CHAPTER 49……
Blink, blink.
Linaria slowly closed her eyes, then opened them again.
But denying reality didn’t make the man in front of her disappear.
Drip, drip.
Water dripped from his still-damp hair.
Linaria’s gaze followed the droplets sliding down his bare, undressed torso, and only then did she snap back to her senses.
Sensing her presence, he turned around.
A person barging in during the middle of the night, and another just out of the bath.
Naturally, they should have been startled by each other.
But Kaas showed no reaction.
He didn’t look surprised, nor did he speak—he simply stood a little distance away, watching her.
“Sorry for barging in all of a sudden. But…”
“You were awake? Since when?”
Only then did Kaas’s face show a trace of confusion.
He had no time to give the obvious answer—that he had been awake from the start, so of course he noticed her enter.
“I think an assassin broke in.”
“An assassin?”
“They were following me.”
“Stay here for now.”
“…I’ll turn my back.”
Hurriedly throwing on clothes, Kaas stepped outside.
He returned sooner than she expected.
“No one’s there.”
“But…”
“I’m not saying you were lying.”
Kaas awkwardly tried to explain.
“Maybe they ran off when I appeared.”
“Given the circumstances, there’s a high chance it’s Leviathan… Did they realize I went to Brimstone today?”
Linaria looked uneasy.
Kaas couldn’t bring himself to tell her it wasn’t an assassin at all—only Anna following behind.
If he mentioned Anna, he’d also have to bring up Linaria’s sleepwalking… and perhaps the truth about both the past assassins and Anna’s identity.
“At sunrise, we’ll need to tighten security right away.”
“I’ll take you back to your room.”
“No—more importantly, Kaas.”
Linaria grabbed his arm.
“I saw your back earlier.”
Unlike in the imperial palace, no one here laid hands on his body without reason.
So when they first met, many of his wounds had already healed.
But what Linaria had seen tonight was devastating.
His bare back was covered in scars, as though it had been ripped open over and over again.
It was just like…
“When I asked what divine beasts you had contracted with, you answered ‘all of them.’”
It was as though the seals of all six contractors had been engraved on him.
“I assumed you were born with them—that’s just common sense, after all.”
But what if that was only prejudice?
From the start, he’d wielded a power that defied common sense.
“What happened in the imperial palace?”
In her past life, there were only two things publicly known about Kaas:
His lowly origins, and his powerful divine beast.
Few knew he was a multi-beast contractor, so he always used only the power of the water beast, Leviathan.
“I…”
Kaas’s brow furrowed slightly.
Not because she had touched on a painful memory—
But because every time he tried to recall those events, it truly felt like needles were stabbing into his brain.
“…Is it hard for you to even tell me?”
He shook his head.
If Linaria wanted to know, he could endure this much pain.
“There were countless illegitimate children there besides me.”
“Illegitimate… You mean, all of them were the emperor’s?”
Kaas nodded.
Once known as a notorious womanizer, it was no surprise the emperor’s one-night trysts had produced numerous bastards.
And yet, there had never been any public scandal over illegitimate heirs.
Maximilian had always acted as though he were the emperor’s only child, the sole heir.
“In that place… they kept injecting something into us. And every time I woke up, I’d have gained the power of another divine beast.”
When he first said “injecting,” Linaria thought it was some method to tame him.
But what followed proved otherwise.
“Does that mean… they gathered all the illegitimate children for experiments? Forcing them to contract with divine beasts?”
“Probably. They were all around my age.”
“How old were you when you went to the palace?”
“How old…?”
Kaas looked uncertain—he didn’t seem to know exactly.
“I’m asking how young you were. You must have lived locked up there from then on.”
“About this tall, I think.”
He gestured roughly with his hand.
Judging from it, he had been no older than ten.
“There were kids younger than me. Actually… I think most of them were younger.”
He searched his memory, as though tracing a very old recollection.
“And the others…?”
“They died.”
The grand, glamorous imperial palace—behind the scenes, such inhuman experiments had been carried out repeatedly.
Linaria’s lips parted in shock.
“Everyone knows a double divine beast contract means death! And as the emperor’s children, most would’ve already been contracted with the light beast…”
Which meant that most of them would have become double contractors from the very first experiment.
They had continued conducting experiments they knew would kill the subjects.
Innocent children’s lives, treated like firewood to be burned through.
“Even managing to survive a double contract is a miracle. But to keep adding more? That’s not something a human should do.”
History had seen many try to double contract out of greed.
All had died in agony.
That was why it was a forbidden act—like creating life through artificial means rather than birth.
“You’re just lucky to have survived. It’s no different from killing someone with a blade.”
It wasn’t an experiment—it was torture, and murder.
Even hearing about it was enough to feel the malice coiled within.
But Kaas didn’t seem to understand it was wrong.
Perhaps because it had already happened, and he had grown up in an environment where it was considered normal.
“In the end, you were the only one who survived.”
“Yeah. I think that’s right. They called me things like…”
“…”
“…a successful maggot. Or the only surviving cockroach.”
He said it as if it were someone else’s story, expressionless.
“The others died quickly. They didn’t even look human anymore.”
Kaas frowned.
“They screamed in some inhuman way…”
The screams—those he could recall vividly.
Perhaps because they truly sounded like the cries of monsters.
Or perhaps because, at some point, he himself had screamed in that same way.
With the memories came the pain.
Suppressing the urge to run, Kaas gently took Linaria’s hand.
“Kaas…”
He rubbed his cheek against her palm, like a wounded animal seeking comfort.
Feeling the soft, warm touch spread across his cheek seemed to ease his unease.
And the urge to flee as well.
Looking down at Kaas, who held her hand tightly with his eyes lowered, Linaria felt her heart sink.
So the power Maximilian used like a tool was the result of those cruel experiments.
Did Maximilian know?
She couldn’t ask him now—but she thought she knew the answer.
He knew. Definitely.
And even knowing, he would have ordered Kaas around as if it were nothing.
Because it wasn’t his pain.
He might even have laughed mockingly about it—Maximilian was that kind of person.
“It must have been hard.”
Linaria ran her other hand through his hair, her own form of comfort.
“To gain power by sacrificing and trampling on others—that’s wrong.”
“…”
“Don’t you want to take revenge on the ones who made you like this?”
“For you?”
“No. For yourself.”
Linaria shook her head.
It only mattered if he truly wanted it.
“I want you to take the crown. The greatest revenge would be stealing the power they believed they were entitled to.”
Linaria cupped his cheeks in both hands.
“Just imagine it. You take everything Maximilian has.”
He had more than enough motive for revenge.
Her sweet words urged him on.
“I want you to be happier than anyone. If you doubt my sincerity, then as proof—tell me the one thing you want most right now. I’ll make it happen.”
Kaas gazed down at her in silence.
Her long silver hair, bathed in moonlight, shimmered like starlight.
So Kaas made his most earnest wish.
“Can I… kiss you?”
