RGS Volume 4 Part 5

Huh?

Melmond quickly moved away from Kin. Then, with a contemptuous gaze, he looked at Kin, who quickly defended himself.

“Ridiculous. Why would I pounce on that man? I was just looking for medicine.”

“Medicine?”

“Young master Lil’s medicine. When he is about to collapse, he used to drink some medicine to calm down, didn’t he?”

Right, Melmond nodded his head and then turned his head quickly. “Huh?”

“Then, is Lil unwell?”

“Yes, he was sitting there, feeling unwell…”

“I don’t see him?”

“….”

“Where is he then?”

Melmond looked around the empty field several times and asked Kin again. However, Kin also looked surprised and blinked his eyes as he confirmed the empty field.

“He was there just a moment ago.”

“Huh? Just a moment ago? What do you mean?”

Thud, Kin lowered the arm that had been holding the sword with a dazed expression. The sword made a small sound as it touched the ground, but no one paid it any attention. Lil, who had clearly been sitting on the ground just a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen. The heat that had risen to his head due to anger vanished in an instant. In its place was a chilling sense of unease.

“He seemed like he was about to collapse from shock, but where on earth did he go?”

As Kin muttered, Melman quickly nagged him.

“Shock? What kind of shock are you talking about?”

A shock in the middle of the night for no reason?

Melmond looked around in confusion and realized that another person was missing.

“Where did the Commander-in-Chief go?”

When Kin heard the term “commander-in-chief,” something came to mind, and he quickly scanned the forest with sharp eyes.

“Could it be that he went after him?”

“Him? Please explain it to me so I can understand.”

In response to Melmond’s urgent voice, Kin reluctantly pointed to the forest where Karas had disappeared.

“It seems that young master Lil went after the Commander-in-Chief. He was very surprised by his identity.”

Kin turned his eyes away from the forest and added to Melmond, who had turned pale for some reason.

“It seems that young master Lil had no idea that the Commander-in-Chief was the real Emperor of this country. He seemed shocked when I told him… Uh, are you okay?”

Kin had to ask the same question to someone else this time. Melmond staggered back.

Wobbling― Melmond’s knees seemed to give way at any moment, but he managed to hold on and looked up with hardened eyes from the shock.

“Ah, no, did Lil, I mean, did Lil found out? Who the real emperor of this country is?”

“Yes,” as soon as Kin nodded, a scream-like cry poured out of Melmond’s mouth.

“You d*mn pig!!!!”

                                                                         ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖            

*Gasp, gasp, gasp.*

It was impossible to run through the dark forest, however, walking as fast as one could was possible. Though Abel couldn’t see, he reached out his hands and felt his way past rough trees. Relying on the faint moonlight, he continued to move his weak legs. Though his heart felt like it could burst at any moment, it wasn’t because of the urgency of his movements.

However, he also felt like the fact that he was walking so frantically that he was out of breath was contributing to his heart’s pounding. Walking breathlessly, step by step, his chest felt like it was going to tear apart, and it seemed like his heart was going to burst, spilling red blood.  If it were before, he would have stopped walking and caught his breath, worried for his weak body.

However, Abel couldn’t feel the fear of death now. Simply moving forward was the only urgent thing he had to do. Pushing rough trees aside with his trembling fingertips, stepping into empty spaces, picking up his fallen body caught on the tree roots, and only moving forward.

Even though he didn’t know his destination, at some point, he felt a faint scent carried by the wind. Upon realizing it was the smell of blood, there was a slight ringing in his ears. It was clear that a fight was taking place somewhere nearby.

And there… he was. Karas.

The familiar moonlight, although faint, illuminated the scenery between the trees. The scent of blood, grew darker as he approached, the dying screams of the fallen, and the sound of the wind caused by the sword. In the center of them all, the swift movements of a man cutting down enemies shone like a mirage.

There were still a few soldiers left attacking around, but compared to his swift movements, they felt slow as if they were standing still. They all had their throats cut and blood spurted out like a fountain into the air. The heads separated from their bodies turned into black shadows under the moonlight and rolled around on the ground.

Haah, haah, haah.

The rough breath that came out of Abel’s mouth had now subsided. However, his heart, still watching the scene of the battle while holding onto the tree, did not slow down.

Thump, thump, thump.

Gradually, the sound filled his chest more and more, and each beat felt like a hammer hitting Abel’s chest. Thump, pain spread as if something was squeezing his heart painfully. Again, thump, the sound of his heart pounding relentlessly, this time, even his throat tightened.

His mouth opened involuntarily due to the suffocating feeling of not being able to breathe, but it wasn’t just because of the weak heart that felt like it was about to burst.       

It was as if was something suppressing his throat, chest, and heart like a rock. It was accompanied by pain, sadness, and joy. However, now that he was watching Karas swing his sword, leaving only the last person behind, the joy that had been taking up his mind had faded to an unseen place.

His face, as he plunged his sword deep into the heart of his last enemy, was slightly visible in the moonlight. Although the opponent’s blood splattered on his face like a fountain, he remained expressionless, not even closing his eyes. For him, stabbing a sword into a person’s body and spilling blood was a natural everyday occurrence, and his most basic emotion was simply cruelty.

Just like a young child for whom killing animals was the basic way of expressing oneself. The unchanged prince was right in front of him. Abel opened his mouth without being able to let out the hot lump stuck in his throat. Something that should have burst out from within him made his eyes burn hot.

The rippling moisture was still visible in the eyes, but it couldn’t flow because of his unyielding eyes that wouldn’t close. He couldn’t take his eyes off him. The man standing in the midst of the corpse in cruelty, at some point, looked like an eight-year-old boy to Abel.

