Chapter 249: What Ren Was to Them

The boy’s appearance revealed the moment he tilted back his hat.

The gold bracelet with a pendant jingling at his wrist.

The familiar object came into sight, and syllables burst from Peruan’s mouth before he even knew what he was shouting.

Peruan merely stood frozen, dazed, like someone facing a dazzling source of light.

He had clearly seen Ren, so why had he been unable to call him or hold him back?

The words he had spoken quickly evaporated, leaving no trace anywhere in Peruan’s mind.

“I should not have let you go like that, but the ship must have already left, yes? Perhaps you may have already arrived at the Etaia Kingdom by now.”

A reddish hue settled in his purple eyes. Tears beaded like dew sparkled as they caught the light.

“I do not know whether I may go find you.”

The only news Peruan, after returning to the kingdom, had been able to hear about Ren was that he had left the kingdom.

After that, he searched for him like a madman, and at some point, Peruan began wandering from one harbor city to another.

Like a person who had lost his purpose.

His memories after that were blurry, and only the memory that he had witnessed Ren here remained like an afterimage.

It was strange.

An odd sense of déjà vu and guilt stayed faintly inside his heart.

“Because there seemed to be no coercion upon you.”

As he boarded the ship, he was being carefully attended by a maid like any other noble.

Wearing clothes Peruan had never once seen before.

If not for his shining blond hair and his transparently clear green eyes, Peruan probably would not have recognized him.

If Ren had not lifted his hat, Peruan would have missed him right before his eyes.

For an instant, his heart throbbed. As if such a thing had happened before.

“Was it something you chose yourself?”

Perhaps the kingdom had given Ren freedom.

Because he was the Hero’s younger brother. Perhaps they had decided that his sibling was enough loyalty to offer the kingdom.

If he had left after abandoning everything.

Then it would not be right for Peruan to search for Ren.

Seeing as not a single letter had reached him, perhaps Ren was trying to leave forever from everything tied to the kingdom.

Peruan did not want to go against Ren’s will.

“But I believe I, too, have the right to ask at least once.”

“When I was in pain.”

“There was no one to hold my hand like this.”

“I did not know...... something like this could make me all right.”

......Because you had said that the first one to hold your hand when you were in so much pain was clearly me.

Leaving behind the morning scenery noisily filling with color, Peruan rose.

His body trembled finely from the remnants of the nightmare.

However, that nightmare could not cast darkness over Peruan. Because the early morning sun had driven away every shadow.

And the nightmare Peruan had dreamed was something far too unrealistic.

For Peruan, who had faced the person he loved for the first time in his life, to forget that person.

It was truly horrifying, and yet absurd beyond words.

***

The atmosphere of the royal palace was unsettled.

It was because the Heroes and the king had not shown themselves since the first day of the banquet.

Even setting aside the maid who had been taken away after committing wrongdoing, the absence of the main figures of victory seemed to have cooled the heat somewhat.

“Is the young king afraid of victory?”

Fortunately, however, the nobles did not care all that much.

It was also because of the previous rumors about Ragniel.

“His illness must have flared again. He had better hide it well.”

Tsk, the sound of someone clicking his tongue echoed through the palace.

It was already the third day since the king had failed to appear at morning court.

“It is a little concerning that even Lord Giselle has not come out.”

“Who can know that? Men, by nature, know how to indulge in pleasure to a suitable degree, do they not? They say the Heroes have not been seen these past few days, so who knows which woman’s arms they may be in.”

“How can you say such a thing!”

Thud! The one who stomped his foot was the margrave.

“Are you huffing and puffing because you are angry too?”

“You would do well to watch your words.”

A cold voice cut through the air, which had grown hot enough to flare.

It was Marquis Kinea.

After glancing at the empty seat of honor, he looked around at the faces of those gathered there.

Though it was morning, the ministers’ faces were already flushed as if they were drunk.

The nobles who raised their heads and confirmed the owner of the voice clicked their tongues and closed their mouths.

Because there was nothing to gain from arguing with that upright man.

“I will meet His Majesty myself, so it would be best to end today’s session here.”

“Tsk! What state is the country going to fall into when the king does not come to morning court?”

“Ah, now that I think of it, should we not attend the funeral as well?”

“Hm? Ah, you mean that unlucky priest.”

“Were we not supposed to attend on the second day of the banquet?”

“It seems His Majesty forgot.”

