PMEVBO 30

Golden sunlight seeped through the window, rippling across the floor of the annex at midday. That hour was meant to be little Iser’s nap time.

But Iser was always in the vegetable garden instead of his bedroom at that hour. Because every day, at that time and place, a secret friend waited for him.

His sister, Isabelle, five years his senior, was Iser’s only friend.

The siblings mostly played in the dirt. Isabelle loved digging in the dirt. While digging, she would occasionally find pretty stones, and each time, she would give them to Iser as a gift.

Watching his sister dig without getting his own hands dirty, then getting a pretty stone as a reward was Iser’s daily routine.

But that day was the first time Isabelle gave up her beloved mud play. She probably didn’t want to get mud on her treasured possession.

“Say hello, Ir. This is my future husband.”

What Isabelle held close to her chest was a prince doll, meticulously crafted down to every strand of hair.

“People can’t marry dolls. Don’t you know that even at nine years old?”

“Wow, Ir already knows that? My little brother really is a genius!”

Isabelle smiled. But it was only momentary. She sighed as she gently combed the doll’s fine hair with her fingers.

“I know people can’t marry dolls. But what can I do? There’s no one prettier than him.”

It was undeniably a beautiful doll. But no matter what, he couldn’t let his only sister marry a doll.

“It was written in Mom’s diary. That a person’s face isn’t what matters.”

“Really? But Dad said it was because he was handsome that Mom fell for him. ”

“But Dad isn’t handsome…?”

“That’s true.”

Isabelle frowned and nodded, then quickly brightened and said cheerfully.

“Anyway, don’t worry too much, Ir. I’ll pray really hard.”

“…You’re going to pray to marry him?”

“No, I’m going to pray for him to become human!”

God wouldn’t answer that kind of prayer no matter how much she prayed. But Iser couldn’t bring himself to voice that thought aloud.

“Ah, but you know, big sis cares way more about my little brother than some pretty husband.”

“…….”

“I’ll pray even harder for you. If God answers and you get better, we’ll play outside the annex even more fun.”

The vegetable garden in the annex, which the siblings used as their hideout, was actually tended by their mother. But on the day Iser was born, the garden lost its owner.

Their mother, who had raised Isabelle herself without a wet nurse, passed away giving birth to Iser. Their father, the duke, was so busy they could hardly see his face.

One might expect her to resent the brother whose birth had taken her beloved mother’s life. Yet she pitied this brother who never knew his mother’s face, readily offering him their mother’s diary. That was Isabelle.

‘Wouldn’t God answer the prayers of someone like this?’

That applied only to the prayer about turning a doll into a person, not the prayer to cure her brother’s illness.

Isabelle believed her brother suffered from a terrible incurable disease, but Iser himself knew. This wasn’t an illness; it was a curse.

‘God wouldn’t lift a curse that isn’t even an illness. God might have been the one who cursed him in the first place.’

Everyone who touched Iser since infancy complained of pain. His father and sister were no exception. After realizing his loved ones suffered because of him, Iser stopped seeking physical contact.

If Iser’s unique constitution became known, he could be branded a demon and executed by the Pope. Anticipating the worst possible future, losing his precious son, his father hid him away in a separate wing, using his frail health as an excuse.

Though he had never stepped outside that wing since birth, Iser never once complained. His resignation to the lack of physical contact with his family and the world beyond the wing stemmed from guilt.

Though his father tried desperately to conceal it, fearing the shock, the inherently sensitive Iser naturally came to understand. That his mother’s death was due to his cursed constitution.

‘If only I hadn’t been born, everyone would have been happy.’

Yet Iser was happy to have been born.

His mother filled her diary with anticipation and excitement for the second child yet to be born. His father, who wouldn’t hesitate to wrap himself tightly in cloth even in midsummer to hold him. And his sister, who came to play every day, secretly, away from the adults. He knew these beloved family members loved him.

Then one day, while playing in the garden as usual, Iser collapsed with a high fever. Isabelle, panicked, tried to pick Iser up but fainted herself. Iser woke up perfectly fine that evening, but Isabelle lingered between life and death for over a week.

Shocked by that day’s events, Iser shut himself in his room.

It was his father who came to find him.

‘I heard we have a young master who won’t eat and only cries, so I came to see him.’

The soft, distinctive feel of cloth brushed against Iser’s tear-stained cheeks. As the doll’s delicate hands wiped away his tears, his father grinned mischievously.

