CH 243

Rendered speechless, I tried to stutter something out whilst Dane looked up from the blueprint. He turned his head once as a wind whistled past my ear. 

“Hello, brother.”

The two had already greeted each other when Dane arrived but for some reason, they had greeted each other again with their heads held high. Amor nodded before commenting. 

“I don’t know why you’re here.”

“You must have yet to hear.”

Amor raised his eyebrows. Dane replied him casually. 

“It’s been a while since I quit being in the shadows.”

“You quit?”

“Yes. There won’t be any more reason for us to meet at night anymore.”

One was a man who was forced to make poisons without antidotes under the emperor’s command while the other had been one of the emperor’s shadows. There was no way they would not have known each other. Was I surprised because I had never thought about the idea? This combination of people was new. I wondered how I should put this indescribable atmosphere between the two. It felt like a dream I had abandoned a long time ago was realising itself in front of me while I stood there bewildered by the situation I had never expected to happen. 

Come to think of it, this was a really strange combination of people. Though no one spoke for a moment, they seemed to be exchanging a lot of things through their gazes whilst still leaving me out. While one deepened their smile, the other deepened the furrow between the eyebrows. 

“The reason why you had opened the doors to your palace which no one has ever entered before, brother.”

Dane tilted his head slightly. His gentle languid gaze was directed towards something to my side. Though I couldn’t turn my head to see him, I could hear the wind whistling  past my ear as my hair fluttered next to me. Dane sounded like he was laughing. 

“I guess it’s the same reason why I quit the shadows.”

The moment Dane glanced at me, his arm fell from waist. A vine that extended from the floor was grabbing Dane’s hand. 

“Right.”

Amor smirked in anger. 

“That’s what it looks like.”

He slowly alternated his gaze, that looked almost fiery like a roaring flame, between me and Dane 

***

Night fell.

“Brother.”

It was a strange feeling. It was yet another sleepless night because of my nightmares as I sat alone on the terrace, staring at the night sky which was all I could see. This was a night sky solicited by a sleepless night. I used to visit Amor to quell my loneliness. But on this very night, the people I loved had been gathered around one room. 

Dane was in charge of the ceiling. Soricks and Meta watched the hallways and windows respectively. I had at first been surprised that Dane was going to watch the roof but I was then told that the ceilings were hollow due to the structure of the palace for knights to lay in wait as secret escorts. 

And Lord Ray was leaning against the wall not too far from me. The person situated closest to me, Amor, was sitting on the bed, leaning against one of his bed’s legs and closing his eyes. When he heard me call his name, he looked at me.

“Will Hernan come today?”

Amor did say the Templar of Beasts was coming but he never said when. From his expression, he looked like he was unsure when he would be coming. 

“If not today, then tomorrow.”

He spoke calmly. 

“If not tomorrow, then the day after.”

He sounded strangely confident. No, he sounded certain. How did it feel to have someone, who you would once smile toward, point their sword at you? He had already lost his former self and was now living without an ego. After wordlessly staring at the terrace, Amor turned his head. 

“Come to think of it, there are so many people in this room.”

“Yes.”

“This is a first for me.”

He must have been sensitive to other presences being a templar and all. He looked to be referring to everyone including Dane waiting in the ceiling, Lord Ray wordlessly guarding the door and Soricks and Meta watching the windows and hallways. 

“I’m going off-topic, but I guess there are days like that. Days where I don’t want to sleep alone at night. Like the days when you’re accompanied by the breaths of those who want to be with you.”

“Like you did for me?”

I admitted it with a smile. 

“Yes, just like I did.”

Perhaps that was why. I wasn’t even in my own room but there was no way I wouldn’t feel safe in a space filled with my people. I haven’t spent a night with people–not the diary–for company in a long time. I had momentarily forgotten about the situation I was in and was quite happy. Then, he looked up. 

“Brother, have you taken your ‘medicine’?”

I thought Soricks, Meta, Ray or Dane could be listening in at the moment so I talked about it vaguely. Amor glanced at me before nodding without a word. 

“It’s almost as if they’re sure I could never leave.”

There was no way to describe what Amor’s expression was like right now. 

“On the day he set the barrier around my palace, he had left me with 10 agreements.” (1)

For the past 10 years, Castor had visited Amor every day to bring him his antidote. And that would have become routine for Amor. It would be strange when one part of your daily routine went missing. I could relate to the feeling like a watch working without one of its gears.

