2 – FAY 2

Sa Dillin.

The massive, grayish-white castle, the abode of the Sun God Rahan and Khalifa, the Emperor of the Desert, was one of Actan’s symbols. The first Emperor, Caliph, fearing that the barbarians from outside would seize what he had scraped together during his lifetime, had Sa Dillin built and drew a seal with his own blood to protect the castle.

The gold letters, densely engraved in tiny millet-sized characters on the grayish-white outer walls, were breathtakingly awe-inspiring every time I saw them.

Not because they were beautiful. It was simply astonishing and amazing that he had carved these rice-grain-sized letters over decades, fearing the loss of wealth amassed through theft and murder. It was a historical structure that showed how far human madness could go.

“Kyle, when you meet Your Majesty, you can’t act as rudely as you do with me. Understood? Of course, you can distinguish such things by now, but you absolutely cannot joke around or talk nonsense. Got it?”

While I was bending over, staring intently at the castle’s outer wall with a serious face, Mahir nagged incessantly. It wasn’t surprising, as Mahir was naturally anxious and tended to be overprotective of me, but the problem was that he had been saying the same thing all the way to Sa Dillin.

“I know, so don’t worry. Brother also…”

I was about to speak as usual but glanced at the guards standing at the entrance. Then, I took a couple of steps closer to Mahir and whispered in his ear.

“Brother also said that I wouldn’t be caught going in and out of there, right?”

“Just answer the questions, don’t ask questions without permission, and don’t open your mouth unnecessarily. Absolutely do not displease Your Majesty or act like a wild colt. Got it? Huh?”

“I got it. I won’t act like a wild colt, and I’ll only answer the questions I’m asked. I’ll behave myself like an imperial prince, save my words…”

“‘Like an imperial prince’? Kyle, you are a prince.”

Mahir sighed, looking tired, and interrupted me. I cleared my throat a few times, straightened my back, and opened my mouth.

“Anyway, don’t worry.”

“Should I just come with you?”

Seeing his face, devoid of any playfulness, I thought he might actually try to come along, so I puffed out my chest, bent my waist, and bowed according to etiquette.

“Brother, I shall take my leave.”

With my waist still bent, I raised my head slightly, baring my teeth in a smile, and Mahir shook his head and laughed.

“Come to my castle after the banquet, even if it’s late.”

“Okay. I’ll be back.”

I abruptly straightened my bent waist, and Mahir made a tsking sound with a stern face. Realizing my mistake, I moved slowly, not lightly, and gave a slight bow.

“I understand well what you’re saying, Brother.”

“Go on now.”

“See you later!”

I waved my hand grandly and quickly walked into Sa Dillin, and I heard Mahir’s sigh from behind.

Passing through a path of gold statues adorned with jewels, I arrived not at the banquet hall but at Khalifa’s bedroom. The Servant who had guided me here stood in front of the firmly closed, massive door and announced my arrival.

From inside, I heard a small, familiar yet unfamiliar voice. How many months had it been since I last heard that voice? I blankly thought about that, then snapped out of it, passed through the gently opened door, and stepped inside.

With thick curtains drawn, the room was as dark as a starless night. The strong scent of flowers and the smell of alcohol mixed together, causing me to frown, but I quickly composed myself.

Walking silently to the inner part of the room, I arrived in front of the curtained bed. I knelt down silently, placed my palms on the floor, and pressed my forehead to the ground.

“I greet the Sun God Rahan.”

As I spoke in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, I heard the sound of the curtains being drawn back. I didn’t make a sound or even blink, just stared at the dark floor. After a moment of suffocating silence, I heard Khalifa’s voice.

“Raise your head.”

At those words, I slowly closed my eyes for a moment, then slowly straightened my back. I placed my hands, palms visible, respectfully on my knees and raised my head. I saw Khalifa, the Emperor of Actan with long, black hair, and my father.

He indifferently looked down at me with eyes that held all the boredom and weariness of the world.

“Kyle.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“You’ve grown a lot.”

Khalifa’s words left me momentarily speechless. Should I say thank you? I couldn’t understand his intention in calling me here, especially since he usually had no interest in me. And I was also curious as to why he had called me to his bedroom when I was supposed to have dinner with him.

For a moment, I wondered if I was going to be raped. What should I do if that happened? If I resisted, I would surely die, but I didn’t want to be taken quietly either.

The longer the silence stretched, the more anxious I became, but I couldn’t find the words to answer, so I just moved my lips. Then, I heard a sound. It was a sound so small, like the breathing of a young animal, that I wondered if I had misheard it. But then, I heard the groan again in my ear.

“Was it last year?”

The groan was mixed in with the voice mumbling as if to himself. I hadn’t misheard it. As time passed, the sound became clearer and louder.

“When I saw you then, I think you were this big.”

Khalifa raised both hands, spread them slightly, and moved them as if gauging the size. He stopped at about the size of two apples, moved his gaunt fingers for a while, then glanced over and looked down at me. When my eyes met his gloomy, sunken eyes, I was startled and lowered my head.

I was sweating bullets, wondering if he had seen my dumbfounded expression, as if I were the biggest idiot in the world.

“You were holding a bunch of sugar candies in your hands, and when Mahir took them away, you cried.”

“Ugh, sob…”

“…”

The groan, which had been barely audible, was now too loud to ignore. Khalifa must have heard it too, but he kept saying incomprehensible things.

