The figure standing in the hallway turned around.

Ren’s heart began to race.

The body slowly turned, and beneath the robe, two bright, intelligent eyes looked straight at Ren.

“Old apothecary!”

Ren called him again and ran pattering toward him.

“Ren.”

The old apothecary’s voice called to him gently.

The old man’s voice was full of kindness and joy.

When he bent slightly at the waist and opened his arms, Ren burrowed into them.

“Old apothecary......! Grandpa!”

At the voice that quickly grew tearful, the old apothecary slowly stroked his back.

Geloman called the servant over and left a few instructions, then exchanged a silent greeting with Veron, the old apothecary, before leaving. He did not want to disturb their reunion.

He hoped the familiar, welcome face Ren had met again after so long in this strange castle would bring some comfort after everything he had endured. Before turning away, Geloman looked once at Ren, who was complaining to Veron in a voice mixed with tears.

The old man smelled familiar.

It was the scent of all sorts of grass from the mountains behind the village, of flowers, trees, and earth. It was also the smell of medicinal herbs he had always caught in the old man’s house, savory yet bitter, sharp yet sweet.

Ren sniffed, burying his nose in the old man’s chest, and felt his heart and body settling.

It had always been that way. Whenever he was beside the old apothecary, his condition always improved. It really was strange. The old apothecary, who had taken it upon himself to act as the healer of their small village, seemed now that Ren thought about it to be hiding some special ability. He did not give off the frail energy of an old man at all. If anything, he carried the piercing, robust energy of a young man.

Ren hugged the old man as if he might crush him and muttered without loosening the arms wrapped around him.

“Why did you come so late.......”

It was a completely unreasonable complaint.

Ren knew he was saying something absurd, but his lips kept spilling words on their own.

As if he were pouring out every bit of hurt he had received from everyone else. As if the old apothecary were his parent.

The old apothecary was broad enough that Ren had to press close and stretch his arms wide just to barely wrap them around him.

Wait, something’s strange.

A question rose in Ren’s mind. But Ren pushed it aside. His longing for the old man was stronger than his doubt.

Ren clung to him tightly and muttered again.

“Do you know how long I waited?”

But the emotion in his voice was not affection.

It was resentment.

Ren wanted to smack his own mouth, but he was mumbling into the old man’s arms, so he could not.

Part of him worried the old man might scold him for spouting nonsense after finally seeing him again.

Even so, Ren could not stop grumbling. Like a sick puppy.

Thankfully, the old apothecary did not scold Ren. Far from scolding him, he stroked his back with a gentle hand and answered his unreasonable complaints.

“Ren. I’m sorry. This old man was very late, wasn’t he?”

“Really late. I really.......”

Ren bit his lip, then mumbled.

“I really missed you. And I was so lonely, and also.......”

The old apothecary’s chest began to soak with Ren’s tears.

“I was scared.......”

His hand tightened around the old man’s collar.

Old apothecary, I was really scared.

I was tricked by some man...... and I almost got sold as a slave.

Ren whispered softly. The old apothecary’s eyes flashed as he rubbed Ren’s back.

Ren’s tearful words continued in fragments, breaking off and starting again. The old man never stopped moving his hand, nodding and answering each thing Ren said.

“The freight wagon was pitch-dark, and those bastards beat people, and...... I ran out of medicine, so my body started seizing on its own. I told myself someone would save me, and if not, I’d find some way to get out alone no matter what. That I’d at least get revenge. I thought all that so bravely.”

“You were very brave, Ren.”

The servant stood far down the hallway so he would not disturb their conversation and redirected anyone trying to pass by. That was what Geloman had instructed him to do. Do not disturb those two. Help them talk comfortably. The servant was carrying out that request perfectly.

Ren’s words kept going, almost stopping, then continuing again. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

“I pretended I was fine. I thought I was fine too. But, Grandpa....”

Ren lifted his head.

Tearful drops fell from his clear turquoise eyes.

“......I was scared. I was scared, and...... frightened.......”

When the masked people began swinging their blades and taking people’s lives.

When he threw himself in front of the knife in Cedric’s place.

When he grabbed Luman’s spear instead.

He had been scared.

He had stepped forward with some kind of courage, some kind of feeling. There had been no hesitation, no faltering, no regret. Not any of those things.

But after all those moments passed, on the road to the royal capital, they sometimes came back to Ren as nightmares.

They had already become the recent past, vanished beyond the far side of time.

