For a moment, silence flowed between the two.
“You are? My?”
When Nate nodded, Kaien made a strange face.
“How old are you exactly? At what age did you have me?”
“…….”
Nate subtly avoided eye contact.
How could this seemingly young-looking person be my father?
How did he even find me?
Are you really a devil worshipper? Just when I thought I’d gotten out of the bandit’s group, am I now a family member of a criminal?
Although he seemed a bit flustered and threw out these various questions, the boy seemed to accept the fact easier than expected. For the first time, he had met someone who could see souls like him, and it seemed very convincing when this person said they were family.
Moreover, Kaien would have started to notice more and more similarities between the two. Their overall impressions were quite different because of his intense red hair and the large whites of his eyes, but upon close examination, their facial contours looked quite similar.
“So, what is your name?”
“I’m Nathaniel Klein.”
Suddenly, a very famous human name came out of his mouth, so it took Kaien a while to recognize his identity.
…The Holy Emperor? My biological father is the Holy Emperor?
The boy’s mouth hung open.
“So, the Holy Emperor who is famous for being unruly in this generation is……”
“…….”
“So that’s why your soul looked so different because you’re a representative of God. But why don’t you look like that now? Are you usually hiding your power?”
“…It’s similar to that.”
“I see, so I was the prince of Delcross.”
That’s not bad. Kaien’s face brightened a bit.
Nate explained to the boy in a quiet tone.
His mother was a noblewoman of Rohan, whom he had met briefly in his youth and then parted. She gave birth to Kaien and met a group of bandits on her way back to Rohan, where everyone except Kaien was killed.
The Holy Emperor, who had learned of his existence late through the Information Guild, had disguised himself as a prisoner and came here to find him.
“Why go through all that trouble?”
The boy couldn’t understand at all. Isn’t it okay not to care whether he exists or not?
Just as he didn’t seem to resent the fact that he was raised in a bandits’ group, he didn’t seem grateful that his father had personally come a long way to find his son. It just seemed like a useless and inefficient thing to do.
Nate gazed at Kaien’s face for a while and then asked in a calm tone, “Will you come with me to the imperial palace of Delcross?”
It was a question as if there was a choice.
“What if I go?”
“You’ll receive all the benefits that you can get as the 4th Prince of Delcross and my fifth child. The Blue Rose Palace, the palace of the princes, will be your home, and all the educational opportunities that a prince should enjoy will be provided. You can formally participate in the succession battle to become the future Holy Emperor, and based on the power and connections that others can’t even imagine, you can try to pioneer something new.”
“…….”
“You can also build a bond with your kin. There are many of your siblings in the imperial palace.”
Kaien grimaced a bit. It all sounded good but when he thought about it, but on reflection, they were not very appealing.
“What if I don’t go?”
“I’ll give you the fortress of Klanos. All supports will be provided excluding the authority of the royal family. You can travel the continent freely and settle wherever you want. The informants of the guild will visit you regularly to ensure that you’re not inconvenienced. You will have no glorious authority, but at the same time, there will be no heavy duty.”
“Hmm…….”
“However, you must not commit crimes such as capturing souls or violating social norms.”
The boy gave a sly smile.
“Can’t you just pretend you didn’t see me and leave me alone?”
“That would be impossible.”
Nate firmly shook his head.
Kaien stroked his chin and pondered for a moment. Then the boy who opened his mouth had calm eyes.
“I’ve been trying everything to get out of Jerome’s hands until now. I thought I couldn’t get completely out of here unless I wiped out this damned thieves’ group entirely.”
The bandits, who must not reveal their den, never leave a betrayer alone. If anyone tries to escape, they either muster their strength to catch and kill them, or hand over the betrayer’s information to the guards who are informed in advance for execution.
Unless Kaien wiped out all the bandits who knew his face at once, he would never be free from the risk of being a fugitive for life.
In Rohan, a still young Kaien failed to properly control information, inadvertently giving Jerome the opportunity to escape first. So this time, he went to great lengths to delay Flanders’s punitive forces from realizing what was happening as much as possible.
“But after we get rid of the king of the bandtis, you’re telling me that now the emperor of Delcross is my father? What’s the difference? No, if I were to join the new pack you’re ruling over, could I ever break free from you?”
“…”
“I’m not going to Delcross. Father.”
Nate, after catching his breath for a while, slowly nodded his head.
“…Alright.”
The two then exchanged various stories. Curiously, Kaien, who seemed to be constantly on guard and hostile, was more cooperative in the conversation with Nate than expected.
Of course, it was only because he found it pointless to resist once he realized that this man who appeared as his real father could control Kaien’s abilities and beat down all the bandits.
Apart from the occasional hijinks of Nate tossing handcuffs at the stirring bandits, time passed relatively smoothly.
When asked why he held a grudge against Aslan, Kaien’s face stiffened.
“Huh? Ah, that guy. He interfered a lot whenever I tried to plan something.”
Didn’t I try to plant more spies in the Flower Village in addition to Rodrigo? And I even hired an assassin to kill Jerome.
The boy grumbled.
“Since Aslan was extremely good at detecting all the aura users, I kept failing. Thanks to him, I had Rodrigo provoke the punitive forces to come faster, making him plunder the top of Asein like crazy, do you know how long it took to see the result, Father?”
It wasn’t an unwarranted grudge for him. He candidly confessed that it was his doing that led to the death of Martha, the foster mother who raised him.
“After all, Martha would have been killed by the punitive force, right? It’s better to make use of her until she’s no longer needed rather than dying meaninglessly.”
Kaien was firm.
