269 < Chapter 48. Himollica Delicious (2) >

The quiet, sparkly eyes slowly move.

Very slowly.

But without hesitation, I looked at the person sitting in front of me.

- I'll be at the end of it.

Like a short, blue hair that resembles her very much, Von Chase faced two dark brown eyes that were very, very different from his.

Scarier eyes than snakes.

Chase did not avoid the eye at all. I looked straight at him.

- I'd have deep doubts about who I am. Devil is no different, so he will try to expose you to the truth.

Khalian was right about what he said before he arrived.

- Don't shake him. If you doubt me, let them doubt me. If you don't have any doubts, leave it alone. If you try to get rid of suspicion quickly or deceive it, it will be more persistent. There will be news that I might be involved with Xeon soon anyway, so you can leave it alone until then.

It was different from making a small bet by measuring whether it would rain or not when I saw the morning sky. It was not the same as arguing in front of the chessboard while sharing the workshop.

"If you think there are a lot of similarities to each other,"

So Chase took care not to hold his breath, so that he could not shake his eyes.

"It would be nice to meet you."

Devilan's fingers pause.

Words that change meaning depending on how you predict them. They're no help to Devil. I saw Chase's eyes and heard his voice as he said that without hesitation.

The smile on your fingertips shifts to Devil's face.

It takes more than a penny to make a prediction.

Instead of a chess horse, a fight has begun about putting your life on the line.

"Done. That's not what's important right now."

Devilan turns his head to Calian.

Meeting in person is also interesting, but I've decided to postpone your interest in Kalian until a more accurate decision can be reached.

"And rest, do not attend this council of nobles."

At the aristocratic council, you try to get Devil's sickness and his true insides toward Chase. And Devil stops Chase as if he had already read the idea.

The cough sounds, and Chase opens his mouth, keeping his eyes open for a short while.

"I understand."

Yeah, it is.

You have no idea.

Devil is not disappointed that he didn't make his move. I knew it wasn't the end of the day.

"You called me here to tell me not to attend the meeting."

"No, more than that."

Tap again.

The tip of Devil's hand touches the back of his hand.

"I was just singing in hostility for a while."

The crown prince of a country called his son and made him wait an hour. I sat down for an hour without pretending to know, without saying a word.

I just wrote it down for a while.

I was just bored for no reason.

'Bottom.'

I'm sending Chase to the bottom.

Whatever you do, you are my son.

You have to know that no matter how hard you try to escape, you can't go against me.

"Wouldn't that be okay? I am."

"Yes, that's okay."

Chase nods slightly and answers toward Devil, who looks at him with a gracious face. And you still look at Devil.

As you wish.

I am your son.

"· · · · · · · Not yet."

Chase smiles softly with a short speech.

Devilan's lips paint a long arc.

* * *

It sounded like a wave holding a vast ocean.

It sounds like the wind passing through the middle of the forest.

- Shoot him!

It rained.

The cold wind blows out of the window and the chandelier hangs from the ceiling shakes.

"That's good. It rained after we got there."

In the southern lands, there is a cold rain coming as if it were about to fall.

According to Léric, Luciana, who was younger than she is, hated getting wet in the water, so I guess Calian's not so different after all. I always hated the rain.

Maybe it's because it feels like being drowned in the sea.

"Yes."

Rather than pointing out that he finished again with a vague word rather than a half-word, Plants just nodded slightly.

The day before, Kalian went back to bed, thinking about Plants all night. I left again in the morning and returned to Siegfried around the late afternoon. After coming to the marketplace and taking a bath, I came out for dinner, and it was pouring rain that I didn't know when it started.

"Let's close the window. Brother, I'm going to catch a cold."

Calian didn't like the proper meat I had encountered in a long time. I just had dinner quietly, and when the wind blew, I just said this.

"Leave it."

"Yes."

I'm not angry, and I'm not in a good mood. I still care about being a servant of the sheep, but something is very different than usual. Plants, who already knew what it was, leaned against the chair and said.

"I'm not barking today."

"I did it."

"I did."

My brother who was barking nonstop is so polite today.

Callian smiles at Plants as he finishes his meal and says he's going to get up.

"Maybe it was trying to rain."

Then he blames it on Amen Rain.

After hearing a lie that wouldn't work, Plants nods without another word and turns his eyes to the sword leaning against the wall.

Calian speaks in a quiet voice, watching such plants for a moment.

"I'll go in first."

Plants nods, and Calian gets up without a sound, showing an example, and then steps outside.

