CH 4

We don’t have to be on the same side. But he had to restore their relationship to the extent of being purified by him. Obviously, his guide was the crown prince, but the crown prince’s power could not stop his rampage. If so, I had to trust the power of Lesas, which is said to be stronger than anyone else.

Of course, the loathing towards Prince Lesas did not disappear at once due to the conclusions he had just reached. His long-standing hatred of his enemy stained throughout Seyad’s life.

However, it was not as hot as if it would devour him like before. The cold blade may have cooled his anger, but the existence that gave me death was strangely less hateful than before. It may be because of his past that he recalled before he died, or because of the remorse he felt before he died, but his behavior was not hateful.

Because the prince only did what he had to do.

Seyad, who went on a rampage, was a villain who killed innocent lives, and the prince stopped him. Even in the battle between life and death, He didn’t retreat from the battlefield and guarded the Titer’s as a guide. Regardless of how much Seyad hated him, the prince was always righteous and good. I’ve been watching and bumping into him the longest time. So I knew that well to.

And while Seyad confronted him, he could not criticize the prince’s actions. Because he knew that it was right.

Knowing this, he followed orders from the crown prince, ignoring the powerless people being sacrificed in the process of killing Nirah. Even if the method was different, it was to defeat a greater evil anyway, so he believed that the crown prince’s words were not wrong. Because the crown prince was also a good person to Seyad.

But now there was too much blood on his hands.

Seyad looked down at his hands as the blood did not stop. These pale hands, with scars and calluses, were covered with other people’s blood. A cry for help, a cry of horror, and hateful curses seemed to be on his hands.

My hand trembled slightly and I clenched my fists. Hell was in that place, not anywhere else. Seyad was a hell and the devil. I’ll never do that again… I’ll never.

It is still his long-cherished desire to remove his mother’s dishonor, but more important than that is to controls himself not to kill innocent lives.

“There’s one thing I need to fix.”

Seyad, who had been troubled, spoke as he returned the documents to Callan. The butler, who was waiting for a definite answer, listened to him.

“There seems to have been a mistake in the residence of his highness, Lesas. Give him the eastern bedroom in the castle. Attach enough people to serve him without a shortage.”

Perhaps it was an unexpected name, but Callan’s eyes, who had been smiling the whole time, seemed surprised. However, the experienced butler quickly managed to get rid of his feelings without asking any details.

“I will do that.”

Seyad ordered one more thing to Callan, who was about to leave.

“And Quillie will stay in the mansion during the prayer ceremony. I don’t need another servant, so let others know.”

When he was told to leave his son in the mansion, a shadow was casted over the butler’s face. Participating in the prayer ceremony was considered an honor to those in the Axid territory for generations, so he seemed surprised when Seyad suddenly banned it. But Callan, as he did earlier, skillfully pulled himself together.

“…Are you sure you don’t mind? Why don’t you take a servant who doesn’t talk?”

“It’s final.”

Since it was a prayer ceremony where many people would die, the number of casualties had to be reduced by at least one. Callan, who had been watching Seyad in silence for a moment, bowed politely and left the room. When I saw him like that, I tried to say something but stopped immediately. It would be difficult for a sane person to believe me say “Don’t participate because a lot of people are going to die.”

It was only until the sound of Callan’s footsteps were far away that Seyad headed to the study that was connected to the bedroom. Before opening the door, a portrait of his mother on the wall caught his eye. Staring silently at the painting, he opened the door and entered the study. Then he picked up a piece of paper and a quill pen from a small desk and sat down by the window.

I saw knights patrolling outside the window. Not all of them were great knights of the family or those who were loyal to Seyad. And some of them will die for what will happen today.

Seyad, with a quill pen, tried to write down the complicated past on paper. Memories are always scattered and unclear, so I thought it would be better to write down what I could remember clearly. The big event that I remember immediately was definitely happening today.

The prayer ceremony, a ceremony to pray for the winter to pass safely, was held at the Axid territory, where winter comes first. The ceremony on the first day was the most important part of the prayer ceremony, where the guides, the royal families, and the Titer’s of each territory, gathered here to kill Nirah’s on the border of the night forest.

Nirah, was an ancient monster that emerges from the forest surrounding all the ends of the Solias Kingdom, which isolates their kingdom and long threatens it. When winter comes, Nirah, who crawls out of the center of the forest, harms every human being in sight. Its size and strength were divided into various ways depending on where it lived.

Nirah, who lives on the border of the forest, is usually a monster of size between a wolf and a fox, who can be easily killed by a well-trained knight. Nirah is a monster from the shadow of the night, so its form is not described, but most of the Nirah’s on the border looked like a flying beast. The difference from animals is that they only move in the dark and eat people’s minds.

