In a world where history is written in the blood of the earth—literal, magical ink—power is measured by the length of one's Bestiary Contract. The nobility maintain their grip on the kingdom of Oakhaven through the forced servitude of "familiars," creatures once revered as gods but now reduced to mere tools for war. King Alaric, driven by a thirst for absolute dominion, enforces the brutal extraction of ink from these dying beings. His son, Park Jinyoung, grows up within the velvet-lined walls of the palace, harboring a dangerous, secret empathy for the creatures his father treats as disposable. The facade shatters the night Jinyoung stumbles upon the Royal Archive, a vault restricted even to princes. There, he unearths the Chronicle of Origins—a text the monarchy has spent centuries erasing. He discovers the harrowing truth: humanity was not the master of this world, but its appointed stewards, created by the ancient species to protect the sanctity of life. The "Bestiary Contracts" are not a gift, but a parasite, and the King’s quest for godhood is the final, catastrophic stage of an ancient, stolen legacy. Fearing for his life and his sanity, Jinyoung flees the capital under the cover of a moonless night. He travels until his strength fails, collapsing in the uncharted ruins of the Whispering Wilds. (Jinyoung doesn’t meet the creatures until he ran out of the kingdom, meaning everyone is introduced later on instead of the beginning)