But some things lingered as remnants and tormented people.

Yet the Heroes had not asked him a single word about any of it, and Ren had neither spoken of it nor asked. As if burying it in a grave, they had simply waited for time to pile itself over those incidents.

Ren was used to that method too. Digging something up and talking about it was not the brothers’ way. They had only ever waited for time to pass. They had done so in the past, they were doing so now, and they would surely keep doing so in the future.

If Ren’s world had not grown wider.

If the old apothecary had not appeared before his collapsed heart.

“It hurt.......”

Dark blue eyes. Eyes whose depth could not be measured gazed quietly at Ren.

The things buried in his memories stirred up a storm and dragged out memories he had never overcome. Ren felt even the things he had experienced when he was a three-year-old baby and a seven-year-old child flooding up with them. Tears poured out endlessly, as though he had been swept away by a wave.

What he needed was enough mourning and an afterward.

He needed the chance to speak about having lived through such miserable time.

“Ren. Speak as much as you wish. This old man will listen to all of it.”

The old apothecary did not ask him why. He only told Ren to say everything and patted his back. In the end, Ren burst into tears like a child, wailing aloud, and the surprisingly strong old apothecary lifted him easily and carried him into the room.

And even while Ren buried his face in the old man’s arms and cried his eyes out, he still thought something was strange after all.

The old apothecary had the rocking chair he had bought on the way to the royal palace placed in the room where Ren was staying.

The rocking chair was enormous and wrapped tightly in packaging.

“What is this?”

“Open it and see.”

Ren’s tears did not seem ready to dry anytime soon.

Even after entering the room, he held the old apothecary’s arm and chattered for a long while, still shedding miserable tears. The old man telling him he would collapse at this rate did nothing to stop him. In the end, the old man had no choice but to keep feeding him medicine and water to restore his strength while waiting for Ren’s crying to stop on its own.

The red skin around Ren’s eyes, raw from tears, must have stung, yet perhaps there were still tears left to shed, because every time he blinked, more spilled out. They were round and small, like transparent beads.

Ren carefully began unwrapping the package with a curious expression. When the old man told him he could just tear it open, Ren shook his head stubbornly. Seeing how excited he looked, the old man simply let him be. Ren took scissors from the servant to cut the string, then untied the tightly knotted brown cord and peeled away the thick paper. Even the paper seemed to have been chosen carefully, pretty enough that using it only as wrapping felt like a waste.

“Wow.......”

“Ren. What am I supposed to do if you’re that happy just looking at the wrapping paper? The present hasn’t even come out yet.”

“The wrapping paper is pretty too. This is mine too, right?”

“Of course. All of it, every bit, belongs entirely to you, Ren.”

Ren, who had never really owned things of his own, asked again as if seeking a promise from the old man. The old man hid his sadness and nodded. Seeing the old man’s kind smile, Ren excitedly began unwrapping it again.

Once he undid the cord and peeled away the paper stuck to the surface, the body of the gift finally appeared.

It was a rocking chair made from extremely expensive wood. It had been polished so beautifully that light gleamed across the deep walnut-colored grain.

“Wow.”

The old man told him to try sitting in it and helped Ren into the chair. His tears still had not dried. After asking the servant for a thick shawl, the old man draped it over Ren’s lap. Then he pulled over a chair, sat beside Ren, and slowly patted the back of his hand.

“You may talk until you are sick of it and tired of yourself. Ren, it seems you have endured many adventures.”

“......Seriously, damn it.......”

Ren burst into tears again. The sobs that poured out of him did not seem likely to stop before the day was over.

***

Night came.

In the end, they could not enjoy the dinner prepared for the old apothecary. Ren had firmly insisted that he did not want to move and only wanted to stay in the room alone with the old man. He had even sent away everyone who came to visit him that day.

Ren sat slumped in the rocking chair, sipping cocoa, his eyes half-unfocused.

Perhaps because he had cried so much and poured out all the stories he had been keeping inside, he looked drowsy and languid.

Even when the old man told him to sleep in the bed, Ren shook his head. He seemed to like the rocking chair very much. Watching him sprawled out like a cat, the old apothecary waited until Ren finally fell asleep before lifting him easily and carrying him to the bed.

Then the old apothecary searched through Ren’s belongings and began counting the leftover tea leaves and the herbs disguised as medicinal sweet jelly.

The expression on the old man’s face as he looked down at the medicine was far from ordinary.