The Orc Chief briefly poked his face outside the tent. He seemed to be looking over the man called Levian.
“Honestly, there’s a lot suspicious about him. He reveals his identity without hesitation, but refuses to show his face. Wearing a mask to cover it, he must be quite a famous person.”
“…”
“But if he’s Egru’s acquaintance…”
The Orc Chief looked down at Egru with sunken eyes.
“We must show him.”
Jabel quickly went over the name he had just heard.
‘Levian, Levian…’
Right. He definitely remembered hearing it from Egru’s mouth.
“He’s Egru’s acquaintance. We should let him in.”
“Are you sure?”
“Le-Levian…”
At that moment, Egru started to struggle to get up. Jabel immediately stopped him.
“No, Egru! You can’t move! Lie back down quickly! If you get up again, I’ll really get angry this time!”
Despite his shouting words, Jabel carefully laid Egru down.
“I-I’m sorry… It’s just, Le-Levian… Is he here…?”
“Yes, he asked for some time alone with you.”
The Orc Chief answered instead.
“Th-that’s good…”
Egru said, barely exhaling.
“I… really… thought I wanted to see him…”
Egru was so happy.
“Like Jabel said… I guess I’m really lucky…”
The Orc Chief and Jabel looked down at Egru silently. Their expressions were both sad and gentle.
“I guess it worked out. I’ll go fetch some water in the meantime, Chief.”
“Right, we should step out for a bit.”
“It won’t take long. Fortunately, there’s some rainwater collected from a few days ago.”
“Jabel, wait a moment.”
The Orc Chief handed over a letter. The surface was somewhat stained, as if it had been carried for a long time. The sealing wax that sealed the letter had a clear mark stamped on it.
[Mayfield.]
It was the family seal written in cursive.
“Just in case.”
The Orc Chief stared at Egru, who was barely holding on, with pained eyes.
“Read it to him as soon as possible.”
“No.”
Jabel firmly refused.
“It’s alright. Tuunri said there wouldn’t be any problem until tomorrow evening.”
“…”
“Egru will be able to read it himself.”
“Right, that’s true.”
The Orc Chief put the letter back, smiling dryly. After briefly leaving the tent, the Orc Chief soon returned with the man.
“Egru…”
The man with his robe pulled low muttered in a sadly sunken voice. The white mask covering his entire face was striking.
Finally, as the man called Levian fully entered, Jabel bowed slightly and left the tent.
‘How good of a person must he be…’
To be missed so much. Though he didn’t know how he had found this place, it would be perfect if the brother came looking like this too.
Thinking this, Jabel picked up one more bucket just in case. His hurried footsteps ran towards the underground area where rainwater had collected.
***
“Le-Levian…”
Egru’s voice was indescribably choked up.
“I… I…”
“Hello, young believer.”
A gentle, holy voice cut off the voice that seemed about to die out at any moment.
Egru slowly looked up at the man. A white blob appeared in his hazy eyes. It was a beautiful sight, like an angel.
“We meet again so soon.”
The mysterious purple eyes smiled mischievously.
***
“…Do you understand well, young believer? Part of your heart is a piece of the so-called hero.”
The Pope, who had now removed his white mask, spoke skillfully lowering his voice.
“You see, we had leftover material from crafting our Commander. We made you with materials that were little more than scraps. We did add one special ingredient, but even so, you were unstable and frail.”
The Pope didn’t sit near Egru. The underground floor was damp and full of filth.
“Look at this. It’s a mess, like a homunculus made by an amateur. Your hair, eyes, and skin color all changed randomly…”
His slender hand pointed at Egru without actually touching him. He seemed to find even touching him unclean.
“That’s probably why Levian mainly fed you dry bread. If you become over-nourished, you’ll start rotting from your extremities. You need to minimize intake of moisture, sugar, anything really, to live longer. It’s a body that can’t digest much. You could die from shock.”
“…”
“So to live a bit more like a proper life form, you needed enhancement medicine. This, which you refused.”
The Pope took out a black potion from his breast.
“Will you drink it even now?”
The Pope dangled the black potion over Egru’s hand. Of course, there was no response.
“What a pity, you can’t drink it on your own now.”
The purple eyes slowly surveyed the inside of the tent.
“What a dirty and smelly space. It suits you well, young believer.”
The Pope said, putting the black potion back in his breast.
