The Arrow of Destiny Cuts Through the Night

#73

Jersian was speechless for a while. He clearly understood Kain’s intentions in saying such things. However, whether he could actually put it into action was an entirely different matter.

“…”

After learning that Marchioness Elmerila had lied, Jersian certainly felt an endless sense of betrayal towards her.

However, he couldn’t immediately hate Marchioness Elmerila. It meant he couldn’t change everything he had believed in for decades based on just a few lies.

He knew it was foolish. But until now, Marchioness Elmerila had been everything to Jersian, a shield against the world. He was too young to completely deny that.

Kain slowly moved his hand placed on Jersian’s shoulder, which had stiffened in confusion. He looked down at Jersian intently and said:

“I didn’t mean for you to make that face. And I’m not angry either. I just…”

Kain stopped mid-sentence and closed his mouth. As he was comforting Jersian, he finally realized why he had been angry.

“I’m just worried about you, Jersian.”

“…”

It bothered him to see Jersian’s red eyes, which he had always thought were fiercely sharp, looking dejectedly at the ground, and he disliked Marchioness Elmerila who always made him like that. Jersian, who had done nothing wrong, didn’t need to be like this at all. It was a pitiful sight that didn’t suit him at all.

Haah, Kain let out a long sigh and then moved his arm.

He slowly applied force to the hand on Jersian’s small shoulder, pulling him towards himself. Immediately, thump, Jersian’s small head touched his chest.

A surprised voice came from that head.

“W-What? Suddenly.”

It was a muffled voice, blocked by Kain’s embrace. As Jersian, caught off guard in Kain’s arms, tried to lift his head quickly, Kain pressed it down more firmly with his palm.

“Stay like this for a moment.”

Ugh, Kain looked down with satisfaction at Jersian’s squirming movements and said:

“I once heard that humans comfort each other like this.”

It was a story he had heard directly from an elf who had lived for a thousand years. He had told young Kain about how humans comfort each other with their body heat, as if telling a fairy tale.

For elves, who respect each other’s feelings and thoughts and don’t easily interfere, the act of comforting was a very unfamiliar concept. Surely, young Kain had only thought it was interesting when hearing about human culture, considering it useless knowledge. Who would have thought he’d actually do it himself? He was glad he had listened carefully to those words.

Kain asked with a satisfied face, speaking into Jersian’s black hair nestled in his arms:

“How is it? Does it comfort you?”

“…”

There was no answer from Jersian. Instead, judging by the slight redness visible at the tips of his ears through his hair, it seemed his mood had improved a bit.

He could feel glancing gazes from around them. The attention of people who had been focused on the party was now gathering on them. Kain raised his eyes towards the direction of the humans looking at them while he held Jersian. The humans who had been staring with curious faces quickly averted their gazes, startled when they met Kain’s indifferent eyes.

A moment later, Jersian spoke in a small voice from within Kain’s arms.

“That’s enough now, let go.”

Kain immediately loosened his thick arms that had been holding Jersian. It was accompanied by a gentle smile he never showed to other humans.

“How is it, better now?”

“…”

Although Jersian’s perfectly arranged hair was slightly disheveled, overall his face looked fine.

“…Well.”

Jersian muttered, conscious of Kain’s gaze looking down at him intently as if observing.

“I was surprised, but I feel a bit…”

Jersian, out of the embrace, was roughly fixing his messy hair with his fingers when he suddenly stopped. He had just noticed the gazes from around them focused on him. Among them were Crown Prince Kemirun and Marchioness Elmerila, who seemed to have been in the middle of an intimate conversation.

Damn it. This wasn’t really how he wanted to appear in front of those two. Jersian cleared his throat once, putting his hand to his mouth, and said:

“…It’s fine, but… it’s better to do this kind of thing when we’re alone.”

“Why?”

Kain tilted his head as if he had heard something strange and asked again.

