Recalling all that, Dagan thought, “Huh?” and felt a sense of unease. Baldred also tilted his head in confusion.
“Did you like our kid that much?”
Dagan sprang up on the spot. The shock even caused his chair to topple backward, but he shouted regardless:
“No, no! It’s not like I love him—I was just watching over him!”
Baldred wore an expression of resigned understanding.
“Yeah, that’s it. Whether you refused the marriage proposal with Stella Lilis or pretended to prefer men to avoid women, it was really odd to bring up Lunarsion. Perhaps you were unaware… or something?”
“What are you saying! That’s not it! Not like that!”
Dagan slammed his hand on the expensive table in denial. Yet Baldred patted his shoulder with a warm, soothing touch, pat-pat, as if to calm him.
“Yeah, you’ve never been in love before—you just don’t understand.”
“W-what the heck…”
Dagan tried to pull away, but Baldred’s finger dug into his shoulder with a creaking, unpleasant sound, restraining him.
“This is for you and Lunarsion. Just give in and accept your first love.”
And so, Hero Dagan was promptly thrown into Tsukihana Rikyū.
★★★★★
When Dagan passed through the gates of Tsukihana Rikyū, over fifty retainers stood in neat formation to welcome him. A butler stepped forward to offer the greeting on their behalf:
“Hero Dagan, please accept our heartfelt congratulations on your marriage to Lord Lunarsion and on your safe return. For now, please, take your time to relax.”
“Ah…”
Dagan felt utterly overwhelmed. That wasn’t to say he held any grudge against Lunarsion’s butlers—whom he hadn’t seen in a long time. At first they had been wary of him, but very soon they came to embrace him as trusted, indispensable colleagues. In their eyes, there was genuine relief and warmth.
It was the Tsukihana Rikyū itself that unsettled him. Located beside a forest on the outskirts of the capital, this facility is where Lunarsion conducts most of his personal life, research, and official duties. Dagan, too, had frequented this place as a guard knight until five years ago, but living here was an entirely different matter. Originally built for a favored concubine several generations ago, both its exterior and interior were excessively ostentatious—leaving him uneasy.
Yet when he stepped inside, he was surprised. While the exterior remained as it was, the interior was not as he remembered. In his recollection, the walls and furnishings had been adorned in gold, silver, pearl white, and pastel green, with jewels scattered about in a painfully gaudy display. It wasn’t in bad taste exactly, but it was undeniably flashy.
But now it was different. The walls were uniformly off-white, and although the furnishings still exuded luxury, their design had become far more subdued. Instead of glittering jewels, tasteful floral arrangements lent the space gentle, pleasing hues.
Dagan said nothing, but it seemed the butler had sensed his thoughts.
“Lord Lunarsion has issued instructions so that you may feel at ease, Hero Dagan.”
“I see…”
Dagan accepted this, recalling how Lunarsion had always been such a considerate young man.
“Wait a minute—doesn’t that seem odd? It was only decided today that I should come here,” Dagan protested.
At that, the butler’s gaze grew distant.
“When you were ordered to leave to battle the Demon King, immediately after your departure, Lord Lunarsion said you would surely return, and that I should arrange things so you could spend your time comfortably. Moreover, when you did return safely, you would be honored as a hero and granted a castle. If possible, he wished for you to choose to remain here… Hero Dagan?”
Dagan collapsed to his knees.
His knees—unyielding even when his insides were sliced open from within by the Demon King, when countless icy arrows were driven into him by the Demon King’s minions, when the master of the mansion in which he stayed had laced his food with a rot-inducing poison, when he nearly suffered a collective lynching at the hands of his fellow knights, when a familiar prostitute nearly took him by surprise in his sleep, and even when, as a child, he had been betrayed by a childhood friend and thrown into a den of magical beasts—now gave way beneath the earnest determination of Lunarsion.
At the same time, he understood the true meaning behind the exchange at the castle upon his triumphant return.
“Hero Dagan! How wonderful that you are safe and sound!”
Lunarsion was the very first to greet him. It delighted him to see how splendidly the young man had matured. Yet being addressed in formal language and lauded as “the hero who saved the world” filled him with an indescribable loneliness and sense of loss.
Moreover, the moment he was told that he would be stripped of his royal status and employed as a civil officer, Dagan was convinced that the boy who had so innocently adored him was now lost. He determined that these were nothing more than the words used by the royals to ensnare the hero. He did not want his life to be wasted on such matters. It brought him no joy. That was why he had disparaged Lunarsion at the banquet—to drive him away.
No, that wasn’t quite it. In truth, Lunarsion had simply become petulant over the changes in himself. He was merely unable to see the truth—that Lunarsion was only desperate to remain by Dagan’s side.
“That guy really loves me a hell of a lot, doesn’t he? Why is that…?”
Dagan’s already reddish-black skin flushed even redder as he covered his face. The butler, observing the older ex-colleague writhing in discomfort, looked at him with an expression that seemed to say “Oh, dear…” before succinctly stating:
“There is no logic in love—it has been said since ancient times.”
Dagan lifted his head, his face set with determination, and inquired after Lunarsion’s whereabouts. The butler, with a warm, gentle gaze, answered:
“Lord Lunarsion is in his private quarters. He has been busy preparing for the first night. Now that those preparations are complete, he awaits your presence at your leisure… Hero Dagan.”
On the verge of collapsing anew from the weight of his resolve, Dagan managed to steady himself and began to walk. In a small, almost inaudible murmur he said:
“I really do love that guy a lot too.”
“Ah, yes. Everyone here is well aware of that.”
The butler’s eyes seemed to plead wordlessly, “Enough already—hurry along!”
Author: Yohan O
A bit of this, a bit of that, a bit of everything except straight
