Rayan stretched out his hand as he approached Erich. He dodged him by simply raising his hand high. Rayan jumped up, but his hand didn’t manage to reach other’s.
“It is mine.”
As he became desperate, the honorifics he had been using consciously disappeared. Erich, who had been sarcastic with his sharp tongue asking how he had not learnt manners, didn’t point it out. Erich seemed unfazed either. All his attention was on the bracelet.
Erich muttered as he held the bracelet in the air. What he chanted quickly was more like a list of words than a sentence. And Rayan knew what that was. Whenever Erich was trying to show him something strange, he recited some stuff in a low voice that was pleasant to listen to.
Indeed, the bracelet glowed and the patterns intertwined. After confirming the formula of the magic circle drawn in a circle, Erich closed his mouth and the light faded. The hovering bracelet settled back down to rest on Erich’s palm.
“Where did you get this?”
He demanded, looking down at Rayan as he snatched it up. He never expected it from the beginning, it hadn’t even crossed Erich’s mind that he’d given it to Rayan.
“Who gave you this?”
“…”
“Answer me.”
Erhart couldn’t help but think that today was quite a strange day.
The search for Rayan had been, to say the least, bizarre. Whether it was the way he felt when he caught him collapsing like a rag doll, or the fact that he’d taken him to the physician to have him looked at when he realized the other had simply passed out and could have been left to wake up on his own.
Was it just that? Not only did he stay with him until he woke up, but he accompanied him. There really wasn’t a single thing he did today that was like him. It was all so unlike him.
‘I can go by myself.’
Even though he showed consideration to escort him for fear of collapsing or collapsing on the way, Rayan ignored the fact that he kept trying to send him away saying he could go alone.
When he didn’t go home and Erich wondered why he was snooping around the sea, it took a while for him to answer that the cave was his home. The culmination of his strange day came the moment he found a bracelet that caught his eye among the bundles that got caught in his feet while looking around.
At first he thought he was mistaken. Or, he came to the absurd idea that Rayan was actually a masterful pickpocket and coveted the bracelet that was on his wrist and stole it.
It was similar to what he had. Different cracks, but similar in many ways.
And even the fact that it had been imbued with magical powers.
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.
So, he checked it with his magic, and it was indeed the formula he created. And yet he couldn’t figure out why Rayan had this. Rayan had told him before that he mistook him for someone else, but he didn’t say that he knew him.
“P uba la… Si- Si ujnf la ab wf.”
‘So it’s mine’. There was only this trace of him left. There was no water around Rayan’s eyes, but his voice trembled as if he was sobbing. The flailing hand gestures he struggled to grab the bracelet somehow were rather desperate.
“… Si. Si, tet.”
Sgtjga weaafgfv atf cjwf atja mjwf bea bo Ejsjc’r wbeat, lucbglcu atf qifjvlcu tjcv ufraegfr. Ktfgf la kjr jujlc, atf cjwf, atf bycbzlber cjwf.
“Qtb lr tf?”
Lf mbeivc’a qjrr la eq, ja ifjra jrrewlcu atja la kjr rbwfbcf gfijafv ab tlw. Ktfgf kjr cb kjs tf kbeiv tjnf fjrlis tjcvfv bnfg rbwfatlcu ilxf atlr ab rbwfbcf ktbw tf tjv cbatlcu ab vb klat, ktfc tf kbeiv tjnf kbgxfv tjgv jii vjs ja atf ifnfi ja atja alwf, ecifrr tf kjr mgjhs.
“No, I’ll ask you directly. Where is he?”
“…”
“I asked where he was.”
Instead of answering the repeated questioning, Rayan looked at Erhart without a word. It seemed like there was a moment of slight sadness and longing in his eyes that were like new sprouts, but when he looked into it again, it disappeared as if it had been washed away.
“He is gone now.”
“What?”
“I don’t know when he will come back… Maybe he won’t come any time soon.”
His hands were restless, though he spoke well. Erhart had a hunch. No, he already guessed, it was just that now he became certain. The man called ‘El’, who dared to resemble himself, had an intimate relationship with Rayan. If not bilateral, it was likely that it was a one-sided relationship at least.
With a look like that on his face, he’d be a fool not to know.
“…”
The foolishness of waiting for someone who may or may not come at any time.
