is silent for what seems like an eternity.
The wind was calm, the sky was filled with feather-like clouds, and there was silence, like old rainwater that had no longer soaked into the ground. Randel looked into the eyes of the person who seemed to have been swept away by the rain, carried all the clouds, and blown away by the wind, leaving only silence in the end.
âYou look alike.â
The day the wind blew and ruffled the rose petals.
I thought of the purple eyes of someone who visited the rose garden.
â⦠You are that stranger.â
When he said he was worried about getting hurt by the thorns while handling the flowers, he might have been a warning that he would end up getting hurt if he tried to handle Kalian rashly.
Or maybe it was a request to not forget the thorns that protect the flower while looking at the red flower that has bloomed all over again.
Randel, who was contemplating for a moment the meaning of words that only Chase would know that day, heard Calianâs unfamiliar but clear voice.
âYes. I look like him. I am the King of Secretia.â
âHe spoke so condescendingly about Tensil. Is that why?â
âBecause we donât get along well. We used to and still do.â
âIn the meantime, what will happen in the future?â
âIt will depend on what I do. It could get better, or if not, we could just go our separate ways.â
It was as if he didnât care at all about Randelâs decision, Serjanâs intentions, or Rashidâs actions. Randel, who was watching it in silence, opened his mouth.
âYou are full of confidence.â
âItâs just an estimation.â
The question of possibility was no longer considered. I was not confident whether I could do it or not, but rather I was assessing whether I should do it or not. Because itâs something you can do if you need to.
âThat look shows that you are confident.â
âIsnât it obvious? Iâm Calian.ân/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âI know what I can do.â
âIâm sure you can help me.â
âDo you really believe what I say?â
âYou said you would trust your brother this time.â
When Randel heard this, he made a face like a rose that had fallen in the rain. Calian opened his mouth, pretending not to have seen that.
âI know whatâs behind the curtain, but Iâm afraid to find out. Iâve done something I canât take back, but I keep doing things I canât take back as if Iâm trying to cover it up. I turn my eyes away, turn away, and stay silent. Like there are only roses in the world, I was born and grew only in Brother Randelâs hands. âAs if those roses were everything to your life, as if they would be cut off without a word. Thatâs how you lived your life until now.â
Calian let go of the curtain and took a step closer to Randel, and his fingertips pointed towards Randelâs feet.
âI canât endure it three times because Iâm not your older brother. Brother Randelâs situation wasnât very good, so I tolerated it once, and I endured it once because he stepped forward before Randel and got my foot bitten.â
Old Kalyan received only rejection. Always, everywhere, I was always rejected like that. I have been denied and ignored my entire life. Even death.
Hit it with one hit. If I counted the number of times, I felt like there would be no place to rely on other than Yanâs hand in such a large palace, so I hit all the rejections at once.
Because Randel also knew that he had only received rejection. Even though I couldnât forgive, I understood.
As I swallowed Silikeâs poison and told him to help me, I was bitten once on the foot. I wanted to step forward, but the reason why I was silenced because of Plantz, who took the initiative to save Silike, was obvious even without hearing it, so I used that as an excuse and held back one more time. I didnât understand and just forgave.
Understand and forgive.
I endured it like that twice.
âItâs enough to melt my insides and be rejected by an outstretched hand twice. I canât take it anymore.â
I finally let out what I had been holding in so much.
I felt like it was going to explode.
I feel like my stomach is going to explode.
It felt like the things in that abyss would overflow and Randelâs insides would explode. Calian exploded first.
âBrother Randel knows that you canât be the kind of person who can endure it three times. He will help you this time. So, I will believe it too.â
So far, Randel has been shown and Plantz has already broken it once. So Kalian finally climbed over the wall he had been trying to overcome. Randel knew that he was different from Plants, so he ended up stepping into a place that he had planned to leave alone.
Looking at those feet, carving those hands, watching that mouth, looking into those eyes.
âI canât even get bitten anymore.â
Randel answered.
âI heard you donât have much patience.â
âBesides, heâs someone who doesnât let go of something once heâs grabbed it. It wonât bite him.â
âNow then. Which direction do you want me to take? Please let me know. I will use it as a reference.â
âAfter living like that, I donât like going to the tower, I donât like being locked up in a beautiful estate, and I donât mind wearing the crown of a country with no foundation. Thatâs why I donât like standing in the square. It was Brother Randel who said he hated everything⦠â¦â
Kalian also responded.
I repeated exactly what Randel had just said. Afterwards, he placed his hand on his disheveled blue-silver hair and continued speaking.
âYou decide for yourself whether you like roses or cats.â
Sweep your hair as if you were detangling it.
A few strands of hair are wrapped around the tips of my fingers and fall out.
âItâs a difficult choice to pick up.â
âI have a lot of time. Iâm going to live for a long time, 30 or 50 years.â
Calian looked down at the few strands of hair that had fallen from his fingertips. Because I was out of my body, the magic was released, and I watched the hair for a while as it shortened and turned black, and then I patted it. I patted it on the floor.
