The sky collapses, and the earth caves in. A young child searches for their mother, and the mother loses her child.
A father trying to protect his family, a family following such a father. A beggar who has lost their way and a wealthy person fleeing, abandoning their fortune. Soldiers rush to protect the citizens, while other soldiers flee to survive.
The king wished to remain in this land, but the prince had long since fled in fear.
Watching the sky gradually turn red, those who had lost the will to live huddled in corners, seeking the gods. Yet the priests who followed the gods fled with the wealth they possessed.
And so a bloody wind blew through Atlante.
A bloody wind from the mountain erupting into the red sky. Flowing molten lava and volcanic ash that burned the heart seeped deep into people’s bodies.
The earth shook and buildings collapsed. Finally, the statue of the god who protected them was crushed beneath the rubble of the crumbling palace, foretelling the doom of Atlante.
“Caw, caaaw—!”
“Caw—!”
Two crows flew overhead, looking down at the disappearing kingdom of humans. Without a shred of regret, the two birds looked up at the sky.
Though they wore composed expressions, the siblings Lyriet and Lyutios knew this was the work of a god.
Was it Henelion? Or was it the work of another god commanded by Henelion? They couldn’t know what exactly, but the fact that Henelion had remained still felt somehow unsettling.
—Noona, where are we going now?
—To where that child is.
—Noona, why are you so favorable toward that child?
Lyutios asked with incomprehension as Lily headed toward Abrisius without complaint.
—……I don’t know either, but Liti. But when I see that child, my heart keeps moving.
—What exactly is that supposed to mean?
—It’s just how I am. Weren’t you the same?
At Lily’s words, Lyutios fell silent for a moment. He had only thought of him as a child who was just a bit pretty, and unlike his noona, he didn’t particularly want to do things for him or look after him for no reason.
He just looked like an ordinary one among many children, so why?
—We have nowhere to go anyway. I’m going to stay by that child’s side for a while.
But Lily, who had already made up her mind, flew toward Seianes’s temple. Still unable to understand his noona’s actions but unwilling to be separated from her, Lyutios followed behind with wingbeats that had become quite familiar by now.
* * *
The moment he arrived at the greenhouse garden he had dreamed of.
Only then did Abrisius truly feel that he had returned to Seianes.
Familiar and missed scenery appeared before his eyes. From the place where Abrisius always went to sleep, to the pond where a small stream flowed. As if it had been waiting for Abrisius, the greenhouse garden remained exactly as it had been when he left.
“I kept everything here untouched, maintaining it exactly as it was, hoping you would come back.”
Seianes spoke behind Abrisius, who was immersed in sentiment.
“When you came back, I wanted to welcome you as if nothing had happened. And I didn’t want you to feel unfamiliar with even the smallest thing.”
“Ah.”
When Abrisius returned, he wanted to receive him as if nothing had happened.
So that when he came back, he wouldn’t feel awkward upon discovering even the smallest change, and he also hoped that Abrisius would forget all the memories from outside and return to being the child from when they lived alone together.
“I see……”
“Yes, both I and the garden waited for you.”
Land that has lost its master should lose its function. Seianes was the master of this garden, but the master of his heart was the child, so naturally the garden should have stopped too.
“……Thank you.”
“This is always your home. So I only did what was natural.”
His nose tingled for no reason, and he buried his face in Seianes’s embrace again. Seianes naturally stroked the head of Abrisius and kissed the top of the child’s head. The child’s scent was enough to melt his heart, which had been on edge all this time.
“My Abrisius.”
With Abrisius in this greenhouse, he truly felt that the child had returned to his embrace. But before that, there was a matter that needed to be addressed.
“More than that, there was something I kept wanting to ask…… What exactly happened to those eyes?”
Seianes gently pulled Abrisius from his embrace and asked, gazing intently at his eyes.
“Why did your eyes turn so black? They were definitely red eyes. I understand well enough now why you left me. But what do you mean that I would become unhappy because of you? Did the one who made your eyes like that whisper such things to you?”
He already knew from the energy he felt from Abrisius that he had met Amina and that Amina’s power had turned his eyes black.
Nevertheless, instead of interrogating Abrisius about Amina, Seianes wanted to hear the circumstances from Abrisius’s own mouth.
At Seianes’s question, Abrisius chewed his lips as if troubled.
He was troubled, not knowing from where or how to begin speaking. Should he talk from the point when he met Amina? After hesitating for a moment, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Seianes…… Do you know Amina?”
“Yes, of course I know. But how do you know him? Did you meet him?”
At Seianes’s words, Abrisius slowly nodded.
“I see. What exactly did he say to you?”
“That I, I…… was a being from underground. And that Cairens is a hero. One who can protect the surface in the distant future.”
Once he had decided to speak, there was no avoiding it. Setting aside the content about his previous life, he had to tell Seianes that he had learned about his origins in order to explain why he had no choice but to leave him, why he had protected Cairens.
