Chapter 22
The violets in the back garden were gradually wilting.
Eclite frowned as he quietly watched them, clearly displeased.
“You can’t wither yet. You need to stay in bloom a little longer… because she likes them that way.”
He crouched down, gently holding one of the fading violets, and whispered tenderly,
“My precious, precious violet.”
His voice became a soft incantation, and at his touch, the violet began to bloom once more—vibrantly, as if it had never wilted.
Satisfied by the sight, Eclite reached for another flower, but— “Your Grace!”
A sharp voice interrupted him, and Eclite lifted his head with a quiet sigh.
Standing there was Cahillro, face drawn tight with tension, staring straight at him.
Eclite spoke calmly.
“When did you return from the North?”
“What are you doing here? Don’t tell me… was it you who revived this place, Your Grace?”
Cahillro glanced around the garden, now strangely flourishing, and suspected the answer he feared.
Eclite nodded without hesitation.
“She likes this place. I thought she’d smile if I gave it to her as a gift—and she did. Much more than I expected, in fact.
As always… seeing it with your own eyes beats imagination.”
“Why are you doing this?!”
Unable to hold back any longer, Cahillro stepped forward and shouted,
“You know how dangerous that power is. You know it better than anyone!
Do you even understand how shocked I was at the wedding?!”
His voice cracked with desperation and anguish.
“Please, hide your ability. You must not let it be revealed.
If it comes out—if it’s exposed—then even if Your Grace were to kill me on the spot, I wouldn’t sit still.
I won’t let you be locked away in the imperial palace again! That’s why… That’s why I said what I did to her!”
At those words, Eclite suddenly froze—then turned to Cahillro with a piercing glare.
“You… You said something strange to her, didn’t you?”
A flicker of red glinted in Eclite’s otherwise blue eyes.
In the next moment, a blade-like wind burst forth around him, tightening the very air around Cahillro, making it hard to breathe.
It felt as if his entire body were being slashed apart.
Still, Cahillro clenched his jaw and endured it, not letting out so much as a groan.
A chilling aura radiated from Eclite, no longer human in that moment.
He looked like a beast—something primal and savage lurking beneath human skin.
“Only the beasts known as monsters—the beast kin—can do that.”
Meysarina scoffed, even at her own words.
“That’s ridiculous. Why would beast kin be involved in this?
Are you telling me Amelia is a beast kin? That’s impossible, no matter how strange she is.”
Beast kin—creatures with human forms but the strength of wild beasts.
They communed freely with spirits in nature and wielded mana far greater than any human.
Because of that, humans both feared and envied them—and that envy festered into twisted selfishness.
They hunted beast kin like animals, enslaved them, used them.
Beast kin never killed meaninglessly.
So humans exploited that mercy with brutal cruelty.
By the time the spirits sealed the Forest of Time, the beast kin had nearly disappeared.
Some sages believed the key to unlocking the forest lay in a chosen beast kin.
But with nearly all of them gone, that truth could no longer be confirmed.
“No, that’s not it. Amelia can’t be a beast kin. But there’s definitely a secret she’s hiding.”
The blooming flower on her wedding dress wasn’t the only strange thing—her sudden recovery from a failing heart, the overwhelming magic she displayed—it all defied explanation.
“Secrets never bring anything good.”
Meysarina’s eyes glinted coldly.
“Whatever it is, I’ll uncover it.
And if I can’t uncover it… I’ll create something that ruins her all the same.”
Sometimes, lies held more power than the truth.
“She’s still vulnerable. I can still drag her down.”
Back in the garden, Cahillro collapsed to his knees, panting for air.
Eclite, breathing heavily himself, muttered under his breath,
“Stay out of this. Even you… If you cross the line, I won’t forgive you.”
At last, the raging wind died down.
But Cahillro didn’t back away—instead, he spoke with quiet urgency.
“Have you forgotten?
The things that were done to you in the imperial palace?
How cruel and horrific they were?”
Each word from Cahillro triggered a dull throb in Eclite’s back—where the scars still burned as if freshly carved.
They were not only etched into his flesh, but seared into his memory. A past so cruel, so brutal, that it had become a forbidden subject for him.
It was a secret the Emperor had gone to great lengths to conceal.
A secret Eclite had never dared share with Amelia—not because he didn’t trust her, but because he feared it himself.
