Chapter 49

“Hey, Mile. Hand over the basket!”

“…I can just carry it myself, though?”

“You need to go back to the store. How long are you planning to hang around here?!”

Fiercely slapping the back of Mile, who was fidgeting unnecessarily beside them, Lila swiftly snatched the basket. Mile left first, shuffling away as if he had no choice. Only then did Lila turn to Azar and say, “You said you needed Pleria, right? We’d better hurry.”

Lila glanced up at the darkening sky and frowned slightly, moving her legs busily. Azar followed behind Lila, who was two heads shorter than him, and began retracing the path they had taken. The scent of rain was strong from all directions.

Whoosh—!

The blowing wind was getting stronger, causing the cloths scattered here and there to flap noisily without restraint.

“I don’t really feel like climbing a mountain on a rainy day. But we’re not in a position to be picky about cold or hot water, so I hope you pay us a lot in return.”

“Of course. If you’re really worried, I can give you half in advance now.”

“Oh my, that would be great.”

At those words, Lila suddenly stopped walking and held out her hand with a delighted expression. Seeing the palm extended right in front of him, Azar placed silver coins equal to the price of the herbs on top of Lila’s hand. Although it was close to the original amount despite mentioning half earlier, Lila simply raised her eyebrows once and smiled brightly.

“That’s just the right amount. If you give too much money, it would be suspicious, and I would have backed out of this job.”

“I’d rather not have any misunderstandings either. I’m just trying to obtain the herbs as quickly as possible for my sick friend.”

“Oh my, you have a good friend.”

“I can only hope that kid thinks the same way.”

At that moment, the wind blew fiercely.

“That kid said I was kind.”

“Pardon?”

The sound of the wind rushing through the alleys sounded like a person’s voice.

“…I was just acting the way I always do, but to be called kind for that, I wonder what they would say if I did something truly kind…”

Thanks to that, the words Azar uttered were scattered in the air, mixed with the wind.

“Geez, look at this wind! What did you say just now?”

Azar shook his head slightly at Lila, indicating it was nothing. Fortunately, Lila didn’t ask twice. Azar gracefully smiled as he brushed his hair that had been ruffled by the wind, even though no one was watching. Unconsciously, he blurted out those words and inwardly thought, ‘Oops.’ It was his true feelings that had slipped out unintentionally.

‘Ah, this doesn’t seem like something a kind person would do.’

If Elfinez knew he was acting this way in anticipation of someone’s reaction, she would have scolded him endlessly. Seeing the small back walking ahead, his gaze once again turned to the swaying red hair in front of him.

Although red hair and green eyes were so common here that more than half the population had those two colors, recently Azar found his eyes being drawn to that color a bit more. Even today, among the countless people he had encountered on the streets, his gaze lingered a moment longer on those with red hair in particular. And it wasn’t difficult to find the source of that reason.

‘It must be because of Nathan.’

Azar absentmindedly thought so. Perhaps because he had lived amidst countless gazes filled with malice since childhood, he had always been quick to notice the emotions of others. They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. Just by making eye contact and having a brief conversation, Azar could instantly tell whether the other person held hostility or goodwill towards him.

So for him, ‘Nathan Nover’ was a somewhat strange person.

He could tell from the moment they first met. He couldn’t feel any hostility from him at all. His gaze towards Azar was always filled with goodwill. The inexplicable goodwill that continued from the moment they first encountered each other in the hallway. The familiarity underlying it. Whenever those straightforward eyes turned to him, Azar was puzzled.

‘Why do you look at me like that?’

He tried to recall if they had ever met by chance in their younger days, thinking he might not remember, but that was the first time they had a conversation or even faced each other. Of course, they hadn’t known each other for a long time like his close friends, nor had they built up a bond. Moreover, Nathan himself had said it was their first meeting, yet there was familiarity at the core. So it was utterly strange.

‘What a weird kid.’

So he was suspicious. Wondering if there was some other ulterior motive, right? It was strange for anyone to show goodwill towards the worthless 5th prince who had nothing. To be friendly. Anyone would find it odd. It’s not like there were any benefits to being by his side. Rather, they might suffer unnecessary harm. That was a fact everyone knew, so keeping a distance was the wise thing to do…

At some point, Azar wanted to know the source of that inexplicable familiarity conveyed to him. Perhaps the turning point was when their unexpected early morning encounters continued and naturally became a part of his daily life, and then one day, he coincidentally ran into Nathan during the day.

Even though it was only their second meeting for Nathan, he seemed somewhat surprised, but the goodwill still filled his core. And yet, there was no indication that he remembered the things that had happened at dawn. However, he called out Azar’s name in a friendly manner as if it were natural. So Azar couldn’t help but be curious. The reason he even attended a class he usually skipped was because of that.

Later, when he saw Nathan alone in the forest. Until then, Azar’s impression of Nathan was just this: A sensitive, frail, pitiful, and extremely timid person. His height was twice that of his peers, but his build couldn’t keep up with his height, so he fluttered like a sheet of paper. Everything about him was thin, like a withered and crooked radish.

‘What a weird kid.’

That was the extent of his impression. Not only was his mind extremely fragile, but he also lacked strength, yet he was still a kind person. A person who unconsciously shared the kindness he had created by eroding himself. Because it wasn’t easy to prioritize others when one’s own life was in danger.