‘I heard you wanted this, my dear? Your sister asked me to give it to you.’

Iser wasn’t particularly interested in stones. But the doll… well, his gaze kept drifting to Isabelle’s prince doll. He tried so hard not to show it, but he had no idea how Isabelle could have noticed.

And so, Iser gained a new friend.

However, just as Iser was about to turn nine, his father too passed away in a carriage accident.

After that, the title of Duke Hayut was inherited by his uncle, Kogaron.

***

Kogaron, who had no children with his wife, adopted Isabelle and Iser.

But Iser knew. His father, Jaad, hadn’t died in a carriage accident. He had been murdered by his uncle, Kogaron.

Jaad had no choice but to offer his neck to his younger brother, Kogaron. Because Kogaron held his precious son hostage.

Blood spurted like a fountain, crimson and vivid. Seeing his father dying, Iser unconsciously reached out his hand. Then the wound slicing his father’s throat began to heal.

But the situation quickly spiraled into the worst possible outcome. Kogaron tossed his young nephew aside and plunged a blade into his brother’s heart.

That day, before Iser’s very eyes, his father, Jaad, drew his last breath.

On the day his father was murdered by his uncle, Iser left the annex for the first time. Kogaron had designated the top of the main spire as Iser’s residence.

From that day, Iser’s hell began.

Kogaron arbitrarily named Iser’s ability the ‘Power of Life’.

The reason he gave it such a grandiose name, not just ‘healing power’ but ‘Power of Life’, was obvious. Kogaron hoped Iser’s ability could interfere with human life itself, and through it, he desired to become an immortal being like the Pope.

Countless people were mobilized for Kogaron’s immortality experiments and lost their lives. Yet, even though he was just another lab rat, Iser alone survived. Because a power, whether healing or life force, kept resurrecting him each time.

‘If only I could die in their place…’

With each repeated experiment, Iser grew fearful. He feared he might truly be immortal. He feared he would be forced to repeat this horrific experiment as a test subject forever.

After countless repetitions, Iser’s sole weakness was revealed. Only his tongue was particularly slow to heal. Enraged by this discovery, Kogaron fitted a restraint over Iser’s mouth.

It was a restraint that had long since broken, something Iser could have thrown off if he’d wanted to. Yet he kept it in place, quietly, solely for Isabelle’s sake.

He hadn’t seen Isabelle since the fainting incident. His father, Jaad, fearing a repeat of such events, had resolved to keep the siblings strictly separated. Iser didn’t want to lose his sister either, so he obediently followed his father’s will.

After Kogaron became their adoptive father, the siblings lived in the same building for the first time. But Isabelle didn’t know that.

‘Your younger brother, whose condition worsened from the shock of losing your father, was sent to a distant villa for recuperation.’

That was thanks to Kogaron’s lie.

He used Iser as a hostage to kill Jaad. Then, he used Isabelle as a hostage, binding Iser’s lifeline to this land. As long as Isabelle remained in Kogaron’s grasp, Iser couldn’t even die as he pleased.

Fortunately, Kogaron was a fool. Though bound and unable to speak or move, he wasn’t incapable of thought. Yet, at some point, he began treating Iser with alarming ease, as if he were nothing more than a doll.

“Isabelle is betrothed to the Second Prince, so I shall soon be the Emperor’s father-in-law. Heh heh.”

The current Emperor had originally had a First Prince born to a commoner and a Second Prince born to the Empress. But now that the First Prince had died in an unexpected accident, the position of Crown Prince was the Second Prince’s to claim.

And the fact that Isabelle was betrothed to that Second Prince…

Meant Iser’s role was finally over.

‘It’s done now. Even Kogaron wouldn’t dare touch Isabelle, who’s betrothed to the future Crown Prince.’

Now, let’s die.

Iser waited for a moment alone. But just as he was about to slip free of the gag, Kogaron unexpectedly burst in.

In the end, his first attempt at rebellion ended in failure before it could even properly begin.

“How dare you!”

Smack!

“You little brat!”

Smack!

“You dare resist!?”

Smack!

The new gag was too sturdy for Iser’s strength to break.

In that moment, he lost the only way out of this hell. It was then that a man appeared, one who looked exactly like the doll he had lost long ago while being dragged to the top room of the spire, the very prince doll Isabelle had said she would marry when she grew up.