Chapter 202, Ghost (4)

Translator: Hedge

Editor: Lizzz

 

*Clack*

 

A subtle fragrance rose from the tea steeped with hydrangeas.

 

Chase, who had been quietly gazing down at the tea with flower petals settled in it, smiled softly and asked, “I’m not going to drink this and fall asleep again, right?”

 

He had no desire to blame Arianneu for the rest he had been given through that unfamiliar method that remained only in his memory. He knew better than anyone that Arianneu was not someone who would do anything harmful to him.

 

As if she had no intention of hiding what had been in the mint tea she had personally handed over just moments ago, Arianneu answered in a voice that spoke of peaceful everyday matters.

 

“This one’s to wake you up. If you slept that much, you need to properly work.”

 

“Arianneu.”

 

Chase, who had called out to Arianneu as he tried to respond lightly and move on, looked deeply into Arianneu’s eyes.

 

“Stop.”

 

At those words that must have contained too many things he wished Arianneu wouldn’t do, Arianneu made a face as if she didn’t understand and drank her tea. A deep sweetness different from sugar filled her mouth.

 

“Don’t push yourself. You don’t have to step forward anymore, and you don’t need to worry about me either.”

 

Though it was a gentle voice, his eyes held firm resolve.

 

“I’m not as precarious as you think I am. If necessary, I have no intention of avoiding anything.”

 

All the hydrangea petals in the teacup were white.

 

Chase knew that they were the kind of flowers that could change to purple, or blue, or pink at any time.

 

Chase had changed too.

 

Self-absolution was not important. Justification was something created, and cause was ultimately just another word for self-rationalization.

 

When even a mere flower changes color if the ground it stands on is different, why should a person be unable to change?

 

‘She had long ears but cut them short, and though she can’t speak, she scolds with sign language and likes the birds and dogs. She takes good care of cats and is especially good at writing letters on cat collars. She eats ice cream well.’

 

One white petal that had been floating in the teacup sank into the tea. Conversely, words he had once heard rose up on a fragment of memory.

 

‘…She’s alive. So, I’m alright.’

 

What Bern had lost. What she had thereby gained.

 

Bern, who had lost his life, the one and only thing he had been able to obtain in exchange for losing everything.

 

That was Hina.

 

That was also justification and cause for Chase. He thought he did not need something like absolution. If Debeullan was determined to summon Kalian and Hina to this land, he would stop him by any means. He would stop them no matter what he had to do.

 

He had resolved himself in that manner.

 

“So don’t hurt that child.”

 

[Please. Don’t push a child who has already fallen into the abyss any further. Please.]

 

“I refuse.”

 

Arianneu’s answer was quick and straight.

 

Chase knew that she had conversed with Kalian behind his back. Arianneu, meeting those violet eyes that saw through everything about what secrets she had told Kalian and what demands she had made, spoke again.

 

“I trust you. I trust everything you say. What happened and what will happen, how we met our end, I believe all of it. I don’t doubt you. Really.”

 

Arianneu’s finger pointed somewhere beyond the door as she said this.

 

“If that person lives longer, we’ll ultimately end up in the same situation, right? Walking the same path, hiding under the same shade your younger brother created, and dying the same way, right? I believe all of that too. Even if I hadn’t heard those words, I could find a hundred reasons why that person needs to disappear right now. But the only reason I’m not taking Taillan there right now is just one thing. Because of you.”

 

Even if its color changes, a hydrangea was and always still be a hydrangea.

 

Whether it was white or pink or blue, in the end it would always be a hydrangea. It does not become a Reunieri or an Aldinia or a Cinnastar.

 

In the end, Chase would still be Chase.

 

“What’s wrong with hurting them right now? They won’t die from it. What’s wrong with playing the villain once? Everyone lives doing bad things. Your younger brother isn’t such a weak person, right? He has many good people around him, right? Then you don’t need to be bound there too. That healer, your younger brother can protect her on his own. You don’t need to push yourself and just focus on protecting yourself. Similarly, I’ll protect the man who can’t sleep and drinks properly.”

 

Hearing those words, Chase, who had been in a daze, raised one hand and covered his face. A low, small laugh leaked out.

 

It was a laugh that fully contained the thought that he must be incredibly unreliable.

