Chapter 34: The Roses Will Bloom Soon (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 34: The Roses Will Bloom Soon (6)
“Have you met the Kyrie siblings, Master?”
Eleven.
As Calian asked the question, the eleventh banana disappeared into his mouth. Another peel joined the growing pile beside his bed.
Alan had rushed over in a panic upon hearing that Silike had barged in, only to find her already gone. In her place, his disciple—who had just opened his eyes for the first time in a week—was casually peeling and eating bananas with a disturbingly carefree expression.
In an instant, Alan’s worry evaporated, replaced by a rising tide of irritation over all the physical and mental exhaustion Calian had put him through.
Alan, who had been seriously contemplating whether it would be acceptable to hit his disciple just once, replied with a sullen look.
“Yes.”
Calian nodded and picked up another banana. Seeing that his disciple had no intention of explaining anything about the peculiar siblings, Alan finally suppressed his anger, unable to contain his curiosity. He cast Silent Magic and asked, “Are they children you knew in your past life?”
“Only Kyrie. Hina wasn’t there.”
Alan was quick-witted. He nodded, needing no further explanation. Then, a sudden realization dawned on him.
“In that case, did you not know that the girl, Hina, was a healer?”
With his mouth full of banana, Calian nodded emphatically.
Alan’s eyebrows shot up.
“So you’re telling me you recklessly neutralized the poison in your body, relying solely on a blessing?”
Calian swallowed the food in his mouth and said with a deeply satisfied expression, “These bananas are delicious.”
Of course they are, Alan thought, fuming. How could anything taste bad to someone who just came back from the dead and is stuffing his face?
He clenched his fists and took a deep breath. He had to endure it. Disciple or not, the boy was still a prince.
“I was surprised to hear it too, Master,” Calian said. “To think she was a healer.”
“All you need to know is that you woke up quickly thanks to her,” Alan retorted coldly.
To his master’s frigid response, Calian replied in a bright voice, “Thanks to her, I feel refreshed.”
At those words, delivered with a radiant smile, the thread of Alan’s barely-held sanity finally snapped.
“Refreshed? Don’t give me that! To counteract the poisoned tea, you ingested some raw, unidentified poison from god-knows-where and were left flat on your back for a week!”
Who else in the world would dare speak to a prince of Kairis like this? Calian stared at Alan blankly for a moment before bursting into laughter. He laughed for quite a while before finally replying.
“It had to be severe enough that Silike couldn’t claim I staged it myself.”
“Staged it yourself? No one would possibly think that.”
Just thinking about it made Alan dizzy.
Calian had planned the performance so meticulously that Alan had assumed he was just faking it, perhaps coughing up a little blood for show.
But Calian hadn’t opened his eyes for a week. It had been a deadly poison spreading through a body already ravaged by the toxins he had been consuming for over two months.
“If Hina hadn’t been a healer who uses nature’s power, or if she hadn’t happened to visit on Tuesday, you still wouldn’t have woken up.”
And that wasn’t all.
A shiver ran down Alan’s spine when he realized Calian had waited for the perfect day to pull this stunt, all while enduring the feeling of his insides melting.
That stubborn brat was already devouring his fifteenth banana, apparently determined to fill his week-starved stomach with nothing else.
“Still, I took care of my part as soon as I woke up, didn’t I?” Calian, whose face was still pale from anemia, smiled again as he referred to his negotiation with Silike.
Sighing in defeat, Alan winced without realizing it as the corner of his lip throbbed. Seeing this, Calian asked, “By the way, what happened to your face, Master? Did you get into a fight?”
“Something came up. Don’t worry about it.” Alan’s expression crumpled as Calian pointed to his lip.
How can a man who does nothing but sit at a desk have such a stinging punch?
Since the story behind his split lip was something he absolutely did not want his disciple to find out, Alan quickly changed the subject. He pulled a knife and two rolled-up sheets of parchment from his breast pocket and handed them over.
Calian slipped the knife under his pillow before unrolling the parchments. “What are these?”
“You said you needed new identity papers for the children, so I had them prepared.”
Calian’s face brightened as he read the documents. “Come to think of it, I was so preoccupied I forgot to ask you.”
