The Future Calamity’s Brainwashing Won’t Wear Off Chapter 1

I stared blankly at the mansion engulfed by the raging flames.

They say fire moves faster than the wind, and it truly did. Vivid blue flames grew endlessly, surging relentlessly toward me.

The once grand and magnificent mansion now looked pitiful, as if its former glory had never even existed.

Since I was scheduled to bring my bride here tomorrow, no small amount of effort had gone into preparing it. I had been staying here until just a moment ago to fine-tune the final details, but now all that effort had gone completely to waste.

‘This is hell.’

The deep blue flames, spawned by divine power, would not go out no matter how much water was poured over them.

As the blue fire billowed and rolled as though it possessed a will of its own, the servants fled in screaming terror. A few of them collapsed unconscious, while others shouted at the top of their lungs, desperately trying to find the master of the house.

‘This is bad.’

The master of the mansion was right on the topmost floor—the very place the hellfire was blatantly about to swallow whole.

And that master was me.

Looking up at the burning mansion, reduced to nothing more than a charred framework, I let out a dry, hollow laugh.

Who on earth would look at this state and take it for a newlywed home? It looked more like a cursed house.

The brightly colored flowers that decorated the grounds had vanished without a trace, and the garden—which the gardener used to boast would stay green all year round—was scorched pitch-black. Amidst the massive plumes of smoke and the angry inferno sweeping through the estate, this single spot remained eerily quiet.

“Marriage?”

It was so quiet that I could clearly hear the voice of the man holding me, his grip tight enough to snap my neck.

With my head slammed against the window frame, I writhed with a contorted face.

Having missed my chance to escape, I had already inhaled a massive amount of smoke, leaving my head spinning. Cut off from oxygen, fluid leaked freely from every orifice, and my vision began to blur into white noise.

Even in the middle of all this, I tried desperately to look straight at the man choking me. I saw a hand wrapped tightly in dark navy bandages, intricately inscribed with softly glowing runes. Tracing my gaze along those bandages, the very first thing that caught my eye was his breathtaking appearance.

His features were delicate and exquisite, as if sculpted by a master artisan—a beauty capable of bewitching anyone. Considering he had spent his formative growing years in a horrific environment, he was remarkably well-developed physically. As befitted his extraordinary looks, his noble bloodline was just as remarkable, symbolized by his deep, dark sea-blue eyes.

“Za—Zachary…”

Zachary Thaddeus.

At my call, those blue eyes turned toward me. The moment our eyes met, a hot thrill shot through me, making my fingertips curl reflexively.

A sense of overwhelming pressure just from looking at him; a face that made you stare spellbound, completely forgetting your situation. If anyone were to point out what an absurd exaggeration that was, I would ask them right back:

‘He’s the protagonist.’

How could anyone not shudder with awe seeing the center of the world awaken?

Zachary was the protagonist of the novel I had reincarnated into—the single greatest driving force that moved this world.

However, I was in no position to remain a mere extra clapping for the protagonist’s path. Because, true to his role as the protagonist, Zachary’s life was full of severe twists and turns, and the highest mountain he had to cross was none other than my family.

Zachary had terrible luck.

Extremely terrible. Of all things, he had caught the eye of our Solaris Kingdom—which was constantly sharpening its blades, looking for any opportunity to break free from the Sacred Empire’s rule—and ended up getting kidnapped. Regrettably, the King of Solaris was deeply displeased that the Sacred Empire possessed nothing of real substance yet acted all noble and lofty simply by relying on their faith in God.

Was that all? The current King also harbored a massive inferiority complex toward the Emperor of the Sacred Empire, claiming the Emperor had stolen the woman he loved. In the end, he kidnapped Zachary—the son of the woman he had loved. The King then handed Zachary over to our family, a house that routinely consorted with sorcery and curses to manipulate people, defying God. He ordered us to turn him into our hunting dog and work him like a dog.

The King was a total lunatic.

If anything, he should have tried to use Zachary as a bargaining chip; what kind of brainless move was this?

No matter how much he hated the Empire, what fault was it of the young Zachary?

