“Urgh…!”
Joel, who had been peeking outside through Anya’s fingers at some point, retched and ran out of the livestock shed.
“J-Joel!”
Evernight grabbed the wrist of Anya, who was hurriedly trying to follow Joel. Eerie bloodstains smeared onto his robe. Evernight roughly grabbed and turned Anya’s cheek.
“Anya, besides today, have you been near the wall recently?”
Anya shook his head. N-no. His gaze kept going backward. He must be looking for Joel. Evernight put more strength into the hand gripping his cheek.
“Focus.”
Ugh. Anya let out a short groan. The grip strength was so strong that the caught cheek throbbed. A fear arose that if he applied just a bit more force, his jawbone might be crushed.
“Then Riario, was it you?”
Evernight threw something he had pulled out from inside onto the ground, still keeping his gaze fixed on Anya.
“…An orb?”
Riario stared blankly at the emptied orb. The glass of the orb that had lost its function had faded to a translucent color. It hadn’t been a new orb to begin with.
“Riario.”
“N-no. Why would I have torn out the magical tool I installed? This… where did you find it?”
“It was lying near the magical tool. And near there was a gap in the wall large enough for a single rat to enter.”
“What in the world… First, this is definitely an orb embedded in the magical tool.”
The faded orb rolled around on Riario’s palm.
“If even one is missing… the magical tool doesn’t work properly. Above all, even removing it requires magical power….”
Those who fed on the night, called monsters, were beings that feared the sacred magical power of nature. Beings that could neither touch nor feel magical power couldn’t dismantle magical tools and enter on their own. Therefore, it meant there was an inside spy who had let that rat enter through the gap in the wall.
“Commander, there’s no one in Northernmost who can use magical power. You know that too, don’t you, Commander? Lord Karen was in charge of the magical tool design, but there’s no way he would do such a thing. Who on earth would remove an orb?”
“There’s one person.”
Evernight looked down at Anya expressionlessly. He was still firmly gripping Anya’s jaw.
“Here, the bastard who removed the orb and brought the rat from beyond the wall.”
He lifted Anya’s face.
“I’ll ask once more. You damn brat. Was it you who removed the orb near the wall?”
He could tell without having to hear an answer. Anya was trembling all over as if he would collapse on the spot at any moment. A flood of memories made a mess of Anya’s head like the storm brought by the snowstorm.
‘Please help me, a child is waiting at home. *Sob*.’
With a splitting headache, Anya panted and spoke sporadically what he could remember from his hazy memories.
“A… a while ago… I s-saved a… a man near the wall. He was someone who n-needed help. He said a ch-child was waiting… His whole body was b-blue and if I left him there, I thought he would d-die. So I… I…”
Still caught by Evernight, Anya looked like he would stop breathing at any moment, but Evernight didn’t release Anya until the end. He stared persistently into Anya’s eyes as if searching for something.
“Keep talking.”
Anya trembled with unbearable pain and forced out the facts with difficulty. Every single word he uttered caused his body to convulse.
“…*Huff*… I removed the orb. B-because of the magical tool, the hammering… ugh… didn’t work well, so the m-man couldn’t get out… *gasp*…!”
Before the words were even finished, Evernight threw Anya down onto the ground as if discarding him. Anya floundered at the multiple voices coming at him all at once and clawed at the ground. His nails felt like they would come off at any moment on the hard frozen ground.
Man, orb, Ronan, corpse.
But why is that…
Everything was lumped together and the shape was unrecognizable.
“Good grief….”
Riario let out a sigh-like lament with his hand on his forehead. Every situation fit together like gears meshing and turning.
“I’m sure I clearly warned you to throw away that cheap sympathy.”
It was a chillingly cold voice he hadn’t felt in a long time. The bright red bloodstains scattered on the snow spread deeply into Anya’s heart as well. The panicked hazelnut eyes were gradually losing focus. Evernight patted the boy’s cheek.
“Hey, snap out of it.”
“……”
“Because of your pathetic sympathy, someone died.”
Ronan died…? Ronan is dead?
“R-Ronan is d-dead?”
