Ch.47Original Work (2)

When the darkness faded and the fog cleared completely, the scene changed.

The palace landscape that had been contaminated with malicious blackness disappeared without a trace, replaced by dirty streets covered in ash-gray.

It was a familiar street.

This was the slum scenery I had first witnessed when I saw my mother-in-law in Narin’s memory link.

Just as I began to walk forward as if entranced—

Bang! Fireworks exploded.

I rushed urgently toward where the fireworks had burst. Since I ran frantically, it took little time to arrive.

The sun shone brilliantly in the azure sky. The cheers of countless people rang in my ears. A magnificent procession was passing through the avenue where people had formed parallel lines to clear the way.

It was a parade.

“Could this be…?”

A sense of déjà vu overwhelmed me.

I had been watching this parade all along.

It was an event that never missed the National Foundation Day celebrations, and as a member of the imperial family, it had been my duty to participate every year.

“It’s the National Foundation Day parade…”

The strange thing was that the slums still existed.

The slums of the capital were completely rehabilitated when I was eight years old, transformed into a new district. So should I assume that this scenery is from before that time?

When my thoughts reached that point, I recalled where I was.

‘Rastallido and my mother-in-law both said this is the mental world… Rahilt’s mental world.’

In other words, the National Foundation Day scene I was witnessing was Rahilt’s memory. It must be a memory from when Rahilt was younger than eight.

‘Does that mean I can see Rahilt as a child…?’

Despite knowing this wasn’t the time, excitement welled up inside me.

Rahilt’s childhood, which I had never been allowed to see. Could I really witness with my own eyes what must have been the cutest period of his life?

I ran immediately.

The crowd wasn’t a problem. They were all mere illusions, passing through me like ghosts.

I was worried it might take a long time to find him. But my concern proved embarrassingly unfounded.

My eyes spotted Rahilt’s presence ridiculously quickly.

“Rian…!”

I found him.

Very small, with hair shorter than now.

Though his golden hair looked faded as if stained with dirt—

I knew.

It was Rahilt’s color. His soft, downy hair. I immediately ran to Rahilt’s side.

“Rian!”

What was he like as a child?

Were his eyes round? Were his lips plump? How did his chubby face look? Surely it couldn’t have been slender even then… could it?

Finally reaching Rahilt’s front.

As I bent down to stand before him, I had to narrow my eyes.

“I can’t see his face…”

His shadowed face was blurry, as if covered with noise.

In modern terms, it was like a male protagonist in a visual novel.

I was so shocked that I only later noticed he was holding someone’s hand.

My eyes rolled up, following the connected hands.

“Ah…”

Beautiful.

That was my impression upon seeing the woman holding young Rahilt’s hand.

Her red hair, more passionate than red roses, swayed gracefully and softly despite not being properly combed.

Her fair skin, without a single blemish, seemed like cheap cosmetics would only hide her beauty rather than enhance it.

Her features, which seemed to embody all the beauty in the world, were distinct and intense.

Most striking were the woman’s blue eyes.

Eyes like carved aquamarine gave me a very familiar impression.

“They look exactly like Rian’s…”

The eyes, the only visible part of her masked face, were unmistakably the woman’s. I was certain she was Rahilt’s mother.

“So this is the deposed emperor’s mistress…”

She certainly had beauty worth falling for.

Her bewitching beauty was God’s masterpiece, capable of toppling a nation on its own.

‘They say villainesses are beautiful as a rule, but this is extreme…’

She immediately makes the protagonist’s mother look like a firefly before the full moon. Even I, with my high self-esteem, felt intimidated by her beauty.

It’s hard to believe this is the beauty of a woman with a child who took on all the dirty work in the slums. I was afraid to imagine how beautiful she must have been in her prime.

‘Even her angry face can be beautiful…’

The woman was having an altercation. She showed no sign of intimidation despite arguing with a fairly large man.

Her spirit was remarkable even though she had nothing left but herself. Indeed, she was a woman who once shook an entire nation.

“Ah…!”

The woman who had been shouting at the top of her lungs let out a shrill cry for the first time.

She lost her balance when the man, unable to control his temper, shoved her.

The mistress fell toward the avenue where the parade was in full swing.

Naturally, Rahilt, who was holding her hand, was dragged along.

“No…!”

At that moment, the falling mistress desperately pushed Rahilt toward the sidewalk.

The mistress smiled with relief as she confirmed Rahilt had safely collapsed onto the sidewalk. My heart stirred at her motherly expression.

The beauty that had once toppled a nation was crushed in an instant.

