A moment later, Zeta Mindhu was dragged in by the soldiers and shoved into the heated iron cage where Khankundra had been confined just moments before.

 

“Ughhhhh…!”

 

Mindhu gritted his teeth against the searing heat of the iron burning the soles of his feet. 

 

True to someone who had held the Emperor in the palm of his hand for so long, he endured the scorching metal floor without letting out a single scream.

 

Hissin let out a short, sharp breath at the sight of him defiantly clenching his teeth and suppressing his groans. 

 

When Hissin tapped the armrest with his fingertip, soldiers stepped forward leading a pack of beasts.

 

“Woof, woof woof! Grrrrrrrr…!”

 

The wild dogs captured from the desert barked, straining their leashes tight.

 

It seemed they would snap the leashes at any moment, enter through the bars, and tear their prey apart.

 

The soldiers gripped the leashes with all their might and slowly approached the cage. 

 

As they got closer, the dogs barked more ferociously, and Mindhu gradually began to turn pale.

 

“Woof woof woof! Woof woof!”

 

As the soldiers took a few more steps forward, the gaunt, starved bodies of the dogs began to slip between the iron bars. 

 

Thanks to the jerboa’s skin covering their paws, they tread on the hot floor without issue. 

 

One excited creature, perhaps already driven mad by the scent of blood coming from Mindhu, leaned into the cage, straining the leash, unaware that the jerboa skin on its foot had peeled off.

 

“Woof woof, woof!”

 

“Y-you damned beast! Get away!”

 

Another dog bared its sharp teeth and snapped at Mindhu, trying to bite him. 

 

Mindhu quickly jerked his body back from the teeth grazing his arm and kicked at the creature. 

 

But immediately, due to a dog charging from the opposite side, he almost had the back of his neck bitten.

 

“Aack!”

 

Mindhu retreated to the center, evading the dogs swarming from all sides. 

 

But each time he dodged a dog threatening to tear into his flesh, he had to step on the fiercely burning metal below.

 

“Gaaaaaaah…!”

 

Finally unable to bear the burns, as the skin on his feet was torn away, Mindhu let out a horrific scream. 

 

It seemed he didn’t even notice his left arm and right leg being ripped apart by the dogs, having surpassed the limit of pain a human can feel.

 

At Hissin’s slight eyebrow raise, the soldiers pulled on the leashes and retreated. 

 

Mindhu, with flesh torn from his thigh, rolled on the hot floor, groaning harshly.

 

Hissin, standing before the iron cage, slowly lowered his body. Staring down at Mindhu writhing on the floor like a bug, Hissin spoke quietly.

 

“If you confess truthfully, I will extinguish the fire heating the floor.”

 

“Ughhh…”

 

Mindhu, veins bulging on his head as if ready to burst, twitched and lifted his head. 

 

Even in this state, as if some defiant spirit remained, he glared at Hissin with bloodshot eyes filled with murderous intent.

 

Looking down at that insignificant gaze, Hissin asked.

 

“Is there another among you who possesses divine power, like the Imperial Princess?”

 

At that question, Mindhu let out a faint, bloody laugh from his mouth.

 

“Why? Planning to try extracting divine power again, as you did a long time ago?”

 

“I ask the questions. You only answer what is asked.”

 

“Gaaah…!”

 

As Hissin pressed Mindhu’s head down, his completely hairless scalp was crushed against the heated iron, emitting smoke. 

 

Instantly, as his skin melted, Mindhu scrambled up the moment he could free himself from Hissin’s hand, clinging desperately to the iron bars.

 

“Answer. Is there anyone else with divine power besides the Princess?”

 

“If there had been another chosen by the goddess besides the Princess, we wouldn’t have bothered keeping that wench locked up!”

 

Mindhu exploded in anger. 

 

Cupping his half-melted, adhered-shut eyes with his hands, he trembled violently and muttered curses.

 

“Damn it, the whole tragedy started the moment the Imperial Family coveted divine power…!”

 

The Imperial Family coveted divine power? 

 

Hissin’s brow furrowed at Mindhu’s significant words.

 

“What does that mean? The Imperial Family coveted divine power? Are you saying divine power was not originally the exclusive property of the Baran Kingdom’s Imperial Family?”

 

“Exclusive property? It was the Emperor’s exclusive property, clutched so tightly there was no room to move, ultimately leading to disaster! Ugh!”

 

Mindhu misstepped and screamed in agony as he stood on the hot metal floor again. 

 

The skin, and even the flesh, of his feet had already adhered to the metal, and the white bone was clearly visible; it looked agonizing just to stand.

 

At Hissin’s gesture, the soldiers removed all the blazing firewood from beneath the cage and placed ice underneath. 

 

As the red-hot metal cooled rapidly, Mindhu, who had been desperately clinging to the bars, quickly collapsed onto it.

 

“Haa, ha…”

 

Hissin patiently waited as Mindhu writhed shamefully on the floor. When he had calmed somewhat, Hissin asked again.

 

“Speak in detail about the divine power. If there is even a hint of falsehood, I will confine you to eternal torment.”

