After leaving the contaminated land, Seianes headed straight for Abrisius.
He wanted to see Abrisius as soon as possible. Leaving the land imbued with Ircadeon’s filthy energy and heading toward the land where Abrisius was, he felt like he could breathe freely.
The day was gradually drawing to a close.
Abrisius, who had been blankly gazing at the setting sun, turned his head at the presence he heard behind him. Sure enough, it was Seianes.
His white jade-like skin bathed in the sunset light, creating a subtle red glow. It was a sight more beautiful than the sunset itself.
“What are you doing here, my baby?”
“I haven’t been a baby for ages…”
“Hehe… No matter how much you grow, you’re still my baby.”
Even though Abrisius had grown too big to be embarrassingly called a baby, Seianes still called Abrisius his baby.
It wasn’t particularly unpleasant.
“When did you grow this big?”
Seianes, who had settled beside Abrisius, stroked his cheek.
It felt like just yesterday that he followed him around, clinging to him every day. He had grown up so much that he was even anxious that he might say he was leaving his embrace now.
Suddenly, Cairens’s words floated up like a thought. The words that just as they lost something precious, he hoped Seianes would also pay the appropriate price.
If the claim was that since he had taken something precious, he too should lose what was most precious to him… Seianes looked at Abrisius, who was staying still in his embrace.
“That’s nonsense.”
To lose Abrisius? It was unimaginable.
But if it really had to be that way, Seianes wouldn’t be able to bear that situation. He couldn’t taste that despair again. Abrisius’s absence—whether it was death or returning to the underworld again, in any form.
‘Cairens…’
Cairens’s words stuck in his heart, gnawing at him. During their earlier conversation, Seianes had glimpsed deep disgust and anger in Cairens’s eyes. It wasn’t simply rebellion against the gods, but pure anger.
Seianes couldn’t understand why he was unleashing such great anger at them.
As the son of a god, he must have lived his years being treated well by humans. Even those who had tried to carelessly harm him were personally punished by his father.
‘But if he…’
Whatever the reason, he was someone who harbored resentment toward the gods and toward himself. If that resentment were directed at none other than Abrisius.
I absolutely cannot allow that.
No matter if he was born with the destiny of a hero who would defeat Ircadeon, he could never permit that. Just imagining it made the veins in his neck stand out.
He didn’t think Cairens would truly be that ungrateful. Surely he wouldn’t easily harm that child who had tried to save his life, for the reason of revenge.
But if there was even a small possibility… Cairens could harbor hatred toward him and try to harm Abrisius to show him up.
If by any chance Abrisius were to suffer an indelible wound because of that…
“Seianes, what’s wrong?”
Noticing his expression had hardened seriously, Abrisius looked up at Seianes and watched him carefully. Only then did Seianes, realizing his emotional turmoil, quickly composed his expression.
“Mm, it’s nothing.”
Seianes kept patting Abrisius’s back in his embrace. Though it was an action to comfort the child, the sound of breathing he heard from within his arms and the sensation he felt on his hands gradually calmed his taut nerves.
“Abrisius.”
“Yeah. Seianes, what?”
When he called his name, a response naturally returned. Yes, he was still in his embrace. Lovely Abrisius.
His deep ebony hair that looked like the night sky had been pressed into it, his sharply slanted eyes, and his sun-kissed bronze skin. The cuteness of childhood had disappeared, and his fully grown, beautiful form caught his eye.
A child who had grown so beautifully that he was too precious even to put in his eyes. It wouldn’t be strange if Cairens coveted him.
However, no one would be able to take this child away from him. Even if it was his brother and the demigod hero who would defeat Ircadeon.
“Stay by my side forever.”
Seianes whispered quietly, containing his earnest wish to be together forever. His abnormal obsession and love toward the child, which even he didn’t know about, were subtly contained within.
Abrisius, who tilted his head, closed his eyes in his embrace. A familiar scent. It was Seianes’s.
‘Stay by his side forever…’
Even without being told such things, Abrisius intended to always be by Seianes’s side. Whether Seianes liked it or not.
But it was worrying because it was an anxiety-tinged remark that Seianes wouldn’t normally make.
“Did something happen?”
“No, just.”
“Did you have a bad dream or something?”
When Abrisius asked cautiously, Seianes shook his head. He silently pulled Abrisius in his arms even tighter. Abrisius’s body scent that pierced his nose quickly calmed his sharp feelings.
Only Abrisius, who didn’t know the reason for his anxiety, kept patting Seianes’s shoulder.
He couldn’t understand why he was showing this reaction.
“…You said you’d be with Cairens for 100 days.”
While observing Seianes’s reaction, Abrisius changed the subject.
He was worried that the Seianes he loved might get together with Cairens, and it was also to check and find out how the two were getting along.
It was his own purpose, but at the word “Cairens,” Seianes’s expression hardened. Why bring up that name now of all times? Of course, Abrisius had no way of knowing what had happened.
“Is Cairens doing well?”
“Just… he’s fine.”
“I see. Cairens seems to be not doing as well as he appears. Is that why you’re angry? Because he won’t listen?”
He wanted to know about their relationship, how things had progressed between the two. Naturally, that action provoked Seianes.
He was already troubled thinking about what Cairens might do to Abrisius. Though he might be asking without much thought, his nerves stood on edge.
His brow quickly furrowed. He hoped Abrisius wouldn’t show any more interest in Cairens beyond this.
“…Abrisius. Stop.”
Seianes firmly removed Abrisius, who was asking this and that from his embrace.
He didn’t want to hear any more stories about Cairens from the child’s mouth. And he didn’t want to see Abrisius caring about him either. The very existence of Cairens in Abrisius’s head was unpleasant.
“Stop talking about him now. It’s not something you need to concern yourself with.”
He drew the line with a firm attitude. It must have been an action that came from not wanting Abrisius to know more about Cairens in his own way, but his sharp reaction was enough to provoke Abrisius, who was already on edge.
An unexpectedly sharp reaction.
Abrisius’s expression crumpled helplessly.
