Chapter 286: Truly Beautiful (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 286: Truly Beautiful (4)
The sun began to rise.
Inside a carriage finer than the guest rooms of most lords' castles, the prince—who was actually quite gentle once you got to know him—was asleep. With the prince occupying the carriage, the baby duck had been temporarily displaced and now slept in the arms of its blue-haired mother. Across from them, the purple-haired mage, who had been chatting amiably just a moment ago, had also drifted off. By now, even the spy-turned-swordsman, who had remained wary of the mage for the entire journey, had finally fallen asleep.
“I heard you couldn’t sleep during the last journey either. Wouldn’t it be better to close your eyes, even for a bit?”
“Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I am fine. I woke up early.”
“Weren’t you cold?”
“No. Thanks to the efforts of Sir Seiren and Sir Hertz, I was comfortable.”
“I see.”
The sky was tinged with the light of dawn. The early morning mist, heavy with moisture, hung halfway up the mountain.
Calian, who had asked to ensure the others sleeping atop the mountain wouldn’t be cold, had spent the night outside the range of the warming magic himself. He looked into the distance and spoke.
“Yesterday, I could see the city down there, and even the sea. But now, it’s actually harder to see.”
“It will be visible once the sun is fully up. Is that what you were waiting for?”
“No, not really…”
Leaning against the back of Raven—who was sleeping facedown just as before—Calian smiled faintly. He accepted the teacup Kyrie handed him. The welcoming scent of mint, always a pleasure, wafted up in gentle curls of steam.
“When I sit like this, I rise and fall with Raven’s every breath. I liked the feeling, so I just kept sitting here.”
Kyrie nodded, his gaze following Calian’s.
Over the rocky mountain, submerged in a mix of darkness, faint sunlight, and morning mist, Calian’s quiet voice drifted down.
“Teilan Castrin. He was my swordsmanship master. Did I ever mention that?”
“Yes. You told me once.”
“Right. He suggested we build another barrier around there, but I didn’t think it was necessary, so I postponed it. There was already a barrier at the entrance, and there were too many other things to do. I told myself to delay it just for a bit, but in the end, I never got to build it.”
Watching the banks of mist shift in the quiet wind made him feel as if he were standing on water.
“And over that way is Margrave Heisad’s territory. The margrave back then had requested financial support.”
Calian added a murmur to himself that there was likely a different margrave now, then continued.
“Anyway, opinions were divided on whether to increase the margrave’s power. I opposed it, and Arianne was in favor. Ah, Arianne was a highly capable marquis’s daughter who was both my friend and Brother Chase’s betrothed, so the three of us often shared our thoughts like that. In any case, Brother Chase sided with me. He was worried the margrave might rebel.”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. But as soon as he found out the Kairis army had appeared on this path, he was the very first to try and block this pass. Even though he must have known that the sturdy barrier we saw on our way here had been breached so easily, he led a knight order without a single mage and blocked the way down there. Well… they were wiped out. Just like the barrier, in an instant.”
A soft laugh escaped Calian.
It was a story with absolutely no humor in it, yet he laughed for a while before speaking again, his voice still carrying a trace of amusement.
“I regretted those things quite a lot. I should have built the barrier. I should have supported the margrave.”
Kyrie silently inhaled the aroma of the tea in his hand. The pleasant scent of mint wafting from the perfectly brewed tea felt a little bitter.
“If I had eliminated those regrets one by one, would we have lasted just one more day? If we had bought just one more day, wouldn’t something have changed, even if only a little?”
One day.
A mere day.
If they had just one more day, wouldn’t the world have changed? Lost in such thoughts, he had stayed awake all night, until the late-rising moon climbed the sky and the first rays of sunlight began to spread.
“…Did you spend the night with such memories?”
“I’m just saying they came to mind. It’s not like I’m still regretting it now.”
Kyrie nodded.
“But thinking about it, I realized I had already bought a day back then.”
Calian held the teacup with both hands, uncharacteristically blowing on it to cool it down before taking a soft sip. Afterward, he looked down at the gradually dispersing mist and spoke.
“After the flood in Tensil, a lot of refugees came. We couldn’t just accept them all blindly, so we detained every refugee we found crossing the rugged mountains. I went there to assess the situation and decide on a solution, and there was this incredibly eye-catching fellow among them. A scrawny, tall guy with eyes that looked ready to kill everyone at a moment’s notice. So, I took only him and returned to the royal palace for the time being.”
A small smile played on Kyrie’s lips.
Though he knew nothing of the story, it felt strangely like listening to an old tale about himself.
“While I was picking up that one guy, Brother Chase decided to accept all the refugees, and the King of Secritia told him to do so.”
