Rin the Rat: Tale of a Beloved MonsterCh44 - The Lion’s Wrath

CW: Explicit language, violence.


Hwan Jina’s tear-stained face fills his vision, the very embodiment of despair. mAGn3W

“I can’t do this anymore, Daiki,” she whispers, clutching onto the front of his robes. Her shoulders tremble with barely suppressed sobs. “We cannot be. I…I no longer love you.”

They’re in a familiar rose adorned alcove. The brittle scent of winter and petrichor fills his head. A light mist drenches the Hwan estate, sending a wispy fog rolling over the ground. Everything is delicately blue. Like the cold light of morning.

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“Your Highness,” Jina continues, shoving herself away from his sturdy form. There’s a glazed quality to her swollen eyes, as if she weren’t entirely aware. “Today will be the last day we speak as lovers. If there is anything you wish to say to me, then do so now.”

Rin blinks at the lady, head spinning a tad. “…What are…Jun? What are you doing?” He glances around as he attempts to centre himself. “We’re at the estate?” jSgx7P

“Your Highness, please!” Jina – or rather, Jun – cries wretchedly. “Do you not understand the situation?”

“Yeah, I do,” Rin frowns, unnerved by the lord’s performance. “You told me you don’t love me.”

“Verily, I do not!”

Lips tugging back in a grimace, the Rat grabs Jun by his shoulders and gives him a short, stinging slap. Wobbly dark eyes flinch wide as the latter is startled from his upset. “Jun. Snap out of it, you fucking idiot. You’re not Hwan Jina and I’m not the Highness of anything!”

9QzTFG

The lord stares dazedly up at Rin, hardly registering the pain of the slap. A beat passes before clarity slowly returns to his addled senses, and when he’s fully cognisant, embarrassment settles in deep. Sears him to the bones.

He quickly straightens up and extricates himself from the youth’s grasp, damp cheeks burning. “M-my apologies, Rinnie. I seemed to have…forgotten myself for a moment there.”

Rin releases his breath in a thin stream and rakes a hand through his hair. “I think your mother’s digging her claws in. Maybe she feels threatened after you destroyed her pet in the last memory.” His lips twitch into a smirk which only darkens the little lord’s blush.

“Then we must tread carefully,” Jun says, inspecting his surroundings with an anxious sweep. He wipes his tears dry upon a flowing red sleeve. “I would not wish to jeopardise your attempts at exorcisms if she should take control again.” 6pGcBx

“Don’t worry, little lord. I’ll just keep slapping you until you come back to me.” Rin chuckles and gives Jun’s tender cheek a hard pinch. “Does this suffice?” he adds in a stuffy tone, not dissimilar to the lord’s.

“…It does,” Jun mumbles, lowering his gaze.

Rin hums, pleased by the hassled noble’s response. “Come on, then. We gotta figure out what happened in this memory.” He grabs the other’s smaller hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze. “If there’s another plant monster, you’ll protect me, right?”

A faint smile is brought to the lord’s trepidatious visage and he squeezes back. “Of course,” he says softly, following Rin as he starts down the paved path. “Judging by Hwan Jina’s words, I am assuming that they ended their relationship in this memory. It would be a rather significant period for my mother, after all. Perhaps…my father discovered their affair.” YAnH7i

“Why don’t we ask him ourselves?” Rin pauses mid-step and tilts his chin in a certain direction.

When Jun follows his line of sight, he sees an imposing figure standing in the main grounds, watching them approach with nary a twitch.

Jun tugs his companion close, instinctively protective even in such a small form. He narrows his eyes and sets his jaw. His newfound courage will surely be tested in this memory. “I do not think we need to ask.”

The Hwan Sun of this memory is a man that Rin hardly recognises. zJVgZd

He is younger and stronger with a keen, aristocratic air about him. This Hwan Sun lacks his usual sickly wan, the lacklustre expression, and listless greyness. In fact, he seems the opposite – full of steel and zeal that Rin has never seen in the man before. It’s frankly quite alarming. If not a little imposing.

