Chapter 59 : Overhear

“It's not a bad condition for you, either. If you just stick by the Little Duke's side like this, you'll be able to meet the real master of the prophecy.”

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

“Are you saying that if I follow that child of Piteos and wait at the temple, the master of the prophecy will find his own way there?”

I nodded my head.

“The paths might diverge a little, but I’ll make it so they intertwine properly. To do that, you need to stay by the Little Duke’s side and watch so that he doesn't die.”

“Is there a connection between the Piteos child not dying and the master of the prophecy?”

To be precise, the goal is for Ratel and the Duke of Piteos to gather in one place, but there’s probably no need to explain that far.

And he didn't seem very favorable toward the people of the Piteos Ducal Family.

“If it's a job that ruins what the Imperial family is doing, he'll probably welcome it.”

El slowly nodded with a puzzled face, then suddenly looked up at me again as if he'd remembered something.

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

“I have to disappear quietly.”

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

But I had no intention of missing this golden opportunity to escape.

Once this job is over, I'll probably live a life similar to how I lived in the world outside the book, far from fighting.

I'll continue a moderately strenuous, moderately tiring life, even without a particular purpose.

The young imperial family member didn't seem to have much interest in me, who was not the master of the prophecy.

Seeing as he said nothing even after hearing my answer.

“But, will the master of the prophecy really find his own way to the temple?”

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

It seemed he was truly desperate to meet the protagonist.

It was a pretty cautious attitude for a creature who had made the huge mistake of misidentifying the protagonist.

I nodded at 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 is indeed the protagonist of the novel I know.

***

-Do you feel a sense of kinship or something?

-How much do you know about me?

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

They talked, and they ate.

Sometimes they checked if any wild animals or small monsters appeared.

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

“Did you two have a fight or something?”

Seeing as he asked so openly, maybe not.

“It’s not like that, so please just shut your mouth.”

The young Jing, who had built up a great inner sense of closeness to Jing from their last conversation, was not discouraged by this level of rebuke.

“Oho, if it’s not that, then Jing must have done something wrong?”

His intuition was also terrible.

He began to prepare to chatter on, perhaps misinterpreting Jing’s silently ignoring attitude.

“In a fight like this, the person who is a little more of an adult is bound to lose anyway. Besides, if you did something wrong, isn’t it a human duty to apologize?”

“How about you go and recite that 'human duty' to Ratel over there?”

It was said in the hope that the noisy man would go away, but the young Jing's eyes widened as if asking 'how could you say such a thing'.

“No, what if I die trying? I’m a man with a wife and child.”

In the end, it meant this side was a bit of an easy target, so Jing narrowed his eyes, then resumed moving his hands, which had been mending his horse.

“If you think so, then well……”

He deliberately trailed off, but contrary to his words, he pointed toward one direction of the forest with his chin.

“If you change your mind, you can go toward the forest over there.”

How do you know that, too?

As if Jing’s thoughts were revealed on his face, he shrugged his shoulders.

“I saw the other guys avoiding that way earlier, saying the psycho went over there.”

With those words, the young Jing picked up his luggage and left.

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

Holding the empty water bottle, he entered the forest.

The direction was the very place the meddler had pointed out.

***

The forest was dry, as if it had been hit squarely by the season of autumn, and fallen leaves covered the path.

Finding a black head in the forest, where green had vanished, was not easy.

To be honest, facing him was a very awkward thing.

But if they left like this, there would be no time to talk at length until they arrived at the capital.

There was something he absolutely had to say before then.

Jing gripped the water bottle in his hand tightly.

First, if he asks why I came, let’s say I just ran into him by chance on my way to get water.

As he firmed his resolve, the black head finally came into his eyes.

“Ratel!”

Jing called him, a mix of nervousness and embarrassment.

Though that turned into betrayal and dumbfoundedness when the black back, which he had finally found, disappeared quickly as if it had grown wings.

He had clearly heard Jing's voice, yet he started to run at a high speed.

This bastard, he was pretending to be fine, but he was awkward, too!

The Ratel Jing had experienced so far was not a human who avoided things, but one who expressed his complaints in all sorts of rude ways.

Seeing such a person run so hard, he must be extremely bothered by the last incident.

“Ratel!”

Jing forgot his age and ran, half with the sense of purpose that he would talk to the guy somehow before the procession departed, and half with the spite that he would catch him by force since he was running away like that.

The water bottle he had been holding in his hand had been thrown away long ago.

He was fast, but Jing hadn't lived his whole life swinging a sword for nothing.

Perhaps sensing his tenacity that, even if the distance didn't close, he wouldn't be shaken off, Ratel slowly stopped running.

The look of defeat was evident on his stopped face.

It was rare for him to show his discomfort so openly, so Jing choked up and opened his mouth.

“You, what! Why on earth did you run away?!”

“I didn’t run away.”

Jing's one eyebrow rose high at the shameless answer.

“If you weren't running, was what we just did simply tag? I never said I'd be 'it'.”

Ratel's face crumpled like cheap paper.

“Did you come all the way here looking for me?”

It was different from what he had imagined, but Jing knew this was the chance for conversation.

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

“No, I was just on my way to get water and came because I saw you. And I have something to talk about, while I'm at it.”

He mumbled the words, which had lost their credibility as the water bottle in his hand had flown away long ago, then took one deep breath and spat out the words he had prepared.

“What I mean is, if you don't have a place to go, I could look into a place for you…… Are you even listening to me right now?”

