By Zephyria 
The information Boram learned wasn’t simply that Ketron had settled down in one place.
If you investigated Ketron, everyone living near the central plaza knew, but for those who knew Ketron, a strange love story always came along with it.
They say, Eddie, the inn owner has a male lover.
Eddie is a runaway noble, and he ran away to live with his male lover, they say.
That male lover is so handsome and dashing that it’s no wonder the inn owner is head over heels for him, they say.
That male lover is so smitten with Eddie that he doesn’t know what to do, they say.
Such rumors.
Boram couldn’t easily believe those rumors. Of course, neither could Arthur, who knew Ketron well.
“Isn’t this just nonsense?”
Arthur said this as soon as he heard it.
“Maybe it’s someone with the same name.”
“Unfortunately, that name isn’t common, and a Swordsman with those qualifications is even rarer.”
It’s ‘that’ Ketron.
The Swordsman who was so taciturn and quiet that you sometimes wondered if he even had emotions.
The one who was so merciless that you sometimes wondered what he would be cutting down if it weren’t for his sense of duty as the Hero to save humanity.
The one who was so young and yet so ruthless that even Arthur would sometimes click his tongue.
That guy has someone he loves?
It was hard to believe, but as befitting the Imperial capital, the rumor had spread quite deeply and widely throughout the vast Irena, as much as the inn’s fame.
Whether the rumor was false or true, they would be able to confirm it today anyway.
Boram, who had been debating whether to stop him or not, eventually realized it would be useless and chose to accompany him to prevent Arthur’s impulsive actions.
The two of them didn’t say a word throughout the carriage ride.
Finally, when the carriage arrived at the place where carriages gathered in the central plaza, Arthur finally pulled back the curtain covering the window. Eddie’s Inn was clearly visible outside the window.
It was a suitable distance. No matter how sensitive someone’s senses were, it would be difficult to notice with this much distance between them.
However, Boram had cast Sorcery in advance before arriving at the central plaza. It was Sorcery that erased their presence to the maximum. It was such elaborate and high-level Sorcery that even Ketron wouldn’t be able to sense Boram and Arthur’s presence.
“He was said to be a commoner, wasn’t he?”
Boram nodded at those words. It must be a question about Eddie’s status.
However, the neat two-story building located in the best spot in the central plaza was in such a good location that even nobles with money would have difficulty obtaining it. Moreover, it was sparkling as if it had just been built.
“Did you find out what he does?”
“No, there’s no trace of his past. He’s definitely a commoner for now.”
“Is that possible? If he’s a commoner, he wouldn’t be able to buy a place like that unless he’s from a decent business family or a local notable.”
“Rather than that, the problem is that there’s no trace of his past at all.”
Boram tapped her knee with her finger.
“It’s as if someone deliberately erased it cleanly.”
In fact, Boram had gone to great lengths to find out about the owner of the inn where Ketron was staying.
But the result was ‘non-existent’.
Unless a person sprang from the ground, there should be traces of where they were born and raised, but the owner of that inn had no traces at all.
That was more artificial. It would be one thing if there was even fake information about where he was born and raised, but information that was completely deleted openly suggested a lot.
‘This person is not ordinary, and he has the ability to manipulate information, so don’t dig too deeply.’
It was warning them in itself.
Since a person couldn’t really spring from the ground, it was more reasonable to assume that someone had artificially erased the traces, and if Boram, who had set her mind to it, couldn’t even find traces of the erased past, it was right not to touch a being with that much ability.
Which meant.
“That side isn’t an ordinary person either, is he?”
The inn owner who took in Ketron was by no means an ordinary human either.
“Is the rumor that he and Ketron are like that true?”
“I don’t know about that. The rumors are rampant, but… it could really be a baseless rumor.”
“It seems quite specific and long-lasting for something like that. And the other party is Ketron.”
Wasn’t Ketron so wooden that Arthur sometimes wondered what he lived for?
But that guy is in love? From Arthur’s point of view, who once teased Ketron with Augustine, wondering if he was impotent, it was especially surprising.
At this point, whether the rumor was true or false, he became curious about the man who, according to the rumor, had completely captivated the guy who treated people like stones.
His name is Eddie, which is very common, a commoner man with a vague past who runs an inn in a suspiciously good location. The image of Eddie was naturally drawn in Arthur’s mind.
