The Future Calamity’s Brainwashing Won’t Wear Off Chapter 5

I didn’t know what kind of expression I had, or in what tone of voice I was begging him. My mind was completely frantic.

My neck was being choked, my ears were ringing, and my head felt hazy from inhaling too much smoke. Fearing that my already pathetic body would break apart at any moment, I resorted to pleading first.

“I… I apologize again on behalf of my family. No matter how we were ordered to… it was because I was useless…. I should have, cough, set you… set you free sooner… but…”

Quite pathetic, really. In Zachary’s eyes, how ugly and miserable must I look?

However, in the face of survival, even such thoughts were a luxury. Even if this was a world inside a novel, I hated pain. And I certainly hated dying young.

So, if I could somehow look pitiful and beg for his pity to survive, it would be fine…

“Fucking hell, you set me free?”

…wouldn’t it?

“Huh?”

For a moment, forgetting the situation entirely, I abruptly raised my head, which I had lowered to look as pitiful as possible. It was out of sheer shock at hearing Zachary curse. My eyes met Zachary’s again as he pinned me down tightly. The instant our gazes locked, his pupils flickered slightly as if shaken for a fraction of a second, but he quickly glared back at me fiercely.

“Zachary?”

Could I have mistaken him for someone else?

Is this guy really Zachary? The way he was treating me right now—his tone, his manner of speech, even his expression—was completely different from the Zachary I had known for seven years.

If I had to pick the biggest difference, it was the look in his eyes.

Within Zachary’s deep navy eyes, a blood-red hatred flared wildly, as if he truly loathed me. No, calling this look mere loathing was an understatement. The gaze glaring down at me was so intense that beyond vivid blue, it almost looked crimson.

‘It’ll be a miracle if I get out of here alive.’

My legs trembled uncontrollably at his clear anger and hatred, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

I was the type to freeze in fear even when a nobody came along to bully me; with the literal protagonist of this world hating me like this, how could I possibly endure it with my bare body?

Just as I was trembling in terror, sensing my imminent death…

“You threw me away, you mean.”

Zachary spat out through gritted teeth.

“Was just having me by your side that horrifying to you?”

What kind of nonsense is this? I doubted my own ears. I couldn’t understand a single word Zachary was saying. Unable to react, I simply froze like an idiot. Meanwhile, Zachary continued to pour out his wrath toward me in a furious voice.

“I told you over and over again that I wouldn’t leave! I told you I wouldn’t interfere with anything you did, and just begged you to let me stay by your side!”

“…?”

“Why? Now that you’re getting married, did you really feel like I was a burden you wanted to discard? Say it, Oscar. Say it properly with your own mouth!”

“…???”

Is this a dream? My tightly closed eyes snapped open on their own at these completely unexpected, out-of-nowhere words.

Zachary’s face was heavily distorted. Even in that state, the inferno mirrored in his jewel-like, glittering navy eyes made him look all the more tragic and forlorn.

However, after being briefly spellbound by his beautiful face, my head quickly filled with endless questions.

‘Who threw away what?’

Did I throw you away?

And what does he mean, “discarded”? I did my absolute best to help him escape, so why does he keep scolding me for throwing him away?

In the first place, using the word “discard” didn’t even make sense. I never possessed him, nor did I raise him, so how could I discard him?

Wondering if he had misspoke or if there was some kind of misunderstanding, I tried to read his intentions by studying his face, but his enraged expression remained unchanged.

In those navy eyes looking at me with resentment, my utterly bewildered face was clearly reflected. As I pondered for a moment, a sudden hypothesis crossed my mind.

‘…Could it be that the brainwashing hasn’t fully worn off?’

At first, seeing Zachary set fire to my new marital home, curse at me, and drop all formal language, I had naturally assumed the brainwashing spell was broken. As long as someone was bound by the spell, they couldn’t bring harm to a member of the family, after all.

However, once the brainwashing broke, a person would normally be eager to leave the Serpentine household and return to their original life. Coming all the way back to this distant place was strange enough, and demanding to know why I had kicked him out of the mansion made it seem like the spell hadn’t been fully lifted.