“Weren’t we supposed to continue? I mean the ‘role of the youngest of the Gerold Marquis family who’s lost his mind after meeting his love’ that you talked about then.”

“…Huh? What do you mean…”

Jersian frowned for a moment at the sentence coming out of Kain’s mouth, then returned to normal with an “Ah…”. Come to think of it, it was a sentence Jersian himself had said. Hearing it again through the elf’s mouth, he felt that the word ‘love’ seemed excessively unsuitable for Kain Starchis.

This eve of the festival was a party attended by most of the notable figures, including those from the Arkner Empire. The more they displayed their relationship with Kain here, the more it would show that the relationship between the Gerold family and the elf was much more solid than people thought. It would also demonstrate how sincere the elf from the outside was about the human institution of engagement.

He could see Princess Teiran of the Tesena Kingdom looking this way with a sulky face from afar.

‘The effect is certainly there.’

If so, there was no reason not to do it. At first, it was to cancel the engagement with the Tesena Kingdom, but unexpectedly, continuing this act might not be bad. And since Kain Starchis was actively participating in it for some reason… Jersian thought this and nodded slightly.

“That’s true. But-“

Jersian set one condition.

“Don’t touch me without permission. Got it?”

Jersian’s sharp red eyes stabbed at Kain’s cheek as he stated the condition. That gaze was the usual Jersian. Kain quite liked that the dejected look from earlier was completely gone.

“Of course.”

That much was nothing. Like a young boy, he seemed to want to play the role of the youngest master in love under his own control forever. Kain could finally smile as if relieved.

It was then.

♫♩ ♪

The sound of a horn trumpet rang out loudly.

Soon after, a herald who had strode to the front of the podium at the eve of the festival shouted in a loud voice.

“His Imperial Majesty Emperor Alceides Del Claude, the Sun of the Empire and the incarnation of God, and Her Imperial Majesty Empress Atawulf Jenevi have arrived!”

It was the appearance of the Arkner Emperor, who could wipe out entire families with a single gesture, even among the most powerful nobles. No one could keep their necks stiffly raised. Fearing that even eye contact might cause trouble, the nobles all closed their mouths and slowly lowered their heads.

Jersian, positioned a little distance from the podium, also lowered his head and tapped Kain’s arm next to him, saying “…Bow.” Kain Starchis followed the other humans without a word.

The sound of the long fabric of the Emperor and Empress’s clothes dragging on the luxurious carpet beneath the detached palace could be heard, swish, swish.

As they heard the footsteps of the two, the nobles filling the banquet hall didn’t make even a breath of sound. Kain’s sensitive ears could hear the noble standing next to him swallowing hard in tension with a gulp.

Marchioness Elmerila, who had been talking near the herald, was the same, but Crown Prince Kemirun Del Claude in front of her moved only slightly, unlike the other humans. It was an elegant and authoritative posture, as if to show how different his position was from the nobles filling the eve of the festival. Even all the other ‘Claudes’, except for Kemirun who was close to the Emperor, had their heads bowed.

…So this is what an Emperor means to humans.

Kain thought, staring at the carpet below with his head bowed. When he first came to the human world, he had vaguely imagined it would be similar to the concept of an elder among elves.

But the ‘elder’ of the elves was just a title given to the wisest, not granting authority to reign over other elves. In that respect, the existence of an Emperor seemed more tremendous than Kain had imagined.

He was reminded again of the fact that Jersian’s mother had tried to marry that Emperor. If that plan had succeeded, Jersian wouldn’t be bowing his head here with Kain below the podium now. Suddenly, he became curious about what the Emperor looked like.

Kain moved his eyes towards the direction of the podium in front, still with his head bowed. Would the Emperor be proud and authoritative like Kemirun Del Claude? Or would he be an even more imposing human?

“…”

However, the human Kain saw on the podium was, contrary to his expectations, a sickly old man with many wrinkles and a white beard.