TYND 104
by Cherry“I’m a Trimule. I was a gift for people. Seara made me directly and sent me down for humanity. How wonderful. This is truly such an amazing thing!”
His white cheeks flushed red.
His green eyes sparkled more brilliantly than ever.
The sight of him clenching his cute little fists and bouncing up and down was clearly someone overwhelmed with joy and excitement.
Chi?
Chi-chi woke up from all the commotion. Rothy scooped up Chi-chi.
“Chi-chi! They say I’m a Trimule. I was made for people! Isn’t that incredible?”
Chii…
Chi-chi looked at Theon with eyes that said ‘why is he acting like this?’ Then, seeing Theon’s expression, he made a perplexed face as if he’d seen something strange.
Theon had a dumbfounded expression.
The Northern Archduke, who was always stern, stoic, cold, and only occasionally gentle with his young duchess.
Was now looking up at Rothy with a completely blank expression he’d never made in his life.
If his subordinates had seen it, they would have been certain it was Rothy transformed to look like Theon, such a bewildered expression.
“Theon!”
Excited Rothy jumped into Theon’s arms. Theon, who had been kneeling on one knee, received his bird-like weight and absurdly ended up falling backwards on his bottom. It was truly something that had never happened in his life.
Rothy wrapped his arms around Theon’s neck and whispered.
“I’m really happy.”
“……”
“Thank you for telling me. I’m really glad.”
Rothy lifted his head.
Not a trace of darkness could be found on his brightly smiling face. He was rejoicing with his whole heart, with complete sincerity.
His green eyes, filled with bright light, even conveyed overwhelming emotion.
Theon barely managed to speak.
“You’re happy?”
“Yes. So happy. Theon, what’s wrong? Snap out of it.”
“How can you be happy?”
Theon felt dismayed after asking, but Rothy returned his question with another question.
“How could I not be happy that I was made to help Theon and people?”
“……”
“I was made to end a terrible war, and the war actually ended. It’s such a grateful and joyful thing. You know, Theon. Now everything makes sense.”
Rothy murmured with a face overflowing with happiness where not a grain of anxiety or worry could be found.
“That’s why after the war ended, everything flowed so prettily and beautifully.”
“……”
“Because Seara was watching over me. Everything flowed toward happiness for me…”
The moment Rothy said that.
– Why I don’t feel anger now… you’ll know that reason soon. When you open your eyes.
Theon could understand why his future self had said such words.
He hadn’t become a believer of Seara.
Not because he understood Seara, not because he was grateful to Seara, and not because he developed sincere faith toward Seara.
Simply because Rothy’s heart was so beautiful.
Beautiful enough to suppress even rage toward God…
Because all of Rothy’s words flowed so prettily and beautifully.
The hatred that had filled his chest disappeared due to overwhelming beauty.
There was no room left for anger because of the volume that love occupied.
All strength left his body. Tension evaporated instantly and his muscles relaxed.
On the other hand, he felt an irresistibly powerful force swallowing his heart.
“Rothy.”
“Yes.”
“You are…”
“Mmhmm.”
“……”
Theon pulled Rothy into his embrace.
And whispered in his heart.
You are truly lovable.
Actually, this overwhelming emotion seemed different from love. People say everyone lives while loving. Then how can they live their daily lives while feeling such heavy, deep, hot, overwhelming emotions?
Theon felt dizzy just thinking that he would be swept up in such emotions every time he saw Rothy.
Rothy tilted his head curiously, then entrusted his whole body to Theon’s firm embrace. Chi-chi, caught in the middle, cried “chii” and then stretched out to go back to sleep. Rothy rubbed his soft cheek against Theon’s shoulder and giggled.
No bird could chirp as lovably as this.
Theon also laughed. Even when he tried not to laugh, laughter came naturally.
Rothy wriggled in Theon’s arms and took a face-to-face position. Theon supported his back as he was about to fall backwards. Rothy entrusted his whole body to Theon’s arms and looked at him.
“I’m relieved. You’re smiling. I was worried because your expression kept being strange.”
“Was it that strange?”
“You looked like the ferret doll I bought at the academy festival. For reference, that doll looked like this.”
Rothy drew a circle, square, and circle in the air with his finger. Theon couldn’t believe his expression had been ‘ㅇㅁㅇ’. There was probably some exaggeration involved, but… if Rothy said so, he could just go with it.