“I, I’m your enemy, aren’t I?”
“Abrisius……!”
Shocked, Seianes stared intently at Abrisius in his arms. Unable to bring himself to say he had seen the future, Abrisius instead confessed everything he had wanted to ask and everything that had happened until now.
“I, I know everything. I’m different from you, Seianes. That’s why I tried to leave…… I was afraid you would become unhappy if I stayed. I was afraid you would cry if I stayed, afraid you would come to hate me, I didn’t want that. We’re so different…… Even if Seianes likes me now, what if you grow up and hate me later? What if I make things hard for Seianes because I’m a child from underground?”
“So you asked Amina? To help you run away from me?”
“No, that’s not it. Amina said he would grant what I wanted most. So I agreed, and then my eyes changed like this, and while running away, I found myself transformed into a deer. And somehow I met Cairens. Cairens is a hero. If something went wrong with Cairens, I was afraid Seianes would be in danger. So……”
“So, you’re saying you did it for me? How can you say such foolish things?”
Seianes shouted, crying out after hearing Abrisius’s words. Abrisius’s actions, even risking his life for his sake, were foolish, yet he felt oddly reassured that his stupid choice had been for his sake.
“There’s no way I’d be happy about you sacrificing yourself.”
“But I came from underground. If I disappear, it’s better for Seianes……”
“Nonsense!”
As if he couldn’t bear to hear any more, Seianes lightly covered Abrisius’s mouth.
His words were obvious nonsense. Nevertheless, Seianes couldn’t unconditionally blame Abrisius. It seemed that Abrisius had received a great shock after learning about his origins and identity.
That’s why he made such a foolish choice. Yes, Abrisius had done nothing wrong. It was natural for him to run away after being shocked by a truth a young child couldn’t handle alone.
Just as you can’t cover the sky with your palm, even though it was a truth that would be revealed someday, he hadn’t wanted him to know such truth already.
He had just wanted him to remain a young child in his arms for as long as possible. But this wish of his had become poison to Abrisius.
The responsibility for the situation reaching this point lay solely with Seianes.
“……I knew you were from the underground, Abrisius. Did you think I wouldn’t know?”
“No, I thought you would know…… But still, I might become Seianes’s enemy someday……”
The more he spoke, the more Seianes’s insides burned.
How confused and difficult it must have been for him alone. And the reason he ran away was none other than fear of being hated by Seianes. Just thinking about what state of mind the child must have been in when he left him made his heart ache.
“I’m sorry. It’s because of me.”
He shouldn’t have scolded the child for going out carelessly, but should have blamed himself for confining the child in this prison called the greenhouse garden.
It was natural for the child to be curious about the world outside the greenhouse garden and want to go out.
Would things have been better than now if he hadn’t hidden it and had explained about his birth in advance, and said that he would love him unchangingly regardless? Belated regret and guilt surged over him. It seemed like his greed of wanting the child to remain ignorant in his embrace had given the child a great shock.
Ignorance wasn’t a good thing, but rather could lead to an even greater catastrophe—why hadn’t he realized this back then?
“Abrisius, but it was my confining you in the greenhouse garden that created this mess.”
“No, Seianes, that’s not true.”
“No, it’s not…… It’s because of me.”
Abrisius gently stopped Seianes’s continued apologies. Placing both hands lightly on both sides of his cheeks, Abrisius stared intently at Seianes.
Seianes had no fault. Even knowing he was from the underground, to him who willingly accepted him and gave him infinite love, he didn’t want to assign any blame.
Even if there was fault, Abrisius was too exhausted now to question it.
“……Seianes. My eyes are black now.”
His small hands pulled Seianes’s face closer to his eyes, which sparkled with black eyes as if showing them off.
“I’m not red anymore. So…… no one will know that I came from underground.”
What was important was the fact that Abrisius no longer had the red eyes that were the mark and proof of the underground. He had blocked even that energy along with the eyes that turned black, so none of the gods of the surface could know that Abrisius was from the underground.
“Ah.”
As if only now realizing, Seianes’s pupils also slowly dilated. Abrisius lightly kissed his cheek and clung to him as if hanging on, wrapping his small arms around his neck.
“So we don’t have to be apart anymore. Seianes is mine.”
The obstacles were gone too. More than anything, he wouldn’t care how the original story went anymore.
Abrisius, who had already made up his mind firmly, clung even more to Seianes.
When the love he had tried to give up returned, the love he tasted again was too sweet.
The emotion called love, which had regained its place along with emotion and remorse, had become even more solid than before.
“I will never, ever be apart from you. No, I can’t be apart.”
Completely consumed by the love he gave, Abrisius could no longer leave him.
That night, Abrisius fell into a deep sleep in Seianes’s embrace for the first time in a long while.
His soft embrace and warm body temperature. Even the missed nutty scent of the earth—in that comfort, Abrisius was able to sleep deeply for the first time in a long while.