They come to a stop as soon as their feet touch the obscured grass, fog licking at their ankles like the sea at low tide.

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

The Governor glares at them from under hooded eyes, a cruel twist in his lips as he regards them with silent fury.

“My Lady,” Sun clips, holding out his hand towards Jun. “You stand by the wrong man’s side.” 92CB0Q

Jun’s words dry up in his throat at the sight of his father. Those cold, pebble eyes strike him like bullets.

“On the contrary,” Rin drawls in his flamboyant High District accent, tightening his hold on Jun’s hand. “I think she’s right where she belongs.”

Jina!” Sun barks suddenly, causing Jun to jolt in shock. The first lord’s sharp glare narrows into a blade’s edge. Such a look gives Jun the distinct feeling that to disobey would be to forfeit his life. “Do you so easily betray your Vows of the Absolute? Do you so easily discard your own husband? The Hwan name? Your children?

Clear hesitation draws the little lord from Rin’s side, those uncertain dark eyes glassing over once more. Rin gnashes his teeth and grabs his friend’s arm, wrenching his slight form behind his own larger frame. GdtSrB

But it’s too late.

Jun loses his footing and slips deeper into the memory. His delicate hand whips through the air and strikes at Rin’s, leaving a stinging imprint on the back of his palm.

The Rat glares at the noble, rubbing his sore hand. “Jun!”

“I have made my decision, Your Highness,” Jun murmurs, unable to meet those confused blues. He quickly side-steps the prince and hurries to the Governor’s side, expression dulling to an impassive mask. Emptied of all life and fight. IkUKY7

Jina, you bitch! Rin grits his teeth so hard his jaw creaks. He meets Sun’s smug smile with a savage grin of his own, all teeth and definitely bite.

And somewhere, with the bubbling, frothing rage that rises within, is the tug of familiarity. A recognition of events. The delicate twine wrapping around his limbs and ensnaring his mind. Whispers of knowledge that he couldn’t possibly possess – and yet, he does.

The earthly realm shifts. The fog whirls.

Daiki’s sapphire eyes dim and darken into a gory crimson glare. An unnatural wind picks up around his taut, poised form, blue robes whipping and snapping around his trunk with increasing fervour. O3QC1c

Sun stumbles back, squinting against the turbulent winds. His wife stands lifelessly beside him, head bowed, and hands hidden within their sister sleeves.

The prince holds his right hand over the ground, his focus keen and intent upon his foe. Thick, gluggy rivulets of inky smoke rises from the soil and gathers within his downturned palm like trapped flies, bloated and sluggish.

Not a second passes before he throws a sharp arc through the air. A keen blade of smoke shoots towards the first lord and it strikes him in the chest, knocking him off his feet.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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The arrogant tilt of his chin. That blazing sanguine glare. Robes and charcoal hair that float upon the wind like writhing snakes. His very visage strikes a deep, core-shaking terror within Sun. And arouses a distressed cry from Jina: “You will not lay a hand upon him, Daiki!”

Sun struggles upright, helped by his wife. His goldens blare as strongly as those reds and they clash like warring blades. pLJIPY

“I knew there was something wrong with you,” Sun hisses, clutching at his chest as the smoke tightens its lethal hold. His white face twists into an ugly sneer. “You are a filthy witch! Think you will survive the Mother’s wrath if she should come to know of this?”

“She already knows,” the prince drones, coming to stop halfway across the green. “This is her Emperor Consort’s magic after all.”

“And she has let you live?” Sun seethes, scrambling to his feet in a most inelegant manner. Jina rises with him, wearing a wary expression as she glances at her former lover.

Her wretched look only serves to anger the prince further. He growls and whips his hands out to either side. The wind turns to turbulent gusts, near deafening in its livid din. His own voice joins in, strident, inhuman. eSHkDA

Around him, tens of shadowed figures rise from the ground–

–blackness dripping from their forms like gluggy oil. There are voices, distorted through the thick veil of time–

–as if the soundwaves were travelling underwater.