Crack!

A merciless ripping sound brushed my ears.

The wheel of a carriage in the parade ran over her head as she intruded onto the road.

Her skull was crushed under the merciless weight, and the beauty that had once dazzled the world faded in an instant.

Rahilt remained sitting on the sidewalk, staring at his mother. I couldn’t tell what expression he was making. Damn it, I couldn’t see his face.

Soon, guards dragged her corpse away somewhere.

“Good riddance.”

“Finally we can sleep in peace.”

The people’s mockery gathered and held a knife to Rahilt’s throat. I glared at their merciless words, but no one paid attention.

Of course they wouldn’t. I was merely a foreign entity that had entered this memory.

Fearing he might be hurt, I tried to cover Rahilt’s eyes and ears, but it was useless.

Rahilt passed through my hands like a ghost, picked up the money pouch his mother had been holding, and left.

“Rian… Rian…!”

I called out his name as he returned to the slums. But the young Rahilt never looked back.

He just trudged along, tightly clutching the jingling money pouch. He showed no reaction at all.

Shortly after, he stopped at a shelter barely held together with boards. Rahilt opened the door. The sound was terrible, like scraping rusty metal.

“This can’t be…”

The interior structure was horrific. It was so dirty and cramped that I doubted how anyone could live in such a place. Insects crawled everywhere, and sharp wooden splinters protruded from the floor.

Most noticeable was a man bleeding to death.

I instinctively guessed he was the deposed emperor.

“Fuck…”

He left his last words. Resentment emanated from him as he slumped down, unable to even close his eyes properly.

Then the killers of the deposed emperor sneered.

“They say there’s no debt that can’t be collected.”

“If we raise him well, we could make back our investment and more from women.”

“The high and mighty are always more cruel. Maybe they put their education to good use.”

“Enough, let’s take the kid first.”

Their predatory hands gradually reached out toward Rahilt. Blood rushed to my head as their hands, dripping with desire, approached Rahilt. I frantically threw punches at them, but it was futile. There was no way I could touch these illusions.

The moment of reversal came in an instant.

Black smoke rose from Rahilt’s hands.

It was definitely the dark cloud he had displayed at the Mansion of the Sorcerer.

They retreated hesitantly at the clearly abnormal phenomenon, but unfortunately, the house was hopelessly cramped.

The black cloud that enveloped them took on physical force.

Crack-crack-crack.

The sound of bones breaking throughout their bodies scattered.

Simultaneously, terrible screams echoed.

At the age of five.

It was the first time he took human lives.

“Please… stop…”

It would have been better if it had ended there.

Next, the imperial personnel who had been monitoring Rahilt revealed their presence. They probably received orders to bring him to the palace now that both the deposed emperor and his mistress were dead.

I know the outcome of what follows.

Rahilt controlled the black smoke and turned all four or five of them into complete wrecks.

“…”

That was exactly where it ended.

Rahilt didn’t particularly chase after the mangled men. He just crouched in his shelter, which was now packed with corpses.

“No… you shouldn’t stay here…”

I don’t understand. I really don’t understand.

I don’t understand how a child could remain so calmly in a board house filled with corpses, nor do I understand how he could not fear their revenge.

The turning point of fate inevitably approached.

From far away from where he sat motionless, a voice louder than the imperial guard’s shouted thunderously.

“Where is the deposed emperor’s child!”

“Gold for whoever finds him!”

“The imperial decree promises a title to whoever captures him alive!”

The slums stirred at this bolt-from-the-blue command. At that moment, the eyes of a man staring intently at Rahilt through the cracked window gradually filled with strange desire.

He approached, ignoring the surrounding carnage. It was as if his vision was numbed by desire.

“Child, won’t you come with uncle? It will only take a moment…”

His seemingly gentle fingertips rippled with vile greed. Noticing this, Rahilt covered the man’s face with black smoke and left his shelter.

“Found him! The deposed emperor’s child!”

“To think he was holed up in the house all along…!”

“It’s our mistake for not checking. Hurry after him!”

They burst with frustration. After all, what child would anyone expect to continue staying in a house full of corpses?

Rahilt ran.

He ran hard on his short infant legs, and ran again. He dashed continuously along narrow alleyways, over walls, avoiding people’s gazes.

Tap, ta-dat, tap!

A man in a black uniform nimbly flew through the air. With alarming jumping power, he caught up with Rahilt in an instant. He was a face I knew.

He didn’t yet have the scar across his face, and unlike now, he looked quite young.

