# Chapter 27
Normally, he would have felt tremendous fear just leaving the Black Forest. He would have wrapped himself in dark clothes from head to toe, afraid of encountering the slave traders who were after him.
‘It doesn’t matter anymore.’
Ion’s shoulders drooped pitifully as he trudged along the path, his downcast eyes completely devoid of life. If he hadn’t had even this small purpose, it seemed like he might have collapsed on the spot rather than walking.
Ion walked toward the border of the Delos Empire, clutching the box Levi had left to his chest with both hands. The distance from the Black Forest to the border took about an hour on foot, but Ion was too devastated to even gauge that.
As he approached the border, four soldiers loitering outside the checkpoint took notice of him. His only possession was the small box he held to his chest, and there didn’t seem to be any guardian nearby. With his poor mental state, he looked like a war orphan who had lost his parents.
Standing before the soldiers, Ion finally lifted his downcast eyes. Seeing his unfocused golden eyes, the soldiers exchanged glances before casually addressing him.
“Hey kid, don’t you have parents or a guardian?”
Parents, guardian.
His mother and Levi flashed through his mind, making his eyes tremble momentarily. Having reached his mental limits, unable to control his emotions even at a single word, Ion barely managed to pull himself together and handed over the pass and wooden stick from inside the box.
The soldier who received them examined the pass with a disinterested face, but upon checking the pattern engraved on the small rectangular wooden stick, he was startled. Swallowing dryly, the soldiers looked back and forth between Ion and the wooden stick, exchanging glances with each other.
One of the soldiers ran off somewhere, while the others led Ion away with tense expressions.
“Please wait inside the checkpoint and have some tea. Someone will be here soon.”
“This way, please.”
The soldiers’ sudden change in attitude might have raised questions, but Ion simply followed them obediently. At a makeshift wooden table inside the checkpoint, cheap tea from who knows where was served in fancy-looking cups.
Ion stared at his haggard face reflected in the clear tea. Even then, all he could think about was how Levi might have reacted if he had seen such a beverage.
There seemed to have been herbs among the brightly blooming flowers; he should have made some for Levi earlier. If he had, Levi would have been fascinated and would have nibbled on herbs every day. Perhaps he would have dipped herbs in water repeatedly, his eyes sparkling like a child’s.
Regrets kept piling up. When someone who had always been by your side could no longer be with you, you found yourself full of unbearable regrets.
It had been the same throughout his escape to the Black Forest after losing his mother. Memories of daily life with his mother would surface, and he’d think: I should have done better, I shouldn’t have done that then, I should have done this for her—an endless stream of regrets. The saying “appreciate them while they’re here” didn’t exist for nothing.
After meeting Levi, he had forgotten all those painful thoughts. He had even forgotten that he had ever felt regret.
But now he was regretting again, just with a different person.
Even though he couldn’t turn back time.
He couldn’t go back to that moment, and Levi wouldn’t return either.
Tears finally welled up in Ion’s eyes. Tears he thought had dried up completely fell drop by drop onto the box he was holding. The soldiers watching from a distance fidgeted anxiously at the sight.
After the once-hot tea had turned cold and several more minutes had passed…
“Hey!”
Suddenly, a loud voice struck Ion’s ears. Immediately after, his right arm was painfully grabbed and pulled.
It was none other than Hest who snapped Ion out of his daze. Unlike when he had visited the Black Forest, he wore an elegant uniform without a robe, and his face was extremely angry.
But that lasted only a moment.
Upon seeing Ion’s face, he seemed to swallow whatever he had been about to unleash. Hest’s eyes trembled. He took a deep breath, gritting his teeth as if he might break them.
“…Follow me.”
Having greatly subdued his initial fierce demeanor, he pulled Ion’s arm and walked out of the checkpoint. Outside stood an ornate carriage, presumably what he had arrived in.
In his life, the only time Ion had ever been in a carriage was when he was taken by slave traders like baggage, so the appearance of such a magnificent carriage might have brightened his eyes, but even that failed to interest him. Without even thinking to wipe away his flowing tears, he was dragged in by Hest with his eyes still downcast and unfocused.
