RTTFW CH 2.6

“Listen carefully, don’t misunderstand. You, um…”
“Yes?”

Ent tilted his head at Bernil’s unexpectedly tense expression.

Bernil cautiously broached the subject, watching his brother’s reaction in case he overreacted like before.

“… You often became extremely fearful and had seizures whenever you saw only Father and me, didn’t you?”
“Huh?”
“I avoided visiting you because I feared it might worsen your condition. If you’ve misunderstood anything…”
“Ah, no. I understand.”

Ent was flustered. No, he’d roughly expected Ent Harbilta, the one Park Jaeyoon had been inside, to have a somewhat nasty and sensitive personality, but to that extent?

‘Still, what the hell, having a seizure just from seeing family.’

Of course, Ent himself had seen his own family as beings closer to monsters than humans since childhood, but that was a thought born from a kind of admiration and aspiration. They weren’t human-like people, but at least they weren’t the kind of people who would cast out their real family.

‘Well, who knows…’

How much could he possibly grasp about what had happened in this world during the time Ent himself wasn’t there? Ent glanced sideways, as if gauging the two people’s reactions.

‘Hmm, but you know.’

“You seem to be wasting away more and more.”
“Father is right. Are you really eating properly?”

“Ah, yes…”

Ent nodded awkwardly at their words. Something… this felt really strange.

‘…But, it doesn’t really feel like I’m about to get killed, does it?’

Ent broke into a cold sweat trying to give appropriate answers to their concern and worry. This conversation was nothing like he had imagined. Hearing words that sounded like genuine family concern, Ent recalled the faces of his family from his memories.

“If someone like you steps outside the mansion, you’ll be killed in one blow. Just play in the garden!”

Once, when he told Bernil he wanted to go to the library within the estate, he got that response. Bernil’s expression had been so terrifying back then that young Ent had bawled, thinking, ‘Big brother Bernil is ashamed to let me out of the mansion!’

And then, several months later, he’d been overjoyed to hear that Father had ordered a library built within the mansion. In reality, Bernil mainly used the Academy’s library, and the only person who ever visited the library built within the mansion was the young Ent Harbilta.

‘… Maybe, just maybe, I wasn’t hated to death after all.’

Ent scratched his cheek. It felt like a truth he hadn’t understood as a child was finally coming into focus.

After a dinner that was quiet yet, in its own way, harmonious, Ent was granted everything he had desired. Ent left the dining room first, and only then did Bernil dismiss all the servants to speak the words he had held back.

“Father, are you serious?”

Evant turned to his son with his usual stony expression. Seeing the look of incomprehension on his face made his mouth taste bitter.

When Evant closed his eyes as if deep in thought, Bernil couldn’t bring himself to say more and fell silent.

It had been so long since he’d seen his son’s face this close. He wasn’t talking about Bernil, but Ent.

Evant couldn’t refuse Ent’s request, which felt like a raw nerve.

“You’re sending that child alone to the capital and allowing him to visit the Temple of Omb?”
“Is there a problem?”
“Of course there is! The Temple of Omb, of all places…!”

Bernil clenched his fists and glared at his father. They still didn’t know why that child had suddenly taken poison, and yet he was permitting him to visit the Temple of Omb alone, no less. Bernil had rather unpleasant memories associated with that place.

“Then it might happen again…”
“Bernil Harbilta.”

Bernil lifted his head at Evant’s words, which cut off his carelessly spoken sentence. Seeing Bernil’s face, which seemed to have much to say, Evant let out a short sigh. He couldn’t help but understand Bernil’s concern for Ent. Yet, from Evant’s perspective, it was unavoidable.

Evant deeply regretted bringing Bernil and Ent to the capital at the duke’s summons. He had intended to leave Ent at home as usual and take only Bernil. But the child had looked as if something was troubling him, so Evant had impulsively changed his mind and brought him to the capital.

If he had brought him, he should have taken full responsibility. But he couldn’t force the boy, who kept suffering from motion sickness, to continue all the way to the duke’s residence.

No, that wasn’t it.

Evant frowned as if his head ached.

‘All excuses.’

Even if it was unavoidable, Evan could do nothing. After visiting the temple of Omb, what had become of his son?

Ent had fainted in that temple under unknown circumstances and slept soundly for a full two weeks. Even healers and priests summoned at the imperial court’s request were of no use. The child, who had slept as if dead, finally opened his eyes after that long period of two weeks, and he was completely mad.

Screaming “Where am I?” as if he’d lost his memory, he cried uncontrollably until he collapsed. “Who are you?” “I’m scared.” “Take me home.” No matter how we explained this was his home, he wouldn’t listen. Attempts to calm him down failed. He spent years in that hellish state.

“… Bernil. This time, it won’t happen again.”

Years passed, and the child stopped crying. But for Evant and Bernil, the truly dreadful time began then.

“Ent’s gaze is different now.”

That gaze. Just thinking of that face made Evant’s head ache as if he had an incurable disease, as if it would split open. The child feared them. Not just fear, but loathing as if they were monstrous beings, perpetually frozen in terror.

If they spent even a little too long together, or if their eyes met, the child would sometimes scream convulsively or lose consciousness. He treated the servants harshly, throwing objects at them, and there were even times he knocked himself unconscious with the very things he hurled.

Desperate to stop the self-harming acts, they even sent him to the Academy, hoping he might improve away from home. But his notoriety only grew there. Then, just before entering the upper grades, he suddenly returned to the family estate and shut himself in his room. Far from improving, he seemed worse than ever. Evant and Bernil could do nothing. All they could do was try to ignore him as much as possible and leave him alone.

“F-Father!”
“Oh, no..”

When Evan learned the child had even attempted suicide, he visited his late wife’s grave for the first time in ages. Perhaps his prayer to protect their child had been answered. Despite drinking poison, the child woke up safely, changed from before.

‘Um, Father, I have a favor to ask.’

Though the voice was barely audible, still trembling with tension, Evant couldn’t help but nod at those words. How long had it been since he’d heard that child say the word father? How long had it been since they’d gathered like this for a meal?

For a long time, mentioning the god Omb within Harbilta Manor had been almost taboo. It was because of Ent himself, who wanted to visit Omb’s temple.

“I’ll let you do as you wish.”
”Really?”

The image of his face, eyes wide as saucers staring back at him after chewing the meat as if savoring food for the first time in ages, wouldn’t leave Evant’s mind.

Seeing his father’s expression soften as if lost in thought, Bernil closed his mouth, saying no more. Yes, it was a change that couldn’t help but be surprising. He himself had endured a time of suffering just like his father. He understood his feelings.

He couldn’t understand why Ent had suddenly changed. It was as if he had become a different person. Still, Bernil and Evant decided to simply listen to Ent. After all, it had been a very long time since they could eat a meal while looking Ent in the eye.

Returning to his room, Ent felt considerably lighter. It had been a surprisingly pleasant meal, making him wonder what he’d been worrying about all this time.

Of course, it was also uncomfortable. How could it not be, after all the years he’d spent away from this house, living elsewhere? His brother, looking far more mature than the face in his memories, and his father, bearing the marks of time.

“My brother and my father.”

Ent quietly savored those words again.

While living Jaeyoon’s life, he had always believed he had no family. Yet, facing them today, Ent couldn’t deny it. If they weren’t his family, then who was?

Behind Ent, who was smiling shyly and faintly, Izel watched him silently, his eyes narrowed.