<Chapter 153>
#17. The Beast God’s Arrangement (5)
“A favor?”
Why is he acting so adorably?
Calix, already smiling, pulled him in tight and asked. Melty smiled brightly at the honey-dripping gaze and whispered.
“I want some cake from the intersection.”
“…What flavor do you want?”
“Whichever one you think looks the most delicious?”
Calix pressed his lips firmly together at the question asked with sparkling eyes. Melty fidgeted with Calix’s hand between both of his as he rambled on to himself.
When Melty finished speaking and smiled softly, Calix, completely captivated, left a quick kiss that made a small smacking sound. Despite falling for that lovable face, he could easily tell that Melty was in the middle of telling a lie.
Calix easily figured out what was going on in that small head just by noticing how Melty’s eyes kept darting toward the clock and the door. With Melty pushing him out this way, he couldn’t keep ignoring Angel who was anxiously waiting by the door. Despite not wanting to leave, he had things that needed to be done. After rubbing his lips against his cunning lover’s forehead, Calix reluctantly calmed himself and got up.
“I’ll be back soon.”
***
At the sound of approaching footsteps, Johaim lifted his eyelids and shifted his gaze toward the noise. While he didn’t particularly have any expectations about who might be coming, the familiar shoes that stopped right in front of him were enough to make a bitter laugh escape between his lips.
“…Ha. Is that you?”
His voice cracked miserably due to insufficient water intake over the past few days. Despite Johaim’s remark laced with discomfort, the other party didn’t say anything. Frowning at how the person had come all this way only to remain silent, Johaim lifted his head.
Calix looked down at him with eyes devoid of any emotion. One of Johaim’s horns, a symbol of sheep beastmen, was broken miserably, and the dark circles beneath his eyes made him look even more haggard. Even his usual sharp hostility toward the Padrian family was nowhere to be seen.
“Your punishment has been decided.”
Calix spat out the words in a tone clearly revealing his annoyance.
“Since it’s a decision made after thorough discussions with each representative family, we’ve agreed not to accept any opposition from the Sarvie family. Well, I doubt you’d have the energy to oppose anyway.”
“Haha… You might as well… *cough*… just say… you took charge.”
After a dry cough, Johaim moistened his throat with saliva and retorted. He was convinced that Calix had been forceful in determining his punishment. Each family had their specialty areas, and when epidemics spread like now, the Padrian and Sarvie families held the most authority.
However, since he, the heir to the Sarvie family, had caused this incident, he could be certain that the Padrian family had seized authority. Recognizing what Johaim was thinking, Calix responded with an indifferent expression.
“Let me say it again, I don’t have the slightest interest in you. And I don’t have time to waste on this.”
Calix’s statement was filled with sincerity. When Melty had lost consciousness and was in danger, he had felt like slaughtering not only Johaim Kun Sarvie, but many others who irritated him.
In fact, the person who had forcibly injected the unknown dangerous liquid into Melty’s body had long since been hacked to pieces and thrown as food for wild animals. That alone hadn’t quelled his anger at all, which is why he hadn’t forgotten to extract everything about the man’s identity and take revenge on those associated with him.
‘Despite the Ollua venom, not dying immediately must have been even more devastating for him.’
He could easily conclude how the man had fought against the poison and extended his life a little longer. Only a “Blessing” could accomplish such a miraculous feat.
Calix, who had frowned severely at the resurfacing memories, pictured Melty blinking his round eyes. Along with that image, the anger that had risen to the top of his head gradually subsided. Unlike his initial fury, perhaps thanks to having recharged with enough of Melty’s cute and lovable behavior over the past few days, he could now maintain an indifferent attitude. Spending time with the recovered Melty was more important than wasting time dealing with such matters.
Although the decision on Johaim’s punishment had been made quite a while ago, the delay in conveying it was simply because Calix prioritized his time with Melty. Due to continued pressure from not only the Sarvie family but other families to expedite the notification, Calix decided to deal with this annoying matter today.
“Take it.”
Calix tossed the envelope he was holding through the bars to where Johaim was. With a thud, the envelope fell, and Johaim stared at it with a blank face.
After hesitating, Johaim first picked up the familiar envelope that had caught his eye. The name written in elegant handwriting was undoubtedly that of his father, Owen Kun Sarvie. Johaim opened the letter with trembling hands.
“To my son.”
Beginning with this cliché phrase, the letter was filled with Owen’s self-blame. It continued with detailed accounts of his strict educational methods and how sorry he was because of them. As he read through the letter, Johaim’s eyes grew heavier. Whoever wrote this seemed quite emotional at the time, but sadly, Johaim, who had never felt paternal love while growing up, couldn’t relate to it at all.
“……”
Maintaining a heavy silence, Johaim crumpled the letter. Unlike what the letter claimed, Owen had always prioritized his role as the family head over being a father, even when his siblings died. Now that he was lamenting his past self and offering comfort in writing, there was no way Johaim could sympathize. If anything, he felt nauseated by what seemed like his father’s pretense.
He could never feel or express affection toward someone so cold and stern. That’s why for Johaim, the only ones he could call “family” were his two younger siblings who had already passed away.
Slowly closing and opening his eyes, Johaim finally opened the second letter containing his punishment. His eyes widened at the content written there. With wavering eyes, he read the written words over and over again. Standing frozen in place, Johaim looked up at Calix with eyes clearly revealing his surprise.
“What.”
