CHAPTER 019
“Please, spare me! I beg you, please spare me!”
The terrified screams of the nine-year-old Crown Prince Maxwell echoed. He needed to run, but his feet felt glued to the ground.
A sharp arrowhead was aimed at Maxwell’s heart, and a tall man was drawing the bowstring.
“Please, Your Majesty… Grandfather!!!!”
Maxwell knelt and pressed his forehead into the grass, pleading.
“Stand up.”
The stern voice of Maxius, the 26th Emperor of the Helterde Empire, pierced through the chilly late autumn air in the mountains.
It was the day the Emperor had taken his grandson, Crown Prince Maxwell, on a hunting trip to the nearby mountains. As they reached the mountainside, the Emperor dismissed everyone else and set off on horseback with only his grandson.
The Emperor’s love for his orphaned grandson was widely known. His entourage watched the two leave for their walk with warm smiles, not following them.
After his eldest son, the former Crown Prince had met a gruesome end at the hands of a black panther, the Emperor had appointed his less-than-one-year-old grandson as Crown Prince. He protected him from any threats to his position.
Neither his second son, Gustav, nor his youngest son Eric, born to his new Empress, could challenge Crown Prince Maxwell’s position while the Emperor lived, so dearly did the Emperor cherish his grandson.
At least, outwardly.
Young Maxwell, following his grandfather, couldn’t stop his hands from trembling. He sensed that today might be his last.
The Crown Prince knew. His grandfather did not love him. The Emperor’s feelings toward him were not love or even a mix of love and hate, but sheer hatred.
Publicly, he was the kind and doting grandfather who loved and cared for his grandson.
But in private, the Emperor’s gray eyes were filled with loathing and contempt for his young grandson. The so-called education and training were nothing more than harsh abuse that grew worse by the day.
To avoid his grandfather’s gaze, Maxwell had to act like a weak and timid child who felt dizzy even on horseback.
He had to walk with a hunched back and shoulders to appear shorter than his rapidly growing height. He avoided meals to prevent the development of muscles that were growing faster than those of his peers.
He kept his eyes, different in color from those of his grandfather and cousins, lowered to avoid drawing attention to them.
He didn’t even know the reason. Why did his guardian, his grandfather, hate him so much? Why did he despise him?
The one thing he knew was that someday he would die at his grandfather’s hands.
And Maxwell knew that today was that day.
Kneeling on the ground with his hands clasped in prayer, he heard,
“Stand up!”
The Emperor’s voice, devoid of any mercy, echoed through Maxwell’s ears.
Maxwell, as if giving up on everything, mustered the strength to stand on his trembling legs. His previously hunched and shrunken back and shoulders straightened, making the nine-year-old look almost like a young man.
For the first time, he met the Emperor’s gray eyes with his own red ones, no longer avoiding them.
His voice, no longer trembling, came out calmly from his red lips.
“Tell me the reason. Why do you hate me? Why do you want to kill me? At least grant me that much as I face my final moments.”
“This is the reason.”
The Emperor’s eyes blazed as he shouted, sweeping his gaze over the arrow aimed at his grandson’s body.
“No matter how much I try to crush you, your filthy blood cannot be hidden! Look at your body. You try to deceive, but I see everything. Do you think that’s the body of a nine-year-old raised in the palace? Look at your uncles, your cousins, and young Eric. Your body is so different from theirs!”
Maxwell was speechless. His clenched fists turned white as he shouted, rebelling against his grandfather for the first time.
“Just because I’m a bit taller than them… just because I have red eyes instead of gray like them, you hate me? I am your grandson too! I am the son of your eldest son!”
His long-held sorrow spilled out like a flood.
“Do you want the position of Crown Prince? I never wanted it in the first place. All I wanted… was your love. In this palace where no one loves me… I wanted to be loved by you. So why do you hate me so much? Why do you want to kill me?”
“Ha! How could I not hate you? Because of the cursed blood you carry… do you know who I lost? I lost the son I loved most because of you!”
Maxwell stepped back from the Emperor, who was shouting incomprehensible words.
Because of him, the Emperor had lost the son he loved most? It made no sense.
He was just a nine-year-old Crown Prince who had never even stepped outside the palace. The only son the Emperor had lost was Maxwell’s father, Crown Prince Luca, who had been killed by a black panther.
Maxwell’s face turned pale as he looked at his grandfather, who was hurling incomprehensible words.
“I know my father died protecting my mother and me. But is that really a reason to hate me so much? I was less than a year old!”
“You foolish boy. Even after I’ve told you the reason, you still don’t understand.”
The Emperor’s bloodshot eyes gleamed with a chilling madness. His lips twitched in a mocking smile as he drew the bowstring.
Maxwell, having given up on escaping, presented his chest to the arrow aimed at his heart. He would never show fear in front of his grandfather. He bit his lower lip until he tasted blood.
Maxwell’s red eyes stared unwaveringly into the Emperor’s gray eyes.