“Does Mahir often steal your candies?”

“…”

What the hell was he talking about? Was he calling me here just to ask me this?

More than that, I couldn’t stand not knowing what this groan was. Was it only audible to me? Was it a ghost?

But I couldn’t ask Khalifa what this sound was. I looked at the floor, blinked a few times, and decided to defend Mahir for now.

“Brother has never stolen my candies.”

“Then why did he do it then?”

“…”

When exactly last year did Mahir steal my candies? I blinked in confusion, then suddenly remembered him saying that Mahir had picked me up while I was crying. I tilted my head and cautiously raised my eyes to speak.

“That… perhaps that was…”

“Ugh!”

“Ugh!”

Perhaps because I was so tense, I bit my tongue while speaking at the loud groan. It wasn’t a hard bite, but I was startled and made a sound through my teeth.

“Gasp!”

“…”

Startled again by the sound I made, I inhaled and looked at Khalifa. His face, which had been expressionless until just now, was slightly distorted. I stared blankly at his furrowed brow, then lowered my gaze and swallowed.

A person can be startled while speaking, but that drug-addicted, crazy Emperor had a history of killing people for such trivial things. I was sweating bullets.

Then, Khalifa rose from his seat. He stood barefoot on the floor for a moment, then slowly moved his legs. As Khalifa passed by me, I heard the sound again in my ear. It was the groan of someone suffering as if they were suffocating and about to die.

As if possessed, I slowly raised my head. Beyond where Khalifa had been sitting, it looked dark and ominous, like the maw of a monster. Something was constantly writhing there.

Just as I strained my eyes to see what it was, I heard the sound of metal scraping in my ear. It was the sound of a sword being drawn from its scabbard.

I held my breath and quickly lowered my head, and Khalifa passed by me again. Before I could wonder what was going on, a terrible scream erupted.

“Ugh!”

I couldn’t even exhale the breath I had been holding, and when I raised my head, I saw Khalifa holding a blood-stained sword vertically. If I left it like this, a person’s life would disappear like a fly.

Actually, whether it was the Emperor’s concubine, a slave, or whatever, whom I didn’t even know… Anyway, it was someone who had nothing to do with me, but I didn’t like the idea of someone dying for no reason, so after hesitating for a moment, I opened my mouth.

“Your Majesty.”

Khalifa, who was about to swing his sword again, stopped at my voice. His face, as he turned to look at me, was full of annoyance.

I was also annoyed, and I almost frowned, but I exercised patience and just smiled. It was much easier to smile forcibly than to maintain a blank expression.

“It’s not that Brother stole my candies, but that I was too young at the time…”

As I spoke, I suddenly remembered Mahir telling me never to open my mouth without permission. I always try to follow Mahir’s instructions, but the people around me never seem to help.

“Too young?”

Khalifa asked back when I stopped speaking. I naturally lowered my head and continued.

“Brother wouldn’t let me eat them because he said too many candies would rot my teeth.”

“…”

“And it wasn’t last year, but when I was young… much longer ago.”

Even after I finished speaking, Khalifa didn’t say anything in particular. So I kept rambling on. If Khalifa was upset because of me, it was Mahir, not me, who would be tired.

“I was scolded a lot by Brother for picking up the ones that fell on the floor. I even wrote eight pages of reflection, promising never to pick up anything that fell on the floor again…”

“Eight pages?”

“Because I was eight years old, he told me to write eight pages… When I was nine, I wrote nine pages.”

“Then how many pages do you write now?”

“…Sixteen pages.”

Actually, I hadn’t written any reflections since I turned ten, but I just lied. If I said I didn’t write them now, he would ask why, but I couldn’t say that I ran away because I thought I was too old, so my brother gave up.

“My brother used to scold me often when I was young.”

I closed my mouth at the small voice. There was only one person in the world whom Khalifa called brother.

“I don’t remember why I was scolded.”

It was the former Emperor, Caliph, whom Khalifa had torn to pieces, leaving no trace behind.

He had torn flesh with his bare hands, crushed bones, and drunk blood. I had only seen it in records, so I didn’t know if it was true or not, but it was certainly true that Khalifa had killed his brother.

“Sixteen, huh.”

“…”

Khalifa’s voice was much lower than before. When I cautiously raised my eyes, I saw Khalifa, holding the blood-stained sword, staring blankly into the air and stroking his chin with his long fingers.

“Sixteen, you say.”

“…”

Sixteen, so what… what about it.

I was so nervous that Khalifa would say that sixteen was old enough to live and tell me to commit suicide on the spot, but fortunately, the words that came out of his mouth weren’t about dying.

“You’re at the age to marry now too.”

“Pardon?”

“Now that the topic has come up, we should proceed with it.”

“…”

Marriage? Suddenly?

Khalifa, seeing me looking dazed at his unexpected words, said.

“As it happens, your birthday is in a week, so it would be good to do it on that day.”

“…”

With my eyes fixed on Khalifa, I just gaped like a goldfish. If Mahir had seen me, he would have scolded me for being rude. But I was too flustered to worry about such things right now.

Suddenly, I was told to get married in a week, not even a year? Who am I marrying? And…

“Why? Don’t you like it?”

“Ah, no. That… thank you…”

And my birthday isn’t in a week, but in three months…