# Chapter 52
Watching me standing in a daze, Rio cried even more sorrowfully. Large drops fell from the child’s eyes. My heart sank. All sorts of worst-case scenarios flashed through my mind, but the most plausible one was that the child had noticed Jiman’s and my escape plan. Not knowing how to explain, I gently gripped the child’s shoulders with a sinking feeling. Rio just kept crying, hiccupping, unable to speak properly.
“Rio. Can you tell me what’s wrong?”
I soothed the child with a crawling voice. The tears I had been suppressing seemed ready to burst out too. Rio dived fiercely into my arms. I slowly stroked the back that fit into one arm while trying to calm my heaving chest.
“It’s going to be alright.”
There was nothing visible beyond Rio’s low shoulders. Only the child and I were in the corridor. Jiman was always better at comforting Rio than I was. I feared ruining our last moment with the wrong words. While anxiously waiting for Jiman to return, I looked into Rio’s eyes again.
Though I was still scared, I couldn’t just avoid the situation. I thought that even if I couldn’t skillfully coax the child or give a mature farewell, I would speak from the heart. I decided to explain step by step how much I cherished him and why I had to leave. However, when I steeled myself and looked at Rio, entirely unexpected words flowed from the child’s mouth.
“He told me to bring you.”
“What? What do you mean, Rio? Who said that?”
Rio seemed frightened by my question and couldn’t answer for a while, panting for breath. I gently hugged the child and patted him with a slow rhythm. Finally calming down, Rio explained the situation through his tears.
“You need to go quickly. He said he was your friend.”
I was dumbfounded by this unexpected story.
“…Was he wearing martial arts clothes?”
“Yes. He said something terrible would happen if you didn’t come right away.”
Only one person would introduce himself as my friend. Had something urgent happened to Wimu? It seemed he had leaked our plan to Rio without knowing the situation. The child urged me once more.
“You have to go now.”
“Okay. Where did he say to come?”
I jumped up, took the child’s hand, and ran as he led. Rio ran somewhere in one go without stopping once. It was a miracle that we didn’t encounter anyone while passing through the long corridor and crossing the castle. If we had met someone, there would have been no proper excuse. In the palace, sunset marked the end of the day.
The place where Rio suddenly stopped while hurrying towards our destination was a dead end. It was the point where a narrow corridor in a rarely visited building’s basement ended. In front of a long wall made of piled dark gray stones, Rio swallowed his breath again. I bent my head towards him, feeling somewhat perplexed.
“Rio. Are you sure this is the right place?”
The child nodded with frightened eyes and pointed somewhere. At the spot where his slender finger reached was a small gap. In a corner of the wall, one stone had a minute hole. I looked back at Rio in confusion, but the child naturally lowered his body and crawled towards that crevice. It was a size that only especially small or underdeveloped children, or truly very young ones, could pass through. But Rio went through it easily.
As Rio disappeared inside the wall, I stood blankly waiting for the next development. Outside was already dark. Since it was late, there was a possibility that Wimu had called because he missed the boat. Although I had come in a hurry, I worried about having to look for Jiman. While pondering various concerns and staring intently at the blocked stone wall, there was a cracking sound, and the wall moved as a whole.
In an instant, the wall shifted slightly to the side, creating a small space on the left that one person could pass through. If the place Rio had passed through was too small for anyone but a child to move through, this gap was large enough for an adult male to pass through comfortably. After looking around and making sure no one was watching, I carefully went inside.
My vision darkened immediately. Without separate lighting, I couldn’t properly distinguish objects. I narrowed my eyes and identified the small light moving in front. It seemed to be a person’s silhouette. Someone was standing in front, holding a lamp from which faint light leaked, waiting for me. As the surroundings gradually brightened, his face was clearly revealed.
He was wearing martial arts clothes, and he had indeed called me. But if something was wrong, it was that he wasn’t Wimu. He couldn’t be my friend either.
“It’s been a while, Brother.”
“How did you…”
Luan waved his hand slightly. He also smiled good-naturedly as he watched me instinctively step backward. While he leisurely waited for my reaction, I instinctively grabbed Rio’s arm. The child was still crying.
“What a cute child. I hadn’t anticipated this… Seems like today is my lucky day.”
“Why are you here?”
“I came to see you, Brother. Can’t family members even see each other’s faces?”
Luan’s appearance, speaking so nonchalantly, had become much sharper than before. His once round impression now looked gaunt due to weight loss, and the martial arts clothes he wore for disguise had patches of old cloth sewn on them, making it difficult to find any royal dignity.