It was wrapped in a proper cloth because there was no sword.

A blue, shining sword, with a cloth flowing down.

Plants' gaze lingers on the blade.

The waving light and long black writing engraved on the sword coiled together. Looking at it quietly, the thing that has been frustrating since the night before was a lie, but it feels like my head is shaking.

- Until you can strike properly.

I didn't know what he was up to.

We already know that we weren't aiming for Kalian's heart from the start. To Kiri, to Demirea, of course, to Callian. Obviously, he was aiming for the heart and wielding his sword.

But I couldn't do it the last time.

After listening to Kalian's warning, you don't swing your sword properly. I couldn't.

'Not now.'

I have to go now.

I was on my way to Cecretia.

That's why I know Kalian's like that.

If it were normal, I would not have done it. I wouldn't have acted as if I were talking silently. I know better than anyone that I would have just watched quietly if it wasn't for this moment.

This time, Bon Plants stood up and walked out as if looking over a table with no flowers lying on it.

"Why isn't everyone drinking? Does anyone know how to drink?"

"We'll drink it when we get back to the palace."

"I see your deputy commander is well armed."

"Your deputy commander picked up another one, but it looks like you'll have to drink it alone today."

I left my voice behind in the larger ballroom next to the restaurant and went back to the room. Then I sat on the couch with my eyes closed. I thought about it.

Why the sudden inability to pick up the knife, Calian weighs it down, and Plants cleans up his memory of the past to find out why he hasn't figured it out yet. I went back to memory once a day to find the reason in my head that I didn't know much about forgetting.

Sinistera on the sea. Conch shell. The sound of waves. A banana tree. The sound of a whale's cry passes through your mind. I kept thinking about what I had gone into the rainbow and looking at the campfire.

Seeing the chicken snarling in his hands reminds me of that chicken being a beast or my brother being confused for a moment, and the day I left here, I was reluctant to leave Lucy and Anne with Leek.

After going down to the third floor to steal the ring, I only checked the locked window, and before I left the palace, I remembered the day when I resolutely decided that I should just send one of the communication supplies to the prince.

I think back and forth for a long time.

'Ah.'

I realized.

I didn't stop thinking anymore, so I finally realized that I had noticed a fact about the idea that had spread without my knowledge.

Standing up, Plants leaves the room with a blue sword. Afterward, I opened the door of one of the other non-empty luxury rooms set up on the market floor with a clear face.

Because I'm spreading care to both cats.

The only care I have left after spreading it to the cats is to hide the troubled Balkans from Calian's sight.

"Get up."

Ms. Plants, who doesn't mind waking her brother in bed early, calls out to Callian. Whether you are asleep or not, Calian slowly wakes up and replies, as the door opens at the same time.

"What brings you here?"

"Talk."

Kalian raises his head and looks at Plants standing at the door from a distance.

Surprisingly, I know that he is a person who needs to say what he needs to say right away because he is in a hurry. However, I'm also surprisingly gentle and tired, so if we talk in the morning, I know you'll come back.

"Yes."

So I just answered without a word and got up.

Plants turns around and steps out onto the roof. It was the only place Kalyan and Slay spoke when they first came here. There was also a tea table with a roof, but Plants walked to an empty place with no roof and no garden.

Callian walks by, watching the rain pouring down on his face.

"Tell me."

A slightly different voice, still a solid voice.

The voice that sank even more because it washed well, ate well, and went out in the rain instead of going to sleep.

"It's not me, it's you."

If we listen to the words, "It's not because of me," and we understand the meaning of the word, "It's because of you," we wake up a sleeping person early. Even for Callian, that was too hard to say.

Fortunately, Plants explained to me that he was well aware of the matter and met Kalian looking at him with a poignant expression.

"My brother seems to have misunderstood."

"What misunderstanding are you referring to?"

"You seem reluctant for me to put blood on my knife."

"I don't think it's a misunderstanding."

"Why do you think that?"

"From the moment I met the Sage, every time I picked up a sword, I thought about it more and more, and yesterday you didn't get a proper strike."

Plants does not answer, and Calian speaks.

He turns his gaze away from the red eyes and suddenly sees a silent membrane surrounding him.

"The one who said he was going to find the Devil."

Plants slightly raises his sword and replies.

"You don't have to tell me what it means to use a knife. I know the sword is heavy. I'm not avoiding it because I've decided to learn."

It is a life-and-saving object, as Demirea said.

