By Zephyria Tarajiel waved his hand towards the portal that had shown Lee Jeong-hoon’s Mother. With a whoosh, the portal vanished, leaving only one portal, showing Eddie lying with a pale face.
The decision was made. There was no longer any reason to hesitate.
However, Eddie couldn’t immediately pass through the remaining portal and hesitated for a moment. A sticky, lingering attachment, like tar, stubbornly remained, holding onto Eddie’s ankles.
“You know, perhaps…”
A brief attachment brushed past Eddie, but he shook his head, realizing it was too much to ask.
“No.”
“You’re wondering if there’s any way you can meet your family, aren’t you?”
Eddie’s eyes widened as he looked back at Tarajiel, wondering if this Demon race member could read minds.
But Tarajiel looked at Eddie’s surprised face with an expression of bewilderment.
“Your expression is so obvious. It’s funnier that you thought I wouldn’t notice.”
“…Is it possible?”
“Well.”
Tarajiel gave no definitive answer, neither yes nor no. His indecision frustrated Eddie, but in truth, this was already more than enough. Tarajiel had already done more than enough for Eddie.
So, he should at least thank him…
As if that were the right thing to do.
Recalling the sensation of his stomach being stabbed with a knife, Eddie grimaced, feeling unwell. Tarajiel, watching his face, let out a soft chuckle.
“You’re debating whether to thank me or not, aren’t you?”
“…”
Did my thoughts really show on my face? It was too accurate.
While there were certainly things to be grateful for, Tarajiel was also the instigator of all this. In short, the outcome was good because their interests aligned, but in reality, Tarajiel had thoroughly used Eddie.
“You don’t need to thank me. If we meet again, it won’t be like this. Next time, I will kill you.”
He said those words with a smile, whether to put Eddie at ease or because he meant them. His grin was mischievous, but the content was chilling.
If they met again, he would definitely kill him. The reason he was letting him go now was purely because Tarajiel was repaying a debt.
If only it were that simple, he could have been at ease. Eddie turned his back without offering thanks.
Eddie no longer hesitated. Eddie’s body passed through the portal. He had expected to be sucked in, but instead, his body vanished as if passing through a transparent door.
Though Eddie couldn’t see it, Tarajiel waved goodbye with a smile.
However, the mischievous smile instantly turned cold, as if plunged into an ice bath, the moment Eddie passed through the portal and disappeared.
“Ha.”
Repaying a debt? Ridiculous.
What loyalty does a Demon King have? He knew neither trust nor betrayal. He didn’t trust, so he had never been betrayed. That was his nature.
I should have killed him.
Debt or not, that would have been the right thing to do. Why did I let that man go? Since when did I care so much about loyalty?
He had to do whatever it took to win.
He shouldn’t have committed the foolish act of letting go of the one who would become the Hero’s reason for living, the reason he must protect that world.
But even if he could turn back time, the Demon King wouldn’t have been able to kill Eddie.
What? Is that a joke? ‘Because if I disappear, Ketron will collapse’?
No, I didn’t think of that.
…I just wanted it.
He just wanted what had become the Hero’s reason for living, that shining thing. There was no other reason.
After experiencing hell, I’m still so foolish.
Regardless, he had made his choice in that moment, just like Eddie. He had sent away the one who would bring victory to humanity with his own hands, so now it was time for him to struggle to avoid defeat.
He had no intention of going down easily. He had no intention of losing.
But, before that.
“Lilzhir.”
“Yes.”
When he called the name of his scribe and the Demon race member bound to him by the strongest ties, Lilzhir immediately responded respectfully.
“I have a command for you.”
He said so, glancing towards the portal that had vanished the moment Eddie entered.
He could grant one last wish, couldn’t he? After all, he was a benefactor.
He, who had justified his actions, waved his hand and erased the space he had arbitrarily conjured from Eddie’s memory.
The playground vanished in an instant, and the empty space soon warped and disappeared as well.
‘Ketron’ was a broken man.