“Kyrie mentioned it on your behalf, so it’s fine.”
Nodding as he reviewed the papers, Calian looked up in surprise. “But this is… more than I expected.”
“You won’t have any trouble with their identities.”
It wasn’t just a simple guarantee but proper identification documents. The Kyrie siblings had been registered as commoners of the Whitrin Territory, which belonged to Calian. It was done so perfectly it looked as if they had been his subjects from the very beginning.
And there was one more thing.
As Calian examined the certificates, a bittersweet smile touched his lips.
“I hadn’t even thought of this.”
It was the siblings’ names written on the papers.
– Kyrie Bern, Hina Bern.
Averting his gaze, Calian looked up at his master, who had brought back a name that had vanished from the world. Alan spoke as if it were nothing.
“They needed a last name, so I gave them that one. It didn’t seem like they were children you just happened to pick up.”
“…Thank you.”
As the atmosphere grew heavy, Alan, who hated such moods, changed the subject by pointing to the pile of banana peels.
“Eat some more. Let’s see how many you can fit in there.”
Calian nodded and picked up another banana.
After all, emotion and hunger were two entirely different things.
Suddenly wondering how Alan had managed it, Calian asked, “Wasn’t it difficult to get these made? You don’t have anyone in Kairis to ask…”
He trailed off as he looked up and saw a deeply meaningful expression on Alan’s face.
Recognizing that look, Calian changed his question. “Don’t tell me Lemain made them?”
“I only know three people here, so I asked the one I’ve been seeing most often lately.” Alan continued, lumping the king, the prince, and a duke together as ‘only three people.’ “I was surprised he helped immediately without asking any questions when I told him it was Your Highness’s request.”
“How unexpected. I didn’t think he was someone who would do that.”
A strange smile played on Alan’s lips. It seemed Calian had no idea how much Lemain was worrying about him. Since Calian himself was the direct cause, Alan asked with curious eyes, “I have a question. Because Lemain got much angrier than expected that day, rumors have spread that you are the son the King treasures most.”
“Is that so?” Calian recalled the events of that day and grinned. “I suppose I was lucky.”
The youngest prince—who had successfully prompted the king to call him “my son,” establishing himself as Lemain’s child rather than Freya’s and securing a justification to prevent his mother’s background from hindering his claim to the throne—offered no further explanation.
Of course, those words were more than enough for Alan to grasp the situation.
‘There will be more to gain. Though I’ll need some luck.’
Recalling what Calian had said a few days ago, Alan looked at his disciple’s expression and inwardly shook his head in amazement. He couldn’t help but marvel at how much the prince had gained from swallowing poison just once.
“Thanks to that, Lemain is worrying about you quite a bit. Today, he was even debating whether he should postpone his trip to Roselita.”
Calian shook his head. “In any case, Silike won’t be able to touch me for a while. Now, even if I sneeze, everyone will blame her.”
Having said that, he fell silent for a moment. He raised his arm and carefully circulated his mana. Though still unstable, he could feel a warm yet powerful sensation wrapping around his limb—the power of Aura, protecting his body.
“And by the time Roselita begins, they won’t be able to touch me with ordinary means.”
His heart no longer ached.
Feeling a sense of freedom for the first time since inhabiting this body, Calian smiled with immense satisfaction. Then, mimicking Alan’s earlier secretive expression, he whispered, “I’m actually quite good with a sword.”
Alan chuckled as he looked at his mage disciple.
*
After Alan left, Kyrie silently approached and stood beside Calian’s bed. He’d been told that during the week he was unconscious, Yan and Alan had watched over him by day, and Kyrie by night.
Thus, even after sleeping for an entire week, Calian was able to drift back into a peaceful slumber.
Perhaps that was why.
For the first time since coming to this place, he had a dream.
In the dream, he finally met the child who had been with him all this time.
And they parted ways forever.
Upon waking, Calian wept for a long time.
In the dark dawn just before sunrise, a mage led a prince clad in a black robe out of the royal palace.
A black horse, its front right leg the only one with white fur, walked toward the Senyu River, moving carefully as if worried its barely-upright master might fall.
