CH 54

Congratulations

***

Snow. Snowstorm.

The world was all white. On top of it, the bodies were spread out in a more prominent red light. Wearing guards’ clothes, they soon wiggled up and began to walk toward Kyrie.

‘Don’t come.’

Kyrie backed down and fell. Her bare feet were freezing. The bodies howled.

‘Why did you do that?’

Kyrie shook her head vigorously.

‘It’s not me!’

‘Why didn’t you save me?’

‘I’ve tried, too!’

‘Because you know that’s the kind of person the Legendary Lord is.’

‘I’m, I’m…!’

‘You killed us! Why did you put your hands on something you couldn’t take responsibility for?’

Finally, the hands of the corpses reached Kyrie. She made eye contact with the nearest body.  It was Aaron’s.

“Ahhhhh!”

At that moment, Kyrie woke up.  She stiffened with her eyes wide open for a moment.

“Ugh, ugh….”

Kyrie, who was soaked with sweat and breathing roughly, felt a hand resting on her forehead.  As she turned her head, there was Nathaniel, who was smiling with his creepy cold smile.  He slowly removed his hand from Kyri’s forehead.

[You had a nightmare.]

The cold hand that touched her in the dream must have been Nathaniel’s hand.

He gave a faint smile that felt warmer at night. Kyrie didn’t know if it was a good look to make while looking down at a woman tossing in a nightmare.

“Why, why are you here……?”

[It’s still dawn, so try to sleep more, Kyrie Buchanan.]

“Is it, the room…..?”

[It’s your room.]

Kyrie stared at Nathaniel with blank eyes. Her purple eyes shook aimlessly. Nathaniel looked at Kyrie  with a curiously gentle look. 

He sat on a bent leg chair next to the bed, and under the moonlight that came through the window, Nathaniel was like the night itself.

[Get some more sleep.]

“…….”

Kyrie stared meaninglessly at the ceiling.

“Dreams…. That’s right.”

[Right.]

That’s a relief. Kyrie swallowed her breath and covered her eyes with her hands.

Recently, she had nightmares whenever she fell asleep. The content was always the same. There were bodies, they resented her, Kyrie escaped and made excuses, but she was finally caught. Then Nathaniel smiled at the scene with his cane from far away.

“I didn’t do that…….”

Kyrie murmured suddenly.

As soon as she uttered her words, she took her hands off her eyes and looked back at the ceiling with a blank face.

“What did I just say……?”

It was weird. She was awake, but she still felt like she was in a dream. Maybe it was because Nathaniel was around. Or Was this really the reality?

Nathaniel looked at Kyrie with a smile that was so faint that he almost looked blank.

[It’s not your fault.]

“Did you think so……?”

[Yeah, and that’s right.]

Kyriee turned her head. The wide-open eyes, like a person who saw something terrible, headed for Nathaniel.

“Really……  Not my fault?”

Kyrie didn’t know what she was saying. She was just sad, scared and helpless.

Nathaniel slowly got up from his seat. He approached with an elegant and straight gait, covering Kyrie’s eyes with his big, cold hands.

[Of course. No one can blame you. I’m here.]

Nathaniel’s other hand touched Kyrie’s pillow. His body leaned over Kyrie.  Kyrie grabbed the hand of Nathaniel, who covered her eyes, with both hands and pressed it firmly.

“I, I…I really tried…”

[Yeah, I was looking at you and you did good.]

“I really, really tried……  I want to protect……  You and the people…….”

Nathaniel bent down with a rippled smile. The faces of the two became close, and the tips of their noses touched.

[But you failed. Bitterly.]

Kyrie gasped and breathed out. His sweet voice whispered a word like a blade.

[You didn’t accomplish anything, people died.]

“W- What should I do…….”

[Kyrie.]

Nathaniel carefully grabbed Kyrie’s hand in the air and pressed it down on the blanket.

[Things won’t change no matter what you do.]

“Then….”

[So now you have to let the people who don’t try pay the price.]

“The people……  ?”

[Yeah, the people.]

As the conversation continued, Nathaniel’s voice became quiet as if digging out a secret. His blinking of the blue ice-like eyes was also a little slower. He whispered in a half-sighed voice, not letting go of his clasped hands.

[People who don’t know you. People who don’t recognize your efforts. It’s all their fault.]

“Theirs……  ?”

[Yes.]

“Not…..mine?”

[Not you.]

“However…….”

[They do nothing but throw stones at you. On the other hand, I can give you more.]

“Ah…..”

[Anything you want, I can make it happen.]

