Cairens is the son of a god.
A demigod Cairens, born between Henelion, the great king of the Surface and God of Light, and a human princess.
Though it wasn’t described in detail in the novel, somehow Henelion and the princess had a relationship and bore a child.
Perhaps she truly loved Henelion, who approached her simply to obtain a child.
Or perhaps it really was done through Henelion’s coercion, without even an ounce of her will reflected.
Whichever it was, it had to be one of the two, and both were equally disgusting.
Seeing how much she hated him like that, whether there was consent or not, she must be pouring her rage toward Henelion onto Cairens.
It was natural for her to deny Cairens, having come to hate the gods due to her relationship with Henelion.
At Cairens’s word “mother,” her body, which had been still, trembled.
“Mother.”
An arc that might have been derision formed at the corners of her lips.
As if she no longer wanted to deal with him, she withdrew her gaze from Cairens.
“Make sure you never appear before my eyes again from now on.”
And only after leaving that final warning did she turn her back on him and leave without hesitation.
“……”
Cairens said nothing.
All he could do was quietly stare at the place where she had left.
Those eyes felt achingly sorrowful.
“Let’s go.”
Finally, when her figure was no longer visible, Cairens, who had been standing his ground, turned away at last.
Abrisius silently followed behind him, taking in the sight of him walking ahead with drooping shoulders, unlike usual.
‘I shouldn’t have stuck my nose where it didn’t belong……’
Abrisius felt guilty, as if this whole mess had happened because of him.
Instead of climbing over the wall, Cairens chose the path that passed through the long wall to return to his palace.
Throughout the journey back, Cairens didn’t speak. Abrisius walked one step behind, matching his pace.
“Even if everyone in the world praises me as having a great bloodline……”
Had they walked like that for a while? Just before leaving the woman’s palace, Cairens turned around and smiled gently at Abrisius, who had been slowly following behind him.
Abrisius, who had been drooping with guilt, perked up his ears at the sound that broke the silence.
“Half of me is merely an ordinary human.”
His gaze turned toward the distant direction where the princess had disappeared. His gaze and feet lingered at the boundary line leaving her palace, as if holding on to lingering attachment.
“A child born having received the blessing of a god will, in the distant future, grow up healthy, blessed with a destiny to become a hero and loved by mother and god.”
Having finished his story, Cairens turned to face Abrisius. His two eyes, mixed with moisture, held him hazily.
“What liars they are. Those minstrels……”
Raised with love? What nonsense. The stories they babbled about and reality were on different dimensions.
For some reason, the princess who received Henelion’s blessing detested her own son.
Whether it was because of her lover’s betrayal or because of the afterimage of horrific memories, he didn’t know the reason. But one thing was certain—Cairens was an existence that had never been blessed from the beginning.
According to what people said, everyone blessed Cairens’s birth. But could one truly call it a blessed birth when speaking of a child rejected by his mother?
“……I wasn’t blessed.”
At least that’s what Cairens thought.
He was an existence that received hatred from the moment he was born. No matter how much others praised him, he had never truly been loved by anyone.
The existence they loved wasn’t Cairens but ‘Hero’ Cairens, and they had no interest whatsoever in the ordinary ‘human’ Cairens.
Perhaps that’s why. He was always lonely.
The King of Atlante, who was practically his uncle, served Cairens as the son of a god rather than treating him as a nephew, holding greater expectations of him than of his own son with the destiny of a hero, and subjected him to excessive education. Because of that, his cousin Ricarkos, burning with an inferiority complex, was always sharp with him.
Cairens was solitary.
Neither to his family nor to others had he ever been treated simply as a child with the name ‘Cairens.’
To someone an idol, to someone hatred, to someone jealousy. He didn’t actually want to know or feel such complicated human relationships.
What he needed was an existence with whom he could empathize and exchange hearts.
“If I had been born like an ordinary child, wouldn’t I have at least one friend?”
A mother who liked him, a dependable father. An older brother to play with, a friend to spend time with.
A harmonious family that any ordinary child would have from the moment they were born.
Was even that ordinariness a luxury for him?
Meeting eyes with Abrisius, he smiled faintly. A sad, futile, somehow completely empty and hollow smile. One could feel a weight and sorrow that a young child couldn’t bear.
Slowly extending both hands, Cairens carefully stroked the soft fur of the small, young deer.
And slowly burying his face in the young deer’s nape, he took a deep breath.
“……Ppi.”
Abrisius, embraced in Cairens’s arms, didn’t reject his touch. He simply silently accepted his sorrow and was lost in thought, dazed for a moment.
‘You receive everyone’s admiration, but you’re not actually receiving love.’
Though he wasn’t of blessed origins like Cairens, it was a contrast to Abrisius who received Seianes’s unconditional love.
‘Still, it’s not that your birth isn’t blessed.’
There’s no such thing as an unblessed birth in this world. Abrisius too had never been born blessed throughout both his past and present.
In the past to his parents, in the present to the gods of the Surface, he was a troublesome nuisance.
Even so, Abrisius had never thought his birth was unblessed.
Just by having seen the light of this world, he was blessed, and he believed that somewhere in the world, at least one person celebrated his birth.
Seianes was living proof. Because he was the one who whispered that your birth was my greatest gift.
Thinking about it that way, this appearance of Cairens could only feel like the tantrum of an immature child.
Someday everyone would love him and celebrate his birth. Getting worn out already was too hasty.
‘Even I, who will someday be hated by the person I love most, am celebrated for my birth…… you can’t be like that.’
Though it was frustrating, he was still a child so it was understandable. Still, thinking that this was probably the most difficult situation for that kid right now, Abrisius tried to comfort him in his own way by tapping his side.
At the very least, he couldn’t let him dig his own grave like this. After all, he was his lifesaver, and they had some bond from playing around together.
“What’s wrong?”
“Ppyaa!”
Cairens looked strangely at Abrisius, who was tapping him and rubbing his face against his side, acting affectionate in a way he’d never done before.
“Ppaeng! Ppiaaa!”
The deer crying loudly toward him felt like it was boosting his spirits.
“Haha…… Right, you’re comforting me?”
A smile formed on Cairens’s lips.
What would this little thing know to be trying so hard to embrace him? The heart that had been bound up in sadness seemed to loosen a little.
“Still, I’m glad I at least have you.”
Unlike the time when he didn’t even know he was lonely, the current Cairens had the young deer with him.
Bending down for a moment, he pulled the deer’s neck into an embrace.
The beating of a pounding heart was transmitted to his ear and soon became comfort that settled in a corner of his heart.
“You at least, don’t leave me.”
Cairens whispered quietly to the friend who now couldn’t be separated from him no matter what.
The first friend Cairens ever had, who couldn’t belong anywhere. The only place he could belong.
The only existence who shared the daily life he used to spend alone.
Though small and not without a bit of a nasty temperament, the deer had become an irreplaceable friend to Cairens. The more he thought about the days ahead he would spend with this deer, the more his heart tickled.
Minstrels (음유 시인) – (Wandering poets/storytellers who spread tales)