A man with a smiling face, but with a completely different inside, a two-faced person. A great strategist, perhaps. He even wondered if his relationship with Ketron was intentional.
“Was it intentional?”
“Ketron? There’s no way. The world has forgotten him.”
“Then is all of this just a coincidence?”
“Well, maybe he took him in because he thought he’d be good to use as a mercenary or bodyguard.”
Arthur couldn’t easily accept Boram’s words. There was no way Ketron, who was so quick-witted, wouldn’t be able to filter out people who were trying to use him, and he wouldn’t have easily accepted people after he realized Arthur and Boram’s betrayal.
He didn’t know how, but according to the rumors, that man had melted Ketron.
Is the meeting between the inn owner who erased his existence from the world and the Hero who was forgotten by the world just a coincidence? Arthur didn’t think so.
“If it’s not a coincidence, it must be fate.”
The moment Arthur muttered that, a person appeared from inside the inn they were watching, as if summoned. The smile disappeared from Arthur’s face, which had been wide open, as if he had been thinking about something all along.
He was a man with sparkling silver blonde hair and jewel-like purple eyes, so radiant that it seemed like God had personally sculpted each of his features by hand.
You could tell without hearing an explanation.
That man is him. The Owner of that inn.
The one who took Ketron and tamed him.
The person Ketron cherishes.
He certainly had a very impressive appearance. Even Arthur’s aesthetic sense, which had risen sky-high because he had unintentionally seen handsome, beautiful, and ornately decorated people often while living in the Imperial Palace, was impressed.
Even Arthur, who had no interest in men at all, thought for a moment that it wouldn’t be strange for Ketron to fall for him, even if he was a man, if he was that good-looking.
But soon, cold reason made him exclaim, “Is that a commoner’s face?”
Is it strange for commoners to be handsome and beautiful? It was to some extent. Nobles liked pretty, handsome, sparkling, and precious things.
Those with power tend to take it, and the reason why the appearance of nobles is getting better and better over the generations is because those with valuable appearances continue to be incorporated into noble families.
Or is it? I have power and money. There would be no noble who wouldn’t do anything if they could have that handsome man as their husband. Besides, isn’t that unique color also a ‘valuable thing’ that nobles like? Something they want to take even through generations.
At this point, it would be stranger not to notice. That unbelievably well-located building, that clean past that was suspicious, and that face and appearance with those flashy colors that nobles would never leave alone if he were a normal commoner.
Since there was nothing ordinary about him, that man must be at least a noble or someone of equivalent status.
Assuming that, it made even less sense that all of this was a coincidence. Even if it was fate, wasn’t it too coincidental?
“Could it be…”
Arthur blurted out the hypothesis that had just popped into his head.
“Could it be that that man has memories of Ketron or something?”
“Impossible.”
Boram asserted.
“I know you have a rich imagination, but you know. It was a large-scale Sorcery that consumed more than half of the mana I had saved up at the time, and I even used the Artifact I received from the Fairy Queen. Even Augustine couldn’t avoid it. Everyone in the world has forgotten, so what’s so special about that man that he would remember?”
“Ah, I know. Don’t get angry. I know your Sorcery is great. It just seems too unusual for something that happened by chance. They weren’t originally acquainted, were they?”
“I’ve considered that possibility, but based on a combination of several clues, it’s unlikely.”
The two, who had been chatting, stopped talking at the same time. The man, who had briefly appeared outside, seemed to be talking to a neighbor with a smiling face, and then began to sweep the front yard with a broom. It looked like he would be going inside soon after that was done.
Arthur felt a certain urge that made his mouth feel dry for some reason. He licked his lips once for no reason and impulsively opened his mouth.
“Shall we say hello?”
Now that he said it, it seemed like a pretty good idea.
“To thank him for taking care of our Ketron?”
“Arthur.”
“Haha, I’m just kidding.”
Of course, it was a joke. If he was someone who took good care of Ketron, he should express regret, not say thank you.
But he couldn’t deny that the impulse he had felt for a moment was quite alluring. He wanted to say hello to him once. He wanted to see him smiling and greeting him, not knowing that he was an old colleague who had screwed over his lover.
Or, even…
“In front of Ketron…”
What if he killed him?
But the moment Arthur thought that, Ketron appeared outside the inn as if he had been summoned. The smile disappeared from Arthur’s face, which had been wide open, as if he had been thinking about something all along.