By Zephyria 
It had been a very long time since I’d come to Jihad.
The Crown Prince set me down on a plush sofa and abruptly ordered a Servant to bathe me. I belatedly came to my senses and tried to get angry, asking what he was doing, but I couldn’t.
There were quite a few Servants in the bathroom, and I felt that getting into an argument would damage my dignity.
In the end, I had no choice but to be washed quietly. The touch was careful and gentle, but it stung every time it touched my skin, making me frown involuntarily.
But again, I thought it would be unseemly to make a sound, so I just endured it.
When I finished washing and came outside, I saw the Crown Prince and Nadia. He was wrapping a bandage around Nadia’s finger.
“It weakened at the break, so you have to keep it on until your nail grows longer.”
“Won’t it be uncomfortable when I move?”
“You’ll have to bear with the discomfort. Who told you to get hurt?”
“It doesn’t even hurt…”
Nadia grumbled, swinging her short legs under the chair. Watching her, I couldn’t bring myself to approach, nor could I leave, so I just stood there blankly.
I didn’t know what to say, so I hesitated, but the Crown Prince stroked Nadia’s head and said,
“You said you wanted to show Kyle something when you met him later, right? Go get it.”
“Ah, that’s right! Wait a moment!”
She scurried off somewhere, leaving only the Crown Prince and me in the room. He checked that Nadia was gone and beckoned to me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was calling a dog, so I didn’t move.
When I just frowned and glared at him, the Crown Prince sighed and moved himself. He casually pulled down the gown I was wearing, checked my bare skin, and clicked his tongue.
“Why didn’t you see a doctor when you were hurt like this?”
He grabbed me and led me to the sofa. It seemed strange to resist, so I reluctantly let myself be dragged and sat down. The Crown Prince began to apply medicine to the already half-healed wound.
In the deathly silence, I felt extremely uncomfortable. It was so bad that my breathing became unstable. I seriously considered shaking him off and running away, but the Crown Prince opened his mouth.
“I heard about what you’ve been doing recently. Talik said that thanks to you, the security has improved so much that he has nothing to do. Very well done.”
His words, spoken with a smile, suddenly made me feel bad, and I frowned involuntarily.
“I didn’t do it to please you.”
At my words, his eyes widened as if he was flustered, but then he laughed even louder than before. The sound that struck my eardrums was so loud that I covered my ears.
“It seems that you are gradually finding good methods through trial and error, so I won’t nag you any further.”
Then he made a meaningful sound. I wondered what he meant and couldn’t help but frown again. Did he know that I was being kidnapped and beaten up? How? I was clearly doing it in secret. Could it be Asella?
“But still, get treatment in time if you get hurt. This is an order.”
I don’t listen to the Emperor’s orders, so who is he to tell me what to do? I didn’t bother to argue, but I scoffed inwardly.
“And thank you for playing with Nadia.”
He coughed awkwardly, looking embarrassed, which was rare. I felt a sense of emptiness, thinking that I was seeing all sorts of strange things today. The tension in my shoulders, which had been stiff, naturally eased.
“She’s been following me around since she was little, so she hasn’t had the chance to meet friends her own age. I’m always busy, so I haven’t been able to be with her all the time.”
“…”
“She’s not familiar with the imperial etiquette, so she’ll often make mistakes, but she’ll learn quickly if you tell her. She always rode horses when she was in Oa, but she can’t do that here, so she must be frustrated. But if she adapts, she won’t bother you much.”
I was so surprised by something unexpected that I couldn’t help but ask.
“She knows how to ride a horse?”
“She’s been dragging around ponies since she was little, so she rides very well. Maybe she rides better than me.”
“Liar.”
How could she ride better than someone who rides warhorses across the battlefield? I couldn’t imagine such a small girl riding a horse through the desert.
“Next time, let’s have a competition together.”
“I’ve never ridden a horse.”
“You can learn.”
“Animals hate me. I tried to ride a horse, but I fell off and almost got kicked. And what if I fall off while riding? Why are you suggesting a competition?”
The Crown Prince smiled as I frowned and glared at him accusingly.
