“Kraaagh, aaaaah—!”
“P-please spare me… ugh!”
“Y-young Master! I-I was wrong! Please, stop—!”
Despite being imprisoned for years, Harris neither weakened nor grew helpless.
‘Why? Weren’t they saying all that for me to hear?’
On the contrary, as time passed, the boy’s crimson eyes glinted ever more dangerously.
‘Keep talking.’
The boy who used to bang on the prison doors, pleading to be let out, had long vanished—only a terrifying little monster remained in the underground dungeon.
And that monster never forgave the servants who imprisoned and abused him.
Recently, slaves had been released, but even buying those slaves hadn’t come cheap.
“Damn it.”
Eric’s face twisted in rage.
He didn’t care about the slaves’ lives, but the fact that the castle’s budget—his embezzlement funds—was running dry made his stomach churn.
“You all know it too, the berserk period is over! That slaughter-crazed monster must have massacred the slaves by now!”
“B-but…”
“No matter how much of a monster he is, after going berserk, he’ll be drained. Or in such pain from berserk sickness that he won’t be in his right mind.”
“…!”
Typically, Ability Users calmed their berserk phases through Guides, who also healed them through berserk sickness.
But Harris, locked away alone in the dungeon, had no such Guide to care for or heal him.
“Y-yeah.”
“Come to think of it, it is about time for that to happen…”
The servants who opened the dungeon doors cautiously looked down the stairs.
It was eerily quiet.
As if no slaves had survived and even the dungeon’s master had not awakened.
“If it is berserk sickness, he should be trembling with a fever about now.”
The fear on the servants’ faces gave way to a sinister anticipation.
At the thought of watching a noble fall—someone they wouldn’t even dare look in the eye—and being able to torment him.
“Don’t we have any ice? If the young master is burning with fever, we should douse him in cold water.”
“Puhaha! Damn, we should’ve brought some dirty water at least!”
The servants cackled as they laid down their supplies in the dungeon.
“…Such a shame. There were some pretty ones among the last batch of slaves.”
“If only we had more time, we could’ve had fun before sending them down. Killed ’em too quick.”
“Exactly. Especially that pink-haired one—”
They were chatting carelessly in relief when—
“Pink hair who?”
A strange voice cut in.
“Who? Don’t you remember? The girl who looked like a half-fairy…”
Eric, who had answered reflexively, suddenly stiffened.
The voice had come from the opposite direction of the servants placing down supplies.
“Right.”
Hair as black as night and ominous red eyes that seemed soaked in blood. A ghostly pale face, like a marble statue—chilling.
“I know who you mean.”
It was Harris.
* * *
“How…!”
Ability Users.
Because of these bizarre beings who had suddenly appeared across the continent, the influence of wizards had been steadily declining.
And like anyone losing their place at the top, wizards weren’t pleased.
Naturally, they became strong anti-Ability-User advocates and had been seeking ways to suppress them.
“You’re truly amazing.”
And there was one wizard who succeeded in that suppression.
Tower Master Elicius.
“If we hadn’t acted, they might’ve taken everything we built. But you moved quickly, even creating a ranking system for their powers.”
“And the ones who can control them—the ‘Guides’—you were the first to discover those too, Tower Master.”
“Ah, if not for Tower Master Elicius…!”
Voices of awe and admiration surrounded him. Wizard Severic beamed proudly—his master was a truly great man.
“But where is the Tower Master now?”
Severic’s smile cracked.
“H-he stepped out briefly… to search for a new test subject.”
“…Again?”
Elicius was a once-in-a-millennium genius.
With magic capacity beyond human limits, supreme knowledge, and an arrogant disregard for worldly norms.
“When will he ever show his priceless face?”
Even though Elicius was at the forefront of the anti-Ability-User movement, the other wizards’ dissatisfaction with his lax attitude was mounting.
“You do know why this meeting was called, don’t you…?”
“Don’t tell me the Tower Master also received a summons from the imperial family?”
Severic, sensing the tension rising, quickly cut in.
“Of course not. The Master just had… an urgent situation to attend to.”
“This ‘urgent situation’…?”
“A Guide.”
“…!”
All the scowling faces froze at Severic’s lowered voice.
Guides—the only key to controlling Ability Users.
Tower Master Elicius didn’t just find Guides—he was also trying to create them.