“Eric is now five years old, so I no longer need a shield. If I hastily appointed Eric as Crown Prince, he would have been an easy target before the Empress’s faction gained power. I put you in the position just to keep you safe. Now that I’ve crushed the opposing faction that supported you, you’re no longer useful.”
Having unexpectedly become Emperor after his cousin’s death, Emperor Maxius had to be wary of the various factions among the senior nobles due to his weak support base.
Maxwell had managed to keep his position as Crown Prince because the faction that supported the late Crown Prince and the kidnapped Crown Princess held the most power at the time.
The Emperor, no longer interested in further conversation, released the arrow without hesitation.
As he released the bowstring,
“Roar!”
Suddenly, a large black creature appeared, covering the Emperor. The arrow, losing its direction, shot straight up into the sky and fell weakly at Maxwell’s feet.
The black beast, roaring over the fallen Emperor, slowly turned its head to look at Maxwell. It was the black panther, a designated monster of the Empire.
The enemy that had killed his father and kidnapped his mother. Maxwell’s body burned with anger as he drew the dagger from his waist. He quickly spread his legs into a combat stance.
He would avenge his parents. As the beast took a step toward him, Maxwell was prepared to fight…
But then, a clear whistle sounded from somewhere. The black panther, which had been slowly approaching Maxwell, stopped moving.
At that moment, another pair of red eyes met Maxwell’s own. Strangely, the red eyes did not seem hostile.
The sad look in the beast’s eyes made Maxwell’s heartache. It was absurd. He shook his head vigorously and readjusted his stance. But suddenly, the entire forest in front of him began to spin erratically.
Thud.
Maxwell lost consciousness and collapsed onto the grass.
“Crown Prince Maxwell, are you awake?”
“Oh, thank the gods!”
As he struggled to open his heavy eyelids, familiar faces came into view. Maxwell found himself back in the Emperor’s tent prepared for the hunt, though he had no idea how he had returned.
“How… how did I…?”
Maxwell squeezed out the words, and Sir Jacob cautiously began to speak.
“Do you remember? Do you recall what happened in the forest?”
Maxwell closed his eyes again and shook his head.
He shook his head, not knowing where to begin, and those gathered seemed to think he had lost his memory due to the shock.
“What about my grandfather…?”
Now he would surely kill me.
Maxwell asked quietly as if resigned, and Sir Peter answered with his head bowed.
“He fell from his horse… and has passed away. It seems you witnessed the incident, were shocked, and lost consciousness.”
“Your Majesty, we pledge our loyalty.”
Sir Peter lowered his longsword to the ground and knelt before Maxwell, bowing his head. Following him, the knights and soldiers gathered around the makeshift bed all knelt and pledged their allegiance to their new sovereign.
[I should have killed you then! When Luca died, if the guards hadn't rushed in, I could have killed you!]
Emperor Maxius’s hand began to choke Maxwell's neck in a brutal grip.
Thick sweat beaded on Maxwell’s forehead as his eyebrows drew together, and his head shook left and right as if in agony.
Maxwell gripped the bed sheets, thick veins bulging on the back of his hand, and a growl similar to a beast's escaped through his clenched teeth.
'This is a dream. A terrible dream.'
Maxwell, the Emperor, struggled to wake up, but his body began to sink into the deep mire. The nightmare that always repeated.
“Kuhhh…”
He tried to push away his grandfather’s hand, but his body, paralyzed, helplessly sank beneath the ground.
“Haaah…!”
Maxwell shot up from his bed, clutching his neck with both hands and gasping for air. The pillow, along with the bandages Arabelle had wrapped him in, was soaked with cold sweat.
Sweeping his damp black hair back from his forehead, the Emperor staggered out of bed.
Desperately thirsty, he grabbed the water bottle and gulped it down in one go, but the thirst only tightened his throat and lungs instead of quenching it.
Feeling suffocated and nauseous, Maxwell stumbled towards the window for fresh air, stepping out onto the balcony.
He tried to take in the cold air deeply, but his head ached so badly that his handsome face twisted in pain.
As his senses, sharp as an animal’s, became heightened, every stimulus around him crushed him. The various rotten smells in the vicinity made it nearly impossible to breathe.
A pained groan escaped between Maxwell's lips. These were the early symptoms of turning into a beast.
Though it would still be a month before the next transformation, the nightmares invariably triggered the beast within him to rage and try to break free.
'I can’t lose here.' Maxwell bit down hard enough to shatter his molars and clutched his head with both hands. The beast clawed at his exhausted soul, roaring to be let out.
His vision blurred with agony…
Suddenly, a sweet and refreshing scent wafted through, purifying the surrounding stench. The clean, clear scent of flesh began to calm his sensitive sense of smell.
The headache that had made him lose consciousness dissipated. Slowly, the Emperor lifted his head and silently observed the dark balcony below.
Through his red eyes, rimmed with a golden hue, he saw a small figure quickly walking towards the castle gate. As she moved further away, the scent of flesh faded. The stench around him began to torment his sense of smell again, choking his lungs.
Soon, a large hand with thick veins rested on the balcony rail. In an instant, his long, sleek silhouette leaped over the railing, landing lightly three floors below.
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