“But if Theon was going to tell me such happy news, why did you set the mood as if you were delivering some incredibly sad, difficult, and painful news?”
“Mm.”
“You looked like you were angry and sad, so I was really worried…”
Theon couldn’t think of any excuse, so he kept his mouth shut.
Then suddenly Rothy made an expression as if he’d realized something. His small body stiffened instantly as if struck by lightning. Moisture immediately welled up in his green eyes. Seeing his teary eyes, Theon was flustered.
“Rothy?”
“I understand…”
“……”
“I can’t stay with Theon anymore now, can I?”
“…Why does your thinking jump there?”
“Because I’m a Trimule… the demon bastard will target me… Maybe the reason he’s circling around the estate now is to collect me along with that watch… So if you just hand me over, the north will be peaceful without the demon bastard’s threat…”
“You can’t be serious.”
When Theon asked with stern eyes that said ‘Do you really think I would hand you over?’, Rothy thought about it with his small head and decided that probably wasn’t it, so he fell into thought again.
“If that’s not it, then why was it so hard for you to tell me…”
Rothy probably wouldn’t find the answer even if he pondered for a lifetime.
Theon stood up while holding Rothy. When he sat his on the bed, Rothy grabbed onto Theon saying he wasn’t sleepy yet. Theon had no intention of putting Rothy to sleep either. There was still more to discuss.
“Rothy. Yesterday I spoke with my future self through this watch. I asked about how you could grow, and I got an answer.”
“Really? What’s the method? I want to grow up quickly. I want to grow up fast and unite bodies with Theon.”
Theon quickly covered Rothy’s mouth. His hand was large and Rothy’s face was small, so he ended up covering almost his entire face rather than just his mouth.
Rothy’s innocent eyes expressed confusion. Theon swallowed a sigh internally and lowered his hand.
Fortunately, Rothy understood that Theon didn’t want this topic and didn’t mention intimacy again.
“If you use this method, instead of growing you’ll frequently fall asleep for a while.”
“If the only side effect is longer sleep, that’s really awesome…”
“Who used that word in front of you?”
“What word?”
“Awesome.”
“Erhen. But what’s the method?”
Theon explained Trimule synthesis to Rothy. Rothy listened attentively with a quite serious expression.
“Then we need to quickly steal the Trimule the demon bastard has.”
“Right. Now let’s discuss how to capture the demon Archduke…”
“……”
Theon quickly corrected himself at his look that said Archduke was Theon and there couldn’t be two.
“Let’s discuss how to capture the demon bastard.”
“Yes!”
*
Very long ago, he too had a name. A unique name that referred only to him, like Shirain and Tuong.
But living for thousands of years, he had forgotten his name, and now only the aliases demon Archduke or collector remained.
The collector didn’t mind losing his name.
Thanks to the collector alias, the fact that he collected Trimules became widely known, and his subordinate demons offered Trimules without being told, which was actually more convenient.
Collecting Trimules was his mission.
He was the only demon who could receive Mayton’s revelations, which was why he got the alias ‘Archduke.’
“Seara is creating things called Trimules and sending them down to that world. You must collect them so humans cannot use them. This will make conquering the human world much easier.”
Mayton wanted to steal Arashis from Seara. So he planted the collector in Arashis with these instructions, and the collector faithfully followed orders.
Unlike other demons, devils, and monsters who constantly eyed human lands and waged conquest wars, he focused solely on collecting Trimules.
Because he was so devoted, losing a Trimule 7 years ago still made his demonic energy surge backwards when he remembered it.
‘According to Shirain, Theon Dert Palsen possesses the Trimule Your Grace lost 7 years ago. After I personally confirm this, if it’s correct, I’ll offer it to Your Grace.’
When Tuong contacted him like this, the collector had no choice but to move personally.
The collector had collected very many Trimules. Some were easy, some difficult, but he eventually discovered the catalysts, activation methods, and functions of all Trimules.
But only the wristwatch-shaped Trimule he’d obtained 7 years ago remained incomprehensible in its usage.
‘It must be a time ability.’
He didn’t know how to use it, but he could understand its function.
Trimule functions were connected to their forms.
That Trimule was the only one among the roughly 500 Trimules known to exist in the world, including those he had and didn’t have, that took the form of a watch.
It surely possessed abilities related to time.