With long hair covering his eyes, and hands and feet bound in chains, the prince knew nothing but attacking others. The moment his own name was heard from the silent prince’s mouth who wouldn’t speak, was still vivid in Abel’s memory. The hesitant look in his yellow eyes, the cute face looking up at him, even the small hands clutching his clothes, and the arms that hugged his neck—all felt like just yesterday.

He thought that he had barely taught the child what love was and made him feel the meaning of life that everyone enjoys. In the end, he was wrong. It was his own irresponsible fault. He shouldn’t have left like that.

He shouldn’t have left the prince alone.

He himself…

His vision blurred and something hot and stinging flowed down his cheeks. But still, the painful lump in his throat couldn’t come out of his mouth.

Plop.

As he weakly sank to the ground helplessly, he knew he shouldn’t make a sound and just lowered his head. Even though his breath was short, and his shoulders shook involuntarily, he couldn’t cry.

He couldn’t be caught.

This pathetic sight, this foolishness, was his Regas twelve years ago.

He shouted from within him to get up and go back, however, this time, the tears that endlessly fell to the floor dominated his whole body. His body which trembled every time his heart pounded now trembled along with his flowing tears. Every time his shoulders shook, and his chest thumped, it felt like the cries that stuck in his throat would melt and leak out of his mouth.

Trying to hold back the sobs, Abel bit his lower lip. The suppressed sobbing shook his chest. He tried to stop crying by pressing his aching heart with his hand, but it was futile. All he could do was silence the sound. He couldn’t get up, he couldn’t run away.

It was the same even when he realized belatedly that someone was approaching him.

After a while, he finally raised his head. However, the tears that seemed to diminish poured out even more when he saw the person in front of him. Karas was looking at him with an expressionless face.

                                                                         ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖            

Before killing the last soldier, he felt a presence somewhere in the forest. There was clearly a rat hiding. Karas intentionally twisted the last soldier’s heart more cruelly to deliberately show it to the hiding rat. Though blood splattered on his face, tasting the pungent blood was already familiar to him.

He pulled out the sword from the body that had become a corpse and turned towards the direction where the sound came from. Fortunately, the direction where the little rat hid was where the group was staying. He just have to get rid of him and then go back that way.

Karas’ mind was already filled with the green eyes that looked up at him by the bonfire.

When the sun rises, he will join his army. Before that, he wanted to tell him.

Who he was.

And he would reveal his name is Karas once again.

Just thinking about it made him excited.

How surprised would he be? What changes would be visible in those big clear eyes?

But what he was sure of was the expectation that he would eventually smile. He walked while thinking about him being pleased to know his true identity.

Crack, thud.

A branch under his foot snapped and made a sound. Karas approached the black object that looked like a person, sword in hand, not paying attention to the rustling sounds around him. Though it was smaller than he thought, it didn’t matter. Then, it would be easier to kill. Just cut off the neck quickly and…

Thud.

His arm that held the sword, his foot that was about to step forward, and his breath that was about to be exhaled all stopped at once. Instead, Karas opened his eyes wider to see the figure more clearly in the darkness. The person who was crouching on the ground and hiding was not the little rat.

Abel?

He couldn’t see his face as he was lowering his head, but at a glance, he was sure it was Abel.

Why is he here?

Karas was surprised like never before and stood still for a moment, then noticed that Abel’s shoulders were trembling. And he also heard the sobbing sound that Abel couldn’t hide. It was because the forest was so eerily quiet. Tears flowed through his tightly sealed lips along with his stifled sobs.

Karas, who felt flustered for the first time in his life, didn’t know what to do and just stood there. He had seen many people cry before. There were those who begged with heartbreaking pleas before death and others who simply shed tears without uttering a word. But never before had he been so moved by someone’s tears. Until now, he had always regarded crying as nothing more than an annoyance, just noisy and bothersome.

Yet, as he realized Abel was crying, his heart, to his surprise, began to ache gradually.

Why is he crying?

The question echoed repeatedly in his mind.

Feeling uncertain about what to do, a sense of frustration washed over Karas belatedly. Only then did Karas carefully kneel down in front of Abel. As he lowered his body, he could see a little bit of Abel’s face. He saw tears falling endlessly, dripping down his face.

Abel, who held his breath to make no sound, pressed his chest with one hand. It felt as if that hand was pressing his own heart.

Suddenly, he remembered a time in the past when he had been flustered in a similar way. It was from a long time ago when he first met Abel. He had also cried in the forest. It was when Abel had mentioned his master.

Somehow, his crying bothered him, so he stopped biting his shoulder. It felt as if he had returned to that time. He didn’t know what to do and felt like a confused child. At that moment, Abel looked up first. His heart sank as he met his tear-filled green eyes.

“Why are you crying?”

When he asked softly, it seemed like he understood. Abel slightly opened his mouth. He seemed to be trying to hold back his tears and say something, but he lowered his head again as if it was difficult. After swallowing his tears for a while, he opened his mouth again. A reason that sounded like a lie came out mixed with his crying.

“Just… sob…I tripped… and it hurt.”

Karas couldn’t believe it, but he couldn’t dismiss it either. Abel started laughing with a face that was a mess of tears.

“I fell down. Sob, I’m, I’m such a fool, right? I fell down and it hurts, just, it hurts.”

Abel tried to keep laughing, however, to Karas’ eyes, it felt louder than anyone else’s cries.

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T/N: I knew this was coming… it felt weird why the last chapter seemed light, the author did it in purpose cuz they know we’ll be sad in this chapter T-T