TYHL SS 32 💫

~Side Story 32~

“Haa… Ditrian.”

Leviathan dragged a hand through his hair, clearly irritated.

“When we get back, I’m firing every last inspector.”

He’d been told all safety checks—including landslide risks—were completed before the hunting festival. And yet here they were.

Did the Emperor catch wind of something and intervene ahead of time?

This northern slope had originally been where the Crown Prince was meant to hunt.

Of course, that same Crown Prince was now secretly prowling the southern slope, preparing to ambush the Emperor instead.

If he’d come here as planned, he might’ve ended up in serious trouble.

Just like Leviathan.

“…Feels like I’ve got a heated rock strapped to my back.”

He glanced over his shoulder at the small child he was carrying.

At the slightest movement, her body slid down his back like liquid.

“Hey—watch it.”

The complaint came instantly.

“Is this your first time carrying a kid?”

“Yeah. First time.”

“…Wow.”

“If you’re not confident, then—”

“I handed her to you because you’re not confident.”

Leviathan let out a short groan.

The full weight of the sleeping child pressed against him, unfamiliar and deeply awkward.

“Rosetta!”

At the very last moment, Leviathan had saved Rosetta while she clutched Rubian to her chest.

Even so, all three of them had been swept away by the landslide and sent tumbling down the slope.

They were alive only because of him.

Rosetta glanced at Leviathan.

Because he’d stubbornly shielded both her and the child while rolling, his body was covered in wounds. And yet—he hadn’t made a single sound. It was like watching something beyond human.

“…Where even are we?”

Leviathan muttered.

They were stranded.

Huge rocks and fallen trees lay scattered everywhere, making it impossible to get their bearings.

But the biggest problem—

“Check the kid’s face. She looks like a stone baked in the sun.”

“…Her fever’s really high.”

The child on his back was in bad shape.

“Why was she even there?”

“She followed me.”

“…What?”

“She’s not actually our maid’s daughter. She’s a kid who was captured by the commander.”

“……”

“I helped her escape.”

Rosetta spoke while hurriedly searching nearby caves.

Leviathan shifted the child into his arms.

Her complexion was awful.

She was far too light. Her temperature was burning hot, yet somehow cold at the same time.

A chill crept up the back of his neck.

He found a clean part of his cloak and scrubbed the dirt off her face a little too roughly.

“There’s a cave over there. Let’s move quickly—are you trying to peel her skin off?”

“No. I didn’t realize she was this fragile.”

He’d barely applied any force, yet her pale skin was already flushed red.

An awkward silence settled between them as they moved.

Leviathan studied Rosetta.

“You look… different.”

She really did feel different from earlier.

“The drugs wore off.”

Rosetta answered flatly.

For some reason, her mind was clearer than it had been in a long time.

Maybe it was the extreme physical shock.

Or maybe—

Because there was something she desperately wanted to protect, strong enough to break the conditioning.

“Careful.”

They laid the child down where the rain couldn’t reach.

Leviathan gathered tinder and damp firewood from the cave and somehow managed to get a fire going.

“She’s burning up, but her hands and feet are ice-cold… what do we do?”

“Lay her here.”

Leviathan stripped off the top of his hunting outfit and spread it on the ground.

Thanks to his thick cloak, his inner clothes were only slightly damp.

Rosetta also removed her wet clothes and checked on Rubian in the lightest layers she could manage.

Cold sweat dotted the child’s forehead.

For some reason, it made Rosetta unbearably anxious.

“She’s sick, so we can’t move around. I guess we wait for rescue.”

“Do you have any medicine? Something for fever?”

“I’ve got hemostatics, painkillers, needles and thread. Think any of that helps?”

“You want to sew her?”

“And what exactly do you have?”

“Poison. Sleeping drugs. Explosives.”

“…That’s bleak.”

Between the two of them, their supplies were painfully lacking.

Rosetta sighed.

In the end, they diluted Leviathan’s painkillers and gave her a small dose.

When they saw the tiny throat swallow—

Both of them visibly relaxed.

“Looks like she’s having a nightmare.”

The child shifted restlessly, mumbling something. They leaned in to listen.

“Mom… Dad… no fighting…”

“……”

“If you fight… I can’t get mar—ried to #%@…!”

“…What is she even saying?”

“No idea.”

She kept mumbling, feverish and incoherent, but one thing was clear.

She kept calling for her mom and dad.

“She told me—when we first met in the forest—that she was looking for the parents who abandoned her.”

“…Sounds like she got stuck with some truly awful parents.”

“Seriously hopeless. She’s this small and cute, and they couldn’t even take care of her.”

“In family problems, it’s usually the father who’s the issue.”

“If I meet them, I might assassinate them.”

“……”

“……”

Strange.

They were clearly criticizing some terrible parents.

So why did the back of his neck sting like this?

“So, Rosetta.”

Thunk. Leviathan tossed another log onto the fire.

“About what I said earlier—”

“Let me check outside first.”

Rosetta stood abruptly.

That was when Rubian—fast asleep—rolled over and grabbed Rosetta’s sleeve.

“Uuugh… s’so cold…”

“She’s cold.”

“……”

In the end, Rosetta awkwardly sat back down.

After gently rocking her, the child fell back into a deep sleep—one hand clutching Leviathan’s clothes, the other gripping Rosetta’s.

“……”

“……”

They really did look like incompetent parents.

Still… when she got sick, were they always like this? Staying by her side?

Either way, running away was no longer an option.

“Don’t avoid it. Avoiding it won’t solve anything.”

“……”

“What I said still stands. Destroy the mercenary corps. Then come to me.”

A hot flame flickered in his violet eyes.

“Please… let me help you.”

Rosetta stared at that fire for a long time in silence.

Then, finally, she spoke.

“…The commander used to lock rebellious children in the punishment chamber. He brainwashed them constantly so they couldn’t defy him.”

“……”

“If you grow up there from the age of seven… he really does start to feel like a god.”

Her voice was calm, but it trembled faintly.

“Of course, I struggled. I resisted. But destroying the mercenary corps, or leaving on my own… that was something I couldn’t even imagine.”

“So you waited for him to release you?”

“……”

“Rosetta.”

Leviathan spoke carefully.

“The women who left the mercenary corps. Your colleagues who passed the ‘graduation test.’”

“……”

“…Every single one of them was killed by the commander shortly after returning to the outside world.”

Crack.

A log burst in the fire.

Rosetta closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“…I see.”

It was the first time she’d heard this.

And yet, somehow, it didn’t shock her.

Maybe she’d already suspected it, deep down.

The commander was that kind of man.

He would never let living evidence of an illegal mercenary corps walk free.

Giving them false hope—just enough to keep them alive—had probably been necessary.

“I wanted to scour the entire world to find a way to break the curse. I wanted to save them. But maybe… getting their keepsake boxes back was the best I could’ve done.”

Rosetta laughed bitterly.

Leviathan clenched his fist.

He had to stop himself from pulling her shaking shoulders into his arms.

“…How did the keepsake box get taken from you?”