Chapter 72
“You don’t have to sacrifice yourself like this alone, Promeon. You’re not the only one who bears the duty of saving this country! After you devote everything for the sake of humanity, what on earth will you have left for yourself?”
“I still have you. Don’t cry, my beloved Hermane. Now I must go.”
“…If you must go, then I suppose you must. You really have no intention of changing your mind until the very end.”
Tears glimmered on the female lead’s face as proof of her impassioned performance, and the male lead, too, wore an expression of barely restrained sobs.
When the man approached the woman, gently pressed his lips to hers, and soothed her tenderly, some audience members who had been watching in rapt attention were moved by their heartrending farewell and began to sniffle.
Jade’s eyes, however, remained dry. As he looked indifferently at the actors portraying a distant shadow of the past, he swallowed a silent lament for the misunderstandings of later generations.
‘They’ve interpreted it completely backwards.’
Unlike the fake Promeon onstage, the real Promeon who had once walked this land never set out to steal fire for such noble and grand reasons.
The behavior of the fake Hermane was also entirely off the mark. Clinging to a hero and weeping, begging him not to sacrifice himself—Jade, who had lived through countless ages, had never even imagined his lover acting that way.
If one were to forcibly revise that script to align it with the truth, it should have been Hermane who left for the palace of the gods with a resolute expression, and Promeon who clung to her.
But even that would have been closer to a lie than the truth. Hermane was never someone who would commit theft. Nor would she have deceived and used her friend Pellene in such a manner.
It was because Hermane was so honest that Promeon loved her, and because she was so utterly unfamiliar with deceit that he made that choice.
You people of this era may not know this, but a king’s lover is someone who can sacrifice anything for the king.
“Please come back safely, Hermane.”
The fake Promeon made his gentle promise, then turned with an elegant gesture and exited the stage. Left alone, Hermane collapsed onto the stage and wept softly beneath the gradually dimming lights.
For a moment, darkness filled the grand hall. As Jade waited for the next act with a lukewarm heart, a faint noise came from the back of the auditorium.
“…!”
Jade’s eyes widened as he sharply turned around.
It was a sound so small that it would hardly register to others’ ears, but his hearing—far beyond the human range—reacted sensitively.
Perhaps it was also because the person who made the sound was someone Jade was always observing closely.
Even when he appeared to be focusing on other mundane matters, in truth his attention was forever drawn in one direction.
Noxia Decan, who had been watching the play from the very back row, suddenly sprang to her feet and rushed out of the auditorium. It happened without warning.
Jade quietly stood up and followed Noxia Decan out of the hall, keeping his body low so as not to draw the attention of the other humans.
The young human seated beside Noxia Decan followed her with a startled expression. It was only natural to be surprised when one’s lover suddenly bolted out in the middle of a performance.
Concealing his presence, Jade approached Elenen Hermeon and muddled the prince’s senses.
The prince, wearing a face full of worry as he chased after his lover, inadvertently lost his way. Running in a completely different direction from Noxia Decan, he called out her name.
Jade quietly watched Elenen Hermeon disappear in the wrong direction. Then, like a shadow, he moved again and went in search of Noxia Decan.
‘Where are you?’
Where could Noxia Decan be now, after fleeing as if in escape, her breath ragged with instability?
‘Where did you go?’
Tracing the lingering traces in the air, Jade determined the direction. Noxia Decan’s trail led all the way outside the building. He opened the door and stepped out. Warm air enveloped him.
Jade spotted Noxia not far away. Seeing her crouched against the wall, he frowned.
“Miss Decan.”
What was with that posture, like a drunk who could barely hold herself upright? Jade approached Noxia with eyes filled with both puzzlement and concern.
“Miss Decan, are you all right?”
A strong sense of déjà vu washed over him. Perhaps, in this life, it is my fate to always ask you that question—whether you’re all right—to catch you when you fall, to erase the vermin that torment you.
“Miss Decan.”
Jade stepped right up to her and lowered himself as well. He didn’t want to startle her, but he wanted to see her face, and before he knew it, he reached out toward her.
She had been hugging her knees, burying her face in her sleeves. The moment his hand touched her shoulder, she jerked her head up. Jade flinched and pulled his hand back.
“…Why did you come?”
Noxia Decan whispered as she spoke. And the moment he realized that she was lowering her speech toward him, Jade Lanon felt his heart plunge.
“Did you come to kill me again?”
The alien presence wearing the shell of Noxia Decan asked sorrowfully. A soul trapped in a body that was never truly its own plaintively questioned the one who had imprisoned it in the first place.
“Did you come looking for me to do that again this time?”
