BMD 557

If that were the case, wouldn’t there be a purpose for him drawing me in? Was there something I needed to know, or perhaps a task I had to achieve in this lifetime?

A headache surged, and he lowered his head with a frown. Coincidentally, the gold bracelet lying on the grass entered his field of vision once more.

Leonardo stared at it for a while. Then, unclasping his fingers, he carefully picked it up and slid his hand through the loop.

The sturdy metal bracelet fit his wrist with surprising precision, just as it had before. Since the old man had gone to such lengths to ensure he took it, he felt he should no longer treat it carelessly. Moreover, it felt like a memento of Theodore, making it all the more poignant.

‘Blaine. That is your name from today.’

He chewed over the name given to him. To be precise, the name they had given him. He thought quietly about what this causal relationship signified.

Following that, a trivial story told by his late father, who had been heavily intoxicated, flashed through his mind. His father used to give long speeches about his last name, ‘Blaine.’

‘He would ask if I knew how great the Clan was, claiming he wasn’t a man meant to rot in a backwater place like this.’

He had told Leonardo that since their family were descendants of knights who served high-ranking officials, he should walk with his head held high as the one inheriting that name. It was his own way of comforting a young Leonardo, who was smaller than his peers and often got into fights to prove his strength.

Biting his lip hard, Leonardo let out a low, hollow laugh.

‘Was that actually true?’

Honestly, at the time, he had dismissed it as the ramblings of a drunkard. It made sense; objectively, his father was nothing more than an old mercenary living in a dilapidated, dirty old house. He had no wife, no biological children, no wealth, and no power. If he had truly belonged to an honorable knightly Clan that enjoyed deep trust, he wouldn’t have lived such a humble, meager existence.

And yet, the Clan that had come full circle to give him his name—the primordial root—started with Nomon, who was another life of Grimbleton, and was connected to Theodore?

As he listed the facts, the endlessly connecting orbit felt like the loop of a bracelet.

Leonardo snapped his head up. The child was still watching him in silence.

“The name my father gave me, and the name Theodore gave Nomon, are the same. Since Nomon had a young child, the bestowed name would have been passed down through generations. In other words, it means Nomon could be a distant ancestor of my father. But my father had no biological children, and he took me in as an adopted son just as the lineage was about to end. Or rather, he said he was stuck with me.”

Swallowing hard, Leonardo continued.

“Do you know what this means? By some coincidence, I inherited that name. Out of tens of millions of possibilities that could have existed over a thousand years. But if Theodore is another ego of mine, then in the end, I’ve left a name for myself—and you’re saying this is just one of many branching possibilities?”

Even as he spoke, he shook his head. This was inevitability disguised as coincidence.

“Did Theodore intend something? You said the past, present, and future are an unbroken flow. Theodore kept asking me my name. Even when I answered Nomon, he seemed to suspect I was someone else.”

The child answered calmly.

“That may be so, but even he was merely human. While his insight was considerable for a human, predicting events that would happen in the distant future, and in another dimension no less, is no easy feat. However, his will or the ties he formed could give birth to a seed of thought-residue, which in turn could [stolen content]influence the current you. When you Read on Read BL Novelsfirst came to my house, did I not ask you? Whether you considered it merely a coincidence.”

“Then in the end, it’s not a coincidence.”

“I generally do not like defining a single event or a person’s life as either fate or coincidence. If the world flowed only as predetermined, would not all things be unfair? The opposite is also true. Instead, the word Kiyeon explains much.”

She said that the workings of intertwined connections often act like fate or coincidence.

“Your name is merely one of the results of the strong attraction between him, you, and Grimbleton. Even if you forget each other and have no memories, primordial human nature does not change easily.”

Leonardo listened intently to her words without replying. Then, the child brought up the main point.

“Now, it is meaningless to discuss who knew what facts in advance. What matters is how you act from now on. Did you not spend the entire time in the past persuading yourself? What is the path you wish to walk from this moment forward?”