A sickening jolt as he slips from Jina’s memory to his own – a vision or a dream he once had, many months ago. 2hPHUT

The words come to him easily. As if they were rehearsed.

“Stay down, Hwan Sun. Stay down and accept your death like a man.”

The shadows surge forth, leaving trails of oil globs to hang in the air behind as they shed their spectral flesh. 

A woman’s voice bursts through, slamming into Rin with head reeling intensity. Wb4o7r

A woman’s voice–

He is my husband. The father of my children. How could you possibly compare? If you kill him–

But he can hear Jun. And only Jun. And it tears him to shreds. “I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF!”

Rin sends his sanguine glare at the little lord. He, the Rat, the Lost Prince, the spectator and actor, stands as tall and sturdy as a mountain. A hand whips through the air, urging his spectral soldiers on. 8VYnba

And again, the words come easily.

“I know your true heart. You loathe this man. I have heard you scorn his name and wish for his death as keenly as I! Stand aside, Jina, and let me destroy this scourge of a man. Let me do this for us!

Chrysanthemum Garden.

The encroaching army forces the Governor to draw his sword, a dazzling, decorated bauble of a weapon. Nonetheless, he wields it with grace and expertise, using a standard Eastern style with heightened finesse.

He rushes forward to meet the tide of shadowed forms, slicing through their tarry margins with a blur of keen movements. 9WPASL

Rin smirks and makes the motions with his hands again – though he draws from a foreign mana pool, one unknown to him, another entity, unseen. Another battalion of spectres rises from the ground and barrel towards the Governor, giving him no reprieve.

A well placed strike turns into an ill placed blow and Sun’s inundated by this new battalion. He’s cut from every angle, flesh shredded as if he’d undergone lingchi, and he sinks to his knees, baptised in red, clean exhaustion washing over his agonised features.

“DAIKI! PLEASE!” 

A small body throws itself in front of Sun, shielding him from further attacks. EpMX9D

Rin curses loudly and hastily withdraws his soldiers, destroying them with a hard clench of his hand.

Gluggy oil bursts as if crushed in his palm and thick blobs float into the sky, disappearing into the nether.

Jina’s voice gives the Rat no time to breathe, let alone think. “My warning holds!” she shouts, heaving with torrid breaths, her arms swept out to either side. Behind her, Sun sways upon his knees, head hanging lower with every bout. “If you kill Hwan Sun, I will kill you myself!

The prince stalks up to the obstinate lady and grabs her by the front of her robes, lifting her clean off the ground. She winces but holds her determined glare. His own, still burning red, bores into her skull like twin daggers. icyr69

Why are you protecting him?” he snarls, jerking her face close to his own. Still, she does not flinch. “You love me, not him. You said that you would be with me! Why do you cower? Why are you running away?

Jina narrows her eyes and throws her palm across his face. His head whips to the side. There’s a hollow ring in his ear.

“…Must I repeat myself, Your Highness?” she says in a monotone. “I do not love you anymore.”

“You bitch! Gep6O

The expletive bursts from him like a bomb, sending a rippling shock through the lady. A familiar glint appears in her eyes. A flicker of home.

Jun’s gaze turns misty. His bottom lip quivers and he pushes the heel of his palm into his worried brow. Rin drops him to the ground, heart pounding, mouth dry.

“I’m sorry,” Jun sobs, Jina’s words flowing from him with little forethought. “But this is for the best. One cannot love if one is not alive.”

Rin falls to his knee, chest seizing from tumultuous emotions. “…There’s no point in doing this,” he rumbles, grasping the little lord’s wrist. He gently tugs his hand away from his face, exposing a pair of startled, dewy eyes. “I won’t ever be alive if I don’t have you. If you do this to me…if you ever do this to me…it’s as good as sending me to the gallows. So don’t.” 9BoClj

Though the prince’s words seem sincere and impulsive, Jun knows that this is the memory speaking to him. This isn’t Rinnie. 

But something makes him hesitate. A single word. Gallows. 

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

Why would a prince be so afraid of the gallows?