“I thought you were going to say they weren’t accepted because relations with Tensil were bad.”
“No. The King of Secritia was always generous to Brother Chase. Since it was Brother Chase’s request, he agreed to everything. Instead, not long after, a massive fire broke out where the refugees were being housed temporarily. Strangely enough, every single one of them died. No one escaped.”
As the story—far too grim to be a fond memory—unfolded, Kyrie turned his head toward Calian.
Taking another sip of his mint tea with an expression of someone sharing a trivial anecdote, Calian continued.
“The night that news reached the royal palace, the guy I had picked up broke into my room. Holding a knife. I knew he had sharp ears, but I didn’t expect him to use them to find his way to my room.”
Calian chuckled softly.
It wasn’t a story to laugh at, but he laughed because this time, the refugees of Tensil had not sought refuge in Secritia. Kairis had provided proper support, and any refugees who did come to Kairis were fully accepted. Unlike in the past, they were not executed.
Since it now remained solely as his own memory, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Anyway, when I asked him what he was thinking, he asked if it was my doing. I said yes. Even back then, I wasn’t very good at lying, and I planned to tell him the truth and then just kill him. We were both out of our minds. But what he said after hearing my answer was truly something else.”
“What did he say?”
“He asked me where my dad’s bedroom was.”
A laugh finally escaped Kyrie’s lips as well.
“Seriously. He acted like he was going to march right over there with that little knife. I barely managed to stop him and sit him down. Then he said: ‘From now on, if you have anything you want to say, say it all. In exchange for learning how to use a sword, I’ll listen to everything. I’m good at listening.’”
Raven stirred slightly in his sleep. Calian, nearly crushed by the massive head, patted Raven back to sleep and continued.
“Thanks to him, I survived, Kyrie. Because he listened to everything.”
Thanks to that man who had listened silently without asking a single question, even when he went mad, he had somehow been able to return to his senses.
He didn’t say that it was that very man who had bought him his final day. He felt that even without putting it into words, Kyrie would understand.
“Will you tell me where it is this time?”
“The King of Secritia’s bedroom?”
“Yes.”
“Is that why you went to my brother and told him you would go with him?”
Kyrie, who had approached Franz while waiting for Calian outside the royal palace to say he would accompany him, said nothing. Calian gazed briefly toward where Secritia would be and spoke in a quiet, rustling voice.
“I’m the one who brought up the past, yet I’m the one who’s sleepy.”
“Please sleep, even if just for a little. I will be here.”
“Should I…?”
Calian, who could only let his guard down and rest in front of his master, closed his eyes. Beside Kyrie—the only one who could make him feel safe enough to fall asleep.
“I’ll tell you where it is. Since I have a good sword now, I want to have good dreams too.”
The words slipped out just before he drifted off.
Calian’s good sword looked down at the good sword Calian had given him and nodded.
* * *
Which would come first?
He had been standing still, pondering this, when a soft cough reached his ears. Hearing the sound, Chase slowly closed and opened his eyes.
He had repeatedly confirmed that the coughing, which had been gradually worsening, had plateaued at some point. Since Louise had stopped burning the sleep incense, there would have been no further poisoning, so the progression of the illness must have slowed.
Furthermore, Devlan no longer even drank water carelessly. Suspicious of the very poisons he had ordered made, he couldn't find peace of mind in anything. Eating, drinking, wearing, touching, breathing—none of it would feel safe to him.
He didn’t even summon Chase to his office anymore. He couldn’t trust what Chase, a swordsman, might do in a closed space.
As these thoughts crossed Chase’s mind, he suddenly grew curious.
Will you die of illness first, or will you bury yourself in a grave of suspicion and go mad? Or will I, unable to endure any longer, be the first to stain my sword with your blood?
“I summoned you because I have a task for you.”
An hour.
This time, too, he had been kept waiting for exactly one hour.
The only difference was that on the first day, he had been made to sit silently in the office. Now, he was made to stand in the middle of the royal garden.
Even if snow wasn’t falling, a sharp wind still blew through Secritia. The single jacket he had worn to meet Devlan indoors was hardly enough to block the chilly air.
While Chase stood alone among Devlan’s royal guards—men who would never speak of today’s events to anyone—his fingertips freezing bright red, Devlan, clad in an excessively thick overcoat, didn’t even spare him a glance.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Just how far do you intend to drag me down? Did you trample on my younger brother like this in the past, without even hiding your pettiness?
“Please speak.”
Even after an hour’s wait, Chase’s response was calm. Devlan continued.
“It was the Second Prince who insisted on seeing this country’s sea for his birthday, yet I find myself wondering why those who accompanied him are all the Third Prince’s people.”