 

“Huh, ughh, aack…”

 

“Don’t forget, I have the Princess’s blood in my possession.”

 

Mindhu, who until moments ago had been glaring like a dog, slowly began to show a look of fear.

 

At any other time, it would have been enough to commit suicide before anything could be done. But if that man had Dahlia’s blood, it was a different story.

 

The miraculous blood that could heal any wound or illness until the moment of death. With that alone, ‘eternal torment’ wasn’t an entirely impossible statement.

 

Not knowing the relationship between Hissin and Dahlia, even in his dreams, from Mindhu’s perspective, Hissin could only appear as an even greater villain than Saltar.

 

“If you wish, I can give you the Princess’s blood that the Emperor so desperately cried for. It would be quite amusing to watch new flesh sprout and have you feel the pain from the beginning.”

 

“No, no! I don’t want the Princess’s blood! In fact, I’ve never even used the Princess’s blood!”

 

Mindhu shook his head tremblingly, even addressing Hissin with heightened respect.

 

The torture in the punishment chamber was incomparable to that in the sun cage. 

 

For Mindhu, whose limbs were already tattered, placating Hissin to return to the shaded sun cage was a better choice than staying here and consuming the Princess’s blood.

 

After all, the Baran Kingdom was already destroyed, so what did the Emperor matter?

 

‘Perhaps, in exchange for providing information, I might even secure a position here…’

 

Having finished his calculations in his head, Mindhu glanced furtively at Hissin’s expression and began to speak.

 

“You must know the story that in the Baran Kingdom, divine power descends only upon the princes who are to inherit the throne.”

 

“And so, Saltar passed off the Princess’s blood as his own and was revered as the next Emperor.”

 

“Correct. According to common knowledge, a princess in whom divine power manifested should ascend as the next Emperor. However, the Baran throne could only be occupied by men, generation after generation. Therefore, the Emperor hid the Princess and has been passing off her blood as the Crown Prince’s.”

 

Up to this point, it was exactly as Hissin knew. But Mindhu’s following words were something Hissin had never anticipated.

 

“The problem was… it wasn’t just Khankundra. All the emperors of Baran have done the same.”

 

Mindhu’s bloodshot eyes grew distant, as if sifting through the distant past.

 

💫

 

Thousands of years ago, the goddess Nuit descended to the human world and became the ruler of the desert and the night. 

 

She took in five wandering children from her land.

 

The goddess personally established the Kingdom of Baran for the children. 

 

Then she promised one child among the five who had moved her heart that she would grant them the name Baran and a magnificent, gleaming imperial palace.

 

The children each strove to win the goddess’s favor in their own way.

 

The first boy captured fierce beasts with his strength. However, while fighting a beast, he injured his leg and could no longer ascend to the throne.

 

The second girl stepped forward before the goddess herself, trying to captivate her heart with beautiful songs and poetry. 

 

But the Night Goddess preferred silence, so the child failed to capture the goddess’s heart.

 

The third boy ate everything he could find to grow his body. Food, drink—constantly eating to fill his belly, the boy eventually crossed over to neighboring lands and swelled his belly large.

 

But the goddess said the sorrowful cries of the people disturbed her heart and did not grant the throne to the third boy either.

 

The fourth boy, seeing the failures of the three children before him, became frightened and ran away. 

 

Yet lacking even the courage to leave Baran, the boy dug a long ditch at the kingdom’s border and lay inside it, hiding. 

 

However, the boy eventually melted from the desert heat and became a river.

 

Finally, the fifth girl merely watched the gleaming imperial palace from afar. Then she diligently cared for the injured first boy and the beast he had captured, healing them.

 

Again, watching the gleaming palace from afar, the girl also diligently cared for the second girl, who had sung day and night before the goddess until her throat was damaged and she lost her voice. 

 

The healed second girl regained her beautiful voice to sing poetry and songs once more.

 

Following the sounds of weeping, the fifth girl this time met people who had lost their homes and lands to the third boy. She likewise cared for the injured people and even offered her own home to those who had nowhere to go.

 

The fifth girl wept bitterly upon seeing the fourth boy, who had become a river. Because the boy had already lost his body, no amount of care could bring him back.

 

Awakened from sleep by the sound of weeping, the Goddess Nuit recognized the fifth girl’s sorrow and was moved by a heart that cherished those around her more than herself.

 

The Goddess Nuit took the fifth girl as her own child and gave her a piece of the night.

 

The child’s hair, wrapped in night, began to shine with the deep, blue-black light of the Milky Way, and from then on, the girl could easily heal the sick and injured with her own blood.

 

“I grant you the name Baran. Protect this beautiful land with your warm heart.”

 

But even upon receiving the name Baran and the imperial palace, the girl was not happy.

 

“Because of this name and palace, too many people have been hurt and saddened.”

 

At that moment, the third boy approached the fifth girl. With a pleasant smile, he whispered secretly into her ear.

 

“Then, won’t you give me your name and palace?”

 

The boy’s whispering voice troubled the girl’s heart.