“Huff…. Huff…..”
I panted heavily, trying to catch my breath. Without looking ahead, I had dashed into yet another seemingly endless hallway.
I had no idea where I was. Though faint sobbing still echoed faintly in my ears, I managed to regain some composure.
Ahead of this endless corridor, I saw another light. It was dimmer than before, more dusky.
Once again, I started walking toward the light. This time, I felt a twinge of fear, wondering what might be waiting for me.
How long had I walked? It didn’t take too long before I found myself standing before a small door, light seeping faintly through its edges.
Hesitantly, I pushed the door open and stepped inside. It wasn’t as dark as the previous corridor, but the dim light barely allowed me to make out the objects ahead.
As I walked through the corridor, I felt an inexplicable mix of familiarity and strangeness all over again.
From the child’s room earlier to the decorations on the walls, it became clear that the owner of this mysterious mansion was likely a noble of considerable status.
The walls of the hallway were lined with antique paintings and ornate decorations. Among them, a few paintings were the works of a famous artist my father had desperately tried to collect.
Of course, he couldn’t afford to spend that kind of money on original artwork, so he had only managed to gather forgeries he could show off to others.
One step, two steps, three steps…… Exactly on the twenty-third step, the corridor ended. A small staircase leading downward came into view.
As if enchanted, I descended the stairs. Soon, I was greeted by a basement dimmer than the corridor above.
The cold air made me shiver, a stark contrast to the warm, coffee-colored antique table at the center of the room.
At the far end of the table sat a man with his back turned toward me, and next to him stood a middle-aged man who seemed to embody the passage of time.
Judging by his neatly polished armor and upright posture, the middle-aged man appeared to be a knight.
“Your Excellency, His Majesty has decreed that you must enter the palace today, no matter what.”
The knight spoke in a pleading voice to the seated man.
He was holding a scroll adorned with golden embroidery, which, judging by his words, seemed to carry a message from the king.
“His Majesty says he can no longer allow Your Excellency to remain in isolation like this. Has it not already been three years since you’ve secluded yourself within this house? At this rate, the long-vacant position in the Council of Chancellors will become precarious.”
“…..”
“They are already raising issues about Your Excellency’s absence. They’re blaming the catastrophic defeat in the recent Ebron Battle on your refusal to participate. Although His Majesty is blocking any motions to have you removed….”
“Let them do as they please.”
The voice, echoing through the cavern-like basement, made me pause in my tracks.
It was a presence so overwhelming that it shattered the dreamlike haze of this place, dragging me abruptly into the cold reality.
‘No way…. Could it be…?’
I found myself moving toward the table. I couldn’t bear the suspense, I had to see with my own eyes.
“Your Excellency, how can you say such a thing? Do you know how far we’ve come, how far you have come to reach this point?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Your Excellency!”
The knight’s shout resounded through the basement.
“Have you forgotten the comrades who gave their lives in countless battles? They all offered their lives without hesitation for Your Excellency. Because you were worth it. Your passion, your ambition, it inspired us, thrilled us to our very cores. We wanted to do anything, we wanted to contribute to the world you would create, to the new history you would make, even if it meant giving our all, but now you……!”
The knight’s desperate shouts, filled with anger and anguish, seemed unable to reach the man.
Instead of a reply, there was the sound of liquid pouring. The knight, overcome with frustration, snatched the bottle from the man.
“Please, snap out of it!”
Crash!
The bottle fell from his hand and shattered into countless pieces. Deep red wine, like blood, spread across the floor.
“Please…..”
The knight slowly fell to his knees, pressing his forehead against the armrest of the man’s chair in an act of submission.
“Please, I’m begging you, come to your senses.”
“…….”
“What is tormenting you so much? What burden weighs on your heart so heavily that it breaks you like this?”
“What burden?”
Creak. The sound of the chair scraping against the floor cut through the silence.
I found myself staring, transfixed, at the shadow that grew as the man rose.
“What burden could there be?”
The man stood, his back turned to the knight.
“There has only ever been one thing for me.”
“Your Excellency!”
The sight of the man turning slowly, as if by some magic, unfolded before my eyes in agonizing detail. I clamped a hand over my mouth.