Erhart, realizing that the trajectory of his thoughts had gone in a different direction, chewed out curses inwardly. He wasn’t curious about who was holding onto his creation, but before he knew it, his attention was shifting towards Rayan.
“Give it back.”
It was confusing. All of it. Why did he give this to him, and why did he hand it over to Rayan? Also, who the heck was he that he might not come back?
“Hm?”
Meanwhile, Rayan appealed with a desperate expression and a pleading voice. Erhart resisted the urge to throw away the bracelet and instead obediently returned it. Neither the desire to throw away what might be a clue to fill in the gaps in his memory, nor the obedience to listen to Rayan’s plea, were in keeping with his own, but his hand moved before he knew it.
“… Thank you.”
Rayan wrapped her arms around the bracelet, clutching it preciously. His stomach lurched.
Erhart held back his wrist, barely suppressing the desire to snatch and throw away the bracelet. He remembered the scuff marks on his feet from his fall earlier and loosened his grip, but didn’t let go.
Rayan’s eyes widened at the sudden contact, but Erhart recited a formula and easily grabbed hold of the mana floating in the air as if breathing.
A circle of magic floated beneath his feet.
Their figures were shrouded in light and crumbled to powder. When he closed his eyes and opened them, they were in a castle, not the cave where he had to rely only on the moonlight and the light he created.
“On Countess Cavendy’s… Your Majesty!”
Karel came running with a pale face. The chief chamberlain had the same complexion as him.
Erhart had given instructions to prepare for his departure sometime tonight, and because of that, the castle’s servants’ souls left their bodies. No matter how simple it was, they needed to prepare the Emperor’s items for travel after all. They were scheduled to leave in two days at the earliest, so it was a bit of a surprise.
While everyone was busy, the Emperor remained motionless in his study. The chief chamberlain, noticing that the Emperor was in a bad mood, ordered everyone to stay away, and the study became an inviolable zone. At least, until Karel, who was puzzled by the lack of signs even though it was dinner time, opened the door looking for the him.
The Emperor is gone
Without any sign. No one saw him leave the castle. No one knew when or where he went.
There was no trace of the break-in, and it was only natural that there would be an uproar.
The Emperor, Erhart Hesseles, who was called the blood lord for staining the white castle walls with the blood of flesh, would not be easily defeated anywhere, but he was an Emperor nonetheless. Besides, while the Emperor was feared by everyone, he had many enemies.
As they debated whether to release the guards to find the Emperor, a pillar of light appeared in the center of the hall. And what was visible through the fading light was none other than the Emperor.
“Your Majesty. Where did you go without saying anything? I was looking for it.”
Karel rushed forward, his eyes scanning Erhart for signs of trouble somewhere.
“It’s not only me… Your Majesty?”
Karel, who was about to put his hand on Erhart’s arm, belatedly confirmed that someone was in his arms. Then he narrowed his brows as he realized who it was.
“Isn’t this man the minstrel?”
In the morning, with Erhart’s word, he kicked out this man himself. That was what Karel’s words implied.
“How come this guy is…?”
“Karel.”
Erhart lightly interrupted Karel’s words. Then he pushed Rayan, who was still clutching at him, towards him.
“I will take him with me when I leave for Djerba.”
“… Yes?”
Karel asked back, as if he couldn’t believe what he had heard. Rayan’s eyes widened as if he hadn’t expected it at all. Erhart didn’t look in his direction at all and continued talking.
“Your Majesty. What on earth…”
“I will take care of everything related to this guy. Receive the order and prepare.”
All of this was to recover the pieces of his lost memory. Erhart swallowed down the nagging feeling in his stomach, which suddenly was growing in size, and put forward another justification for what he had just impulsively done. And even rationalizing that it was for that reason that he shouldn’t care about the wishes of a mere minstrel.
“…”
Rayan’s thin white fingers twitched as if they were going to grab onto Erhart’s sleeve at any moment. Were the words trapped in the cracks of the lips saying that he would not go? Or that he would follow?
He didn’t want to hear anything. Especially if it’s the former.
“Today … It’s late, so I’ll leave for Djerba tomorrow morning.”
Since the preparations had already been completed, with just one word of his instructions, the magic travel could be implemented right away, but Erhart fixed the schedule with a glance at the pale face. With a notice that required no reply, he turned and stepped onto the center staircase.
Aigo, not a nice move again, lil El >__>
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و