Pr/editor: Helen, Raven
For a moment, Erhart forgot about the flooding headache.
“The chamberlain said that everyone suddenly blacked out and when they awoke, they went immediately to the bedroom to check, but he was not there. There was no sign of intrusion or struggle…”
Seeing the look on Erhart’s face, the knight averted his gaze.
“And they said there was something on his desk. This…”
He handed the aide a neatly folded letter. The aide hesitated before holding it up to Erhart. Only after piecing together the disjointed sentences did Erhart open the letter. His hands trembled slightly.
“…”
The letter was an unsigned mess of scrawled, illegible handwriting and misspelled words, yet it was clear enough to guess who it belonged to. Leaving aside the fact that it was on a bedroom desk and its contents, it was strangely recognisable.
In its brevity, it was a farewell note. It was also a way of saying that his absence was voluntary. Clutching the letter tightly, Erhart gripped Karel’s chin roughly. His gaze was murderous, as if he would tear him apart.
Karel’s shoulders flinched under the stare, yet a faint smile lingered at the corner of his mouth.
“Isaac. Where is he?”
“I don’t know. Why are you asking me that?”
“Do you think I have time to play games with you right now?”
Erhart snarled, slipping the hand that had been gripping his jaw and holding his thinning neck in one hand. Before Karel’s words, he would have thought for the briefest of moments that Rayan had said goodbye and disappeared on his own. He said something along the lines of returning to Arhen, but he hadn’t.
“Maybe he’s gone with ‘El’.”
But the words stuck somewhere in the back of his mind.
“My dear Isaac, if you were going to make me sick with your nonsense, you shouldn’t have told me to cut out my heart and give it to Rayan.”
“…”
“You shouldn’t have said anything about El either.”
There was a certain intent in that.
“So tell me… What did you say to him?”
The vision of Rayan fading day by day, like color draining away, was imprinted on his consciousness and would not leave.
“And where he is?”
“Just forget it.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Tell me where he is.”
“Just forget about it like you always have…!”
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.
Karel’s screams struck him in the back of the head with a dull thud and he winced.
“…Qtja?”
Ca Sgtjga’r defralbc, Bjgfi yla tlr ilq tjgv jcv aegcfv tlr tfjv. Pa kjr jr lo tf tjv yffc bnfgmbwf ys fwbalbc jcv rqbxf jmmlvfcais. Dea Sgtjga tjv jigfjvs tfjgv tlw jcv defralbcfv tlw.
“Mbgufa?”
Sgtjga lwwfvljafis pewqfv ogbw tlr tbgrf, vgjuulcu Bjgfi jibcu klat tlw. Mgffv obg j wbwfca, Bjgfi mbeutfv jcv yjmxfv jkjs cbcmtjijcais, yea Sgtjga ugjyyfv tlw ys atf rmgeoo bo atf cfmx jujlc. Bjgfi uglwjmfv jr tf rageuuifv klat atf mtbxftbiv.
“Is that…”
“You think I’m going to live like this and forget him?”
It sounded as if he had forgotten about him before.
Erhart replayed everything, from Karel’s cryptic statements from earlier to the way he had treated him. Karel reminded him that he was the one who had ‘eventually’ saved him and that he should move on, while Rayan had mistaken him for ‘him’ and looked at him with a wistful glint of longing in his eyes.
In retrospect, there were plenty of reasons to be suspicious.
The resemblance to El, the strange familiarity they had with each other, the fact that he had never pushed his way into a subject that seemed so gentle but was secretly highly guarded.
“…”
And a pair of bracelets inscribed with his magic.
“…S- so…”
He stuttered.
He couldn’t bring himself to declare whether or not the blank in his memory was related to Rayan or whether the ‘El’ was himself. Erhart held his breath, trying to swallow the breaks in his voice.
He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t told him the truth earlier, or why he had kept it to himself, swallowing the memories of that time. He realized that thinking about it now couldn’t be a priority.
He had to see Rayan.
He needed to see for himself that he was safe.All the other questions could wait.
“One more twist and I’ll snap your thin neck once and for all, Karel.”
Barely able to contain his anxiety, Erhart warned bluntly, feeling the pulse racing violently beneath his palm. Karel’s breath caught in his throat and his face turned dark blue. Physiological tears of pain welled up in Karel’s bloodshot eyes.
Erhart’s mind raced as he forced himself to answer. His mind raced through the possible locations of the missing Rayan.
Arhen.
If not there,
“Your mansion.”