“Honestly, I didn’t think you would really survive.”
As he slowly moved towards me, the lamp handle rattled, making a sound like scraping metal. I looked around cautiously to see if anyone else was there. When I was convinced that there was no one else in this cramped space, I gradually retreated, pulling Rio along. Luan, not losing his gentle smile, gave me an exaggerated applause.
“I couldn’t even imagine that you would be by Kadilen’s side.”
“Stop talking nonsense. I clearly told you then. I’m not interested.”
While he seemed lost in thought, staring into space, I reached back with one hand to check if the entrance in the wall was still open. Since there was no one to help Luan here anyway, I could just run madly to where the royal guards stood watch. When I swallowed and firmly held Rio’s hand, Luan whispered in a light voice as if joking.
“Now you will become interested.”
I frowned at the unpleasant atmosphere, looking at him. My heightened nerves became even sharper, focusing on him.
“Why would I?”
“Rio is a cute child, isn’t he?”
Luan suddenly bent down and glared intensely at Rio. The child burst into tears again and buried his face in my pant leg. A chilling feeling swept over my body.
“…What have you done?”
“No one has been able to cure your illness yet. Do you know why?”
“…”
“It’s because it’s a very rare poison. There’s only one way to eliminate that poison. So although it takes some time to kill, it’s quite a certain method. There’s less risk of being caught.”
He started an irrelevant story without answering my question. While Luan stroked the head of Rio, who wasn’t even looking at him, I anxiously checked behind me again. The entrance I had come through was half-closed, but it seemed possible to escape if I moved quickly.
“Even if you search the entire country, you won’t find herbs suitable for an antidote.”
Soon Luan straightened up again. He smiled to himself as if making an incomprehensible joke.
“Unless you wait for the next thousand years.”
“I’ll just die then.”
It didn’t matter if it would take a thousand years to find herbs to treat my disease. If what he was rambling about concerned my life, there was no need to listen at all. But Luan laughed louder and waved his hand.
“That’s right, Brother. Even a ten-year-old child will just die.”
“…What?”
As soon as I realized the meaning of his words, I released Rio’s hand. Before I could even be conscious of it, my hand was gripping Luan’s collar. I felt dizzying anger as I grabbed his clothes with a trembling arm. I couldn’t hear any sound, nor could I think about how to escape from here. Only the hot flames of hatred towards the opponent in front of me rose in my heart.
As he watched me struggling with the urge to throw a punch, Luan cleared his throat. The expression that seemed like he was barely holding back laughter further provoked my anger.
“You can leave here and catch me. But to save the child, you need medicine. And I’m the only one who knows where it is. No matter how much you torture, interrogate, or threaten me, you won’t be able to get the medicine from me.”
“You son of a…”
“There’s only one way to save this cute little kid.”
I finally couldn’t hold back and struck his face. Even as he was pushed back weakly against the wall, Luan continued to snicker.
“Our weak brother. You’ve always given affection to everything. Haven’t you learned anything even after suffering like that?”
“…”
“Your affection is a curse. Have you ever seen those you loved be happy?”
Luan kept running his mouth while spitting saliva mixed with blood. I tried hard to calm my anger and think of something helpful. However, it was difficult to think of anything other than the urge to trample and kick him right away. As he said, if I escaped now, I would lose even the chance to save Rio. Jiman might think of some way, but if the only antidote truly required rare medicinal materials, there might be no physically possible method. Knowing that I had quickly finished calculating, he smirked while touching his split lip.
“Well, you’ve done well so far. Kadilen trusted you completely.”
“What exactly do you want? Is there anything you can actually gain by going this far?”
“I don’t do anything as crude as rebellion, Brother. To be honest, I don’t even have the power to do so.”
It was quite predictable that he had no power. The fact that he was alone in the palace already showed how much he was on the defensive. He had essentially crawled into enemy territory on his own feet. This was a place he shouldn’t have come to, even through a secret passage, unless there was something absolutely necessary. His life could have been in danger with a single misstep. A disguise like martial arts clothes couldn’t hide anything. He had once been a prince, after all.
Furthermore, the fact that he had to come in person meant that those helping him were very few. What was the reason Luan risked coming to the palace? Perhaps it was a plan to assassinate Kadilen. The fact that he had poisoned Rio meant that Luan was carrying it on him. If the original target wasn’t Rio, it wasn’t difficult to guess who the intended target might have been.
“If not rebellion, do you want revenge? Are you asking me to kill Kadilen?”
Luan tilted his head as if he had heard something interesting. He narrowed his eyes like someone measuring something.
“Would you do that?”