From generation to generation, the prayer ceremony was carried out safely without incidents. Originally, the Northern Territory, where winter came three months earlier than other regions, were unusual for other families of Titer’s to gather to help for a certain period of time, but now it had settled down as a ceremony that represents a union.

However, In this prayer ceremony, disaster struck when a Nirah in the middle of the forest, which shouldn’t be on the border, escaped. Knights who had never faced a normal Nirah died due to inexperience, and casualties occurred among those who fled in shock. More and more people were sacrificed to evacuate the royal family.

Due to this incident, the prayer ceremony was cancelled as of this year, and Prince Lesas lost one of his closest aides. The deceased was an old escort knight who had protected the prince since he was a child. In a way, it would’ve been just a death of an escort, but the knight seemed to have been very precious to the prince.

‘Please, Grand Duke! Please help us. No, I’m okay. But Sir Anka, please…!’

Prince Lesas, who was swept into the forest by the chaos, begged Seyad to save the old knight who had fallen while protecting him. With a tearful, disheveled face, he dragged him along while crawling without any pride and holding onto Seyad.

‘Please, Seyad. I’ll do anything if I get out alive, so please save Sir Anka…’

The prince clung to him just like when he was a child. Hugging the knight with his frozen hands, as if it were the last thing left for him. Perhaps that day was not the last time the prince lost someone precious to him. Since then, Seyad stood by and watched the prince’s precious people die.

Prince Lesas grew up that way. It was not until he lost all those who protected him, who had no ability, that he had someone next to him. Crown Prince Aster used to say that he was too lucky to see him like that.

Seyad didn’t leave the prince alone, nor did he help him. He ordered the knights who followed him to protect the prince, but he was well aware of it. They alone won’t be able to save the old escort knight. And the fact that it would make the soul of prince Lesas worse.

Seyad probably knew better than the Crown Prince what was troubling Prince Lesas. Because Seyad had experienced firsthand that the person who cared for him was more important than anyone else to the prince who grew up alone in a detached palace where no one visited.

Seyad was once the prince’s most precious person. There was such a time like that.

An uncomfortable feeling came up. Seyad stopped reminiscing and began to write down the events on paper again. After putting off Prince Lesas’ work for a while, he recorded the following incidents that involved Nirah. When I wrote down things that I thought were strange at the time on paper, I found one thing in common.

Nirah’s region of action was expanding.

Nirah, who can only move in the dark, appeared throughout the kingdom in the winter, when the sun became the shortest of the year. The attributes of Nirah originate from ancient times and could be found in the story of the founding of the country.

In the beginning, there was a time when darkness and humans coexisted.

During the day, the Devil fell asleep, and by night when the moon rose, it woke up to steal the souls of humans. The Devil, who could only move when darkness came, swallowed the sun one day to eat more humans.

During the dark hours when the sun did not rise, humans became food for the Devil. Endless nights followed, and people hid in fear. The moon, watching the blood flow into the river, could no longer leave it alone and sent its stars down to the ground.

The four stars joined forces to split the Devil’s belly to save the sun. The sun, which returned again, climbed up to the high sky and shone on the ground, sealed the soul of the Devil that swallowed him, and gathered the abandoned humans to establish the kingdom of the sun.

Here, the sun refers to the Kingdom of Solias, and Titer’s refers to the stars that came down to Earth. Titer’s, who were born according to the legend, was divided into four families: East, West, South, and North, and became the guardians of the sun.

Nirah’s behavior, which had been going on for such a long time, has always been the same throughout history. However, before Seyad’s death, Nirah’s began to appear in the central part of the kingdom, which had never appeared before, breaking the established rules.

‘These things that have never happened before are happening more and more frequently and quickly.’

Something seemed visible, but nothing was absolute right now, so Seyad wrote down the big events for now. After recording almost everything he remembered, he folded the paper and tied it. I had to figure out what had happened to me right now, so I couldn’t hold on to this.

He took out a small book among the numerous books stuck in his study and hid the paper in it. I was the only one who could come into this study, but it was just for the sake of an unexpected situation.

As he was about to put the book in, he paused when he saw the cover of the book. The book〈The Story of a Little Star〉was something that only children would read, about a small star that fell from the night sky and returned to the arms of the moon that found it without giving up.

His hand, which had been paused for a while, moved slowly and put the book back in place. Seyad, who was staring silently at the thin, small book stuck between the thick books, soon turned around. It was almost time for the guests to arrive, and he also had a lot to prepare as well.

T/C: I wonder why he kept staring at the book… （￣ﾍ￣）Hmmm