Ahazan first discovered the hidden face of Yuri when he was seventeen.

More than a decade had passed, yet the memory of that day remained vivid.

At the time, their father, Emperor Geskel, took great pleasure in wagering with nobles over dogfights. He kept nearly thirty fighting dogs of his own, and within the imperial palace there was a separate arena where matches were held almost daily.

On Ahazan’s fifteenth birthday, Geskel gifted him his most prized fighting dog.

Yuri had been thirteen then, an age ripe with curiosity. Fearing his younger brother might feel envious, Ahazan selected a fine fighting dog from a renowned arena and presented it to Yuri as well.

Yuri had been delighted.

Regardless of whether there was a match scheduled, he spent nearly all his time in the training yard with his dog. Perhaps the animal sensed how deeply it was cherished, for even against Geskel’s formidable dogs, it never lost pitifully. Sometimes, it even won.

By contrast, Ahazan’s dog, despite being touted as Geskel’s favorite, proved useless in the ring. It lost most bouts and often returned injured, incapable of bringing its master the joy of victory.

Strangely, that very weakness made Ahazan fond of it.

Unlike a true fighting dog, it was gentle and endearing. Clodine often came to see it, which only deepened his affection.

He gave it a new name, Aaron.

Whenever his thoughts grew tangled, he would take Aaron out for walks or exercise with him. Over two years, attachment grew. Eventually, Ahazan began refusing matches on Aaron’s behalf.

‘Brother, how about a dogfight? It’s been a while.’

Yet it was difficult to decline Yuri’s requests.

He had never imagined Yuri would come to enjoy such a cruel pastime like Geskel, but apparently, he had.

By imperial law, a dog owner had to be at least seventeen to participate in official matches. Unless Geskel, Ahazan, or acquaintances agreed to face him, Yuri could not fight elsewhere.

So Ahazan reluctantly indulged him.

The young hound under Yuri’s hand grew into a fierce and capable fighter. In contrast, Aaron drifted further from combat with each passing day.

That day, Ahazan assumed Aaron would lose. He watched closely, prepared to halt the match before his dog was gravely injured.

But strangely, Yuri’s dog faltered.

It seemed weaker than usual. And then, with a single bite to the scruff from Aaron, it collapsed.

The match ended in Aaron’s victory.

Yet what lingered in Ahazan’s mind was the sight of Yuri’s dog, clearly exhausted, overworked from relentless training.

Yuri smiled with easy magnanimity, stroking both dogs equally, praising them without distinction.

It was the Yuri he had always known.

Ahazan had always admired that about him.

He had no idea that would be the last moment he ever regarded Yuri as his own blood, as someone within the bounds of normal humanity.

‘Why did Prince Yuri’s dog lose?’

Clodine had come to see Aaron after the match, happily embracing him when she found him unharmed.

‘Perhaps it’s injured? Otherwise, there’s no way our gentle Aaron could have won. Isn’t that right, Aaron?’

She laughed playfully, cupping Aaron’s face in her hands. Then, with concern written plainly on her face, she looked up at Ahazan.

‘Shouldn’t you go check on it, Ahazan?’

He had already been thinking the same.

Encouraged by her words, he visited Yuri’s kennels alone late that night.

Strangely, no guards stood outside.

Just as he reached for the door—

‘Aaaaaaah!’

A man’s anguished scream tore through the air.

Ahazan instinctively stilled himself.

The groans and frantic barking from within drowned out the faint creak of the door as he eased it open.

He slipped inside cautiously and concealed himself behind a large pillar, using the shadows to mask his presence.

‘Too much screaming is troublesome, Hensio.’

It was Yuri’s voice.

Ahazan repeated the name in his mind.

Hensio…

The man writhing on the floor, clutching his blood-soaked arm, was difficult to identify. But by the name alone, it could only be Hensio Brighton, the eldest son of the Count of Brighton.

‘If someone overhears our little arrangement, how could I possibly save your fallen house?’

Yuri knelt before the man and stroked the dog calmly.

Blood smeared the glossy brown fur around the animal’s mouth.

At the mention of ‘fallen house,’ Ahazan was certain. The Brighton family had recently been ruined, its patriarch drowning in gambling debts, the estate reduced to near collapse.