He understood the two princes going together to meet the Elf Grand Elder, Narzan. A large number of Valkan members had escorted them, and their destination was the city of the elves, who were allied with Kairis.
But this was Secritia.
“The two princes have joined and parted hands so many times to manipulate the nobles, surely for mutual benefit. Yet this matter has none of that, does it?”
He had known from the start that the stubborn insistence on a birthday trip was a mere excuse. Pulling this stunt right after visiting the elf city together was an obvious play—so obvious it would be harder not to see it as a blind to get to Secritia. And since it was just a pretext, Calian likely hadn’t cared whether Devlan saw through it or not.
“What does the Second Prince gain from this? On a journey that is purely dangerous, what did he trust to agree to act as the Third Prince’s pretext, without a single one of his own people?”
The problem was the composition of the group. It was a perfect setup for Calian to slit Franz’s throat right now and frame Devlan, claiming, ‘Devlan, insulted by Lemain, recklessly attacked the party, resulting in Franz’s death.’ For Calian, it would be an incredibly effective and flawless method. He could push Devlan, who had already cast suspicious eyes on him, before Lemain’s blade, while eliminating a rival with his own hands.
Yet, the Second Prince had accompanied him to such a place without a single person of his own.
“Is the Second Prince so reckless as to fall for a few coaxing words about seeing the sea? Is he so foolish as to not know the danger of the Third Prince bringing only his own people as an escort? Or, if not that, is he so foolishly sentimental as to willingly play the part of a pretext for the younger brother he risked his life to protect?”
The prince who was said to have a fierce temper and always kept alcohol close.
The prince who had blocked Silike when she tried to attack Calian, casting his own mother aside with his own hands.
Which of the two was his true self? Or…
“If none of the above… could it be that all of it is a lie?”
Devlan finally took his eyes off a cluster of red begonias that had not yet withered and continued.
“I finally understand why you advised me to meet him in person. If even his companion hides so much, how grand must the things the Third Prince himself is concealing be? The more I think about it, the more curious he makes me. How could I not be pleased?”
Soon, Devlan pulled a pocket watch from his coat with a leisurely movement. After a brief glance at the time, he looked at Chase’s fingertips, which were frozen as red as the begonias, and spoke again.
“Since my pleasure is so great, I must show him a fitting reception. Therefore, you shall go. Go, welcome him warmly, and bring him here.”
At Devlan’s words, Chase’s fingertips tensed. He closed and opened his eyes once more.
“The distance is far, making it difficult for me to leave the royal palace to greet him in person. I shall send someone…”
“Go in person, Chase.”
Devlan wore a relaxed smile.
“Forgetting what you have left in the royal palace for a moment and getting some fresh air will be of great help to you as well.”
Marquis Lin, Arianne, and Louise.
Since you have left all of them inside this royal palace, which is like my own embrace, leave your post for a while and go. I will take good care of what you’ve left behind, so you needn’t worry.
And then.
“There is no need to do that.”
A cold, unfamiliar voice cut in.
Devlan’s brow twitched as he turned toward the sound.
Overshadowed by the names of Euria and Arsen, no one had paid attention to the mage Rachel Grace. But by borrowing her power, the guests had arrived with incredible speed and were now standing there. The messenger birds carrying reports of their rapid travel had tried to deliver the news, but Chase’s agents had diligently shot them down.
Click, click.
Following the unfamiliar voice, the familiar, quiet sound of heels approached the red begonia garden. It was Royal Concubine Louise.
“I received word that the distinguished guests had arrived while Your Highness was away from your office. Thus, I welcomed them in haste.”
Louise finished her brief explanation in a calm voice. Behind her, the two princes slowly approached.
Long red cloaks and black formal suits. Though they wore identical princely attire, their completely different faces and expressions stood out.
“Why are you out here dressed like this in such cold weather? It looks as if you are being punished.”
Calian's words followed, his tone seeming to carry the sweet scent of the begonias, making it hard to believe he was the one who had spoken so coldly just a moment ago.
“What if you catch a cold?”
Long, pale fingers moved.
Calian unfastened his own thick cloak—a shade redder than the begonias, adorned with a rich black fur trim draping over one shoulder. He walked up behind Chase, draped the cloak over him with his own hands, and slowly returned to his spot.
“……Brother Chase.”
His voice was softer than ever before.
Franz, who had been scowling deeply and complaining that the scent of red begonias was annoying, let a long, slow smirk spread across his lips upon hearing those words.
The distinct crest of the Kairis royal family, embroidered on the red cloak, fluttered briefly in the wind.