“What about this?”
Amun asked in a low voice. His gaze was as warm as the heat of his hand on Cayden’s cheek.
Surprised, Cayden blinked in confusion. Amun seemed quite curious about how his scars had come to be.
Though Amun’s curiosity was somewhat strange, it wasn’t uncomfortable. Recalling how Assad hadn’t viewed the burn marks below his cheek negatively, Amun, too, must have asked out of mere curiosity, without any particular intention or malice.
“It was when I was 11, I think. It happened because of an accident.”
“Was there a fire?”
“Yes.”
“…”
“I got like this while helping a friend who shared my room. He was young and very scared… I didn’t think he could escape alone. My injury was just… because I was unlucky.”
“And that friend was excessively lucky.”
“He felt very sorry toward me. To the point that I felt embarrassed.”
It was like that until the day he left the orphanage after his adoption was decided. Cayden hoped that the boy, no, the young man, whose name he could no longer remember, was doing well.
“I’ve heard that burn scars cause pain for a long time. Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Not at all.”
Hmm. Having received Cayden’s straightforward answer, Amun let out a small sigh. He met Cayden’s eyes.
“Here in Helio, you don’t need to worry about pain. His Highness will take care of you.”
Having finished speaking, Amun slowly withdrew his hand.
Cayden didn’t know what to answer Amun. Still, he found these situations difficult. Should he ramble on about how his scars had long since healed and wouldn’t cause pain or reopen? But he didn’t want to appear foolish by making a fuss. Nor did he want to disappoint someone who was concerned for him.
So Cayden chose to simply smile and say thank you. He deflected the conversation as Amun seemed about to pour out more questions.
“I feel like I’ve only talked about myself. I’m curious about you too, Amun.”
“…You’re curious about me?”
“So much that it’s a problem.”
“I don’t have any interesting stories to tell.”
“Yet you even asked me if my hair color was real.”
Cayden pretended to be hurt as he spoke to Amun. It was a joke, not that he felt genuinely hurt. He didn’t expect an honest answer from Amun either. After all, hadn’t he himself half-lied to Amun?
“I’m an ordinary person. Actually, ‘boring’ would be more accurate than ‘ordinary.'”
“…What about family?”
“…”
“Don’t you live with your family?”
Cayden gently asked Amun. He closed his mouth in embarrassment when he saw a troubled look cross Amun’s face. He regretted his question.
“No. I have no family.”
Cayden sometimes felt that Amun was like the eldest son of a family with many siblings. It was because of Amun’s distinctive firmness. But it seemed that this firmness came not from a sense of responsibility gained from having many family members to care for, but from a sense of responsibility gained from being alone.
“…Me too. We have something in common.”
Cayden smiled brightly and continued speaking slowly.
“Still, I feel like you’ll start a family early, Amun. I just get that feeling.”
“Me?”
“Ah, that, I don’t mean you absolutely have to get married. I’m not trying to meddle. Just, I thought you might start a family earlier than others.”
“Well… if I meet a good person, I suppose I would.”
Amun muttered with a suddenly sullen face.
“You’re a good person, so you’ll meet someone equally good.”
Cayden spoke with pure sincerity.
Cayden, too, had often imagined starting a family, gaining a family that would stand by each other in any situation. Though after turning 20, he stopped having such unrealistic fantasies.
“Do you have someone you like, Amun?”
He thought that even if Amun married quickly… it would probably be after he left Helio. He wouldn’t be able to attend the wedding. To begin with, he wasn’t sure if he would even be invited. Thinking about it made him feel somewhat regretful. It was a presumptuous thought.
“Someone I like?”
Amun asked, surprised.
“Me?”
“…You don’t?”
Feeling both sorry and embarrassed for Amun, who had a dumbfounded expression, Cayden laughed awkwardly.
Actually, Cayden had guessed that Lihet and Amun might like each other. It was because he had seen Amun and Lihet exchanging very intense gazes. It happened whenever the three of them had to move together. At such times, he felt bad thinking he had tactlessly inserted himself between the two.
“I think I’ve made a pointless intrusion. I’m sorry for saying strange things.”
“No. It’s fine.”
“…”
“I don’t have anyone I like, though.”
Amun answered with a serious face.
“Really, I don’t.”
