# Chapter 106
Instead of Levi’s form, only a cracked black bead and a single fragment that had broken off from it remained.
After secretly receiving this thunderbolt of news, Claudia rushed to the Marquis’s mansion with her hair and eyes dyed a dull color. It seemed almost too easy for her to return, considering her status as both a prisoner and collaborator in an enemy country, but it appeared she had been working behind the scenes for some time.
On the other hand, it might have seemed strange that she had stayed in the Caron Empire until now, despite being able to return whenever she wanted.
Eiden, who like Claudia had changed his hair and eye color and was covering half his face with a mask, immediately snatched away the soft bundle of cloth that young Hest was preciously holding, without even bothering to pat the boy.
“Ah!”
Ignoring Hest’s startled cry, Eiden unfolded the cloth bundle and confirmed with his eyes the black bead and the small fragment wrapped inside. The fragment was clearly much smaller than the hollow, broken part of the black bead, but Eiden didn’t seem to care, as if the bead being broken and hollowed was its original state.
“Fortunately, the new crack isn’t large. According to ‘that person,’ a crack of this size should be able to heal within a year or two.”
Claudia, who had checked the bead after Eiden, let out a deep sigh of relief. Even so, her darkened face showed no sign of brightening.
“It’s my fault. Because I hesitated, Levi…”
“Please don’t say that. It couldn’t be helped, could it?”
As Eiden wrapped his arm around Claudia’s shoulders to comfort her, he frowned at Hest’s near-screaming outcry from beside them.
“Give it back! It’s mine!”
Hest, who was about to charge at Eiden and Claudia while shouting loudly, struggled violently in the arms of the steward who was holding him back.
“Give it back! Give me the bead!”
“Young master, please calm down! What are you doing to your father?!”
“Who’s my father?! I don’t know anything about that!”
Even though he was called his father, Hest was seeing Eiden’s face for the first time, and he hadn’t spared a single warm glance. Compared to such a person, Levi, who had disappeared leaving only the bead behind, had given him far more affection.
Struggling so severely that even the fairly large steward seemed to have trouble handling him, Hest looked like he would burst into tears at any moment. It felt as though he was deliberately throwing a tantrum here, something he had never done in his life.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Eiden ordered the steward to lock Hest in his room. The steward, who had shown a troubled expression as he bowed his head, looked up to find Claudia already approaching.
Claudia’s hand gently stroked Hest’s head as he panted and breathed heavily.
“Thank you. For protecting Levi.”
Not readily understanding Claudia’s words, Hest frowned and struggled even more. He kept reaching out his short hands toward the black bead inside the cloth piece Claudia was holding, but the kind-eyed Claudia never gave it back.
After Hest was dragged away by the steward, only Claudia and Eiden remained in the reception room.
Claudia quietly looked down at the black bead and fragment inside the cloth, then carefully wrapped them in both her hands.
“Let’s go to the Black Forest.”
“I’ll prepare immediately.”
After responding politely, Eiden hesitated and asked.
“What will you do with that fragment?”
Claudia stared at the small fragment leaning against the broken black bead. Her gaze seemed not to be looking at a mere inanimate solid chunk, but rather as if she were conflicted over ‘another life.’
After appearing to contemplate deeply for a while, Claudia wrapped the black bead and the small fragment together in a small cloth.
“…I’ll keep them together. Because I have a confession I must make to Levi.”
“Understood.”
Eiden answered immediately, as if he had known Claudia would say that.
Claudia looked down at the black bead and its fragment wrapped in the soft cloth in her hands, silently repeating ‘I’m sorry’ to herself many times.
❖ ❖ ❖
It was approaching a year since Levi’s shattered core had sunk into the pond in the Black Forest.
Levi, having completed his regeneration, was sitting vacantly in the middle of the pond just like the day he first met Claudia, and was brought back to the Marquis’s mansion by Claudia, who had visited the Black Forest every day.
Levi, who had fully regenerated after completely absorbing the fragment that had been submerged with him in the pond, fortunately remembered everything from the day he first met Claudia. He even remembered all the conversations between Claudia and Eiden when they had his core, and how loudly Hest had shouted, despite having died once and only his core remaining.
“Levi! You’re back!”