‘He even succeeded once.’
One time. Just once, a successful subject had been created.
‘If only that subject hadn’t been lost…’
Severic clenched his fists beneath his robe.
“I heard a Guide recently escaped from the imperial family.”
“Could it be… the Tower Master is after that one?”
Severic smiled cryptically. It looked like confirmation.
“…Hah, of course it’s the Tower Master.”
“Always one step ahead of us.”
With the mood now softened, Severic let out a breath of relief and continued.
“You may not know, but a few years ago, Master conducted an experiment on an S-rank Ability User—and it was a success.”
Duke Godwin’s son—Harris.
Even now, he couldn’t escape from the restraints and magic circle created by the Tower Master.
“And the proof is this artifact we’ve discovered.”
A faint violet light blinked from the magic stone embedded in the item Severic pointed to.
It monitored, in real time, whether the subject wore the restraints, remained bound to the magic circle—and more.
“Ooh! May I hold it?”
“Of course.”
Severic handed the item over, but then suddenly froze.
“Huh?”
Unless Harris had died, broken free, or destroyed the barrier, that light should never go out.
But—
“W-what is this?!”
The light had just gone out.
* * *
“W-why…!”
The monster who should be collapsed from berserk sickness was now standing, perfectly fine?!
“Gaaah!”
Even before the thought could finish, one of the servants harassing a slave beside Eric collapsed with a thud.
“Guh, keugh, k-krrk…!”
“…!”
As if devoured by a writhing black force, the servant’s eyes rolled back, foam spilling from his mouth.
‘Shit, he’s fully recovered!’
There was no time to wonder how. Harris had already leapt toward them.
“Uwaaah!”
“D-don’t come any closer!”
Terrified, the servants screamed and stumbled backward.
Having witnessed his previous berserk outburst, then seeing him attack with powers—reason had fled them all.
“E-Eric! Do something!”
Eric, locked eyes with Harris’ terrifying crimson gaze, snapped back to reality at the shout.
But his reaction was too slow.
A large, smoke-shrouded hand had already reached right in front of him, about to tear his life away.
‘N-no! I don’t want to die!’
Eric’s trembling hands instinctively searched inside his robes—
Boom!
The monstrous hand lunging toward him suddenly stopped.
Not by its own will—but by force.
As if an invisible wall existed, a violet wave hummed through the air and stopped Harris cold.
Boom, boom—!
Harris’ fists pounded the barrier, but each time, violet ripples prevented him from advancing.
“H-huff, haah, kuh…!”
Eric collapsed in terror, tripping over his own feet.
‘R-right. The Tower Master said the barrier would keep that monster trapped…’
That assurance was why Eric had dared to oversee the dungeon himself, greedily embezzling the estate’s funds while acting like a king.
But faced with Harris’ sudden rampage, he had momentarily forgotten.
Now that the tables had turned, humiliation and a vile relief twisted into rage.
“That damned freak…”
“Eric, are you just going to stand there?!”
Other servants, equally ashamed and furious, shouted at their leader.
“Attack him!”
Yes, they still had one weapon.
Eric pulled a magical device from inside his robe.
‘If, by chance, the young master goes mad and loses control…’
That item had made a mere servant like him the dungeon’s chief warden.
He poured his magic into it and pressed the button.
Bzzt—!
The restraints around Harris’ limbs began to tremble with a sinister sound. A strange light flared around them.
“Grgh—!”
A pained groan.
Harris stumbled and collapsed, as if his limbs had been electrocuted.
His hunched back heaved with agony.
“AHAHA!”
Eric, bleeding from nose and mouth due to the overload, laughed in euphoria.
“A monster locked in the bowels of the dungeon dares… kuh!”
Thunk!
A blunt noise. Something struck the back of his head hard.
“Exactly.”
Standing behind the falling Eric was a girl with light reddish hair.
Tiny, slender, like a fairy—she swung again.
Thunk—!
“You dare lay a hand on Harris?”
On my ultimate favorite.
* * *
“W-what…!”
The servants were stunned by my sudden appearance.
Understandable. To think one of the slaves offered as sacrifice during Harris’ berserk phase had survived.
‘Originally, I would’ve died as some extra in a gruesome death scene.’
In the original story, only one Guide survived—Adrian, the strongest of them all.
So the servants had completely forgotten about me.