Whenever Nathaniel spoke, Kyrie’s body trembled gently. Deep inside Kyrie’s heart in despair, Nathaniel’s voice began to penetrate in secret and insidious ways in a frightening and deliberate manner. His shadow began to cover Kyrie’s body. His lips were now as close as they could reach.

Nathaniel whispered.

[So let’s kill them all.]

At that moment, Kyrie trembled violently.

“No!”

It was a one-word scream.

Nathaniel’s pupils stopped running wild. The darkness, which had been panting and puffing under his feet, quickly calmed down. Kyrie shuddered and began shaking her head.

“No, uh…Don’t, please……. I’ll do better…….”

Nathaniel, who stopped talking for a while, opened his mouth like an old man.

[Kyrie.]

“I wish they could be happy…….”

Kyrie pressed Nathaniel’s hand on her eyes. This allowed Nathaniel to feel the tears running under his palm clearly.

“I want people, and you, to be happy…….”

At the end of the sentence, Kyrie fell completely asleep.

Nathaniel’s face, looking down at her, came across a silent confusion that seemed to have no idea why.

But it was very short. When Nathaniel’s usual faint smile came back to his mouth, he looked colder and colder than ever. 

When Nathaniel raised his body and slowly released his hand, tears remained like stars on her samble-like eyelashes. Nathaniel looked down at his palm. There was still the warmth of the star.

Dripping, the little ice shattered in his hand.

[Because you were pretty good.]

He disappeared into the dark with a dry face.

***

[Once every three days, with me, a half-hour walk would be fine.]

Nathaniel showed up in the morning, said so, and then flipped out.

‘What’s with that change of mind?’

Kyrie blinked her eyes. She thought she talked to Nathaniel in her sleep last night, but she couldn’t remember. Maybe it was a dream.

“I must have hit Nathaniel in my dream, MarryAnne.”

“A dream where people die is a good dream.”

“Why do you presume that it was about dead people?”

However, thanks to her, she was able to breathe.

“Noona!”

Aaron came to visit very often.  He said he had to obey the Legendary Lord anyway, and climbed up the outer wall under the window of Kyrie’s room every time.

“So please raise my salary this time!”

“Sounds good.”

“Even the Royal Family gave me consolation money for the grief caused by my dead colleagues…….”

Kyrie laughed at Aaron’s excitement. MarryAnne looked at the decent boy who kept visiting, but he seemed to make Kyrie laugh more and more. She was a good maid, yet she never forgot to aim at Aaron with an occasional cut of her fruit. Whenever MarryAnne did that, Kyrie broke in cold sweats.

“So, have you recently got engaged?”

“Yes! Kelly is so pretty!”

Aaron smiled broadly. He had been enjoying his recent passionate talk about how pretty Kelly Wordsworth, his childhood friend and future fiancée, was.

“If I didn’t get engaged quickly, someone else would have taken her away! Because Kelly is really pretty! Noona is pretty, too, but Kelly is really, really pretty!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Her eyes are light blue, her hair is watery, and she has freckles on her nose.  Her freckles are pretty like a constellation!”

Love made even freckles on a girl’s nose look like stars in the sky. Listening to the gentle and cute words that seemed to come out of a fairytale, Kyrie smiled softly.

“Congratulations.”

“Thank you, Noona! I wish Noona had seen our engagement!”

“People have already congratulated you, that’s enough.”

At Kyrie’s words, Aaron made a subtle expression.

“Not really…….”

“Why?”

Aaron lowered his head and covered his eyes with the helmet.

“Because Kelly’s father was also a guard. He died while blocking the Legendary Lord.”

Kyrie’s face, who was smiling, became blurred. She carefully grabbed the tea cup she was holding with both hands.

“I’m sorry.”

“Uh…… you don’t have to be sorry!”

Aaron shakes his shoulders as if joking, looking at Kyrie’s eyes.

“Rather, I heard the story about you being able to take a walk! Great!”

After Aaron almost lost his hand and fell while talking about it, the two changed the subject implicitly.

“Well, isn’t it possible to go out like this?”

“It won’t be.”

“Why? If you say you don’t want to be locked up like this, won’t you let me help you get out? If you like it, I want to do only good things for you.”

Kyrie tilted her head.  It seemed that everyone around her looked like that. Nathaniel likes her so much that he even locked her in. It seemed that only Kyrie and MarryAnne knew that was not the case.

“He doesn’t like me in that sense.”

***

Nathaniel

This is the closest image of Nathaniel I could find.