‘Ah...’

They were eyes he felt as if he had seen somewhere before.

Eyes holding a complicated state of mind. Eyes with only him reflected inside them.

They were eyes like Luman’s.

“Please. Please tell me this is medicine...”

Ren blinked slowly. He did not even have the strength to move his head.

Noticing that his gaze lingered on the sweet bean jelly, Peruan calmly brought it to Ren’s lips. But Ren could not move so much as a finger. His body was completely leaned back against the chair. His lips only twitched little by little before stopping.

After pressing it to his lips again and again, Peruan suddenly apologized.

“I’m sorry.”

Apologized? Why was he apologizing...?

He put the sweet bean jelly into his own mouth and chewed.

Why was that man eating the medicine? There wasn’t much jelly.

That was something the old apothecary had specially packed for him to eat when the pain became severe.

After being rescued, and he was nitpicking about that? Ren blinked slowly again.

In other words, it meant he could eat it. Because he had saved him. Ren ought to give him something in return, shouldn’t he? Ren even smiled with his eyes, meaning he had done well. He had nothing else to give, so if the man liked that much, that was a relief.

“Young master, what are you...”

A face stepping close in a single stride. Purple eyes staring at him with a stubbornness that seemed to suck him in. Gemlike eyes shining even in the dark room. Eyes that looked warm, as if lit by firelight, rather than like cold minerals. A gaze that seemed similar to Luman’s. His rounded eyes had deep double lids, and without the smile in them, they were colder than Ren had expected. And yet the look in them seemed kind. The tip of a nose touching the bridge of his. A soft feeling against his lips. Something pushing into his mouth... a familiar taste.

It felt like this had happened before, once.

His fading eyes kept closing.

Ren worked hard and swallowed the medicine gulp by gulp.

A cool hand wiped away what ran down the corner of his mouth.

Because that hand felt cool, Ren rubbed his face against it without realizing.

Even as he felt his consciousness receding into black distance, the hand he clung to reassured him.

It truly felt as if he had been caught in a trap.

Peruan held Ren up as he collapsed, rubbing his face against his hand. His entire body was burning like a ball of fire.

“Young master.”

“What about the physician?”

“He is still far from arriving.”

“Damn it.”

Ren’s belongings lay scattered in a mess at his feet. Tom looked at his master with an anxious face. His young master, who did not lose composure over most things, was shaken.

“Young master. Do you sincerely love this boy?”

Tom found the word love, coming from his own mouth, unbearably awkward. Anyone would, if they had to ask whether someone loved a person they had first seen today. Peruan often behaved eccentrically and put people in difficult positions, but he had never once played at falling in “love.” If anything, he pursued open romances and often kept several at once. He insisted he never did anything he would have to take responsibility for, but since the young ladies who met Peruan became far too attached to him, that claim had never gained much credibility.

And now that man.

A man who treated romance like a light game.

Was in love?

And with a boy he had seen for the first time?

Tom could not understand it. Nor could he tell the difference.

Whether Peruan was sincere, or whether this was a passing whim.

Tom needed to confirm the sincerity of the master he served.

Holding Ren securely, Peruan gave a faint laugh at Tom’s question. It was a smile that seemed almost self-mocking. Peruan’s eyes gleamed. Tom tensed his body so he would not flinch.

At times, his eyes were like a beast’s, nothing like those of a finely raised young master.

Eyes that seemed starved with desire. Dangerous eyes that looked ready to swallow anything whole and tear it apart.

Like now.

Tom swallowed hard.

“I am sincere. Did I not tell you earlier?”

His voice flashed coldly, like a blade.

“I felt fate.”

“...”

“A beautiful, pitiful fate.”

Tom lost his words.

Because of what Peruan muttered afterward.

“If it had been whole, I would have broken it if I had to, just to keep it by my side...”

For the first time, Tom thought with perfect sincerity.

His young master had gone wrong somewhere.

When Tom came back with a blanket and tried to cover Ren, Peruan held out his hand. Without letting go of Ren’s hand, he wrapped the blanket around him with one hand.

His wheezing breaths were still rough and hot, but his breathing was more stable than expected. The face beneath the hood, when Peruan lifted it back to check, looked peaceful as well.