If someone who didn’t know saw this, they would have thought Evernight was trying to intimidate the boy. To that degree, Anya was pitifully pale. His large eyes filled with moisture. Tears that he hadn’t shed even when forcibly embraced by Evernight or when beaten by Rips Mohan during the honor duel flowed down along his jawline with a patter.
“You can tell just by looking.”
Evernight kicked the arm rolling on the ground. One finger of the corpse that had turned purple touched the tip of Anya’s shoe weakly. Anya shook his head in horror. Though it was nothing more than struggling, he tried to avoid this situation.
Tsk, Evernight, who clicked his tongue briefly, pulled down the nape of the pathetically collapsing Anya to make him face it.
“P-please. I don’t, don’t want to. Urgh.”
Anya begged while crying. Even with his eyes tightly shut and struggling, Evernight didn’t blink once.
“Look properly. Even if you can’t take responsibility, at least properly look at what you’ve created.”
At the base of those words was clearly contempt and disdain. A troublesome burden, petty pride, the crime of running wild without knowing his own place. Anya had to forcibly take in the terrible result he had created.
“Riario.”
Riario answered with a devastated expression.
“…Yes, Commander.”
“Something entered from beyond the wall. Find it.”
He gave an order as he stood up, removing his hand from Anya without a moment’s hesitation. At the same time, Anya staggered and collapsed.
“Understood.”
Riario bowed his head and immediately left the livestock shed. Evernight briefly looked back at Anya, who was panting as if having difficulty breathing.
“This is exactly what fucking terrible cleanup is, Anya.”
Evernight swept up his bangs flowing in the wind and frowned as if dumbfounded.
“Did you ask to be accepted as a knight? You dare act independently without thinking to report to the commander?”
You must be dying to be worked like a dog.
Every single word from Evernight terribly strangled Anya. The fundamental fear of his husband that he had forgotten about all this time gnawed at Anya again. Anya couldn’t say anything and just had to bow his head deeply and beg for forgiveness for his mistake.
“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry. *Sob*.”
“Your speech. You’re my subordinate. Who whines to their superior like a child?”
“I-I’m sorry, sir.”
Before he knew it, in the setting twilight, Evernight’s black shadow fell long on the ground. It was a fear like a giant wolf approaching from a dark forest. The softly piled snow was mercilessly trampled by Evernight’s boots.
“If you don’t solve this matter, first, revocation of knighthood.”
He spoke quietly. His expression was cold as ice.
“Second, as you promised, you’ll have to stay confined only in your room.”
At those words, tears streamed down from both of Anya’s eyes.
“Third, the Dark Lions of Tildyen do not tell lies. If you break your oath, you will repay it with death.”
His words were never a joke to scare him. Looking at Evernight’s calm eyes, Anya suddenly realized for the first time that the man had been going easy on him all this time.
As soon as Evernight left the livestock shed, Anya vomited up stomach acid as if he had been waiting for it.
* * *
‘Anya Claiser. Does the surname Claiser even suit you?’
‘You have no value of existence. You half-wit idiot bastard.’
‘Aren’t you curious why Father has never once called for you?’
‘You don’t know how lowly a bitch your mother was.’
“N-no. No.”
Anya shook his head with his ears covered. Nevertheless, his siblings’ voices whispered on the wind.
“I-I’m a mage and a knight of Tildyen.”
Anya clung to that fact while shedding tears. They said mages were the most precious in the Empire. Sabelli definitely said that mages who could hear the words of spirits were even more rare. He also won the honor duel with Rips Mohan. Now he could even gather magical power.
‘So what? That child died because of you anyway.’
‘A vermin-like bastard who stupidly fell for the monster’s trick.’
The afterimages of his siblings burst into giggles and surrounded Anya in a circle. Anya gathered his knees forward and buried his face between them. Ah, Ronan. I shouldn’t have helped that child. What about magic? Actually, I was conceited about the fact that I was a mage. It wasn’t because I truly wanted to help those children, but just because I wanted to prove my abilities.
He felt like he would faint at any moment from the disgusting guilt. But he shouldn’t. He didn’t even have the right to do so. That young soul, Ronan, was too pitiful to be consumed by the helplessness and disgust that always followed him.