“I won’t let you escape, child of the deposed emperor!”

The chase began.

His pace gradually accelerated. His hair fluttered in the cold wind, adding to the desperation.

As if to eliminate an existence that could never be tolerated, Knight Commander Ruslet’s scabbard flashed brilliantly.

“No, Rian…!”

What are you trying to do?

He’s just a child.

Rahilt is just a child who hasn’t committed any sins.

If only I could stop him, I would kneel before Ruslet.

Even knowing this was just an illusion, a memory, I could barely bring myself to watch directly.

Crash!

Rahilt was slammed into a wall by the massive impact. Dust rose in clouds, completely obscuring Rahilt’s figure.

“Now, quietly accept the judgment of the new imperial family…”

An arrogant voice.

Perfect carelessness.

He walks into the thick dust. He approaches the wall where Rahilt was smashed.

Rahilt, as if born to do so, exploited the gap in his arrogance and carelessness.

Slash, swish!

“Ugh, ah… AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!”

Ruslet didn’t know what happened for a moment. But the burning pain immediately engulfed his face.

While he knelt on one knee, Rahilt slipped away.

He kept stumbling, perhaps from bruises.

His short, wobbling legs kicked the ground.

“Rian…”

I could only watch his retreating figure.

“I’m sorry.”

Self-loathing pressed down on me.

“I’m really… sorry…”

What have I done?

What was I thinking, approaching Rahilt so casually?

I was well aware that Rahilt had an unfortunate past. Yet I approached him without hesitation. I thought I could make him happy to compensate for his unhappiness. That was the extent of my thinking.

But there’s a fundamental difference in weight between hearing someone else’s story and witnessing the past directly.

“How on earth did you feel when…”

When you brought me, who had been kidnapped, to the palace?

How could you be so courteous to me, a member of the group that brought you misfortune?

Do I even deserve to care for him?

I, who grew up benefiting from his misfortune.

I, who couldn’t help him with the excuse of being young.

It’s disgusting.

Unbearably disgusting.

“Ugh… hic…”

I conveyed empty apologies to his back, as if lamenting.

“I’m sorry… Rian.”

At that moment, Rahilt hesitated, stopped, and looked back.

Is he looking at me?

Even knowing it’s impossible, I find myself hoping.

Hoping that my voice might reach, however faintly, the Rahilt living through his childhood.

I selfishly hope for such a miracle.

Tap!

Rahilt, who had turned back, runs again.

This time he properly disappears from view.

That’s how Rahilt escaped from the capital.

Without anyone to rely on, without even a clear goal to pursue, he was forced to embrace a freedom too difficult to bear.

…

……

The world is enveloped in white fog.

This is a phenomenon that accompanies the construction of the mental world.

Clank, clank.

In the world of thick fog, metal dragged across the ground.

A man with a robust physique walking through the fog revealed himself.

“Knight Commander Ruslet…?”

It wasn’t a normal appearance.

Black from head to toe.

A strange appearance as if shadows were dripping from his entire body. He looked exactly like a puppet modeled after Ruslet.

Swoosh!

Ruslet charged.

Then he swung his sword at me. It was definitely an attack with the intent to kill.

I struck Ruslet’s sword with my fist.

Clang!

It was easy.

The current Ruslet wouldn’t have been defeated so pathetically. Given the circumstances, this must be the inexperienced Ruslet from when he was chasing young Rahilt.

I crushed the head of the Ruslet-shaped thing with my heel.

Bang!

It certainly wasn’t the sound of a human skull breaking. Rather, it was similar to the sound of a water balloon bursting.

Eventually, the pitch-black entity taking Ruslet’s form completely melted away.

Just then, the fog dispersed. As if defeating it had been the condition for proceeding to the next stage all along.

Swish.

As the fog clearly lifted, the world was completely reshaped.

“Where is this…?”

It’s familiar.

A place I visited so often that I grew tired of it long ago. But now it holds unforgettable memories of pleasure.

I danced my first dance with Rahilt here.

We had many conversations and spent enjoyable times together.

I found myself standing in the imperial palace’s banquet hall.

“That’s…!”

A couple dances harmoniously.

The man is someone whose mere sight makes my heart race.

My favorite person whom I desperately wished happiness for someday.

It was Rahilt.

Meanwhile, the woman holding Rahilt’s hand and matching his steps was also familiar to me.

“Ha…”

A low groan escaped.

The veins in my wrist stood out clearly. Perhaps veins were also bulging on my forehead.

I load my anger into her name.

“Rashera…”