“Beautiful flowers attract flies. Ah, the beautiful flower is the Commander. You are the fly. Just in case you misunderstood.”
Egru was just convulsing alone. He was clearly dying.
‘At this rate.’
He had about a full day left. With proper medicine and facilities, there would be nothing that couldn’t be treated, but.
“It seems you can’t hear me anymore. Such a tearful and pitiful sight.”
The Pope leisurely bent down.
“Why did you approach him so?”
The gentle voice whispered softly in Egru’s ear.
“My Commander.”
The Pope straightened up again and smiled.
“But it seems you can still help me a bit. You’re an Imperial citizen, aren’t you? Don’t Imperial citizens consider it an honor to do anything for the Pope?”
The Pope let out a laugh as if it were foolish.
“You’re living on borrowed time anyway, wouldn’t you like to be of help to your brother?”
“To-together…”
“?”
It was then that Egru’s parched lips parted.
“Together… Can’t we live together?”
“Oh my, we can’t.”
The Pope turned his gaze with a smiling face. The campfire burning next to Egru. The precious warmth filled his purple eyes.
“You must be very cold.”
The Pope stretched his hand, imbued with magic, over the campfire.
The flame went out in an instant with a whoosh.
“You may thank me. You won’t be cold anymore.”
“Th-thank you…”
It was a pitifully small mutter. The Pope paused for a moment, then soon smiled.
“Make me one promise.”
A cold hand was placed on Egru’s left chest.
“Our meeting is a secret from others.”
Egru was already in no state to answer. The Pope’s smile deepened immeasurably.
When soaked in unbearable loss, the human heart becomes more vulnerable than anything.
A gap forms where emptiness can wedge itself in.
Now he could finally fill everything about the hero with himself.
‘But…’
For some reason, the Pope couldn’t take his eyes off this wretched being for a while.
***
Egru sat up with a start. Strange. His body felt too light. He rubbed and scrubbed his dimly hazy eyes.
“?”
Everything around was pure white, as if heavy snow had fallen. Egru didn’t like snow much. The snowy season was very cold.
But now it was rather warm and cozy.
“Brother!”
Someone called him from afar. It was his young brother.
“D’Élysée!”
Roughly wiping his hands that had touched the ground on his clothes, Egru ran towards his young brother.
“Wh-what were you doing?”
“Nothing but waiting for you, brother.”
Egru smiled brightly. But the moment he reached out to his young brother.
“Woof!”
His brother’s form suddenly changed into the big dog. Egru smiled even more broadly than when he met his young brother.
“Doggy…”
Egru followed the puppy wagging its tail frantically, descending into an increasingly dark space.
Only one cold corpse remained inside the tent.
***
After finishing all his explanations, Jabel grasped D’Élysée’s shoulder.
“I’m truly sorry. Though it was a short time, I could tell he was a good guy.”
“He was tenacious. In a good way, of course.”
Bey added a word from the side.
“I told you! I said I’d be back before evening no matter what!”
Just then, an extremely excited voice burst out from behind.
“I’ve brought loads of medicine!”
Tuunri was running with an armful of supplies.
“There’s a family bound by business, and when I explained the situation, they said they’d give us full support from now on! Of course they would! How much wealth have they accumulated through me!”
“…”
“We might be able to get out of the barrier by tomorrow! But…!”
Tuunri, who had now reached the tent, looked around at her companions and caught her breath.
“Why is everyone’s mood like this?”
“…”
“Why do you all look so grim? Quickly, take the medicine and move it. My arms are falling off.”
“…”
“Hurry up…”
Tuunri dropped the medicines, her face already starting to cry.
“Damn it! Why are you all like this! You need to tell me why for me to know!”
“Tuunri, this is D’Élysée. Egru’s brother.”
The Orc Chief approached from the perimeter where he had been standing guard and said.
“Brother?”
Tuunri’s eyes slowly looked up at D’Élysée. After scanning him up and down for a while as if examining him, she burst out with cold sarcasm.
“Hey, you. Sorry to be rude when we’ve just met.”
Tuunri said, wiping her nose.
“That robe you’re wearing looks really nice. Incomparable to the robe Egru used to wear. If he had had such an expensive robe, he would have been a little less cold.”
Tuunri gritted her trembling teeth.
“If you were such a great rich person, why didn’t you keep the kid with you? If you had, by now…”
“…”
“Why are you pretending to be family only now?”