As he shoveled, the duster disappeared from view and his legs gave way as if she had heard the voice of his savior.

The maids hurried to kneel before him, greeting and explaining.

“We were just cleaning up, Your Highness.”

“I left the door locked.”

“No, it was open…….”

The maids stammered, unable to say that Lady Gisela had opened it.

Killian’s red eyes bore down on them in silence, and the maids bowed their heads even more, holding their breath.

As much as they feared the crown prince’s presence, they could not speak of Lady Gisela, the king’s mistress, so it was perhaps unfair that they were blamed for opening the door on their own.

“Get out.”

Killian ordered with a stern face, and they hastily gathered their tools.

His gaze seemed to linger for a moment on the silver-haired woman.

“Where are you?”

Killian said as soon as the door closed behind them.

I scrambled out from under the bed, barely able to move his weak legs.

His familiar warmth enveloped me, and my tense body instantly relaxed.

I leaned forward and buried my face in his palm.

“Where you’re hurt.”

I shook my head, but Killian ran his fingers over my head and back, checking for wounds.

A sharp look formed in his sunken eyes.

Irina Scott’s voice still echoed in his ears as she shook her feathers, making an odd shhhhhhhh sound, and his heart beat faster.

“I checked it twice, it was locked.”

Killian glazed at the door open and pulled me to the sofa table.

“This must be what Madame Gisela did.”

When I stared at him in surprise, Killian spoke up, his face nonchalant.

“I ran into her on the way here, and she was pensive.”

I nodded in understanding.

Madame Gisela had told me that Killian was supposed to be meeting with the envoy, so it was no wonder she was so surprised to run into him unexpectedly.

Why was Killian here, anyway?

He looked me over, down to the soles of my feet one last time, and then rubbed his thumbs together on both of my cheeks.

“There’s someone you need to see.”

“Meow?”

I looked up at him curiously,

“Baron Duchsen.”

He added.

* * *

Baron and Harrid checked the Realm for eavesdroppers and spying eyes, and then sealed it off so that no one could see or hear them.

Wizards of this caliber, capable of organizing things so secretly that no one would ever know, and the Emperors of Huppert wanted to get rid of them.

“Greetings, Your Majesty.”

Baron bowed respectfully.

Harrid, standing beside him, bowed as well, his expression more polite than before.

Killian set me down on the couch, and Baron looked down at me.

“Looks like the cat is doing well, too.”

Baron seemed to have come to terms with my presence.

Harrid still looked at me suspiciously, but hmm.

“So you’ve made up your mind.”

“Yes.”

Baron answered Killian’s question.

The wise wizard’s face, worn with age, looked as if it had long since made up its mind.

“Harrid.”

Baron called to Harrid, who pulled two papers from his bag.

“A wizard must not use his power unless relief and the common good come first. Nor should they increase their power.”

As he spoke, Killian took the papers and slowly began to read them with his eyes.

“Because of this, a wizard can never be fully self-sufficient, and only after forming a master-servant relationship will they unleash their full power at the command of their master, no matter what that command may be.”

I climbed into Killian’s lap to look at the papers he was holding and saw that they were a contract outlining a master-servant relationship.

“The stronger the magic you practice, the more it clouds your judgment. If it’s mundane, they’ll be able to control themselves as they’ve been practicing, but the stronger the magic, especially if it’s something that requires all their strength, the less objective a mage can be. That’s why the master’s decision remains the last resort.”

“I see.”

“A wizard who seeks to be his own master becomes either a warlock or a madman.”

Powerful magic can only be wielded by a master, and the more terrifying the power, the more it clouds one’s judgment.

The life of a mage didn’t seem easy either.

“So, I must ask. What are you using us for?”

Baron asked, turning to Killian to see if he was still cautious.

They, too, knew the meaning of the crown prince’s demeanor, which gave them a sense of weakness.

“There’s nothing grandiose about building a great empire.”

Killian said gracefully, setting the papers down.

He could see Harrid’s shoulders sink in disappointment.

“It’s just that it’s different than what I know, and I want to find out.”

“…….”

“If it’s been tampered with, there will be consequences.”

“…….”

“Aren’t you curious, too?”

As Killian spoke, Baron dropped his hesitant gaze and looked at me.

The crown prince had noticed me, and noted that my presence was different from what he knew.

“Why is this not the oracle we knew? What is hidden in the oracle.”

As Killian had said, it seemed that the Earl himself was beginning to question the interpretation of the Oracle that he had been taught.

Baron swallowed hard and answered.

“Certainly not something to be taken lightly.”

“Of course not. How is this empire in the Count’s eyes? Do you think it’s going to be okay?”

