HRB 87

Eddie’s hand, which had been hesitantly holding onto Ketron’s sleeve, clenched tightly. His ear, where their lips had touched, felt hot, and it seemed like his fine hairs were standing on end.

He felt pathetic for experiencing a base pleasure at seeing Ketron cling to him, begging him not to leave even in this situation.

And he felt even more pathetic for not being able to give a definite answer that he wouldn’t leave.

When Eddie kept his mouth shut, Ketron whispered again, asking, “Eddie, are you going to leave me?”

“…”

Of course, he didn’t want to leave. But Eddie might end up leaving regardless of his own will.

Perhaps this answer would go against the flow of the story, which had been quiet since the tournament.

So, it would be better to feign ignorance, pretending not to know anything, as he had done until now, making an effort to act oblivious and asking what he was talking about.

But Eddie didn’t want to do that.

He didn’t want to pretend.

After hesitating for a long time, Eddie finally shook his head. He didn’t want to leave Ketron’s side. He had no intention of doing so. That was the only answer he could give right now.

At that moment, Eddie saw light coming into a corner of the dimly lit inn, behind Ketron.

The slender light illuminated a book lying alone in the darkness.

Ah.

Eddie knew what that book was.

Was it trying to punish Eddie for promising a future he couldn’t dare to be sure of?

In an instant, the pages of the book turned with a rustling sound in the air, where not even a breeze was blowing.

He couldn’t read the contents because it was too far away, but he could see the silhouettes of densely packed letters. Rustle, rustle—the pages continued to turn rapidly, making a chilling sound.

This wasn’t good.

Even if he pushed Ketron away and ran over there now, he wouldn’t be able to stop the pages from turning.

The story was flowing. At an unstoppable speed.

And when more than half of the pages had turned—

“Eddie.”

“…!”

Eddie was startled. After blinking a few times, he saw that the corner of the inn was just dim, and the book in question was nowhere to be seen.

“Look at me.”

Don’t look anywhere else.

Ketron filled Eddie’s vision. With a resolute face, he wanted Eddie to focus solely on him, without looking anywhere else.

Obscured by that face, the location where the book had been was no longer visible to Eddie. He couldn’t tell if it was real or just a hallucination.

“…”

In the end, Eddie couldn’t say anything. He simply buried his face in Ketron’s firm embrace, who would never leave him no matter what happened. Ketron quietly pulled Eddie’s head into his arms.

It wasn’t just the story that had been flowing and accumulating naturally. The emotions that had been flowing between the lines of the story, even as he turned a blind eye, had already become a river, a sea.

Eddie realized for the first time at that moment that he could understand love without a single word of love being spoken.

And how painful it was to be in a reality where he couldn’t reciprocate it.

***

Ebon was walking along with a happy face, his arms full of paper bags. His bouncy steps looked very cheerful.

Gerold, who had been thoroughly treated like a living wallet and a walking piggy bank throughout the evening, silently followed behind Ebon.

“My carefully prepared gift was ruined, so there’s no other choice. I have to resort to a quantity strategy!”

Gerold sighed at Ebon’s words, his eyes blazing with determination.

“But why do you have to do it with my money?”

“Your money is my money, and my money is my money.”

It was a miraculous logic. But Ebon had been like this for ages. No joke, Ebon had always been like this since they were kids.

The time they had spent together was too long for him to feel particularly bad about it, so Gerold chose to shut his mouth without saying anything more. Ebon, interpreting his silence in his own way, sneered.

“You have a lot of money anyway, right? Young master.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Gerold retorted in a cold voice to Ebon’s words. It was a voice that would have made most people flinch, but Ebon snorted.

They had been together as a matter of course since they were very young. The two of them were people only for Eddie, and for Eddie alone. Their relationship was unique to each other. They weren’t blood-related, but they were like brothers.

When planning the music box gift this time, Ebon, who had been trying to handle everything on his own, realized that he needed a fairly skilled Sorcery user to create an artifact that would move permanently without power, and he asked Gerold for help.

It was also nice to go to the place where Eddie had lived since he was young and spend some time together.

He saw the faces he missed, whom he hadn’t seen for a while because he was busy running around for work.

“You’ve been through a lot.”

He was also proud to hear those words of praise from a face that didn’t resemble Eddie at all.

“I’m going to see Pa… Eddie soon, would you like to come with me?”

He even made such a suggestion. He knew it wasn’t easy for that person to move, but just in case.

“Hmm.”

But that person shook his head with a troubled expression.

“It doesn’t seem easy to leave for a while. I’ll visit on my own when the time is right.”

It would have been the perfect gift if they had gone together, but it couldn’t be helped, so Ebon nodded.

