The Approaching Things (5)
He felt the small hand stroking his cheek several times and carefully pulled Ran into his arms.
“The child who once held my hand before he could even open his eyes has come back to me like this.”
Her voice trembled. Ran slowly ran her hand down Marei’s back. The fading warmth of his mother rose in his memory, and without realizing it, Marei rested his chin on her shoulder and squeezed his eyes shut.
How much time had passed? Ran gripped Marei’s shoulders and gently pushed him away. Breathing hard, she lifted a hand toward the red bandage covering her eyes. The moment her fingers reached for the knot, space tore open and a white-gloved hand shot out, seizing her wrist. Seizing was the better word.
“Ran-nim, you know better than anyone that this cannot be allowed.”
As the new voice rang out, the rift in space widened and a woman stepped through.
The first thing he noticed was the long emerald hair that fell all the way to her thighs. She was tall enough to look down on both Ran and Marei. While still gripping Ran’s wrist, the woman’s profile felt both intimately familiar and strangely alien.
“Labella…?”
“…Tsk.”
He had called her Labella, but the woman he mistook for her frowned deeply at Marei and clicked her tongue in open displeasure. Then, as if nothing had happened, she turned back to Ran. Marei could only stare blankly at the two of them.
“Ran-nim. Please calm yourself.”
“Mari’s child has come to see me. Can you not allow me even a moment, Loren?”
At Ran’s words, Marei looked more closely at the emerald-haired woman standing before him.
If Labella was ripe fruit, Loren was something far more dangerous—one that would burst with overwhelming nectar at the slightest touch. She was much taller than Labella. Even beneath a coat worn over her uniform, her hips drew extreme, lethal curves that demanded attention.
“Can you not grant me just a little time? Must I stand before Mari’s child improperly dressed like this? It will only be a moment. Please…”
“It cannot be allowed.”
At the mention of improper dress, Marei’s gaze naturally drifted to Loren’s chest. Between the unfastened buttons, a white bra peeked out, and above it rose an immense valley of cleavage.
“…Avert your eyes before I gouge them out.”
Having noticed his stare, Loren spat the threat without a hint of emotion. The moment Marei looked away, she lost all interest in him and continued speaking to Ran.
“Ran-nim. Calm yourself. You are acting on emotion. This is not like you. Why show such weakness? He is nothing more than a human child.”
“He is not merely a human child. He is Mari’s child. It is precisely because I am calm that I am asking for your permission, Loren. I beg you. I do not wish to hurt you. Even if only for a moment, I want to see that child’s face. Please…”
Loren let out a long sigh. She turned her gaze to Marei. Her purple eyes looked even more rigid than Labella’s had during their first meeting, and the open threat in them left Marei unable to breathe properly.
“Filthy thing. Why does that child… something like this…”
It might have been more accurate to call her a doll than a person. Above her dark violet eyes there was nothing to read. She looked down at him with an expressionless face, and the disgust that dripped from her was so thick he thought he might vomit.
“Loren. You are speaking with me. Why are you tormenting the child?”
“…Understood.”
Loren turned her back to Marei completely. The green dragon crest unique to the Pawen family glittered on the back of the coat draped over her shoulders. Golden chains ran from both shoulders to the back, holding the coat in place.
“Even if I am injured, what cannot be allowed will not be allowed, Ran-nim. Protecting you is part of my duty.”
“Is it not your duty to protect my seal rather than me, Loren?”
“That filthy bitch Mari is so—”
“Loren. Do not test my patience.”
Loren pressed her lips together tightly. Ran was biting her own lip hard. It was clear she was fighting to contain her anger.
“Is that child so important to you that you would allow him to injure me? You, who know how much I have already conceded simply by permitting him to stand here, would say such a thing?”
Seeing that Ran could not answer, Loren exhaled deeply.
“If you recognize how unreasonable this is…”
“What must I offer you?”
Loren pursed her lips. She glanced at Marei. Countless unreadable emotions flashed through her purple eyes.
“Avert your eyes. If you attempt to read me once more, I will take one of them. Tsk. Just like that woman’s child… You inherited a dangerous talent. More dangerous than the child himself.”
“Loren?”
“Seals weaken with time. I know a seal from tens of thousands of years ago can no longer bind you. A seal containing the essence of knowledge so profound that even I and the previous Lord—who has returned to nature—could not comprehend it. You know the original form of this magic circle that has become lost knowledge, do you not?”
“Yes.”
“Using your own power, seal yourself once more. In exchange for this child’s worth.”
Marei could not follow their conversation. He only understood that Ran was being stubborn and that Loren was demanding a price. That was all. Without hesitation, Ran agreed and reached out to Loren.
When Loren opened her palm, metaphysical patterns twisted and overlapped until they formed a dense sphere floating in the air. It was large enough to overturn the heavens. Without the slightest pause, Ran thrust her hand into it. A brilliant light flooded the area.
“Neither that woman nor her bloodline has a single redeeming quality. Ran-nim… why…”
Loren muttered in exhaustion. Her faint lament barely reached Marei’s ears.
“Will this suffice, Loren?”
A child’s voice emerged in front of Loren. She let out a long sigh and quietly stepped aside, no longer blocking the space between Marei and Ran.
