The road I took, searching only for you... is there any need to explain it?
Ren. The moment I learned what danger you were in, I could not think of anything else.
I don’t know how to put it. If I’d known this would happen, I would have read more books.
The only things I can recite are Laliuke’s love poems, so I have no way to explain what I went through.
Ren.
It felt as though darkness had swallowed every light.
The light of reason went out, and beastlike instinct ran wild. For the first time, I understood Temar. Your brother was not mad or strange, Ren. Perhaps it was only natural. No, or am I simply the mad one?
Ren, you do not need to know any of this. Even if you learn it one day, you do not have to think anything of it. Because while you were the one who stole my reason and drove me mad, in the end, you were also the one who let me hold on to the last of it.
You need not know that either.
Only that you were safe.
Only then could I finally breathe, Ren.
How I came this far does not matter.
Because finding you is the only thing that means anything.
Only that, after staying awake for days and nights on the open sea, tracking you, I finally reached you.
***
The devastation underground did not enter Luman’s eyes.
Ren saw the golden light pour down from the ceiling with a tremendous crash, and Luman appear within it.
But Luman felt the exact opposite.
From below, a beautiful golden light, bright as a flash, shone on him.
That light poured toward him.
A light so radiant it could blind.
The stench of blood, the carnage, the screams of humans, the people standing beside Ren—
None of it reached Luman’s eyes or ears.
There was only one person standing in this place with color.
Ren.
“Ren.”
Light filled Luman’s darkly bright eyes.
For days, time had been impossibly heavy, like eons spent wandering through the universe, shackling his ankles in chains. During the days he searched for you, every physical thing collapsed, and everything tangled together into a whirlpool.
How long had he searched for you?
In those sleepless hours, Luman had dried out from the inside.
It had only been a few days.
Only eight or nine days had passed since he left Loroe Territory. So why had that felt longer than an entire lifetime? Why had he failed to stay calm? He should have found you with cold reason. So why had he collapsed so helplessly?
His golden eyes took in every inch of Ren.
It had been strange from the beginning.
That he, who made every effort not to become attached to others, had taken an interest in Ren and helped him because he was a child.
Could something so absurd happen?
He had known you for only a few months. Had he been put under some spell during that short journey?
Seeing him now, Luman understood.
Ren was not a child. Luman had only wanted him to be one. A young child who needed care, who needed a guardian.
But children were meant to grow.
“But you do love him, don’t you?”
Kenilla Loroe’s words lodged in Luman’s heart like a dagger.
But Ren did not need to know any of this. Because he must not feel even the smallest speck of pain or suffering. Luman would make sure of that.
“Luman? Luman, why......”
Ren could not finish speaking.
Because Luman, looking at him, was smiling so happily and so heartbreakingly.
Hot tears were flowing down both his cheeks.
“Cedric!”
“......Brother? How did you get here?”
Someone who had been hidden by the waterfall of golden light appeared behind him.
It was a man with long red hair.
Ren looked startled and turned to Cedric.
“He’s your brother?”
“Uh... why is my brother......”
Cedric looked as if he could not understand. He tilted his head all the way back to stare at the ceiling, now punched open so high above that he could barely see it, then looked at Seka in horror.
Was he insane? Did he fall from up there? Had his brother lost his mind?
“Why don’t we save the touching reunions for later? I am nearly exhausted from holding off these demonlike bastards.”
Peruan complained as he swung his sword. At some point, his shirt had become soaked dark with blood. Wiping the blood spattered across his cheek, Peruan gestured to Ren.
“Ren. Come this way. It is dangerous.”
“Whoa.”
Peruan casually reached out and hid Ren behind himself.
Like recognized like.
From somewhere very deep inside, disgust rose in Peruan like bile, and he covered it with a rich smile.
But the other man must have felt it too.
This disgust Peruan felt.
Brilliant golden eyes stared at Peruan.
Mineral-like purple eyes examined Luman in detail.
Luman was the first to speak.
“Ren.”
He lightly ignored Peruan.
“Oh?”
Peruan tilted his head.
Slash!
Without even looking, he blocked a sword flying at him and cut open the attacker’s chest.
Blood splashed across Peruan’s cheek.
Ren only flinched briefly at the sight of blood, then remained calm.
“Did you follow a stranger? That hurts my feelings.”