Yet, even if the King was a lunatic, he was still our superior. Following the King’s command, our family took Zachary in, and just like that, I ended up living alongside Zachary, the center of the world…

‘I tried with all my might to set you free.’

Having read the novel all the way to its ending, I couldn’t just sit by and let things take their course.

Because after awakening through brutal torture in this place, Zachary would use his overwhelming powers to bring about not only the destruction of the kingdom, but also the utterly gruesome annihilation of our entire family.

He tortures the head of the household before gouging out his eyes, tears his wife into tiny pieces, and before the two die, he brutally murders their sons right in front of their eyes. That is how the House of Serpentine gets wiped out.

I couldn’t recall every minor detail of the book, but that specific part was an exception.

For a simple fantasy novel with a bit of romance and a classic “good triumphs over evil” plot, the author seemed to harbor a personal grudge against the Serpentine family, describing their end with uniquely detailed and gory cruelty. That was why I remembered that scene clearly, even though I had read it in my past life. Upon seeing Zachary enter our household, I realized I had been dropped into the novel, and from that moment on, I did everything I could to escape that bloody future.

I tried by any means necessary to get Zachary out of the Serpentine household alive and well.

My plan was to send him back unharmed and then beg him to spare me, my family, and the innocent people of the kingdom.

‘So why is he burning down my house?’

As I stared at the burning mansion—the home that was supposed to be my new marital residence—I felt thoroughly bewildered.

Even though our family had once inflicted harsh torture on him and cast brainwashing curses to make him a servant, I had repeatedly explained that it was all done under the King’s orders. I thought the misunderstanding had been cleared up. Since then, I had bent over backward trying to sneak him out, and in the end, I had succeeded in helping him escape.

Of course, my parents and older brother had no idea that I was the one who freed Zachary. If the King ever found out I had let him go, the danger our family would face was immense.

I had gone through all kinds of hardship behind my family’s back to break the layers upon layers of brainwashing spells before letting him go…

“I… set you free… Why…?”

To think he would turn into the axe that strikes my own foot.

Unable to fully suppress my sense of injustice, my voice came out choked with grievance. At the same time, Zachary’s brow furrowed.

“Oscar.”

His low voice was chillingly cold. My body shuddered instinctively at the unfamiliar form of address.

During all the time we spent together, Zachary had never once called me by my name. He had always addressed me as “young master.” Even that became rare over time, as he had to act blind and mute in front of others, so he hardly ever uttered a word to me out loud.

Yet hearing Zachary speak my name for the first time, his tone made it clear that he was furious. Though I couldn’t understand why, Zachary was undoubtedly the one who had brought this inferno upon the mansion.

‘Why?’

What could have made him angry enough to set fire to the mansion that was to be my newlywed home?

Throughout all those long years, I had never seen Zachary express this kind of rage.

The Zachary I knew was always quick to bow his head, thoroughly intimidated by the gloomy atmosphere of the mansion. At most, he would occasionally protest in a timid, quiet voice.

I had strived to gift him his freedom and had helped him escape from the Serpentine house. Even if he didn’t feel compelled to repay the favor, wasn’t returning to commit arson a bit much?

It felt deeply unfair.

I had never mistreated him, and my only crime was racking my stupid brain trying to figure out how to help him escape… Ah.

‘Then again, once freed from the spell, everything must have felt horrific.’

Now that I thought about it, he had every right to be angry.

Even if I hadn’t mistreated him and had been good to him, the Serpentine family was rotten to its core.

It had taken seven long years to get to this point.

Even though he was freed earlier than in the original story thanks to my help, he must have suffered greatly trying to reclaim his original life.

Those years—from age fourteen to twenty-one—were essentially a stolen period of his life.

Bound by sorcery for all those years, he had been forced to forget that he was a prince of the Sacred Empire, forced to live as a servant to a marquis family in the mere Solaris Kingdom.

The more he chewed on it, the more his blood must have boiled. So he must have decided to burn down my newlywed home—and me, the easiest target—to vent his wrath.

“…I’m sorry.”

How could I ever compensate him for those seven lost years?