“Charles. I ordered you to guard the inn through the night. Did you carry out that order properly?”

Geloman looked at Charles. Under that heavy gaze, Charles finally realized the severity of the situation. Those icy blue eyes seemed to pierce straight through him.

“...I passed the order on to the knights who came with us...”

Charles’s voice trailed off.

“Charles. Tell the knights to search the village.”

“Yes! I’m sorry.”

“Reprimands come later.”

Charles saluted and hurried out.

Jepeto, who had been catching his breath, asked with a dazed expression.

“Are you saying... Ren disappeared?”

At Jepeto’s words, Temar felt as if his breath were being squeezed shut.

The scrap of paper crumpled in Temar’s hand. Jepeto was right.

Ren had disappeared. His belongings were gone. On the paper in Temar’s hand were dried tear stains.

Why had he cried? Ren, who had not shown a single tear in front of Temar and had instead calmly thrown a punch at him.

“I’ll follow his trail.”

“Fine.”

Geloman nodded. He did not think Temar would listen even if he tried to stop him.

***

Charles ran out of the inn in one breath.

‘Why did I do that?!’

Even if he had ten mouths, he would have had nothing to say. Geloman had given the order to him, so naturally, guarding the inn had been Charles’s duty. Not telling the knights to patrol instead!

What did a little embarrassment matter? Since when had personal feelings mattered more than a mission?

“Charles, were you always this useless? And you still call yourself a knight...!”

Charles, who had been clutching his head and condemning himself, snapped his head up. Then he slapped both his cheeks hard enough to make a sharp crack. At the stinging pain, goosebumps rose over his body.

“Get it together. This isn’t the time.”

Charles quickly ran to the lodging where the knights were staying.

Early in the morning, they were training bare-bodied in an open lot. When they spotted Charles, they stood and saluted.

“What’s wrong?”

One knight stepped forward and asked, apparently reading the tension on Charles’s face.

“Search the village. Do you remember Lord Temar’s younger brother, the one you saw yesterday?”

“Yes. A slender boy with blond hair... correct?”

“He’s disappeared. Search every inch. We have to find him.”

“Yes. Understood.”

A faint question appeared on the knights’ faces, but they immediately obeyed the order.

“Was there anything strange during last night’s patrol? No. Call the unit that patrolled the village yesterday.”

“Yes!”

***

After picking up the key from the floor, Jepeto had no choice but to admit that Ren had left.

He had hoped, just in case, but with the key discovered too, there was no way to deny it.

It seemed Ren had locked the door from outside, then pushed the key back in.

Jepeto went downstairs and described Ren’s appearance to the innkeeper, asking whether he had seen a boy about that size leaving.

“There were plenty of travelers leaving, you know?”

The innkeeper said that, but still answered that he had seen several people leave with their hoods pulled low.

Jepeto’s face darkened. If the person the innkeeper saw had been Ren, then judging by the time, it had not been long after Jepeto fell asleep.

He had gone to bed first so Ren could comfortably have time to himself, but he had never imagined Ren would use that chance to slip out.

There were sorrows that came late. Jepeto had thought he understood Ren’s heart and was being considerate. But Jepeto must not have understood properly at all.

The sense of loss Ren felt, or something close to that.

It must have carved a hole far larger and deeper than Jepeto had guessed. Was it a feeling great enough that he had no choice but to leave? How could he have failed to understand that? It was pathetic that he had secretly felt proud, thinking he had come to know Ren even a little.

He had thought Ren had opened his heart to him.

It had not been very long.

During their month or so of traveling, in that short time, Ren had changed a little.

Ren, who had accepted no one but Temar, had tried to accept and understand other people’s kindness. He had also tried very hard to control himself. Even while he felt uncomfortable around Jepeto and pushed him away, Jepeto knew that deep down, Ren felt sorry and had tried, in his own way, to come closer.

Hadn’t they all had so much fun at the village festival? Hadn’t they laughed together while eating candied fruit?

Lord Luman should have been here after all!

Jepeto muttered softly.

“What did you just say?”

“Pardon?”

“Just now. Didn’t you say something?”

Jepeto blinked blankly, unable to answer. He had been thinking of Ren in private distress, so he had not noticed Temar approaching, nor even realized that he had muttered to himself.

“Did I say something?”

