# Chapter 103
“Arden?”
Rite grabbing Arden’s forearm was almost instinctual. Eden looked back and forth between Arden and what was ahead with confused eyes.
“You there!”
They could see the guard calling and gesturing to Eden. The inspection of the carriage ahead had already finished.
“No time, Eden!”
“Arden, I’m calling to you.”
Every joint in Rite’s fingers turned white as they gripped Arden’s arm. Without the slightest hesitation, Arden urged Eden forward with his eyes. Eden nodded with a grave expression.
“…I’ll try. Somehow.”
“Why are you doing this too!”
Rite shouted, clutching Eden’s seat, but Eden only kept watch of what was ahead and behind, not looking back. Arden grabbed Rite’s wrist and pulled it away. It was a forceful strength compared to his usual gentle treatment, but Rite stood firm and didn’t back down.
“No. If you’re going, we go together. Why are you going alone?”
“Rite, listen carefully.”
Arden cupped Rite’s cheek with his palm. Rite was afraid to look into Arden’s eyes. If he looked into those eyes now, he felt he wouldn’t be able to win against Arden.
In eyes of a different color than usual, familiar emotions could still be seen.
“We’re cooperating. It’s not about you coming to rescue me, or me sacrificing myself for you.”
“…How is this cooperation? Again, I’m doing nothing…”
“You were the one who said it first, Rite.”
“No. No, Arden.”
“Remember that. Understand?”
Arden flung the door open. Shaking off Rite, he jumped down from the carriage and closed the door. It all happened in an instant. Until that moment, Rite hadn’t taken his eyes off Arden, but Arden hadn’t looked at Rite.
Rite immediately grabbed the door handle, but Eden’s urgent voice followed.
“You can’t. If you open that door and go out now, it really will be the end, Rite.”
“Arden is…”
“Arden will be fine. Do you think I would have sent him off without thinking? Trust me and…”
Eden continued to try to soothe Rite, but nothing was reaching Rite’s ears. Everything was quiet. It felt like standing alone in the Winter Forest, buried in snow.
Arden, who had disappeared among the numerous carriages, was already out of sight. Rite’s bright yellow gaze desperately searched the area where Arden had vanished.
At the front, the guards kept calling for Eden, but Eden didn’t move. He was silently waiting for the opening Arden would create.
Peeee!
A whistle sound that Rite had heard somewhere before rang out. The guard who had been walking toward their carriage stopped in surprise. When they ran toward the back, Eden immediately turned the steering wheel. Blending in with the carriages leaving the castle, they crossed the bridge as if nothing had happened. Rite even pulled aside the curtain to look outside. Among the chaotic crowd, it wasn’t difficult to spot the man with ash-gray hair.
“Rite, close the curtain.”
With those words, Arden disappeared from Rite’s view too. The carriage moved away quickly, too far to see him anymore.
* * *
“Calm down. We can’t do it right now. If we rush, we could ruin everything.”
“Then what are you saying? Just wait?”
“We still have the backup date we set. The day of the Founding Festival. We’ll go in then. Since we can’t contact Arden, I’ll ask him to prepare for that day.”
“Prepare what? What exactly have you been preparing that you keep telling me to trust you?”
“That’s…”
It rained that day. The flower petals that had been displayed as if to transcend seasons rolled messily on the ground. The events that had been prepared announced their cancellations one after another. The first to be canceled was the sword competition to be held in the main garden of the imperial palace. It was laughable that history would surrender to mere rain.
Nevertheless, the streets were crowded with people. Looking down from above, the numerous umbrellas filling the streets looked like a swarm of upturned plates moving in herds.
Rite looked outside through the wide-open window. No one was paying attention to him. The decorative light bulbs connecting the buildings across the street were flickering unsteadily, as if broken.
Turning his gaze away from the window, his eyes fell on a small glass bottle left on the windowsill. He had put off giving it because Eden had said the scent would become more natural with time, so he still hadn’t given it. Rite opened the perfume bottle cap and brought it close to his nose. The faint scent left him with deep disappointment. He wanted to smell the real thing, not a manufactured substitute.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ll be back soon.”
As Rite came down the stairs, pulling on his coat, Eden looked at him with concerned eyes. He was the one who had repeatedly told Rite to rest well until late evening when their task would begin. Eden seemed like he wanted to stop him, but Rite pretended not to notice his gaze.
“There might be knights outside.”
“I’m confident I won’t be caught.”
“You don’t even know the geography here well. I understand you’re restless, but…”
“Eden.”
Rite turned his head to look at Eden, just as he was about to flip up the hood attached to his coat. His vibrant-colored pupils were more slanted than usual.
“Your judgment has already been wrong once.”
“…”
“I won’t blame you anymore, so stop it.”
Eden’s complexion turned pale. His lost eyes wandered around before finally settling on the floor. That’s when Rite noticed that Eden’s eyes were more swollen than usual.
Rite left the mansion just like that. “I’m sorry.” The small voice reached his now-sensitive ears.
