Lloyd did not like Hector’s cynical gaze.
He had been like this since they first met.
The look he gave while looking down at me from the carriage.
The eyes that glared back during training.
None of it sat well with him.
He had simply been putting up with it.
But now, with all mental restrictions lifted.
Lloyd found no reason to restrain himself.
Lloyd brought his hand to Hector’s still face.
He gently brushed up Hector’s eyelids.
He relished the resilience felt through the eyelids, the organ within being the most perfect sphere in the human body.
“Hmm.”
There was only one concern. If too much blood was spilled, it could trigger Ortega’s awakening.
As long as he avoided that, Lloyd could be a bit more aggressive with Hector’s eyes.
Eyes don’t bleed that much when gouged out, do they?
Snap.
Lloyd’s fingers tightened around Hector’s eyeball.
“You.”
A voice was heard.
Quiet yet powerful.
This shouldn’t be happening.
The time in this room should have stopped.
Lloyd creaked his head around.
In front of the door where everything should have stopped.
Pure white hair was fluttering from outside.
— Click.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the silence.
Like seeing a ghost, Lloyd stared at her, frozen. A girl, seemingly in her late teens, with blue eyes shining like jewels.
Lloyd blinked slowly.
It wasn’t just a metaphor. The girl’s eyes were literally glowing. Light emanated from her blue pupils, spinning as if they were magical circles.
An utterly alien sight.
“…Arcane Eyes?”
Lloyd muttered blankly.
Arcane Eyes. An extreme talent possessed by very few mages in history. An overwhelming ability that could dismantle magic just by perceiving it.
A being with such a talent was walking in frozen time.
— Thud.
The girl finally stood before Lloyd. She stared him down and spoke.
“Let go of that boy. Stop.”
Her voice carried an air of accustomed authority, hinting at her status. Lloyd needed to be sure, so he asked.
“And who are you to command me?”
The girl scoffed lightly, then straightened her back, inhaling deeply.
She naturally adopted a posture of looking down.
“I am Yulia Estrid, descendant of the great Estrid bloodline.”
Yulia Estrid. A familiar name. Indeed, she was.
“As the Third Princess of the Britannia Empire, I command you. Stop.”
A figure who would later be known as the Princess of Rebellion.
Unexpected.
Lloyd had thought she would have red eyes like Ortega, eyes filled with madness and a fierce stride.
He had expected someone more savage.
‘She actually seems rather cold.’
Her blue eyes.
Her calm voice in such a situation.
Her composed yet outstanding appearance.
Her demeanor was more akin to a typical emperor than a tyrant.
Lloyd withdrew his hand from Hector’s eye.
Though he did reverse Hector’s fingers one by one as he did so…
“Stop.”
He had to raise both hands at the Princess’s order.
She was the new master Lloyd had to serve.
◆
The Empire’s Third Princess.
Yulia Estrid.
Yulia got lost during her visit to the Grey Dukedom. To be precise, she pretended to be lost.
The reason was simple. While walking down the corridor to find the bathroom, she sensed an unusual flow of mana. At one point in the mansion, the mana seemed frozen. With her innate ability of ‘Arcane Eyes,’ she could perceive the halted flow of mana.
Finding the hidden passage to the annex wasn’t difficult. Mana always leaves traces. Fortunately, the source of the frozen mana wasn’t far from the corridor. She had a valid excuse to be wandering around.
“Is it a servant’s room?”
Unexpectedly, the source of the disturbance was a simple wooden door. Yulia naturally opened it. The moment she did, her Arcane Eyes activated involuntarily.
‘… What is this?’
Yulia stood still, unable to believe what she saw inside the room.
Dust particles suspended in mid-air.
Curtains frozen in mid-flutter.
People motionless as if petrified.
Time had stopped.
‘Stopping time?’
She had never heard of such magic. It defied the natural order. It made no sense. Yulia was in shock.
Then, a memory hit her.
A story from the distant past.
Her ancestor’s ancestor’s ancestor. Going back through her lineage, she encountered a dark tale. The only blemish on the great Estrid bloodline: Ortega Estrid.