“…You’re… not going to kill me…?”
“Killing you would just add one more corpse, so what’s the point.”
Calix answered calmly, scratching his cheek with an expression full of annoyance. The punishment for Johaim was “medical service.” Thanks to Melty, Calix knew how to produce the cure, but distribution had been delayed due to various issues.
Moreover, he had burned quite a few herb fields due to his easily broken rationality. Though he had contacted the family to get the necessary herbs and started producing the cure, diseases aren’t something that can be eradicated so easily.
The Padrian family worked to produce it as quickly as possible, but manual labor couldn’t keep pace with the spread of the disease. Since it also took considerable time for the produced cure to reach the affected regions, people in each area desperately needed medical professionals who could suppress or manage the disease.
Such a situation would clearly persist for quite a long time, even after the epidemic completely disappeared. It would take more time and effort for damaged regions and people to recover to their previous state. In that sense, Johaim, who had already become a criminal, was the perfect pawn to use.
“You caused this, so just clean up your own mess.”
At Calix’s answer, Johaim looked at him with blank eyes and asked.
“…Is Melty-ssi… okay…?”
“Why would you care about that?”
As Calix asked back with a grim face, Johaim’s expression became peaceful, like someone who had gotten the answer he wanted. Though he didn’t say it directly, Calix’s composed expression, unlike before, conveyed enough information for what Johaim wanted to know. If something had happened to Melty, there’s no way Calix could maintain such an attitude.
“That’s… a relief.”
Johaim muttered in a trembling voice and covered his face with his hands. When Melty collapsed unconsciously and Calix urgently carried him down in his arms, Johaim felt his mind go completely blank.
He hated and resented the Padrian family, but he never intended to harm Melty. If asked which side he was on, he had actually tried to protect Melty, who must have been deceived by the Padrian family. Unlike his assertion that being with the Padrian family would be dangerous for Melty, the fact that he himself had actually endangered Melty came as quite a shock to Johaim. Melty, limp in Calix’s arms, was enough to remind him of his own siblings.
“A relief?”
Calix’s expression twisted at Johaim’s near-whispered remark. Not hiding his displeasure, Calix vented a bit by kicking the prison bars.
“You’re the one who put him in danger.”
“……”
“And let me make this clear. Melty Crosel is not a Sarvie.”
“…I know.”
At the painfully uttered response, Calix raised his right eyebrow. At his displeased expression, Johaim let out a desolate laugh. After looking at him with contempt, Calix, still with his arms crossed, said:
“I don’t even know who you’re trying to get revenge on, but does running wild actually make you feel better?”
At Calix’s question, Johaim shook his head with a bitter smile. Far from feeling better, he continued to feel empty in one corner of his heart. The void and disappointment wouldn’t go away.
“Sarvie has always been closest to death. They go around preaching about how to accept death, but their heir…”
“How could there be a way to accept such a thing? Do you think you could do it?”
At Johaim’s question, Calix closed his mouth. Accepting a person’s death wasn’t something that could be achieved through training.
“…Well. But whatever reason you give, it doesn’t erase what you’ve done. People will come to get you soon. You probably won’t have the luxury to be distracted by other matters.”
It was a major incident caused by none other than Johaim Kun Sarvie, the “heir of the Sarvie family.” Given his position as the heir, the punishment for this incident fell not only on Johaim but on the entire Sarvie family. Owen, the head of the family, also accepted the punishment without resistance.
Having finished delivering the sentence to Johaim, Calix turned around. As Johaim quietly watched Calix’s back, he heard a gentle laughter. Slowly turning his gaze, Johaim saw the illusion of his younger siblings playing and laughing a short distance away.
“Brother!”
“Big brother!”
At the giggling laughter of his young siblings, Johaim quietly closed his eyes. The siblings in his memory hadn’t grown beyond their small childhood forms. Strangely, though, their faces were only blurry and couldn’t be remembered clearly.
Johaim moved his hand and fidgeted with the envelope. In that envelope sent by Owen Kun Sarvie, there was a small but distinct round object asserting its presence. After recognizing what it was, a hollow laugh escaped Johaim’s lips.
“Father…”
The contents of the letter flashed through Johaim’s mind.
“If you realize that you’ve burdened the family, humbly accept the family’s punishment.”
He was a selfish person to the end.
Johaim could easily figure out what he wanted to say. The letter had many modifiers, but the conclusion was clear. It seemed that since Johaim was the only direct heir left, Owen had tried to save him, but the damage Johaim had caused to the family exceeded Owen’s imagination.
‘He was always someone who lacked affection…’
He wasn’t upset or saddened by Owen’s indirectly conveyed true feelings. Johaim just quietly accepted it. He was always someone who considered the family most important…
However, he did wonder if the meticulous Calix had really missed this pill hidden inside the letter. Shaking his head lightly to dismiss the doubt, Johaim took a deep breath. Whether Calix knew or didn’t know no longer mattered. He had no lingering attachments to the world anyway.
Owen’s actions—sending a grandiose letter saying “I’ve been sorry all this time” while also sending poison—made Johaim laugh bitterly. He was the same now as when his siblings died, unchanging.
This was for himself, not for Owen.
Johaim tossed the pill from his palm directly into his mouth. Not long after, he felt his heart beating loudly and violently. The laughter of his siblings faded hazily.
His vision gradually turned black. Now, he could no longer hear the crying voices of his siblings that had tormented him.
