Chapter 17: Chapter 15

“Are you sleeping here again?”

Theodore opened his eyes softly at the sound of the voice. Dante was looking down at him like he didn’t like something.

“You got all pissed off about me sleeping here last time.”

“…….”

“I guess it’s your bed now.”

He said dryly. The couch…. Right. That’s how it was. He didn’t want to see Dante sleeping uncomfortably….

“ Relaxing… it’s kind of sweet. I almost regret that I only realize it now.”

“Right? There’s a reason I’ve been squeezing it in every day.”

Dante grinned mischievously, and then sat down on the couch across from him. Theodore let his eyes take in the face of the man he misses, tracing his eyes, nose, and lips, one by one. Before disappearing.

“ So… today is the day you go?”

“…….”

“Can’t I say something before you go….”

If you disappear suddenly, I…. It’s scary….

If I act a bit spoiled, maybe the kind hearted you will take pity on me. The urge to cling to your warmth and look at you longer, even if it’s just for a few moments, is strong.

“No….”

‘You’ll just disappear when I close my eyes.’

“……Theo.”

“…Yes.”

“Theodore!”

The loud voice caused Theodore to open his closed eyes slowly. It wasn’t Dante sitting in front of him. He blinked back a tear at the sight of his best friend.

“You’re back.”

“You….”

Jeffrey’s face scrunched up at the sight of him.

“……Stop that already.”

“What.”

“Stop it! Are you going to die along with him? The living are supposed to live anyway!”

Theodore couldn’t help but laugh at Jeffrey’s outburst; the man who never said a wrong thing in the past had said the right thing today. Yes, the living should live…

But I don’t feel quite alive, Jeffrey. I can barely remember how to do it.

“I’m a dumb, stupid human being, so I don’t know how to live without someone.”

“…….”

“So, it didn’t matter whatever was happening, as long as there was someone next to me…. I was just a person who was alive because I was breathing.”

“…….”

“And then he showed up.”

That person picked me up when I was broken. They raised me, fed me, clothed me, loved me, and showed me affection. They took care of me when I was just a raggedy kid.

Jeffrey could hear the pedantic words coming out of Theodore’s mouth and realized all of their meaning at once. A small curse slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

The empty season was passing.

***

Stepping into that place was an unconscious behavior.

“Lately… he hasn’t been showing up.

He used to show up in front of me once every four days.

When he didn’t show up, he acted out of impulse.

The small chapel near the tower. Within it was a small prayer room.

Theodore stepped into it for the first time, though from a distance.

‘I just…… go there sometimes when I’m feeling troubled.’

He remembered those words.

The chamber was silent, and he knew it would be… Mages did not believe in gods. They believed in themselves, in their abilities, in their magic. To them, God was something that both existed and didn’t exist.

Theodore settled into an empty chair, his vacant eyes wandering the room before turning to the seat next to him.

Next to him, he saw a figure he hadn’t seen in a long time, sitting very quietly with his hands clasped together. Theodore asked soundlessly.

‘How do you… pray?’

The figure took both of his hands and held them gently in his own. “You put your hands together, clear your head, and say a calm prayer. You either make atonement… or ask for something you want to be granted,” he said.  His words were solemn.

‘What did you… ask for?’

He asked, and the other man’s face contorted slightly.

‘…….’

Just then, Theodore’s sense of reality returned, ever so slightly. He’s… not frowning. In his memories, he always wears a gentle smile, a happy smile. Never a pained expression. What he was hoping for, had he already achieved it, and was I not in it?

“…Dan, Te.”

By the time he reached for his hands, he had already disappeared like a mirage. However, there was still warmth. A prayer. A prayer room. Here….

You were here.

***

Jeffrey thought it was the last time they would be together.

It was a pity that the Master was gone, but he felt it was inevitable. Although it was not a great loss to him, there was also much that had to be done.

That said, it wasn’t his intention to criticize anyone’s grief. It was never about condemning Theodore’s grief. He had been with Dante longer than he had, so his grief must have been doubled.

But it was entering a self-destructive phase.

He knew he had to stop it, for Theodore’s sake, and for the sake of the person who was gone.

“Is that how it is again today?”

“Uh…….”

Jeffrey addressed his sister, who was now the Emperor.

His sister, Francia Ron Idenber, had won the battle for the throne against him, and she had won. She even beheaded their father in the process. The man who had started the sibling feud.

The coronation was bloody. Her first words upon ascending the throne were….

‘I’m going to abdicate the throne as of today! He’s the heir apparent to the throne, and even though I’ve only reigned for a day, I’m still going to be treated like a former emperor, right?’

That’s…. That was a bombshell that didn’t go over well with anyone.

As it turned out, she didn’t have the heart to kill her brother, so it would end well if they both became emperors.

……Jeffrey thought that she’s certainly his sister, but she seems to have a head made up of half muscle. Maybe it’s for the good of this empire that she didn’t stay Emperor for long. In that sense, she might do some great things.

In any case, back to….

“By the way, he said something strange.”

“What.”

“ ……He said that he might not be dead.”

“Bullshit.”

That comment caused Francia, who was lying obliquely on the couch in Jeffrey’s office, to snap and click her tongue.

“Hey. We’ve all been up all night, for how many nights, looking for his name on that wall.”

“……For three days.”

That was the first day Dante left their side. The day he died.

Jeffrey couldn’t take it either. He couldn’t believe his Master was dead, that it had happened so soon after he’d seen the body. He was a little disoriented.

Then Theodore spoke.

‘Let’s find…… his name…’

Theodore clung to the wall as if it were his last hope. He didn’t sleep or eat while he was there, and Jeffrey didn’t have the heart to stop him from trying to find Dante’s name…… That’s how his most trusted sister, him and Theodore searched for Dante’s name.

However…

His name was nowhere to be found.

After that, Jeffrey closed his mind. He closed his mind, and just like that, he put Dante out of his mind.

‘But he might not be dead.’

At first, when he heard those words, like his sister, he was about to blurt out that it was bullshit, but he was stopped by the look in Theodore’s eyes.

It was the first sign of life he’d seen in months, in the eyes of a man who’d become like a decaying man, always staring into the void. And so he’d been captured, in his sense for helping the less fortunate.

Hearing that, Francia let out an sigh and stood up from her seat, walking over to his desk and speaking with interest.

“Do you want me to help him?”

“How can you?”

“What, are you looking down on the previous emperor?”

“No…. I also said I’d help him, but… I don’t know how we’re supposed to find a dead man.”

“Tsk tsk. There’s a way.”

After saying that, she took something from her chest. Jeffrey has seen her wear it like a necklace before… Today was the first time Jeffrey had seen it in that form.

“A key?”

“It’s a holy object.”

“…Sister, did you rob the temple?!”

“……It’s a treasure that’s been passed down in the imperial family for generations.”

Give me one of his belongings.

One corner of her mouth curled up mischievously.

***

“……So that’s why.”

My sister wants one of Dante’s belongings. Do you have it?

Author's Thoughts

I'm sorry if there are mistakes. It's hard to work on phone ;;