Everyone simply believed he had been born from a foreign dancer…
But in truth, Eclite was a half-blood.
A beast.
Born with the blood of a beastkin running through his veins.
Praised by all, the Emperor Asran had risen to the throne under the blazing sun, dazzling and proud.
He was a man of immense ambition—one who would use anything, anyone, so long as his name could be engraved in history as the one and only ruler of Solra.
His greatest desire was to make Solra the true sun of the continent.
To do so, he needed to conquer the Primé Empire, unify the lands under a single rule, and crown himself the Sun King.
But Solra and Primé were equally powerful. A meaningless war would only spill blood in vain.
And Asran couldn’t afford to abandon the image of a wise and noble ruler.
To unify the continent without great sacrifice, he needed the power of the sealed Forest of Time.
To unlock it, he needed a chosen beastkin—the key spoken of by the sages.
But beastkin were reviled across the land—especially in Solra, where discrimination was fiercest.
If it were ever revealed that the Emperor had used a beastkin, the five grand ducal houses would erupt.
“As expected, it’ll cause a stir. But once I have the Forest of Time, all of it will quiet down.”
And so, Asran scoured the continent in secret—hidden from his people and the nobles alike—until he captured a female beastkin.
He disguised her as a foreign dancer and used her to conceive a child: Eclite.
He had no desire for a son. He merely wanted a key.
SLAP—!
“Ugh…!”
Eclite gritted his teeth through the familiar pain. He was used to this by now.
But pain never became easier.
No matter how much he tried to endure, blood still slipped between his clenched teeth.
He never screamed.
He never begged for his life.
Because he knew—nothing would change.
“It’ll just make things worse…”
Even if he wanted to die here, he couldn’t.
Not until that man got what he wanted from him.
Eclite slowly raised his trembling gaze.
Standing there was Asran, gripping a whip with terrifying indifference in his eyes.
That chilling, emotionless stare was more horrifying than the beating itself.
“You’re a monster.”
“…”
“So show me. Go on. You’re a monster, aren’t you?!”
The whip lashed across Eclite’s body again, mercilessly.
The Emperor’s greedy obsession for the key flickered with a madness that was almost inhuman.
How long had it gone on?
Only after the stench of blood thickened in the air did Asran finally stop.
He clicked his tongue, looking down at Eclite’s collapsed form.
“A complete failure.”
He sneered.
“I thought that even a half-beast mixed with my noble blood would be enough to make a key. But with trash like your mother… all we got was a worthless half-breed.
Neither human nor beast. Just a monster.”
They had needed a chosen beastkin—but Eclite had shown no signs of possessing any such power.
He slowly closed his eyes, barely conscious.
He wished he could die.
If he had been created only to be used, and yet couldn’t be used, then he truly was a failure.
“Please… just let my heart stop. Let me die…”
Eventually, Asran accepted that Eclite wasn’t the key.
He buried the truth of Eclite’s bloodline and exiled him to the North.
To Eclite, that was liberation. That was freedom.
The Emperor never looked for him again.
And to the world, Eclite was nothing more than a monstrous duke born of a lowly dancer.
But then, something awakened.
Though he wasn’t the key…
A pure, uncontaminated beastkin power emerged from within him.
Cahillro looked at Eclite silently.
It had been Cahillro who found him near death in the North.
Though someone had asked him to help, the moment he laid eyes on Eclite, he had felt an inexplicable pull.
He had pledged his loyalty then and there.
Even when Eclite’s beastkin powers awakened later, they kept it hidden.
Even if it meant hiding for the rest of their lives—even if it meant dying in obscurity—he just wanted Eclite to survive.
But now…
“Because of that woman… Because of Amelia…”
She had drawn him back into the world.
Dragged him into the light.
“But this can’t go on.”
“If Your Grace keeps drawing attention to yourself… Lady Amelia will be in danger too.”
“She’s already been warned by His Majesty.”
His voice dropped into a chilling calm.
The mere memory of her being harmed because of him stirred emotions he had tried so hard to suppress.
“If this continues, I’ll have no choice but to confront His Majesty directly.”
“Your Grace!”
“If he dares to touch her again… it’ll be far more dangerous than simply crossing me.”
“If His Majesty learns of your true power, Your Grace will be in grave danger.
He’ll never give up on the key. Not now.”
Asran would never relinquish the Forest of Time.