Wedged among countless umbrellas, Rite looked at the distant clock tower. After confirming his direction, he began walking through the crowds.
“It’s a bit cold with the rain. All the flowers have fallen. What a waste.”
“This year’s rather dull.”
“Why is there still no news about that?”
“They’ll probably announce it after the Founding Festival.”
The conversations of passing people jumbled together. Listening to all the different voices, Rite walked silently, eyes fixed ahead.
“Is that the person from back then?”
“What was his name again? Ah…”
“Arden?”
“Why do they even keep him alive?”
Leaving the voices behind, Rite pushed open the doors of the temple. The temple was so vast that one wouldn’t notice the transition from outside to inside. The noisy sounds disappeared, and he stepped into the quiet interior. The doors, unable to bear their weight, slowly closed behind Rite.
Statues that seemed as if they might come alive at any moment lined the walls. Rite walked between them. At the end stood Artalis.
“…”
Amid the darkness, the statue gleamed with sunlight. Surrounded by small angels and birds, Artalis was looking down with eyes that seemed to gaze at nothing in particular.
Among people quietly praying, Rite alone stood with his waist and neck straight. There was no reverence in his eyes as he looked up at the divine statue.
The worshippers’ eyes fixed on the unfamiliar stranger who had suddenly appeared. Rite, not caring in the slightest, stared into the empty plaster eyes before turning around. Without a trace of lingering attachment, he pulled the door open and went outside.
Fresh air filled his lungs. By then, the rain had grown a bit heavier. The raindrops were no different from those in the Winter Forest. Rite wiped away the rainwater clinging to his face with his palm. His right arm twitched slightly.
When Artalis’s time ended and Noah’s time came, he would be able to meet Arden.
* * *
Upon returning to the mansion without incident, Rite encountered an unexpected face.
“Have you been well?”
Suos, who should have been in Rosmunt, greeted him with a smile.
Originally, Suos was supposed to cross over to Moran after everything was over and join Eden’s plan. Rite hadn’t expected to see him in Moran at this point, before the operation had even begun.
“How did you get here from Rosmunt?”
Eden also waited for Suos’s answer to Rite’s question. Suos was a person with even less freedom of movement than Arden. If Arden was a criminal, Suos was a person who didn’t exist in the world.
In this situation, he shouldn’t have been able to pass through the checkpoints and cross into Moran.
“That’s what I wanted to ask. What happened that made all the knights from Rosmunt withdraw?”
“Withdraw? What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. They all disappeared. Not a single person was left to conduct the inspections.”
Both Eden and Rite fell silent at Suos’s words. Suos frowned as he observed their mood. It was Rite who broke the silence.
“Let’s move up the time.”
* * *
Arden was regretting coming out in such light clothing. The stone wall against his back was so cold that he couldn’t even lean on it.
He sighed and looked out through the bars. In the dark underground, there were only Arden and two knights. He had experience with prison before, but this was his first time in this particular place.
Arden was able to face the Emperor for the first time. Since his head was pressed to the ground, it was questionable to call it a face-to-face meeting, but it was the first time he had seen the Emperor so closely.
‘Why is there only this one?’
It was a strange voice. Instinctively, Arden tried to raise his head to check, but he was mercilessly trampled. Trying to swallow his groan from the throbbing back of his head, he had to clench his teeth.
‘I’m asking. Why is there only this one?’
‘Because we couldn’t find more, Your Majesty.’
It was a light tone that didn’t match the heavy atmosphere. Even without raising his head to check, Arden could feel the atmosphere freezing over.
‘Deal with this first. No, I’ll do it myself. You all go out and look.’
‘That doesn’t seem like a good idea.’
‘…’
‘Don’t get too excited, think calmly. You need to keep him alive at least as bait. What are you going to do right now? It’s not like Your Majesty’s son has returned, it’s just one engineer.’
‘I never had a child.’
‘Mistake, mistake.’
From his dim memory, Arden extracted the owner of the voice. Seirios. Arden realized who was stepping on his head and inhaled sharply.
The tense atmosphere ended anticlimactically. The Emperor left without another word. For Arden, it was unbelievable.
Arden, worried his head might burst, rolled his eyes. All he could see were people’s feet.
‘Eyes.’
At the voice from above, he slowly lowered his gaze. But it was already after he had seen everything.
Arden’s thoughts became complicated. It was too different from the back of the Emperor he remembered. Though hidden by large robes, he had become much smaller than in Arden’s memory. To the point of doubting if it was the same person.
Moreover, that was clearly a suture mark. Arden recalled the Emperor’s ankle that he had glimpsed. The wound was quite large. As if someone had deliberately torn it open. The ankle was swollen as if it had been injured recently, but the wound itself looked like an old scar.
Hadn’t there been rumors about the Emperor’s ankle before?
“Captain!”
What broke Arden from his thoughts was the sound of something bursting. Thud, thud. Along with the loud noise, the iron bars vibrated. When he raised his head to check, someone was smashing the head of the knight guarding the door against the wall.
