”

He murmured softly, his hand tenderly brushing her cheek.

“Rejoice, my beloved daughter.”

Before the mountain of corpses, Felix smiled.

“You are complete.”

He gently took Luise’s trembling hand as she knelt frozen to the spot. Her mind went utterly blank.
She could not comprehend what her father meant.

“Complete…? What do you mean?”

“My daughter, the most perfect being in this world.”

Felix helped her to her feet and looked down at her warmly. But to Luise, his kind smile framed by crimson-stained lips looked grotesque.

“It was a sacrifice I could not avoid—for your sake.”

He pulled her into his arms as he spoke. For Luise Ideana, the Lupus had to die.

“For… my sake?”

Luise’s thoughts spun. Even her father’s smile seemed unreal; everything around her felt detached from reality.

“Yes, Luise. You have become the strongest human alive.”

Her father whispered something she could not understand. The confusion in her chest deepened. When she faltered, Felix smiled faintly, took her hand and led her forward. Her feet trembled, but she had no choice but to follow him.

“The unstable period lasted a little longer than expected. But in the end… we succeeded.”

Felix strolled leisurely among the corpses, as if he were walking through a forest at dawn filled with fresh, fragrant air.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying…”

Luise felt utterly lost—as though she had been flung into a whirlpool of twisted time, colliding with random, senseless fragments of reality.

“Do you remember? Last year, I declared we no longer needed Lupus mercenary slaves for the monster hunts.”

Yes, she remembered it clearly. Last year, Felix announced that the Lupus, who had previously been sent on hunts as expendable mercenaries, would no longer be used. They had been discarded without pay and transferred to harsher bondage duties.

She remembered it well. It was at that point that she had begged Felix to let her keep Shed at her side.

“It wasn’t because the monsters disappeared, Luise. It was because of you. The Lupus was no longer needed—because of you.”

Felix led her past the hill of vile corpses. Beyond that, the landscape was littered with the carcasses of monsters. Their blood flowed in scarlet streams.

Seeing this, Luise could no longer hold it back. She doubled over and vomited onto the ground.

“Urgh…! Uuugh—!”

Even as her stomach emptied, the nausea refused to subside. Her old nightmares returned with a vengeance, tormenting her once more.

On that day, Luise Ideana killed the monsters that came for her. Now, the sensations of that day were returning to her, sharp and vivid.

“There’s no need to be afraid. You did this.”

Felix whispered as he watched his daughter tremble. He put his hand on her shoulder and forced her to face the truth: she was hunting down the monsters using her own power.

“Ancient sorcery is extremely powerful. A few sacrifices were necessary, but that was never an issue for our family.”

His voice was gentle and almost tender.

In the present age, only holy power and aura held sway. But long ago, a force far greater than either of those existed. Many had sought it. Many had wielded it. Yet over time, it was cast aside into the shadows of history. This was due to the scars it had left on the world.

Ancient sorcery demanded life as its price. The pursuit of this sorcery sparked massacres and wars so terrible that the temple branded it black magic and forbade humanity from ever using it again.

Felix Ideana had claimed this forbidden power for herself.

“The lupus were ideal. They were a breed of great vitality. They gave you unparalleled strength.”

He had sacrificed hundreds of lupus, offering up their lives so that his daughter could become a powerful being.

Luise shook her head at his calm, smiling face.

“This… this is madness. Why did they—ugh…!”

“They were just lupus.” Slaves. They made a noble sacrifice that was beneath their station. They must have felt honoured to devote their lives to such a glorious cause.”

There was no trace of guilt in Felix’s expression as he looked at the dead.

To him, the Lupus were not human.

To him, they were little more than this: a lamb offered on the altar of the temple for mankind’s joy,
a pig slaughtered for the feast.

“To gain such power without sacrificing true people…Isn’t it remarkable?”

In his words, the Lupus were not even counted as people.

Luise’s head swam.

‘They died because of me?’
‘I never wanted this.’
‘I never wanted any great power…!’

“You don’t believe it, do you?”

Felix studied her confused face, then reached out a gentle hand.

When Luise recoiled, he smiled as though to reassure her.

“Come now. Test it. Your power.”

He helped her to her feet and then called for the knights of House Ideana.

From their grasp, a body was dragged forward. Slack and limp, as though unconscious.

Her breath caught.

“Shed…?”

The one she had been searching for was in her father’s hands.

Felix smoothed his attire with leisurely composure as his gaze fell upon Shed.

“That boy tried to kill me last night. A traitor deserves a fitting execution.”