“But.”

Amor seemed to have been pondering about something before bringing up something strange. 

“… The taste of the medicine brought today was a little strange.”

“No way, was it something dangerous?”

“No.”

Amor shook his head.

“It wasn’t poison.”

He was the Templar of Plants and a man who was already poisoned himself. He said that the antidote contained no poison with such confidence. But like a man who couldn’t fully relieve his discomfort, Amor frowned and murmured. 

“How should I put it? It tasted weaker than usual…”

Just as he was about to speak, a crackling noise much like the white noise from a television without signal appeared. It was coming from the bracelets that Amor had given out to all the patrols around the room and those who were in the room as well. The bracelet he gave didn’t look like the one he gave me but they were used the same way. Chosone’s voice immediately followed the noise from the bracelet. He spoke roughly. 

“He’s here!”

He sounded urgent like he was being chased as he spoke between breaths.

“Keuk…! Be careful! He’s too fast…! He has already gone through the first gate and he’s headed for the main gates!”

Clang!

Even without the bracelet, I could faintly hear the commotion from the window. It sounded as loud as an earthquake. 

“Damn it. He’s… unbelievable.”

Chosone’s voice broke off from the bracelet for a moment before he spat out. 

“He’s strong!”

Hernan. He really did show up tonight. 

***

It was really dark inside the ceiling. But it didn’t feel cramped. Rather, there were basic chairs and desks scattered about the attic-like space. Dane was sitting in the said space as he looked down. The garden he was watching over was silent. Since this was the palace where the Templar of Plants lived, the thick forest surrounding the palace made it easier for patrols to hide in. But on the contrary, it also meant that it would be easier for intruders to hide themselves. 

The areas Dane was scouring over were hard to see, especially because of the thick foliage and the vines. Dane turned his head before staring at the desk. Then, his hand reached out to the desk. 

‘One way to come here could be to get from there to here…”

Usually, this empty space between the ceiling and the roof would be occupied with secret escorts. Wasn’t that what Dane was doing now? Dane lifted the parchment he had at hand. 

‘The shortest route to get here would be…’

What he was staring at was a drawing of the palace layout. 

‘Here.’

Dane narrowed his gaze

‘The path Lord Chosone is standing guard in.’

Slowly, he lowered his parchment. Dane’s gaze was no longer directed at the parchment but he could still see the blueprint vividly drawn before his eyes. 

‘There is a massive atrium and a courtyard on the 1st floor. And long hallways on the 2nd floor’

Even though he hadn’t looked at it for long, Dane could remember everything on the parchment. 

He stopped thinking about it for a moment before he stared at the floor pattern meaninglessly. He recalled the moment Ashley asked him for this favour. 

“Dane, there should not be any more sacrifices.”

How could he say no? Dane would do any cruel request she asked him for even if he had to sit on his knees for it. Even if she asked him to jump into fire. 

“Like what you’ve done for me. I’m asking you for a favour. But you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

But Dane knew. 

“I know I’m contradicting myself but I want to help the 4th Prince and I don’t want you to come.”

“Why?”

What kind of person Ashley Rosé was. 

“Because I don’t want to put you in danger, Dane”

She would have never forced him to do this. Rather than forcing the people around her to make sacrifices, she would put herself in danger. 

‘But Ashley.’

Dane smirked. Without Ashley around, his smile was never friendly. His smile would be a little languid and a little depraved. A type you would hide behind your hand. If she had someone standing next to her now, they would have noticed the faintly intense smell of flowers emanating from her because of him. 

‘If you ask for favours with that face, I can’t help but to listen.’

He drew up an invisible blueprint in front of his eyes as he added the items he noticed today and the ceiling. He thought of the possible route Hernan could take while considering the topography and the location of trees around the palace. 

“He’s here!”

When Dane’s finger touched a spot on his imaginary plans, a crackling noise burst out of the silence. It was from the bracelet he was wearing. It was the Patrol Commander, Chosone’s voice. 

“He really appeared here!”

He had predicted the possible route the Templar of Beasts would have taken. This was the route he must have taken. Dane had been doing similar work for a long time now. It was a piece of cake for him to approximate things like that at this point. A glint appeared in his eyes even in the darkness. 

“I-It’s the Templar of Beasts, my prince!”

T/N:

(1): I’m not the most sure about the translation for this one