âSo. Are you going to stay quiet and help me while I live like that, or are you going to help me by leaving footprints in all sorts of places? Now, you decide for yourself. It doesnât matter if you say one is better or something else is better.â
Is there any need to care whether it is blue-silver or black?
Whatever it looks like.
âIâll let you do what you want. I will.â
It wonât change the fact that Kalyan is a talented person.
* * *
There is silence that will soon disappear.
After looking up at the second floor window of the Wilhelm Pavilion for a moment, Plantz turned his head forward again. Reminding myself that there are people out there who are probably enduring even more silence than this right now.
Eighty-six people, who were harder to control than grains of sand rolling around inside a conch shell, were all looking at Planz with the same wish in their differently colored eyes. Plantz, who looked into each of the countless eyes of light, let out a low voice.
âI guess itâs because itâs the army my brother createdâ¦â
What are the names of those eighty-six people, what color are their hair, what color are their eyes, what is their voice like, what are they good at, what are their habits, what are their speaking habits? What do you find difficult, and what handwriting do you use?
Plantz, who remembers it all, continued.
âEveryone barks well.â
Of course, all people are uniformly different, so how can the eighty-six people gathered here shout with one voice?
I was wondering about it like a habit.
âAre you saying this is an army created by Prince Calian?â
Even so, because Plantz never says âmy brother barksâ in front of other guys, I didnât understand the correlation between the fact that it was an army created by Calian and the members of that army barking well, but in any case, the guys who understood very well that it reminded me of Calian were very angry. He had a proud face.
âItâs not a compliment.â
âYes, I know, Vice Commander. Itâs okay though.â
ââ¦â¦ under.â
The day when Lucy spilled the highest quality ink, which was said to be twice as expensive as most perfumes, Anne stepped on it, and Coco stirred it up. I know that there was a time when documents neatly stamped with three types of ink soles instead of the usual clay soles were sold at an enormous price at their own auction, but were reduced to ashes with a single smile from Alan.
I know that he stayed up all night for more than 15 days, saying that he would make a magic item that would allow him to hear Hinaâs voice instead of doing the magic research he was told to do, and ended up being autopsied at the hands of that same Hina.
I know that these are the people who were discussing how to avoid working overtime, but could not come to a conclusion after not coming home from work for three days and nights, and almost ended up being banned from work forever by Kalianâs hands.
No need to say much.
They are all just idiots.
In the past, only wizards did that, but now itâs everyone. Regardless of whether they are knights or wizards, they have become idiots whose satisfaction with life is sky-high. I wonder if Jeon Seo-gu is still here.
âBy the way, Vice Commander.â
âwhy.â
âInstead of keeping our mouths shut, you told us to tell you our wishes one by one. You also said that we shouldnât brag about our wishes to others.â
âhowever.â
Although it seems like only the best idiots in Kairis have been gathered together, they are soldiers by name. They listened to Planzâs orders to keep quiet about what they had seen of Bern.
âDidnât you say that today you are not allowed to draw or write anything down on the wall of the training center?â
âTell me what will happen.â
âYou canât carve it on the bottom of the Senyu River, and you canât make a firework and shoot it into the skyâ¦â
âThe pink-haired wizard who canât drink milk.â
âI will run ten laps and come back, Vice Commander.â
There was a problem that I was only good at listening.
Plantz frowned as he saw another pink-haired wizard besides Needlen immediately start running through the training hall.
âSo we thought about it, Vice Commander.â
After sending the wizard away, the knight came out and naturally started barking. As if he was the same guy from the beginning.
So after a while.
Planz, who was watching the two wizards and four knights running in unison as if they were one body, said.
âDonât turn. Just say it.â
Instead of running around with strange wishes for no reason, just say what you want to say.
âCan I tell you something?â
âsun.â
Please just say it.
Eighty people looked at the expressionless light green eyes filled with such earnest intentions and secretly laughed. And I said one real wish.
âPrince Calian, when youâre healed and you look like that, can you spar with us?â
âWhy?â
Even if no one really saw how it got here, it was pretty cool anyway. So I wanted to give it a try.
âOh, of course, but I know there is no way to fight eighty-six times one-on-one. Thatâs why I thought that if all eighty-six of us attack one Prince Calian at the same time, we might be able to become opponents somehow.â
âYouâre cowardly, but youâre proud.â
âYou know each personâs level well, Vice Commander. I know I wonât be able to beat you, Vice Commander. Still, I want to give it a shot, Vice Commander.â
Plantz let out a slow sigh at the words of these guys, who were surprisingly soldier-like, braver than expected, and, as we all knew, crazy. And then I looked at each and every one of the different eyes again.
âItâs not that I canât win. Iâm going to die.â
I meant it.
Itâs amazing that I look into the eyes of a guy who doesnât seem to be able to kill people because thereâs a law and feel like fighting, but if I fight, I think theyâll die. Kirie told me that he was my age, but to me, itâs great that I feel a sense of victory after seeing the back of a guy who doesnât look my brotherâs age at all, but I think theyâll die if they fight. I respect the idea of putting a knife in the hand of a guy who can cut people down with his bare fists, but I think theyâll all die if they fight.
