Chapter 59 :

Chapter 59 - Eavesdropping

“It is not a bad condition for you either. If you stay by the young duke’s side like this, you will be able to meet the true owner of the prophecy.”

In El’s golden eyes, which sparkled at the words that he could meet Ratel, a very small doubt still remained.

“You mean that if I follow that child of Feedus and wait at the temple, the owner of the prophecy will come on his own?”

I nodded.

“Our paths may cross a little strangely, but I will make sure they fit together properly. To do that, you need to stay by the young duke’s side and make sure that kid does not die.”

“You mean the child of Feedus not dying has something to do with the owner of the prophecy?”

To be precise, the purpose was to make Ratel and Duke Feedus gather in one place, but there was no need to explain that much.

The creature did not seem very favorable toward the people of the ducal House of Feedus either.

“If it is something that ruins what the imperial family is doing, he will welcome it too.”

El slowly nodded with a puzzled face, then looked up at me again as if something had suddenly occurred to him.

“Then after that, I mean after the owner of the prophecy arrives safely, what happens to you?”

“I will quietly disappear.”

It would be nice if I could vanish as if I had never existed from the beginning, but since I had gotten involved more than I expected, that seemed difficult.

Still, I had no intention of missing this perfect chance to escape.

Once this matter was over, I would probably live somewhere far from fighting, much like I had lived in the world outside the book.

Even without any particular purpose, I would continue a suitably weary and suitably tiring life.

The young imperial did not seem very interested in me, who was not the owner of the prophecy.

Judging by how he said nothing even after hearing my answer.

“But will the owner of the prophecy really come to the temple on his own?”

The creature, who had been quietly lost in thought, suddenly asked me as if something had occurred to him.

It seemed he was truly desperate to meet the protagonist.

For someone who had made the huge mistake of mistaking the protagonist, his attitude was quite cautious.

I nodded to the creature, who might have appeared in the original work if he had been this thorough from the beginning.

“He will definitely come.”

If he really is the protagonist of the novel I know.

* * *

—Do you feel a sense of kinship?

—How much do you know about me?

After they exchanged unanswerable questions with each other once, Jing had been feeling a one-sided awkwardness toward Ratel.

They spoke and ate.

Sometimes they also checked whether wild animals or small monsters appeared.

At first glance, one might think nothing had happened, Jing thought.

“Did the two of you fight or something?”

Seeing someone ask so openly, perhaps that was not the case after all.

“It is not like that, so please keep your mouth shut.”

The young Jing, who had greatly increased his inner sense of closeness toward Jing through their last conversation, was not discouraged by that much rebuke.

“Oh-ho, then if it is not that, it means Jing did something wrong?”

Even his intuition was not very good.

Perhaps having interpreted Jing’s silent ignoring of him in some way, he began slowly preparing to chatter.

“In any case, in this kind of fight, the slightly more adult person is destined to lose. Besides, if one has done something wrong, is it not the duty of a human being to apologize?”

“Why not go to Ratel’s side and recite that duty of a human being?”

Jing said it hoping that the noisy man would go away a little, but the young Jing widened his eyes as if asking how he could say such a thing.

“No, what if I die doing that? I have a wife and child, you know.”

In the end, it meant this side was a bit easier to deal with, so Jing narrowed his brow, then began moving the hand that had been grooming the horse again.

“If you think so, then well…”

The young Jing deliberately trailed off, but contrary to his words, he pointed his chin toward one direction in the forest.

“If you change your mind, go toward that part of the forest.”

How does he know that too?

Perhaps Jing’s thoughts showed on his face, because the young Jing shrugged.

“Earlier, I saw the others avoiding that way, saying the lunatic went over there.”

With those words as his last, the young Jing picked up his belongings and left.

Jing, who had been slowly packing his things, hesitated for a moment, then picked up his water bottle and poured the water that had filled it onto the ground.

Holding the empty water bottle, he entered the forest.

The direction was exactly the place the nosy fellow had pointed to.

* * *

The forest was dry, as if struck directly by the season of autumn, and fallen leaves covered the path.