‘Aren’t we still too young to die?’

Those words were sincere. Of course, they were over 18 and had gone through the coming-of-age ceremony, so they were treated as adults, but they were still only 19. So both of them were still young enough and had many things they wanted to do, so wouldn’t it be too regrettable to die in a place like this?

Azar thought, who could blame someone for being a bit selfish when their own life was in danger? Everyone else would have acted the same way. They would have run away trying to save themselves.

But Nathan didn’t do that. So when Azar found out the reason he had been left alone in the forest, he ended up swallowing the words he wanted to say: ‘It’s foolish to try to protect others when you don’t even have the strength to protect yourself.’ Because his actions were so reckless that if Azar hadn’t come at that time, he would have certainly died.

He remembered how each joint of the hand holding the wand had turned white. The pitiful trembling body, the face filled with moisture that could have been rainwater or tears. That was something only Azar, among those present, knew.

Despite that, even though he had been utterly terrified. Nevertheless, seeing him stand in front of the others with a composed appearance and comfort them, Azar newly realized, ‘Ah, that’s what kindness is.’ It was different from him. The kindness Azar displayed was a fabricated kindness that emerged from various judgments based on the education and experiences accumulated since childhood.

So perhaps it was at that moment when Azar suddenly thought it would be nice to become friends with Nathan.

“Oh my, are you going to follow me all the way here?”

“Oh, I can’t follow you…?”

Azar was abruptly pulled out of his thoughts by Lila’s voice that suddenly rang out. The two had already arrived at the entrance leading to the mountain, having left the outskirts of the village at some point. Seeing Azar, who was dazedly asking in return, Lila let out a short laugh.

“It’s not that you can’t. It’s just that no one has ever wanted to follow along and watch me climb a rough mountain to gather herbs, so I’m surprised.”

“Ah, I see.”

As Azar was pondering if he should wait somewhere else, Lila said, “What can we do? The sky is so dark that I’m a bit hesitant to climb the mountain alone, but if you keep following me, I’d be glad. It feels reassuring, like having an escort! The Pleria you want does grow halfway up the mountain, but it’s not difficult to gather. If we do well, I think we can come down from the mountain before it starts raining…”

Lila trailed off as if gauging Azar’s reaction. Well, the sky had already turned completely dark. Even for an herb gatherer who frequented the mountain like their own backyard, climbing the mountain in this weather, especially at this hour when the sun was about to disappear, would likely carry a significant risk. There could be wild beasts or even magical creatures lurking. Thinking that way, Azar’s contemplation didn’t last long.

“Let’s go together.”

At those words, Lila took the lead with a delighted expression. She turned on a small lamp inside the basket to illuminate the surroundings and climbed the mountain. Ascending the ominously shaded mountain was certainly an arduous task. At least with the lamp, they could move forward.

“But you know what? Pleria is originally a poisonous herb.”

“A poisonous herb?”

Azar blinked at those words. In fact, the name ‘Pleria’ was an herb he had heard for the first time from Speni. Naturally, as someone with divine power, there was no way Azar would know much about herbs. All he knew was that it was an herb not commonly used, so even Speni, a doctor, was using it again after a long time, and that Pleria was mixed into the medicine Nathan usually carried. Knowing that, Speni had prescribed a similar medicine with Pleria mixed in.

‘I’m pretty sure he said it was a medicine personally made by Professor Melchiel…’

He remembered hearing Nathan say that in passing when he had asked what medicine he was taking at the library before. Azar’s thoughts didn’t continue for long and scattered.

“But sometimes, poison can become medicine. This is exactly that case. The ratio of preparation is important, but as long as you follow that well, it doesn’t become a big problem. Still, it’s an inherently tricky one, so most people don’t handle it, but it’s actually easy to find. When you go up, it’s spread out all over.”

As they reached halfway up the mountain, just as Lila said, colorful flowers with a bluish hue were blooming here and there, emitting a faint light.

“This one only blooms at night, but since the sky is dark, it must have thought it was already nighttime and bloomed like this.”

Lila approached the cluster of flowers and squatted down in front of them. When she snapped off a fully bloomed flower with a tap, the Pleria withered and shriveled up in an instant. The petals crumbled, and all that remained in her hand was a small seed pod. As Lila busily picked the flowers and moved her hands, the sky finally wept.

Rumble—…

Bang—!

Lightning struck with a roar. The sound was particularly close. As a result, his ears were ringing, and goosebumps ran down his spine. It seemed that lightning had struck nearby. The gloomy sky flickered erratically. As the sound subsided a bit, cold raindrops fell on his cheek with a plop.

Plop, plop.

The speed at which the raindrops fell was quite fast.

“…Lila, how much longer will it take?”

Lila hastily wrapped the basket to keep it from getting wet and shouted while hugging it tightly.

“I’m done! Let’s go down before it gets any later!”

However, the rain soon poured down like a downpour.

Swish—

“Rather than taking shelter from the rain, we need to go down!”

Lila was right. Seeking shelter from the rain in the mountains in the middle of the night was a foolish act. Moreover, the pouring rain didn’t seem like it would stop easily. So they had to get down from here quickly before their feet got stuck. Azar took the lamp Lila had tossed him and followed her. The path was different from the one they had taken on the way up, probably intending to use a shortcut. They had just descended a path artificially created by piling up rocks when it happened.