Erhart reached out to his familiar. The familiar flapped its wings, stirring up golden dust, and quickly disappeared. At the same time, a magic circle formed around Erhart and Karel’s feet.
“You… Your Majesty.”
The aide, unable to break the murderous mood, and yelled after him, but before he could reach out, Erhart was gone in a flash of light.
* * *
The first thing Rayan was aware of was a sense of discomfort. It was a strange feeling of tightness, as if his whole body was bound. He tried to roll over, but it wasn’t easy. Was Erich embracing him too tightly? No. He never hugged him this fiercely.
And it couldn’t be Erich’s arms. He decided to leave, wrote a letter, and found himself entranced by Asha and followed his instructions. With that thought, Rayan opened his eyes wide.
“You woke up later than I thought. I was worried about you.”
He heard a familiar voice as he blinked and tried to process the situation. But he couldn’t free himself. The waterchains were wrapped around him. When he could barely lift his head, he saw Asha shaking his head at him.
“…You didn’t harm them, did you?”
The air currents were unusually still. There was silence. With the exception of Jurgen, the people there had barely recognised each other, never spoken. However, this did not mean they were unfriendly. If any of them were to suffer because of him, Rayan could not bear it.
“You’ve not changed, even under these circumstances.”
“Asha.”
“Or should I say it’s very much like you?”
Asha whispered and scratched his nails, long and hard against Rayan’s cheek, making it sting.
“Asha.”
He shook his head, brushing his touch away and looking at him head on.
“I’m afraid I can’t use my full strength outside.”
“…”
“It’s a good thing for you, isn’t it, and even if I could use my full power, I don’t think I would, because you would have hated it, Rayan.”
Asha looked back and forth between his outstretched hand and Rayan, then grimaced. When he heard they were safe, he breathed a sigh of relief and patted his chest. At the same time, he glared at him, conscious of his predicament.
“You did this to me when you knew I wouldn’t like it.”
“There is a thorn by your side.”
He just wanted to keep him alive.
“…”
Asha’s words struck like a thunderbolt. Rayan’s eyes widened. Asha saw the youth’s panic in his expression and gently rolled his eyes.
“I guess we won’t have to worry about him finding your memories after he ceases to exist.”
It was a confirmation that he was going to kill Erhart.
Rayan braced himself. However, the shackles of water that bound hisbody would not come off easily. There was no way he could match Asha’s power with a body without a guardian stone and weakened to the verge of annihilation. Rayan struggled, and soon he was gasping for air in exhaustion.
“Oh, no. Rayan. You must be exhausted.”
“I said if one of us had to go, it had to be me.”
Asha’s hand gently stroked Rayan’s hair.
“But listen. You saved his life once, so wouldn’t it be only right and proper that he save yours?”
It was ridiculous sophistry.
“That’s all.”
“Asha. Asha… you can’t touch him.”
Shaking it off, Rayan questioned. He wasn’t just making it up. Asha was indeed unable to cause any harm when it came to Erich’s life. Erich was the medium through which the initial deal was made. Just as Rayan’s inability to find him first and reveal his identity to the amnesiac Erhart was a constraint, so was Asha’s inability to take the life of the man he had saved.
When he pointed that out, Asha let out a short gasp of admiration.
“Our little mermaid is quite clever.”
“Asha.”
“But it’s just that I cannot touch him, not that anyone else can’t. Right?”
“…”
“There are plenty of people who can be my hands and feet.”
This situation was terrible for Rayan. So much so that he wished it would just go away. Or, at the very least, he despised Asha, whom he still considered a friend in the back of his mind.
“It’s not going to work… on Erich, Asha.”
The fragile young human had matured into a robust individual capable of taking no prisoners. He would not yield to Asha’s will. Rayan assured himself desperately, calming his twisting insides. He had to, or this would become unbearable.
“Really? We will just have to wait and see.”
“Asha. Please…”
“Just as you don’t wish for the death of that human, I have come to wish against your disappearance, so please don’t blame me too much.”
Because if he disappeared, his world was going to get really boring. He added with a chuckle, but Rayan glared at him and retorted,
“If something goes wrong with him, do you really think I’ll go on living?”
“It’s not too difficult for me to make you live and not die, Rayan.”
Asha had shattered Rayan’s last hope. As he bit his lip in helplessness, his violet eyes flickered.
“Your lover has arrived, Rayan.”
There was a puff of golden dust.
A figure slowly emerged from it.
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و