“…Ugh.”
Kashian opened his eyes with a low groan.
As his vision cleared, the unfamiliar surroundings came into view.
Beneath a ceiling made of thick logs joined together, a fireplace blazed brightly.
Kashian turned his head with a confused expression, then bit his lip hard without realizing it.
He felt a sharp pain in his thigh.
“Kashian!”
At that moment, someone approached him, trembling with tears in their eyes.
Selenea, wearing a loose robe that seemed like it belonged to someone else, was looking at him with tear-filled eyes.
“Kashian, are you coming to your senses?!”
“Ah… Miss?”
Suddenly recalling the moments before he collapsed, Kashian was startled and tried to get up.
But someone pressed firmly against his chest, preventing him from rising, and he collapsed back down weakly.
A strange man was looking down at him.
“Who are you…?”
Kashian’s face hardened with suspicion.
“Hey! How can you press the patient down so hard!”
“…Better than him getting up on his own and reopening the wound.”
“But still! He’s the one who saved my life! I want him to be treated with care.”
When Selenea shouted in a stern voice, the man reluctantly nodded.
Kashian squinted and looked back and forth between the two.
Then he suddenly exclaimed, “Ah! So this is the friend you told me about!”
At those words, the man’s gaze slowly shifted toward Selenea.
She glanced back at him awkwardly, then cleared her throat and nodded.
“Uh… yes. We… met by chance in the forest…”
“By chance in the cursed land?”
Kashian’s confused expression quickly turned into a bright smile as he nodded.
“Indeed, an incredible coincidence! Meeting a friend by chance in the cursed land. I’ve never heard such a story before.”
Selenea stared at him in disbelief, then suddenly, as if recalling something, she slapped Kashian on the shoulder.
“Ugh…”
Kashian groaned softly from the pain caused by the wound on his shoulder where she had hit him.
But Selenea seemed unaware of this and just looked at Kashian with a resentful expression.
“Kashian, why didn’t you listen to me and stubbornly fought the monster? Do you know you almost died?!”
“B-but I couldn’t just leave you behind, Miss. As I said then, if I had…”
Kashian’s face turned pale as he imagined whatever terrible fate she was thinking of.
“I might have met a worse fate than being attacked by monsters…”
“But still! Luckily we met Lu… no, Tatios. If it weren’t for him, we would’ve been monster food for sure!”
Selenea nodded toward the black-haired man beside her.
Kashian looked at the man with a puzzled expression.
“This man helped us?”
Selenea nodded.
“Yes. Fortunately, he has the power of animal taming.”
“Taming…?”
“Yes. Although I didn’t expect that to include monsters.”
“What?!”
Kashian stared wide-eyed at the man before him.
“T-that’s the ability the first emperor had…”
The man looked at him calmly, his golden eyes shining indifferently.
“That’s right, the same one. Though it’s not an extraordinary ability yet.”
Kashian muttered with a dumbfounded look.
“I heard it’s a very rare power. I never thought Miss’s friend would have it too… This too is quite a coincidence…”
Selenea sighed deeply, looking down at Kashian as if frustrated.
“That’s not the important thing right now. Kashian, you have a hole in your thigh.”
“Ah…”
Only then did he become aware of the pain in his leg and frowned.
Selenea, her face full of worry, grasped his hand tightly and spoke.
“Dawn is coming soon. Then we’ll leave the forest and head to the village. We’ll need to find a doctor…”
Her expression darkened.
“I wonder if there’s a doctor in this countryside village who can use healing abilities…”
At that, Kashian’s eyes lit up.
“Oh, don’t worry about that! Sir Ansen left some healing potions at the inn! I kept one just in case.”
Selenea’s face visibly brightened.
“Really? But will that be enough? The wound looks deeper than I thought…”
“I’ve seen soldiers drink that potion before battles and their arms, which were half torn, healed up. It should be fine!”
Selenea’s worried face slowly relaxed.
She murmured softly.
“…As expected, it really is useful.”
“Huh?”
Selenea quickly wiped her expression away and shrugged.
“Never mind. For now, Kashian, get some more rest. It’s still some time before dawn.”
Kashian looked at her confusedly.
But as she covered him with a thick blanket up to his neck, he soon slipped into a deep sleep as if fainting.
Under the bluish dawn sky, Rubel muttered quietly as he walked.
“You said you came to help me.”
They were on the path to the village, moving as soon as the day broke.
Selenea asked from behind.
“…Is he that heavy?”
“Well, try carrying him yourself.”
Rubel smiled faintly, and on his back, Kashian hung limp as if unconscious, sleeping.
He even breathed in colorful, calm rhythms, looking quite comfortable.
Selenea, watching him for a while, shook her head quietly.