âWe will take care of not dying, Vice Commander.â
âThere arenât enough treatment rooms.â
âI will get hurt by matching the number as long as it is not too small.â
If that happens, I might have to kneel and raise my hands in front of my sister Hina.
âVice Commander. âNo, sir
.â âNo.â
Above all.
Dealing with the Balkans in the guise of Bern.
If you do that, your rotten insides will rot again.
âThink of something else.â
Plantz turned his back on him, refusing flatly. The person continued talking. Since I couldnât hear, it was because I didnât feel the need to stay here any longer.
âIt could be fun, but why?â
But then I heard a low voice.
I looked up at the place a little while ago. A place that had been silent until now thanks to Randelâs visit. There was someone by the window of that place. He was standing.
The younger brother, who was leaning against the luxurious window frame painted with platinum paint and wearing a black hood pulled down, lowered his head towards Plants. â⦠You
now.â
âI did it because I made that wish. Shouldnât I also listen to it? âNot my brother.â
His red mouth, which stands out even more because his face is covered with a hood, draws a long curved line. He secretly hides his collar, which has already been released, and smiles like a wild animal sitting in a cage would make while looking at the cage door creaking open. Then
he said,
âWhen everything heals. âI will.â
He purred fiercely.
* * *
I planted another corn next to the land where I used to grow peas.
This time, I planted it with the intention of seeing how it grows.
If the corn stubble I grew that way is stiff, I will never farm again. I said I would throw it all away and follow my teacher to the south and live there raising Raven. Lucy seemed to like being next to her older brother the most, so Lucy told her to do whatever she wanted, and if I kept leaving her next to her older brother, my children would all be cut off, so I thought it couldnât happen. I would take Hina down with me, buy her strawberry ice cream every day, suck the insides of coconuts with Kirie and Aila, teach Jan the harmonica, and work hard in Dmireaâs backyard. With that in mind, I planted it out of necessity. Thatâs what I
did
. After leaving, I felt like a part of my heart was empty, but on the contrary, it felt refreshing, so I stood by the window. I heard Peaâs voice, so I looked down and saw an exciting challenge going back and forth. But when is this now? I tried not to stop the fight that was coming and not
come
. Isnât it the most splendid and turbulent period of my life that brings a smile to my face when I think about putting up fights and making fights
that didnât exist? So I didnât refuse and accepted the challenge well.
You can only be considered an upright person and a sound adult if you live up to your reputation. So, I guess I really have grown up. I grew up really well even in that environment. I was praising myself very proudly. â
Just dig 87 graves.â
Then I heard this, which felt like a slap in the back.
A welcome face . When I turned around, there was a person standing there who I would have been happy and happy to meet at any time in the world.
âMaster!â
âIt would be perfect if I buried the eighty-six of them and laid down next to them.â â
Wow, you donât like me greeting you like this. I feel sad when you discriminate against people just because their faces have changed.â
Allen smiled slightly at the joke-filled remark and pointed to the bed.
âWhy donât you come here and lie down? Then youâll have to stay like that forever.â
I didnât know that he was saying this because he was worried about getting more hurt, and that he was afraid of getting hurt again if he tried to fight with his old body, which he wasnât used to. So he nodded readily and came to the bed and sat down
. Calian opened his mouth.
âHave you met Adelia?â
âMore than that. âI saw Prince Randel leaving here.â
Alanâs face was filled with worry as he asked this question.
âItâs okay. âI didnât have to worry because I lifted the curtain and spoke face to face.â â
⦠Thatâs right.â
Getting caught is a daily occurrence, so thereâs nothing more to say. I guess Iâll just say it. Since there are almost no more places to get caught, itâs better. I think I felt at ease.
Because of that, Calian told Alan, who shook his head calmly, the story of what happened with Randel. What they said, what their facial expressions were like, and what kind of answers they received. He told me everything, one by one. A long time ago
. Something that the one-day Alan would have heard of, but the one-day Calian had never done before. The little things that tell us what he went through while his parents were out of sight. That was something he had to do now. Alan looked at Calian
.
More He nodded slowly, looking at his unwavering light purple eyes.
âI guess itâs something to congratulate since youâve gained another brother.â
âYes. It will be something to celebrate. You will have a brother, and if you do well, you will be of great help.â
At these words, Alanâs sharp eyes narrowed for a moment. Then, no matter how much he thought about it, he opened his mouth as if it was difficult to understand.
âAre you talking about Tensil?â
âYes. Thatâs right.â
âBut no matter how much Tensil joined hands with the Great Desertâ¦â
Alan, who was talking like this, kept his mouth shut.
Then, he looked at the sky outside the window and turned his gaze back to Calian. His words Calian, who grinned at Alan who understood what he meant, opened his mouth.
Tensil.
The country that had fallen because it could not obtain the power of Serenti.
âSerenti is awakening, Master.â
Will it still be weak in the future?