Chapter 61.1

Chapter 61 – I Heard Boys Are Like That When They Grow Up

It was just as Kyrian said. She started to feel the energy that she didn’t feel earlier. That energy quickly closed in on them.

“Oh…” Ashia let out a short sigh.

She knew just who this aura belonged to. Leaning over Kyrian’s shoulders, she slowly raised her body.

But Kyrian grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her down, speaking with urgency, “What are you doing? I told you to stay still.”

“No, it’s not that.”

“What? What on earth do you mean no?”

Ashia didn’t answer Kyrian’s questions and just ran out of the building. Kyrian’s aura that had been wrapping Ashia dispersed like smoke when she was at a certain distance from him.

As she watched the figure approaching terrifyingly from a distance, Ashia softly muttered, “Tero….”

The owner of the aura that came to them wasn’t from someone else but Theros. The reason was unknown, but he was approaching them, emitting ferocious energy.

“Tero!”

“…”

Seeing Ashia, Theros stopped on the spot and looked at Ashia from head to toe. Relief crept up on his face tinged with anger. After checking that she was safe, his eyes began to examine the surroundings.

Seeing Kyrian walking out just in time, Theros yelled, “Kyrian, you!”

“Huh? Aren’t you Theros? Why are you here…?”

Before Kyrian could even finish his words, Theros ran and charged at him.

“Urgh!”

Kyrian’s body fell on the floor with the force that came out from nowhere, Theros falling along with him and grabbing his neck. The two grown-up men rolled mercilessly on the ground.

“Tero! Kyrian!”

Even though she shouted their names, Ashia’s voice seemed to fall on deaf ears. Tossing and turning, the fight grew rougher.

“Stop!”

They did not.

She let out a silent sigh. She had been hoping that Theros would feel happy once he knew that Kyrian was still alive. But as soon as they called out each other’s name, their reunion seemed to have ended already.

Ashia stood from the cloud of dust and narrowed her eyes at the two men with muffled voices. They looked just like neighborhood kids rolling on the dirt floor, swearing harshly as they used their fists.

Seeing as how the two of them fought like that despite having auras and wearing swords on their waist, their fight didn’t seem to be that serious. Of course, if they weren’t just fighting and used their swords and auras instead, she wouldn’t just be watching them.

“Haa…” Muttering softly, Ashia slowly walked over to the bench and sat down. Behind her, she could hear the gentle sound of the Carmian River flowing. Compared to the scene in front of her of swearing men with ‘this b*t*rd, that b*st*rd,’ it was a calm that caressed the heart.

Are you not going to stop them?

“Leave them alone. I heard boys are like that when they grow up.”

… Who?

“All men are like that.”

…

It was said that men behaved like children even when they were old. It wasn’t all that wrong when she was witnessing it firsthand. Ashia just stared at them for a while. Then at some point, they stopped fighting.

The two men, who spent a not short time at each other’s throats, sat down with their backs to the building that had yet to be repaired, catching their breath. Without words, their shoulders moved up and down.

It seems like they are done.

“Hmm, it didn’t take longer than I expected.”

The two were talking about something with their scratched and swollen faces. She couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Ashia decided to wait for them. They seemed to need a conversation.

“You fought with His Grace over a woman back then.”

“…”

Shk, shk

Kyrian opened his mouth before he could even take a breath. “That woman was that woman, right?”

“…”

Theros didn’t answer, and Kyrian burst out into a laugh as he thought it was too ridiculous. “Haa, so you are staying with that woman despite knowing everything?”

“…It’s because I know everything that I am staying with her.”

“What do you know? About the person who betrayed her and the person who ruined the magic circle?”

Theros tilted his head and looked at Kyrian. “…Did you find out about it as well?”

“If I found out, so what? Is she already forgiven with just that?”

“…”

“What a cowardly b*st*rd.” Kyrian’s chin twitched as he ground his molars. “Nothing will change. That woman is still that woman who burned down the whole village, and it was her fault that the villagers died.”

“…”

Kyrian continued to mutter, spitting out the blood from his mouth onto the dirty floor.

Theros looked at Kyrian with a pitying gaze.

‘Nothing has changed…. You’re still a thick-headed jerk.’

While Theros was on his way to the Imperial Palace, he felt an unfamiliar aura inside Ashia’s collapsed shop. He hurriedly moved there, thinking that the aura might have something to do with the person who destroyed the store.

But Ashia walked out of the shop. It was the third day today after the store collapsed and they had no contact until now. She was a person who made others feel hopeless, disappearing without a trace.

It was clearly a situation where he should hate her, and be angry with her. But he found himself checking to see if she was hurt anywhere.

‘D**n it.’

At that moment, Kyrian popped out of the shop. When he saw those two people who shouldn’t be standing side by side, he lost all of his reason. No, the idea that he had to separate Kyrian from Ashia came first.

’But an escort? Kyrian for Ashia?’

He had no idea what on earth was happening, but Kyrian was still a thick-headed jerk to him. When he said that nothing had changed, it still sounded like an excuse to him.

A lot had changed—Ashia, who stayed in the same place for seven years, was suddenly changing.