The fox girl who had been just a little taller than Marei had vanished. In her place stood a child who barely reached his chest. Unlike a human child whose head seemed too large for its body, she looked like an adult of the other races—much like Philia or Muerangde—simply possessing a small frame. A young fox girl straight out of a comic or novel stood before him.
“…You resemble your mother when she was young.”
“Ran-nim…?”
The child smiled brightly. The talismans that had been stuck thickly to her ears crumbled into black dust and scattered on the wind. The red bandage that had covered her eyes slipped down and hung loosely around her neck.
Vertically slit pupils captured Marei’s image. Within her golden irises, countless metallic fragments floated in intricate patterns—bizarre, mystical, and strangely captivating.
“Come here. Let me hold you, my baby…”
Even though the girl who had looked nearly his age moments ago had become a child, Marei unconsciously dropped to one knee and pulled her into his arms. A nostalgic scent rose from her. A nostalgic warmth flowed from her body. It carried such comfort that he felt he could fall asleep at any moment.
“You’ve grown so much.”
At Ran’s murmur, Marei’s body trembled without his control. He could no longer tell whether it was from sorrow or joy. He simply pressed his face silently against the small child’s chest.
“Did you know I would come, Ran-nim?”
“Yes, but not today. I thought it would be several years from now—around the time you reached adulthood. It has been a few years since I last saw that vision.”
Ran remained kneeling. Loren sat silently beside her, so Marei had no choice but to kneel as well and sit neatly before them. His legs had gone completely numb, yet he dared not show any discomfort under Loren’s silent gaze.
“About Mother’s death…”
“When the Blue Star who walked beside Mari as her life companion lost her light and began to wander, I learned of Mari’s death. Seeing a star that should have left the heavens shine once more, I saw that your fate would bring you through this place when you became an adult… A pleasant mistake, it seems.”
Ran simply smiled, never once taking her eyes off Marei. Loren glanced at her, then began glaring at Marei again. Her expressionless face carried an unmistakable hatred and disgust.
Or at least that was how it felt. In front of Loren, even breathing felt dangerous.
“Ran-nim, since the child is also of the Pawen family, may I intervene?”
“Of course. Loren, in some ways you are more like family to Marei than I am.”
Marei found Loren extremely uncomfortable. He knew it was wrong to think this of an adult, but her expressionless stare filled him with inexplicable fear. She resembled Labella yet felt different—more alluring, more voluptuous. Looking at her made his thoughts drift unconsciously.
“When you greeted the family elder through Labella, did you not learn the proper etiquette?”
“Ah, n-no. L-Loren-nim… I am Marei de Pawen. Please forgive my late greeting. I was too flustered to respond properly.”
Though he had been too shaken to greet her immediately, Marei offered a flawless, courteous bow. He had stuttered from nerves, but Loren did not criticize the lapse.
Most of Labella’s lessons for Marei took place in bed, yet she had also thoroughly taught him basic etiquette and manners.
“This should be school hours. Why are you in a place like this?”
“I lost my way, and when I crossed the red thorai, I found Ran-nim here…”
“You expect me to believe you simply got lost and crossed that barrier?”
Whether a barrier had existed or not, Marei apologized and lowered his head deeply.
Every time Loren’s purple eyes fixed on him, an unknown terror gripped Marei. Even the anger he felt at her for insulting his mother faded beneath that gaze. He could not resist it. His body shrank even smaller.
“Do not press the child too hard, Loren. Marei is also Mari’s child. If he inherited even half of her talent, overcoming such a barrier would not have been difficult.”
It was a name he had rarely heard since arriving in Valter. Thinking back, he might have only heard it during his first meeting with Labella. In the small rural village where he once spent so much time alone, he had thought of his mother every single day. Why did the name now sound so distant?
Every time Ran spoke his mother’s name, Marei wanted to flee. When “Mari” left the lips of Ran and Loren, he felt nothing but guilt—the realization that these two women knew his mother far better than her only son ever could.
“I do not fail to understand, but then how do you explain the holy relic that carries the sticky protection of that vulgar woman?”
“Hmm…”
Ran, who had been exchanging words with Loren, pressed her lips together. Her golden eyes glanced at Marei, then curved gently. She smiled as if she knew everything and everything was fine, then looked up at Loren.
“A personal connection should be acceptable, should it not? Upon inspection, it contains nothing but protection and healing. Is it not an object given with truly pure goodwill?”
“You claim that insane bitch showed someone goodwill…? Ran-nim, the Saintess of this generation is truly out of her mind—”
“I have looked into her as well. I have watched her. Though still immature, she possesses talent I rarely saw even when I existed in the heavens.”
“Before talent, she is a being fundamentally flawed.”
The Erden Fabel Marei knew was incredibly friendly, endlessly kind to him, full of mischief, and always ready to grant his requests.
But Marei, who knew almost nothing about his own mother, lacked the courage to contradict them. He disliked hearing Loren speak ill of someone he cared for, yet even without blood ties, she was an elder of the family, the Governor-General of Valter, and the academy’s chancellor as well.
To Marei, she was an existence higher than the sky itself.
“If any problem arises, would Loren-nim not protect us? With this form and this power, it would be difficult to handle other gods or demons.”
“Ran-nim… I am the dragon who guards your seal. I am not one who protects you.”
“You are the only one I can trust. Please consider our bond. Am I nothing more than a sealed god to you?”
Ran looked at Loren with wide, wounded eyes.