If anything, now that his illness was worsening, he’d cling to it even more desperately.
Eclite was only half-beast, but the power within him was nearly indistinguishable from that of a pure beastkin.
It had grown uncontrollably—granting him command over life, elemental forces, and even spirit-like magic.
He could manipulate the weather itself.
But the power was so immense that when Eclite used it on the battlefield, no one noticed.
They simply chalked it up to his exceptional swordsmanship… or luck.
No one could imagine such power existing in a single man.
And that was exactly why Asran would never leave him alone.
Even if Eclite wasn’t the key… the Emperor would still try to use him.
Despite Cahillro’s desperate pleas, Eclite had already made up his mind.
“I’m prepared to fall apart completely.
You can’t stay by her side without that level of resolve.”
His gaze was unwavering—fierce and resolute.
And it terrified Cahillro.
This was the outcome he had feared.
Because Eclite would stake everything on that one, unprecedented desire.
He truly would do anything.
“I will protect her—no matter what. Until she achieves what she desires. Because I have to stay by her side.”
Cahillro couldn’t understand why Eclite felt so strongly about Amelia.
“Why are you going this far? Did you… know Lady Amelia from before? Or was it really some ridiculous love at first sight in that mountain?”
But truthfully, even the moment he saved her in that mountain had felt strange.
It looked like coincidence—but it wasn’t.
The expression on Eclite’s face when he ran toward her had been anything but detached.
If he had known her before… when and where could they have met?
Eclite had never once left the North.
“Just who is that woman?”
Cahillro’s shoulders dropped with a sigh.
Eclite’s expression softened all at once—gentle, almost tender.
There was only one person who could bring that look to his face.
“I did fall for her at first sight.
Though that wasn’t really the beginning.”
She was also the only one who could make him say things that sounded so absurd.
“I survived that pain… because of her.”
“Your Grace…”
“I didn’t collapse. I got back up again. I crossed the battlefield, determined to live—really live.
I began to understand things like loyalty… and how to take care of my men.
All because of her.”
“…”
“She comforted a heart I didn’t even realize was in pain.
She reached out—warmly.
I learned from her.”
There was even a time he had begged his heart to stop—prayed for death.
But in that moment, she appeared.
“Thank you… for filling each day like a gift.
Thanks to you, tomorrow will be just as bright.”
“She keeps making me into someone better. Someone beautiful.
And it’s so fragrant, so radiant… that I can’t bear it.
It made me want something simple—an ordinary life.
To help her achieve what she wants.”
Eclite looked quietly around the back garden.
Many of the flowers had begun to wilt.
For the first time, he felt grateful for the power he possessed.
“Don’t worry.
I won’t do anything that would reveal the secret.
I’ll be used—but I won’t become real.
It was all fake from the start, after all.”
“What do you mean by that…?”
Eclite stepped toward the center of the garden.
The air around him began to change.
She had healed him. She had saved him.
But she would never know.
Because it all started with a mistake…
With a lie.
With something false.
“And I’ll never tell her. Because if she ever got hurt because of my secret… I’d never forgive myself.”
Beastkin were monsters in this world.
Even if—just maybe—she wasn’t afraid of what he was and stayed by his side…
Even then, she would be in danger.
Eclite swallowed the truth he couldn’t bring himself to say aloud to Cahillro.
“If my desire grows any stronger… I’ll simply choose to die.”
“This is as far as I’ll allow myself to want.”
He closed his eyes for a moment.
And when he opened them again, the brief glimmer in his gaze was overtaken by a vivid crimson light.
Underneath those blood-red eyes, the withered violets bloomed back to life—every one of them.
As though they had been reborn, nourished by his very blood.
It was a terrifying, awe-inspiring power—both beautiful and sorrowful.
“I want everything her eyes fall upon to be beautiful.
That’s how I’ll protect her.
That’s all I want.”
She would bloom flowers for the world.
And he… would bloom flowers just for her.
Until the very end.
Cahillro watched his master smile so softly—and was shocked.
Moved, even. But deeply unsettled.
Because her presence was so incredibly dangerous to him.
“Even if His Grace is living because of that woman right now…
It also means he might die because of her.”
The love of a beast kin was like an indelible mark—an instinct that could not be broken.
And for that reason, it was dangerous.
Because with love came blind obsession.
They would either die for the one they loved… Or kill because they couldn’t have them.