Though no one had said anything, Amun raised his voice to deny Cayden’s question once more.
“I know. I made a wrong assumption.”
Cayden quickly appeased Amun.
He could see that the tips of Amun’s ears had turned red. Whether it was Lihet or someone else, he seemed shy about admitting out loud that he had someone he liked.
Since he wasn’t Amun’s close friend or brother, that was even more the case. Cayden resolved never to bring up topics that troubled Amun again.
In the sudden silence that followed, Amun rolled his eyes. He cleared his throat meaninglessly, turning his gaze here and there.
“I should talk about something else.”
Amun, who had abruptly introduced a new topic, continued.
“Tomorrow night, Commander Jahan Mekerius of Pima is expected to arrive in Acro. As I mentioned to you previously.”
“…Yes. I remember.”
“The banquet for him will be held four days from today.”
You had said that I should also attend the banquet and show my face. Cayden recalled the conversation he had with Amun not long ago.
“Lord Jahan is kind to those who don’t share his blood, so you don’t need to worry about meeting him. However…”
Amun, who had been pondering, continued.
“He’s usually in a sharp state. Quite pessimistic and fierce.”
“Does he not get along with His Highness the Crown Prince either?”
The statement that he was kind to those who don’t share his blood also meant that he wasn’t like that to those who did. It was a concerning story.
“Neither good nor bad. I think it’s decent. Since Lord Jahan is in a close sibling relationship with His Majesty the Emperor, he wouldn’t hate his nephew.”
“Ah…”
“Don’t worry even if his words and actions toward His Highness are somewhat surprising. He’s not someone who deliberately tries to hurt others.”
“…”
“From my perspective, Lord Jahan… seems to be suffering from a late adolescence. He’s in the process of overcoming the wounds of unrequited love. For quite a long time.”
Amun, who had been lost in thought with a sullen face for a moment, raised his head and met Cayden’s eyes. He told Cayden a story related to Jahan. It was a very short love story.
Jahan Mekerius had a beloved lover. But because that lover was a poor nomadic man who lived beyond the walls, on the distant desert sands, their love was not welcomed.
Worried that his lover might get hurt by the harassment and pressure from the previous emperor, Jahan stepped forward, saying he would leave the imperial palace, abandoning his name and surname. But his outcry was not accepted. It was because he was a very excellent warrior.
Instead of removing his son from his sight, the previous emperor suppressed him, preventing him from standing up. And he sent Jahan’s lover across the sea to the eastern continent. He hid him so deeply that none of the royal family members, including Jahan, could find out where the man had gone and what he was doing. Thus, rumors circulated in the imperial palace that the previous emperor had killed Jahan’s lover.
Having given up everything, Jahan continued his secluded life for a year. But soon, according to his father’s will, he had to enter into a political marriage. It was because he had received a promise that if he brought benefit to the imperial family, his lover would be returned.
But even that fell through when his marriage partner died from a chronic illness before half a year had passed. The previous emperor did not keep his promise.
“Fortunately, the current Emperor has given Lord Jahan freedom. At least, he no longer needs to marry again.”
Amun shrugged.
“Since most of the imperial family members sided with the previous Emperor in Lord Jahan’s love affair… they are greatly disliked by Lord Jahan. The reason he deliberately takes time to stay in the capital is to make other royal family members uncomfortable. While also throwing tantrums enthusiastically.”
Cayden felt somewhat pitiful for the man he had never seen face to face.
Hearing the story of someone being forcibly separated from their loved one, he was reminded of Assad as well. If the one who separated Commander Jahan and his lover was the previous generation’s emperor who had already passed away… then wasn’t it God and himself who had separated Assad and Heka?
He worried about what would happen if Assad, like his uncle, suffered and went astray because of love. His heart was troubled in many ways.
“Honestly, I find Lord Jahan somewhat frustrating. Blinded by that love, he forgot what was important. He’s still wandering, even now when enough time has passed for that love to weather away without a trace.”
It was a very cynical evaluation.
“I also don’t understand why someone who could gain greater honor is buried in the mid-west, keeping his distance from the imperial palace.”
Amun really knows the stories of the imperial family well.
It felt all the more strange that the story he had shared contained events that would have happened when he was much younger.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