His counterpart, who was looking around distractedly, didn't seem ready to listen to his words at all.

“Yes, I was listening. You'll look into something. I'm fine. I decline. Is that all you came for?”

At the answer, delivered like rapid-fire, Jing felt a sensation as if a blood vessel in his head was bursting.

It had never burst before, but even if it really did, he didn't think the world would go as dim as it was now.

Had there ever been an experience in his life where he was ignored so rudely?

Moreover, by a human who wasn't even that different in age from his son.

Jing was filled with the rising will to properly teach this human, who had no manners, how to treat people.

“Hey, between people, there are rules to……”

It was the moment he opened his mouth to start a lecture.

“He…… help me. Someone……”

A faint sobbing sound was heard.

It was unmistakably a child's voice.

“Ratel, did you just hear that sound, too?”

Jing's question, Ratel let out a long sigh.

“It's probably nothing. I'll go see, so Jing, you go back.”

“You wouldn't be moving yourself if it was 'nothing,' would you?!”

Jing ignored Ratel's words and took the lead.

***

Jing moved forward, cutting through the bushes quickly, unable to hide his anxiousness.

It was definitely a young voice.

“Damn it, at the very least, it shouldn't be an attack by a wild animal.”

“No, that might actually be better.”

Jing frowned at Ratel's quiet reply.

“What does that mean? If he met a wolf by mistake, he wouldn't last a minute.”

“Did you not hear earlier?”

“I heard it all. Didn't the child ask for help?”

“Yes.”

Ratel, answering, quickened his pace.

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

“That's a big problem too! What if he drowns.”

“Yes. A very big problem.”

Even as he said it was serious, he seemed to be thinking something completely different.

Suddenly, just suddenly, the thought that perhaps his counterpart was hurrying for a different reason than his own brushed past Jing's mind.

“Ratel, are we going to save a drowning child right now, or are we going to save a child from something else?”

“……”

He did not answer.

There weren't many cases where he, who had learned strange etiquette, didn't answer.

Jing’s brow narrowed.

“What are you hiding again?”

When he turned once more in front of a large tree after this last word, the pond they had been searching for finally revealed itself.

There was no need to wander around, wondering where the child had fallen in.

Because it was right in front of their eyes.

The child had its eyes closed peacefully, as if it had fallen asleep.

The small pillar of water, wrapped around the child who was curled up like a fetus, swayed gently, as if protecting the small human.

“Ratel, what in the world is that……”

Jing's finger, pointing at the small pillar of water rising above the pond, trembled.

His heart pounded as if he had seen something he shouldn't have.

Even though they were looking at the same thing, Ratel's expression was as peaceful as could be.

“Good thing there's no one here. It would have been very annoying if there were more eyes.”

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

“The power is quite large, but it's a young child, so it became like this. When they're young, their instincts are stronger, so they can't control it.”

Every single word he spat out was something that wouldn't register in his head.

Jing knew this sight.

There was no way he wouldn't.

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

“Manis is the power of the Imperial family. It’s a power that manifests very rarely, even among high nobles, but how……”

Ratel's voice cut off Jing, who was muttering in disbelief.

“Do you really think they are the only ones with this power?”

He tried to answer 'of course,' but the counter-evidence was living and breathing right in front of him.

Jing couldn't come to his senses from the confusion that shattered the truth that had pierced his entire life, but Ratel did not wait.

“What do you want to do? Do you want to pretend you didn't see it, or do you want to process the child? Jing, you decide.”

In Ratel's eyes, as he explained as indifferently as if he were stating the fact that water falls from high to low, no wavering or agitation could be found.

He just quietly checked the breath of the child held in his arms.

“It could be the child of a high noble……”

No, it wasn't.

As long as the blood was mixed, nobles, in case a child with Manis was born, would not abandon the child, even if it was a bastard, until the Tinas ritual was performed.

If they abandoned it, it was after that.

Jing, briefly frozen by the inhumane act, looked for a moment at Ratel, who was placing a hand on the child's forehead.

He was confused.

He had never in his entire life heard that the power could manifest among commoners.

……Then what's the point of the Imperial family? Can we call them gods?

Jing's heart began to pound again, thudding.

Incomparably more than before.

A strong impulse to remove the cause of his discomfort stealthily raised its head from within him.

“What do you want to show me?”

Ratel's voice flowed into his dizzy mind.

Why was he asking that?

He looked at Ratel, not understanding, but Ratel demanded it from Jing with unwavering eyes.

Jing couldn't make an accurate judgment of what he wanted to do right now.

A violent thought of wanting the child who had created this confusion to disappear, and a sense of responsibility to protect the child, tormented him at the same time.

“I……”

Do I want to get rid of this child? No, that wasn't it.

He no longer wanted to kill an innocent person for the reason that it couldn't be helped.

His head felt lighter, as if he had found a thread in the tangled skein of thoughts.

“Just pretend we don't know. Don't tell other people, and especially not the temple priests or knights. If they find out about this, who knows what they'll do to the child.”

Jing, who had forced out an answer, let out a sigh and looked at Ratel.

Ratel's expression was very bizarre.

His mouth shut tightly, he looked somewhat annoyed, and also like he was holding back words.

Jing had no way of knowing what it was, nor did he have the leeway to understand.

“This time, I'll ask.”

Jing, who had taken a deep breath, opened his mouth again.

“You and the Elder were the only ones who asked difficult questions and every time, a strange change seems to happen inside me.”

Though I don't know since when.

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