Hest, who had grown quite a bit in the past year, ran quickly and clung to Levi’s leg. Levi’s eyes widened at seeing him grown by more than a head in the time they hadn’t seen each other, but he soon hugged Hest tightly and stroked his back, just as he used to.
The reunion with Hest didn’t last long.
Hest, who had stuck to Levi with no intention of letting go, was dragged away by a stern-faced Eiden. Watching Hest shouting and struggling, Levi felt a sting in his chest as he recalled the boy’s wailing when he had been nothing but a tiny core.
Claudia approached him with a somber face, saying she had something urgent to tell him.
Levi, who felt as if it was just yesterday that Claudia had placed his core in the pond with the same expression she wore now, listened as she spoke in a trembling voice.
“I’m sorry I came too late. What happened to you… it’s all my fault.”
Levi shook his head as soon as he heard her words. He vividly remembered the contents of the note he had received from her, so he knew she had deliberately entered enemy territory for his sake.
But Claudia bowed her head deeply, with tears welling in her eyes.
“The truth is, even now, I don’t know what to do. I never imagined that the fragment of your core would be ‘in that form.’ Above all, I… I was too overwhelmed because of that power…”
As she approached the end of her sentence, Claudia’s sobbing grew louder. Levi approached her and, as always, held her face close to his chest, along with her long hair dyed a murky brown.
“Is this related to you becoming a ‘real human’?”
“…!”
Claudia’s body, crying in Levi’s arms, jolted violently.
“Ah…”
As soon as he confirmed Claudia’s reaction, a small sigh escaped Levi’s lips.
“I see.”
Levi sighed again at the fact he comprehended effortlessly, like water flowing.
“You are no longer ‘one’ with me now.”
Those words seemed to press something deep inside Claudia with a click. Tears that had been welling in Claudia’s eyes began to fall, and Levi embraced her even more tenderly.
“Don’t cry. There’s nothing to be sorry about.”
Levi lowered his deep eyes as he stroked Claudia’s dull yet soft hair.
After silently stroking Claudia several times, when her suppressed sobbing subsided, Levi slowly released her from his embrace. Then, with his black hand in its Etlun leather glove, he carefully wiped her tear-stained cheeks.
“So now I shouldn’t take off these gloves, right?”
Claudia, who had been silently swallowing her tears and breaths, nodded. Levi, who understood what that meant, felt a newfound regret.
The Claudia before him no longer possessed the ‘power of life.’
The power of life is endlessly passed down to new life.
This was the same reason Claudia had to succeed her father, the former ‘Holy One’ and late emperor, as the ‘Holy Woman.’
During the time Levi was regenerating, Claudia had naturally transferred the power of life to the child she had given birth to, which is why she was now merely an ordinary human.
Levi couldn’t help but realize that the comfort and warmth he had always felt from Claudia was no longer there.
“May I see the child?”
“…Yes.”
Though she answered willingly, Claudia seemed somewhat uneasy. Levi, not noticing this, entered the small cradle room located in the deepest part of the Marquis’s mansion with her.
The energy that hit him as soon as the door opened made Levi pause. It was a very strong attraction, quite different from what he had felt when he first met Claudia.
Approaching the cradle, Levi looked down at the short-haired blonde infant sleeping inside.
The baby couldn’t have been more than three or four months old.
The baby, who had been sleeping with an innocent face, slowly opened its eyes. Golden eyes that seemed to contain shattered sunlight immediately captured Levi’s face.
The baby’s small lips moved and smacked together. Its tiny hands reached out toward Levi, and its small fingers repeatedly opened and closed.
As if entranced, Levi extended his hand to the baby. His black gloved finger was grasped by the baby’s tiny hand, followed by a satisfied gurgling laugh.
Looking at the tiny child who was smiling happily at him, unable to take his eyes away, Levi asked Claudia, who stood behind him.
“This child, what’s the name?”
Claudia’s tightly closed lips opened.
“Ion… It’s Ion.”
Levi, rolling the infant’s name around in his mouth several times, smiled slightly.
“Beautiful.”
Now this child was the only human who could touch his black hand, and the being who was ‘one’ with him.
“Ion.”
When he called the lovely name, Ion, who was looking up at Levi, smiled brightly like sunshine.