I never forgot it. I never in my entire life imagined that I would continue to fight gracefully without getting blood on this sword. Whether to protect it or not, I knew that it would eventually hurt someone, and I never forgot a moment.

"So it's not the settling."

Plants frowns for a moment, recalling the last image of the washing of poison in his mouth. It was true that it was not a good memory enough to wake up for a few days. But it certainly wasn't a sword bitten during the duel.

I might not be able to sleep for a few more days if I had blood on my sword, but that's why I didn't want to put it down.

"Or for some reason."

"You. I think I know what you saw on the Marquis."

In Evan's mansion that day, Plants notices what Calian saw and who he thought would stop Carl.

"It was my brother who shouldn't have let you down before you put the sword in."

"That day, I remembered you because of the child I saw at the Marquis of Brissen, and for the same reason, you didn't attack your sword."

When Callian, who seemed to have finally caught a glimpse of what Plants was thinking, tried to talk about something more, Plants wedged his teeth.

"I'm afraid I'll bury the same blood twice in the same sword."

That sword won't hurt Calian again if it means Plants won't attack again. I'm afraid that old memories will come back to me again in Calian's head and confuse that time with now to place the sword.

"Ahh · · · · · · · · · · ·."

Kalian ducks for a moment, unable to figure out what to do with his face. I sat with my knees bent.

I couldn't fathom whether to smile or cry.

It's no different than saying that a cat put its claws in because I was worried that a dog would get hurt while fighting a dog much bigger than me.

I knew that Plants' idea was a ridiculous story, but I couldn't laugh. Knowing what Kalian used to think of Plants, Plants, who would know as much about it as he does, could not laugh because there was nothing odd about that conclusion.

"I'll explain. I'll explain."

Callian raises his head instead of raising his head.

I looked up at my brother's pearl-like eyes, who had a completely different guess, half noticing what Kalian saw that day.

"Tell me."

"That's Riley. That's her name."

The kid I saw at Evan's mansion.

Now Demirea holds the child she is protecting in her mouth.

"You look just like your brother, as you might think."

After arriving at Chermill Palace, Khalian has not been outside in years. It was because they were too young, and because the maids who cared for Calian didn't let them go, saying it was dangerous. Then one day I looked out on the terrace and thought I wanted to go to the lake.

Instead of stuffy, it's just that the lake glitters so beautifully.

So I snuck out.

No, I was just leaving.

When I snuck out to the only stairwell in Chermill Palace, I saw someone coming up. Calian turns his feet down and climbs one floor.

And I met my brother who was standing at the end of the hall for the first time.

"The color was different, but the hair tied back, the face and the eyes. It looks a lot like the first brother I've seen. So I was surprised. Surprise is right."

Just like that, I saw Lyri at the end of the hall, and I was surprised that I suddenly remembered that day. You're right to be surprised.

"But that's not why I stopped the knife. And I can't say it's not entirely true, but there was a slightly different reason."

Callian tells you another story.

Something I couldn't tell Chase after I got hurt. I slowly put the real reason why I stopped the sword.

I looked at Riley and told her about another child who reminded me of Plants that day. We also told him how we had done it. For what reason, I talked about who did it, not hiding it this time.

Bend your knees, sit in the rain.

I looked up at the plant that was standing next to me, and I closed my eyes to the rain and looked forward again, and I told her without hiding it.

Plants heard it all again.

"That's why I stopped the knife. It was hard to tell, so I asked him to move on."

"· · · · · · · Yes."

It was the last thing Chase or Kiri wouldn't have done back then. So I just heard it with a frowned face because I knew it was the first time I was bringing it out to someone. I listened.

"You were worried about that."

There was no answer this time when I returned like a knife.

After a small smile, Kalian rises to his feet and says,

"I wanted to remind you that you don't have to cut something with that knife, but you have to cut something first."

"I know."

"If that's the case, I hope you don't put the sword down first." "

"I know. And that."

"And I'm not going to die twice by you."

Suddenly, Plants looks at Kalian for a long time.

Callian adds a phrase that he would never have said before.

"Your brother, he's good with swords."

"· · · · · · · · I know. Now."

"Yes."

Calian's mouth is full of playful laughter.

"You're too weak to make mistakes."

It's been a long time since one of Plants' mouth-breathing sisters has dried up.

Now I bark in half.

I don't think I'll be able to fix it forever, even if I point out, but I can't just sit here and watch you become my big brother. So I have to tell you something first, but I can't tell you a shh first.

So I just stretched out my arms instead of talking.

- Ka-ang!

Three swords snap back together in the icy rain.