An earth shaking roar tears their attention from one another. Where Hwan Sun once knelt is simply a patch of bloodied grass and a discarded sword. OhnuKV

And in the distance, a brilliant, golden creature lopes into the Black Forest. It’s the size of a building and rippling with muscle and power. The blazing golden mane adorning its giant head is reminiscent of dancing flames, aureate, near lumine in the murk of the forest.

Then it’s gone. Only the shuddering, thunderous footsteps are indicative of its existence.

***

The great Lion of Solaris stands at the centre of White Lotus Lake. The still waters are like mercurial sheet beneath his bared claws, not a single drop wetting his fur. He shines savannic gilt. Giant head raised and deep chested body poised, osmium dense. Two giant eyes, yellow and bestial, stare down at the two human boys. In contrast, they are like motes of dust to the colossal beast. Wholly insignificant. LCbwnj

Rin cranes his head to meet those predatory eyes, but his neck aches from the sharp angle. When he drops his gaze to the nearest paw, he sees that a single claw is as large as he.

The immense scale of this beast is breathtaking.

“I have never seen anything like it,” Jun says, dazedly. He unconsciously grabs Rin’s hand and finds the larger palm clammy. “The great Lion of Solaris from mythology. Never have I thought I would see such a sight in my lifetime…’

“It’s not real,” Rin grunts, cold sweat prickling around his collar. He feels more like himself now and judging by the sheer Jun-ness of the lady’s wide-eyed expression, it seems safe to assume that the little lord has returned to himself also. “I suppose we gotta take it down. Like how you took down that plant monster, right?” tUeQTk

“I would assume so.” Jun frowns tightly, glancing up at his companion with furrowed brows. “Rinnie…what I said before…”

“I know it wasn’t you.”

“I want to defeat him as much as you do.”

“I know.” QaJ7Pc

“I don’t want to be a coward anymore.”

“Then show me.” Rin meets those startled eyes with a hard look. His blue eyes suddenly seem like the storm tossed Northern seas, reminiscent of Erie’s but far more passionate. “Show me your courage, little lord.”

Jun sets his jaw and nods sharply. He releases Rin’s hand and strides towards the lake.

And just as his foot touches that argent surface, the lion slams down his paw and a bone rattling quake seizes the entire mountain. And yet, the waters of the lake remain as calm and silken smooth as glass. MYL6W5

Jun falters. His courage wavers. His foot sinks into the mercury and it latches on like hungry jaws, dragging him down into the obscured depths.

The lord falls to his knee and soon his entire right leg is sucked in by the thick, miry waters.

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A pair of strong hands snatch the lord’s arms and yank him free, ripping him clean from the lake’s greedy grasp. “I told you to show me your courage, not your death!”

The lion huffs and shakes his head, churning the air into streams of strong winds. EbqF0w

“It-it seems as though I cannot cross the lake by foot.” Jun stumbles into Rin’s arms as he tries to regain his balance.

Rin sucks his teeth in irritation and steadies the lord. He frees up a hand to raise, palm aimed towards the beast. The latter watches in an austere silence, oddly calm.

Instead of shadows, white light gathers within his hand and he pitches the incandescence with prodigious speed. It slams into the lion’s brow and bursts like a waterskin, sending a great spray of light into the air.

The lion gives nary a single twitch. Not even a blink. He simply curls his upper lip, exposing his man-sized fangs. A silent threat. zxBFTW

“Fuck,” Rin grits his teeth and sends another burst of Luna light at the beast. More showers of light bouncing off in dazzling cascades. “It’s not working! It’s like…it’s like it’s wearing armour…” He glares down at his tingling palm, frustrating marring his refined features. His pool of mana is already dangerously low so every attempt is valuable. He no longer has access to the shadow magic, nor the foreign mana anymore. Just when I need it the most…

“We will keep trying, Rinnie,” Jun says, gently patting the man’s chest. He smiles up at him, eyes glimmering. “Every armour has a weak spot. It is only a matter of finding it.”

“A weak spot…” The Rat absently palms the top of Jun’s head as he studies the great foe standing before them. Keen blues flicker over the immense form. His mind ticks at a heightened pace.