Come to think of it, our family—which had made a living off sorcery for generations—could turn even a death row convict into a loyal hunting dog that peed his pants with joy just at the sight of us. This was a spell they had painstakingly built up over a long time, layering it multiple times. A novice like me, who had only picked up sorcery by watching over people’s shoulders, couldn’t possibly have undone it properly.

‘Even so, didn’t Zachary awaken and escape on his own in the novel?’

With Zachary’s actions turning out completely different from the original story, unresolved questions kept piling up. My head was a jumbled mess, and I didn’t know which words to utter first, but I opened my mouth to explain the truth for now.

“I… I didn’t throw you away. You gained your freedom. Besides, the way I see it, your brainwashing still hasn’t fully…”

“Brainwashing?”

“Ugh!”

Zachary suddenly grabbed me by the hair. His grip was so forceful that a high-pitched cry burst out of me against my will.

As I cringed and groaned in pain, the hand holding my hair loosened slightly. But because my consciousness was so hazy, even the slightest stimulus felt painfully unbearable. Bracing his face close to mine as I groaned, Zachary spoke.

“Do you still think I am under the influence of a spell?”

…I mean, it really seems like it.

My condition was deteriorating too fast for me to calmly state my opinion. No matter if the flames were raised by divine power, as long as the house was burning, smoke was filling the air. As I coughed violently from the smoke, unable to answer properly while my vision blurred…

“Oscar!!!”

My drifting consciousness was snapped back to reality by a desperate shout.

“Oscar! Where are you!!”

No matter how many times I heard it, that was definitely the voice of Erhan, my stepbrother, who was supposed to be at the Serpentine estate. Feeling like I had reached the end of my life and was now hallucinating, I strained my ears to listen. But as if to prove it wasn’t a hallucination, the voice searching for me continued to echo from further down the hallway.

“B-Brother… cough, cough!”

I couldn’t answer him loudly. Unlike Zachary, who was completely unaffected by the acrid smoke, my fragile body couldn’t even produce a proper voice.

Was that all? Mindful of Zachary’s presence, I couldn’t call out to Erhan any further.

If I had been just a little stronger, I might have been able to shake off Zachary and go find Erhan. This damned body really wasn’t helpful until the very end.

‘I’m really going to die like this.’

I gazed with desperate eyes toward the direction where Erhan’s voice was coming from, then let my body go limp. Just when I thought I would surely die without even being able to let him know I was here…

“You were always like that.”

Zachary lowered his voice to a dark rumble.

“Eager to get rid of me as fast as possible, yet always trying to stick right next to that bastard. You don’t even share the same mother, yet you have no idea what kind of eyes that bastard looks at you with.”

“…What?”

I wanted to get rid of you as fast as possible?

I felt a bit wronged.

It wasn’t that I wanted to get rid of you; I was just struggling to give you your freedom a single day earlier so you could spend the rest of your life unharmed after suffering under that spell. How on earth could he interpret it like that?

And that I stick right next to Erhan? And what about the way Erhan looks at me?

‘Sticking to Erhan was the only way for me, someone with zero standing, to survive.’

I had to stay on my stepbrother Erhan’s good side so I wouldn’t be bullied by the family or kicked out into the streets!

That was why I spent my miserable childhood ringing little bell toys for Erhan, clapping my hands, acting absurdly cute, and putting on little performances for him…!

“Cough! Cough, cough!”

However, nothing came out of my mouth except coughing fits instead of excuses.

I am seriously going to die. Now, tears and snot were streaming down uncontrollably, to the point where I couldn’t even open my eyes properly. As I thrashed about while coughing harshly, Zachary loosened his grip.

Taking advantage of that gap, I quickly reached out my arms and pulled Zachary toward me.

Flinching for a second, he yielded submissively and let himself be pulled into my embrace—whether due to the lingering spell or out of habit from serving as my servant all that time. I buried my wet, tear-stained face into Zachary’s shoulder and gasped for air.

‘It hurts so much. I feel like I’m really going to die.’