* * *
Haen left, and Herel, left alone, looked at the bars in front of him with a bored expression.
Being imprisoned was something he had anticipated would come someday, so it was fine, but…
“I didn’t expect him not to torture me.”
Does he not care about getting the information?
Or is he overconfident that Vivisian’s information will fall into his hands eventually?
Thinking that whatever it was, he didn’t like it, Herel clasped his hands together.
To show that the purpose was appeasement, not punishment, Herel’s treatment wasn’t bad, except for the fact that he was locked in the very last room where Vivisian used to stay.
Herel, confined to the most dilapidated part of the prison, remained calm throughout.
‘If you want to get out of here, you will have to tell me the information.‘
‘Information? What information?‘
‘Information about Vivi.‘
Haen, who suddenly came to mind, said in a determined tone that he wanted ‘Information about Vivi.’ Herel twisted his lips at the unpleasant memory.
“Vivi? Vivi? That Siameless bastard.”
He must be insane.
Otherwise, he couldn’t possibly call Vivisian ‘Vivi’.
“Well, he’s been insane since way back.”
Muttering that he still disliked it, Herel closed his eyes.
Letting out a deep sigh, he then forcefully gripped his hands with a troubled face.
Herel furrowed his brow, clutching his hands tightly together.
He couldn’t think of a plan to escape this situation where Haen had imprisoned him while searching for Vivisian.
Haen seemed busy, yet he showed his face every day, and not only that.
Seeing him persistently ask where Vivisian was, as if he never grew tired of it, suggested he wouldn’t let Herel go easily.
A few days before he was locked up at Haen’s command, Herel had disposed of all the documents he had collected in case of an emergency.
If he hadn’t, he might have had to hand over the information directly to the suddenly arriving Haen.
Herel pounded his chest at the thought, which made his stomach churn.
“Son of a bitch. Bastard. Fucking idiot. Goddamn asshole.”
Muttering all kinds of insults, Herel let out another deep sigh.
He felt suffocated.
He was imprisoned, unable to do anything, in a situation where Vivisian’s information needed to be erased.
He couldn’t help but feel frustrated.
All Herel, locked in prison, could do was pray that Julie and his subordinates were properly concealing Vivisian’s information.
“If the one after Vivisian’s information wasn’t Haen, that bastard…”
If the opponent hadn’t been Haen, he wouldn’t have been this tense.
Haen had a cruel side, unlike a high-ranking noble, so Herel couldn’t let his guard down.
Vivisian, in the information Herel had painstakingly gathered, breaking through the Duchy’s tight security, looked happier than ever.
He looked so happy that it was impossible to recall the person who would stare blankly at the ceiling in the Teian Duchy and mutter for death when he fell asleep.
Of course, there might be problems or threats that he was unaware of.
But who was by Vivisian’s side?
It was that Prince who would jump into fire and water for Vivisian’s sake.
“That Prince won’t let Vivisian be in danger.”
Hesia was the kind of person who would walk into hell of his own accord for Vivisian.
What could a person who resurrected the dead possibly not be able to do in this world?
Nevertheless, the anxiety was unavoidable.
Herel brought his hands, clenched so tightly that his veins bulged, to his forehead.
Then, in a voice utterly devoid of faith, he mumbled like he was chewing on an expletive.
“Damn Lord, if you truly exist, you can strike a lightning bolt on this unbeliever’s head.
Just look upon Vivisian. I don’t even ask you to take pity on him.
Just, if only for once, look upon and comfort his loneliness. Just once.”
If God did that, He would know how cruel He had been.
Herel didn’t ask for God’s repentance, nor did he ask for forgiveness.
He just wanted God to face the despair of the human being He had cultivated with His own hands.
Herel hadn’t forgotten Vivisian’s despair, which grew rapidly even without being watered.
It had taken Vivisian’s life as its host and had not died.
Even the Prince who performed a miracle, far away, would not be able to completely eliminate that despair.
Despite this, Herel believed that Vivisian would be able to escape despair.
He was certain that he would be completely happy someday.
Vivisian was an existence with an astonishing, limitless potential who could do anything.
If such a person wished it, he would be able to escape despair without the help of others.