Both the music box and that person’s visit would definitely make Eddie happy.

But after receiving the gift, Eddie didn’t show his face outside his room very often. His face was troubled and didn’t look happy at all to have received the gift, and in fact, he seemed to have forgotten to thank Ebon since he first received it.

He was supposed to explain what was what and have fun like when they were kids, saying that this was this and that was that.

“Don’t be too disappointed.”

Gerold, who knew Ebon’s feelings well, comforted him in a stiff manner.

“Yeah.”

“He might not be very interested in that kind of thing anymore. Let’s hope he’ll be happy with what we bought today.”

Ebon nodded.

But even so, he didn’t think Eddie would be like that. He was the kind of person who would never throw away something, even if someone said that a grown adult wouldn’t like it, and would keep it neatly stored away. There was no way he would suddenly dislike it.

Even if he had lost interest, he was the kind of person who would have shown some kind of happy expression for the gift that Ebon had made with such care.

He wanted to ask if he didn’t like it, but Eddie’s expression was so unusual that he couldn’t bring himself to ask.

The two headed to the inn with light steps. It was already the time when everyone would be asleep, but surprisingly, the lights were on on the first floor.

For some reason, he thought it would be Eddie. Ebon, sensing this, walked almost running.

“Eddie!”

I’m here! Ebon, carrying the gifts in his arms with a happy face, entered the inn, but he froze.

Eddie was on the first floor. But he wasn’t alone.

Eddie was with Ketron. But they weren’t just sitting together, Eddie was in Ketron’s arms.

What’s more, Eddie was asleep in Ketron’s arms! The soft breathing and the regular heartbeat made it clear that he was asleep.

In that man’s arms, of all people!

“Hey, you…!”

Ebon, who was about to shout, belatedly lowered his voice. He was afraid that Eddie, who was asleep, would wake up.

Eddie, who had been looking half-dead and reclusive lately, was finally asleep with a slightly more comfortable face, and he couldn’t bring himself to wake him up.

“It’s okay.”

But surprisingly, Ketron said lightly.

“I’ve taken measures to make sure he can sleep soundly.”

“…?”

When he wondered what he meant, he saw traces of mana near Eddie’s ear. He had already taken measures to ensure that he could sleep soundly regardless of the noise. That man had.

Ebon made a sulky face.

Come to think of it, he said he could use Sorcery, that guy. It’s annoying how capable he is.

Ebon, who had placed the items he was holding in his arms on another table, walked towards Ketron and Eddie.

“Good job. Hand Eddie over to me and you can go upstairs or something.”

He spoke with a somewhat overbearing tone, raising his chin, but Ketron didn’t budge, as if he was talking nonsense.

“Why would I?”

He even asked back like that.

He’s really arrogant. Ebon grumbled.

“Of course, it’s my role to serve him. You’re nothing to Eddie, right?”

Childish words poured out on their own. You’re nothing, but I’m important to Eddie. It was the same thing he had used in the argument on the day they first met.

The man’s eyebrows twitched at the title of Eddie ‘nim,’ which was clearly a term of great respect. He must be wondering what kind of relationship Eddie and Ebon had. Ebon shrugged his shoulders with a strange sense of victory.

This guy doesn’t know anything about Eddie. And he never will. He’s just a passerby. He was no match for Ebon and Gerold, who had always been by his side since they were kids.

So it was only natural for Ebon to take Eddie now—

“I don’t want to.”

“What?”

But Ketron lightly rejected Ebon’s words.

“I have no intention of letting him go. He’s mine.”

He even went a step further and hugged Eddie tighter in his arms while saying those words. Ebon felt a pain in the back of his neck when he saw Eddie’s cheek softly rubbing against Ketron’s firm chest.

“Y-you…!”

What the hell was this crazy bastard saying? Ebon wasn’t oblivious, and he couldn’t not know what kind of nuance that Ketron guy was giving off. This was practically a declaration of war.

Ebon’s voice dropped sharply. As if he had never been lighthearted, Ebon’s face turned cold in an instant.

“He’s not someone you can dare to covet.”

If other people heard it, they might have been taken aback, wondering how great a person he was. But Ebon was serious. Eddie was a great person, after all.

He wasn’t someone that a passerby like him could dare to covet.

“You don’t know anything and you’re saying he’s yours? Don’t be ridiculous. Don’t you know how foolish it is to try to swallow something when you know you’ll get sick if you swallow it?”

So that advice was genuine, coming from the heart. It was right not to let Ketron dare to aim for Eddie, even for Ketron’s sake.

There are things you can swallow and things you can’t. Eddie was clearly the latter.