She seemed to be referring to when he had asked about the path of a commoner during his long conversation with Theodore. Suddenly, in the child’s face, he saw a reflection of Theodore as he had appeared that night.

“Have you decided what you will do with that name in this life?”

The repeated question was slightly strange. Normally, one would ask if he ‘knew’ what he had to do. The intention behind using ‘decided’ instead was clear. It meant he should choose for himself.

Truthfully, at first, he feared that some task existed for him and that he might have to complete it all, only to die once it was finished. He had lived his whole life believing he did not fear death, but it seemed that mindset was nothing more than a remnant of the time he was brainwashed by the military to mimic a human weapon. From Theodore’s illness to the realization that he might actually face death, he found himself wanting to avoid the truths he had so desperately wanted to know.

As Theodore had said, he did not want to be bound by fate.

Yet, the name and the bracelet given to him felt precious, while simultaneously feeling like shackles binding him to destiny. He felt he must discover the reason he crossed dimensions, even at the cost of erasing his memories. He feared that Grimbleton’s life existed solely for his King. He feared that the bond with his father was not a pure familial tie.

He was anxious that his relationship with His Excellency would remain a romance that could never be realized.

Instinctively, Leonardo touched the leash that bound him. Was the tingling at his fingertips whenever he touched the bleak rim due to the clamoring residual thoughts? Or was this, too, a mire pushing him into the cycle of fate?

Leonardo tentatively spoke his confused heart.

“Honestly, I felt that I was very similar to Theodore, but I didn’t think we were perfectly identical beings. I think Theodore felt the same way.”

He and Theodore understood each other, but at the same time, they did not. Leonardo had Finder, Taylor, Nero, and other friends, but Theodore didn’t have them, did he? Instead, he had Borgen, Edgard, Derek, Nomon, and others.

Theodore had maintained the system as an unwritten law and desired small changes within it. Yet Leonardo, even while trying to destroy the system, wanted small exceptions to be maintained within it.

“Our choices and ways of thinking are similar, but our situations and desired results are different. Does someone like me… have something to do on this land, inheriting his will?”

“Whether you inherit his will or not is your choice. However, remember only this. You are the master of this life. There is no need to live his life in his stead.”

The child spoke firmly.

“Theodore’s era has ended. The reason I let you look into your previous life stolen contentwas partly because it was Grimbleton’s wish, but ultimately unauthorized copybecause you chose it. Because you came here [unauthorized copy]on your own two feet, seeking to find the path you must walk. Did you not wish to unravel it?”

The child’s gaze shifted to the nape of Leonardo’s neck, which he had been touching.

“I was not merely watching you while you wandered through the past. I told you that a scarecrow is entwined in that curse. To break the curse, you must first deal with the scarecrow where the misfortune flows in. Only then will the price of the binding be directed entirely toward the master of the curse. And when you cut off the arm holding that chain, you will finally find complete freedom.”

Freedom, Leonardo murmured as if possessed.

“The one who bound you with residual thoughts will surely try to hold you back. Whether the path you take is fate or not, they will drive you in a direction contrary to your will.”

“Then I…”

“Humans generally repeat the past, but in that process, they also find a way forward. Did Theodore comply with the situation and fate surrounding him, or did he resist? And you, who knows his answer, what will you do now?”

Leonardo chewed over the child’s words.

If asked if Theodore’s end was perfect… well, he didn’t know. But it was certain that Theodore had done his best even within a life that ultimately concluded in death.

And his own life was currently such that nothing could be easily obtained without struggling. Neither the safety of his comrades, nor the glory of the Empire, nor his lost honor.

If Theodore had taken his heart lightly as a mere commoner and walked this path, what choice would he have made?

Ridiculously, once he left the choice to him, the answer became clear. Because Theodore already [stolen content]knew the [stolen content]method to unauthorized copyresolve his previous desires all at once.

Heat flickered in Leonardo’s eyes. His vein-strained grip dug into the gap of the choker.

“I…”

Through clenched teeth, he murmured the truth he had doubted and doubted until now.

“I’m going to kill the Emperor.”