RGS Volume 1 Part 2

Since when did a child learn what he shouldn’t do?

He shouldn’t look at people directly, and he shouldn’t show his eyes. If his long hair shook even a little bit or if his eyes were visible, those around him would flinch and retreat with contemptuous faces.

There were many attendants who took care of feeding him, dressing him, and bathing him, but none of them looked at the child’s face properly. They turned their eyes away and quickly retreated without hiding their expressions. Those who educated him were even worse. With a cold expression, they poured out difficult words that the child couldn’t understand as if explaining to someone who wasn’t there and then disappeared.

Everyone turned away from the child’s face.

So he couldn’t smile an he couldn’t speak to anyone. He couldn’t open his arms and ask to be hugged, and he couldn’t leave the room. And he absolutely couldn’t cry. If he did any of these things, the attendants around him would all flinch and reveal fear on their faces.

There was not a single person who returned the child’s pure kindness. Since he started to understand words, he realized that the words they always whispered behind him were meant for him.

The curse of the dragon.

Born with different eyes from others, he was a cursed existence. The person who made it clear to him was the queen, his mother. The first thing she did when she came to see the child was to make him stand in front of a mirror.

“Look closely. See how terrible and wicked you are. Look at your eyes!”

The queen grabbed the child’s hair tightly and shook it. The child’s body trembled weakly at the queen’s gesture. The queen brought the child’s face close to the mirror and whispered in his small ear.

“So you have to be punished.”

The child saw himself and his mother’s reflection in the mirror. His own eyes, are different from others. And the red veins in his mother’s eyes, filled with madness. But soon, his vision went dark.

Thud!

The queen forcefully pushed the child’s head against the mirror.

“It’s all your fault. Because you were born as a devil.”

The image of the queen’s face with a wicked smile came to mind. Her hand roughly pulled the child’s head from the shattered mirror. As if proving that he was human, blood flowed from the expressionless child’s forehead.

Since the child was born, no one had treated him kindly. However, there was someone who spoke warm words, even if it was out of sympathy. He was the child’s personal maid, one of the many who had taken care of the noble children. The reason she was called was because there was no one else to take care of a child who didn’t speak and was expressionless.

However, the child had no problem reading books and writing, even though they didn’t speak. It was clear that they were not stupid, but their expressionless face, along with their eyes, made people see him more eerie. So the palace maids had no choice but to take care of the child, but no one wanted to be assigned to that role.

In the palace, people feared being in charge of the child as if it were a nightmare. In the end, it was not a palace maid but a nanny from outside who became the child’s personal maid. The first thing she saw when she came to the palace was the violence the queen poured onto the child. What was even more surprising was the reaction of those around him, who took it for granted.

“Look at his eyes. That child is a devil. Even though the queen may be excessive, it is a necessary thing,” they said.

The palace maids all agreed and said this. The nanny was taken aback, but after looking into the child’s eyes and being surprised, she thought that maybe those words were true. Since everyone around her took it for granted without anyone raising objections, it must not be wrong.

Even the teacher who taught the child and the king’s close aides who occasionally visited, did not say anything even after seeing the wounds on the child’s body. However, even though it was taken for granted, it was inevitable that a sense of unease arose. No matter how he was born as a devil, the child was small and fragile.

The child had thin arms and legs like sticks, and their body was smaller than their peers, covered with numerous scars and newly formed wounds. Whenever she changed the child’s clothes, the nanny involuntarily furrowed her brows at the sight of their body. One day, after the queen had made a mess of the child again, the nanny spoke kindly to them.

The child never changed his expression or screamed, even when he was hit and bleeding. But whenever the queen disappeared, he always hid under the bed. The nanny lowered her head to look under the bed, where no one wanted to see. The child was lying there, hunched over like a cat.

Was he sleeping?

“Your Highness, we need to treat your wounds, so please come out.”

Perhaps because of the gentle tone of voice that no one had ever used with him, the child reacted slowly. His shoulders moved slightly, and then he raised his head a little. At that moment, the nanny’s body trembled. The child’s snake-like yellow eyes under the dark bed glowed like a beast. She felt as if she knew why people were so afraid of and disdainful towards the child. Cold sweat ran down her back, but she continued to persuade him in a trembling voice.