Nate’s heart felt a little heavier because the only soul he was able to save in its original form here was hers. Even though they were a band of bandit who ate robbery and murder for breakfast, it was certainly not a fair punishment to have even the soul ripped and devoured after death.
With a serious face, he once again warned his son.
“Keep this in mind. Your soul is at its limit now. If you try to consume another soul rashly, I can’t guarantee what will happen.”
But upon hearing these words, Kaien looked straight at Nate.
“You’re not telling me that it’s bad, are you?”
‘Martha used to say that whatever I did was bad’, the boy added.
“I didn’t know you wanted such nagging.”
“You were furious when you first saw me, weren’t you? Saying I devoured Martha’s soul.”
Nate silently stared at the boy for a moment. The boy couldn’t tell if those eyes, occasionally emitting a peculiar silver glow, were looking at Kaien’s face or his soul. Maybe both.
“Do you know why that’s a bad thing?”
“No?”
From the start, Kaien didn’t understand the standards of good and bad.
“If I explain, do you think you can understand their pain?”
“Not at all?”
You think I would know others’ pain when I don’t even know the pain of my own soul.
“Then there’s no need to say it, is there?”
“…You’re weird…” Kaien scratched his cheek with his finger. “But it’s strange. I find it very easy to talk to you. I think it’s the first time I’ve had a conversation like this with anyone. I think I might miss seeing you more often in the future.”
“…”
“Well, I should go. It’s already late. The Flanders punitive force will be here soon. It’s hard to run away when everything’s in chaos, so it would be better for you to leave before it’s too late, right?”
“I will send a spy from the guild later.”
“To watch over me… Well, got it.”
Kaien staggered toward the entrance of the barn. As he was opening the locked barn door, Nate called him.
“Kaien.”
“Hmm?”
“You don’t need to pretend in front of me.”
“…”
From the first time Nate saw Kaien, he knew. He knew that Kaien’s left leg was perfectly normal, with Aura functioning as it should.
For a moment, Kaien’s face hardened, but then he slowly shook his head. “…Wow. Even Jerome, who is full of suspicion, was fooled for almost 10 years. You really are not an ordinary person.”
Firstly, he pretended to limp to spite Martha, who had failed to protect him properly. Next, he did it to guilt Jerome into not striking him down too easily. And most recently, to completely leave the life of the bandits and gain a brand new life, the boy had continued the act of limping.
That long pretense would end today.
The boy, who opened the barn door and stretched his left foot out which had been pretending to be lame, suddenly paused and looked back at Nate.
“It seems like not knowing the state of your own soul is as good as being ignorant, so should I teach you something too, Father?”
“……”
“Do you know how your soul looked when you were talking about life inside and outside the palace to me?”
With one corner of his mouth tugged upwards, Kaien gave a mean-spirited smirk.
“Father, you really hate being in the palace, don’t you?”
The boy waved at him briefly, then disappeared outside the barn.
* * *
The day was gradually darkening.
The Flower Village was in turmoil after they belatedly discovered Jerome lying dead in their lodging.
The leader has been killed, there’s a spy, we’re under attack! In the confusion, all the bandits out for search were summoned to the public square.
During this process, when they belatedly learned that Flanders’ army was heading this way, they panicked and began to arm themselves and escape. However, the punitive force had already laid a siege and was closing in on the village.
Just before the siege closed in, Nate, who had barely managed to escape the village, was slowly going down the mountain with a blank expression. The problem was that even if he headed towards the Asein Gate as he was now, it was impossible for a criminal like him who had received capital punishment to pass through alone.
“Ah, Enrique.”
Fortunately, he was able to meet Enrique, who was hastily coming up the mountain on a narrow path.
“Your Majesty!”
At the relieved shout, Nate momentarily gazed at his face. It was because Enrique’s face, which found Nate, showed an obvious sign of relief.
Nate already knew that Enrique sometimes looked at him with a very uncomfortable gaze. In fact, even Francis tried to kill him.
But in times like this, he couldn’t quite tell if Enrique wanted to kill him or was worried about him.
Passing by the rigid Enrique who had forgotten to make a proper greeting, Nate patted his back. Of course, he didn’t forget to pour out his divine power either. After all, he was aware that he had been too harsh on people today.
“The siege has already been completed. You would have had a hard time if we had passed each other.”
Only then did Enrique quickly compose his expression and bowed his head to report.
“I safely handed over the two people to the guild members at the gate.”
“You didn’t have to rush back, but good work.”
“……”
As he passed him and went down the mountain path again, Nate became lost in thought.
Kaien had said that Nate was a person he could talk to, which was natural. Nate knew very well of another person who showed the same symptoms as that boy.
That person also couldn’t feel emotions from the beginning. He couldn’t empathize at all with why others were suffering or sad, so even if those emotions were explained to him, he couldn’t understand them.
Perhaps more than that is due to physical problems. Because that person’s soul also reacted to sad things by crying and happy things by getting excited, just like others.
The pain felt by their souls is not unfelt. They simply don’t know why it’s painful.
Therefore, their faces often show a radical contrast, smiling while their souls are wailing.
The reason he didn’t realize this when he first met Kaien was because both Kaien’s face and his soul were glaring at him with a pouty face full of discontent.
That child left the world with a gleeful face for the first time, but his soul now…..
His train of thought was interrupted because Enrique, who had been following behind, asked out of the blue.
“Would you like me to carry you, Your Majesty?”
Nate thought, the man before him sure is making strange jokes today.
However, Enrique asked again hesitantly.
“…Are you okay?”
“…?”
What could possibly be wrong?