The lion stretches out his maw, exposing rows of lethal fangs dripping with drool. A giant tongue flicks out to lick his nose before the jaw snaps shut. 8punkU

“The weakest spot is what’s underneath the armour,” Rin says with a smirk. “And I see one way to get there.”

The fifth lord blinks at Rin. He follows the raven’s line of sight and immediately blanches. “You…wish to be eaten?”

“Why not? That’s where the weakest spot is, isn’t it?”

“Rinnie. I am uncertain if this is the best course of action–” AHTiwm

He raises his brow at the hesitant lord. “Then what’s the best course of action?”

“…”

“Hm. Thought so.” He grins and pinches Jun’s cheek. The little lord squints against the pain, cheek burning beneath Rin’s touch. “Where did all your courage go? I thought you were gonna protect me from monsters. Not the other way around.”

“I will, Rinnie. Of course I will.” Jun says seriously, rubbing his aching cheek. “I will follow you, as I had promised, and I will never leave your side.” lG2vcE

“Good.” The youth chuckles and gives the poor lord another painful pinch on the other cheek. “Since we can’t cross the lake, we have to find a way to make him come to us.”

“I will speak with him. Perhaps I could convince him to come closer–”

Chrysanthemum Garden.

“Convince? You’re gonna convince a lion?”

“…” EQ8tbC

“Try taunting it.”

Jun starts and steps out of Rin’s embrace. “Taunt…? But…how would I do such a thing?”

“It’s easy. Do I gotta teach you everything?” Rin sighs and props his arms akimbo, hip jutting to the side. Jun can’t help but smile at the quintessential Rin-pose. “What is the one thing that pisses your old man off above everything else?”

Jun tilts his head, brows knitting together in thought. “…There are many things that–” 0EM4ny

“–piss him off, I know. But what’s the thing that makes him lose his mind? The one thing that sends him spiralling?”

Jun turns to gaze at the lion, meeting those yellow eyes with a sharp intake. “Betrayal.”

“Go on.”

“…At least…what he perceives to be betrayal.” The lord huffs through his nose, eyes narrowing in subtle disdain. “My brothers left him. My mother broke her Vows of the Absolute. They did not wish to be moulded by him. Forced to be who he wished for them to be. Their paths, he paved for them. Controlled every direction they went. And when they broke free from that path, he saw it as betrayal. And now that he only has me left by his side, he fears it greatly. So much so, that even a single word could be seen as an egregious act of rebellion.” mXbZ5r

“Then you know what you have to do, little lord.”

“Yes.” Jun flashes his friend a beautific smile, though his eyes remain hard and cold. He moves to the water’s edge, back ramrod straight, chin tilted, the very epitome of defiance.

Rin watches, the corner of his mouth tugged upwards. Heat pools in his chest like melted honey.

“Father. You will listen to me carefully.” The little lord begins in a strong, clear voice. Though he doesn’t shout, his words travel easily across the lake. Those yellow eyes slide to the corners, glaring down at the one who dares address him. yj6c3B

The little lord doesn’t falter.

“For all my life you have done nothing but belittle me. Treat me as a mere product of your loins than one with thoughts independent. Every time I speak, you crush my words. You barrage me, assail me, until I am nothing more than a mute slave, a mere reflection and nothing more. Cursed to move as you move, do as you do, speak as you speak, be as you are. You claim to love me, claim that I am the son you treasure, but this is far from the truth.”

This space is his and he dares the beast to trespass. His challenge is clear.

The Lion of Solaris wrenches his jaws open and releases a powerful roar. Trees shiver and shed their leaves. Birds screech in alarm and flutter from their perch. The sonorous rumble travels through the earth, catching their legs in bone rattling vibrations. ZrD0 S

“The person you love the most is yourself,” Jun continues, unwavering. “That is precisely the reason why I will be a better Governor than you. Not even that, but a better man. Whilst you have been abandoned by all, I shall gather the entire city, nay, the entire Empire around me. We will be one people. And you, you shall forever be one man. And nothing more.” He intakes sharply and gives the beast a sunny grin. “I denounce you.”