Standing on the riverbank closest to Chermil Palace, a red flame kindled in the mage’s hand, a substitute for the Annerusia flower that was impossible to find at such an early hour. The flame was the exact color of the departing child’s eyes.
The prince bowed his head toward the flame.
The Senyu was a river that always flowed quietly.
The flower of fire, placed upon the water, drifted away in silence.
The prince only hoped that, as the flower drifted away, no one would cross the bridge.
*
Knight Order Pavel was hastily disbanded and returned to the House of Marquis Brissen.
Alan Manasil declared that he would establish a mage corps.
Lemain ordered the public not to believe the groundless rumors about the royal family.
Calian, who had collapsed coughing up blood, simply said that the cold going around was exceptionally harsh.
And three months passed.
Watching Calian change his clothes for luncheon, Yan’s brow furrowed slightly. He couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that had been creeping up on him lately. “Hmm, Merlin,” he said quietly.
The maid, Merlin, who wore a similar expression, nodded as if she knew exactly what he was thinking.
“Should I go see Dame Slake?”
“Yes. Tell her that it will likely be far too small.”
After the maid Silike had planted on Calian resigned, Merlin had risen to the position directly beneath Yan. She nodded in agreement, intending to convey to Satin, the royal outfitter, that the formal attire tailored a month ago for Calian’s birthday banquet would need to be let out.
Calian had grown so rapidly that the difference was stark even to those who saw him every day.
Though he had always been tall for his age, he was growing remarkably fast now that he had stopped drinking the poisoned tea. It was only natural, considering he now ate so much that Randel stared at him in surprise during breakfast and spent most of his days in grueling physical training with Kyrie.
Yan smiled as he looked at Calian, who was now only about a hand’s breadth shorter than him. Because that smile somehow resembled the one Chase used to give Bern, Calian smiled back.
Having finished his preparations, Calian entered the small banquet hall of Senyu Hall for the luncheon. He froze in his tracks.
Inside the hall were Lemain, Alan, and a man he had never seen before. Since the exact purpose of the luncheon hadn’t been conveyed to Yan, Calian had no idea the king would be present. With a slightly surprised face, he offered his greetings.
“I greet Your Majesty.”
Lemain nodded and gestured for him to sit opposite. Calian walked over and quietly took his seat.
Watching Calian intently, Lemain spoke. “You’ve grown taller. You look even taller than Franz now.”
Calian was far more surprised by those words than by Lemain’s presence. Although he had heard the king had changed, he hadn’t expected him to speak so warmly. His eyes flicked to Alan for a brief, admiring moment.
Just how much did he badger the man to make him change like this?
In truth, Lemain’s change wasn’t due to Alan’s pestering, but to Calian himself, who had personally demonstrated that indifference was no way to keep one’s children alive. Alan had merely informed the king that Calian’s life was in danger; the direct cause of the change was undoubtedly Calian.
Alan sat quietly with an innocent expression, as if he knew nothing. Seeing this, Calian chuckled inwardly and chose an appropriate response.
“Yes, Your Majesty. I have grown a bit.”
“Indeed. You’ve filled out as well. You look well.”
“Thank you.”
Lemain nodded and looked at Alan. Only then did the mage offer a slight bow to Calian and speak.
“I have arranged this meeting to introduce someone to you, Prince.”
Alan gestured to the man beside him. “This is the mage who will be guarding you during Roselita. He will also be able to look after your magic in my stead.”
Calian already knew Alan wouldn’t be accompanying him. He understood that if Alan left the palace at this juncture, establishing the mage corps would be impossible, and it could also pose a threat to Lemain’s safety.
Still, since the House of Duke Siegfried had already sent escort knights, he hadn’t expected a mage escort as well. He looked at the man with anticipation, but soon tilted his head in confusion.
He looks familiar.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, his heart began to pound.
Before he could even realize something was wrong, the man stood up and bowed deeply to Calian.
“It is an honor to meet you, Prince.”
The moment that unforgettable voice pierced his heart, a freezing chill flooded Calian’s chest.
“I am Arsen Hertz.”
Just like on Bern’s final day.