Pr/Editor: Helen, Agneya
He tried to hide his irritation, but his patience towards someone he instinctively spurned was clearly lacking. Seeing Erhart in this state, the other person twisted the corner of his mouth in a peculiar manner.
It was only after a while that Erhart finally managed to hide his brazen hostility.
“He has been really anxious since you met that person.”
Rayan tried not to show it, but he inevitably slipped up. Considering that Jurgen, who was rather quick-witted, didn’t notice anything amiss, it could be said that he was hiding it well, it was just that… Yes, strangely enough, Erhart could clearly read the emotions in his eyes. Likewise, Rayan understood his feelings as well.
They hadn’t been together that long, but they could understand each other’s emotions so well just by a look at the other’s countenance. Even if it could be passed off as a coincidence once or twice, sometimes it didn’t seem like one.
“How annoying.”
Erhart had been much more conscious of Rayan’s health these days.
As soon as Rayan regained consciousness, he was sent to Renée Palace, and to avoid any inconvenience, Jurgen and his trusted servants were appointed to wait on him.
Indeed, this caused a huge uproar in the social world. It was strange that this person who appeared out of nowhere, as though he had fallen from the sky, took over Renée Palace and was served by the Emperor’s chamberlain no less, but Erhart was quiet and indifferent on the matter as he visited him every day.
The rumor that the Emperor had established a relationship with his lover in Renée Palace reached Erhart as well.
Erhart was least interested in what the nobles’ gossip. On the contrary, he encouraged the rumors about Rayan, and had no intention of dismissing them. He was aloof from speculation and accusations.
He did not interfere with the rumors and under Erhart’s connivance, Rayan quickly became the Emperor’s favorite.
Of course, Erhart sending Rayan to Renée Palace was not as romantic as they thought it to be. There was no way he would want to leave Rayan in the very Palace that he hated so much.
Nevertheless, the actual reason Rayan was sent there was because there was a lake nearby that was free from prying eyes, and was large enough for Rayan to swim freely. If it weren’t for that, Rayan would never have left Erhart’s palace.
Regardless, watching Rayan swim freely in the water with a slightly lively face, for the first time Erhart felt that the traces that his father had made for Olivia were not disgusting, but pleasant. The old man must be gratified in hell seeing that he managed to do at least one thing that helped his son.
Erhart devoted his full attention to Rayan, putting aside his feelings towards the being who gnawed at his nerves every time he invaded his thoughts. Just thinking about that child lying there with a pale face, bloodless and not even able to tell if he was breathing, made his heart sink into a bottomless abyss.
However, ever since Rayan met this guy, he was anxious and couldn’t sleep well, even though he didn’t know what he was. From Erhart’s perspective, it was impossible not to find it troublesome.
“Am I obligated to answer?”
“Isn’t it better for both parties to be frank?”
“I think it would be good to be polite again. You wouldn’t want to end up like your ancestors who disappeared under the sea hundreds of years ago. I can count the number of golden hair that have fallen in my hands, and I don’t want to add one more to them.”
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.
“P jw vloofgfca ogbw atfw. Ccv sbe qgbyjyis vbc’a kjca ab rajlc atf qijmf sbe ilnf klat sbeg yibbv. Yg lr atja pera ab sbeg ajraf?”
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“It’s a strange thing.”
“…”
“Not too remarkable, nor particularly unimpressive.”
“What do you mean?”
The human frowned as if he could not understand Asha’s words at all.
Of course, Asha had no intention of helping him understand. When he made his vows, he had played around with his memories of Rayan, and there was no point in telling him that he didn’t know anything.
Trying to get his memories back or being repulsed when he saw Asha trying to touch Rayan. He didn’t know how he overcame it, but the human was obsessed with having Rayan by his side. This human’s love, who still couldn’t recall that child, seemed remarkable yet insignificant.
Compared to the affection Rayan showed towards that human, it was very great.
But it was also shabby.
Why on earth couldn’t the child forget something like that? When he told him how to live on, he gave it up with a careless expression and wasn’t even afraid of his own death. Why was he so afraid of the despair he would feel? If he dared to live just a little longer, he would realize how fleeting and useless of an emotion love was.
“Fine, okay. There’s no reason why I can’t show you mercy for once.”