“If we leave you like this, you could have a fever and become sick all night…”

In the end, she averted her gaze and finally finished her sentence.

“You need to come out so that I can treat you.”

Her voice trembled heavily and the smile on her face disappeared, but after a while, the child revealed himself from under the bed. Fortunately, his eyes were not visible as it were covered by his long bangs. The nanny tried to calm her trembling heart as she carefully treated the child’s wounds. As always, the child sat motionless like a doll. When the nanny saw the injuries all over his body, she felt a sense of compassion and tried not to look into his eyes as she spoke.

“Oh, you’re so well-behaved and kind. You must have been in pain, but you endured it well.”

After a while, while organizing the treatment tools, the nanny felt the child’s gaze. When she turned her head, the child was looking at her.

“Your Highness, do you have something to say to me?”

“……”

The nanny waited for a while, but the child only looked at her without any other reaction. A few days later, when the queen was away, the nanny called the child from under the bed again. And the same thing repeated several times, and she spoke warmly every time she treated him.

And it was when she was about to perform the fifth treatment that she remembered. The child waited for her in a place where he could receive treatment, and not under the bed anymore. Now, with his head completely raised, it seemed as if he was opening his heart. The nanny felt relieved and smiled.

“You didn’t hide under the bed today. I can treat you faster, Your Highness. Then your wounds will heal faster too, right?”

The child’s gaze, hidden by his hair, followed her. She turned her body, feeling that the gaze that touched her was particularly sharp. But then she heard a sound.

“……Huh?”

Startled, she turned her body and the saw child pursed his lips.

“Am… I… good?”

Hearing the child’s voice for the first time, she was momentarily stunned and then realized that she hadn’t praised him for being good today.

“Of course you’re good. Well done, Your Highness.”

The nanny smiled, but her eyes were frozen. It could be her imagination, but an unknown anxiety writhed inside her. She found out the reason for her anxiety the next day. Even though the queen did not come, the child had wounds on his body.

The child sat in the treatment seat with blood flowing from his arm. With a doll-like expressionless face, he extended his injured arm to the nanny. Her anxiety turned into fear. The fact that the child was starting to open up to her suddenly became overwhelming and turned into reluctance.

“Oh! Your Highness. Where did you get these wounds?”

No matter how many times she asked, the child did not answer. The nanny couldn’t hide her stern face and spoke in an angry voice.

“I cannot praise you for intentionally causing wounds.”

However, the child did not outstretched his arm. The nanny deliberately wrapped a bandage roughly around the wound and came out of the room, pressing her trembling heart with her hand. Perhaps because of the ominousness, a chill ran through her body when she felt someone’s gaze. And the next day, the child became covered in blood again. This time, his clothes were soaked and both arms were completely red with blood.

“Oh! What on earth is this, Your Highness?!”

The startled nanny rushed over and examined the child’s body, but apart from the blood stains, there were no wounds. Even after washing his body with water and examining it closely, there was no trace of blood. But the strong smell of blood lingered, making it feel as if something remained on the child’s expressionless face.

“Your Highness, where did you get the blood stains…?”

Before the nanny could finish asking, screams from the maidservants could be heard from somewhere. She hurriedly went outside to where the maidservants had gathered in fear.

“What’s going on?”

“Oh my, look at that.”

From where someone was pointing, she saw the red blood that she had seen on the prince’s body again. A corner of the garden, covered in all sorts of weeds due to poor maintenance, was soaked in blood. However, it wasn’t just blood. Torn flesh and organs seemed to be wriggling on top of it.

“I-It’s a cat. It sometimes appears here, and we used to feed it… How could this happen?”

The fear and horror mixed in with the agitated words made the nanny’s heart tremble even more. Only one word came to his mind. Devil. It must be a devil! Otherwise, how could a six-year-old child commit such a cruel act?!

From then on, she acted like the other maidservants until she left the palace. She never spoke to the child, never smiled, and never looked at his face. Even when several more dead animal carcasses were found and the child was covered in blood all over his body.