 

“Then who protects you, Arianneu?”

 

“My mother.”

 

At the answer that came out as if it were obvious, Chase’s laughter grew a bit louder. Instead of calculating how long it had been since she’d heard such laughter, Arianneu just took another sip of tea. Chase, who had stopped laughing, followed Arianneu and put the same thing to his lips.

 

“Then who protects Marquis Lyn?”

 

“Mother doesn’t need anyone to protect her.”

 

“Oh?”

 

The hydrangea tea tasted as good as the mint tea.

 

It was less sweet than sugar but sweeter than sugar in a way that was pleasing.

 

“But I don’t drink as much as I used to.”

 

“You drink more than before you went to Cyries.”

 

“Even so, compared to what you drink in one sitting…”

 

“Lips.”

 

[…Alright.]

 

* * *

 

Luci liked things that could not be caught in its hands.

 

It liked rainwater flowing beyond the window or insubstantial light. It tried to catch them by any means necessary.

 

It was impossible to know from whom it had learned to be so greedy. However, what was certain was that none of Luci’s owner Kalian, Hina who cared for Luci, or Plants whom Luci liked best, had ever taught it that.

 

“Luci.”

 

He called out because it was struggling to catch the shadow coming through the window. In case it would be disappointed reaching for something it could not catch.

 

*Meoooow.* It was as if it was asking why this could not be caught, or as if it was asking him to catch it for cute little Luci. So, Plants opened his mouth toward Luci once more.

 

“Come here.”

 

*Meow.* When chasing things around, it chases them quite willfully, but when called to come, it does not come and makes crying sounds from afar. Unable to tell if it was whining or if it wanted to say something else, Plants just walked to Luci and picked up the silver-white young cat.

 

Though young, it had grown a lot.

 

It had grown too large to go in and out through door cracks. Thanks to that, they had made one more small door in each of all the doors from the first to fourth floors of Chermil Palace. Wilhelm Hall had also undergone repairs once. He remembered Rerik telling him that because that small one had been as welcome as spring to everyone, no one found it troublesome.

 

Anyway, after those days, having been well-fed here and there and grown up big and strong, Luci had become incredibly heavy. When lifting it before, he had felt like it popped right up, but now it stretched out long and far…

 

Just when he was becoming curious about how far it would stretch, Plants, who finally lifted Luci’s rear end off the ground by supporting its hind legs, chuckled. It was because he wondered if it might actually be a white weasel rather than a cat.

 

*Mreoow!* As if Luci somehow knew what he was laughing, Luci picked a fight as if annoyed.

 

“I laughed because you stretched, so what?” So, Plants, whose personality was someone who was not to be outdone anywhere, got annoyed right alongside it. He talked back to it ‘meow!’ as a retort as well.

 

Whether or not it knew that if Rerik saw Plants like this, he would think the world must be ending tomorrow and reflect on his life at least once, Plants spent quite a while fighting with Luci that way.

 

On that afternoon when Luci, who had been sitting on Plants’s lap pressing down on his thigh, making strange growling sounds for a while, nodded off drowsily and finally fell asleep.

 

‘I am Luci, I am Prince Kalian’s cat, who likes Prince Plants more.’

 

Plants, who had been looking down for a long time at the strange collar that had gotten even longer despite having a name, quietly closed his eyes following Luci.

 

[‘My older brother, who has never owned anything and therefore has nothing to lose.’]

 

He had said he was probably still unhappy, and. The thought suddenly came to him.

 

[Did that bastard with nothing to possess but so damn much to protect have that expression because the things to protect had increased? Or was he making that expression because things he could lose had appeared?]

 

Plants, who had that thought, opened his eyes silently.

 

A sigh leaked out, thinking whether he should now feel not just a generation gap but even cross-national regional cultural differences beyond that, given how his younger brother, who absolutely never reveals his forgotten name or past age, only rattles on endlessly about ‘whales’ he had never even seen.

 

He had thought he disliked it because the coffee had the scent of Reunieri.

 

“Maybe he couldn’t drink it because it smelled fishy like the sea?”

 

Why he had placed that coffee in front of him, whether wanting to drink it or needing to, but ultimately never touched it and instead ate an enormous amount of food. Suddenly curious about the reason, Plants closed his eyes again.