He was broken when he realized his companions’ betrayal, but that wasn’t the first time he had been broken.
Ketron’s earliest memory was of being beaten by adults after stealing something from a street stall and running away.
It was a time of prolonged war, when everyone was struggling. The streets were filled with orphans, and ordinary people’s lives were hard. During that time, the children in the orphanage, whose support had been cut off, rarely had a full meal.
To make matters worse, the orphanage director was someone who constantly embezzled the existing funds and frequently beat the children while drunk.
The children had to fend for themselves, finding ways to survive rather than looking for food within the orphanage.
Survival meant relying on the scarce kindness of strangers on the street or stealing food, which was all Ketron could do at the time.
Sometimes, he would look with envy at children walking hand-in-hand with their parents, even if they were poor.
At least those children had a protective embrace, unlike him.
His upbringing after such a childhood was far from healthy.
To earn money somehow, he ran away from the orphanage and joined a mercenary group as a lowly errand boy at a young age. Naturally, the mercenaries provided a minimal sense of belonging, but they died off quickly, and they didn’t actively protect a constantly changing errand boy.
He had to survive alone even then.
He learned swordsmanship by observation, learned magic through a series of coincidences, received the selection of the Holy Sword, and as he matured and the title of Hero became familiar, he encountered the orphanage director on the street, who had heard news of him.
He remembered the old man saying, with pride, that he had heard about the Holy Sword’s selection. What was he thinking then? He couldn’t quite recall.
What was certain was that it wasn’t anger, nor a desire for revenge against the adult who had beaten and neglected him as a child, nor the thrill of seeing someone who once treated him with disdain change their attitude.
The boy, who had long realized that showing anger or sadness would only make him hungrier and make him suffer more, grew into an adult with very muted emotional expression.
“I had hoped you would grow into an adult who understood joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure.”
Augustine, whom he met when Ketron was almost fully formed, or rather, mostly broken, had expressed great regret about that fact.
And when he realized the betrayal, Ketron thought the searing pain, anger, and sorrow that burned within him like lava at that moment would be the strongest emotions he would ever feel in his life.
He had concluded that he would never feel emotions of that magnitude again.
But that was not true.
Every time he saw the silver-haired man who saved him before those emotions erupted, looking at him and smiling, Ketron had to admit.
That he was wrong.
When he saw Ketron’s earnest face, believing in his uprightness as if he were an apostle of justice, a conscience he didn’t know he had would prick him.
When the other person, after being casual, would say or do something absurd and funny, a genuine smile would escape without effort.
Seeing the face that would show a shocked expression with just one kiss, or a casual pat on the rear, he worried that the other person might run away if they knew his desires.
“You, you’re so brazen…!”
Seeing the other person blush at such a small thing, even after having done much more, Ketron felt an urge to act out of character. Like laughing out loud.
Sometimes, he actually did laugh out loud.
“It’s good to see.”
Each time, Eddie would say that to Ketron and stroke his cheek.
“Smile more.”
If you wish.
Ketron wanted to smile more in front of Eddie. He wished he could express more affection. But these were things he had never done before, so it wasn’t easy.
He simply repeated what he could do, like a parrot. He repeated kisses, which were the only actions the other accepted, or he would hold him close or just watch him, staying by his side.
Even that alone, seeing the other person blush and become flustered, felt quite good.
What should I do? I have so many shameless things I want to do to you.
Having never felt desire for anyone, Ketron couldn’t claim to be quick in that regard until now, but it was different with Eddie.
If Eddie knew how lewd his thoughts were every day, he would be astonished, even horrified.
He probably just thought, ‘My innocent darling, my little cat,’ and couldn’t imagine Ketron’s feelings at all. It was obvious.
Even so, Ketron decided to wait for Eddie’s slow pace.
Eddie clearly had feelings for him, yet for some reason, he tried to act distant. Ketron gathered all the patience he had, down to the last bit, and chose to wait. He had no other choice anyway.
Still, he believed that someday Eddie would accept him.
He was so lost in that dream that he was late to notice the world changing.