When rain fell, the quiet and beautiful royal castle sank into a dark atmosphere and gave off a chilly feeling.
The servant hurried his steps.
‘To go to the door of Lord Temar’s younger brother and deliver a message.’
Lord Giselle’s orders had strange corners sometimes, as they often did.
Was there really any reason Lord Luman would be standing in front of Ren’s door? At this hour?
It was a dim evening, the time when everyone would be resting in their own rooms. What was more, the place where Luman stayed and the room where Ren stayed were far apart.
Rumble, crash!
“Eek!”
The servant shuddered.
In the palace, which had especially many windows, the flashing light swept across the corridor windows in an instant.
With the sound of water sealed tightly on all sides, as though he had sunk underwater, the servant thought the royal castle felt frightening today of all days.
When the servant turned the corner, he saw two figures standing in the corridor.
It was just as Giselle had said.
A man with white-burned blond hair was standing in the corridor. Precisely in front of the door to the room where Ren was staying.
The servant, who had been blinking, quickened his pace.
“I greet Lord Luman.”
At the greeting heard from some distance away, Luman and Jepeto turned their heads. Luman, who had turned at the sound of footsteps, had light burning in his eyes like candle flame.
In the dark corridor, Luman’s face looked especially pale. On his face, which always wore a smile at the corners of his mouth even if it was a sneer, not even one small fragment of a smile could be found.
The servant flinched inwardly and quickly continued with the next words.
“Lord Giselle asks to see you.”
After a moment, a smile appeared on the beautiful man’s face. But it was a mask-like smile that held no emotion.
“I see.”
The low, beautiful voice filled the corridor completely.
Luman headed toward Giselle with the servant going ahead.
***
The greenhouse garden of the royal castle.
Water streamed down along the glass walls. Giselle, who had been looking outside where a faint mist was rising, turned his head at the presence of someone.
Luman was entering behind the servant.
“You have done well.”
“I will withdraw.”
The servant, having finished his errand, hurriedly turned and left. One set of footsteps grew distant, and one set of footsteps drew closer and closer.
Luman, who had strode over, had approached to just before Giselle before anyone knew it.
And the moment he grabbed Giselle by the collar came just as quickly.
It was a grip strong enough to drag Giselle, who had been sitting, straight upward.
But as though Giselle had expected all of it, he merely stared at Luman with eyes that did not waver by even an inch.
“Did you send him out?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“For Ragniel.”
“......That child being here, does it get in Ragniel’s way?”
Luman’s eyes twisted. The hand gripping Giselle’s collar trembled. Giselle glanced at the veins standing out on the back of his hand and held that hand.
“If the wound bursts open again, you will not be the only one inconvenienced. So why not let go with this hand now.”
Giselle’s gaze brushed over Luman’s forehead. Cold sweat had formed there.
“I’m asking you. That child being here. Does it get in Ragniel’s way?”
“Yes. It gets in Ragniel’s way, in your way, and even in Temar, Geloman, and Verdi’s way.”
“That child! Has not gotten in anyone’s way. He only stayed in his room like a plant and briefly walked through the garden. And you say he gets in the way? What kind of obstruction is that supposed to be!”
“You do not understand my words at all, Luman.”
Luman let out a groan and released his hand. It was because Giselle had mercilessly pushed against his abdomen. He had not put much strength into it, but the body that had not recovered suffered enough from even a small force to stagger. Watching Luman’s lips turn white, Giselle quietly stared at him.
“Have you forgotten everything you heard earlier?”
“......”
“I mean the words that something has happened to Ragniel.”
“......”
“That our king is being tormented by suspicion. Who do you think that is because of?”
“That child is only Temar’s younger brother. A comrade’s younger brother—”
“Since when?”
“......What?”
At the cold voice, Luman felt as though he had been struck in the back of the head.
“You have always wanted to leave the royal castle.”
Giselle’s words continued.
