The only variable to defeat Ircadeon.
That was the reason Cairens was born. Throughout saying those words, Seianes was calm.
“Cairens, you are a hero. Ircadeon is a god of darkness and the king of the underground. If he were to take over this surface, the world would lose its light.”
A world that lost its light. A world without light loses its warmth.
The sun would lose its light, and even the moon that illuminates the darkness would lose its light. The lives of the creatures living on this land would change greatly too. Though he couldn’t know how they would change.
Seianes briefly turned his gaze outside the window. A garden filled with summer flowers. If darkness settled on this land, he probably wouldn’t be able to see those flowers.
“I like this world. The world as it is now.”
Turning his gaze back, Seianes’s eyes captured Cairens.
“Cairens. I think you feel the same way.”
“……”
“You don’t wish for humans to be unhappy, do you? Hero.”
Cairens didn’t answer.
A fate born to defeat Ircadeon. Honestly, the destiny they spoke of didn’t resonate much with him.
As if expecting him to react that way, Seianes precisely pinpointed the pride Cairens held as a hero. Certainly, Cairens didn’t wish for humans to be unhappy.
Even though he had almost died because of them, he pitied them for being swayed by the whims of the gods.
That’s why he called himself a hero and stood on their side to become a hero.
“……What if I don’t defeat Ircadeon……?”
“Cairens, you are your father’s great masterpiece. You have no right to refuse your own destiny. You must defeat him no matter what. But if by any chance such a thing happens, my siblings will fall to the underground. Then the world will probably change much more than now. With the light gone, there will be no crops, and humans might be treated as slaves by those from the underground. Because they’re originally that kind of race.”
Those from the underground. The underground Divine Race that Seianes spoke of were a cruel race beyond imagination from his perspective.
“Things without mercy or respect. There’s a reason my siblings and father desperately drove them out. For the sake of humans’ safety too, they, Ircadeon, must never set foot on the surface. The day he takes over the surface again will be the day humans perish.”
Seianes’s eyes glinted narrowly, not hiding his hostility toward Ircadeon.
“The perishing of humans.”
Honestly, from Cairens’s perspective, it wasn’t very appealing.
Because it felt like his life, his own will, was being manipulated by the gods. Even though he had sworn revenge against them and said he would become a hero for humans, his destiny moved as if it had already been decided.
Yet it was too much to refuse when human lives were at stake.
The one and only existence he had decided to protect. Humans. If stopping Ircadeon was his fate, then the reason was not for the gods, but solely for humans.
“……What should I do?”
In the end, everything was going according to Henelion’s will. Even though it was frustrating, there was nothing he could do.
Seianes smiled as if satisfied. And thinking of Abrisius who would return soon from afar, he opened his mouth.
“First, you must build your strength. As you are now, you lack both the power and wisdom to defeat Ircadeon.”
“Power and wisdom?”
“Yes, if you resolve the labors I designate, you can overcome that sufficiently. And lastly, the second thing.”
Pausing, Seianes whispered quietly with a more serious attitude than ever.
“Stay only with me. Never leave my side.”
It was also a kind of surveillance. A line Seianes drew to prevent the distance between his beloved Abrisius and Cairens from narrowing.
It was also to prevent Cairens from approaching Abrisius in advance by bringing up childhood memories.
“Never, do not approach my child carelessly.”
Internally presenting a plausible justification that this was to prevent Abrisius from being discovered as a member of the underground Divine Race, Seianes earnestly entreated Cairens.
“Yes……”
Though the words seemed unreasonable, Cairens had no choice but to nod. Because there was no other way to become a hero, to protect humans.
* * *
Meanwhile, Abrisius, who had come outside as if chased out by Seianes, was full of dissatisfaction.
“I really can’t understand why he suddenly kicked me out……”
—Doesn’t he have his own reasons too?
Lily cawed and called out beside the complaining Abrisius.
Naturally settling on Abrisius’s shoulder, she looked deeply into his eyes. Though the trace of being from the underground Divine Race was hidden, looking closely inside, the red light that revealed its roots still existed.
—That Cairens. You might have to fight him someday.
And she whispered in his ear as if telling a serious secret.
To Abrisius, who already knew to some extent about the original work’s content and his own fate, it didn’t give him any particular impression.
“……I see, is that so.”
—What, you’re not surprised?
“Just, is there something to be surprised about? I already know, obviously.”
—What? Since when did you know?
Even at Lily’s interrogation about when and how he knew, Abrisius shrugged his shoulders.
Even when he tried to save Cairens 13 years ago, he hadn’t forgotten the fact that he was a future adversary. If there was a problem, it was that his character was too excellent to readily hate him just because he was an enemy.
‘But Seianes is absolutely off-limits.’
Still, how dare he covet Seianes—Abrisius picked a strawberry growing in the field and carefully placed it in the basket.
—Then I guess you know without me saying. So what are you going to do now? That guy will only be a hindrance to you. You’re not going to leave him alone like when you were young, are you?
“No, that’s not it.”
Listening to Lily chattering away while sitting on his shoulder, Abrisius shook his head.
Of course, he had no intention of staying still.
Just as Seianes ultimately didn’t give up on Abrisius, Abrisius had no intention of giving up on Seianes either.
‘I know these are feelings I shouldn’t have for someone like a parent who raised me.’
But he had already come to love Seianes deeply in his bones. From the moment he came to find him again, Abrisius realized that he couldn’t escape from Seianes.
‘If the two of them connect like this……’
Then the two of them would probably become the closest pair in the world. Whispering love, sometimes mixing their bodies and sharing each other’s warmth.
What was more shocking was this: if things went this way, for Seianes, the most important existence would no longer be Abrisius.
At that thought, his mind went blank.
Seianes’s attention and love were solely Abrisius’s. Because they were his.
