Chapter 123

The small mountain village was surrounded by thick fog. This fog, formed from the surrounding valleys, was hiding the village from the eyes of magical beasts.

Tap, tap. The regular sound of a cane hitting the ground stopped. The cane's owner soon knocked on the cabin door.

Bang! The door opened immediately, revealing Tiron with a fearsome expression. After looking back and forth between Kinaine and Jane, Tiron pressed his forehead.

"I was wondering where you went! Jane, I told you Nine still needs to rest!"

"But the mister really wanted to go out and asked me. And look at that pale face. Anyone can see it says 'needs sunlight' written all over it."

Kinaine's complexion was pale because he was a patient. But Jane, not knowing how sick he was, thought simply.

"And the mister bought me this to thank me for guiding him!"

Jane held out an old paper book she had been carrying at her side. Since there couldn't possibly be a bookstore here, she must have bought it from someone in the village.

"A book? Where would Nine get money?"

"The mister has lots of things. Oh, did you know, Dad? The mister used to be a mercenary. A special class mercenary at that. That's why he has so many scars on his body!"

"Really? Did this mister tell you himself that he was a special class mercenary?"

Tiron snorted with his arms crossed. Jane nodded and whispered in Tiron's ear.

"But I know it's actually a lie. I've seen mercenary men going to hunt magical beasts before, and they were all much bigger and looked fiercer. I heard special class mercenaries are monsters who can kill magical beasts alone, but the mister doesn't look like that at all."

Jane made an expression that said 'I know, but I just played along' and slipped into the cabin.

Kinaine had heard everything but didn't refute it, just smiling slightly. Tiron shot a dissatisfied look at Kinaine.

"See? Our Jane is smart, so she doesn't fall for such lies."

"It's not a lie..."

"I'm sure it isn't."

Kinaine, who had quietly entered the cabin, immediately noticed Tiron's displeasure.

"Don't be angry, Tiron. Later, I won't be able to move even if I want to. I should get around as much as I can while I still can."

"...You know saying that leaves me with nothing to say?"

"I wondered who Jane got her cleverness from, but now I see she takes after her father."

Contrary to his appearance, Kinaine had a glib side. Realizing he couldn't win an argument with him, Tiron swallowed a sigh.

"Nine, I understand how you feel, but don't go around thinking you're still healthy. You're in a state where you can barely feel pain. You might think that's convenient, but it's actually very dangerous."

Three days had passed since Tiron had found Kinaine in the forest. During that time, Tiron had learned that Kinaine was the same age as him, and that he was currently in a state where he had lost a significant portion of his senses and couldn't properly feel pain.

He had thought something was strange. In the three days of diagnosing Kinaine's condition, it had never improved. He couldn't properly digest even the small amount of food he ate and vomited it up, and sometimes he would suddenly get nosebleeds while smiling and conversing normally.

But looking at his outward appearance, he didn't seem like a terminal patient at all. Even the clever Jane hadn't noticed how serious his condition was.

No matter how patient a person is, pain eventually shows on the outside. That's why he had wondered...

'What happened to your knee? It's bleeding!'

'Knee? Where?'

A few days ago, seeing him not even recognizing that his knee was bleeding, perhaps from bumping into something, Tiron had realized. It wasn't that he was enduring—he simply couldn't feel it.

Though Kinaine spoke as if 'it's convenient and good not to need painkillers,' it wasn't a situation that could be dismissed so simply. Pain was a warning from the body. Not feeling pain meant facing dangerous situations directly without any warnings or defensive walls.

"I'm telling you, a patient's job is to rest comfortably. Not going out early in the morning and coming back only in the evening. What have you been doing all day?"

"In the morning, I went to the prayer house."

There was a small building in this village where people could pray before a divine image. It wasn't strange for a terminal patient to pray to the gods, so that was understandable.

"What else did you do? Surely you didn't just pray all day?"

"And... I sold the gold buttons that were on the clothes I was wearing when I arrived. Fortunately, gold still has value even in this remote mountain village."

"You sold that?"

Doubt settled on Tiron's face. Until now, Kinaine hadn't particularly wanted anything except a cane. Even if it was a gold button, he would have had to sell it for a pittance here, so what item did he want so badly?

"What did you buy with it?"

Kinaine answered nonchalantly.

"A coffin and burial clothes."

Tiron's body stiffened. To speak of such things so lightly, as if he'd just been to the market.

