Under that persistent gaze, Anya’s shoulders kept shrinking inward.
“The stew will get cold while you bathe. I didn’t think of that.”
“Then eat.” Evernight’s suggestion was strangely difficult to refuse. Somehow, he always seemed to say the right thing.
Soon, he quickly approached and pulled away the blanket Anya had wrapped around himself. Anya let out a short scream and covered his chest.
He always felt smaller whenever he stood before the man, but somehow a new, indefinable emotion seeped into his chest. Anya didn’t know what people called this fluttering feeling. But it certainly wasn’t negative.
‘Every moment I decide…’
“I-I’ll do it myself.”
Anya fidgeted, unable to move one way or another because of the man sitting in front of him. The boy wasn’t shameless enough to strip naked in front of others, nor did he have the confidence for it.
“I have no interest in men’s bodies. I’m more concerned, actually.”
Despite saying this, there wasn’t a hint of worry in his tone. Rather, his crooked stance showed a great deal of dissatisfaction.
‘Concerned? What could he be concerned about?’
Anya was curious but was too afraid of the sword-wielding Evernight to open his mouth.
Evernight arrogantly settled in a corner of the tent and spent the entire time Anya bathed tending to his sword. At that spine-chilling friction sound, Anya couldn’t even splash in the water. He just clung to the edge of the wooden tub, fidgeting with his hands.
Anya slowly raised his head to look at Evernight. The man was eerily good at reading people. His eyes, which had been fixed on his sword, immediately bored into Anya. Their gazes entangled in midair. Anya felt his breath catch as he stared into those piercingly blue eyes. The man gestured with his chin. He was saying something with his lips. Stew.
“Y-Yes…!”
Anya let out an almost shrill cry as he reached out of the tub and grabbed the wooden bowl. When he hastily put it in his mouth, it stung as if the roof of his mouth had been scalded. The boy had to swallow the pain silently while being mindful of the situation. Fortunately, the taste was incredibly good. His stomach, which had been on the verge of starvation, seemed to absorb the nutrients greedily as soon as the food entered.
“Eat more.”
With his ears flushed bright red, Anya didn’t refuse the additional stew Evernight brought.
The peaceful morning ended, and their journey resumed.
‘I-It’s gone!’
Amidst the knights who had packed up the tent and prepared to leave, Anya frantically patted his body. The medicinal pill the magician had given him, which he had definitely placed in a pouch tied inside his robe, had vanished without a trace. It was the first gift he had ever received from another person. Anya searched the ground frantically, looking as if he might burst into tears at any moment.
The magician was leisurely yawning near the dying campfire.
“Here, here. Clean it thoroughly. What if monsters follow us?”
Occasionally, he didn’t forget to nag Sisou. Anya stomped his feet anxiously as he watched the magician from a distance. It was thanks to that magician’s abilities that he had enjoyed the luxury of bathing in hot water this morning. He didn’t want to disappoint someone who had shown him kindness.
‘I washed the prince’s clothes in the nearby valley, but not all the stains came out.’
Sisou’s words when he brought the clothes after Anya finished bathing flashed quickly through his mind. The knights looked busy. Anya backed away stealthily and hurried off to the valley visible in the distance. Fear rose at the thought of encountering monsters, but he drew courage from the memory of the Northern knights who had shown him kindness.
‘Every moment I decide…’
While heading to the valley, Anya scrutinized the ground carefully. Perhaps Sisou had dropped it while bringing his robe. But the ground only revealed dry soil.
The campsite was located in the middle of a dense forest, so it was possible to get lost. Anya walked, dropping one pebble at a time along the path he’d taken. Before long, he could hear the gentle sound of water. It was a mountain path, and he was so on edge that he became breathless even though it was a short distance. The boy grabbed a tree and turned a corner, nearly falling on his backside.
Someone was at the valley. Sunlight shattered brilliantly on the water’s surface, and in the middle of it, Evernight was washing himself with his upper garments removed.
‘Do all knights have such good bodies?’
The tall man had a more well-structured and splendid body than the statues Anya had seen in the imperial palace. When Evernight turned around, Anya unexpectedly saw a large sword scar across his chest.
“…”
Their gazes met amid the strange silence that could only be felt in a forest. Anya hurriedly tried to turn and flee, but a strong grip caught his robe’s hood.
“Do you have a death wish?”
