The hot blood pulsing through his veins churned beneath his skin.
The real symptoms had started earlier that day.
The Green Merchant Lord had triggered the dragon blood that had been slowly boiling inside him for some time.
Because of one foolish moth who had rushed at him without caring about his own life, the period his people secretly called the “Eclipse” had begun much earlier than expected.
Although it had been a sudden rampage, the feeling of his strength and blood boiling throughout his entire body was always pleasant.
That was why Killian Knox was actually in a fairly good mood.
Even more so because he had spent the entire day enjoying the Green Merchant Lord’s blood in the underground prison.
But then.
“Hmm.”
Killian let out a low sigh to calm the heat that kept surging inside him, and looked down at the small figure kneeling at his feet.
‘Annoying.’
A low-ranking member of the Action Squad.
Something that should have been insignificant was getting on his nerves.
Just like prey caught in a spider’s web tugging at the threads and calling the spider to itself, the existence of Runelk Eins was like that.
“Did His Grace already…… know about the assassin?”
Even though he was trembling, the way he looked straight at Killian was insolent.
It had been a long time.
Since someone had asked him questions.
And since someone had thrown themselves in front of danger, saying they would protect him.
“What if I did?”
“If that really is the case……”
Runelk Eins tightly pressed his lips together.
Irritation flashed across his unusually large, upturned blue eyes.
That was all Killian could read.
“Tell me. How did you know the Green Merchant Lord had murderous intent?”
After hesitating for a moment, Runelk Eins answered.
“L-Like I said, I just have good instincts……”
Again, he could not read him.
He could not tell whether the man was lying or telling the truth.
The ability he had possessed since birth did not work on this person.
An utterly unpleasant existence.
Looking down lazily at the small, round head, Killian thought.
Ah, I should just kill him after all.
The impulse immediately turned into action.
“Ghk……!”
Killian’s large hand closed around Runelk Eins’s neck.
The slender neck, without an ounce of muscle, seemed to fit perfectly inside his grip.
His hand touching the pale skin where blue veins showed through was hot, as if it were being seared by fire.
“So everything was just a coincidence.”
The first “unreadable existence” to enter the bathroom, which was practically his private chamber.
And the same person who had saved him from an assassination attempt.
“There’s no way.”
Killian gave a quiet laugh.
As he did, he saw the tear-filled blue eyes struggling for breath turn toward the corner of his mouth, and he tightened his grip on Runelk Eins’s neck.
That weak body would crumple helplessly under even the slightest bit of strength.
Then this irritating feeling gnawing at his nerves would disappear.
Killian had no doubt about it.
But at that moment, a pain like a heated iron nail being driven into his head stopped him.
“Kh…… ugh.”
One tear that Runelk Eins shed while struggling fell onto the back of his hand, making the headache even sharper.
It was such a terrifying sensation that his body, which could even accept the pain of being cut by a sword as sweet amusement during the Eclipse, froze for an instant.
And the extrasensory perception that had been quiet until now began ringing like a loud alarm.
‘I must not kill him.’
The moment he realized it, the strength in his hand loosened.
It happened before he could even make the decision himself.
As if, for just a moment, the dragon blood had taken control away from him.
Thud.
Runelk Eins fell to the floor, clutching his neck and coughing wetly.
“Gasp……! Cough, cough!”
Standing tall in front of him, Killian looked down at his right hand.
As if testing it, Killian repeatedly clenched and released his large hand in the air, and a strange glint flashed through his eyes.
“Interesting.”
It was fascinating.
Such an intense sensation.
And the intervention of his dragon blood.
It was new.
Even the feverish heat that could only be calmed by the warmth of blood during the Eclipse had already receded considerably.
‘What is this man?’
Runelk Eins, trembling with his thin shoulders as he drew in rough breaths, still looked like nothing more than a scrawny colt to him.
And yet, the dragon blood that had never betrayed him until now had intervened.
Along with an intense curiosity, another impulse suddenly rose within him.
To have caught his attention just as he entered the Eclipse.
Poor thing.
Killian mocked his own shallow sympathy and asked Runelk Eins,
“Do you want to live, Runelk Eins?”
“……Cough!”
Tears were still falling from his eyes, but his wide-open blue eyes answered for him.
Are you seriously asking me that right now?
Killian did not bother suppressing the laughter escaping him.
His extrasensory perception had always worked solely for Killian.
Therefore, this person called Runelk Eins must be someone he needed.
“I’ll test how useful those ‘good instincts’ you mentioned really are.”
“What…… cough, what do you mean?”
The hoarse voice asked, but Killian ignored him and quietly looked at Runelk Eins.
No matter how he looked at him, his body was far too frail to be a member of Knox.
If this small body disappeared somewhere, Killian might not even be able to find him.
“Yes, there was that way.”
There was a way to track him no matter where he ran.
Killian smiled in satisfaction and reached his hand toward Runelk Eins again.
This time, perhaps intending not to just take it, Runelk Eins quickly pulled his body backward, but it was not enough to escape Killian’s hand.
“Ugh! Let go of me……!”
“Shh. Stay still.”
Killian grabbed the small chin just above the already-bruised neck and pulled Runelk Eins toward him.
“If you’re going to…… kill me, just kill me!”
“Kill you? Didn’t you say you didn’t want to die?”
With a rare smile that even his closest aides rarely saw, Killian brought his other hand toward his mouth.
Crunch.
The sound of his white teeth biting into the flesh of the side of his hand was so vivid that even Runelk Eins, who had been struggling to escape him, stopped moving.
Drip. Drip.
Red blood glowing with a golden light from the dragon blood flowed down with heavy drops.
Killian made sure that enough blood had flowed before roughly forcing Runelk Eins’s jaw open.
“What are you doing……!”
“Swallow.”
When he curled the bitten hand into a fist, blood like golden threads trickled down.
“N-No…… Guhk, urk!”
“Good.”
No matter how much he resisted, he had to swallow the liquid in his mouth in order to breathe.
Humans were truly that weak.
Killian only released Runelk Eins’s chin after he had swallowed several mouthfuls of his blood.
“Cough, ugh, hack!”
He tried to vomit up what he had been forced to swallow, but it was useless.
The dragon blood that had entered his body had already been absorbed and disappeared.
As proof, the burst blood vessels around his reddened eyes and the finger marks around his neck were slowly fading.
Runelk Eins’s face, which was covered in Killian’s blood, was also quite pleasing to look at, so Killian spoke in a gentle voice.
“Do you know what a dragon’s vassal is?”
“How the hell would I know something like that, cough……!”
“Exactly as it sounds. It means something that belongs to a dragon. You just became mine.”
Killian bent his knees until he was at eye level with Runelk Eins and smiled.
“So now, wherever you are, I can feel you. Even if you were across the sea in the Western Continent. As long as you are alive, you cannot escape from me.”
Thump, thump, thump.
Following the rapid beating of his heart, Killian could clearly feel his own energy flowing through Runelk Eins’s body.
“Now that you have a leash around your neck, I’ll give you your first mission.”
His cold golden eyes, like a full moon, shone cruelly.
“Five days until Earth Day. Within that time, find out Knox’s darkest secret and bring it to me.”
Giving him an order that could never be completed, Killian smiled fiercely.
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