"You know the old man who used to be a carpenter in the village. I asked him just in case, and he said he had one he'd made for himself, so I bought it. I guess I need it more urgently than he does."

Continuing calmly, Kinaine scratched his chin.

"Actually, I told Jane I was a mercenary because I thought she would be afraid of me... Don't children usually fear mercenaries? I wondered why she just found it interesting, but it turns out she didn't believe me from the start."

Watching Kinaine mutter as if troubled, Tiron finally sighed openly.

"...If you were trying to distance yourself by pretending to be scary, you should at least remove that bird from your shoulder."

Kinaine answered while gently patting the bird's head on his shoulder.

"I want to keep it with me for now."

"Why, afraid it'll get eaten by wild animals if you release it? With that one's temperament, it seems more likely to be the other way around."

At Tiron's words, which seemed to harbor a grudge against Chirpy, Kinaine merely shrugged. There was no need to mention that Chirpy was serving as his eyes.

"Well, I'd like Jane to take care of Chirpy later. This one has nowhere to go."

Since he had unintentionally brought it all the way to the human realm. Until Runamoon appeared again, it couldn't return even if it wanted to.

Kinaine joked to the silent Tiron.

"Tiron, don't bully Chirpy when I'm gone."

"...I'm not worried about bullying it, I'm worried it will bully me!"

Though he answered playfully, Tiron's complicated feelings were clearly felt, so Kinaine didn't joke any further.

"Dad, read me the book!"

It was after dinner. Jane came with the gift Kinaine had given her and handed the book to Tiron.

"This is..."

Tiron's eyes narrowed as he confirmed the book's title.

Earlier, he had been too busy scolding the patient who had gone out on his own to examine it carefully, but this book contained a story that everyone in the kingdom knew.

"'The Brave Prince Story,' right?"

Tiron saw Kinaine's shoulder, sitting across from him, twitch slightly. Perhaps Kinaine also thought he had bought too obvious a book.

Tiron looked at Jane with an awkward smile.

"That's right. This is already a famous story, so maybe we don't need to read it?"

"But I want to hear it!"

Tiron didn't particularly want to read it, but he couldn't refuse the child whose face was flushed with expectation. So with reluctance, he began.

"Once upon a time, there were two princes in a kingdom..."

The evil first prince and the brave second prince.

The evil first prince, jealous of his more talented younger brother, eventually turns to black magic, a forbidden power.

Chaos comes to the world because of the evil first prince. Forests and rivers are polluted, and cities where people lived turn to stone.

Tiron's voice trembled subtly as he read that part.

'The Brave Prince Story' was a fairy tale made from an actual event.

The story ends with the brave second prince killing the evil first prince, and peace returning to the world.

"...And they lived happily ever after."

By the time the story ended, Jane was nodding off in her chair. Tiron closed the book, carried Jane to bed, and came back out. Kinaine was still sitting in the same place, but somehow he felt like a stranger. It seemed to be because of the atmosphere that had somehow become subdued, unlike usual.

Well, anyone who knew the truth would inevitably find this story unsettling. Tiron's mood had also become quite low while reading the book.

He sat down across from Kinaine and muttered.

"I used to like the king too. He was a hero who defeated the evil black mage. Everyone probably did, but I had even more reason to. It was as if the king had taken revenge for me."

Kinaine raised his head as if to ask what he meant. Tiron's face was reflected in his pitch-black eyes.

"The city turned to stone in this story, Jinaks."

"..."

"That was my hometown."

In that moment, Tiron saw Kinaine's face contort. As if feeling terrible pain.

Tiron was startled by an expression he had never seen before.

"Are you alright?"

"...Jinaks was your hometown?"

"That's right. I was lucky. I was working at the medical center in the capital, so I survived. But my family... The brave prince, how ridiculous. The current king only commits vile and evil deeds just like his brother."

Tiron smiled bitterly as he looked at the book on the table.

"But I want to send Jane to the safe capital at least. There must be more interesting books than this one left in the capital."

Tiron stood up. It was time to sleep as the night had grown late.

He asked Kinaine, who was still sitting.

"Aren't you going to sleep?"

"You go first. I'll stay up a bit longer."

He wanted to nag that sleeping well was important too, but seeing Kinaine's dark expression, somehow the words wouldn't come out. Tiron turned his back on Kinaine and went in to lie down next to Jane.