Chapter 147
The warmth and harmony that had filled the room was instantly shattered.
The dad’s expression turned cold at the arrival of the unwelcome visitor.
His request was simple.
“I wish to speak with Arellin in private.”
Her dad snorted.
“What bullshit is that?”
His finely crinkled eyes were smiling, but there was no laughter in his cold pupils.
The air sharpened like a slash.
“Ah…”
Mehen’s forehead clenched at the impending doom.
Her father’s strong arms around her made it hard to breathe, but she was in no mood to complain.
Duke Regent and Valar at loggerheads.
‘I thought it was…’
What?
Valar glared at Duke Regent, but it didn’t look like something was going to happen anytime soon.
It wasn’t hard to figure out why. Duke Regent was ignoring him and looking at Arellin.
“…”
“…”
Their eyes met.
For a moment, she was surprised.
There was no light in Duke Regent’s eyes as he looked at her, and it felt so strange to see them so empty, as if his soul had been sucked out of him.
“If you have something to say, say it here, in my presence.”
“I have nothing to discuss with you. I ask to speak with Arellin alone.”
“My daughter is the one who has nothing to talk to you about. Do you still think you have the upper hand? You seem to have forgotten where we are.”
“I haven’t forgotten, I’m in Halbern.”
It’s weird.
Duke Regent, who had always been so sneering, mean, and arrogant, was strangely, very strangely low-key.
It seemed so strange to her.
He used to shudder at the mere mention of the ‘b’ in Valar, and now he’s so meek in front of her dad?
“What’s he up to?”
It wasn’t strange that her dad was so wary. It’s the opponent.
But why was he…
“I’ll talk to him.”
“Arel.”
She smiled broadly as she faced her dad, who grabbed her urgently.
“It’s okay, Dad.”
“…”
He looked up at her, his purple eyes colored with worry.
“If anything happens…”
“Nothing will. You’ll protect me, right?”
“But.”
“I want to talk to him, too.”
Dad frowned, still reluctant, but she hesitated, wondering if he could object.
“Nothing will happen, My Lord. Arel’s room is safe.”
Valar stepped back only after Mehen joined him.
Valar snarled fiercely at Duke Regent.
“Then your shadow will bite you, too.”
“Leave.”
The shadows backed away at Duke Regent’s command, Dad and Mehen left the room, looking reluctant.
A thud.
The door slams shut, leaving Arellin and Duke Regent alone in the room.
‘What is he going to say?’
She asked herself, her heart racing with nervousness as they stood alone.
Should she ask him first?
What is she going to do with this atmosphere, she thought.
Suddenly, Duke Regent knelt down.
“…?”
She blinked in surprise at the incomprehensibility of the situation, and Duke Regent opened his mouth with a look of disbelief.
“I’m sorry.”
What did she just see?
‘Ooh, are you crying?!’
***
In front of Arellin’s door.
Mehen furrowed his brow as he watched Valar pacing like a madman in front of the tightly closed doorway.
“Do you think you’ll be able to hear what’s going on inside?”
“No. It’s well soundproofed.”
“It’s the latest in magickal architecture. Arel seemed to be staying up a lot at night, so I had it newly constructed.”
“…”
This would have been a good time to say something out of character, but there was no response.
“My Lord.”
“…”
“Valar.”
“…”
Mehen sighed softly, seemingly at peace, but Valar was clearly pushed to the limit.
He could tell by the way he paced the doorway, unable to leave easily, anxious and in danger of being taken away again at any moment.
‘But.’
Mehen didn’t think Duke Regent would be so crazy as to kidnap Arellin again.
As the one who had inadvertently spent the most time talking to Duke Regent in the past week, he was being objective.
Information that only Mehen would know, as he had been forced to maintain his most rational demeanor by the two bombs that had kept him up at night waiting for Arellin to wake up.
‘It was Duke Regent who provided the information that the Matap had broken into Castle Locke to kidnap Arellin.’
Mehen suddenly wondered why Matap, but thanked Duke Regent for the rare information anyway.
If Mehen was surprised by anything, it was that Duke Regent was not as truthful as he thought. He was surprisingly communicative, and strangely easy to deal with.
He even seemed to have a bit of a chill about him. It didn’t make sense that Duke Regent of Heaven would be dead, but that’s what Mehen felt.
Besides…
Mehen thought as he watched Valar stare at the doorway, as if wondering when he would come out.
‘You two, you look alike.’
Halbern’s death was shocking.
He should have known from the moment Valar blurted out what he thought he’d never hear.
‘What could possibly be good about this guy?’
What really distracted Mehen from the shocking truth that was being spoken so casually was the complex history of hatred and resentment that Valar had built up over the years.
Did he even know why Sione had entrusted him with Arellin, or what it meant?
‘I don’t know.’
Even his outright hostility toward Duke Regent was born of the trauma of not being able to protect his brother.
Mehen knew what it meant for Valar to show such emotion when he was so used to hiding it.
That the one thing Valar truly hated, wanted to destroy, wanted to kill, was himself.
“Ha.”
Mehen raised a brow.
‘Sione, how did you raise him to be such a complicated creature?’
She remembered Sione’s face, long ago, when she’d said with a troubled smile, ‘You’ll never be a normal person.’
… He didn’t realize then that’s what she meant.
Mehen sighed with a mixture of emotions as he looked at Valar, who looked like he was about to burst through the door at any moment.
“Valar.”
Valar stared at the door, which still wouldn’t open.
“But you saved me.”
Standing like a gargoyle, froze.
Mehen opened his mouth to speak, his feelings somewhat mixed.
Whatever self-reproach the Valar was feeling, whatever anguish he was experiencing.
“If it weren’t for you, I would have wandered the streets, starved to death, or been sold into slavery.”
For Mehen, it was a savior.
“You’re the one who made me whole and useful, Valar, when I was destined to end my life as a street beggar.”
“…”
“That one thing doesn’t change.”
Mehen laughed as Valar looked back at him with a broken expression.
Mehen thought that maybe, just maybe, he and Valar had finally become proper friends.
***
She was not mistaken.
Duke Regent was crying.
“Uh…”
She stiffened in embarrassment, not knowing what to say, so she kept her mouth shut, but Duke Regent, whose face was expressionless and dripping with tears, opened it heavily.
“I know that no matter what I say, you will never forgive me.”
He said, as if he’d already been through this once, as if he didn’t dare hope for forgiveness.
“I’m sorry.”
“…”
“I’m sorry.”
She just sat there, stunned.
It was the first time she’d ever seen a grown man cry…
“Uh…”
She honestly doesn’t know what to say. She had no idea what it meant to see a man who had never cried while clinging to Sione crying at her.
She was just embarrassed by everything.
“I did wrong.”
Of course he was wrong.
“I did everything wrong.”
She is glad she didn’t.
Because this arrogant human being, who she thought was unbreakable even in death, is on his knees in front of her, and he’s saying this, and it’s so strange…
“I don’t want anything from you.”
As if she dared, Duke Regent pleaded with her.
“You don’t have to call me dad. I’ll do anything you want. You can ignore me, just let me be there.”
“…”
“So I can watch you grow up.”