“Why…?”
Why are you here?
Cliff Moore, why are you here?
Why are you here, of all places?
Shock overtook me, jolting my hazy mind awake in an instant. I stared at the man before me.
Though slightly thinner than I remembered, his features were still striking, with shadows accentuating every contour of his face. His hair, darker than the deepest night. His piercing eyes, glowing an almost unnaturally vivid blue. The sheer, overwhelming presence of his figure that seemed to envelop the entire room in its shadow…..
Something surged within me.
“This can’t be real!”
I ran toward him.
Even as I heard the raw, desperate scream ripping from my throat, even as I knew I must have looked insane, charging at him like an enraged bull, I couldn’t stop myself.
In one breath, I was in front of him.
With all the strength I could muster, I slammed my clenched fists against his chest. Again and again, I struck, pouring all my frustration, disbelief, and fury into each blow.
“This can’t—be happening!”
I wanted to destroy it. This unyielding chest of his, I wanted to shatter it, to lodge a stone within it so he could feel the weight I carried.
But he didn’t move. Not even a flinch.
He merely stood there, staring down at the crimson wine pooling and spreading across the floor, like blood.
I was right in front of him, yet I wasn’t there. In his eyes, I didn’t exist.
“Again? Even after choosing death, I can’t escape you?! Do you have any idea what it took for me to do that? What it cost me to leave you, to leave our child?!”
I was sobbing now, the words pouring out like a dam had burst.
And at the same time, I realized.
A sharp cry.
My child.
The child I had seen, the one so impossibly endearing, whose mere presence melted the ice in my heart, was my child.
How could I not have recognized it?
That soft brown hair, those striking blue eyes, that face that tugged at my heart with a wrenching familiarity, bringing back memories of someone I once loved…..
“How could you do this?! How could you do this to me?!”
I swung my arms wildly, hitting him again and again. If I could have wrapped my hands around his neck and strangled him, I would have.
“Why won’t you let me go?! Why do you hold onto me, even to the bitter end?! How could you—?!”
“Ezen….”
Suddenly, he raised his head.
For the first time, there was a flicker of life in those once-dead eyes.
“Ezen..?”
He repeated the name. His voice, usually so firm and unyielding, now trembled faintly. It was as if he couldn’t believe it or, perhaps, as if he desperately wanted to believe it.
“My lord, what are you saying….”
“Ezen….. is that you?”
His eyes darted around frantically, his head turning so quickly I thought his neck might snap. The unstable, feverish way he scanned the room made me freeze in place.
“My lord! Please, get a hold of yourself! Return to the great man you once were!”
“Silence!”
His command echoed like thunder, silencing the knight immediately.
I stood frozen, my hands still mid-swing against his chest.
“Ezen? Is it really you? Answer me.”
Suddenly, he stumbled backward, his movements erratic. He stretched his arms out, searching, as if trying to grasp something invisible.
“Where are you? Are you here?”
“My lord, what has come over you?! Please, regain your composure! This isn’t like you!”
“I said, be quiet!”
“Be quiet. I can’t hear it. The voice I just heard, your noise drowned it out…”
“Your Excellency, please!”
He muttered to himself, then looked around again, as if desperately searching for something he was determined to find.
The knight wailed.
“She’s gone! Dead!”
Grabbing the arm that was choking his neck, the knight cried out desperately.
“She no longer exists in this world! Please, Your Excellency, come to your senses. Don’t abandon us, those who follow you, those who wait only for you—”
“No, that can’t be true.”
He murmured, flatly denying the knight’s words, as if he hadn’t heard the plea at all.
But his faint voice betrayed him, as though he already knew the truth himself.
“I buried her with my own hands!”
The knight was close enough to hear his voice clearly.
“With my own hands! I covered her body with earth. You saw it too, Your Excellency. You were there, weren’t you? You saw everything with your own eyes and confirmed it yourself! Please, Your Excellency, don’t frighten us like this. I beg you.”
“…..”
A heavy silence filled the space. The only sound was the knight’s increasingly ragged breathing as the grip on his neck tightened.