The lion growls and lunges towards them, giant body rippling and heaving with infernal, bestial rage. Yellow eyes flash with a bloodthirst and latch upon the rebellious lord with soul crushing intensity.

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The great maw yawns open once more, lethal fangs and dripping saliva, and the ensuing roar near bursts their eardrums. The sound wave slams into their small forms, a tangible, physical blow that topples their balance. Rin stumbles and grabs onto Jun, keeping him upright as they ride out the aural barrage.

But Jun has other intentions. He grabs his companion’s hand and drags him towards the lake, deaf to his shouts of protest. vtuzdZ

When the little lord’s foot slams into the lake, it doesn’t sink – the water seems as dense as stone beneath his sole as he effortlessly runs across the surface. Rin gapes as he’s dragged after, though his own feet sink and slip beneath the surface, his only traction due to the lord’s sheer speed and surprising strength.

The momentum doesn’t last however, and he sinks deeper with every step as though he were wading through thick mud.

“Jun! I can’t…I can’t move…!” The Rat yanks and pulls at his legs but they continue to sink, the argent waters devouring him inch by inch like quicksand. Panic tightens his expression. “Jun!

Unable to move further, the little lord strains at his friend’s limb, but to no avail. The panic in Rin’s face prompts him to kneel beside the sinking man, their heads at level. Their eyes meet. One pair glinting with fear. The other pair steady and determined. 2k9QIY

“Rinnie. You must stop struggling and calm yourself.” His words are carried with such confidence, that it really does slow the raven’s struggles.

Rin clutches onto Jun, sapphire blues grown twofold. “I’m calm, I’m calm,” he pants, though he keeps sinking, inch by inch. “But Jun, I can’t walk on the lake like you. You’re gonna have to go on without me–”

“No,” Jun says, firmly. “You made a promise – we made a promise – to never leave each other.”

You broke that promise first.” KEaFrV

“I did. And I do not intend on breaking it again. I will not allow either of us to break it.” He gives Rin a smile, severe like his tone. “So you must trust me, Rinnie. You must have faith in me and in yourself. We are almost there.”

Rin swallows, feeling oddly assured in a way he’s never felt before in his life. Is this what it’s like to trust another person? Both terrifying and exhilarating. A death and inimitable comfort.

The panic ebbs. The fear drains away. And there remains only Jun, the little lord, and his sturdy confidence.

“I trust you,” Rin says, honestly. Ib6gQ8

The smile Jun gives him is near blinding. With one heave, the raven’s legs are easily pulled from the waters, and his feet meet a solid surface.

They hold hands. Turn to the roaring beast…and run. 

With inhuman ability, they both leap from the lake, hands clasped tightly together, just as the lion’s maw snaps shut around them mid-air.

Seconds later, Luna light bursts from between the lion’s jaws in opaque alabaster beams – one, two, five, ten, then hundreds, slicing through the gloom like spider webs. The light erupts from every orifice, the eyes, the ears, then through every pore, creating lightning cracks in its distended, suffering body. Just when the entire beast is engulfed by the magic, he throws back his head and releases a roar that shatters the very fabric of this memory. YNiA6d

Light becomes dark. Dark becomes abyss. The two souls drift in the nether, unseeing, unfeeling, just being. 

….I was being suffocated…he was swallowing me whole…

Chrysanthemum Garden.

A woman’s voice, Hwan Jina’s, filters through the nothing like a whispering sigh. Lost thoughts. Lost wist. A passing fragment of herself.

…he was a parasite…stealing my very life force…and he kept growing…and I, become smaller…until there was nothing left of myself…and the only thing I had worth protecting…he wanted that too… Il5qa

And somewhere within the blind edges of himself, Rin feels a flicker of understanding.

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11 comments

  1. I got mind blown ತ_ತ so many things happened

    Rinnie and Jun areearning to trust each other and i love them

    Thank you for the chapter!! ❤️❤️