Finding a black head in the forest where the green had disappeared was not difficult.

To be honest, facing him felt very awkward.

But if they set out like this, there would be no time to talk at length until they reached the capital.

There was something he absolutely had to say before then.

Jing tightly gripped the water bottle in his hand.

‘First, if he asks why I came, I will say I happened to run into him while coming to draw water.’

At last, a black head came into his sight as he made that resolution.

“Ratel!”

Jing called him in a state mixed with nervousness and embarrassment.

Though when the black back of the head he had barely found disappeared quickly, as if it had grown wings, that changed into betrayal and emptiness.

Even though it was certain he had heard Jing’s voice, he began running at high speed.

This bastard, he acted fine, but he was feeling awkward after all!

The Ratel Jing had experienced so far was someone who would express his dissatisfaction in all sorts of rude ways, not someone who avoided others.

Seeing a person like that run so hard, it was clear he was quite concerned about the previous incident.

“Ratel!”

Half from the sense of purpose to talk with him somehow before the procession departed, and half from stubbornness to catch him by force because he was running away so much, Jing forgot his age and ran.

He had long since thrown away the water bottle he had been holding.

Ratel was fast, but Jing had not spent his whole life swinging a sword for nothing either.

Perhaps feeling Jing’s persistence that even if the distance did not narrow, he would not lose him, Ratel slowly stopped running.

On his stopped face, the look of being at a loss was unmistakable.

Since it was rare for him to show his discomfort so openly, Jing felt a surge of emotion and opened his mouth.

“What are you? Why on earth did you run away?”

“I did not run away.”

At the shameless answer, one of Jing’s eyebrows rose high.

“If you did not run away, was what we just did simply a game of tag? I never said I would be it.”

Ratel’s face crumpled like cheap paper.

“Did you come all the way here to find me?”

It was different from what he had imagined, but Jing knew that this was the chance to talk.

After taking one deep breath to hide his embarrassment, Jing opened his mouth.

“No, I was on my way to draw water and saw you, so I came. I also have something to say while I am at it.”

The water bottle in his hand had long since flown away, so the words had lost credibility, and after rambling, Jing took one big deep breath and spat out the words he had prepared.

“What I mean is, if you have nowhere to go, I could look into a place for you to stay… Are you listening to me right now?”

The other party, who was looking around distractedly here and there, did not seem at all prepared to listen to him.

“Yes, I was listening. You said you would look into something for me. I am fine. I refuse. Is that all you needed?”

At the rapid-fire answer, Jing felt as if a blood vessel in his head were about to burst.

He had never had one burst before, but even if one really did burst, he did not think his vision would go this blank.

Had there ever been a time in his life when he had been ignored so rudely?

And by a human whose age was not that different from his son’s, no less.

A will surged up in Jing to properly teach this human without common sense how to treat people.

“Listen, between people, there are things that must be observed…”

It was the moment he opened his mouth to begin a round of scolding.

“S-Save me… Someone, please…”

A faint sobbing sound was heard.

It was unmistakably the voice of a young child.

“Ratel, did you hear that sound too?”

At Jing’s question, Ratel let out a long sigh.

“It is probably nothing serious. I will go and look, so Jing, please go back.”

“If it is nothing serious, there is no way you would move personally!”

Jing ignored Ratel’s words and took the lead just like that.

* * *

Jing quickly cut through the undergrowth and moved forward, unable to hide his nervousness.

It was definitely a young voice.

“Damn it, at the very least, I hope the child was not attacked by a wild animal.”

“No, that might be better instead.”

At Ratel’s quiet reply, Jing frowned.

“What does that mean? If the child happened to meet even a wolf, they would not last a minute.”

“Did you not hear it earlier?”

“I heard everything. The child asked to be saved, did they not?”

“Yes.”

Ratel, who answered, urged his steps faster.

“I heard the sound of water too. They probably fell in while playing around a pond or lake.”

“Is that not a serious matter too? If the child drowns…”

“Yes. It is truly serious.”