Temar, who had been staring at him, turned away without answering.

“Lord Temar...?”

Jepeto asked uncertainly toward his back, but Temar did not look back.

Once he stepped outside, Temar covered his face in anguish.

Ren’s brother was him, so why was Jepeto saying such a thing?

Temar had tried to track Ren immediately, but he could not.

Because he had returned after overusing his power, he had no energy left. Moving a long distance in a single breath consumed an enormous amount of energy. Temar, who had forced himself to attempt it anyway, felt his consciousness plummet for an instant and had no choice but to stop.

His energy, the Hero’s power, felt as if it were barely sloshing around his toes. Temar could instinctively tell. If he dragged even that up and used it, he would lose consciousness and not wake for a very long time. Or what waited after that would be death.

The reason Temar had come down from the room was to look around the village. He could not stay still.

And in the middle of that, he heard Jepeto muttering to himself with a grave expression.

‘If only Lord Luman were here!’

The words Jepeto had muttered in lament were about Luman.

That one sentence held so many meanings.

Temar could not refute it. If Luman had been there, then even without Temar, Ren might not have left. Luman would have soothed Ren skillfully, taken Ren’s side, and brought him safely all the way to the capital.

But Ren’s real brother was him.

Displeasure, anger, and emotions he could not name stormed through him. Self-loathing, guilt, hurt... Those emotions tangled together and seemed to drag Temar endlessly downward.

He wanted to see Ren’s face right now. He wanted to ask him. Aren’t I your brother? Isn’t the only person you want me?

He could find him. Even {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} without the Hero’s power.

Ren could not have gone far anyway, so if they searched the places he might have headed, they would find him quickly. They had to.

Yes, rather than relying on his power, it would be faster to ride.

He headed for the stables.

“Lord Temar!”

Charles was the one who called him. With his discipline pulled taut across his face, Charles opened his mouth.

Temar, mounted on one of the military horses the knights had ridden in on, looked down at Charles. His blood-red cloak fluttered in the wind. His shadowed face held not a trace of the kindness Charles usually knew.

His face was cold and stiff, as if coated in plaster, and a tenacious madness flashed in his dark eyes as they fell on Charles.

“The person presumed to be Ren left the village around one in the morning. Judging by the direction he headed, he likely went toward Delfona. Even if he walked hard for a full day toward Delfona, he wouldn’t have made it halfway by now. So we should be able to find him quickly. I’ll prepare your horse, Lord Temar—Lord Temar!”

Charles, who had barely managed not to stammer and had stood firm under Temar’s pressure as he reported, was horrified. The horse Temar was riding was Geloman’s.

The horse twisted its body as if rebelling. But Temar did not care. He gripped the reins and spoke.

“Please tell Geloman I’m leaving first.”

Before Charles could answer, Temar pulled the reins.

Neighhh!

“Lord Temar!”

He had to run faster. Faster. Before Ren left forever.

They said regret always came too late. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Temar wanted to go back to yesterday and stop himself from leaving the village.

He should have thrown away all the doubts he had carried the whole time while crossing the mountain with his power and gone to see Ren’s face... No, before he left, he should have said goodbye to Ren properly...

It hurt as if his heart were breaking.

He could not even imagine what Ren had been feeling when he left.

Why he had left.

Whether he would never come back.

Whether he had come to hate Temar.

Temar wanted to ask Ren.

Aren’t I your brother?

***

“My lady. What are you thinking so hard about?”

The maid asked as she draped a thick blanket over her shoulders.

They were preparing to camp in the forest. Once they reached the woods, the young lady remembered the day she first met Ren. The memory was of them shrieking at each other, shouting, and snapping that the other was obnoxious.

Their first impression really had been awful.

And yet could a person’s feelings change this much?

“Nothing.”

“You were thinking about him, weren’t you?”

“What do you mean, him?”

“That handsome... knight.”

The maid lowered her voice as she muttered.

“Hah. You certainly got a good look at his face.”

At the purple eyes narrowing sulkily, the maid startled and shook her head, saying that was not it.

“What do you mean, no? Look at you. How improper.”

When Coco clicked her tongue and teased her, the maid’s face flushed. Coco teased her as she kept trying to explain herself, then dismissed her, saying she was making her head spin.

“You were thinking about Ren, weren’t you?”