I muttered to myself, considering the possibility that I had simply dozed off. But a strong sense of warning echoed in my mind, telling me it wasn’t just a dream. Staring at the statue of the goddess, I remembered the vision I had seen. The future. Prophecy. Divine revelation. The words swirling in my head made me bite my tongue. If it was true, then this terrible death was my destined future. Even with my lack of understanding of emotions, I could tell this wasn’t a good feeling.

In the vision, I was already an emperor. Although I only saw brief fragments, I was able to estimate when this would happen. In the future, I appeared to be over thirty. This meant that the events would probably take place about ten years from now.

The image of the man from the vision flashed through my mind—the one with burn scars twisting one side of his face and snake scales covering the other. I also remembered the young servant boy I had crushed five years ago.

“Your time is up. Please come out now”

The knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts. As I stepped out, I saw students sitting and waiting for their turn to pray.

“You took quite a while. What were you praying for.?”

I looked up at the young man who had spoken to me. It was Bapharos. Though his expression was gentle, his eyes were cold. Although he was born before me, he had been passed over for the title of Crown Prince because he was the son of a concubine. As a result, he did not regard me with kindness.

“I prayed for the prosperity of the nation.”

If I told him I had had a vision of the future while praying, he would think I was crazy. So I gave a simple, safe answer. Bapharos replied with an equally neutral remark and entered the prayer room.

Will he be able to see the future in there as well? The thought briefly crossed my mind, but I quickly dismissed it, shaking my head. Divine prophecies and visions are not so easily granted. It was likely that I had been given this vision because in the future every living thing in the realm would be slaughtered because of me. The gods must have shown me the future to change this terrible fate.

There was only one way to avoid the future: find that man and kill him before he could kill me. That was the only solution.

“Those who have finished praying, please proceed to the chapel. Follow me.”

The apprentice priest led the students to the chapel. The moment I arrived, I instinctively stopped. Suddenly I understood why the gods had shown me the future today. Kneeling before the altar was a child whose face was marked with burn scars, just like the man in my vision.

The moment I saw the child, I was reminded of the man from the future. His face was obscured by messy, tangled hair, but through the torn clothing, the burn scars and snake-like scales were visible.

It was a strange feeling. In the future he had seemed fearless, standing with the confidence of one who feared nothing. But now he sat kneeling, tied up and powerless. After five years, the boy seemed as if he hadn’t changed at all from what I remembered.

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince. You’ve arrived? Please, have a seat here.”

As I walked to the front of the platform, someone called out to me. It was Karial, the Count’s daughter, who smiled as she offered me the seat next to her. When she looked at the boy on the platform, her expression changed to a frown.

“They say he’s a monster-poisoned child. He was found on the outskirts of the capital. They’ll begin the ritual as soon as all the students are gathered.

“…A ritual, huh”

I knew exactly what this ‘ritual’ meant. It was the forced separation of the parts that had merged with the monster, using divine power. They called it a ritual, but it was a death sentence. Once a person is consumed by a monster, their body becomes one with the monster. Separating such things from the body is like ripping out vital organs like the heart or lungs.

If the ritual succeeds, the person dies slowly in agony. If it fails, they are deemed beyond redemption and sent to the execution grounds. This was the true nature of the ritual. They wouldn’t execute in front of the students, of course. It seemed that the boy had been brought here purely for us to observe the process of removal as a lesson.

‘I had been contemplating how to find and kill that boy, but now, it seemed like there was no need for me to intervene.’

Just as this thought crossed my mind, a sense of unease washed over me. If the boy was fated to die here, without any wrongdoing on my part, why would the gods go to such lengths to show me this future and issue a warning?

[If you want to change the future, change your actions. Your actions will alter your destiny.]

The voice I heard at the end of the vision echoed in my mind. A warning to change my actions. If I hadn’t seen that future, I wouldn’t have even known who the boy was. I wouldn’t have cared whether he lived or died.

“…Things have become difficult now.”

I bit my tongue without realizing it. The boy would die here, and yet the future I saw would still come to pass. In other words, the boy would die, but his life wouldn’t end.

An almost immortal kind of monster. I knew of such creatures. If the core deep inside their bodies was not destroyed, they could keep moving even if their heads were cut off. If this boy had merged with such a monster, it would be pointless to behead or burn him here. He wouldn’t stop breathing even if he turned into a zombie.

If my theory was correct, the boy must have been killed in the future. He probably pretended to be dead and allowed his body to be taken outside the temple, where he would have escaped. From there, he must have fled to the demon realm, where he spent ten years growing stronger before returning to kill me.

I needed another way to kill him. Should I cut his body into dozens, perhaps hundreds of pieces, and throw them into the river? Or perhaps strip his flesh and throw it to the wild animals? I thought of several methods to ensure that he could never resurrect, even without finding the core, but I quickly abandoned those ideas.

A monster capable of resurrection was a high-level monster. If the boy had merged with such a monster, it was proof that his hatred and resentment had penetrated him to the bone. If he lost his physical body with so much hatred, there was a high chance that his spirit would cling to another life form and grow stronger with time.

The message from the gods, urging me to change the course of my actions… Could it mean that I should save him instead? Just as the thought crossed my mind, the boy lifted his head and our eyes met. A wave of murderous intent, so intense it made my hair stand on end, washed over me. Though it was so brief that no one else seemed to notice, my heightened sensitivity to deadly auras—stemming from my past life as a monster—allowed me to detect it immediately.

If I let the boy die here, the future I had seen would surely come to pass. I felt an inexplicable certainty about it.

“Your Highness…?”

Karial’s voice came from behind me, but I ignored it. As I climbed onto the platform, the priests standing nearby moved to stop me.

“You mustn’t approach so carelessly.”

“Step aside” I commanded.

“You cannot. He may look young, but he is tainted by a monster. He’s dangerous, so please don’t go any closer,” the cleric warned.

Ignoring the warning, I continued to walk toward the boy. The clerics tried to grab my arm to stop me.

“How dare you lay a hand on the Crown Prince without permission.” I said coldly.

“You have come here as a student of the academy, Your Highness. Regardless of your status, all here are treated as students.”

“Then do as you see fit. But know that I will remember your face.”

The clerics hesitated at my words, giving me just enough time to approach the boy and unlock the shackles binding him to the floor.

“What are you doing…?! It’s dangerous!”

The priests recoiled, shouting in alarm, while the students below the platform whispered among themselves at my sudden action.

Unexpectedly, the boy remained silent. I saw that in the future he would show his hatred for me openly and without hesitation. But now he was probably hiding his claws, knowing how weak he was at this moment.

“I am not feeling well. I think I’ll have to leave early. Replace today’s session with something other than the ritual”.

“That won’t be possible.”

I turned to see Bapharos, who had just finished his prayer, staring at me with a stern expression. On the surface, he seemed serious, but his eyes gleamed with something else – like a predator who had just found an opportunity to tear me down.

“I understand your compassion for the child, but the law of the land is clear—those touched by monsters must undergo the ritual without delay. Your Highness, by disregarding this, you are not only violating the law but also putting the Academy and its students at risk by allowing someone tainted to remain among us.”