Unlike his faintly lowered voice, his tone was light and bright.
A worried voice. A gentle manner of speaking.
“You should come here, Ren.”
But unlike before, his eyes somehow seemed a little darker.
Even that was erased by his playful smile.
The hand he held out was covered in wounds.
Seka glanced at Luman.
“Brother, why are you looking at that man like that?”
Cedric, who had quietly moved beside Seka, gripped his sword tightly and asked.
“It’s nothing. Are you hurt?”
“No. But how did you get here?”
“Thanks to him.”
“Oh.”
“What happened?”
Seka swept his gaze over everyone as he asked. The humans, who had stopped as if startled by the light, began moving again.
Some ran toward Luman screaming for him to save them. A mass of people came rushing from the far end, rolling forward like a single clump. They looked almost like a gigantic monster. Masked figures lunged at the outer edges of the crowd, cutting off limbs and stabbing chests, but still they screamed horribly and desperately pushed forward.
Ren only glared at the hand offered to him, lips pressed tight, and did not move.
Peruan smiled in triumph.
Yes. The one who saved Ren in the most difficult moment was him. Not that man who had arrived late.
Of course, the one who had saved his soul with love was Ren. But since only he knew that, he would keep it a secret.
In any case, who was that man? Would it sound too much like a flirt if Peruan said he somehow did not feel unfamiliar?
Peruan slipped an arm around Ren’s shoulders and studied Luman closely.
Ah. He thought he might know who this was.
Platinum hair bleached white by sunlight. Bright amber eyes like pieces of carved gold set in place. A smooth, elegant nose and lips, a slender jawline.
Ah, why was this man here?
This was not a place for a handsome Hero. The one who had received the mission was only the young count, Peruan.
Peruan’s eyes narrowed.
Lost in thought, he failed to notice that Ren, whom he had been wrapping carefully as if he might break, had slipped out from under his arm.
Luman’s eyes curved deeply.
“Why did you come all the way here? How did you even get here?”
Ren grumbled. His pale, cracked lips, which had opened and closed several times from embarrassment, finally managed to spit the words out. Once he had spoken, it became easier. Ren pointlessly picked at Luman to hide how much he had wanted to see him, but he could not hide how red his ears had become.
Still grumbling, Ren did not even realize he was walking toward Luman. His body moved toward him on its own.
At last, when Ren stood before him, a faintly trembling hand carefully reached for Ren’s head. Ren could no longer complain. Luman stroked his hair so carefully he was almost not touching him... then his mouth twisted, and he pulled Ren into his arms.
“Wh-why are you doing this...!”
Ren, who had frozen like ice the moment Luman’s face came closer, began to squirm.
A hug in this situation is a bit much! I-I’m glad to see you too, all right? But now is not the time!
“Just a moment.”
“......Luman?”
“Let’s stay like this for a little while.”
But when Ren heard that low, damp voice, heavy with emotion, he could not move at all.
They had to save people. They had to escape. This was not the time.
Ren pushed out his lower lip.
Maybe a little while was all right?
Hesitantly, he reached around Luman’s back. Luman’s broad back was so wide that even stretching both arms around him was difficult.
‘I was always selfish anyway.’
Ren’s eyes sank low. He had always been like that. If there was a knife fight outside, he would go out and help people, but if someone precious to him asked him to do something... that came first.
Clang! Clang!
“Watch out!”
“......Damn it.”
“Wh-what are you doing! You’re supposed to help us!”
“Aaah!”
Kenta and Beta, who had been frozen blankly while clinging to each other, realized Ren had slipped away to some unknown man and sprang up in horror. They swung their clubs wildly, trying to beat down the people approaching them.
Seka and Cedric silently swung their swords. The slaves the brothers had rescued quietly took ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) up swords and stood behind them. The hands holding those swords trembled. Bound in chains, they would hardly be able to swing properly.
“You do not need to swing. No matter what, aim for the heart and stab all at once. There is no need to feel guilty.”
Seka said that to the people trembling with swords in their hands. The masked figures were not particularly skilled with blades. If their movements were mechanical, like zombies, then as long as the victims kept their heads, they could resist to some degree.
As Seka swung his sword, his gaze sometimes moved toward Luman.
He was kneeling on one knee, embracing the blond boy with his whole body.
And around them, clusters of light circled as if dancing.