It seemed the medicine was taking effect. After brushing Ren’s damp hair back and lowering the hood again, Peruan asked Tom, who stood beside him.

For a moment, Tom thought it was a good thing the room was dark.

“When will support arrive?”

Peruan’s voice was gentle, just like usual.

“In one hour.”

“Right around when the play ends, then. Did you find that person?”

“I found a lead.”

Tom had been searching for traces of the true owner of this slave caravan.

In truth, there would have been no helping it even if he failed to find him. Usually, the true owner did not appear at places like this. But he had found a clue. From what he had overheard after infiltrating, the “Master” would be watching this place today.

When he reported that, Peruan nodded.

“Hmm.”

“What is it?”

Peruan looked unconvinced.

Tom seemed not to notice what was strange.

Then again, he was a martial man, hopeless at work that required using his head.

“What does it mean, watching this place?”

“Doesn’t it mean he’s watching because it’s an important transaction?”

Was there merchandise that remarkable? If there had been, they would have promoted it aggressively the moment guests entered, or at least when the first part ended. But the auction had been proceeding much like any other.

Then was there a special guest among those attending?

Peruan’s gaze swept over the audience.

“Search further. Before the second part ends.”

“Yes, young master.”

Tom turned to leave, then hesitated.

“Will you be all right?”

“I can manage to save one or two lives, including my own.”

Peruan smiled softly.

“Yes, young master. Please be careful. I’ll return soon.”

Tom vanished in an instant. Peruan watched the shadowy form disappear and patted Ren’s hand.

Grand music shook the underground chamber.

The magic stones embedded in the walls seemed to flash, and the people for the play came up onto the stage. All of them wore masks. Their silver masks changed into various colors every time they caught the light.

“Ohhh. I’m looking forward to this.”

“To think they even have a performance. This would be nice to see out in the open too.”

Thick, cackling laughter could be heard here and there, mixing with the music.

Peruan, too, smiled brightly and raised his voice to add a comment.

“With everything covered, it truly is a fine sight.”

“Oh? What do you mean, a fine sight because it’s covered?”

An elderly man seated nearby asked, twitching his thick lips. A fat cigar was clenched in the old man’s mouth.

“It means there is that much more to strip away.”

“Hahahaha! So the rumors weren’t false! We need more hot-blooded young men like this. Don’t we?”

Drunken voices from various places joined in with cheers.

Peruan played along with them appropriately, stirring up the mood.

The play onstage was already in full swing. Their faces were hidden behind masks, but their acting was vivid enough to feel almost within reach.

They had drawn the crests of each family on their masks and used different colors for each house. The family relationships were also written along the lower halves of the masks, so there was no difficulty following the performance.

Well, this does feel real. Perhaps feeling catharsis from the thrilling progression and the swordplay that appeared whenever one was about to forget it, many people began calling for more alcohol. Some left their seats and headed to rooms. In the midst of it, there seemed to be some commotion, and from the far end of the entrance, faint shouting could be heard about someone wanting to leave.

There should be nothing in particular to worry about. It would be somewhat hard on Tom, but Peruan had ordered him to bind and knock unconscious anyone who tried to have relations with those sold as slaves. These were not things Tom, who also had to find the owner of this place, could do alone. There was a collaborator inside this slave-trading organization. That person would help.

When Ren woke, there had to be nothing that would torment him.

Peruan’s expression gradually turned cold. What would have happened if there had been no chance encounter and he had failed to save him? That was a story he did not even want to imagine.

On the strange stage dressed up in a festival atmosphere, one man came out and drew a sword. Fake moonlight shone on the blade and flowed over it in a beautiful shimmer.

The day had come. The day when he had to draw his sword for the revival °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° and prosperity of the village.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“Father...”

Two women clung to him and grasped the hem of his trousers with pale faces.

“There is no way the village will prosper with something like this, Father. I won’t beg for my own life. Only, only my child’s life...”

“My foolish daughters, my young daughters. For the village to survive, only one bloodline must be left!”

At the booming shout, the audience burst into applause. Peruan rode along with them and made an appropriate show of clapping.

If he had come alone, he might have watched closely, thinking it was a play worth seeing.

But right now, every nerve in his body was focused on Ren.

He could feel his breathing growing steadier.

“I’m sorry. Excuse me for a moment.”