You regarded the Hero’s authority as a burden. You were reluctant to use your power. You felt disgust toward everything related to authority, and you could not shake off even a single memory from long ago. Without properly burying the star that went ahead, without taking it out and putting it in order, you completed your duties in an ambiguous state. And at last, you decided to take off your authority and return to being an individual.
The reason you returned again was not for the kingdom and Ragniel either, but because of Temar’s younger brother. Your extremely personal feelings, in other words.
Do you think the king truly did not know that?
Luman could not say a single word.
“And we all know, don’t we? That something like comradeship died on the day the Seven-Year War began. That what was already shattered to pieces then cannot be stuck back together now. Luman, you should know that best of all.”
“......”
“So forget the child who left. That child is shaking the Heroes.”
“That child didn’t do anything. It’s enough if I control myself properly.”
Luman lifted his eyes and stared at Giselle. It was impossible not to recognize the emotion overflowing in his golden eyes.
“That child once held your authority in his hands.”
At Giselle’s one sentence, the surroundings seemed to freeze over. Glass-bead-like eyes contained Luman entirely.
“I deliberately did not investigate that. You understand what this means too, don’t you.”
If word had spread that he had held authority, the nobles would not have stayed still. Ren would have had to put down his peaceful life and be incorporated into the royal castle in some form. Because a human who held no power at all could not dare handle a Hero’s authority. Perhaps Ren might have been the final star who had not appeared.
Giselle was saying he had pretended not to know that.
And his choice could also change again depending on Luman’s choice.
“Are you trying to say you showed mercy?”
Luman felt miserable. A dry, crumbling laugh came out.
“I cannot say that is not the case. Was this not what you and Temar feared too?”
He could not answer. Giselle’s words were right.
If Giselle had made a different choice, Ren would have had to remain locked forever in this royal castle under a name like “Hero” or “star” or something similar. Not only that, he would have had to leave for the groaning land, Media. To that land where souls dyed in blood lay sleeping in countless numbers....
So for Ren, leaving the royal castle like this was—
Luman, who had been continuing the thought, closed his eyes for a moment at the feeling of his stomach turning over. His sharpened senses found even the air touching his skin disgusting. Suppressing the sourness rising in his throat, Luman opened his eyes.
A taut tension circled between the two of them.
“Did Ren also agree? To leaving this place.”
Did he want to leave here? Why? I am here too, and so is Temar, aren’t we? The one and only older brother Ren loves so unbearably.
But the answer that came from Giselle was agreement.
“Yes.”
That one word shattered every expectation Luman had.
Luman could not explain why he felt that way. Only, for an instant, he understood Ren. Why Ren had screamed and cried just because Temar had disappeared from before his eyes for a moment. Back when they had left the village and not long after, when Temar had left his place in the forest. Why Ren had cried like that, why he had sobbed with the face of an abandoned child, he could understand it.
Luman thought he was like Ren from back then.
Even though he had understood Giselle’s meaning, telling him not to let his loyalty grow clouded.
Luman could not control the feelings flowing toward Ren.
He felt as though he had been abandoned alone in the vast open sea.
He felt more miserable than during the time he had chased the whereabouts of the kidnapped Ren.
If Ren had left of his own will, how could Luman dare go looking for him?
The moment Luman tried to pull up his authority and move toward Ren with the power of light, he coughed up blood and bent over.
“Does Temar...... know too?”
“He will know soon.”
Giselle bent his knees and sat to meet Luman’s gaze. Chill rose from the floor of the greenhouse garden. Outside, the rain was still driving hard.
“Haha. I see....... What kind of face will he make? That frustrating bastard might perhaps turn the royal palace upside down.”
“That is why Ren has to leave.”
“Hahaha.”
Luman’s laughter scattered low.
“You knew his name. Then why do you keep calling him that child?”
“......”
“I understand your goodwill.”
His golden eyelashes seemed to become drenched, and in the end, tears fell.
“If that child was the final star.......”
Then it would be right to hope he becomes the only star who lives freely.
Luman blinked. Two clear streams of tears drew lines down his cheeks and fell.
“Then I suppose I only need to offer up even that child’s loyalty myself.”