The problem was the fundamental question of whether Vivisian, who had chosen death with his own hands, truly wished to escape despair.
Herel’s anxiety, which surfaced repeatedly and never vanished, was based on that very question.
He quickly suppressed the surging anxiety after a moment of thought and leaned his head back.
Herel closed his eyes slowly, his head resting against the hard bed.
All that came into his sight was the ceiling of the cramped underground prison.
Herel smiled bitterly, staring blankly at the dark ceiling without stars or moon.
As his eyes slowly closed, the small window in the wall briefly passed his vision.
The moon was outside the window.
The bright white moon lingered in his mind even after he closed his eyes.
‘Assis, want me to tell you something funny?‘
‘Me? Something funny, all of a sudden?‘
‘Yes. A long time ago, when I was very little. Haen promised me he would pluck down that moon and give it to me. If he couldn’t do that, he said he’d give me something that wouldn’t lose its light even in the darkness.’
‘…That man? No, how did he say such kind words…‘
‘Haha! Yes, that man said that. When I was little, I really hated the dark. And Letiyan, knowing that, often played tricks with the lamp in my room. One day, Haen found out. I was worried he would go and get angry at Letiyan, so he said those words. I will pluck down the moon for you, Vivi…’
‘That’s a bit unbelievable, that story. Ah, of course, I don’t mean that I don’t trust Vivisian, but Haen, that man…’
‘I know. I know. I’m just saying that it happened. Well, he actually said that, and then later he personally threw me into that dark place. Ah, Assis. Did Haen say the same thing to Letiyan? That he would pluck down the moon… If he did, Haen is truly an incorrigible liar. The moon is still floating out there.’
Was it because of the memory of one night when they had to stay up late to process a mountain of piled-up documents?
He had suddenly pointed at the moon with a long finger and smiled more clearly than anyone beneath the pale light, breaking the silence…
He couldn’t be sure.
✽ ✽ ✽
I had an unpleasant dream.
…It was a dream where God appeared and stroked my head.
I won’t bother explaining why it was unpleasant.
Anyway, the dream woke me up, and I glared at the ceiling.
After doing that for a long time, I closed my eyes and was catching my breath when I heard a rustling sound beside me.
Hesia, who had been sleeping soundly with his head on my arm, had woken up.
“You should sleep more. Why did you wake up?”
“Uh-huh, no, I was sleeping, but Vivi’s body suddenly turned cold…”
Hesia mumbled that, without even fully opening his eyes.
I hadn’t realized my body had gotten cold until Hesia mentioned it.
Now that I thought about it, my fingertips did feel a little cool…
As I wiggled my fingers with that thought, Hesia curled his large body into a small ball and burrowed into my embrace as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Watching him, I belatedly remembered that we had been intimate before sleeping.
And that we had fallen asleep like we had passed out, without even washing up.
I blocked Hesia, who was surging toward me like a wave.
Then, Hesia, still unable to open his eyes, let out an annoyed whine.
“I didn’t wash before sleeping. Don’t I smell of sweat?”
I meant that was why he shouldn’t do that.
Hesia snorted once and completely ignored me, pulling me into a tight hug.
“I wiped you down with a wet towel before sleeping. And it’s even better if you smell of sweat…”
“What’s good about that?”
“Ah, I don’t know, I don’t know. All of Vivi’s scents are good, what are you talking about?”
“What are you talking about?”
His words were so perplexing that the absurd and unpleasant dream was momentarily forgotten.
I asked back with a snort of disbelief, but instead of answering, Hesia just nipped at my chest.
“Don’t bite. You’re not a child.”
“You said I was a child sometime.”
“Sia, you said you hate being treated like a child.”
Had he already forgotten the way he would shudder and shout sharply, “Don’t do that!” whenever he was treated like a child?
I rubbed my forehead and muttered like a sigh at his utterly Siameless remark.
Instead of being contrite about my words, Hesia bit my chest a little harder.
“Ow. That’s probably going to leave a tooth mark.”
Hesia licked the spot he bit and mumbled along with my short groan.
“You already have so many tooth marks, adding one more won’t change anything, right? And even if it did change something, only I and Vivi can see it anyway, so who cares?”
“That’s true, wait a minute, why do you see it?”
* * *