“I’d really like to take turns carrying him, but if I do, his leg will drag on the ground, so I’ll pass.”
Rubel’s lips curled faintly.
“It’s not just because you don’t want to carry him, is it?”
Selenea cleared her throat awkwardly and shook her head.
“Of course not!”
She quickly added,
“I’ll repay you a hundred, no, a thousand times over later for all the trouble you had because of me and Kashian today. I always pay my debts.”
Rubel couldn’t hold back and chuckled softly.
Looking at Selenea with the corner of his eyes, he muttered as if he couldn’t help it.
“I don’t know if you’re smart or just stupid.”
“What?”
“Think about it. You shouldn’t be the one asking me for a favor.”
Selenea’s eyes widened. Rubel’s face still held a gentle smile.
“It’s because you hold my weakness.”
At those low words, Selenea’s eyes widened in surprise. Her mouth slowly opened.
Breaking the silence, Selenea said,
“…Wow, I’m not that much of a scoundrel.”
“Scoundrel?”
Selenea nodded, looking unfairly wronged.
“Threatening someone by holding their weakness — it’s exactly the kind of thing I hate. Well, of course, sometimes such measures are necessary. But I would never do that to you! What do you take me for…”
“…”
“Wait. Have I looked like that kind of person until now?”
Selenea asked seriously.
Rubel looked at her, then averted his eyes forward, as if about to laugh again.
He tried to suppress the smile creeping to his lips and answered reluctantly.
“…No, not at all.”
But Selenea strode past him and pressed him.
“Then why does your face say otherwise?”
Finally, Rubel’s lips broke into a smile.
“It’s true. You said you came to help me. I believed that, so I followed you.”
But then his voice grew a little bitter.
“I also thought it wouldn’t hurt to get some help from someone for once.”
Noticing the subtle change in expression, Selenea fell silent.
After a few seconds, she cautiously spoke.
“I have a question.”
“Ask.”
“…The name ‘Tatios’ — did you choose it yourself?”
Rubel shook his head without a word.
“No, my mother gave it to me.”
His eyes slowly darkened as he remembered the moment he received the name ‘Tatios.’
The night after his father died and the funeral barely ended.
On that day of a sudden storm, thunder crashed as heavy rain poured down.
His mother, with a sad face he had never seen before, tightly buttoned her collar and said,
“Rubel, from now on your name is Tatios. It means hope… my beloved son.”
Her voice was calm and serious.
Rubel knew then he had to leave.
No, it would be more accurate to say he knew he must leave.
He left the palace pushed forward by circumstances.
After barely escaping the territory, he traveled on horseback for a long time.
When too exhausted to continue, he stayed somewhere for a few days, then set out again at dawn, repeating this cycle.
After many days and nights of travel, he reached Flau, but the one who gave him his name had left him.
From then on, he was completely alone.
For the first few months, he barely survived by begging in the back alleys of the market.
Time passed slowly, and with the help of villagers, he finally found a place to live.
Then news came that felt like the world was falling apart.
His mother had passed away, following his father.
“Did you hear? It looks like the kingdom is going to fall.”
“I heard. The empress passed away, but there’s no one to hold the funeral…”
“The whereabouts of the crown prince are still unknown?”
“Prince? Don’t talk nonsense. The new emperor’s already in the territory, and bloodshed is underway.”
Hearing merchants whispering like this, Rubel thought:
If I had known things would end like this…
If I had known I’d never see my mother again…
…I wouldn’t have left.
I would have stayed in the palace, by my mother’s side.
That night I left her behind became a deep regret for me.
A huge, deep regret.
But there was no time to mourn.
I had to survive on my own.
Prince Rubel Albertine was dead, and there was no place to return to.
So since my powers awakened, I’ve been coming and going in the cursed land.
Dangerous to others, but the safest place for me.
The deserted land is fertile, and I monopolized its resources.
Consciously trying not to recall the past I left behind in the territory, that’s how I’ve lived.
“…That was already ten years ago.”
His gaze shifted to Selenea walking behind him.
“So suddenly.”
Rubel Albertine.
A name that had faded away, long forgotten.
He recalled Selenea standing in the middle of the market, her long hair fluttering in front of the inn.
Among the many people, her bright blonde hair stood out strangely.
It was unusually hard to look away when their eyes met.
As if she somehow already knew this would happen.
Rubel withdrew his gaze from her and shook his head to dispel the thoughts swirling in his mind.
At that moment, a bright, cheerful voice came from behind, just like during the day.
“Then I guess we should only call you Rubel when it’s just the two of us. Such a pretty name, it’d be a shame not to use it.”
Selenea smiled kindly, her eyes curling gently