Jade Lanon— the primordial hero Promeon—could not answer the king’s question.
thirty minutes earlier.
As the dimmed lights brightened again and the actors’ performance resumed onstage, Noxia was seized by an inexplicable sense of anxiety.
She wanted to run away immediately. A powerful impulse told her she had to leave before the play continued any further.
Yet, for now, it was not instinct but common sense and reason that governed her.
The play had barely begun—she couldn’t just bolt out without warning. Noxia Decan was not such a rude person.
‘It’s not like it isn’t interesting.’
Ignoring the sensation of a transparent noose tightening steadily around her neck, Noxia tried to objectively dissect this feeling.
If it wasn’t boredom, why did she feel like she wanted to flee the auditorium?
What she was feeling now was not tedium, but fear. Noxia could not understand her own terror.
‘What on earth am I afraid of…?’
The genre of the play wasn’t horror, and the students gathered here weren’t charging at her with weapons.
The actors were busy acting, the audience was busy being immersed, and no one was threatening Noxia. It was all a delusion. No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t even identify a reason.
Though her mind accepted that conclusion, the choking sensation did not fade. Noxia unconsciously raised her hand and rubbed the back of her neck. She felt as though she might sense the coarse texture of a thick rope at any moment.
While Noxia fought her quiet battle, the play went on. The story of Promeon and Hermane unfolded onstage, and as she watched the actors’ performance, Noxia felt an ever-deepening sense of alienation.
‘It’s irritating.’
She thought without realizing it. Every single line the actors spoke, every gesture of their hands, even the tiniest movement of their eyes, inexplicably grated on her nerves.
‘Why? It’s not like they’re acting badly, and I can’t even pinpoint a reason…’
Objectively, the play itself was excellent. Even to Noxia, who knew nothing about acting, it was clear.
Without realizing it, Noxia squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in both hands. Wondering if she might simply be too tired, she lowered her head and focused on steadying her breathing.
When she lowered her hands and raised her head again a moment later, her field of vision had changed.
<I told you to run away so many times—why are you still here?>
Her heart dropped. Her mouth went dry as her pupils trembled minutely. Noxia stared blankly with her mouth slightly open.
<Well, it’s not like this is your fault. There’s another fool who still can’t let go of his obsession.>
Up until the moment she closed her eyes, she had been sitting in an auditorium filled with people. But when she opened them, everything was gone. On the empty stage and in the empty seats, only two figures remained.
<I suppose it’s a relief that you weren’t completely bewitched by him. When you first seemed to waver, you have no idea how worried I was.>
No—could this even be called a person? A being with long, shimmering silver-white hair, irises pale like faded paint, floating eerily like a ghost as it glared at Noxia.
<You’re really persistent, aren’t you? You’ve become far more sinister than before. I’ll admit that thanks to that child lingering by your side, you escaped danger many times—but even so, I just can’t bring myself to think kindly of him.>
The ghostlike being extended a hand and slowly caressed Noxia’s frozen cheek. As if gazing upon something precious, pitiable, and grotesque all at once, it contorted its face with an emotion she couldn’t decipher.
<If that child hadn’t dragged me here in the first place, I wouldn’t be like this now. So in the end, it’s all self-inflicted. If he hadn’t caused trouble to begin with, there’d have been no need to clean up the mess.>
A dream. An auditory hallucination. Madness. What was the right word for this phenomenon? Had she truly gone insane for some reason? Or else…
<Run away, Noxia.>
The ghost—no. The remnant of a previous life, worrying desperately about its present self, whispered earnestly.
<Run away, Noxia Decan. Before he breaks you.>
In this life as well, she had inevitably remembered.
<I hope that this time, at least, you can die in peace.>
A searing headache struck Noxia. It felt as though someone had wrapped a rope around her neck and was pulling with all their strength. When the ghostlike form suddenly collapsed into blood-red fragments, Noxia gasped in shock.
Jade Lanon heard that gasp. Jade Lanon. The young master of the North. The one who had deceived everyone and lived an unbearably long life.
‘…Promeon.’
Ah.
Ahh.
I remember now. Who you are. Who I was.
Noxia Decan trembled violently in her seat. Onstage, the fake Promeon and the fake Hermane were exchanging their heartrending farewell. Sniffling from the absorbed audience echoed through the hall.
Noxia stood up. Without hearing Elenen Hermeon calling her name, she left the auditorium. She ran like someone being chased.
Staggering like a drunk, she finally made it outside the building. Breathing in the damp afternoon air, she leaned against the wall. Drawing her knees up, she curled into herself like a child and buried her face in her sleeves.
