Little Pink Starfish

The day Ishar climbed the path of a Swordmaster, became the continent’s first Wizard, and for the first time fully perceived this world, he realized something.

He had obtained the power to save someone.

But at the same time, he realized—like a priest receiving a divine revelation—that in the moment he himself was in danger, he could not expect salvation from anyone, and that he would not even want it.

It wasn’t sad or disappointing. He didn’t feel let down.

That was simply the life he had lived. He had watched Shuzel nearly die and get hurt countless times because of him.

Marriad had died protecting him.

That was why he vowed never to expect salvation from anyone.

He was sick of seeing precious people get hurt or die just trying to save him.

So when Ishar woke up after losing consciousness, instead of twisting his body or struggling, he lay there like a corpse.

His whole body was soaked. It was only natural—he’d been trapped in transparent liquid, suffocating right before he passed out.

‘Maybe that’s a small relief.’

The water hadn’t dried. That meant he hadn’t been unconscious for too long.

He slowly sharpened every nerve in his body and checked his condition.

‘My hands and feet are bound. Shackles… there’s a gag in my mouth. And something over my eyes—a blindfold? Cloth…? Doesn’t feel like a mask.’

They were tight. His ankles throbbed like they might be cut off, and he could barely feel anything from his elbows down.

The shackles that pressed tight from elbow to wrist were basically solid metal lumps. His shoulders might pop out soon.

‘Seems like no one’s around me for now…’

Just in case, he moved a little bit of aura. Only a little. The moment he did, his breath caught.

‘……!’

The pain he’d suffered before losing consciousness came roaring back—twenty times stronger—as if to say How dare you forget me? and tried to shove his mind back into darkness.

He broke into a cold sweat and could do nothing but regulate his breathing until the pain settled. Even his thoughts were swallowed by the pain.

It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes in real time, but the agony made it feel longer. Once the pain lessened just a bit, he could finally think clearly.

‘Fine. This time, let’s try mana.’

If he were thinking straight, he wouldn’t have even considered using mana after the backlash from using aura. But Ishar was desperate.

He was barely holding onto composure, and he knew it wouldn’t last long.

‘I have to go back.’

He knew exactly what Shuzel might do if he failed to keep his promise because of his own stupid mistake. That thought strengthened his will to return alive.

More than anything, he couldn’t face Velloan.

That good student, who wasn’t even to blame, would surely blame himself for Ishar’s collapse—thinking it was his fault Ishar couldn’t take care of himself and nearly gave up on life.

‘Even if I die here, I should be able to face you with some shred of dignity.’

Muttering to himself, he tried to move his mana.

He braced for pain—but the mana inside him didn’t budge. That was when he realized what role these crude shackles played.

‘They’re mana suppressors. And… poison? I feel way too feverish for just internal injuries.’

A chill ran down his neck, and his body trembled. His fingertips tingled, and his sense of touch dulled. He tried to put strength into his limbs, but it was like his body didn’t even belong to him.

Ishar calmly assessed his condition. He was sure that damned lizard Jishuka had injected or fed him poison while he was unconscious.

‘Poison isn’t something I can do anything about right now.’

With sight cut off, his other senses were heightened. He tried relying on touch, smell, and hearing to get a sense of his surroundings.

No use. There was no sound at all, like magic had blocked even noise itself.

He could hear only his own muffled breathing behind the gag and his heartbeat pounding in his ears. The only scent was…

‘Dirt.’

Maybe the chills weren’t even from poison—maybe he was just cold.

Lying soaked on a freezing bare earth floor like this, even Ishar wouldn’t be fine.

‘Either way, it’s the worst. The only silver lining is that Jishuka doesn’t plan to kill me immediately.’

He recalled Jishuka’s words before he lost consciousness, and his behavior during the fight.

He had been afraid of the “half-blood.” Judging by his mutterings, his behavior, and the amount of dragon bones used as the medium for the ancient spell that imprisoned Ishar, the answer came quickly.

‘So there’s another half-dragon besides Velloan. That half-dragon must be threatening Jishuka now by absorbing the mana from recently fallen dragons’ hearts. When Jishuka attacked the palace, Velloan called him by his real name.’

If only he’d known this earlier.

He regretted it. Why hadn’t he thought to look for other half-dragons?

If he had found the one Jishuka fears three years ago…

He could’ve learned how to forcibly extract mana from a dragon’s heart—and then, Velloan might still be alive.

Thinking again of Velloan’s death, the pain that had already been creeping back into his body exploded in full.

He tried to suppress the groan rising up from his throat.

“You’re awake, Emperor.”

A much calmer voice than when they first met came from above his head—Jishuka.

“I won’t kill you right away. That half-blood will definitely take a liking to you. Then maybe he’ll let me live. I… damn it, damn it…!”

Jishuka’s calm voice rose gradually until it turned into shrill, frantic babbling, like a man having a seizure.

“He’ll take it. He’ll accept it. I won’t die… I’m not going to die to a creature like that…”

Through the sound of chattering teeth, Jishuka’s mumbling continued.

Ishar couldn’t see his expression, but he could tell—Jishuka was gripped by fear. He trembled like a man seizing up, pacing around Ishar.

“Why did it come to this? Why? How did that half-blood get power? Why? Why is he hunting me when I did nothing wrong?”

He muttered without pausing to breathe.

Jishuka had clearly lost all composure. His unstable mana spread into the air, and through it, Ishar could feel the thick, heavy fear clinging to him.

“―!”

Suddenly, Jishuka’s hand grabbed Ishar’s jaw and yanked it violently. His jaw felt like it would shatter—but something else hurt more.

As soon as his torso was pulled upright, gravity shifted. Maybe it affected his internal injuries, but a horrible pain tore through his insides like they were being ripped open barehanded.

‘If this lizard freak wants to lose his mind, he should do it alone. Why’s he touching me while I’m lying still?’

He seemed to want to use Ishar as a bargaining chip with the half-blood, but didn’t care if the “product” got damaged.

‘Or maybe he can’t even process that much.’

Even Jishuka’s hand gripping Ishar’s jaw was trembling. A man thrown into a frozen lake in midwinter wouldn’t shake this much.

“You… you’d better be worth something. My siblings, my mother dragon—none of them had worth, I guess. They hunted me. They came after me. Even in the depths of my lair, where no one could come—they destroyed it. All the eggs in my new nest, they… aaah…!”

If not for the gag, Ishar would’ve said, Let go of my jaw and talk to yourself—but all he could do was pray his jaw didn’t actually break under the pressure.

Jishuka kept muttering like a man possessed for a long while, then suddenly fell silent.

Just as Ishar began to wonder why, Jishuka removed the blindfold.

The sudden light stabbing into pitch-black vision made Ishar’s eyes burn. He reflexively shut them tight, opened them again, repeated—and finally began to make out shapes.

The first thing he saw, as expected, was Jishuka’s face, pale blue to the point of violet, in human form.

“Emperor, if you’re worthless, then even if I die, I’ll kill you first.”

Why did Jishuka believe the half-blood would find value in Ishar?

‘Does he think the half-blood wants my mana? Then he’s wasting his time. I already gave almost all my heart’s mana to Velloan, who’s no longer in this world.’

If he were the half-blood, and Jishuka came to trade with this damaged goods, he wouldn’t just kill him—he’d make it painful.