In the original story, the Hupert Empire, which had unified the continents and wielded a vast ruling power, was said to be a country with culture, art, and technology unparalleled in history.

But Killian’s question seemed to ask if he knew that the Huppert Empire was not whole.

Was Killian aware of the empire’s problems, and was he trying to fix them?

I thought of the Huppert Empire, which was destroyed in a short time in the original book.

What if Killian was desperately trying to change the empire, but Huppert was doomed…….

I leaned into his touch, instinctively seized with a strange sense of foreboding and unease.

I could feel Killian’s hand casually stroking my body.

“…….”

Baron stared at Killian for a moment, as if he were speechless.

His mind flashed back to the persecution or glory of mages in the Empire’s past.

To him, the crown prince was only a crown prince, not yet Emperor of the Empire of Huppert.

They had come all this way to help him, but their future could not be guaranteed.

“I will reopen the academy.”

Killian’s words caused Baron to lift his gaze in surprise.

The Huppert Empire’s disdain for magic had led to the closure of the academies that trained mages.

The reasoning was that education leads to progress, and a well-developed magical community could grow out of control and challenge the imperial power.

The imperial family was largely to blame for the decline of the magical world, which had been uprooted to prevent systematic training.

Mages of lesser quality gradually became useless, even on the battlefield.

In this world, what mattered was war and progress.

Mages who could not excel in either were doomed to decline.

“Your Majesty, this could be a decision that could endanger you as well.”

“So……?”

He chuckled coldly, and Baron’s heart sank.

“You train the mages well, I’ll take care of the military.”

Killian added, and Baron’s brow narrowed.

He knew Killian was in a military academy.

Of course, who didn’t know that the crown prince attended a military academy?

But there was something that neither the Emperor nor the powers that be, including Baron, knew.

The cadets there were all his men.

That’s why Killian was able to kill them all at the coronation.

Chapter One is titled “The Red Coronation,” and it begins with Killian slaying every nobleman and half-brother who had ever spied on him, every user who had ever clung to a nobleman, and every nobleman and half-brother who had ever turned against him.

His cadets, who had been his friends and fought alongside him in countless battles, had proven themselves to be a formidable force in his service.

Killian is now nineteen.

He is less than a year away from becoming Emperor.

What was he thinking?

He has an excellent army to lead, and it’s already been proven in the original story that he can be a powerful emperor without mages.

But he wants to raise mages.

Why?

“Are you sure about this, Baron?”

Killian asked, and Baron spoke heavily, his face stiffening as he tried to organize his complex emotions.

“Everything you ask me to do, I will do with my life.”

He quickly and respectfully offered Killian his pen.

Whatever they decided to do now, they would do it together.

As Killian signed, Baron added his own signature.

Then he placed his hand on the document.

The letters floated in unison and disappeared into his palm.

“And now. Our master is His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince.”

The papers became blank again.

Baron handed the blank paper to Killian and bowed.

“It is my honor to greet the first master of my family in over five hundred years.”

* * *

Before Baron and Harrid exited the Realm, Harry hesitated and said something that stuck with me.

While Baron was in the Realm of Reality, signing the contract with Killian, Harrid was trying to stretch his mind to make sense of the foreign energy in the castle, but no matter how hard he focused, he couldn’t put his finger on it.

‘I can’t put my finger on what it is, and the citadel is too big. It could be another wizard, or it could be a non-human being.’

‘If it’s magic, it’s not normal, and if it’s from a human, it’s not just human either. If it’s magic. No, it could be something other than magic. I’ve sensed that it’s different, but I haven’t figured out what it is.’

With a cautious look on his face, Harrid reported to Killian about what he had sensed.

No wonder it was so difficult to focus in the Realm of Reality to sense and track the different powers within this vast castle.

Killian said that the Ministry of Magic would be reorganized, and that a position within the imperial service would soon be available.

He meant to find out more then.

I suspected it was black magic.

There was something sinister about the powdered black magic potion in Lady Gisela’s possession.

“Are you asleep?”

Killian asked, gently grabbing my front paw as I stared off into space.

If only I could tell Killian what I knew!

“Mmmmm.”

I shook my head, hiding the bitterness I couldn’t help but feel.

“You still wonder what you look like when you sleep?”

“Mmm?”

I lifted my front paw up and down, and he let out a smirk.

He soon got up from his chair and turned the key to his desk drawer.

Then he pulled out a notebook.

“A gift.”

His tone was nonchalant, but his eyes were eerily soft.

I wondered if he’d drawn me.

I glanced up at the mysterious red eyes beneath his dark hair, then down at the page he’d opened.

He must have drawn something, I thought vaguely.