The words continued, asking what they would do if the High Priest grew angry, and the nobles took the opportunity to head to the place where Priest Kirky’s funeral was being held.

***

“It seems you should not leave your post any longer.”

“I understand.”

“Lord Giselle. Perhaps you should be seen by a physician?”

The aide seemed to think Giselle was suffering from an illness. Well, looking at him, skin and bones within only a few days as though his life had been sucked out, anyone would think that.

“It is not that.”

After answering calmly, Giselle dismissed the aide. After the aide left, Giselle immediately rose.

There is no information about the “failure” of the “ritual” laid over the Forest of Aked.

Perhaps death is the price of it.

Giselle was drying up. His authority was now truly only about the size of one porcelain plate.

He raised his hand and looked at his own arm, like a dried tree branch. The hand, with every knuckle standing out, was unsightly.

Whether this phenomenon was because he was holding on to Ragniel’s breath, or because of the failure of the ritual.

Since he had tried to erase one human being, this much recoil was something he had to endure.

Giselle felt nothing about it.

Because he had also tried to kill Ren.

For Ragniel’s perfect stability.

But now that Ragniel’s breath was hanging by a thread.

What meaning was there in anything?

Click.

“.......”

“.......”

Two pairs of eyes gathered on Giselle.

They belonged to Luman and Geloman.

Giselle passed over the gazes gathered on him and approached the bed.

Even though the window with its curtains drawn back let bright sunlight in and filled the room, it still felt dark.

The famous painting hanging on the wall, the vase on the table, the books filling one wall, even the glittering chandelier all seemed to have lost their light, looking like cold plaster.

It felt as though the light of the world was fading.

“Giselle.”

Geloman broke the silence and approached Giselle.

He carefully took Giselle’s arm and examined his appearance.

“It looks like your breath will stop first. Do you need to go to the Sorse at least? We do not know anything, so I think you will have to give the instructions.”

“There is no need. Everything requires a price.”

“......Stubborn fool.”

There was nothing Geloman could do except click his tongue.

He supported Giselle and sat him down beside the bed.

“Luman. How long are you going to stay like that? Come over here.”

“The question is wrong, Geloman. How long, you ask. I received a wound I will never be able to repay forever. Do you even know the heart of someone who cannot bear to go, and yet remains here to add his authority?”

Luman did not move from his place and murmured in a drained voice. His gaze, too, stayed on his own hand.

A fox-shaped keychain.

Even without asking who had given it to him, it seemed obvious.

“To me.”

Luman swallowed his words.

He did not want to confess to someone else the confession he could not make to Ren.

Ren was...... to him, Ren was.......

A joy great enough to throw away the ordinary life he had wished for all his life.

He wanted to preserve the wish he had held exactly as it was and give it to Ren.

The ordinariness and joy of daily life, the peace that came from being ordinary.

Everything Ren had not been able to enjoy in childhood, Luman wanted to gift to him.

He had wanted Ren to be free from all these things: the royal castle and Heroes, mission and greater cause, conviction and loyalty.

He had wanted to cut away all the bad things that must have become tangled around him because he was the Hero’s younger brother.

And so, it had been a heart that loved without daring to be greedy.

He, [N O V E L I G H T] who had been devoured by authority and had lost his humanity, who had been used as one tool beneath the enormous names of greater cause and kingdom.

The one who had made him human.

Was Ren.

To him, Ren’s existence was no different from God.

Because he had found for him the heart he had lost.

Luman had chased gold all his life, but what he wanted to have was not cold gold.

It was a heart.

A heart that truly loved.

Drip, drip.

Tears fell. The tears flowing beneath his dense eyelashes fell endlessly, wetting his cheeks and lips.

He would never have known that tears were this salty either, if not for Ren.

“Luman.”

Geloman opened his thick lips to say something more, but Giselle cut in.

Even at his call, the back of Luman’s head did not move at all.

“Geloman. Temar, Verdi.”

And Giselle was silent for a moment.

The small steps that had fled with wide-open eyes, the figure staggering as it moved away, vaguely brushed through his mind.

After that rose the defiant eyes of the boy who had asked if that was enough now.

Eyes filled with all the fresh green of spring. The gaze that sometimes seemed to pierce Giselle appeared in empty air, as though looking at him.

When he even called the names of the Heroes who were not present, Luman turned his head.

“I am sorry.”

“.......”

“.......”

That was the end.

Without any further explanation or excuse, Giselle apologized.

After that, the room sank into silence again.