Though he said with his mouth that it was serious, he seemed to be thinking something completely different.

Suddenly, truly suddenly, the thought passed through Jing’s mind that perhaps the reason the other party was hurrying was different from his own.

“Ratel, are we going to save a child who fell into water, or are we going to save a child from something else?”

“….”

He did not answer.

There were not many cases where he, who had learned peculiar manners, did not answer.

Jing’s brow narrowed.

“What are you hiding this time?”

With those words as the last, when they turned once more in front of a large tree, the pond they had been searching for finally appeared.

There was no need to wonder where the child had fallen.

Because it was right before their eyes.

The child had her eyes peacefully closed, as if asleep.

The small column of water wrapping around the child curled up like a fetus was gently rippling as if protecting that tiny human.

“Ratel, what on earth is that…”

Jing’s finger, pointing at the small column of water rising above the pond, trembled.

His heart pounded like he had seen something he should not have seen.

Even though they were looking at the same thing, Ratel’s expression was utterly calm.

“It is fortunate there are no people here. If there were more eyes watching, it would have become quite troublesome.”

Ratel, who muttered that, approached the pond and looked up at the child.

“The power is fairly large, but because she is a young child, it seems this happened. When their age is young, instinct is stronger, so they cannot control it.”

Every single word he uttered was something Jing’s mind could not take in.

Jing knew this kind of sight.

There was no way he could not know.

Because it was the very power that had led him to death.

“Manis is….the power of the imperial family. It is a power that manifests very rarely even among high nobles, so how…”

What cut off Jing’s unbelieving murmur was Ratel’s voice.

“Do you really think only they possess this kind of power?”

He tried to answer that it was obvious, but right before his eyes, the counterevidence was alive and breathing.

Jing could not get a hold of himself amid the confusion that shattered the truth piercing through his life, but Ratel did not wait for him.

“What do you want to do? Do you want to pretend you did not see it, or do you want to deal with the child? You decide, Jing.”

In Ratel’s eyes, explaining as casually as if saying that water falls from high to low, there was no wavering or agitation to be found.

He merely checked the breathing of the child lying quietly in his arms.

“She might be the child of a high noble…”

No, that was not it.

As long as blood was mixed in, nobles did not abandon a child, even an illegitimate child, until the Tinas ritual was performed, just in case a child with Manis was born.

If they abandoned them, it was afterward.

Jing, who froze briefly at the inhumane act, looked for a moment at Ratel touching the child’s forehead.

He was confused.

In his entire life, he had never heard that power could manifest among commoners as well.

…Then what is the point of the imperial family? Can they be called gods?

Jing’s heart began thudding again.

To a degree that could not even be compared to before.

Inside him, a strong impulse to remove the source of his discomfort stealthily raised its head.

“What do you want to do?”

Ratel’s voice flowed into his dizzy mind.

Why is he asking that?

Unable to understand, Jing looked at Ratel, but he demanded an answer from Jing with unwavering eyes.

Jing could not accurately judge what he wanted to do right now.

The violent thought that he wanted the child who had created this confusion to disappear and the sense of responsibility that he must protect the child tormented him at the same time.

“I…”

Do I want to get rid of this child?

No, that was not it.

He no longer wanted to kill innocent people for the reason that it could not be helped.

As if he had found a clue among thoughts tangled like a skein of thread, his head grew lighter.

“Let us simply pretend not to know. Do not tell other people, and especially not the priests or knights of the temple. If they learn about this, I do not know what they will do to the child.”

After giving that difficult answer, Jing let out a sigh and looked at Ratel.

Ratel’s expression was very strange.

With his mouth firmly shut, he seemed somehow angry, or as if he were holding back something he wanted to say.

Jing could not know what that was, and he did not have the room to understand it either.

“This time, I will ask.”

After taking one deep breath, Jing opened his mouth again.

“Until now, the only ones who asked me difficult questions were you and the elder. And every time, it feels as though a strange change happens inside me.”

He did not know since when.

“And you seem to know the reason for this déjà vu.”