 

* * *

 

He had not opened the letter.

 

“I hope it’s not a resignation letter. Or is it?”

 

Kalian, who had kept Arsene waiting as punishment during his meeting with the royal wardrobe keeper, Satinn, looked down at the unopened envelope and asked this.

 

Arsene, whose face showed he wanted to leave even though that small door made for Luci to pass through if given the chance, nodded his head.

 

“It’s a reflection letter, Your Highness. If I brought a resignation letter, I thought you might cut me off in this world rather than Valkan, so I just reflected a lot.”

 

He calls a resignation letter a resignation letter, but this is a reflection letter, not an incident report or an apology letter. Even that word choice was so typical of a Mage that Kalian, whose curiosity about the contents was fully aroused, looked down at the letter with an expectant face.

 

“I’ll read it when I’m bored.”

 

Then he put the letter down on one side of the table without opening it.

 

Seeing Kalian’s attitude, it seemed there was no worry for the time being about an Arunesia for Arsene floating on the Senu River, so Arsene was relieved for now.

 

After that, he realized it was time to think about how to get rid of a letter that would go into the safe in the bedroom of a Mage and Sword Master staying on the third floor of Chermil Palace, protected by Syspanian’s Magic.

 

[Should I get rid of the entire safe?]

 

This crazy underling, who was contemplating how to open the safe first without thinking about the infiltration process, then remembered that thanks to the ocean-like allowance coming from that very safe, his pocket had actually become more prosperous after his salary disappeared…

 

After all, hadn’t Kalian been continuously giving him double his original salary to replace the salary reduced from exploding Heisia Palace? So, he could not get rid of the safe. His livelihood was there.

 

“Can’t you just read it now or get rid of it for me?”

 

“Why? It seems like it will be fun to read when I have the time.”

 

Arsene’s reflection letter, why wouldn’t he open it already?

 

Someday when a day comes it was a bit more suffocating than today, Kalian would open it then. Since Mages’ correspondence had always exceeded one’s imagination, on such a day when he could not breathe even in the upstairs room where a pea exists, that was the day Kalian should open it.

 

With this thought, Kalian made a face full of mischief.

 

“Lord Hertz.”

 

“Yes, Your Highness.”

 

A cool yet sweet fragrance was fully felt from the green-colored tea filled with dried pears. He thought it suited Arsene quite well.

 

A fragrance that reminded him of the moonlit night sea of Secritia, but also of the artificial lake on a certain night when red flames rose into the sky, so at least for today, Kalian, who quite liked that tea, smiled slightly.

 

“What do you protect as you live, Lord Hertz?”

 

Arsene, who received the sudden question, looked at Kalian for a while, looked down at the dried pears in his teacup, and stared at the reflection letter he had written.

 

Arsene, who had wondered why this question was being asked, answered in a light voice.

 

“I just protect things as they come.”

 

Arsene gave an answer with quite a mature smile toward Kalian, whose eyes asked what that meant.

 

“I keep my Master’s words, I keep my pride in front of the Commander, I keep some of my convictions in front of the Your Highness Deputy Commander, and in front of the Enclave Head, I keep my wits about me.”

 

Arsene, who had been listing the things he had protected one by one like this, concluded.

 

“I also protect Valkan.”

 

Since Kalian was not the only person who had protected many things, in this world where everyone lives holding an armful of things to protect, in front of the second underling who said he would protect him, Kalian drank his tea once more.

 

*Clack.*

 

Kalian, who put down his teacup, raised his clearly shining red eyes and looked at Arsene.

 

“Then add just one more thing there.”

 

“What should I protect from what?”

 

Whether it’s the Beurisen, Zeon, or an unknown enemy.

 

Or, even the King of Secritia. From all of those things.

 

“The seat I will take.”

 

In short, ‘with that power and influence you have, clear away what lies in my path and properly protect my way forward. Protect my way to the throne. If you do so, I will face Evan, protect Plants, enter Camilon, meet the Elves to find out about Zeon, protect Randel, protect Rmain too, and perhaps even protect the world. That way, I will…’

 

“Meanwhile, I will protect just one person, Hina.”

 

To the Mage who had been forced to change how and what he had protected all his life, Kalian made such a request.