Boarding the carriage, which was wider than a tent house, Ion sat across from Hest, clutching the box tightly and saying nothing. Hest, sitting opposite and looking at him, did the same.
“…”
Hest, looking at Ion who had become completely lifeless in just a few days, seemed to have lost even the energy to be angry.
About 30 minutes into their journey, amid the silence…
Hest called out to Ion first.
“Hey.”
“…”
“What’s your name?”
“…Ion.”
Seeing that Ion answered unexpectedly readily, Hest felt relieved that the boy still had some sense left in him.
“Ion, you… saw it, didn’t you?”
Ion’s fragile shoulders flinched. Hest, wanting to be certain, added after seeing his reaction:
“Levi dying.”
“…Hic.”
Tears that Ion had been holding back poured out. Like a string that had been barely holding on had snapped, the tears simply wouldn’t stop.
“Tsk.”
Hest clicked his tongue in disapproval. Then, turning his gaze away, he said abruptly:
“I told you, he’s not human.”
“You… hic, what do you know…”
“You call me—! Huu…”
Momentarily irritated by being addressed as “you,” Hest barely suppressed his anger.
Ion swallowed a sorrowful breath and resented Hest. Even in this situation, those words refusing to treat Levi as human made him so angry and sad.
Around that time, the carriage came to a stop.
“At least I know more than you do.”
“I…!”
Ion was about to argue with the mocking Hest, but his lips trembled briefly before his shoulders slumped again.
“…You’re right. I… know too little about Levi…”
Regret came flooding back. The thought that something might have been different if he had shown more interest in Levi and wanted to know more about him kept gnawing at his mind.
Watching this, Hest stepped out of the carriage as soon as the manor’s butler opened the door, and said:
“Not being human means that his relationship with death is different from ours too.”
“What…?”
Hest’s meaningful words jolted Ion back to alertness. He hurriedly ran after Hest, who was already several steps ahead.
“What does that mean? How is it different?”
His heart pounded loudly.
Come to think of it, Hest had immediately guessed that Levi had died. Yet despite no longer being able to see Levi, he only showed a little anger—he didn’t despair or cry like Ion.
The more Ion looked at Hest, the more he felt a strange glimmer of hope flickering.
Confirming that focus had returned to Ion’s previously vacant eyes, Hest made a curious expression and entered the mansion. Ion followed him, clutching at his pounding heart that kept expecting something.
Ion had guessed Hest was from a noble family, but his household seemed to be quite significant. Not only the size of the mansion and its interior splendor, but also the number of servants and the troops visible through the windows were considerable. Though he didn’t know much about nobility, even Ion knew that having private soldiers meant at least a marquis rank or higher.
Given how important this person was, Ion should probably address him respectfully and show proper manners from now on, but he had no time to worry about such things. Besides, he sensed Hest himself wouldn’t welcome it.
Following Hest while receiving curious glances from the mansion’s servants, they arrived at a spacious reception room. Servants who had followed them prepared high-quality tea for the two sitting at the table, incomparable to what Ion had seen at the checkpoint.
After all the servants left the reception room with a single gesture from Hest, Ion hastily asked the question he had been holding back:
“Tell me. What do you mean Levi’s death is different from ours?”
He knew the superficial differences. What would be a vital point for humans was different for Levi. Of course, whether vital or not, he still felt pain and bled when injured, but at least getting attacked in such areas didn’t cut off his breath.
Hest tapped the center of his collarbone, hidden by his clothes.
“Levi dies when his core is damaged.”
“That… I know that much.”
His hands gripping the box tightened. Levi’s core, carefully preserved inside, was clearly shattered, as if proving that he had no choice but to die and disappear.
“Then do you know this too?”
“…Know what?”
Ion looked up at Hest’s words. Hest muttered, “So you really didn’t know,” and then uttered something unbelievable.
“If the core is restored, Levi will regenerate too.”