After Asha looked at the human for a long moment, suppressing the discomfort that came over him, he asked:
“Human, do you love him?”
“Nonsense.”
“Do you have him in your heart?”
“Stop talking about irrelevant things and just answer me. Is this the place to explain my feelings to you? And anyway, why should I answer you? What do you think I am?”
The human being could not restrain his irritability and became angry. Asha zeroed in on the center point of his wavering emotions.
“Is it really because of me that he’s anxious?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“It means that there is only one being in the world who can unsettle that child to this extent.”
Unlike Asha, who observed him with questioning eyes and smiled, the human was agitated as he twitched his fingers.
“…El?”
The languishing voice was filled with discernible emotions. Jealousy, hatred… or…
“Ah. yes. He calls him that sometimes.”
Jealousy.
“…Do you know his name?”
He didn’t even know it was himself.
“How can I not know?”
Young humans who cannot escape from their oblivion are extremely foolish.
“I’ve heard it often because it was the only meaningful name in Rayan’s life.”
El, El… Rayan would tell him in great detail what he did with El today, what he said to him, how he argued with him and made him angry, and how they made up. As he recalled Rayan’s words one by one and reiterated them to Erhart carefully, the human’s expression gradually became cruelly distorted.
“That’s also why he’s here, turning his back on Atisa and even glory… Otherwise, there is no way for the mermaid tribe’s successor to live among humans.”
Asha felt a kind of inexplicable pleasure watching a human being suppressed by his own emotional turmoil.
“King of humans. You really do look like him.”
“…”
“But even so, can you overcome the shadow of Rayan’s past, the one he loved at the expense of his own life?”
Rayan loved him but he wouldn’t say that he was completely in love with him. He risked everything for this guy, but in the end, it could be said that he loved the ‘him’ from the past with whom he shared all his days and memories.
What will he do now? Asha thought this man would be tortured away by his own emotional turmoil, eventually becoming unable to overcome his jealousy and hurt Rayan. Would he send Rayan, whom he could never truly get, to a place out of his sight?
He wished Erhart would cause irreparable harm to Rayan. Since he couldn’t care less about him, he hoped Rayan ended up with no one to rely on but him. Maybe breaking his heart wasn’t so bad.
Asha narrowed his eyes and revealed a shallow smile.
The now dead king, wary of Asha’s immeasurable power, banished him to the Black Sea. He was afraid that that power might threaten the succession. For Asha, who eventually survived and became the ruler of the place and reigned for hundreds of years, Rayan was a person of interest.
‘… I am defective.’
“For him, whose eyes were soaked in the fear of imminent death, pleasure was found only in that, perhaps still the sole and captivating existence, even when alive.”
“Never…”
That’s why Asha didn’t want to miss out. It didn’t matter whether Rayan was in perfect form or not.
Asha took a step closer to the human and smiled coquettishly.
“Bullshit.”
The man, who he thought was immersed in despair and anger, spat out with a murderous expression. It was being aimed more at Asha than toward Rayan. The magical power that was quietly being stored away crackled and spread into a golden air current.
“I don’t think I won’t be able to shake off the shadow of a bastard who has thrown away everything and can’t even be properly responsible.”
“…”
“Rayan will eventually forget him. I’ll see to it that he does.”
The voice that snorted and proclaimed was very arrogant.
“Now that my curiosity has been answered, I guess there’s nothing more to see… By the way, you should listen…”
Just as Asha shortened the distance between them, the human also inched closer. Their gazes met. There was clear hostility engraved in his bright blue eyes without any impurities. Asha, paying no heed to him, spun around. For a moment, his smile sharpened as he tightly clutched his collar.
“The reason I kept you alive even after you destroyed my land is because you still serve a purpose.”
“Know that it is not due to my benevolence that you do something so arrogant and still make merry.”
It was overflowing with a subtle sense of malicious intent, but the human snorted with an unconcerned expression and stepped away. He disappeared as quietly as he came.
Instead of adjusting his disheveled collar, Asha calmly looked at the golden powder floating around like an afterimage of him with his residual magic, then caressed it and whispered.
“What should I do?”
Contrary to his expectations, he might not have much time.
One way or another.
“…”
Asha smiled peculiarly, shook off his afterimage, turned around and disappeared into the darkness.
Well… I’m confused lol
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و
Obrigada pelo capítulo! 😊😍