‘One bite isn’t nearly enough…’

‘Y-Your Highness… please…’

‘Kane. Bite here.’

Yuri poured a violet liquid from the vial in his hand onto Hensio’s right thigh.

The dog’s eyes rolled back as it lunged.

‘Aaaah! Stop!’

The same scream Ahazan had heard moments earlier burst from Hensio’s mouth again.

The dog’s sharp teeth were buried deep in his thigh. Frenzied by the shrill cries, the beast thrashed harder.

‘Yes. This is it.’

Yuri spoke in a graceful voice, as though reciting lines from a stage script, and picked up the dagger lying on the floor.

‘When Kane leaps as if to tear my dear friend to pieces… and at that very moment, Prince Yuri happens upon the scene.’

Before Ahazan’s eyes, Hensio, desperately struggling against the maddened dog, looked like an actor performing precisely as Yuri had arranged.

A low chuckle slipped from Yuri’s lips. Then, in a voice that had turned chillingly hollow, he continued:

‘To save his friend, he plunges a blade into the neck of the dog he cherished.’

The moment the words left his mouth, the dagger sank cleanly into Kane’s throat.

The motion was strong and exact, without even the faintest trace of hesitation.

The pitiful animal, who could not have imagined its master’s blade would turn against it, released Hensio’s leg and twisted violently, letting out a broken whine.

The scent of blood, human and beast mingled together, spread thick in the air.

Yuri bent at the waist and gazed tenderly at Kane, who still clung to life, his abdomen rising in labored breaths.

It was grotesque to describe it as tenderness, yet that was how it appeared to Ahazan.

‘I told you I would overlook losing to my brother only three times, didn’t I, Kane?’

With the tip of the bloodied dagger, Yuri lightly traced the heaving body.

‘Tonight was exactly the third. You knew that, didn’t you?’

At that moment, the dying animal’s dark eyes met Ahazan’s.

Hidden within the shadows, Ahazan clenched his teeth.

Without further words, Yuri shifted his grip and ended Kane’s life completely.

‘How much did you say you needed?’

Yuri asked casually, looking down at the dead dog as though it stirred no emotion in him, then turned to Hensio, who was still writhing on the floor.

Even while groaning in pain, clutching his mangled thigh, Hensio forced out an answer.

‘Four million gold…’

Four million gold was enough to purchase a mansion in the capital—and still have coin to spare.

Yuri nodded languidly.

‘If a single word of tonight reaches the wrong ears, you and your family will end up just like this dog. Understood, Hensio?’

‘Y-Yes… Your Highness… I will remember…’

That was enough.

Ahazan slipped back through the door and left the kennels in silence.

The very next day, Yuri appeared before him.

He carried the dead dog in a small wooden box, his face stricken with grief. Hensio Brighton stood beside him, arms and legs wrapped thickly in bandages.

‘Last night, Kane suddenly attacked Hensio, Brother. There was no way to stop him but to kill him. To save my friend, I had to slay the precious dog you gave me with my own hands.’

Yuri’s face, shining as though tears might fall at any moment, was angelically pure.

But that day, Ahazan saw it clearly.

A devil wearing an angel’s mask.

From that day forward, Ahazan never regarded Yuri as blood.

Outwardly, he acted as though he trusted him more than anyone.

Inwardly, he watched. He guarded. Just as Yuri did.

Over time, he learned something else.

Yuri manipulated the world like a serpent, using those around him to obtain whatever he desired. There was no cruelty he would not commit if it served his purpose. And to those who allowed themselves to be used, he rewarded them generously.

That was how Yuri secured loyalty.

Years later, when it was revealed that Tomas Orlandor, who oversaw the management of Yuri and Anna’s assets, had embezzled part of Yuri’s fortune and vanished, Ahazan received related documents while at war.

Within Orlandor’s secret ledger, records of siphoning Yuri’s wealth over many years, Ahazan found something almost absurd.

The price of Kane’s life.

Four million gold.

Recorded alongside the exact date Kane had lost to Aaron for the third time.

The life of a dog, transformed on paper into a sum ‘misappropriated’ by a minor official, was no more than a single line among countless entries.