“Nadia isn’t that clumsy.”
“That’s just what you think. She’s still young and small, and if she falls wrong, she’ll die instantly.”
“She knows how to fall without getting hurt.”
“…”
Why couldn’t he understand? He’ll only realize he was wrong after she breaks a bone. Tsk tsk, I clicked my tongue, and then I heard hurried footsteps approaching.
I put on the top I had taken off to apply the medicine, and the door opened. She ran over from afar, her face flushed, holding a piece of paper over her head.
“Look at this!”
There were three blobs drawn on the paper with terrible drawing skills. No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t figure out what it was, so I asked with a lukewarm expression.
“What is this?”
“A picture I drew.”
“I mean, what did you draw?”
“Mahir, me, and you.”
She pointed to each blob in the picture with her short fingers and explained. After listening, it seemed to resemble the shape of a person. But the blob she pointed to as me at the end was too small and strange.
“That’s me? Why am I being held by you like an object?”
“Ah, because you’re a baby…”
“I’ve only ever seen you on video stones, so you’re still a baby even after a few years.”
The two of them giggled, looking at each other as if they were sharing a secret. I stared at the bizarre scene with a strange feeling that I couldn’t describe in words, and Nadia muttered.
“Should we show it to Kyle too?”
“The video stone?”
“You’ve never shown it, have you?”
The Crown Prince nodded.
And so, I was able to see myself as a baby from a distance. As if I had returned to the past, the video was so vivid.
The Crown Prince, who looked much younger than now, was carefully holding an unbelievably small baby in his arms. He wandered around, going here and there, shaking the arm holding me.
-Lullaby, lullaby.
In a voice that had not yet gone through puberty, he sang a lullaby in a small, whispering voice. But the baby, who had been closing his eyes to the comforting sound, woke up.
-Ah, you shouldn’t wake up. Go back to sleep. Lullaby, lullaby. Kyle, you have to close your eyes and sleep. Lullaby, lullaby.
The young Crown Prince spoke urgently with a troubled expression, but the baby just stared blankly at him and giggled. It was a sound so high and clear that it would be impossible to imitate now.
Is that really me? I couldn’t believe it, and my whole body stiffened. The Crown Prince in the video ended up smiling too.
The sound of the two people looking at each other and laughing pierced my eardrums like a knife. I didn’t know how to react to the unbelievable sight, so I unconsciously took a step back.
“Kyle?”
Nadia and the Crown Prince seemed to be used to it, as if they had seen it many times. When I suddenly stepped back, the Crown Prince looked at me with a puzzled expression. I didn’t even want to look at his face, so I averted my gaze and looked elsewhere, and eventually turned around.
“Kyle! No!”
I opened the window and jumped straight down, running like crazy.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
I returned to Talim and locked all the doors. My knee kept stinging, probably because it had been scraped when I fell from the window earlier, but I ignored it and just got into bed.
If I took a nap, my confused mind would calm down. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t fall asleep. I had even taken a few sleeping pills, but I had already developed a tolerance and they didn’t work.
I wondered if it was because of the light, so I closed all the curtains and darkened the room, but it didn’t help.
So, after thinking about it, I impulsively decided to go to war. There were still many places where big and small wars were breaking out. I took Abyss, who was whining that he was scared, and Garam, who followed without complaint, and headed to the border area.
“I was supposed to be on vacation starting today…”
Abyss kept grumbling, sniffling.
“What are you going to do by resting? You’ll be resting for the rest of your life when you die anyway. And I always said, practical experience is important. I brought you all the way here thinking of you, so are you going to keep grumbling?”
“You came all this way just for me?”
“Yes.”
“T, then I’ll do my best.”
Abyss suddenly looked at me with admiring eyes and hardened his resolve. I was a little burdened, so I nodded vaguely and looked up at the sky.
It was gloomy and looked like it was going to rain soon. Looking at the cloudy sky, my confused mind began to calm down. Of course, it would be a little difficult for a few months, but I preferred my body to be tired rather than my mind.
When I have time, I should learn how to ride a horse little by little.