Evernight felt irritation rising at how this fragile boy who looked like he would break if tapped was wandering around the forest so casually. It was because the number of monsters increased as they got closer to the North.
He absolutely detested those who couldn’t read the situation. That enigmatic emperor understood him very well, it seemed. That’s why he had handed over exactly the type of person he loathed.
“Um, um. Lord Evernight.”
At that form of address, Evernight let out a laugh as if sneering.
“H-have you s-seen a r-round r-ring a-around here?”
T-the magician gave it to me.
His voice grew increasingly small. Evernight’s eyes narrowed thinly. A cold wind blew, but Evernight didn’t flinch.
Isn’t he cold? By association, the memory of the man’s embrace, which had been as warm as a stove all night, vaguely came to mind. Anya’s face flushed up to his ears.
“Are you stupid? The ring dissolves when it touches water.”
At those words, the boy’s face turned pale. Given its special effects, it must certainly be a precious medicine. And he had given it to him… He couldn’t face the magician. He would surely be disappointed in him for acting so foolishly.
Even with the despairing boy before him, Evernight did not reveal the truth that he himself had unhesitatingly crushed the ring last night. Evernight, emerging from the water, picked up his discarded upper garment from the ground and passed by Anya.
“What on earth are you disappointed about?”
Your head is stupid, so just follow quietly. Anya stood close behind Evernight without a word.
Throughout the return to the campsite, Anya couldn’t shake his gloomy expression.
After several days of traveling, Anya grew quite accustomed to the jolting of the carriage. Moreover, the knights never forgot to provide him with food regularly. Anya, who normally ate only one meal a day to conserve rationed food, now ate two or three meals daily with the knights, gaining enough energy to withstand the journey.
However, he could never adapt to this bone-chilling cold. As they went north, the temperature dropped exponentially, and by the time they reached the village marking the entrance to the Northern Territory, everything was covered in snow. Anya wiped the frosted carriage window with a scratchy sound and took in the white-painted world.
“This is our last accommodation.”
Since they couldn’t camp in the snow, they spent one night at an inn in a small village at the entrance to the North and departed again the next day.
After traveling all day the following day, Anya could finally see Tildyen, the northern city. Facing Tildyen with the massive sunset behind it was like entering a new world.
Chapter 3. Tildyen
Beyond the flurrying snow, a massive gray castle came into view. Anya, who had only seen the ornate, spire-topped buildings of Maneregia, closed his mouth in awe at the majesty of the castle, which looked like a giant rock fortress. With the sunset behind it, the scene appeared even more strange and bizarre.
Tildyen Castle was built in the middle zone of a snow-covered mountain that sent chills through one’s body just by looking at it. Anya worried whether he could truly fare well in such a formidable place.
“The Dark Lions have returned!”
A soldier standing watch on the outermost wall of Tildyen, the northern city, shouted loudly. The sturdy gate began to open with the regular sound of a giant clockwork mechanism.
“Long live the Dark Lions!”
“Long live Lord Evernight, hero of the North!”
“May the First Goddess be with them!”
Cheers poured out from beyond the gate. Though Anya had seen something similar when leaving Maneregia, the northern people were much more impoverished than those in the capital. The roadside buildings were all low, and wooden structures overwhelmingly outnumbered stone ones.
Nevertheless, they were much more energetic and vigorous than the people of the capital. Anya noticed that most held tools like pickaxes and hammers.
The North, cold year-round, experienced such temperature drops in winter that snow flurries were a daily occurrence. Even so, the heat of the crowd filling the street could be felt throughout his body.
‘That… man seems to be even more remarkable than I thought.’
Anya warmed his cold fingertips with his breath as he collected his jumbled thoughts. The boy was inherently compliant by nature. When his brothers beat him out of frustration, he stood and took it; when servants diverted his food, he survived a week on a single hard loaf of bread. He was content with surviving day by day rather than rebelling against unfairness.
“Re-resisting is… just going to… get me killed.”
Resistance against a stronger power only led to death. That was Anya’s sole life principle and the mantra that helped him endure his misfortunes.
“Three cheers for Duke Evernight! Three cheers for the Dark Lions!”
Behind the knights’ party as they passed through the not-so-long street, cheers echoed like a chorus. The Wall’s garrison troops. Commonly known as the Dark Lions. Their terrifying heroic tales were spreading far and wide through the mouths of travelers and bards across the entire continent.
