A familiar voice. When he turned around, Cairens was standing there. Facing the sunset light that was gradually darkening, he was dyed red like flames.
“What are you doing here right now?”
At his appearance, Seianes’s expression sharpened. His head was already complicated enough, and his unannounced appearance was sufficient to put Seianes’s nerves on edge.
“Hurry back to your place.”
“…Yes, I should.”
Toward Seianes, who was issuing an order to leave, Cairens lightly nodded his head. Unlike his words, his gaze didn’t leave Seianes.
Like a knight who had emerged through flames, he walked slowly toward Seianes with confidence.
“…You cherish Abrisius, don’t you?”
“Did you come all the way here to ask that now? Forgetting what you should be doing?”
At Cairens’s out-of-the-blue question, Seianes let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.
“Of course. Because he’s my child.”
He was displeased that Abrisius’s name dared come out of that mouth. The reason wasn’t simply because he was anxious that Abrisius might choose Cairens. If there was even a small possibility that he would learn Abrisius’s identity, it would be troublesome.
Above all, he was considerably irritated wondering what effect Cairens’s destiny to overthrow the beings of the underworld might have on Abrisius.
“For that reason, I can’t stand to watch you and Abrisius getting along well.”
Instead of revealing such inner thoughts, he brought up the incident in the past when Abrisius had been put in danger because of Cairens as his reason.
Honestly, this was also one of the reasons Cairens couldn’t associate with Abrisius.
“Even if you were friends, my child almost died because of you. You didn’t do anything at that moment.”
13 years ago, the sight of Abrisius protecting Cairens. Even if the reason was because of himself, the memory of his heart aching at the thought that he had chosen Cairens instead of him.
As long as he didn’t forget that scene, it would be impossible to ever have goodwill toward Cairens for the rest of his life.
“…I see.”
Watching such a Seianes, Cairens let out a subtle smile. His gaze remained fixed on Seianes as before.
“The existence most precious to Seianes-nim is Abrisius after all, isn’t it?”
Confirming once again, he looked into the air. The sight of his dead mother, the people who had lost precious things and struggled in despair. Now it was time for revenge and retribution for them.
Seianes, who still didn’t let down his guard against him, entered his field of vision.
Seeing him looking as if his existence was a thorn in his eye made his competitive spirit boil even more. Even now, he was glaring at him with bloodshot eyes like that…
“You really hate me associating with Abrisius… Is there some special reason for that?”
“What?”
At the question that hit the mark, Seianes’s expression faltered. But Seianes, who quickly composed his expression so Cairens wouldn’t notice, glared at him.
“That’s because you brought my child to the brink of death.”
“But for it to be just that reason, it seems excessive… It’s as if there’s something more.”
However, Cairens didn’t miss his sensitive reaction. Having lost his hometown and wandered here and there, he probed Seianes with his exceptional intuition.
“How unpleasant. Are you trying to say that I’m hiding something from you right now?”
Cornered by the continued interrogation, Seianes twisted his face. Seeing his attitude of evading the question, a strange pleasure boiled up inside Cairens.
He was definitely hiding something.
“Calm down, Seianes-nim. I have no intention of causing any harm to Abrisius or you.”
“What are you talking about right now?”
“Exactly what I said. I don’t know what you’re afraid of, but he’s my benefactor who saved my life. There’s no way I would harm him.”
It was a blatant lie.
To Cairens, whose vengeful feelings toward the gods had grown larger, the past no longer mattered anymore.
No matter how pure and kind Abrisius remained like before, Cairens was not the same person who had lived the past 13 years with revenge and hatred.
He was even prepared to use that innocence if it meant taking revenge for everything that had been stolen from him. Even by doing so, he wanted to return it to Seianes.
The pain he and others had felt, the ache of losing something precious. This time it was Cairens’s turn to return it.
“For that reason, I want to know why Seianes-nim cares about that child. So I want to approach Abrisius.”
“Nonsense.”
“Even if you deny it, it can’t be helped. I want to know that child. How he grew up. What secrets he has, every single one of them.”
With each movement of Cairens’s mouth, Seianes’s expression grew darker.
“Do you think I would dare just watch such a sight?”
“Then, what will you do? How will you stop my heart from moving toward Abrisius?”
Cairens, who easily deflected the threatening Seianes, whispered sweetly in his ear. A fishy smile spread across Cairens’s lips as he returned the exact words he had said to him a few days ago.
“Me, the hero with the destiny to defeat Ircadeon. What can you do?”
As soon as the words ended, Seianes’s pupils trembled greatly. Seeing Seianes frozen before his eyes made him feel even more refreshed, and Cairens still didn’t hide his smile.
“I am a hero. And just as I must help you all according to destiny regardless of what I think of you, you also shouldn’t interfere with whatever I do.”
“You, how dare you…”
Seianes’s bloodshot gaze filled with humiliation turned toward Cairens.
Even after trampling on Seianes’s pride, Cairens showed no fear, let alone hesitation. Rather, he was provoking Seianes even more and enjoying this situation.
Seianes from the past, who with an arrogant gaze had told him to just do his job as befitting one with a hero’s destiny.
Returning his actions and words exactly felt refreshing.
On the other hand, Seianes had suffered a great wound to his pride beyond words.
“So Seianes-nim just needs to teach me the Power of the Earth to make me a hero, just like now. Because that’s your job.”
Just before the sun fell below the horizon, spewing out sunset light, Cairens, who received all that light at once, gently narrowed his eyes. Conversely, Seianes’s eyes in the direction being filled with darkness were coldly half-closed.
A provocation after a long time, a human—no, a demigod who wasn’t the least bit afraid of him was a first.
He thought he might lose Abrisius because of that ruffian-like demigod bastard. To think he was acting so carelessly after knowing that his weakness was Abrisius.
It was ridiculous enough to make him sneer, but more than that, he was so angry that his head felt coldly rational instead.
“My child is not a toy that a bastard like you can easily mention.”
Seianes couldn’t carelessly attack or drive away Cairens.
That was destiny and an established fact.
But that didn’t mean Seianes would endure it.
Thud—!
With a dull sound, Cairens, who had been blocking Seianes’s front, fell backward.
“Ugh…”
“How dare you wag your tongue mentioning that child in front of me?”
Rolling on the ground once, Cairens let out a groan in pain. However, still not the least bit afraid, he held his head up stiffly and looked up at Seianes.
A sharp, fierce gaze reached Cairens. With a spear that had appeared in his hand at some point, he looked ready to pierce through his abdomen at any moment.
“You may be most important to your father, but not to me.”
His grip holding the spear pointed at Cairens’s neck tightened considerably.
“Even if I can’t kill you, even if I can’t greatly harm you, making you unhappy is nothing. Shall I make poor harvests settle on every land where the beings you love stand for the rest of your life?”
This was a threat. The roughened voice resonated lowly, and Seianes muttered in a confident voice. If he really set his mind to it, preventing the things Cairens loved from stepping on this land would be nothing.
“So shut your mouth, finish what you need to do, and get the hell out of here.”
“What if what I cherish most right now is Abrisius?”
Even at Seianes’s threat, Cairens didn’t care. Rather, he gave him an ambiguous smile and continued his provocation.
“Will you make it so that child can’t set foot on this land either?”
“You son of a…!”
Just as his vision seemed to blur with the rage filling his head, Seianes’s hand moved quickly and the spear struck down toward Cairens.