There was a story, known only to the Estrid family.
Ortega could stop time.
Yulia surveyed the room.
One child was moving in the frozen time.
A boy with black hair.
The boy was about to grab a man’s eyeball.
Yulia instinctively spoke.
“Stop.”
The boy turned.
The moment she saw him directly, Yulia felt a chill. It was because of his eyes.
The boy’s eyes were glowing red.
Like Ortega’s eyes, which she had only seen in portraits.
Yulia instinctively moved forward.
She had to stop the boy.
In the frozen time, only she could move.
Because she had the Arcane Eyes. The most brilliant talent of the Estrid bloodline, known to no one.
The Estrid bloodline had two distinct talents.
One was the ‘Madness’ Ortega possessed.
The other was the ‘Arcane Eyes’ Yulia had.
It was an ancestor with Arcane Eyes who had subdued and sealed Ortega, the only stain on the Estrid name.
Thus, Yulia had a duty.
To subdue and seal any Estrid who possessed ‘Madness’.
She didn’t know why this boy had the ‘madness’.
“As the Third Princess of the Empire, I command you. Stop.”
As she spoke, Yulia swallowed nervously.
What if he didn’t stop? Could she win in a fight? Honestly, she wasn’t confident. But fortunately, the boy stopped.
Though he broke the man’s fingers instead of gouging out his eyes, Yulia could overlook that. The boy stopped and faced her.
“Why is the princess here?”
“What were you doing here?”
“Nothing much.”
The boy shrugged as he looked around.
“Just educating the kids.”
“Educating them while time is stopped?”
The boy shrugged again.
His red eyes gleamed in the light.
Those eyes felt eerily familiar to Yulia.
The boy’s body wasn’t Estrid, no matter how she looked at it.
The Estrid bloodline had only two hair colors.
Blonde or platinum white.
The boy had black hair.
Thus, his body wasn’t Estrid.
But his behavior.
The slightly cocky manner, the self-assured gestures.
They vaguely reminded her of Estrid.
“What’s your name?”
“Ah… Lloyd. Lloyd Arenberg. That was the name.”
Yulia’s eyebrows furrowed.
This child. It seems that his body and soul are different.
There’s an awkwardness as if an unrelated soul has taken residence.
“Lloyd. Come to your senses.”
The boy tilted his head at an odd angle.
“I’m perfectly fine. Besides, you don’t really know what my personality is like, do you?”
The tone of his speech was noticeably different from when he first spoke to him.
His tone was distinctly different from when she first addressed him.
Yulia was certain now. This child’s soul was being overtaken by someone else.
“Lloyd. You are being consumed by someone right now. Come to your senses.”
“No, I’m not. This is how I’ve always been.”
Yulia held up a mirror in front of his face.
“Look at your reflection. Look at your red eyes. I can be sure. Your eyes were not red before.”
Tremble.
The boy’s eyes shook violently.
He bit his lip hard as if to suppress something, causing blood to drip down.
“You are being consumed by madness. Guard your thoughts. Open your eyes and stay conscious.”
It was only after speaking instinctively that Yulia realized the situation. ‘Madness’.
This was the symptom Ortega, the blemish of the Estrid lineage, had.
And her being drawn here by her Arcane Eyes signaled it was destiny.
Yulia took another step towards the boy.
Flinch. His fingers trembled.
His eyes began to shake violently as if battling for control.
30 years ago.
The deepest part of the basement of the palace.
Thirty years ago, in the deepest part of the palace’s basement, the box sealing Ortega’s soul was broken.
Despite the Emperor’s exhaustive efforts, Ortega was never found.
The boy’s body trembled violently. Yulia, as if driving a stake, spoke again.
“Lloyd. Ortega is consuming you. You must stay strong and overcome it.”
The boy glared at Yulia with eyes blazing.
“Shut up, woman with Arcane Eyes.”
He spat, mouth filled with blood.
“I’ve gone through so much trouble, and you’re ruining everything.”
Thud.
With that, the boy collapsed to the ground.
